“I highly doubt it,” the second thug replied, his expression bored. He flicked his wrist and the entire flat lit up. Shadows hissed and scurried to hide.
A flicker of rage contorted Shade’s features before he regained control and slapped on his usual mask of indifference.
I’d never seen my sire shut down so thoroughly before. These two thugs had effortlessly breached his ward and scattered his minions! Shade was powerful, and everyone treated him with a healthy measure of fear and respect, at least to his face. But these guys clearly weren’t impressed with what a son of darkness and shadows could do, which made me super curious about who they were.
I turned away from the trio, blew on my hands, and rubbed them over my eyes, imbuing my vision with luck. As I rejoined the group, everything blurred, then cleared, revealing two hulking monsters barely contained within the high-ceilinged flat.
The smoker wore a dark cloak of shifting faces that seemed to be contorting in various stages of suffering. His hands hung below his knees, giving him this weird “the better to grab you with, my dear” vibe. A metal helm rested atop his head, the visor raised to reveal a black, scruffy beard, soulless, dark eyes, and lips permanently twisted from centuries of sneering. My gaze drifted back to his helm.
The Helm of Darkness.
I’d studied the helmet that granted its wearer invisibility, but it still took me a few moments to accept the reality of who its wearer had to be. The god of the underworld owned the helm, and he wasn’t known for his sandbox skills. I doubt he’d ever shared anything in his life, which meant I was staring at Hades.
Hades.
I’d never met a god before, and now one of the most dangerous of the lot stood in the center of Shade’s living room. Only a wall and a door separated this flat from mine, where my three-year-old son was probably watching television or playing video games with his babysitter, oblivious to the danger we were all in. The urge to sprint through the back door and protect my kid was immediately thwarted by a soul-sucking staredown from the god.
“We’re here to deal with her,” he said, flicking glowing embers from his cigar as he pushed past Shade.
My sire visibly wilted as the god’s power brushed against him.
I gulped down air, hoping Hades was talking about some other “her” who’d magically appear and let me off the hook, but when I glanced behind me, nobody was there.
“She looks much more interesting for sure,” the second monster said, drawing my attention. Topless and ripped, with arms wider around than both of my thighs put together, I’d be lying if I said his dazzling smile didn’t make me pay attention. The glowing trident, tarnished golden crown, and shoulder-length dirty-blond locks were enough clues to identify him, but the lower half of his body shimmering between legs and a fishtail was a nice added touch. His gaze raked over my little black dress, making my skin ignite while simultaneously making me wish I was wearing something a little less sexy…like a muumuu or a nun’s habit. After all, it was beyond dangerous to get the attention of the sea god.
Poseidon. Poseidon and Hades. Oh gods, we are so going to die.
“Pliromi is my slave,” Shade hissed. “She has no power to make deals.”
Hades paused midroute, raising an eyebrow at Shade. “You turned this beautiful broad into your slave?” he asked, shaking his head. “You fool. That’s bound to bite you in the ass.”
He was one to talk. He’d kidnapped his wife and tricked her into spending winters with him.
Poseidon grinned, revealing multiple rows of pointed shark teeth. “Think we should do the biting for her, Brother?”
Hades chuckled. “I do, but whether or not we can…well, that’s entirely up to her.” An eagerness sparked in his eyes that made me want to cower. “So what do you say, girl? We need something, you need something, let’s make the deal of all deals and put an end to your daddy issues once and for all.”
Deal? Daddy issues?
Shade apparently caught on to what they were saying before I did, because his eyes widened and he started to issue a command. “Pliromi, I order you to kill—”
Poseidon flicked his wrist and an orb of water encased Shade’s head, cutting off the command.
I gaped at Shade. To kill whom? Was he really about to order a hit on one or both of the gods in the room? My contract bound me to fulfill Shade’s commands, so if he’d finished that sentence, my own body would torture me until I completed the task. And since the odds of little ol’ me killing either god were pretty much non-existent, chances were good that I’d finally get the answer to that pesky little immortality question.
