Page 62 of Hades

Megan laid her hand on his chest and smiled. “Like you get a say in it. If I think someone might need healing, I’m going to come along.”

“Ares is right. You should not be this far from the palace and Adora.” Hades led Cerberus to the chariot and Keras and the others came closer, forming a semicircle around him. He looked at his children and the anger he had been clinging to faded further as he caught the concern in all their eyes. That small seed of light that remained within him grew stronger, glowing more brightly to drive the darkness back, releasing him of its hold as he realised he wasn’t alone.

He never had been.

His children wanted to help him.Theirchildren. Persephone would have been so proud of them if she could see them now. None of them knew what odds they faced, but all of them were willing to march blindly into a battle that could claim their lives in order to save her.

Hades sighed.

“You all grew up so strong.” He looked at Keras and Ares, and then Calindria, letting his gaze linger the longest on her. When he shifted his focus back to Ares, he tacked on, “And stubborn.”

Ares hiked his shoulders. “Don’t know where I could have gotten that from.”

Hades conceded that point, but not aloud. He was stubborn. If he hadn’t been, Persephone might have never become his wife and his children might have never existed. His life would have been entirely different to the one he had lived for the last few thousand years. It would have been as dark and chaotic, and destructive as the years that had come before he had met her.

He wasn’t sure even he could have survived millennia of the darkness twisting him, pulling him apart piece by piece, breaking him down into little more than a beast.

Eventually, he would have lost his mind.

“She saved me,” he whispered, his voice distant as he thought about how things had changed the very moment he had first seen her. His brow furrowed and Cerberus gently nudged him. He laid his hand on Cerberus’s central head to soothe and reassure him that he was fine, and then looked at his children. “I must save her.”

“And you will.” Keras stepped forwards, placing himself at the front of the group, like the leader he had become. His green gaze was sharp and his tone was decisive, a blade he expertly wielded to cut away all the doubt that lingered inside Hades. “We will save her. We are stronger together. You taught me that.”

“You have a plan I take it?” Hades studied Keras closely, watching the subtle shift in his body language.

“I do.” Keras tipped his chin up, exuding confidence and something else—a dare to anyone to challenge his authority.

Hades’s chest swelled with pride as he finally saw what Persephone did in Keras.

Himself.

Keras had never wanted the role he had been given, but he had accepted it and performed it to the best of his abilities. It had moulded him into a strong male who was loyal to his duty and to the Underworld, and had shaped him into a leader.

But it had graced him with something Hades lacked.

A bond with his brothers.

One that shone for all to see as Ares stepped up beside Keras, and the two exchanged a look that silently said they were in this together and they had each other’s backs, and would fight until their last breath to protect the other.

“We will travel via Olympus to reach the mortal world,” Keras started.

“Olympus?” Hades growled, his mood taking a sharp downwards turn into the darkness that had already been rising to seize hold of him again, whispering words about his own brothers and how they had no such bond. Cerberus whined, giving Hades another reason not to go via a city where he wasn’t welcome. “If we go via Olympus, Cerberus cannot come with us.”

Ares glanced at Cerberus and then down at Megan, and then met Hades’s gaze. “I’ll take him back, together with the chariot. Stop you from getting any ideas.”

“What does that mean?” Hades snarled, far too aware of what his son was implying. It might have crossed his mind, but he wasn’t going to let his children see that he had considered something that was more than reckless. It was damned foolish. “I would never breach the veil between the Underworld and the mortal world with my chariot when we are so close to a sealed gate.”

If he did, he risked it opening, and he wasn’t sure he could close it again.

Ares gave him a look that called him on his lie.

“You wish to carry out that order I gave you?” Hades kept his tone low and even, but his threat was very clear.

Ares scowled at him now and then a slight smile curled his lips. “You wish me to tell everyone why you gave me a shitty task to carry out?”

Hades flexed his fingers as everyone looked at him, their gazes far too curious. He was halfway between coming up with an excuse and turning on everyone present to put them in their places when Megan defused the situation.

“You’ll have to excuse him. More balls than brains.” Megan tugged her husband back, weathering his glare, and peered around him, an apology in her eyes as she looked at Hades. She smiled slightly, but it wavered, betraying her nerves. “I always did want to ride your chariot. Could we?”

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