by Meg Xuemei X
Demeter tried to lay her fingers on my arm to get my attention but jerked back just as quickly. “Cass, please. Aphrodite is also a victim of the abusive gods and their bigoted regime.”
“Yet the victims often turn to abusers,” I said.
“She chose the wrong side,” Demeter sighed. “But she’s still my friend.”
I did owe Demeter a debt.
I reined in my power and regarded the beauty queen ruefully. Maybe I should take one more sip?
Demeter shook her head.
I smacked my lips.
“How did you get here, Goddess Demeter?” I asked. “Do you have a lot of gold coins?”
She gave me a half-smile. “Though not by choice, I’m still the mother-in-law to Hades. I can come to Hell any time I wish.” She turned to the Goddess of Love. “Come with me, Aphrodite, before you make a complete fool of yourself. You should never have entangled with Hades and allowed yourself to become his pawn. We need to leave the Underworld and wait out this war, as we always have.”
“She killed my son, bewitched the immortal warriors who should be mine, and took away my title and power,” Aphrodite wailed.
“Don’t feel too bad, ex-wife,” Hephaestus said. He’d cheered when he learned that my mates killed the God of Fear, the son of Ares and Aphrodite.
Whenever we battled, he stood by, since he wasn’t a fighter, according to him. Now that the battle was over, he came alive again. “You aren’t alone, A. Every god who has faced off with Cass has suffered humiliation or worse at her hands. She’s the bane of existence to the Olympians.”
“They know that,” Demeter said darkly as she turned to me. “Ares and his supporters are preparing to go to war against you, Cass. They’re torching Earth. It won’t be long before the full war comes to your door.”
My heart lurched at her words. We needed to fetch Reys ASAP and return to the surface.
Hephaestus glanced between his ex-wife and me, his expression torn. “She’s a trainwreck right now,” he said uncertainly. “Maybe I should ask her for the divorce papers next time.”
“I’ll see you on the surface, Cass,” Demeter said and vanished with Aphrodite.
The illusion shattered, and we found ourselves in the ruins of Hell.
CHAPTER 11
Hephaestus led the way, and we trod through the ruins. Remnants of a few buildings still half-stood, though all the windows were broken, the stone walls were blackened, and the doors were toppled or partially hanging.
“What happened here?” Hector asked.
Our team members regained most of their memories after I shattered Aphrodite’s illusion. They’d apologized profusely for trying to kill me while under her spell. I’d waved at them, deciding to be gracious. “I forgive you, but all of you owe me now, and I’ll come to collect favors one of these days.”
None of them liked the sound of that, so they turned to their bosses with a pleading look.
“You all owe my mate, as she said,” Pyrder said dismissively. “Just prepare for it.”
A flicker of shadow passed overhead, and a shriek accompanied it. Yet when we turned our gazes skyward, we didn’t see anything. Hell wind whipped at us, preparing us for an ambush.
Hephaestus halted ahead of us and gestured for us to stop, so we came to a halt behind him. In the distance, a row of stone statuettes lay scattered. Some of them had lost heads, and some of them had no limbs. Green moss covered several weathered statues.
“This place creeps me out,” Ambrosia said, rubbing goosebumps on her arms.
“This is Medusa’s residency,” Hephaestus said casually.
“What?” the guys shouted in sync.
Everyone knew about Medusa’s tragic story and her hell-bent revenge. After the sea god, Poseidon, raped her in Athena’s temple, the enraged Goddess of Reason and Intelligence turned Medusa’s lush hair to venomous snakes and made her face so horrific to behold that any man who gazed upon her would turn to stone.
My eyes skimmed the statues in the ruins. The myth was real. Those stones had once been men. Fury surged in me, not at poor Medusa, but at the rapist Poseidon and the hypocrite Athena.
We’d meet all the gods in the final war, and I’d show no mercy toward that fucker. As for Athena, she was on my side, according to Demeter. I wouldn’t damage the Goddess of Reason, but I would for sure give her a piece of my mind concerning how she’d treated Medusa.