In short, my own sire had just tried to get me killed.
Even after all of the horrible things he’d done over the years, I still couldn’t believe he’d throw me away like that. All I could do was stare at him.
“Pliromi?” Hades asked, his tone and expression a mix of amusement and disbelief. “He named you ‘Payment’?”
“Tacky,” Poseidon added. “What sort of father would rather send his daughter to her death than let her barter for her freedom?”
“Even I wouldn’t do that,” Hades said.
Which was saying a lot since Hades was far from emotionally stable. His psycho little hell spawns were notorious for extracting vengeance, torturing criminals, hanging out with ghosts, and genuinely striking fear into the hearts of mankind. He had to worry that his self-serving heirs would try to pop him off so they could rule his desolate, joyless kingdom of dead things. Whereas, despite my dark lineage, I’d done everything I could to prove I had no intention of usurping my sire. He could take his shadowy empire and shove it for all I cared.
He would have watched me die.
Sure, my loyalty may have been forced under threat of endless suffering and possible death, but at least he’d been able to count on me. Several of the jobs he’d sent me on could have been my last, but, deep down, I’d always believed that if he saw me in real life-threatening danger, some sort of fatherly instinct would kick in and he’d step in and save me. But now I knew the truth.
Turning my back on Shade, I asked, “What do you mean by barter for my freedom?”
Hades took one last puff of his cigar before flicking it on the floor and extinguishing it with his loafer. “I’d like to make you a mutually beneficial deal. You need a way out of your sire’s contract, and I need someone of your unique talent to imbue a certain sword with luck for me.”
Poseidon cleared his throat.
Anger tightened Hades’s smile, but he gave a slight bow in acquiescence. “My mistake. We need you to imbue a sword. It’ll be simple, quick, and then you’ll be free of this lowlife forever.” He nodded toward Shade.
A sword? Of course.
“The Harpē,” I breathed. It was too big of a coincidence that the gods had shown up moments after I’d arrived with the weapon. The Harpē had been strangely quiet since the arrival of the brothers, probably listening in and preparing to compose its next tune.
Hades chuckled and held out his hand. The sword leaped from the countertop and sliced through the air, spinning until the hilt landed perfectly in his hand. He inhaled, widened his stance, and brandished the weapon. A chill went up my spine at the manic glee in his eyes. I’d been afraid of giving Shade the Harpē, but if half the stories about Hades were true, the entire world was in trouble.
Water bubbles erupted from Shade’s mouth as he struggled to speak, only to end up raging soundlessly inside the bubble.
“What are you planning to do with that?” I asked, my voice only mildly unsteady.
The conspiratorial grin the brothers shared did nothing to put me at ease.
“That’s not any of your concern, imíaimos,” Poseidon replied.
The derogatory term for halfblood. Great, now they were calling me names.
“Now, now, be nice.” Hades slashed the air a couple more times, as if warming up his wrist. “We’re trying to free this pretty young thing, not upset her.”
&nbs
p; “Free me? Yeah right.” For twenty-two years I’d been chained to Shade and nobody had done a damn thing to liberate me, and now two of the most powerful gods in the universe expected me to believe they suddenly had an interest in my freedom? And all I had to do was blow on one little weapon of mass destruction? I wasn’t buying it. “What’s the catch?”
Poseidon flashed me what would have passed for a sexy smile if not for the shark teeth. I had to force back a shudder, unwilling to show him how much he unnerved me.
“No catch,” Hades replied. “You throw a little luck on the Harpē, we’ll break Shade’s contract. You get what you want, we get what we want, and we’ll be on our way. Do we have a deal?”
Shade went crazy in his water bubble again, and when I glanced his direction, Poseidon stepped between us.
I looked back and forth between the brothers, wondering what I was missing. There was a good reason people didn’t make deals with the gods. But Shade had been willing to order my death while the brothers offered me freedom. Freedom. I glanced at the back door and considered my son and all the possibilities freedom had to offer. I could finally take Doreán to meet his father.
