Page 26

Chapter

Twenty-Three

P ersephone

Hades is a big man, lithe and lethal. Ares, however, is just lethal.

The man is a mountain with muscle stacked on muscle stacked on more muscle.

His hair is black as a charred battlefield, and a touch too long to be called short.

Every part of him is sharp lines and hard angles and deadly muscle honed into a murderous weapon.

If his eyes weren’t a golden brown and there wasn’t that endearingly unexpected curl to his hair, I’d say he looked more beast than man.

The suit he wears hides nothing. The man is a weapon, honed to kill. When he shifts on the stool at the bar, and pushes to stand, the low growl of warning from Hydra isn’t in my mind.

Ares is unaffected. He takes lethal steps toward us. Toward me.

My heart knocks loudly in my chest and Hades takes my hand in his.

Ares’ lips curl into a smile that could cut through bone, it’s so sharp.

“This is the infamous Persephone reborn.” His eyes never leave mine as he jokes—or I think it’s a joke.

“I thought there’d be an upgrade, but she looks just like the last model.

” I realize he’s not teasing when he mutters a smooth, “Disappointing.”

“Ares,” Hades clips.

Ares laughs. The sound is deep and low and dripping danger. It’s all I can do not to shiver.

“You need not worry, Hades. Your little pet is not my type.” His eyes scan me again, lingering on my hair with eyes that dance with dark intent. “I prefer blondes.”

Every part of Hades tenses. We all know that as soon as the sun touches my skin, blonde is what I will be. My first take on Ares is that he’s an asshole.

As far as I’m concerned, maybe he deserves to take the wrong path at whatever fork he’s standing at.

Screw the future is on the tip of my tongue, but it is stayed by the thought of my daughters.

By the idea that if I were to do exactly that, Hades would suffer eternally.

He would waste away from the poison of a broken deal.

I don’t know where it comes from, but sass is the name of this game and I’m suddenly full of it.

Sliding into Hades’ chest, I touch my fingertips over the place where his thundering heart lays and murmur, “He’s right, Hades.

You have no need to worry. I prefer real men, not little boys who never learned how to be their own man.

” My eyes slide back to Ares, sweeping slowly up and then down and back again.

“I like a man who knows the man he is outside of daddy.”

For a moment, I think I made a mistake. A big mistake. A scent erupts in the space between us, metallic and earthy and sickeningly warm, like blood on a battlefield.

Red bleeds into the gold of Ares’ eyes, and everyone in the room stiffens. They all know something I don’t know, but I’ve been around Gods long enough to suspect that Ares has a Gods’ Form like all the others. And right now, the tether his human form has on the beast within is frayed. Loose.

A muscle in his hard jaw tics and the scent of bloody earth grows stronger.

I’m not sure how I manage it, but I peel myself from Hades to face off with Ares.

When I lift my chin, daring the anger in him to rise, to break this ancient deal that stands between Olympus and the Underworld and harm me, a crackle of hot electricity snaps between us.

Ares finally smiles, but it’s ice cold and lacking feeling. “Brave for a human. So little and defenceless.” His golden eyes speared with daggers of blood red lift to pin Hades. “She just might survive Olympus.”

Lethal steadiness fills Hades’ dark response. “If she is harmed, the deal is broken on Olympus’ side. The consequence will not be easily borne.”

“If the deal is broken, she will be dead.”

Heavy silence fills the room like a blanket of dread. But I can’t pull my eyes from Ares, from the ticking in his jaw that tells me he doesn’t like this, either. That he came here as he was instructed to collect me, but that he’s disappointed in Hades for releasing me now.

If only he knew my true reasons for going with him to Olympus were more than to keep the toxins of a broken Gods’ deal from ruining Hades eternally. But to save him from whatever darkness tries to shackle him to a fate of pain and torment.

I’m about to speak when Hades moves closer to Ares, his eyes locked on the God of War and seeing far more than I’m sure he likes. He doesn’t shift under the scrutiny, though. There is a strength in Ares I suspect has been born of terrible things.

Hades cocks his head just so, eyes narrowing. “You won’t let her die, Ares.”

“Don’t pretend you know me. It’s been centuries.”

“You fought with me once, long ago. Alongside me.” There is a softness that only shared history can offer to the words Hades speaks. “Once, you had my back and I had yours.”

“Once is long ago.”

“I didn’t leave you.” Leuce shifts uncomfortably, her eyes finding the floor as Hades steps closer to Ares. “The Underworld was not my choice. I was banished.”

“It is your choice now, though, isn’t it?” Ares’ lip curls. “I fought alongside you for centuries at my father’s decree. You said I had a place beside you, always. That we would fight together, always.”

Tension tightens Hades’ expression. “The Underworld was not as it is now.”

“I would have chosen Tartarus over the Golden City of Olympus.” When no one speaks again, Ares says quietly, “I will guard her with my life, though it will do little good. Without war, my life is worth very little to Zeus.”

Hades sighs, but his eyes come to mine. “Two months, little goddess. They get you for two months only.”

The two months over the summer when I lived with Hades in the tower essentially belonged to Olympus.

To Demeter as per the ancient deal that somehow stands even though I am no longer Goddess, but human.

Even though my ancient memories had to be fed to me via the mercy of the Moirai.

For some reason, they kept this deadly deal intact when they took so much else away.

Another glance at Ares, and I can’t help but think they did it for him. To save him.

“I’m ready.” I break the heavy silence, feeling Hades stiffen beside me as Ares’ eyes come to mine again. The spears of red are gone in his golden eyes, but the tension lingers as he sweeps his hand in a gesture to come to him.

With my heart in my throat, I cross the short distance between the Gods, settling myself beside the God of War even as I long to run to the God of the Underworld.

There is pain in his expression that he doesn’t bother to hide, even from the God who stands at my side.

Once a friend and now an enemy, or perhaps a tether of friendship remains between the two?

Perhaps I can stitch knots into the frayed strings that surround the last tether between the two, and that is why the Moirai have sent me on this dangerous mission to Olympus.

I feel Ares’ hand high on my back, the pressure gentle as he urges me toward the door. When Leuce and Hydra follow, Ares pauses.

He looks at them and says simply, “No.”

“They go with her, or she doesn’t go at all.” Hades’ hands are in his pockets, surely curled into fists.

“You would suffer the toxin?” Ares asks.

“For her, I would suffer anything.”

“Then why are you letting her go at all?”

Hades’ eyes shift to me, and I feel Ares’ do the same. “This is her choice.”