The so-called Goddess of Justice should have punished the sea god, yet she’d picked on the weak and further victimized a defenseless Medusa. But then it was the gods we were talking about. One could not expect justice from any of them.
Apollo had even lectured me and warned that I wouldn’t survive long if I held on to the moral standards of the puny humans.
Ambrosia blinked her green eyes, her blonde hair billowing in the air. “But Perseus, the demigod hero, beheaded Medusa.”
“Medusa wouldn’t die so easily,” Hephaestus said with a shrug. “She somehow resurrected herself in the Underworld and still hates men with a fiery passion.”
I wheeled toward Ambrosia, my two-toned eyes burning with disdain. “Dare you call the fucker Perseus a hero! He deemed Medusa’s punishment by Athena just and well-deserved, and that made him a complete asshole and a male chauvinist pig in my book! Are you even a woman? Not keen to show a bit of sisterhood? No one ever speaks up for Medusa. Where is the justice for her? And I, Cass Saélihn, do not just defend those who can’t defend themselves. I’ll speak for those who are forgotten and who have no voice, because I’m their fucking mouthpiece! Soon we’ll go to war with the Olympians, and I’ll run my blade through Poseidon’s fucking guts and twist it for Medusa’s sake. I’ll at least slap Athena really hard. I don’t feel a bit sorry about the death of Perseus, whom the fucking patriarchal society put on a pedestal as its perfect male hero. I’m thankful that none of my mates are like those self-righteous assholes, not even my demigod mate.” I gave Alaric a meaningful look. He was actually Perseus’s half-brother.
Ambrosia opened her mouth in shock and humiliation, then shut it at my snarl.
Hephaestus chuckled. “There’s never a dull moment with you around, Cass. And sometimes you’re even surprisingly eloquent.”
“Have you forgotten your past sin, Hephaestus?” Alaric said lethally. “I haven’t exacted punishment on you for leading us to the third Hell Gate, which caused my mate heartbreak at losing one of her mates to Hell. And now you lead us right into Medusa’s territory with no forewarning?”
“Medusa isn’t home right now!” Hephaestus tried to rationalize. “When she’s around, there’s usually wailing. Do any of you hear a woman sniveling?”
The warriors pricked their ears and listened.
“You hear nothing, right?” Hephaestus sneered. “Because she isn’t in the house at the moment.” He turned to Alaric, his grating voice dripping with venom. “The blade had to be forged in the hottest lava! And this is the only path across the bowel of Hell. We need to cross it to reach and rescue Cass’s favorite mate. I’m sick and tired of your constant threats. Also, for your information, I didn’t come unprepared.” He yanked a rope and a dozen eyepatches out of his backpack with an attitude. “Everyone except for the females put on an eyepatch now. Hold the rope and we’ll plow through the ruins in single file. In no time, we’ll leave Medusa’s domain.”
A sob rose from the shadows in a ramshackle building twenty yards ahead. It was the most heartbroken and eerie sound I’d ever heard.
The warriors drew their blades.
“Quick, shut your eyes!” Hephaestus barked, panic seeping into his tone, as he grabbed a pair of eyepatches and put them on to cover his eyes.
The warriors followed suit in a hurry.
“We can’t leave our mate unguarded,” my mates said, hesitant to wear the eyepatches.
“She’ll guard herself just fine!” Hephaestus voiced my same thought.
Ambrosia moved to my side for her sentry duty, as if I really
needed it.
I strode to the head of the group.
“Medusa, hey girl,” I called cautiously. “Is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me.” Medusa wept some more. Her voice was both innocent and vicious at the same time.
“We’re seeking a safe path to the pit of Hell, and we mean you no harm,” I said. “Will you let us pass?”
“Yes,” she said, stopping her lament for a moment. “I heard what you said about me. I heard whispers of your name in the Underworld before you came. No one has cleared my name. No one has defended me as you did. No one has shown me a sliver of justice or sympathy for an eon, until you came, the princess heir of the Underworld.”
I caught a shadow of a figure with living snakes writhing on its head.
“I didn’t come here to claim that title,” I said.
“You came to claim your mate,” she said. “I’ll let you and your companions, even the males, pass, if you promise to punish the Olympians. Avenge me, and my soul will find peace.”