A strange longing tugged at my threadbare heartstrings.
Maybe we could be a real family.
It was stupid. I shouldn’t even be considering it, and yet…
“Come on, sweetheart,” Poseidon said. “Your old man will order your death the minute we set him free. It’s not like you have anything to lose.”
“Unless, of course, you two decide to chop the world in half and kill us all,” I pointed out. Although I’d proven to be pretty wily, I didn’t think I could withstand the effects of a broken planet.
“Humans are far too entertaining to wipe out,” Hades said.
“And we’d never do anything to hurt Gaia,” Poseidon added.
The goddess of the earth was their grandmother, and if the stories could be believed, they wouldn’t hurt her. Focusing on the beings who inhabited earth, I tried one last time to clean my conscience. “You swear there’s not going to be some sort of mass exodus?” I asked.
The brothers nodded, looking entirely too earnest to be real.
“All right,” I said, sealing my fate. “Let’s deal. But I get to write the contract.”
Shade’s eyes practically bulged out of his head. His body flailed and bubbles filled his self-contained tank.
Hades grinned as a blank scroll snapped into existence in front of me.
CHAPTER THREE
“SPEAK THE CONTRACT,” Hades urged, tossing a feathered quill into the air. It hovered near the scroll, waiting.
I cleared my throat, buying myself time to remember how horribly wrong contracts with the gods could go. Mine needed to be airtight. “I, Pliromi, pledge to exchange one breath on—”
“Breath?” Hades asked, halting the quill midsentence.
“Yes. That’s how I imbue items with luck. I blow on them.”
Humor lit up his eyes and curved his lips, and I didn’t even want to know where his mind was going with that information. “Interesting. Continue.” He released the quill.
“One breath on the sword named the Harpē…” I was careful not to make any promises about what that breath would accomplish. Who knew how luck would work on a magical weapon? If their plan didn’t go as expected, I didn’t want them hunting me down for a do-over, “…in exchange for the immediate dissolution of any and all contracts, current or future, which have to do with me…”
That might have been over the top, but who knew what other sick and twisted plans Shade had for my life? This was probably the one opportunity I’d ever get to wipe the slate clean, and I sure wasn’t going to blow it on a technicality. In fact, there was one other detail I needed to address as well.
“Or my son, Doreán.”
Hades held up a hand. “Your son’s not part of the deal.”
“I’m not abandoning my son.” I crossed my arms and squared off with the god. “There’s no deal without him.”
“This is unnecessary additional wording. There are currently no contracts involving the child,” Hades said. “He’s already free.”
“Yeah, but this is about trust, and I don’t trust any of you. Shade probably has something up his sleeve to enslave my kid the moment our current contract is broken. I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Your sire’s plans are not really our concern,” Poseidon said, leaning against the wall.
“Well they are mine, and I’m not signing this contract and blowing on your magical sword if my child isn’t protected.
“Seriously?” Poseidon asked. “You’re willing to throw away your shot at freedom over this?”
“Yes.” As much as I valued my freedom, it meant nothing if these nutjobs could go after Doreán.
Poseidon sneered, but Hades put a hand on his brother’s shoulder, restraining him. The two of them shared a meaningful look before Hades said, “Fine. We’ll allow for the contractual language to cover the child as well.”
Feeling relieved by the win, but also terrified because of what they were willing to do to get the Harpē imbued with luck, I cleared my throat and continued. “Along with this freedom, I cast off the name Pliromi and all it stands for, and will be known as Romi from here until…”
Until when? The end of time? No, it was far too easy for gods to manipulate time. My last breath? Nope. That’d be a no-brainer for Hades, and being reanimated and forced to serve the god of the underworld was definitely not my idea of a good time. Hades and Poseidon were two of the sleaziest lawyers of all time and I couldn’t afford to leave them a single loophole. I needed something absolutely in my favor, with no expiration date, and the only thing I could think of was my own free will.
