Page 7 of Monster Song
Every single monster in the room snapped to attention, and Hades jumped to his feet. I couldn’t do a damned thing because there was a snarling, three-headed dog straddling my body.
“What the fuck is going on?” I demanded.
“Demeter might think she controls the gates to the Underworld, but Cerberus is still the guardian to all gates, known and secret. Someone is trying to break into the Underworld, River, and it’s not your father coming back because I have granted him access.”
Well, fuck.
Chapter 5
Hephaestus
F
ew people knew the back entrance to the Underworld. I knew because Hades brought me through it when Zeus cast me to Earth for defending my mother. He carried my broken body through the secret entrance and had his best healers try to ease me through my healing.
I had accelerated healing, but I broke every single bone in my body. I had to regrow my leg, which is why I had that slight limp that made me imperfect to my people. Hades and Persephone never treated me like I was ugly, but those that did made me retreat to my mountain for solace. I didn’t want to be around any of them and their sneers over my limp.
Even now, the little witches who tried to break into my forge had this look of pity when I let myself been seen. I had hoped as society progressed, that sort of thing would become routine and not seen as some sort of massive flaw anymore.
The only reason I was even here at the back entrance of the Underworld and getting involved in Olympian politics was because of that little Hellspawn. Well, that and I felt totally used by an Olympianagain.River didn’t even notice my limp. When I let myself been seen, her eyes raked me from head to toe, but I knew that look in her eyes.
It wasn’t pity or disgust. It was pure lust.
Maybe it was shallow, but I needed that. I was honestly expecting another witch I would have to throw into the forge because they were up to no good. I didn’t even blink when someone found their way into my forge and looked at me with pity. It was rare, but people did still find my doorbell instead of sitting out there for months, trying to break the door down.
I didn’t know many of the monsters in the Underworld. I knew my family had created them to punish people, and demigods came for weapons to kill them, but I guess I always thought they called them monsters for a reason. If Demeter had been telling the truth and they were keeping Persephone hostage, I would have had no problem making a weapon to kill them. I should have known she was playing me.
I should have remembered my time in the Underworld. Persephone wasn’t there yet, but I knew Hades was lonely. He got the short stick just as much as I did. It was the Titans who conquered the Underworld realm from another race and slaughtered all the people there. When the Olympians rose up, they trapped them in the pits there and sent poor Hades to babysit them.
They spread all these rumors while they were on Earth that humans would go there when they died, so they would worship them all the more. Nothing like the threat of eternal torment to get people sacrificing and praying.
That wasn’t even remotely true. The only people who ended up in the Underworld were the monsters they created, demigods they didn’t want to allow into Olympus, and a few select humans that really kissed some ass. Monsters and demigods didn’t die like regular humans, but appearances had to be kept up, so they were ferreted off to the Underworld.
And now I was here at the gates, waiting to be let in. I swore I’d never leave my forge. I swore I’d never get involved with my people again. But Hades helped me once, and I could admit the little Hellspawn intrigued me. I didn’t want her to die, and she would once Demeter realized she had no intention to use that knife on Hades.
And maybe there was more to the monsters than I initially thought. I knew they could have human faces, and when they had those, they just wanted to be left alone. I always thought when they transformed into their monster, they were no more than the beast we made them from and slaughtered anything and anyone in sight.
Clearly, I was wrong if she could talk to them. And I was wrong for what I did to them. I needed to make this right. I’d given her magic from the clouds of Olympus to neutralize the collars, but my stores were low, and I would have had to sneak in to get more. I wouldn’t have been welcome. I probably would have been thrown out just like I was before.
Demeter might think she had the only key to those collars, but I had my own means of getting them off. If only they would open the fucking door. Surely, they had been alerted by now to my presence.
When the door flung open, a tentacle grabbed me and tossed me against the wall. A minotaur had a blade to my throat, and there was a phoenix flying by my head waiting to burn me. There was a tall woman with black hair with her face half mutated to have pinchers growling at me.
River pushed her way through like she ran the entire Underworld. It melted my heart a little when her entire face lit up when she realized it was me.
“It’s Hephaestus! Let him go!”
The monsters all backed away like they answered to her. Hades pulled me into a massive hug like this disaster in the Underworld wasn’t because of one of my inventions.
“It’s good to see you, Hephaestus.”
“Hi,” River said breathlessly.
How adorable.
“Hello, little Hellspawn. I’ve come to help out.”
“Oh, good because we definitely need to give those monsters in the pit some hope. Demos is supposed to fight in two days.”
