Page 17 of Monster Song
Her snake eyes just glared at my hand like it was poison. Well, I didn’t want to shake her hand either. She had bronzed claws like she could rip my entire arm off. She stuck her arm out like she wasn’t familiar with a handshake. I realized she probably got sent down here before it was a thing.
“I don’t know what you are trying to do,”she said.
“Human custom. Hades is right. He brought me here to help you. This is my father, and we can both hear and understand you. We weren’t sure what would happen if I came down here without a solution, and that’s why I haven’t visited before. You should listen to Hades. He has a way out of this.”
“I told you!” the centaur yelled. “I told all of you Hades would seek the aid of a half breed who could communicate with us! This would end, and we would get our revenge.”
“I’m River.”
“Asbolus. I’m a seer too, but I didn’t know I needed to look at the birds to see Demeter would collar us.”
“Well, those collars are coming off tonight!” Hades roared. “I told you I would take care of you when you ended up here. It took me a little longer than I expected, but I found our allies. The demon realm is here to help us, and so is Hephaestus. They tricked him about making those collars, but Demeter lied to everyone. All those collars do is keep you trapped in your monster form. She can’t kill you remotely, and your magic is still there. All of us are here to remove those collars and give you some payback. But we need you to cooperate a little with the plan we’ve come up with. You’ll get your revenge, but it can’t be against Hephaestus for those collars. He came as soon as he heard what was going on, and he came up with part of our plan.”
The monsters started talking amongst themselves about Hephaestus. I could only make out snippets. A lot of them were mad at him, but some of them blamed Demeter. Asbolus had a human face and seemed to be the leader down here. He just crossed his arms across his massive chest and glared at Hades.
“I want to hear Hephaestus’s plan before I decide. From his own mouth.”
Oh, shit. This massive pit was teeming with monsters wearing collars he made. Some of them had to fight their friends to the death. They all seemed to agree with Asbolus. The only way they wouldn’t lump Hephaestus in with Demeter was if they liked his plan.
As much as I wanted him to stay in the shadows, he didn’t want to. He was a little unsure of himself out of the element of his forge when he first showed up in the Underworld, but his spine was ramrod straight when he joined my side.
“River came to me with Cerberus. She told me the truth about what Demeter used those collars for and the lies she told you. She also told me about the fighting pits. It appalled me. I made River a weapon that would even kill an Olympian and set to work forging another key for the collars.
“If I can study the locks, I can make keys for the pit and the arena. It’s not just Demeter that needs to pay for this. These fights wouldn’t be happening if Demeter didn’t have an audience thirsty to watch you kill each other. It’s not right, and those people don’t deserve to be here. I’ve been told they expect you to make it entertaining while you kill your friends or they throw things.
“This is my plan. We will cause a distraction while Hell rescues Persephone and in doing so, get our revenge. Demos and Stheno are due to fight tomorrow night. Solron helped figure that out. They will go out to the arena like everything is normal.
“They will circle each other and really build up tension in the crowd. While they do that, everyone in the pit will take out Demeter’s army and make their way to the arena. There will need to be a sign, so it happens all at once. Demos and Stheno will turn on the crowd just as all of you go spilling into the audience and take your revenge.
“Demeter will know she can’t do anything about the rebellion because she knows the truth about the collars. She’ll disappear to the temple, but Hell’s army will be waiting, and Persephone will already be gone. She’ll have a choice. She can either give up and go back to Olympus, or she can stay and try to get revenge.
“Now, she’s already gone pretty far in this plot of hers. She’s not going to just give up. She’s not a fighter. She never was. She will stay and cause as much damage for as long as she can. She will sacrifice every single one of Artemis’s soldiers that were sent with her. She will wait until every last one of them is dead, and she’s caused epic amounts of destruction before she leaves. We can use that. We can use her rage at her plan falling down to get my knife in her.”
I heard so many monsters screaming in my head at once, it was hard to make them out, but I already knew what their question was.
“There’s only one knife and one Demeter. They want to know who gets the honor of killing her,” I said.
Hephaestus was practically glowing, and he had this massive smile on his face.
“I have that answer. I’ve been busy with my forge. There’s not just one weapon, and there’s too much at risk. The answer is, there will be several weapons, and the honor will go to whoever can get close enough to deal the blow.”
The monsters all started cheering, and I knew Hephaestus was safe from them. He’d be a hero here if he stayed.
And there was this huge part of me that knew Earth or Hell was supposed to be home, but desperately wanted to stay here with all my monsters and my God.
Chapter 13
Kimon
W
e had a plan, but there wasn’t a damned thing we could do until that fight. I knew what I wanted to do. Well, I wanted to do two things, but I had a feeling a night alone with River wouldn’t happen. I would do the next best thing. I might be a mighty minotaur, and I wasn’t scared of much, but I didn’t let my ego rage out of control like some of us.
I could give credit where credit was due. We needed to unwind before the battle, and I wasn’t the only one who owed Hephaestus a beer. As soon as we were back in River’s bedroom, I clapped him on the back.
“We need to bring you in on an Underworld tradition since you’re one of the team now. A family of cyclops has a pub with the best ale in the Underworld and the best pub food. Come have a beer with the team.”
I narrowly ducked as Pavlina shot a web at my face.
