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He ground his teeth.

“She should not even have to face this,” he said. “She should have been safe where she worked.”

“I do not disagree,” she said. “Such is the world for women in a society dominated by men, even for those of us with great power.”

“It must end.”

It was all he could think to say.

“As all things must,” she said, and then she picked up the tea and handed it back to him. “Perhaps you should speak with Hypnos about Persephone.”

Hades stiffened. “Hypnos is an asshole.”

He was certainly not at all like his brother, Thanatos.

“He is an asshole to you.”

“He’s only nice to you because you bring him mushrooms,” Hades said.

She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Do not critique my methods,” she said. “At least I manage to get what I want.”

Hades’s brows furrowed. “What do you want from Hypnos?”

“Use of the Oneiroi, of course,” she said.

The Oneiroi were winged daimons who sometimes invaded dreams. If Hecate was asking for them, she was likely haunting a few unfortunate souls.

Hades just used Hermes for that.

“If you wish to help Persephone, then he is worth a visit,” she said. “But do not go without an offering.”

Hades sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose hard. This was fucking ridiculous. Hypnos lived inhisrealm. That should be enough of an offering.

“It would be if he actually liked it here,” Hecate said.

That was not Hades’s fault. Hypnos was the one who agreed to help Hera put Zeus to sleep the last time she tried to overthrow him, which was how he ended up as a resident of the Underworld.

“Do not be so difficult,” Hecate said. “Think of Persephone.”

“I always think of Persephone.”

“Then stop pouting and find the God of Sleep a gift.”

Hades rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine. I’ll get him a gods-damned gift.”

Hecate smiled. “That’s a good boy.”

Hades didn’t even honor her response with a glare and vanished.

Hades stared out the icy window of his office at Iniquity. The snow was falling so heavily, the city was hardly visible. He had come to accept feeling dread everytime he came to the Upperworld and witnessed how far this storm had progressed, but today felt different—something wasoff. He could feel it in the air around him, a sense of impending doom.

It was not as if he hadn’t had similar feelings, and that was what worried him the most as he studied the world that had become Demeter’s battlefield. Something terrible was coming.

“Hades?”

He turned and faced Ilias, who had managed to enter his office without his notice, which was just as unnerving.

He was hardly ever this distracted.