“I believe her too,” I said. “Why would Hercules even approach Hera’s daughter here unless he knew she wasn’t going to put him through what she did on Earth?”
Demos just shrugged.
“You heard her. Zeus strung her up by her arms and would have left her there if Hephaestus hadn’t cut her down. They are so concerned about his limp and how it makes him less than them. Maybe she was worried Zeus would permanently disfigure her if she kept it up when Hercules got here. Maybe she’s not okay with the union, but she’s too scared of getting thrown through several realms to do anything about it. You know how much she hated Hercules. We give her one of these blades, and she could just as well kill him.”
Also, a good point. Damn. This was so much less complicated before she showed up out of the blue. We needed Hephaestus here to talk this out, but I was also starving. I was worried about both of them getting caught too. Wasn’t someone going to notice all that food missing? I could just feel in my gut Hera wasn’t going to tell Zeus we were here, and that was only because she wanted him dead. Sneaking around this massive palace had risks, no matter how many secret passages and bedrooms Zeus built because he thought Hera didn’t know about them. If Hera knew we were here, it was just a matter of time before someone else did too.
Hephaestus and Tryphon finally came back in with picnic baskets. I got that they needed them to carry food back, but we needed to make sure that as few things as possible went missing. Hephaestus and Tryphon started handing out sandwiches on fresh-baked bread.
“I hope you like goat. Zeus eats it frequently, and it was the only thing available.”
I loved this little Indian place by my vet clinic, so I was totally about eating goat, and that bread looked delicious. I was starving, but I still had my concerns about the amount of food in those baskets.
“If goat is Zeus’s favorite, isn’t he going to notice food missing?”
Hephaestus just gave me a small smile.
“You think the King of Olympus does leftovers? He demands animals to be slaughtered and new food cooked every night. He used to throw all the leftovers away while his human servants lived off bread and water. The only reason I can think of now that he’s letting his servants eat what he doesn’t it is that Hera made it happen. My father is fine with his servants dropping dead from hunger as long as they don’t interrupt his meals.”
Well, that was even worse. It gave me more reason to trust Hera, but we were taking food from starving human slaves. Hephaestus knew precisely what I was thinking.
“The servants in this palace are well fed now that they may eat his leftovers. Zeus demands elaborate feasts every night, and we barely put a dent in their food. Zeus will have another feast tonight, and what we took will be replaced. That’s about the only pleasant thing I can say about how people are treated in this house. Eat up.”
“Can we trust your mother, Hephaestus?” Barbatos asked.
“I know everything she’s done, and I’m not going to make excuses for it. She was never like that with me when I was growing up. She was an amazing mother to me until I cut her down and Zeus hurt me. She never said a single thing to me about my limp. She just pretended like I was dead to her. It always hurt because of how close we were before, but I believe her when she said she did it because she was scared Zeus would hurt me again. He would have hurt her too.”
Demos was just lounging on the bed, delicately eating his sandwich. I remembered what he told me about not liking breakfast food. I didn’t think he would complain if our only option were scrambled eggs and toast, but Demos always liked to have his opinion known.
“Unless she’s saying that because she knows it’s how you’ll believe her.”
Hephaestus just shook his head.
“Hera is a lot of things, but she always tells the truth. That was always important to her when I was growing up. If she intended a coup and had allies, she would have brought them with her and tried to take the weapons from us forcibly. I don’t think you realize what she risked coming into that room alone and unarmed when she knew you were with me and had those weapons.”
Good points. Hera could have come in the room blasting curses. Mostly since she waited until we were all in bed to make her appearance known. I knew Hera was cunning, though. She could have done that because she needed us to kill for her.
“You’ve been gone a long time. The truth might not be as important to her anymore. Especially if it means killing Zeus and becoming queen,” Demos said.
“You’re such a shit, Demos. Hera could have totally changed for the better,” Pavlina said.
“We still need to discuss all our options,” Kimon said. “We don’t trust Olympians. The only ones I like are Hades and Hephaestus, and that’s because they aren’t like them. They were shunned, just like us. We need to keep in mind why we don’t trust them.”
“Maybe I can assuage some of your doubts,” Hephaestus said. “We know the Fates are about to cut some strings, but we don’t know why. It has to be something significant. The Fates don’t cut strings unless they need a change, and they’ve decided something is happening in Olympus that they do. Hera doesn’t know what the Fates told the Horae. She just knows I have these weapons, but she doesn’t know the Fates have gotten involved.
“I believe her when she says the only reason civil war hasn’t broken out here is that there would be no way to end it. Both sides would want my weapon, and I think we can agree on what side is right here. I don’t think we should let them join us or put a blade in their hands unless they can agree to give it back so we can destroy it after this, no matter how much we need their help and can help them in return.”
Back to those women and their strings. I wished I could meet them and threaten them with one of those blades not to do anything to Hephaestus’s string. I didn’t give a shit about anyone else here. I got why we were trying to make it a better place, but I’d kill every last Olympian here if it meant Hephaestus got to live. I was a bitch like that, and I’d protect what was mine.
“I can handle that,” Charley said. “I think it will work on Olympians. It works on just about any supernatural creature, and that’s technically what all of you are. You aren’t really gods and goddesses.”
“No, we aren’t. What did you have in mind?”
“A blood oath. They must let me take their blood, and so will you. You must agree to something they want. The way a blood oath spell works is if you break the oath, you bleed from every orifice until you die. I know your people are supposed to be unkillable unless you use one of those weapons, and I don’t know if it would kill them outright, but I don’t think anyone wants to bleed out their asshole and eyes for all of eternity because they lied.”
Finn grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
“I’ll totally go the blood oath route. It’s a nasty way to die, and it would be even worse if it doesn’t kill you, and that’s your life. You’d beg for death.”
Hephaestus ran his fingers through his black hair.
“I’m down for that. I totally am, and I always keep my word. My family might consider it an insult, and they might not want unfamiliar magic cast on them.”