by S. E. Babin
He waved a hand, dismissing me. "Persephone is and always has been a tool for her mother. Her recent...behavior appears to be a direct result of chafing against the bit."
"But she's pregnant now," Artie whispered. She sounded horrified and if our thought processes were on the same track, it wasn't horror about the baby, it was fear for what Demeter was going to do when she found out about it.
Hermes nodded. "We tell no one. And once we find Hades, we caution him as well. He knows Demeter better than all of us, so he's well aware of the hooks she has in her daughter."
A perplexed look crossed Artie's face. She leaned forward to pick up her mug as if needing it for comfort. "So we let her go ahead with this sham of a wedding?"
"I don't know that we have any choice. But she should not be our concern," Hermes said.
"It's the book we need." As long as Morgana didn't have her hooks in it yet.
Artie sipped her mug, her face lost in thought. "Does Demeter know about the book?"
It was something I hadn't contemplated yet. "I'm not sure. Depends on if she and Morgana are working together."
A cool gust of wind blew my hair. Seconds later, Hades stood in the room, dressed in black and gray, his eyes flashing an angry silver. "Demeter rarely works with anyone because she doesn't share. Anything."
I gave him a steady but expressionless look. "Welcome back."
He said nothing, but his gaze burned a hole in my soul.
"Well," Artie said and stood up holding her mug. "I think that's my cue to get ready for the day."
Hermes, really good at being annoying, sat there staring at us amused.
Hades pinned him with his silvery gaze and barely lifting a finger, Hermes was thrown to the back of the cabin and shut within a bedroom. His shout of alarm came seconds later, followed by rage as he banged against the door.
My eyebrows rose. "You locked him in?"
"Yes." Hades made no move to come closer.
"He's going to be quite cross with you."
"Then I won't let him out."
I sighed. "You have poor people skills."
"Perhaps. I wanted a moment of peace to speak with you." A silver bubble appeared over us. A shield of silence.
"Your moment is granted," I said. "But my coffee is now cold and that makes me grumpy."
I almost dropped the mug as it rapidly heated in my hand.
"Better?" he asked, one of those dark eyebrows risen in amusement.
"Yes," I grumbled. "You left. Abruptly."
He took the spot where Hermes had so ungraciously vacated. "I don't know that anyone could blame me."
I shrugged. "Suppose not. It must have been quite shocking."
"What's the plan?"
I blinked in surprise. "The plan is we have no plan. Right now we don't think it's a good idea to tell anyone about the baby."
He nodded. "Especially not Demeter."
"Do you think she's told Morgana?" I asked.
Darkness skittered over his gaze. "Possibly. She would be a fool to do so, but she trusts the sorceress."
One thing I'd always known about Morgana through rumor and lore was she was a master manipulator. "I don't know if she'd have much use for a demi-god baby."
Hades chuckled. "Do not underestimate her ability to play the long game. Let's err on the side that Morgana knows. Persephone told the two of you, and you were virtual strangers."
I wrinkled my nose as I thought about it."Yeah. Weird.”
"If Morgana knows, it's possible Demeter knows, but I haven't seen my mother-in-law in awhile so the secret could still be on our side."
I studied him and tensed myself to blink out if he became angry at my next words. "We thought about allowing the wedding to go forward."
Hades looked heavenward and sighed. "On that topic. I've found something quite concerning. Last night I left and tried to find my father."
"Any luck?"
He shook his head. "No, but I was able to visit his library and I had a very interesting conversation with one of his Scribes." Hades scrubbed a hand over his face suddenly looking aged and tired. "He directed me to some of the records."
I sat up straight, my heart beating a little bit faster. "And what did you find?"
He smiled at me, and a choked laugh sprang from his mouth. "You know, legends point to many people as having the skilled tongues of liars and manipulation skills beyond the pale, but there is no greater manipulator than my father."
