Page 102 of Hades

Purple and golden lightning forked through the dark sky to shake the ground, seemingly competing with each other to strike their targets first. Valen and Zeus. Hades shook his head. They would do better to work together as Poseidon and Esher were than against each other, but Valen had always felt fiercely competitive with Zeus, and Hades’s brother only seemed to encourage the behaviour.

“Mine,” Zeus growled.

“Fuck off, it wasn’t,” Valen barked as Hades and Persephone sprinted towards him. “My bolt hit first.”

Zeus sent another bolt of lightning into the daemon they were arguing over and said, “He moved. He was not dead. So the kill is mine.”

“He moved?” Valen scoffed and squared up to him. “He moved because you hit him with electricity, dipshit. Don’t think I don’t know every trick in the book. I wrote the thing.”

Violet lightning streaked across the sky and slammed into three daemons.

Valen purred, “That’s eight to me. Better catch up, old man.”

His brother, Ares, hurled a whip of fire at a male who was running at Valen, burning him to ash on contact. “You’ve got about twenty to go to catch up to me.”

“Competition started when Zeus showed up,” Valen retorted.

Ares grinned at him. “Like I said, you’ve got twenty to go, kid.”

Valen’s golden eyes flashed brightly and purple lightning formed a web that spread across the sky. A series of bolts struck the ground, and one almost hit Persephone. She nimbly dodged it as Hades’s shadows swept around her, forming a protective cocoon.

Hades bared fangs at Valen.

“Shit. My bad.” He scrubbed his hair and hurried off.

“Ares,” Hades growled before his son could think about heading after Valen. “With me.”

Ares nodded and sprinted after them, bringing up the rear. Ahead of them, Mnemosyne swung her sword at Thanatos, her blade clashing with his, and kicked backwards, avoiding his next strike. She was bleeding.

And slowing.

Hades released Persephone as darkness swept through him, tearing a possessive snarl from his lips as he narrowed his eyes on the titaness. She was his to take down, not the god of death’s. Thanatos sensed his approach before his shadows reached him and beat his wings, lifting into the air before they could snake around his legs to teach him not to try to steal Hades’s prey.

Rather than directing them to attack the god of death, he allowed them to continue on their path. They rocketed towards Mnemosyne and she turned on her heel and ran, her desperate actions echoing Harleena’s as she grabbed daemons to hurl them into the path of the shadows as they chased her down. They devoured the wretches she threw at them, making fast work of decimating them and feeding him their strength. Hades ran harder as it flowed into him, closing the distance between him and Mnemosyne.

The gate weakly flickered back to life.

Mnemosyne’s left boot skidded as she veered towards it and Hades growled as he realised he would lose her if she made it through the portal to the mortal realm. She would go to ground again, hiding from him and gathering a new army. He couldn’t allow it.

This ended now.

He drew his arm back, his shadows snaking around his body and up his arm to it, and focused on her.

His bident flew from his grip as he launched his arm forwards and sailed through the air. Mnemosyne broke out of the fray onto an empty patch of black land, her legs pumping harder as she closed in on the gate.

It winked out of existence with a faint ‘pop’.

“Oops,” Cassandra said, her smile wicked, and it struck Hades that she had opened it on purpose, using it to lure Mnemosyne into the open.

The titaness came to a halt and turned towards him, the shock and fear that swept across her features making the darkness within him purr in satisfaction.

Just as it did when his bident came down and slammed into her left shoulder, punching through it and knocking her backwards. She stumbled and fell, and his shadows bled from the staff of the bident to spread across her alabaster skin.

She screamed as the shadows formed sharp daggers that pierced her in several places, nailing her to the ground.

Holding her in place for Hades.

He walked up to her and stopped near her, looming over her as he took hold of his bident. She screamed again, her left shoulder lurching upwards as he yanked the bident free of her flesh, and sank back against the dirt, breathing hard. Tears cut down her temples as she stared up at him and for a moment, he thought she might beg him for mercy, but then she spat blood at him.

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