Neon Gods (Dark Olympus 1)

“Persephone,” Psyche says slowly. “I know you’re not happy about this, but we have to find a better way forward than running into the night. You’re the woman with a plan, and right now, you have no plan.”

No, I don’t have a plan. I’m free-falling in a way that feels dangerous and has terror licking up my spine. “Plans were meant to be adapted.”

All three of them are silent, a rare enough occurrence that I wish I could appreciate it. Finally, Eurydice says, “Why are you calling now?”

That’s the question, isn’t it? I don’t know. “I just wanted you to know I’m okay.”

“We’ll believe you’re okay when we know where you are.” Callisto still sounds ready to mow down anyone who gets between her and me, and I manage a smile.

“Persephone, you just disappeared. Everyone is frantically looking for you.”

I digest that statement, picking it apart. Everyone is frantically looking for me? They mentioned Mother before, but I didn’t really connect the dots until now. It doesn’t make any sense that she doesn’t already know my location because… “Zeus knows where I am.”

“What?”

“His men followed me all the way to Cypress Bridge.” Thinking about it makes me shudder. I have no doubt they had instructions to haul me back, but they could have easily taken me a few blocks from Dodona Tower. They chose to pursue me, to drive my desperation and fear higher. No underling of Zeus would dare do something like that to his intended bride…unless they were ordered to by Zeus himself. “He’s acting like he doesn’t know where I am?”

“Yes.” The anger hasn’t quite bled out of Callisto’s voice, but it’s dampened. “He’s talking about organizing search parties, and Mother is fluttering at his elbow as if she hasn’t already ordered the same thing done with her people. He’s mobilized his private security force, too.”

“But why would he do that if he already knows where I am?”

Psyche clears her throat. “Did you cross the Cypress Bridge?”

Damn. I hadn’t meant to let that slip. I close my eyes. “I’m in the lower city.”

Callisto snorts. “That shouldn’t make a difference to Zeus.” She’s never paid much attention to the rumors that crossing the river is nearly as impossible as leaving Olympus. I honestly didn’t quite believe it, either, not until I felt that horrible pressure when I did it myself.

“Unless…” Eurydice has gotten ahold of her emotions and I can practically see her mind whirling. She plays the ditzy damsel when it suits her, but she’s probably the smartest of the four of us. “The city used to be divided into three. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades.”

“That was a long time ago,” Psyche murmurs. “Zeus and Poseidon work together now. And Hades is myth. Persephone and I were just talking about this tonight.”

“If he weren’t a myth, Hades would be enough to give Zeus pause.”

Callisto snorts. “Except even if he existed, there’s no way he wouldn’t be just as bad as Zeus.”

“He’s not.” The words slip free despite my best efforts to keep them internal. Damn it, I meant to keep them out of it, but obviously that isn’t going to work. I should have known that the moment I dialed Eurydice. In for a penny, in for a pound. I clear my throat. “No matter what he is, he’s not as bad as Zeus.”

My sisters’ voices comingle as they voice their shock.

“What?”

“Did you hit your head while you were running from those assholes?”

“Persephone, your obsession is getting out of control.”

I sigh. “I’m not hallucinating, and I didn’t hit my head.” Best not to tell them about my feet or the fact that I’m still shivering a bit, even after being bundled up. “He’s real, and he’s been here this whole time.”

My sisters are silent once again as they digest that. Callisto curses. “People would have known.”

They should have. The fact that we’ve all believed him a myth this whole time speaks to a larger influence that wanted to wipe Hades’s memory from the face of Olympus. It speaks of Zeus’s meddling, because who else has the power to pull something like that off? Maybe Poseidon, but if it doesn’t concern the sea and the docks, he doesn’t seem to care about it. None of the rest of the Thirteen operate with the same amount of power as the legacy roles. None of them would dare take out the title of Hades, not on their own.

But then, no one really talks about how little crossover there is between the upper and lower city. It’s just taken as the way things are. Even I never questioned it, and I question so much else when it comes to Olympus and the Thirteen.

Finally, Psyche says, “What do you need from us?”

I think hard. I only have to last to my birthday and then I’m free. The trust fund our grandmother set up releases to me then, and I don’t have to rely on my mother or anyone in Olympus for anything ever again. But not until then, my twenty-fifth birthday. I have some funds of my own now, but they aren’t really my own. They’re my mother’s. I could ask my sisters to bring me my purse, but Mother will have already frozen my accounts. She likes to do that to punish us, and she’ll want to ensure I come crawling back after humiliating her like this. More, I don’t want my sisters in the lower city, even if they could make their way across the River Styx. Not when danger seems to be around every corner.