I studied him. Grief and a host of emotions were present in him right now. Whatever he found shook him to his core.
"Persephone and I were never married, despite having a ceremony and doing everything right."
I stared at him open-mouthed. God hinted about this to me, but I'd never a hundred percent put the pieces together. "But what would be the point?" I asked.
He chuckled, but he didn't sound amused. "The point would be thousands of years later you would need a favor at around the same time my wife went missing."
The significance of it struck me. I sat back stunned. "He wanted us to meet," I breathed, unsurprised he would have taken it this far. We’d known he set part of it up but had no idea he’d been planning it for quite so long.
"Oh yes."
"And what? What does he want after that?"
Hades shook his head. "I can only assume he meant for us to join forces."
My gaze narrowed. "Join forces how?"
He laughed again, this time in real amusement. "Either in power or..." he paused as a grin flickered across his face, "in matrimony."
The words I'd been hearing for months now were coming back to haunt me. I was destined to become a queen, and since the prophecies were a little bit fuzzy on that, thanks to the Fates being hedgey, perhaps God was interpreting them to suit his own needs. "I don't understand, Hades. I'm no real catch."
Anger skittered across his gaze as he stood up and loomed over me. "You have saved Zeus' kingdoms and his head more times than anyone else. You've saved me and the gods know who else." He leaned down and tipped my chin up so I could meet his gaze. "Do not sell yourself short. You are valuable."
I shook my head. "But not valuable to you. I have no power that could see your cause through."
"I think you may be forgetting what Atropos did for you a few days ago. Whatever it was and whatever happened made your power burst forth like a seed coming through the ground at the first warmth of spring. Power hums in your veins now and I know you can feel it. Our powers feel...connected now."
I swallowed hard at his words because they resonated with me. "I don't know how it's possible. I have no mother and no father. I sprang from the sea and my powers come from love."
"But the love of who?" he asked me.
I frowned as I realized I didn't know. There was no catalyst that I knew of, no one steering me in a direction one way or the other. My face fell. "I do not know."
"Exactly," he added. "But someone does."
"Atropos."
Hades nodded.
"And she hightailed it out of here after that happened."
"To avoid answering questions, perhaps?"
I thought back. "Maybe. They're all vague even when they're in a good mood."
"Have you tried your powers out anymore?"
"Not since I accidentally intruded on your ritual."
Hades frowned. "I still haven't figured out how you did that. No one can penetrate the veil unless their death magic is strong. The only ones I can think of who might be able to do so are Hecate and my father."
"Hecate?" I asked. A chill slid down my spine. I'd never met the woman and had only seen her once or twice in passing but she was terrifying. With a capital T. Well, I had met her once, but the memory was taken from me until recently when Clotho was forced to explain my role in the future of the world. At that time, she’d supposedly given me all of my magic back. But that turned out to be a little white lie. She’d given some of it back.
He nodded and slid a somber gaze my wa
y. "Maybe?"
I slammed my mug down and raised both hands. "No. I refuse to consider it."
"It is -"
"Hades," I said in warning.
"Abby, you cannot turn a blind eye to this. It is entirely possible. Unlikely, but possible."
"And if she is my mother?" I shook my head. "Then who is my father?" I paused but laughed. "And why in the world would my powers resonate in love?"
Hades pinned me with a considering stare. "Sometimes our best mistakes are made out of love."
I shook my head. "This is all beside the point and shouldn't be what we are focused on."
Hades sighed and stared at me. "Atropos releases the rest of your powers when you asked for assistance with Morgana, and you think these two are not related?"
Okay, well that made me feel stupid. I glared at him instead and crossed my arms, unwilling to speak more about it.
"Fine. I'll drop it for now. But things are different. I am suddenly unwed, and my errant not-wife possesses a powerful artifact. We can forget about my father and his scheming for now, but we still need to focus on getting the book. Morgana cannot be discounted as an enemy, but if we get the Codex, we still have the opportunity to beat her. If we don't -"
"Then we're all as good as dead. I agree. Put everything else on the backburner now, everything except the Codex." I studied him. "Have you thought about approaching her?"
