Neon Gods (Dark Olympus 1)

“I wouldn’t want you to get in the middle. I know how you both hate that.” It comes out far harsher than I intend, but I can’t help it. Against my better judgment, I started considering her and Dionysus friends and look where that got me. Betrayal. Endless fucking betrayal.

Her smile drops. “We’re all playing the roles set out for us. I knew the script when I accepted the title.” She glances at Dionysus. “We both did.”

“Not all of us had that kind of choice.” I can’t keep the bitterness, the anger, from my voice. I never asked to be Hades. The decision was taken out of my hands the first moment I drew breath. A heavy mantle to lay on a newborn’s head, but no one cared what I wanted. Not my parents. Certainly not Zeus when he made me an orphan and the youngest Hades in the history of Olympus.

She sighs. “Get in the car. It’ll be faster than walking, and you don’t want to show up to Zeus’s all rumpled and messy. Presentation is eighty percent of negotiations.”

I stop. The car stops next to me. “Who said I was going to Zeus?”

“Give us a little credit.” Dionysus chuckles. “The love of your life just made a deal to save your skin, so naturally you’re going to pull a very romantic, very impulsive move to save her right back.”

My internal debate only lasts a moment. At the end of the day, they’re right. They both have a role to play, just like the rest of us. Holding that against them is like being angry at the wind for unexpectedly changing direction. I walk around the car and slide into the passenger seat. “You helped her leave, Hermes.”

“She contracted my services.” Hermes twists to look at me as Dionysus pulls back onto the right side of the street and heads north. “Even if she hadn’t, I still would have helped.” She taps her fingers on the armrest of her seat, not able to be still even for a moment. “I like her. I like you when you’re with her.”

“I’m not with her right now.”

Dionysus shrugs, his eyes on the road. “Relationships are complicated. You love her. She obviously loves you, or she wouldn’t be riding off to save you from Zeus and the rest of the Thirteen. You’ll figure it out.”

“I don’t know what I’ll do if something happens to her because of this.” I’ll never forgive myself for not protecting her like I promised.

“Something was already happening to her before you met her, Hades. She was fleeing Zeus when she stumbled into your comforting arms. That has nothing to do with you.” Hermes laughs a little. “Well, it didn’t used to have anything to do with you, but if there’s anyone Zeus hates more than you, it’s your father. He’ll do whatever he can to annihilate the Hades position. Just grind it to dust with the force of his fury and damaged pride.”

There was a time when the vendetta Zeus nurtures made me tired. I want revenge for the deaths of my parents, yes, but hating him for making me an orphan makes sense. His hatred for me does not. Fuck, his hatred for my parents doesn’t, either. “He should have let it go.”

“Yes.” Tap, tap, tap go her fingers. “But he’s got it all wrapped up in his head that a son for a son for a son makes sense, so here we are.”

I frown. “What are you talking about?”

“What am I ever talking about?” Hermes waves that away. “He won’t stop, you know. Even if you manage to negotiate your way out of this mess, he’ll be there with a knife aimed at your back for as long as that evil old heart of his keeps ticking.”

I want to press her on the son-for-a-son bit. Zeus has four children, two sons and two daughters—that are officially acknowledged, at least—that range from my age to their early twenties. Perseus will take the Zeus title when his father dies. He’s just as bad as his father, driven by power and ambition and ready to crush anyone who gets in his way. By all accounts, Zeus’s other son was a better kind of man. He fought his father and lost, and he fought his way out of Olympus and never looked back. “Is Hercules dead?”

“What? No. Of course not. By all accounts, he’s very happy right now.” Hermes doesn’t look at me. “Don’t worry about riddles, Hades. Worry about what today will bring.”

That’s the problem. I don’t know what today will bring. I stare out the window, watching the Cypress Bridge appear. Crossing it feels like entering another world, at least in my head. I can count how many times I’ve entered the upper city on one hand and still have four fingers left over. Before last night, the last time was when I officially took the title Hades. I stood in that cold room, Andreas at my back while I faced down the rest of the Thirteen. They were whole then, Zeus’s first wife still alive.