Page 26 of Monster Song
I
swear to the two Gods I liked and every God I hated if even my baby bird’s hair was singed, I would wring Demos’s neck, then wait until he rose from the ashes and kill him a second time. He hadn’t started a fire like thisever.Sure, sometimes he got in a mood and threw one of his famous tantrums and had to get a new bed, but this? River had better be alive in there.And why was I hearing that asshole laughing?
I couldn’t even go in there until they put the fire out, and it was killing me. As soon as it was out, I went stomping in the room. The floors were soaking wet, and all the furniture was destroyed. Hades built the base of this room from the floors to the walls to contain things if Demos decided to throw a mega tantrum.
I found River underneath Demos in the ashes of his bed. They were both naked, and it was clear what they were doing. I’d process that later. I needed to know she was okay. Demos was supposed to be teaching her to control the fire she had. If this was her and not Demos, Demos should have stopped thinking with his cock and gotten it out of her before the entire room went up.
Demos was still laughing like he was quite proud of himself. I grabbed him around the waist and threw him against the soot-stained wet wall. I’d deal with him later. I looked down at my baby bird. She was covered in ash, but not an inch of her was burned. She just gave me this serene smile like the entire room wasn’t scorched, and I was plotting how many times I needed to kill Demos before I felt better.
“Hi, Kimon. Oops,” she said, shrugging.
She was totally naked and not even trying to hide it. I usually would have sneaked a peek, but now wasn’t the time. There was an entire team here doing damage control, and I didn’t want them seeing her like this, even if she didn’t seem to care. I was actually wearing a shirt for once because I planned on sparring with Tryphon before the alarms started going off, and I wanted as little exposed flesh as possible because his tentacles creeped me out.
I ripped my shirt off and handed it to her. I held out my hand and helped her to her feet. I blocked her with my body until she had the shirt on. I was bigger than everyone I knew except the giants and maybe the cyclops, so when I turned around, I was glad to see my shirt fell to her knees.
I glared at Demos, who was just leaning against the wall where I threw him with this goofy look on his face.
“Care to explain? You’ve fucked your way through every nymph in the Underworld, and all of them are pissed at you for something, but not burning one of them alive.”
I just really wanted to hit Demos. It wasn’t that he had sex with River. I was still ignoring that fact. It looked like a bomb went off in here, and he should have stopped it before it went that far. It seemed like he was finally over being a dick to her, but he needed to worry about her safety. I didn’t know what happened to demons when they died, but here in the Underworld, she’d just get trapped in the pits of Tartarus with all kinds of nasty things. But did Demos even think about that? No, Demos was thinking about getting laid and himself like always.
River put her hand on my arm.
“This was both of us, Kimon. You need to be mad at me too. I could have stopped things just as easily as Demos did, but I didn’t want to.”
“No, baby bird. You’ve only just started learning to control your fire. Demos is ancient and knows better. This is his fault.”
Did Demos want me to kill him? He was still just sitting against the wall with that stupid grin on his face. I cracked my knuckles and took a step towards him. I’d never killed Demos before, even if he’d pissed me off plenty of times, but eventually, there came a time for everything.
River started pulling on my arm.
“Let’s go back to my room, Kimon. Our entire plan hinges on Demos being alive for his fight tonight. If you want Persephone back and Demeter dead, you can’t kill Demos for doing something I also wanted. I’m not hurt.”
My bull growled, and I blew smoke out my nose. As much as I wanted to snap that insufferable phoenix’s neck with my bare hands, it would ruin everything. And yeah, if I was being honest, I said I wasn’t processing it yet, but I was furious Demos had sex with her, even if she wanted it. Even without all the pyrotechnics, I wouldn’t mind killing him a few times for that alone.
River wove her arm in mine and tried to lead me out of this destroyed room. She rested her head on my arm.
“You know, you’re cute when you pout.”
Why was she still flirting with me if she had chosen Demos? Yeah, it hurt me. Out of all of us, Demos treated her the worst. I thought Tryphon was my big competition. Why Demos? Demos managed to piss off everyone, eventually. The only person who tolerated his shit with a smile was Persephone, and the rest of us knew he was good at his job. He had his good points when he wasn’t trying to out snob everyone. Why did he have to take River too? He always wanted the best of everything, but he knew we all liked her.
I was so confused when River shut her bedroom door and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“I was hoping to get you alone.”
“I’m a little confused, baby bird. Won’t Demos get mad? You saw how he got when he thought Pavlina slept with his girl.”
She sighed and led me over to the sofa in her bedroom. I sat down, and she sat next to me with her legs curled under her. She had fantastic legs, but those legs now belonged to Demos.
“I should explain, Kimon. I had this same conversation with Demos and Pavlina. I’ll have it with Tryphon and Hephaestus too, though I suspect Tryphon’s already okay with it.”
I couldn’t help it. My bull rumbled, and smoke came out of my nose. I was trying not to be mad, but Demos?
“I don’t think even Tryphon will be okay you decided on Demos. He was a total asshole to you. I’m not trying to judge because the heart wants what it wants, but can you explain it to me so that it makes sense?”
She practically climbed in my lap, and I was so confused. I didn’t take River as the type of woman who would cheat. She got right up in my ear.
“This heart wants all of you and doesn’t want to choose. Pavlina and Demos are okay with it. I won’t ruin your friendship. If you aren’t all on board, I will leave when this is over. But my heart really wants to stay in the Underworld with all of you.”