A dark shadow crossed his face. "I'm not sure now. Knowing everything I put up with and not even actually being married makes me want to blow things up."
"But that isn't her fault." I tried to reason with him. "She has no idea either. Right now she's only trying to rebel against her mother."
"She will be relieved when she hears this," he said. "She's wanted out of our marriage for awhile."
I reached over and patted his hand. "Then perhaps you should let her go."
He pinned me with a dark look. "Only once we have the Codex back."
"Agreed. Go easy on her."
"Abby, she's selfish and self-absorbed. I initially only wanted to salvage our marriage because we'd vowed to stay together. But I had my doubts even then."
"Perhaps those doubts manifested into you saying crazy things over Christmas?" I asked, remembering his insane pledge to me.
He grinned, his teeth a white flash against his tan skin. "It doesn't seem so crazy now, does it?"
Hades dropped the privacy shield and left me sitting there surprised. He really didn't know how to let things go, did he?
And now that he was officially unmarried, what was stopping me from throwing caution to the wind?
Morgana intruded back into my thoughts. Oh yeah. That. Because the world would be ending soon, and then I wouldn't have to worry about anything else. That would certainly stop a romance in its tracks, wouldn't it? I got up, put my mug in the sink and headed back to my room to get ready for the day. There was only so much room for thinking before you had to go forth and do.
Less than thirty minutes later we'd all gathered back out into the living room. Hermes wore a mulish expression and looked very much like he wanted to murder Hades several times over, but Hades was doing a great job of ignoring him. We would have to address the tension between them soon enough especially if Hades kept his weird pursuit of me going.
"Hamilton," I started out. "What do we do about him?"
"If he knows Persephone is pregnant, we should probably just kill him," Artie said.
I blinked at the bloodthirsty statement. "Ooooorrrr," I drawled, "we could try to memory wipe him."
Hades was staring at my friend like she'd grown an extra head. "And it's certainly a less violent version of handling him."
Hermes gave Artie a weird look but shook his head. "While her idea has its...merits," he said in a tone as dry as dust, "we may have to look to other avenues. I'm not sure a memory wipe would be as effective considering how prominent he is in the town. I'm not sure there's enough juice to memory wipe an entire town."
"Speak for yourself," said Hades.
I cleared my throat before the testosterone level escalated any higher. "Now boys, let's focus. Let's err on the side of giving her some credit and say she hasn't told him yet. What would we do then?"
"Send him on a ‘business trip’," Artie said making air quotes with her fingers.
I smiled at her. "Better than killing him," I told her.
"Do we have a plan to nab him?" she asked.
"He's human," I said with a grin. "How hard could it be?"
Chapter 15
Two hours later, I wanted to punch myself in the face for asking that question. As I've had to learn over and over and over again, things in my world rarely go the right way. In this case, not only did it go the wrong way, literal hell on Earth broke open.
Well...I guess that's a little dramatic, but as it turned out, it wasn't just Morgana after the book. None of us should have been surprised by that. We left Hades back at the cabin but he promised to keep an eye on us, whatever that meant. Hermes, Artie and I all put on a glamour, us girls in the same one we wore yesterday. Hermes told me to do him justice so I placed him in the handsome guise of an older gentleman who had the look of old money. He nodded once in the mirror and grinned. Crows feet appeared at the edges of his eyes and he reached up to touch them, confused.
I pulled his hands down. "Don't. Human women love those on men."
"But...why? It reeks of age."
I snorted. "That's the point. It also reeks of wisdom and experience. Two things that give women the chills." I was not human, but I was also not immune to the thrill an older man could put in my heart. Especially the one the humans called Sam Elliott. I shivered even as I thought about him. That southern drawl, that long, lean -
"Abby!"
