Page 30

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

H ades

“She doesn’t sleep.” Hypnos sighs tiredly, leaning back in the chair as I swing my legs over the side of the couch to rise.

“What do you mean she doesn’t sleep? It’s been three days.”

“I cannot connect to her if she does not sleep.” He scrubs his face, the silver rings that bind his fingers catching in the light of the flames dancing in the hearth.

“She cannot go three days without sleep, Hypnos. She is human.” I stand, pacing. “She is—she is vulnerable. She carries our children.”

“She sleeps,” Hypnos assures me. “But not long enough to fall into anything deep. It is possible I might have time to slip into her mind, to meet her. But she does not give us the time to connect your mind to hers.”

“Then meet her and tell her to fucking sleep.”

His brows rise slowly, and he settles back in the chair again. “I can sense that she is alive, Hades. She is as well as she can be, being in that place.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him his words do nothing to ease the worry that has only built with every day she has been gone, but I don’t. It wouldn’t be true.

Hypnos lifts an ankle over his knee, getting comfortable. He clearly plans to stay a while. It’s a good thing. I’m not sure I’d let him leave.

He speaks, “Her sleep is broken. She is not plagued by nightmares, but by whatever it is she sees in Olympus during her day. I can feel the edges of her mind and sense the distress. She is not happy, and she does not feel secure. But no harm has yet befallen her.”

There is movement at the entrance, and my eyes land on Minthe.

She looks put together as always, her green velvet gown clinging to her lean body.

The high slit shows off the green vines that ink her skin as an eternal reminder that she’d experienced the wrath of a Goddess, nearly having been turned into a mint plant.

Most would think it a tattoo, but if one looked closely, they would see the slight raise of the vines.

If one touched, they would feel the hardness of scars.

“I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation.” Her eyes flicker between us, apology dancing with a fear my own recognizes.

“When did you return from the living realm?”

“A few hours ago.” She lifts the wine she carries to her lips. “I—I couldn’t?—”

“Rhadamanthus can handle the tower.” She nods but says nothing more.

“Have you been sleeping, Minthe?” Hypnos asks, and it’s then I see the dark circles under her eyes.

She sips her wine again. “Have you tried Leuce?”

“Her mind is guarded.”

“Fucking nymph.” Emotion cracks her words, shimmering in her eyes.

Hypnos nods. “Indeed.”

Those shining eyes land like spears on Hypnos. He doesn’t even flinch. “And what about Hydra?”

“She does not dream as Gods and humans dream.”

“But you’ve tried?”

Hypnos nods again. “I’ve tried.”

Minthe takes another sip, holding the wine in her mouth as she bobs her head. She swallows. In the same breath she says, “It’s only been three days. Persephone can’t stay awake forever.”

“This is true. As a human, there is only so long she can go before her body forces her to sleep.”

“And whenever that time comes, you will be ready,” I say.

“We will be ready, Hades.”

I sink into a chair. “There is so much she doesn’t know about Olympus. I failed to prepare her.”

“You have not visited Olympus since the fall of the Titans, Hades. It’s been millennia.” Minthe lowers close to Hypnos on the couch, seeking a comfort he does not deny as he slides his arm around her body, tucking her close.

Leuce and Minthe have been lovers for as far back as I can remember, their devotion to one another absolute even as they both take other partners and bring others into their bed to share between them.

It is their relationship that I once attempted to model my own with Persephone.

To convince myself that there could be love between sharing.

I had loved her. I’d also loathed every moment I’d been forced to share her.

Now, knowing her every sigh of pleasure had been an act—it made rage boil in my blood. Demeter needed to be stopped, stripped of her power and made to pay for all the suffering she’d dealt. Not only to me and Persephone, but to the world. To all of humanity, for her schemes had touched many.

Her hatred leached from the very earth in which her harvests sprouted, poisoning like toxins while humanity expected nutrients.

My fists clench as I think of the modern food industry in the living realm. The Gods have infiltrated the minds of those in power, encouraging them to package disease and addiction for profit. To build wealth while treating side effects, never offering the cure.

The realms of the Gods have spiraled for far too long. There is only so much humanity can sustain before they meet their end. I’ve seen it before. The death of entire civilizations wiped out because of the Gods’ manipulations.

“Zeus’ reign as king must come to an end.”

Hypnos’ eyes flash. “How do you intend to do something like that?”

“I don’t know. But the living realm can’t sustain his rule much longer.” I cast my gaze to the flames in the hearth, reveling in the burn. “The living realm is nothing more than one giant amphitheatre to Zeus. He’s always loved to watch blood spill.”

Dark vengeance stews inside me as Minthe stands. I pay her no mind as she moves around the room, appearing at my side with a tumbler of whiskey.

I take it from her with a nod of thanks, tossing the whole thing back in a single swallow. I revel in the burn. The God inside me revels in the burn.

And the burn becomes a need for vengeance I can no longer ignore. “The day will come when the world watches as Zeus’ blood spills, washing away centuries of a tyrannical rule.” The whiskey ignites a flame in my gut. “I vow it.”