Finally satisfied, I blurted out, “Until such a time that I freely—under no duress, coercion, magic spell, enchantment, blackmail, or any and all other forms of compulsion or manipulation, relinquish my own freedom.” There. That was as close to airtight as I was going to get without hours of mediation and research.
Neither Hades nor Poseidon objected as the quill raced across the page adding the last of my wording. When it finished, I looked over the contract long enough to ensure that the sneaky bastards hadn’t added anything, and then all three of us signed. Something inside of me snapped, like an invisible rubber band. My insides stung for a moment, and then I was fine. Better than fine. I felt…free.
The contract rolled up into a scroll before vanishing into thin air.
Poseidon gestured, and Shade’s bubble disappeared. He fell to the ground gasping for air and pointing an accusatory finger in our general direction. “You… you… you can’t…” he stuttered.
“I think we can,” Hades replied. “In fact, we already did.”
“What did you expect?” Poseidon asked my sire. “When you treat your family like slaves, they rebel and drag your ass down.”
The grin Hades flashed him clued me in to the possibility that Poseidon’s last comment was more about whatever the two of them were plotting than my own fatherly rebellion. If they were going to war with other gods, I’d be the last person to stand in their way. Hopefully, they’d all take each other out and let the rest of us finally get some peace.
Hades stepped around the still-fuming Shade and presented me with the Harpē. “I believe you owe us a blow, my dear.”
My skin crawled, diminishing the temporary euphoria I’d found in my freedom.
“No, Pliromi. Do not do this,” Shade ordered.
The direct command should have frozen me in place. I waited for the crushing of my internal organs to begin, but my sire’s words no longer had the power to destroy me. Emboldened by my newfound freedom, I flashed him a grin. “You don’t own me anymore. I’m no longer your possession. And the name’s Romi.”
Poseidon laughed, looking down his nose at Shade. “Can’t keep your kin down forever, shadow spawn.”
Ignoring both of them, I took a deep breath and blew luck onto
the blade. It shimmered with magic, and a new battle song—complete with a bold introduction and powerful riffs—sprang forth. When I looked up, Hades was watching me with a hungry curiosity that threatened to devour me. Since showing off my powers had been amongst the long list of things Shade had forbidden, I’d never been able to show anyone what I could do before. Now I realized why, and a little shiver went up my spine.
But thankfully, I had a new contract now, and no one could break it but me.
“Thanks, Romi,” Hades said. “Now, if you’ll please excuse us, we’ve got things to do and someone to stab.”
My vision blurred then returned to normal as the luck wore off of my eyesight. Hades and Poseidon once again resembled wannabe mobsters who were all dressed up and ready to plant someone’s feet in cement.
“You might want to stay away from Mount Olympus for a while,” Poseidon said, grinning. “Things are about to get interesting.”
Then the brothers disappeared, much in the same way the scroll had.
I stared at the spot where they’d stood, wondering what their warning meant before deciding it didn’t apply to me. I had no intention of ever going to the city of the gods for anything. Especially if those two maniacs were going to be there running amok. Nope. I had one immediate goal, and it involved packing up my kid and getting as far away from Shade as I could. I turned toward the door to my flat, intending to do precisely that, but Shade stood in my way.
Shade had always kept to himself. Even though he was essentially the only family I’d ever known, we’d never been close. Probably had something to do with the way he’d made me his slave at birth. The few things I knew about him had to do with combat or thievery, and had been learned during training. I only knew what he wanted me to know.
He’d taught me the secret of going up against powerful foes, emphasizing that neither mercy nor honor mattered in a real fight. To demonstrate, he’d once let me watch as he attacked a raging minotaur. Shade’s strategy was simple, yet effective. He fought from the shadows, only blipping in and out of existence to poke thousands of holes into the beast, bleeding it until it no longer had the strength to move. Then Shade lopped off its head and traded it for some sort of ridiculous potion that made it possible to see sounds.
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