Page 88 of Hades

She raises an eyebrow, “Brothers and they don’t mind sharing. How interesting.”

The beauty standing next to her nods in agreement.They are polar opposites; Nyx is the personification of night, milk-white skin radiates under the long hair that hangs and she is draped in a black robe that shimmers like the stars in the sky. The other is more like the sun, glowing skin and yellowish-orange robes.

“When you’ve waited as long as we have to find her, we agreed not to let her go. There was no point in fighting about it. She was always meant for us,” I tell them.

“Are you ready to get this meeting started?” I ask, scanning the crowd in the room. Pyro is off in the corner petting Cerberus but his eyes sweep everyone here. Hades may trust them, but that doesn’t mean we have to.

I give him a nod of approval when his eye lands on me once again.

“Should we wake Frank and Drevi?” Hades asks.

“Nah, Pyro or I can fill him in. We need to hurry this along so I can get back to watch. I kinda left Nile alone,” I admit.

“Okay, this shouldn’t take long. Mostly introductions and listing our powers. That way we can come up with a battle strategy on how to defeat Ares and his minions,” she tells me.

“Sounds like a great place to start.” I smile.

She kisses my cheek before unwrapping her arm from around me. “Wish me luck.”

I smirk at her. “Like you need luck.”

Hades makes her way next to the fireplace. “Alright, everyone, listen up!” she shouts, her voice booming in the room.

In seconds, there is dead silence.

“Thank you,” she continues, “I want to go around the room and everyone say your name and powers. This will give myself and my men a better idea of how to use that to our advantage against Ares. As you know, I am Hades, I reap souls, judge them, and protect them. War? You next?”

“I am the horseman, War. My brothers and I have a lot of the same powers, a lot to list but battle is my speciality. My brother, Frank is Famine and he can starve people or make them explode as if they ate too much. Drevi is Death and I think you can guess what he does,” I say.

Pyro stands, “I’m Pyro, aka Pestilence. I’m an okay fighter but disease and killing people from the inside is my game.”

I notice he winks at Hades before sitting back down, then Harper steps up next to Hades. She has gone a little pale and her voice wavers a little as she starts to speak. Harper stops and takes a breath before starting again.

“Most of you know that I’m Harper. I’m the daughter of Zeus, but don’t hold that against me,” she jokes and then continues, “I have meteorological powers as well as a lightning bolt sword.”

“Oh, you’re the one that marred Hermes's face, huh?” Aphrodite asks.

Harper doesn’t speak, she simply nods her head yes.

“I wish you would have done more to that asshole,” Aphrodite says.

I notice both Hades and Harper relax a little and the sharing resumes. I do my best to pay attention, but there is a little voice in the back of my head telling me I need to get back to the gates.

Finally, Hades dismisses us, stating that she or Lainie will show them to some chambers. I slip out and head back the way I came.

When I get back to the gates, I find my hunch was correct; that asshole is snoring.

Ididn’t think that coward had the guts to return. Yet, here standing before me, is Hermès. The grimace on his face tells me he isn’t here with a good message.

“Back so soon?” I ask as he takes a seat across from me at my desk.

I prefer to be out in the bar mingling, but as the boss, I have to take care of the boring human side of it all. I had my wife handling it but she didn’t have the brain for business.

“I’ve come from Olympus. Guess who I ran into?” Hermès grimaces.

“Judging by the look on your face, I’d have to say Hades. Did you stay long enough to find out what she was doing there? Or did you run away with your tail between your legs?” I ask, an eyebrow raised.

“Seeing as I’m standing before you now, no. If Hades has chatted with Harper at all, I’m lucky to still have legs,” Hermes replies.