“Please tell me we are going to Olympus now,” she said.
Hades ran his fingers through his black hair.
“Hephaestus jumped the gun and escaped. Zeus will most likely be coming here to search for him.”
“Where is he?” River demanded.
I’d like to know that myself. Hephaestus always came to River when he was here. The only time he was apart from her was when he was on god business. Was he caught? Hades looked furious and started pacing.
“Hephaestus has some good points and some terrible ones. On the one hand, Zeus will not stop now that he knows there’s a weapon out there like that. On the other, Hephaestus wants to kill Zeus.”
And the problem with that was what now? Kill them all. I’d never dined on Olympian before. I’d knife them in the heart and feast on god flesh. Fuck, I’d eat every last one of them until I got a little tummy ache. I looked at Pavlina, and she gave me a curt nod. She wouldn’t mind eating them either. They’d hurt every last person in this room, including Hades.
Kimon just rumbled.
“I think we should let him. Zeus hurt Hephaestus, and I doubt they were having tea while Zeus had him now. Kill them all!”
“Zeus is going to be even angrier because Hephaestus snapped Aphrodite’s neck to escape.”
“Go Hephaestus,” Pavlina said.
“I wouldn’t mind snapping that bitch’s neck either,” River growled.
“We aren’t mad at Aphrodite, remember?” Hades pointed out.
“I am,” River said.
“I’ve never liked her,” Demos sniffed.
“She’s not all that bad,” Persephone said, floating into the room.
That was Persephone for you. She was always looking for the good in people. I met Aphrodite through Poseidon, and she was a total twit. I didn’t have to ask him to know how she treated Hephaestus. I wouldn’t mind snapping her neck myself.
“Oh, she is,” Kimon said. “Remember when you had lunch, and she dumped that stupid kombucha on the waiter because he messed up the photo she was taking for her Instagram?”
Persephone grimaced.
“Okay, yeah. She is pretty bad.”
“When Zeus realizes he’s gone, he’s going to come here looking,” Hades moaned. “I hate when he visits.”
Barbatos had been watching training.
“If the goal is to kill Zeus, why don’t we kill him at the gate? He had to knock the last time. I guess he doesn’t know about the entrance I used?”
“Because he didn’t bother asking. Hephaestus wants a team in Olympus to take Zeus out, and he’s requested all of you. Zeus only knows about one entrance to the Underworld. Hephaestus’s plan is for me to tell him he’s not here and request that he use Alethia to verify that. I can’t lie to her, and I’ll be telling the truth, anyway. Hephaestus is not here, and I don’t know how to make that weapon. I’ve already asked Persephone to move the weapons to a location I don’t know, so technically, I don’t know where Zeus can get them either. The blade used to kill Demeter was destroyed when she died, so I won’t be lying about that either.”
I rubbed my tentacles together. I loved it when a loophole benefited us. He’d be lying through his teeth, but technically telling the truth. I so loved that. I felt like I needed to let an evil villain laugh slip.
“So, we’re going to Olympus?” River asked.
“I insist you take Charley, Finn, and Solron. You’ll need witches and a shadow demon just in case,” Barbatos said. “I’ll fetch Solron.”
“Hephaestus is going to let us know when Zeus is coming. We’re going to use his gate crossing to sneak you into Olympus,” Hades said.
“Well, then River definitely needs to learn to use her wings,” Demos said.
Fucking phoenix. He wasn’t wrong, but I knew he said that to get her alone.
Chapter 6
River
H
ephaestus was free. Holy shit. He was out. He was away from Zeus. Sure, he was still in Olympus, but he changed the plans for the better. I knew the old plan involved a lot of talking and possibly a hostile takeover, but were we any better than Demeter if we showed up there and started killing people just to get him back? Unlike Persephone, he wanted to leave, but we couldn’t destroy an entire realm just because one man pissed us off, even if from everything I knew, there were a lot of bad people there.
I was holding Demos’s hand as we walked out to the courtyard of the castle. I knew he wanted to be alone with me, but everyone followed, including my father. I guess sprouting bat wings and flying for the first time was a big deal. I mean, it totally was, and I was about to piss my pants from fear. I’d flown in planes before, but never with my own wings. I also never would have uttered that sentence until recently. It didn’t sound any less insane now that everything else had happened to me.
I leaned into Demos’s arm and took in his smell. He always smelled like burning embers and sandalwood.
“Sorry, but this is kind of a big deal. I guess they want to watch.”
He just squeezed my hand. I expected an insult or something about how they were infringing on his time, but I didn’t get it.
“When this is over, we’ll go flying as our monsters, just you and me.”
“It’s bizarre I even have a monster.”
“But pretty damned sexy.”
“I take it you want me to bring her out during bedroom play too?”
“Temptress. We all do. I’m imagining those claws down my back.”
“They looked pretty sharp, Demos. I’d probably rip you to shreds.”
“Tease. Okay, things are pretty clear for a takeoff here. Why don’t you bring out that lovely cat?”
Now that I knew what it felt like, I could access that feeling again, but it still wasn’t an instantaneous change, and I had a feeling it was supposed to be if I wanted it to. Baby steps. I wasn’t going to master being a demon overnight, no matter how much I wanted to, so I could get Hephaestus back.
It seemed like it took forever for me to change but shorter than my first time, where I had no idea what I was doing. There was something about that red cloud that surrounded me when I did it, because my father told everyone to stay away from me until it went out, and he mentioned something about being able to kill with it. I definitely needed to learn that, but I needed to be able to fly too. If we were going to Olympus, I required every demon trick in my arsenal working.
I don’t know why I thought I could speak when I had a cat’s head. I was clearly looking at it in the mirror, and I’d spent enough time around cats and monsters to know what would come out of my mouth if I attempted it instead of using my demonic gift to speak. I guess I was just in a total state of shock and forgot.
This was still wholly strange, but the only thing I was afraid of now were these wings not being functional and falling from the sky. We weren’t at some great height. We were at ground level in the courtyard. Hopefully, that meant teaching me this didn’t involve shoving me off a roof and telling me to swim. Would Demos do that? He’d been a lot sweeter lately.
Demos stroked my wings, and I broke into goosebumps. These bat appendages on my back were highly sensitive to touch, and this felt hugely erotic. I was a little mortified when I started purring. I had to get the purr. I was okay with the teeth and the claws, but that purr came out of nowhere, and I couldn’t control it. I had a feeling it was going to betray my tiny trust a lot.