A Game of Retribution (Hades Saga #2)(73)

Hades’s power preened at the thought.

“Make no mistake, my lady, I would burn this world for you.”

He had said it before, but perhaps she did not quite understand what that meant. There were no rules, Divine or otherwise, when it came to her. She was the exception. It did not matter that no one else thought so. He did, and he was the end.

“But that is a burden I am willing to carry. Can you say the same?”

She did not speak, and he was not surprised. Likely she was thinking of all those threads burned into his skin, though that was not even the worst part.

The worst part was the guilt.

“I will give you one more day to say goodbye to Lexa. That is the only compromise I can offer. You should be thankful I’m offering that.”



*

Later that day, Hades stood unseen in a large, open meadow. On the springy, green grass, he placed one of Helios’s pristine cows. By the time he had

returned to the Underworld to retrieve a cow, he no longer cared about choosing the best, and the only reason he saw this plan through was because he’d like to locate the Graeae. It made him anxious that there had been no contact from their abductors, no hint of where they had been taken. He considered that perhaps Medusa had something to do with their disappearance, in which case it would have been more of a rescue. Perhaps that was why no one had come to collect the eye.

The cow mooed, drawing Hades’s attention.

There was a flash of light across the way, at the very edge of the field, and Helios appeared. His purple robes fluttered around him, as if seconds behind his movement. There, he paused and scanned his surroundings, obviously suspecting a trap. Still, he vanished once more and appeared closer to the cow, again peering into the trees surrounding the meadow. The next time he appeared, it was beside the cow.

He rested his head on its back and threw his arms around its middle.

“Oh, Rosie!” He moved around to her front and lifted her long face in his hands, touching his nose to hers. “I have missed you.”

Watching this exchange made Hades feel very uncomfortable.

“I’ll take you far from here where you can never be taken away from me again.”

He kissed the cow’s nose—once, twice, and as he went in for the third, Hades appeared.

“I’m sorry. I just can’t watch this.”

Helios released the cow and stepped back, glaring.

“You,” he said, gnashing his teeth. “I knew it.”

“Yet you came anyway.”

“Where are the rest of my cows?” he demanded.

“Waiting to be returned to you,” Hades replied.

The God of the Sun narrowed his unsettling amber eyes. “You want something.”

“Of course I do. I know you’ve been watching the trials Hera’s put me through.”

Helios saw everything that transpired on Earth, even the things he pretended to ignore. The entire reason Hades had abducted his cattle in the first place was because he’d refused to give the location of Sisyphus, the man who had stolen souls with a relic he had obtained from Poseidon.

The god gave a lazy smile. “I watched long enough to see your face get beat in by Heracles. That was a satisfying fight. Pity he did not win.”

“Or better that I won,” Hades said. “Or your cows would have become permanent residents of the Underworld.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Is this your peace offering? Rosie? Or are you offering the whole lot?”

“Think of Rosie as a start,” Hades said. “The more cooperative you are, the more Rosies you get back.”

Helios’s mouth tightened. “What do you want?”

Despite knowing that the God of the Sun was very aware of what Hades needed, he decided it was best not to quarrel with him—as much as that was possible given his mood.

“I need to know where the Graeae are located. They were taken from Dionysus’s club.”

Helios laughed and Hades frowned, uncertain about what exactly his response meant.

“You are so busy searching for the gray monsters, you haven’t even noticed what is unfolding around you.”

“And what exactly is that?”

“Unrest,” he said. “And do you know what unrest breeds?”

War.

Hades did not say the word aloud because he did not wish to speak it into existence, but he knew what Helios was implying.

The god laughed again. “I predict another war soon. Olympianomachy,”

he said in a lofty voice, smiling. “It has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it?”

“So certain we will lose?” Hades asked.

“I have no doubt.”

Helios was loyal to only himself. Even his choice to side with the Olympians rather than his fellow Titans was born out of a wish to maintain his well-being rather than loyalty to Zeus.

“You forget that you are all seeing, Helios,” said Hades. “Not all knowing.”

“I’ve always chosen the winning side,” said Helios. “That has never been by chance.”

“Treason is a poor look, Helios.”

“I have taken no action,” said the god. “And I am helping you. That is far from treasonous.”

He was helping, albeit resentfully.

“What does all this have to do with the location of the Graeae?”