Hermes shout made me blink in surprise. "What?" I asked, feeling the blush come on.
"What in the gods’ name were you thinking about?"
I cleared my throat. "Nothing. Just lost track of...time. Yes."
He continued to stare at me, concern and confusion in his gaze. "You lie to me."
"Some things immortal men would never be able to understand," I said after a moment of embarrassed silence on my part.
I left him rubbing his crow's feet in awe. "Be ready to go in five minutes!" I shouted as I walked out of the bathroom.
Ten minutes later we were standing in front of Hamilton's mansion. There was no trace of Persephone yet, but a Rolls Royce was parked in the front. Hamilton seemed like the kind of guy who would drive that sort of car.
We walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Moments later, Percy opened the door and stared at us.
I had to remember not to greet him like an old friend. "Hello," I said. "We're here to see Lacey."
"The Mistress is not here at the current time."
The Mistress? Sounded like Persephone had her staff trained well. Or brainwashed.
Artie stepped up. She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially to Percy. "We're actually here about a wedding day surprise for his bride-to-be so it helps she isn't here."
Percy gave us a suspicious look. "May I ask who you are? I've never seen any of you before." His gaze flickered over Hermes once with disinterest, but I could see the suspicion lurking.
We were losing him.
"We're new friends of the bride," I chirped. "We were dress shopping with her yesterday."
His dour personality became even dourer. "I highly doubt Miss Lacey considers you friends. Perhaps if you contact her and set an appointment, you can see her then."
Hermes stepped forward, a friendly expression on his face. I stepped back. Seconds later Percy lay curled on the ground.
"He'll wake up, right?" I asked
He ignored me and pushed his way into the house. We were all wearing the power dampening amulets, but we still had to be careful not to run into Morgana. If she were even here.
"We should stash him somewhere," Artie said.
"Crap." And then I thought even m
ore about what we'd just done. "We won't be able to use these identities again." I frowned. We were terrible covert operatives.
With a crook of his finger, Percy slid toward Hermes and into the closet he'd just opened. He shut the door behind him and whispered a few words to seal the door.
I wasn't sure I liked this. "Just make sure to open it before we leave. Percy isn't a bad sort."
Hermes rolled his eyes. "Where's Hamilton's room?"
I led them up the hall. "Just be careful," I whispered. "This is where I ran into Morgana last time."
We crept up the stairs. A chill brushed my shoulders and a whisper sent itself into my head.
"Get out of there!"
I stopped in my tracks and looked around in confusion. "Did anyone else hear that?" I asked.
Hermes and Artie both stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "Hear what?" they said at the same time.
"Abby, RUN!"
"Hades?" I asked, my heart pounding in fear.
"Hades?" Artie whispered and looked around in confusion.
Hamilton met us at the top of the stairs, looking a lot less friendly than the last couple of times I'd seen him.
I immediately pasted on a smile. I clapped my hand over my heart. "Oh!" I exclaimed. "You scared me!" I opened my eyes wide and blinked a few times, batting my eyelashes. "You're just the man we were looking for!"
"Abby," Hades whispered in my ear, using unfamiliar magic, "you are outgunned against my brother. Get out of there. Right now!"
The smile I wore slipped a hair.
"Ah," Hamilton said with a grin. "I see you're speaking with my brother." He took a couple of steps down the stairs. "His advice is most sound."
I blinked and stared at him warily. Unfortunately, I was not well versed in Christian mythology because ours was so confusing, and I could barely keep up with it. I rarely bothered with much else, let alone learning another theology. I knew a little, but I had no idea who could possibly be Hades’ brother, besides Zeus.
"Abs," Artie whispered. "What's going on?"
Hamilton's attention turned to my friend. "So pleased to meet you. I've heard tales of you, Huntress. Most of them tangled up with fair Aphrodite here, but I liked yours better." He sucked his teeth. "You have such...violent tendencies."