“I will,” I said, clenching my fists. “I promise.”
“Summon me and I’ll follow you into war, Cass Saélihn, the only one who is fair and just,” she rasped. “Here come the ones you want. I’ll fade into the shadows now so none of your companions will see my face.”
She resumed her weeping again, but it sounded more upbeat and less eerie, until her wailing trailed off in the distance, but not before her last words reached us. “You’re safe here. I’ll guard you, Goddess Cass.”
Hephaestus let out a relieved breath. “The relentless, vengeful Medusa bent the rules for you. It’s a first.”
“And you gave us false information again that almost cost my team,” Alaric accused.
Hephaestus shook his head, about to defend himself.
A figure dashed toward us. I widened my eyes, then narrowed them as I recognized the shaggy-haired dude who had mugged me and taken my old Disney DVD Beauty and the Beast.
He wasn’t what I wanted, as Medusa had informed me, but I definitely wanted to punch his face before I interrogated him.
“It’s the elemental shifter, the thief!” I shouted. “His ass is mine! Trap the sucker before he disappears like last time!”
My mates moved forward. Pyrder threw his hands up to send wind to pin down the shifter, but no wind blasted out of him. Alaric called for his lightning, and it, too, gave him a no-show.
They’d forgotten that their magic didn’t work in Hell.
Lorcan was more practical. He moved in a flash, but before he could clutch the elemental shifter’s throat, the shifter teleported and appeared in front of me.
I swung my fist to punch him, only to find his face had turned to smoke.
“Coward! Face me,” I cried in rage.
He moved to another location, his face solidifying again. “Will you promise not to hit me again? I don’t like to be slapped by a girl. Last time you grabbed my wing damn hard and left bruises. Girl, you got some strength in you.”
“You turned to smoke and left me plunging to my death, fucker,” I shouted.
“Yet you’re still here, aren’t you?” he said. “And you got the blade from the Rabbit Hole. So I’d say it’s a win for you.”
“It wasn’t a rabbit hole,” I said. “You should be more specific next time.”
“I’m on your side,” he said, raising his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender, but I didn’t trust him much.
“We need to trap him so he won’t disappear before he answers some questions,” I told my team. “Any idea how to trap him?”
“There’s no need to ensnare me,” the elemental shifter said. “I’m scouting for—”
Two figures stumbled out of the deep shade of a dark building, heading toward us.
A sob of surprise and joy left my throat.
Reys tried to quicken his pace as he held Amber up to support her, his turquoise eyes glued to me and shining with joy, love, and sorrow.
I shot toward them like an arrow, and my companions raced behind me.
Reys looked at Amber, and she nodded, signaling that she could stand. Reys let go of her just as I reached them.
They both looked battered and haggard, with hollowed cheeks, cracked lips, and dark circles under their eyes, but there was no blood on them.
That was some good news. At least they weren’t injured. Reys had no chains on his wrists anymore, but he bore red scars on his skin. I swallowed my rage. I remembered how Hades’s chains had pierced my beloved’s wrists.
“Reys, Amber,” I said in a choked voice, a myriad of emotions running through me.
“Baby.” Reys murmured my name and opened his arms.
I jumped onto him, my hands clasping behind his neck, my legs wrapping around his waist. I wept against his shoulder. I’d never let him out of my sight again.
Hephaestus made himself useful and caught Amber. “I’ve got you, maiden.”
My other mates surrounded Reys and me in support.
Pyrder clasped Reys’s other shoulder, his eyes filling with tears. “My twin,” he said.
Reys’s throat moved, and he nodded at his twin. “I’m back.”
Alaric patted Reys’s back. “Glad to have you back, brother.”
And Lorcan stroked my back, as if I was the one who needed the comfort.
Hector, Rainer, and Ambrosia closed in on the shifter to prevent him from escaping, which was a futile effort, but I doubted that the shifter would take off. He’d brought my mate and my best friend to me.
A wail sounded in the distance, and instantly my mates and companions looked alarmed.
