Page 23 of The Queen & the King

I stand from the couch and wordlessly leave the living room, blood dripping down my neck.1

1 The Nightmare & The Daydream Chapters 16-26

Sixteen

Hades

SEVEN DAYS WITHOUT DREAMWALKING.Without sleep. Without Persephone. I rub my hand down my face, trying to focus on the newspapers. My father is leaving a trail across the mortal world, but it is microscopic, something only I would see or even know to look for. A man who dies a withered husk at age thirty. Mortals who turned to dust in a freak storm, time stolen over and over until nothing was left.

I reach for the phone as it rings, already knowing who it is. “He’s in Budapest,” I murmur, looking over the news.

“Not anymore,” Zeus snaps, his voice like a thunderclap in my ear. “I have a Titan pickup.”

I sigh and close my eyes, reaching out to Zeus to collect the Titan. My brows shoot up. “Epimetheus?”

Zeus hisses, “Yeah, his powers of afterthought were underwhelming, to say the least.”

I direct my shadows to deposit Epimetheus into one of the restructured cells and rub a hand down my face. “The Primes are maintaining neutrality. The treaty of the Old Gods of All Pantheons stands.”

“Fuck the treaty!” Zeus snaps.

I growl back. If only it were so easy. The Old Gods agreed long ago to maintain an oath of non-interference, even when it comes to skirmishes within their own pantheon. It is too easy for Primordials to wipe the world clean with their abilities. It is better looking at the big picture, but a giant fucking pain in the ass at the moment.

“They won’t move on it. We can’t force them.”

Zeus hangs up, and I slam the phone back into the cradle.

The darkness climbs further up my arm, well past my elbow. It’s like an insidious spill of oil I can’t wash away. My gaze snaps up as someone walks into my office, and I blink in surprise when I see a disheveled Melinoë. One of her space buns is partially unraveled, and her mismatched eyes are sunken in. Is this what happens when she goes too far?

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out.

She doesn’t acknowledge me, instead slapping a newspaper on my desk. “We’re dreamwalking tonight.”

I blink in surprise and look down at the copy ofOlympus TodayMelinoë slammed on my desk. Persephone stares up at me, her eyes so cold, guarded, and lifeless.

“Read it,” she hisses.

Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, has officially announced her acceptance of potential suitors and hopes to be married before the coming winter.

“The fuck?!” I shout.

Sheismarried.

“If she’s aware of this, the Persephone locked deep inside her will fight back hard. It will make her dreams more open and easier to enter and exit. But I… I think Helios should be here.”

Helios… a Titan. I’ve been shielding Melinoë from the way Zeus was asking about her boyfriend and his allegiances, but I don’t know how long that could last. But Zeus and the war can wait.

“He has an invitation now,” I announce, and a moment later, the Titan of the Sun appears next to Melinoë. She doesn’t even react.

Her eyes are focused on me. “Forget everything I told you. Don’t go easy. Make her fall in love with you.”

I note the way Melinoë‘s eyes are far away. “She won’t forgive me if she returns and finds you past the point of no return.”

“I don’t care,” she says.

Helios takes her hand. “If she goes, she won’t be alone.”

Melinoë yanks her hand from his, a flicker of her usual self coming through.

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