Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“What’s that?” Circe asks slowly.
“What do we have to offer for you to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem?”
Interlude 3
Hades
There are some hurts that nothing can fix. I know that better than most. I spent my entire life believing myself to be an orphan, mourning parents who I didn’t even remember. Their deaths turned out to be extremely exaggerated—at least when it comes to my father—but now I grieve all those years lost.
It’s nothing compared to what my wife and her sisters are experiencing right now.
They huddle together, a phone passing between them as they commune with Psyche while she travels away from Olympus. They share stories through their tears, honoring their mother’s memory, honoring her sacrifice.
“Do you remember when she tried to learn to knit?” Eurydice hiccups. “That sweater was so ugly.”
“You wore it every fucking day for a month, too.” Hera’s laugh chokes off at the end. “At least the color looked good on you.”
I step out of the room and close the door softly behind me. Zeus waits in the hallway, looking like he’s about to crawl out of his skin. We share a moment of pure shared misery. There isn’t an enemy we can fight and conquer to save our wives from the pain they’re currently experiencing. Grief can’t be banished through sheer willpower alone. Even if it could, I doubt Persephone would accept that gift. Part of grieving is honoring the dead, and she loved her mother dearly, despite Demeter’s many faults.
Zeus sucks in a breath and exhales in a rush. “Demeter had a point. In what she said before she was killed.”
I’m so bloody tired I have to concentrate on not weaving on my feet. “You would buckle now.”
“Hades.” We’re the same age, but he’s always felt younger to me. When his father was still alive, when he was still Perseus, he presented a cold exterior that felt like it could be shattered with the right pressure. I watched it happen in real time over the last few months, the pressure tearing him apart. There’s no sign of buckling now. Steel coats his tone, and his blue eyes are serious. “I know you love your wife.”
I have to fight down the urge to bristle. “More than anything.”
“As much as I love my wife.” He doesn’t move, but it’s as if I can see him evolving into someone new before my eyes. “They don’t understand what it means to be a legacy title. No one who isn’t a legacy title does. It’s our identity, our responsibility, our burden to bear.”
It’s as if he cut to the very heart of me. Hades is the only thing I’ve ever been. I had another name once, but I haven’t even shared it with Persephone. I am only Hades. “Yes.”
He shakes his head sharply. “Fuck. That.”
“Excuse me?”
“Fuck that.” He drags a hand through his blond hair. “I don’t know who I am if I’m not Zeus—or heir to Zeus—but I’m not willing to let Callisto suffer further because of that weakness. If we stay, it’s only a matter of time before she loses more loved ones. I won’t allow it.”
The instinctive response rises inside me. It’s easy for him to say when he’s held the title Zeus for less than a year, when he’s already lost the upper city and failed the people there. The lower city is different. It’s always been different. These people are my…
A wail rises behind the closed door of my study, and the air goes right out of me. That’s Persephone. I would know her pain anywhere, just like I know her pleasure, her love, her happiness. The last has been in short supply in the past few weeks.
My phone buzzes, and I’m pathetically grateful for the distraction. “Yes?”
“Don’t hang up.”
I curse and share a glance with Zeus. “It’s Hermes.” Without thinking too hard about what I’m doing, I put it on speaker. “I’m here with Zeus.”
“Cute. Very enemies to lovers of you.” The words are Hermes, but the tone isn’t jovial in the least. “This saves me a call, so thanks for that.” She sucks in a breath. “I’m giving you the courtesy of a heads-up before I issue a city-wide invitation.”
Exhaustion rolls over me in a wave. I close my eyes. “What are you up to now, Hermes?”
“The same thing I’ve been up to from the start.” It’s strangely vindicating that she sounds just as worn down as I feel. “What I do—what I’ve done—has always been for Olympus. All of Olympus, not just the rich, not just those fortunate enough to be born on the right side of the river. Everyone.”
“Tell us,” Zeus says.
“This message has two parts.” She takes a deep breath. “In roughly an hour, I’m going to issue an invitation to Olympus. I want each faction to send delegates—three each from the lower city, the upper city, and the countryside—to the university. These people will hold the positions temporarily while we set up proper procedures to vote in their replacements. This will be repeated every four years, with a three-term limit.”