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“I am,” she said, casting her gaze to the right and then to the left.

“You have caused a lot of problems,” Zeus said.

Her eyes flashed, and Hades found her obvious frustration amusing.

“I think you mean my mother has caused a lot of problems,” she said. “And yet you seem intent upon punishing Hades.”

Zeus sat back and shrugged. “I merely seek to solve a problem in the simplest way possible.”

“That might be true if Demeter were only responsible for a storm, but I have reason to believe she is working with the demigods.”

“What reasons?”

“I was there the night Tyche died. My mother was there. I felt her magic.”

“Perhaps she was there to retrieve you,” Hera said, waving her hand in the air as if to dismiss her accusation. Hades imagined that was what she’d hoped for too, given that she had every reason to want Triad to succeed. “As is her right by Divine law. She is your mother.”

“Since we are basing our decisions on archaic laws, then I must disagree,” Persephone said.

Hades’s lips curled.

“On what grounds?” Hera countered.

“Hades and I fuck,” Persephone said flatly. “By Divine law, we are married.”

Hermes’s choked on a laugh. Hades eyed him before returning his attention to Persephone, whose eyes were trained on Zeus. He didn’t like it, knowing his brother enjoyed her attention and the fact that she had to appeal to him.

“It was my mother’s magic that kept Tyche restrained,” she said again.

“Is this true, Hermes?” Zeus asked.

“Persephone would never lie,” the god replied.

“Triad is a true enemy,” Persephone said quickly. “You have reason to fear them.”

Hades was not surprised when a few Olympians laughed.

“Did you not just hear what I said?” Persephone asked, exasperated.

“Harmonia and Tyche are goddesses, yes, but they are not Olympians,” said Poseidon.

“I’m sure the Titans thought the same of you. Besides, Demeterisan Olympian.”

“She would not be the first who attempted—and failed—to overthrow me,” said Zeus, who glanced toward Hera.

“This is different,” Persephone said. “You have a world ready to shift their alliance to a group of people they believe are more mortal than god, and my mother’s storm will force the decision.”

“So we return to the real issue,” Hera said. “You.”

“If you return me to my mother, I will become a real issue,” Persephone said. “I will be the reason for your misery, for your despair, for your ruination. I promise you will taste my venom.”

Hades sat rigid and ready. His magic caressed Persephone’s, a darkness ready to consume her light.

After a moment, Zeus spoke.

“You speak on what we will not do, but what would you have us do? When the world suffers beneath a storm of your mother’s creation?”

“Were you not ready to watch the world suffer minutes ago?” Persephone asked, and Hades cringed, though he loved her more for calling his brother out.The challenge was maintaining his favor, though he hated that they even needed it.