Page 54 of Hades

“His need to find Mother and the darkness are both controlling him now.” Keras stepped up beside her and lifted his hand, intending to place it on her shoulder to comfort her, but she dipped her shoulder and moved a few steps to one side, evading his touch. He stared at his outstretched hand for a moment and then lowered it, not forcing the matter. One day, she would accept that her power couldn’t harm others if the contact between them was muted by material. He sighed and turned his back on the paddock, coming to face the others as he thought about everything that had happened. “Mnemosyne is using Mother as bait. This is a trap for Father. Which means Mother must be somewhere Hades knows. Somewhere she has a fond memory of, according to Morpheus. Where?”

“It’s got to be the mortal world.” Valen rubbed his thumb across his lower lip, worrying it. “We know that much. But where? We’ve checked a hell of a lot of places already.”

“He might have gone via Olympus,” Enyo suggested.

Keras shook his head. “Father wouldn’t want to involve his brother in this and if he went to Olympus, that would happen. It’s certainly somewhere in the mortal world, but like Valen said, we’ve checked a lot of the potential places. Can anyone else think of ones we might have missed?”

The next few seconds were a riot of suggestions, ones Keras discounted for various reasons as he came up with his own. The only voice missing from the mix was Ares, and Keras looked at him just as Megan spoke.

“What is it?” She looked up at Ares, worry creasing her brow.

“Cape Matapan,” Ares said.

“Of course.” Keras cursed again, aiming it at himself this time.

Megan went from worried to confused, the crinkle between her eyebrows remaining. “Cape Matapan?”

“The end of the world.” Enyo turned her thoughtful gaze on Keras.

“Where they met.” Keras was tempted to bite out another, fouler, curse as frustration slammed into him. “Why didn’t we think of it earlier?”

“Why didn’t Dad?” Daimon looked as if he answered his own question in his head as his features hardened and frost flowers formed on his gloves. His tone grew dark. “Because he knew. He knew where to find her and he wanted to go alone. He didn’t want our help.”

“No.” Keras gave another hard shake of his head. “No. I don’t think he did know. I don’t think hedoesknow. That’s why he took Cerberus with him. He must be trying to track her scent.”

“Why wouldn’t he think of that place?” Megan glanced from him to Ares.

“I don’t remember Mum ever saying anything about it. Do you?” Ares looked at Keras. “I don’t remember her ever telling us stories about that place. I know they met there… but what if Dad didn’t think of it as somewhere that was a fond memory of hers because she never really talked about it and so he felt… he figured… she hated the place.”

A sombre air fell over everyone.

“I know Father regrets the way he behaved with Mother when they first met.” Keras’s green gaze drifted to the palace. “I have seen with my own eyes the guilt he harbours. But what if he’s wrong? What if meeting Father is a fond memory for Mother?”

“Dad wouldn’t see it, that’s for sure. He wouldn’t believe it.” Valen jammed his hands in his pockets. “You know how stubborn he is.”

Ares gave Valen a look that said he had inherited that personality trait of their father’s. Valen pulled his hand out of his pocket with his middle finger extended.

“Valen is right.” Keras ignored their behaviour and kept his focus on the task at hand. “The guilt Father lives with is too strong, blinding him to the fact their meeting might be something she looks back on with fond eyes rather than anger. That was why Father didn’t think of it as a possible location.”

“Makes sense.” Daimon glanced at the empty paddock. “I’m guessing he’s about to find out he’s wrong about that then. You know more about this than me. You know what it’s like. They tell the first kid the most about their lives, and then the second a little less, and by the time they reach kid number three it’s even less… and hell, by the time they reached me… I probably know half of what you do.” And he looked as if he wasn’t happy about that. “So, if Mum is at Cape Matapan, how is Dad getting there?”

“The gate.” Keras held his hand up when Daimon, Calindria and Valen went to speak. “Not the Tokyo gate or the one to Olympus. The original gate between the mortal world and the Underworld was at Cape Matapan.”

“And how come we’re just now hearing about this gate?” Valen shot daggers at him, his tone a blatant accusation that this was something they should have been informed about, given their duty to protect the gates between the Underworld and the mortal realm.

“It’s closed,” Ares weighed in. “It was closed after Heracles stole Cerberus and that whole Orpheus and Eurydice affair.”

“Fine. Whatever. Still would have been nice to know there was a potential entry point just dangling out there in the wind all unprotected like.” Valen scowled at Ares and then Keras.

Eva poked him in the ribs, her look chastising. He flashed her an unrepentant one in return. The Italian assassin had been trying to smooth the caustic edges from Valen’s personality from the moment they had met, but she had a long way to go. Valen still held a lot of unprocessed anger in his heart, and his belief that everyone wanted to keep him shut out of things because of the way he had reacted to Calindria’s apparent death hadn’t really gone anywhere in the time he and Eva had been together.

“It wasn’t dangling out there.” Ares clapped a hand down on Valen’s back, jerking him forwards. “The gate is sealed.”

“Yeah. Sealed.” Valen tossed him a look filled with doubt. “You so sure about that? I mean… any guesses on who sealed it and who, therefore, might be able to open the bloody thing again? My money is on Dad.”

That dread in Keras’s stomach grew heavier and colder.

“Well, shit,” Daimon muttered as he met Keras’s gaze. “You all thinking what I am?”

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