Page 37 of Hades

Several of his sons had ended up unconscious for days.

He paused and gazed at the unlit fireplace to his right. Persephone adored Caterina. His wife didn’t care that she was part-daemon. She strived to help Caterina accept who she was and show her that there was nothing wrong with her, and she constantly insisted he accept her into the family and was warmer towards her. He had been against it at first, and then when he had considered trying to be nice to the female, Marek had made itabundantlyclear that Caterina wanted nothing to do with him and this realm.

Persephone had given Hades the cold shoulder for almost a full week. The longest she had gone without speaking to him or acknowledging him in any way. When she had finally broken her spell of silence, Hades had been near mad with a need to hear her voice and hold her.

He had learned his lesson. As soon as Persephone was back with him and this war was over, he would find a way to heal the breach between him and Caterina. Maybe he could start by thanking her for convincing her brother—a wraith who had been brainwashed into helping the enemy and was now being held in a stronghold in Scotland—to talk and give up the locations the enemy had been using in the mortal world.

Esher, Marek and Calistos had checked them all for Persephone and hadn’t found her, but Guillem had given them a lead they could use.

The vampire-like daemon had given them something to go on.

It was more than this meeting was providing.

Ares’s hand moved in slow, soothing circles on Megan’s back as his dark gaze tracked his older brother. “We’ll keep looking. We’ve searched a lot of places where Mum might have made happy memories. We’ll find her.”

Ares didn’t sound as if he believed that.

“We’ll find her,” Megan said with more conviction, always the bright ray of light in a dark world.

And he wasn’t just talking about her personality.

Ares wore his standard black T-shirt and jeans. Keras wore an onyx shirt and trousers. Beside him, Enyo was dressed in her black and silver armour consisting of a breastplate, slatted skirt, boots that reached her knees, and a matching pair of vambraces. The goddess of war had come dressed for it.

On the other side of the table, Daimon wore a navy roll neck that covered him to his wrists, dark jeans, and leather gloves, and his witch, Cassandra, had donned her usual long black dress.

Even Thanatos and Calindria wore black.

Even Hades, although he had chosen his crimson cloak today when he had donned his armour. He glanced at it and realised he had in fact chosen his black one.

The only splash of brightness and colour in the room was Megan, in her autumnal orange sweater and pale blue jeans, and red sneakers, and Adora, who was a bundle of pink that clashed with her mother’s choice of clothing.

“I will take Cerberus out,” Hades growled and Keras shot him a black look.

“We talked about this.” Keras’s green eyes hardened.

“Cerberus can track her.” Hades rounded on his son, still irritated by the fact Keras had talked him out of using Cerberus.

Megan shuffled backwards, tucking into Ares’s side. As if Hades would ever harm her or her child. He glanced at her, and apparently it was enough to relay his feelings, because she issued an apologetic look to him, her warm brown eyes glittering with it.

Hades shifted his gaze from her to Keras. “With Cerberus, I can find her. Do you not want to find your mother?”

That question came out harsher than intended and the ground beneath his boots trembled. In the distance, an ominous cracking sounded. Calindria immediately went to the window and when she looked back, her blue eyes leaped straight to Keras and she shook her head, causing her golden hair to brush the shoulders of her black top.

Keras turned a glare on him.

“You need to control your temper,” Keras snapped, as if Hades was a child and not an ancient god capable of crushing his son with a mere passing thought.

The darkness within him latched onto that idea and Hades wrestled with it, refusing to let the tempting, pleasing words goad him into unleashing more of his power. The light that remained within his soul flickered weakly, dangerously close to guttering out as shadows loomed and closed in. Hades curled his black talons into fists and stared his son down, but Keras didn’t flinch. He stared right back at him, his features darkening and crimson emerging to ring his emerald irises.

Keras flung a hand towards the window. “We’ve had to pull more soldiers from the legions because pilgrims coming to the temple to pray have trebled. Three legions are dealing with a massive fault that opened up in the northern regions, devouring an entire village. Close to a dozen wyverns have been terrorising the Elysian Fields… and if that mountain takes another hit, it will probably swallow the palace and everyone in it!”

Hades refused to let his own child lecture him on the things he had done wrong, even when he admired Keras’s strength and courage. His son had grown into a leader, one willing to point out faults and lay the blame where it was due, even when it might get him killed.

He bared his fangs at his son and took a hard step closer to him, and even then Keras didn’t back down.

“You arenottaking Cerberus out and that is final.” Keras was playing with fire, ordering him around like that.

The darkness within Hades writhed more fiercely, growing agitated as he stood locked in a silent battle with his son, staring down into his eyes and unwilling to be the one who backed down.

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