“Shut your eyes!” the shifter cried. “That’s why I came to scout. This is Medusa—”
“She’s our ally,” I called. “Brave Medusa is guarding us.”
“I will guard you with my life, Cass,” Medusa called from the distance, and her wail faded.
“How did you make your escape, Reysalor?” Alaric asked.
“Is Hades’s force following you?” Pyrder asked. “We need to find shelter before we head back to the surface.”
“Give dulcis to me, Reysalor,” Lorcan said, “so you can brief us.”
Reys glared at Lorcan. “I can brief you just fine while holding my mate!” He pressed me closer to him, as if afraid anyone would take me away from him.
“I’m here, Reys,” I said, threading my fingers into his thick, red-golden hair. “But you need rest first.”
“I’ll rest later,” Reys said and crushed his lips onto mine, not caring who was around or watching.
I kissed him back with wild passion. Before he even urged, I’d opened my mouth for him, and his tongue rushed in, sweeping my hard palate.
My eyes rolled back at the buzzing pleasure.
Reys thrust his tongue deep into my mouth, mating with mine, teasing and seducing and growing urgent. My mate was hungry for me. It had been just a few days since we’d been torn apart, but time might move slower in the Underworld or not progress at all, which would only make Reys feel more impacted by our separation.
I felt his huge, hard erection under my buttocks. My face flamed. I felt an urgent need to have his cock in me, but we couldn’t mate here in these ruins with an audience.
Yet our mating fever didn’t care that this was a dangerous time and place. It kept driving Reys and me with a fierce need until we finished the ritual and sated the beasts in us.
Someone coughed to remind us where we were again.
Someone reasoned with Reys.
Yet no one dared to pry me off him.
Everything was a blur after that, until we were led to a half-rundown building and gathered in the hall.
Surprisingly, there was even a stone table and some chairs.
Our elite warriors guarded the door while the rest of us sat around the table with the shifter. Hephaestus sat next to Amber, caring for her, providing her with water and coaxing her to eat more of the bread and fruit we’d packed with us. I was surprised to see the tender side
of the God of Blacksmiths. He looked like a giant monster beside my tiny, fragile sheep seer, and Amber, who had flinched away from my smoldering-hot mates and feared them at first sight, didn’t cower from Hephaestus. She gazed up at him now and then, studying him in fascination while biting into a peach, and he offered her a gentle, encouraging smile.
For fuck’s sake, my sheep friend was still a virgin. This wouldn’t end well!
I blinked as I stared hard at Hephaestus. Were we in another fucked-up alternate reality?
But Reys’s tender, possessive fingers stroking down my spine told me all this was real, and we’d gotten back Reys and Amber. Actually, they’d escaped all by themselves before we even had a chance to rescue them.
Reys had refused to let me leave his lap or allow anyone to take me away from him, even when he drank water from the bottle. I’d fed him with my energy when we’d locked our tongues. He was recovering and gaining his strength at rapid speed.
Somehow, when the five of us were together, we felt stronger.
“What’s the story, Reysalor?” Alaric asked, then sent Jonah, whom Reys had introduced to us, a menacing look. “Why is the elemental shifter, who once lured our mate into a trap, with you?”
“Jonah is a double agent,” Reys said. “He had a hand in our escape.”
“Well, since both of my charges are quite busy,” Jonah said, glancing at us, “I’ll finish the rest of the story. I was a top aide to Pluto, the former Lord of the Underworld, before Hades invaded Hell. When Hades jailed Pluto, I served the alien god, but my true fealty lies with my own lord. Being close to Hades brought certain benefits to a spy like me. I overheard the scheme between Hades and the Earth Goddess about breeding the ultimate weapon that could kill the Olympian gods.” He turned to me, not afraid to meet my narrowed eyes. “That weapon is you, but you’ll need to use the Blade of Five Elements to finish off the Olympian gods.”
My heart sank as I learned about Gaea’s role in the scheme. My grandmother’s ass wasn’t clean, after all, and I had thought she was my savior and guide. Well, she had rescued me from dire situations a few times. But then again, she needed me to kill the Olympians for her. Anyway, that was my goal as well.