I had just finished up spying on Zeus and Ares again in his war room. Their big idea was that I had fled to my volcano and was hiding there. They couldn’t even fathom the idea I was still here, right under their noses, just like the Horae told them. The Horae were friends of mine, but they wouldn’t have told Zeus I crossed through their gates when I didn’t. He would have blamed them for letting me out and punished them.
The Horae told him straight to his face they didn’t let me out. Ares came back, puffing up his chest and making threats like he loved to do. The Horae told him the exact same thing. They weren’t punishing them, but I had listened to them in the war room. They were under the impression if I could forge a weapon that could kill them, I could have made something to breach the gates to Olympus and sneak out without having to go through the Horae. Honestly, I probably could, but I was currently without a forge.
If I had access to my forge, I’d could grab one of my weapons and just kill Zeus while he slept. Ares would be easy to take out too. Ares was huge and inserted himself as the God of War when the Olympians came to Earth, but he only knew how to fight with magic. He’d probably go down with a punch to the face. Ares liked to hurt women, but even though he knew full damned well it was going to heal in a few minutes, you’d think the entire world was ending if he got a paper cut.
So, I had to do this the hard way and risk people I loved. Ares was off stomping around outside my volcano, trying to see if I was home. He would eventually figure out I wasn’t there and report back to Zeus. They would have to come up with an alternative plan that either involved searching Olympus for me or sending people they considered expendable to the Underworld. I didn’t want either of those to happen. I needed to move now.
Ares was off trying to get into my volcano, and Zeus was distracting himself with a woman again. No one else knew I was here except Aphrodite. Zeus wasn’t letting her go home yet because he still thought she could seduce the answer out of me if he could locate me.
Zeus was such a serial cheater and rapist, and he had an entire wardrobe of clothes just for sneaking around in. I easily found black trousers and a black hoodie to keep my face covered on the streets. It was time to visit the Horae and see if we were still friends despite my long absence from Olympus.
I pulled the hoodie over my eyes and set out onto the streets. This was my home. I had grown up here, and I used to find it so beautiful until I realized how ugly my family was. As I made my way down the streets, I realized how fucking spoiled my family was. It didn’t hold up to horses back in the day, and it wasn’t holding up to cars now, but they still insisted on paving the streets with gold.
It caused a horrible glare when you were driving in our bright sun, and it needed constant maintenance. I hadn’t been back here in forever, but there were humans out slaving away trying to repair it like back in the old days. This had always been a constant—humans in the scorching sun trying to repair golden roads. They could have easily switched to stone or asphalt. We had some beautiful stones here in Olympus that would have given the streets a lovely sheen and held up better. My family would rather deal with road closures and traffic just to brag they had solid gold roads here.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and kept my head down as I walked down the street. I wanted to do something, and I would. I just couldn’t right now. These humans working on the roads were descendants of humans who were kidnapped here or lied to and said the gods chose them to live in paradise.
Olympus wasn’t paradise unless you shared DNA with my family. Artemis treated her little army well, but she sent them to die in the Underworld. If you were a human in Olympus, you were expected to serve, and depending on who your master was, you could either be looked down on but still have a roof over your head and food in your belly every night, or you could be a slave to their whims and hoping for scraps.
I could tell by the hollowed-out eyes of these humans fixing the road that they weren’t well fed. I wanted to tell them just to go home and find a place to hide. I wanted to promise them things were going to change. I couldn’t do a damned thing for them just yet, so I kept my head down and kept walking, despite this nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach just leaving them there.
The three Horae lived in a small cottage near the gate. They never lived like the rest of the Olympians. They didn’t have some massive palace or human servants. They had a cozy, six-bedroom cottage and did everything themselves. That was probably why they were always so lovely to me. They didn’t have any preconceived notions about how Olympians were superior to everyone and couldn’t have any visible flaws.
I knew Zeus didn’t have anyone watching their cottage because I listened to all of his plans, but at the same time, I didn’t want to bring any more trouble to their door than I already was. When I used to visit them and bring them trinkets, I always snuck through the gate in the back and knocked on the backdoor. They always told me I could come through the front door, but it was such a crime in Olympus for one of their own to have a limp. I knew something terrible would happen to them if they were seen being nice to me. I just hoped they remembered that when I broke into their back gate.
Thallo, Auxo, and Carpo were all sitting in their garden having tea when I stuck my head through the back gate. Their heads turned, and they didn’t look shocked to see me. They just sipped their tea and smiled.
“What took you so long, Hephaestus?” Thallo said.
“I made your favorite tea cakes,” Auxo said.
“Come sit, my boy,” Carpo said.
They all stood to hug me as I joined them at the table. They’d always been the three mothers I wished I had. Hera and I had been close until I was injured, then it was like I was dead to her. Auxo made these honeyed tea cakes that were to die for, but she refused to give me her recipe because she insisted I wasn’t old enough for it yet. Age was so relative to us since we never aged, and until I made it, nothing could kill us.
I took my usual seat at their table and grabbed a tea cake.
“You were expecting me?”
They all just started laughing.
“All things must come to an end, Hephaestus,” Thallo said.
“Atropos visited us and said a lot of strings here are about to get cut. Change is coming. Clotho said you would bring it and that we should help you. As if we needed a Fate to tell us to help you. What do you need, Hephaestus?” Auxo said.
“I need to sneak some help through the gate.”
Carpo just tossed her long, blonde hair over her shoulder.
“Is that all? Are they going to make a mess?”
I just laughed. My little Hellspawn and her mates?
“Probably.”
Auxo got this knowing look in her eyes.
“I know that look. You have feelings for one of them. Tell us all about them.”
“She’s a half demon from another realm, and yes, I’m totally smitten.”
All three Horae squealed and clapped their hands.
“We have to meet her,” Thallo said.
“Is she good enough for you?” Carpo asked.
Auxo just swatted at her.
“Of course, she is. He wouldn’t love her if she weren’t. Hephaestus, we’ll be glad to help. When do you need us to sneak them in, and how many?”
“Eight. Possibly nine. I’m not sure if River’s father is coming. He’s a Duke of Hell and might not want her coming without him. Four monsters are coming, my mate, two witches, and a demon.”