Page 74 of Whiskey, Thieves, and Bastards

“Uh, in the most way anyone could be equipped to handle supernaturals. That’s the problem.”

“Why is that a problem?” I asked.

“Her organization is calledThe Silver Peacock.”

Dionysus hissed and made some kind of gesture that I was sure was for warding off evil several millennia ago.

“She’s not the same woman you knew,” Athena said. “If she saw you again, she’d probably apologize for what she did. She really has reinvented herself and is all about helping people now. We didn’t have to call her. She called and volunteered.”

“If she was watching, then she saw me. It’s probably a trap,” Dionysus grunted.

“This didn’t make sense until you said that, but she said to pass on a message that she’s sorry and she can do this without us ever having to see her,” Callum said.

Ugh. Ihatednot knowing what was going on. I didn’t know who he was talking about and if we ever worked withThe Silver Peacock,it was all Cas because they were all worried about me offending important people. Which was stupid because I was a pacifist. I didn’t go after people unless they offended me first. I was theperfectpacifist.

“Um, who is the mysterious she? I could slip into the shadows and fuck with her if she messed with my mate,” I demanded.

“Ugh. That mysterious she is my stepmother, Hera. Don’t go anywhere near her. She might want to help people now, but she’s much older than you and her methods of revenge aren’t as playful. I’m talking, the kind of shit that you’d think all of us were your enemy and turn your shadow wolf against us. Stayfaraway from my stepmother.”

Yeah, I wasn’t going to fuck with that. Hera had the resources to help, but no one was going to tell Dionysus how to deal with that trauma. I’d never forgive someone for doing that to me.

“It’s up to you,” Athena said. “My presence here is also upsetting, but I did what I came here to do. Hera has offered to do this without ever talking to you because she acknowledges what she did to you.

“I’ve got resources, too, and I have the ability to cobble things together to keep these places honest. I also still have followers, both human and supernatural. I can put pressure on these places who are dallying releasing people. I can have someone waiting when they do to collect names and get them to one of Hera’s shelters. It should also be simple to set up a database of people who were released for their families to check and come get them. I can find out if Benji’s parents were released before the angel tears are out of their system.”

Ugh. Fuck me. Were we still mad at her? I didn’t see much of what went on in the chambers because we were trying to deal with Lucky, but Calamity was watching and said Athena gave some pretty good speeches to help get the law passed. And then she addressed the reporters and gave us a little backup if phase two of our plan never happened.

Athena was willing to help with the fallout of what we’d just done and deal with Hera so Dionysus didn’t have to. She alsoimmediately offered to help with my parents because she knew I needed it. If we were still mad at her, I could accept that, but I wasn’t calling her Sugar Tits anymore. That was back to being solely reserved for Sheriff Riddle.

Medusa got up and hugged Athena. I guess we weren’t mad at her anymore. Athena stood there stiffly and patted Medusa on the back like a dog. Some people didn’t know how to take a good hug and Athena was one of them. No judgment.

“Thank you. You’ve been more than amazing. We couldn’t have doneanyof this without you. When this is over, you should come back for dinner or do girl’s night out with us again.”

Medusa had forgiven her, so I did, too. Part of being mated to someone was being furious with people who didn’t do shit to you, but had hurt your mate. It was sacred. Athena had done some amazing things, but if Medusa was still mad at her, I probably would have poofed to her house, stole the batteries out ofeverythingin her house, and also took the plate out of her microwave because I broke ours once and finding a replacement was a bitch.

I was glad I didn’t have to do all that.

“Uh, guys?” Calamity said.

Last time she said that, she had some big fucking news, so we all paid attention. She was looking out the window, so we all jumped up to look. It looked like there were hundreds of stars falling out of the sky, but it felt like a bad omen. It didn’t feel like you should make hundreds of wishes. This was somebadshit.

“I’ve seen this before,” Kat said. “That’s what we saw in the sky before the angels showed up in our village and started slaughtering innocents for loving an angel. I’m guessing the last two countries just outlawed the Coalition and Athena’s speech about the angels going rogue got their attention.”

Pbbt. We’d come this far. We were all total badasses, even if we weren’t gods or furies. Kat had intel on fighting angels.All theshit I’d been through was because of them. Pax lost his eyesight and Medusa was nearly starved to death.

We needed the angels to make an appearance so we could find outwhythey did all this and fully get humans on our side. It was one of the steps of Medusa’s plan.

But my shadow wolf wasn’t going to complain if we got to do a little violence against the angels that were currently falling from the sky.

In fact, we craved it.