Hermes was sitting in the corner with a laptop and a headset but apparently still listening.
“We have to wait until Ares comes back, so they are all in one place. I just listened to a conversation. Ares still can’t get into the forge. He wants to come back and have Zeus bring Eros into the equation to figure out how. They think because he’s Aphrodite’s son, he knows. I’m sure Aphrodite would rat Hephaestus out if asked, but she’s milking the whole neck-breaking thing as an excuse to go back to Earth. Zeus doesn’t want to upset her because he still thinks he can use her to get to Hephaestus.”
“She doesn’t know how to get in either,” Hephaestus said. “I had a different front door when she snuck Ares in. I changed it after that incident. Demeter must have asked a demigod I made a weapon for when she visited because she knew how to get in. Zeus never gives the demigods the credit they are due. Most of them figured it out and could tell him, but he’s not even considering them an option, even now.”
“Let’s not poke the bear, big guy,” Charley said. “We don’t need this happening on Earth, and I’m sure you don’t want your forge destroyed.”
“Is Ares coming back soon?”
“Zeus told him to give it one last try and come back in the morning. I need to call Athena for tea because I don’t want Eros anywhere near this with those weapons in play,” Hermes said.
“Does someone have a laptop I can watch from?” Solron asked.
“I do,” Dionysus said.
It was finally happening. We were setting things in motion to get all the bad people out of Olympus and bring about a new era.
Chapter 22
Hephaestus
I
loathed every minute of this. Being back in Olympus was just bringing back horrible memories before I left for good. It wasn’t just what happened after Zeus gave me my limp. I was miserable here before that. Having Zeus for a father tended to do that. He was a megalomaniac abusive asshole who repeatedly cheated on my mother. Before he pretended to be a god, it was willing Olympians he took to his bed. After we went to Earth, it was just whoever he felt like, whether or not they wanted it.
My weapon had always been a theory. I knew it would work, but I never forged it. Zeus hadn’t seemed interested in coming back to Earth, and my volcano was hard to get into unless you knew how.
At first, I was regretting making it to get rid of Demeter. Putting it into play had caused so many issues. Zeus probably wouldn’t have cared if Demeter got sent to the Pits of Tartarus. He would have asked Hades about why he felt her life force go out and just accepted it. He never liked her aside from a bedmate. He would have thought she was a silly woman misbehaving out of emotion and deserved to get sent to the Pits.
Now that I knew Olympus would be in a civil war if there were a way to end it, I knew why he wanted my weapon. He was always so paranoid the Olympians were going to turn on him like he had done the Titans, but he never gave them any reason not to. The Titans were awful. Zeus could have learned from that and tried to be a better ruler, but he didn’t. Was it any wonder everyone here wanted to overthrow him? Some because they were just as bad as him and wanted to rule, and others because they wanted changes.
I slightly regretted the weapon a little less now that we had allies that wanted to make changes. I was glad my mother was an ally and had changed. I hadn’t really forgotten how it made me feel after everyone mocked me or ignored me when I made my way back to Olympus, but I didn’t want them punished for it. I would have been okay with sparing Ares if he had shown any type of personal growth since I left, but he was still a raging asshole obsessed with himself.
Still, I wanted to get this over with and leave. Olympus wasn’t home anymore. I hadn’t been there very long, but I could see the Underworld as home now. I had a mate there and friends. And I could admit it was just as beautiful as Olympus if you kept to the right parts.
Waiting was driving me crazy. I was snuggled into my little Hellspawn on Dionysus’s couch while we all chatted. Olympus had come a long way when it came to new technology, but they didn’t have television here, despite all our talents. It wasn’t like they would give the humans a break from serving them to create entertainment. The arts had become stagnant in addition to everything else here.
We were all just chatting before bed. Things would be set into motion in the morning. Solron was glued to the laptop Dionysus lent her. The rest of us were trying to come to terms with the fact that soon we’d be killing several people. Sure, they would have turned the tables if they had my weapon, but I still didn’t relish doing it, not even with Zeus.
“Ew,” Solron said.
We all looked up. She was glued to the laptop and not looking at us. She was like that when I’d seen her with electronics.
“What?” Pavlina asked.
“Zeus is bringing a woman down to that porn room. Can we kill him now?”
“Is she willing?” Pavlina asked.
“She looks fucking terrified, but she’s holding his hand and smiling. I can’t watch this. Does Olympus have porn where people are willing?”
“That would be a big, fat no,” I said.
I didn’t know if Olympus had porn since they didn’t have television, but I already knew that the women weren’t willing if they did. It wouldn’t shock me if Zeus, Poseidon, and Ares filmed their conquests and shared them with each other.
“Are we killing Zeus in the next few days?” Kimon asked. “He was always supposed to be this big, powerful being. I know he’s a total shit, but something is bound to go wrong.”
I knew that better than anyone. The best-laid plans always went wrong. As soon as the trap door opened, Artemis had one shot at loosing her arrow and getting Zeus. She was fast with her bow, but anything could happen. My people used arrows for hunting. We fought with magic. I didn’t particularly want River and the rest of her mates in the room when Olympians started flinging it, but I understood Pavlina and Tryphon needed their revenge.
I just sighed and rubbed my cheek on River’s soft hair.
“Something always goes wrong. We have to not lose focus. Whatever happens when that door opens, we can’t falter. Be careful. My people don’t fight with weapons. We fight with magic. They will fling everything they can at you, and it’ll do way worse to you than turn you into a monster. That was just a curse. None of you have felt our battle magic.”
Charley and Finn just laughed.
“And they haven’t felt ours.”
I had forgotten about Charley and Finn. Charley looked like she wanted to take a nap most of the time. When she talked, she was a little twisted. Finn was mostly the strong, silent type. He barely spoke at all, and Charley spoke for him.
“The blades I forged will deflect their magic, but they aren’t huge shields, and they aren’t effective. Certain spells, I couldn’t block, even if I made huge shields for everyone. There’s a wide variety they will try that would stun and injure an Olympian but would obliterate anyone else.”
“Athena will be in a web before she can try,” Pavlina said.
Tryphon just shrugged.
“I was planning on taking my time, but I’ll just snap Poseidon’s neck with a tentacle. It sounds like that knocks you all the fuck out. I’ll take my time cutting his head off after that.”