“Did your little class teach you about what Zeus did when he took offense at my treatment of Hercules and how it affects you directly? He beat me until I could no longer stand, then strung me up by my arms in the top room of his palace. My feet couldn’t touch the floor, and my shoulders disconnected from their socket. They couldn’t heal themselves because I was hanging from my arms.
“Zeus would have left me there for centuries, but Hephaestus stepped in and cut me down. He laid into Zeus for hurting me, and Zeus threw him through several realms and gave him that limp. You can go by whatever they say about me now in your little Earth class, but it’s not the full truth, and Zeus is so much worse. I came to help, and I can bring you Olympian allies who want things to change.”
That seemed to calm River. She lowered her knife to her lap and visibly relaxed. No one else in the room had said a damned thing, and there were many people here. My mother had done a lot of shit, but she had hurt none of the monsters in this room, and they acknowledged that and were willing to hear her out. I had a feeling there were several Olympians here who wouldn’t have been given the same courtesy.
“We need help, and Hades doesn’t want everyone here to die.”
Hera started laughing.
“I would imagine not. Many of his ideas that were too radical ages ago are now held as truth for several of us. Zeus and Poseidon banished him to the Underworld because they didn’t want them catching on, but they did anyway. What is Hades’s big plan?”
I took over. My mother seemed to want to help us, and she wasn’t outright sneering at the people in the room that weren’t Olympians. She wasn’t even all that mean to River when she challenged her. Maybe Olympus could change.
“The man on the chaise is a Duke of Hell in another realm. He brought armies to help the Underworld defeat Demeter when she was holding Persephone hostage. He’s my mate’s father, and he’s been talking to Hades. A few other realms have opened their gates to the possibility of allowing citizens to come and go and let new people in. Hades wants to do this with Olympus, but it sounds like several of you already want this, which we didn’t know. You really want to live as a human?”
I got everything my mother had said so far except that. She was Queen of Olympus, and most everyone here feared her. Now that I knew she wanted things to change, and she had changed, she wouldn’t have been a terrible choice at staying here and helping to run things. Why would she want to go to Earth and start over? She’d have to rebuild her entire life from scratch, and since when was my mother interested in running a human business when she’d been a queen for so long?
I realized how tired my mother looked when I really gazed at her.
“It gets old being queen, Hephaestus. Everyone kisses my ass just because I’m married to Zeus. I’ve wanted a divorce for the longest time, but he thinks people will see him as less of a man if he loses his queen. We’ve long had separate chambers, and the only reason I care about him sneaking women down here is that they are usually not willing. Some of them think sleeping with him will better their station if they get pregnant with a demigod.
“There’s a simplicity on Earth, Hephaestus. I just didn’t see it before. Mortals can be petty and money-grubbing sometimes, but are we any better? I want to work for a title and respect instead of having it handed to me by marriage.”
River just laughed.
“That is not how my professor portrayed you at all, but I can dig that.”
Hera gave her a small smile.
“Maybe while I’m building my business up, I should get a job teaching about Greek history or write a book to set the record straight. I’m not all that bad, but I had my moments several centuries ago.”
Yeah, she did, and it was pretty fucking wrong.
Barbatos just stretched.
“Well, we need to take a vote if we’re going to take Hera’s help and form a plan. I vote yes. I’m totally against genocide, and Hera seems to know who we can trust here.”
Hera shot him this grateful smile. Tryphon’s tentacle sneaked across my waist to touch River. I would have to get used to those tentacles because he liked to touch her with them a lot.
“I didn’t think we’d have Hera’s help, but I’m on board with this,” he said.
“You aren’t as big of a bitch as I’ve heard,” Pavlina said.
Pavlina just had to go there.
“Pavlina and Demos still get to kill Athena and Poseidon, right?” Demos asked.
What the fuck went on while I was in Olympus that Demos gave a shit if Pavlina got her revenge? I was going to have to find that out. Hera just crossed her arms and laughed.
“Oh, Poseidon and Athena have been plotting to steal the throne for ages. So has Ares, even if Zeus thinks he can trust him. Zeus brought Ares in on the whole knife thing because the poor man is as dumb as a rock, but Ares intends to betray him.”
“Mother, are you watching everyone in Olympus?”
How did she know all this?
“Hermes doesn’t know about your weapon, but he’s the one gathering intel. He knows Athena, Poseidon, and Ares all want the throne.”
“Do they know what happened to Demeter?” Kimon asked.
Good question. Who all knew Demeter was dead?
“Not many people knew she was in the Underworld. Artemis lent her soldiers to rescue Persephone, but Zeus swore them both to secrecy. We all felt it when she died, and everyone knows it was her because she’s been missing for so long, but Zeus has been telling everyone he’s investigating, even though he knows the truth.”
“What about this Artemis?” Solron asked. “Is she on our side? Her soldiers were pretty nasty.”
Everyone perked up, waiting for her to answer, but I already knew.
“Artemis loathes Zeus and Ares. She allowed her soldiers to go with Demeter because she thought Persephone was being mistreated. Artemis has a lot to say about the men here,” Hera said.
“I like her already, even if one of her people shot me over a cliff,” Pavlina said.
River grabbed her butt.
“I never want to see that again.”
“You are all so strange. Do you love my son?” Hera asked.
River reached behind her and clutched my hair.
“With all my heart.”
That hit me right in the gut. She loved me. She really did. Limp and all.
“Good. Rest now. I’ll figure out how to bring your allies to you tomorrow. It’s late, and it won’t do to sneak around here.”
Hera disappeared behind the door. I would have felt better if we had some semblance of a plan, but we had allies, and my little Hellspawn fucking loved me.
Chapter 16
Tryphon
W
hy was I the only one still awake? Was I the only one who had problems with this? Hera said all the right words, but this was fucking Hera we were talking about. She’d never meddled with me personally, but Zeus had no interest in bedding men or Kraken. I loved a good romp with the male species, but something told me Zeus was one of those men who thought dick in hole felt as good for the other person as it did for him and didn’t know where the clitoris was. He definitely wouldn’t know how to stimulate a prostate, and he wouldn’t reciprocate head.