Page 44 of For the Gods' Sake

The colors were a dull haze in my vision as I stepped through the final corridor, coming fully into the Council room. It was an ancient room, well maintained by sheer force of my power. The columns had turned a soft orange from their original blinding limestone, the floors a worn-in stone.

The Council table was the only new addition, specially crafted from the finest Grecian wood, long and wide to fit both sides of the gods. By the time I was twenty five, it became quite clear whose lines were ending and whose were continuing.

There were still quite a few duplicates, whose fate I only let cross my mind in the depths of night. Mars and Ares—gods of war. Juno and Hera—gods of marriage and fertility. Vulcan and Hephaestus—gods of forgery and invention.

I’d thought I could add Pluto and Hades to that list, but the Hades line had bowed to Pluto through marriage. I could only thank the Fates that it had been a somewhat peaceful union instead of another death. Pine was still the hardest loss of them all.

I knew now that his father had been the one to take him from us, his abuse and torture forcing his own sister to unknowingly put a sword through his chest.

I considered Rose another one of the casualties, regret for how ignorant I’d been to her own circumstances was something I’d never quite be able to soothe.

Even though she, and her husband, surprisingly, had assured me all was forgiven.

Shaking off the thought and the dull pulse of grief, I straightened my back and let that simple motion announce my arrival.

The conversations all quieted, every head in the room turning to my entrance.

Tension. I noticed it immediately, obvious in the too-stiff postures and hard expressions.

“And here I thought you all would be looking forward to this,” I said casually as I approached the high back of my chair, the opposite of Dominic and Rose’sbenchat the end of the table. The Underworld and the skies in contrast.

Scattered chuckles spread across the room, easing the tension slightly.

“Adrian,” Corinna Aphrodite said, leaning forward to rest her arms on the table in front of her. “Please don’t try to play coy.”

And then it hit me. I’d been too distracted by the conspiracy and my own responsibilities that I’dforgotten that there might be another reason for their silence.

I breathed out, scratching the edge of my jaw. “I’m guessing this meeting will not be even remotely efficient if I don’t let you all have a moment with it?”

“You would be correct about that,” Anders Hera said, leaning back casually in his chair. “I, for one, feel like you owe it to my power, and Juno and Aphrodite’s for that matter, to give us just a little insight.”

I snuck a glance to Claudia to gauge her reaction. She was sitting straight in her chair, her hands folded over a crossed knee. When it looked like she wasn’t going to say anything, I decided to test the waters.

“Not that I owed any of you a warning,” I said, addressing the room then turning back to Claudia and pulling a grin to my mouth. “But I promise, if the occasion arises, the wedding will include you.”

Dominic thankfully caught the reference. “The private wedding was our sin,” he said, clearly placing his hand on Rose’s leg under the table. “One that Adrian would never make.”

Claudia smiled tersely, something deeper behind her expression than a slight to her authority over marriage. “Thank you, Adrian.”

Even Anders caught the thin line of her tone, sliding his counterpart a confused look. “Of course,wetrust you to include us in what would be the wedding of the century.”

Claudia stiffened further at that. The phrasing reminded me of how people were referring to Reyna’s brother’s wedding. I made a mental note to look into that further.

I nodded at Anders, turning back to the table. “Inthe interest of camaraderie—yes, Reyna and I are in a relationship. Yes, it is new. No, you may certainlynotbother her with questions about it.”

“Can we bother you with questions about it, then?” Jason Dionysus asked, speaking more to the glass of wine in his hand than to me.

I had half a mind to ask him to conjure me one just to get through this meeting.

“Jason, if you are going to drink wine, you should really offer it to the entire table,” Sebastian cut in, his seat right across from Jason’s.

Sebastian’s tone had issued a challenge. Jason looked up, cocking his head at Sebastian to see if he’d heard him right.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Sebastian had already had a few glasses himself. He tended to get testy with power when he drank.

But Jason took the challenge in stride and wiped a hand over the table, a glass appearing in front of everyone. I had to smother a laugh, rolling my lips together. I’d always liked Jason, he tended to do the things I wanted to but had to smother under neutrality.

Each glass was slightly different in shape, with an array of wine in each. He’d given everyone a glass of their favorite, likely down to the region they were grown in, if I had to guess.

---