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“I will join you shortly,” he said quietly, hoping it would ease her anxiety, but more than that, he neededtime to work through his frustration. He knew it would only get worse before it got better, and he did not wish for her to be the recipient of his aggression.

She rose onto the tips of her toes to kiss him, but he avoided her mouth and pressed his lips to her forehead. It was not the kiss she wanted or the one he wished to give, but it was all he could manage at this moment. He knew if he had let her, she would have drawn him in to keep him here, and he would have obliged, but he would have fucked her and he would be hard and unforgiving.

He was not sure she could handle that.

Though as she lowered to her feet, he wasn’t sure if she could handle his rejection either.

She swallowed hard, and as she turned from him, he felt as though she had ripped out his heart and taken it with her to bed.

CHAPTER XII

HADES

Hades returned to the island of Lemnos, to Hephaestus’s forge, which was housed on an adjoining volcanic island. As Hades entered, something crunched beneath his foot. He paused and looked down, finding the floor scattered with pieces of metal and wires. He recognized the guts of what he’d just stepped on.

They were mechanical bees.

Hephaestus had started making the bees in response to Demeter, whose unpredictable mood often affected the earth, which, given the state of the weather, was not presumptuous. It was his way of waging war against ancient magic, and according to Aphrodite, he had been working on it for a while, so why were they now discarded?

Hades proceeded inside, careful of where he stepped. There was more than just the broken bees on the floor. There were chips of wood from shattered shields and broken spears, pieces of armor torn to shreds as if theywere nothing more than paper, and a string of animatronic body parts, belonging to both human and animal creations.

Hades rounded the corner and found even more of a mess. Nearly everything in Hephaestus’s shop had been destroyed. Even his desk where he worked was split down the center, each half lying on its side, and at the center of it all sat Hephaestus.

Hades said nothing as he approached the god, who made no acknowledgment of his presence. Like his workshop, he was in shambles. His hair was unbound, wavy from always being pulled back, and his hands sat in his lap, palms up and bleeding.

He hadn’t even tried to heal himself.

“Are you all right?” Hades asked the God of Fire.

Hephaestus did not respond and did not look at Hades. Hades acknowledged it was a stupid question to ask; the answer was obvious. Still, he felt it necessary.

Hades cast another glance around the room and spotted a short wooden stool in the corner, flipped on its head. He swiped it from the floor and used it to sit at Hephaestus’s feet.

It was completely uncomfortable, and yet it was likely the only way he would get the god’s attention tonight.

“Tell me what happened.”

“There is nothing to tell,” said Hephaestus.

“Doesn’t look that way to me,” Hades said.

A long silence followed. Hades did not prompt Hephaestus again and he did not leave. Eventually, the god spoke.

“We fought,” Hephaestus said.

“Is Aphrodite all right?” Hades’s voice rose in alarm.

“She’s fine, physically at least,” Hephaestus said quickly. “I didn’t touch her. I’ve never…touched her.”

Hephaestus took a deep breath and then raked his fingers through his hair.

“What happened?” Hades asked again.

“She…accused me of being the reason Harmonia was injured,” Hephaestus said. “She said that whatever had been used against Harmonia had to have been one of my creations.”

So many relics had been stolen and funneled into the black market it wasn’t impossible but that did not make it Hephaestus’s fault.

After a moment, the god continued. “I left after she told me how miserable I made her and came here,” he said. “The rest you can guess.”