Page 49 of A Single Thread Of Hope

I shook my head once more. “What if it was Persephone? Wouldn’t you do anything to save her?”

He frowned. “That better not be a threat, Minoan.”

I rolled my eyes at him. As if I’d threaten the fucking God of the Underworld. I wanted Wren back on the living plane, not to join her forever in the pits of Hades. “No, of course not. Just tell me what I can do.”

Giving an irritated sigh, he walked over to a bench seat. The dusk light cast longer shadows around the courtyard, like they were lured to the Prince of Darkness himself. “The only way of getting out of the Underworld is to get in and out yourself. Oryou enlist the help of Zeus, who has ultimate control over this bullshit.”

I rebelled at even the thought of asking Zeus. I’d put aside my pride and ask him, if I thought he’d help, but we’d murdered his Fates less than twenty-four hours ago. I doubted he was going to be willing to offer assistance anytime soon.

Slumping down on the bench next to Hades, I dragged my hands down my face. “How can I do this without her? How can I look into the faces of her offspring every day and tell them that they’ll never have a mother because I failed?”

Hades screwed up his nose. “I should have brought Sephy. I don’t do… whatever this is.” Crossing his arms over his chest, he gave another irritated sigh. “Look, the universe has always had a purpose for your Wren. We mightn’t have always understood it, and there is little doubt that it has been hard and filled with obstacles, but perhaps this is just part of her journey.”

I rejected that completely. She had come to us for a reason. It was our job to protect her so she had a long and happy life, and we’d failed.

We’d almost failed the babies too. They’d been moved into Milo’s room, and both he and Néit would sleep down there. The threat to them in the form of the Moirai might be gone, but they wouldn’t be the only threat, or the last. No one was ever getting that close again.

Another sigh. “You’re going to be stubborn about this, aren’t you?”

I shrugged, because yes. I’d already lost one love to the wheel of time; I refused to lose another before it was her turn. “Yes.”

“Fine. Have you ever stopped to think she isn’t in the Underworld, you bull-headed pain in the ass? She isn’t Greek. She isn’t a follower. You’re the closest thing to a God she’s ever believed in, but I don’t think sucking your cock counts as worship. Why would she be in the Underworld?”

I pulled back. If she wasn’t there, where the hellwouldshe be? I tried to think what her faith was, but she’d never given any hint that she preferred one to the others. I’d always thought that was why she’d been chosen by the universe to carry the new Fates, but what did that mean for her after death?

“She’s not in the Underworld?”

“Not when I left.”

Fuck.What should I do? How did I fix this?

I hadn’t realized I said it out loud, until a cold hand landed on my shoulder. “As much as it pains me to say it, maybe you should have a little faith in destiny and her plans. Trust that as much as you want to get your girl back, she wants to get back to you. So keep the things she loves as safe as possible, until she returns or you see her in the afterlife.”

He wanted me to do nothing? If the options were searching through the endless plains of the afterlife, and letting the universe decide, I was between a rock and a hard place.

With one last pat on the shoulder, Hades disappeared as quickly as he’d arrived, leaving me with more problems than solutions.

I sat out there until the dusk turned into night. Not for the first time, I wished I wasn’t the one who had to lead. I didn’t want to have the weight of our collective happiness on my shoulders. Néit was barely functioning, just standing sentinel in whatever room the babies were in, not speaking, barely eating.

The Gryphon had totally consumed Teron and disappeared into the mountains with his grief. I had to hope that eventually he’d relinquish control back to Teron, so he could return. I was worried that with the loss of his mate, the Gryphon would take total control, pine away and die, taking my closest friend with him.

Erus and Tryp were solemn ghosts who had picked up the slack of the rest of us. They had been keeping us fed andhydrated, ensuring we slept when they could cajole us to bed. But it was a reflex, them falling back into behavior that made sense to them, much like Néit’s protectiveness. They were as devastated as the rest of us, and sometimes I’d find Tryp crying in the kitchen or Erus staring blankly at the wall, tears in his eyes.

We were all failing. And I still had no solution.

Milo appeared in the darkness, and I wasn’t surprised to see him rocking a baby against his chest. So small and reliant on us. Of all the responsibilities on my shoulders, they were the real weight. Their protection was our duty, but so was their happiness. I wasn’t sure any of us could provide them with the kind of love that Wren had given so easily.

Except maybe the man in front of me.

“Is he okay?”

Milo nodded, rocking gently from side to side. “He’s fine. Just unsettled. They all are.” He made a soft shushing noise, but the baby continued to grizzle. I couldn’t tell which baby it was in the dark, when the color was leached from the world. “I managed to get his brothers down, but Emeric just needed a little more cuddling.”

I looked on in amazement at my brother, who’d been so close to fading away less than a year ago, who I’d feared was about to drink himself into oblivion. And now he was the only one of us with his shit together. I eyed him hard. “You’re taking this all… better than I expected.”

Sadness spread across his face, a devastation so great, it was a mask of torment, and I felt like an asshole for poking at his wounds. “I’m heartbroken. This pain… I couldn’t have ever imagined it. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. But Wren trusted these little guys to my care, and I’m not going to let her down. I’m going to meet her again in the afterlife with a smile on my face, knowing I loved and protected these boys with everyfiber of my being.” When he sat down beside me, I realized Emeric was now asleep. “What did Hades say?”

I shook my head. “He said she isn’t in the Underworld, and even if she was, I’d have to ask Zeus to get her out.” He snorted angrily, which basically summed up my feelings on the matter too. “Or he suggested we could wait it out. That she would have better luck trying to get back to us, and that we should trust destiny has something good in store for her.”

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