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Hades returned to the Underworld, though he felt anxious facing Persephone. He wasn’t exactly sure what he would say when he saw her. Would either of them be ready to talk about what happened? He didn’t think he could verbalize anything beyond an apology, which seemed useless here. He couldn’t even promise it would never happen again, because he had no fucking clue how to prevent it. Maybe the only thing to say was that he would do better, but that did not feel like enough either.

His heart beat strangely in his chest. It was not hard or fast but irregular, and it only grew worse when he found Persephone in the library, sitting in her usual place, a book in hand. She seemed to sense him almost instantly and looked up when he entered the room. Beneath her gaze, he felt trapped—unable to retreat or even move forward. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she looked haunted, and he knew he was responsible.

They sat in strained silence for a moment, and he scrambled for words, but none of them seemed right. Finally, Persephone spoke.

“I spoke to Tyche today,” she said. “She thinks that the reason she could not heal herself was because the Fates cut her thread.”

“The Fates did not cut her thread,” he said simply.

The Fates had never cut a god’s thread, save Pan. Even those trapped in Tartarus were not dead, just imprisoned.

“What are you saying?”

“That Triad has managed to find a weapon that can kill the gods,” he said.

“You know what it is, don’t you?”

“Not for certain,” he said, hesitant to say until they had an actual arrow in hand, but it was a good lead.

“Tell me.”

“You met the hydra,” he said. “It has been in many battles in the past, lost many heads—though it just regenerates. The heads are priceless because their venom is used as a poison. I think Tyche was taken down by a new version of Hephaestus’s net and stabbed with a hydra-poisoned arrow—a relic to be specific.”

“A poisoned arrow?”

“It was the biological warfare of ancient Greece. I have worked for years to pull relics like them out of circulation, but there are many and whole networks dedicated to the practice of sourcing and selling them. I would not be surprised if Triad has managed to get their hands on a few.”

“I thought you said gods couldn’t die unless they were thrown into Tartarus and torn apart by the Titans.”

“Usually, but the venom of the hydra is potent, even to gods. It slows our healing, and likely, if a god is stabbed too many times…”

“They die.”

Hades nodded. “I believe Adonis was also killed with a relic.” He was hesitant to admit this information, given that he had it for so long, but he added, “With my father’s scythe.”

“What makes you so certain?”

He should tell her that they’d found a piece of theblade inside Adonis’s body, but Hades was not eager for anyone to know that he’d handed it over to Hephaestus so he could forge a new blade. It wasn’t that he thought Persephone would tell. It was that he didn’t trust anyone not to pry the information from her mind.

“Because his soul was shattered.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I suppose I had to get to a place where I could tell you. Seeing a shattered soul is not easy. Carrying it to Elysium is even harder.”

His eyes dropped to her book, uncomfortable with this conversation, though it was better than the alternative.

“What were you reading?”

She looked down at the book as if she’d forgotten it was there.

“Oh, I was looking up information on the Titanomachy.”

“Why?”

“Because…I think my mother has bigger goals than separating us.”

Hades already knew that, but even he had to admit he couldn’t quite understand her motive. It seemed to have moved beyond her initial wish of separating him from Persephone, and it appeared she preferred to end the world.