Neon Gods (Dark Olympus 1)

The street seems deserted, but I know better. Zeus has his people watching his side of the river, same as I have my people watching mine. If I step off this bridge, it’s all over. War will come to Olympus.

The man sits up, clutching his wrist to his chest, his expression ugly. Eurydice gives a broken kind of sob. Just like before, I don’t remember making a decision to do this. One blink and I’m shoving him to the ground and hitting him in the face. Fuck, I’m not thinking at all. The only thing that matters is removing the threat. Each punch feeds something dark in me, as if I can hit this asshole hard enough that the monster in Dodona Tower will feel it. Another, and another, and another.

“Hades. Hades, stop.” Persephone’s scream stops me cold. My hands ache. There’s blood everywhere. He’s long since stopped moving, though his chest rises and falls. Alive. I twist to look across the bridge. Charon still has Persephone pinned to his chest, but they both look shocked.

They both look horrified.

What the fuck am I doing?

I leverage myself off the man and crouch next to the sobbing woman. “Eurydice.”

She flinches away from me. “Don’t touch me.”

“Eurydice, your sister is waiting for you.” I don’t have time to be subtle. I grab her chin and move out of the way so she can see Persephone on the other side of the bridge. My bloody knuckles hardly give a reassuring image, but it’s too late to take it back now. “Can you walk?”

She blinks big dark eyes, her fear so large, it threatens to swallow us both whole. “I don’t know.”

“I’m going to carry you. Don’t fight me.” I don’t give her a chance to brace for it, simply hauling her into my arms and hurrying back across the bridge. I was on Zeus’s territory a grand total of two minutes, but I’m not naive enough to think it won’t count. Even if he didn’t orchestrate this—and all evidence suggests he did—he will take advantage of the opening I just gave him.

I brace for Persephone’s fear. She just saw me lose my shit and violently beat a man. She stares up at my face, looking at me as if she’s never seen me before. “Hades…”

“We’ll talk when we get back home.” I maintain my hold on Eurydice and start for the car. “Get in. Now.”

For once, Persephone doesn’t argue. She slips into the back seat ahead of me and takes her sister’s hand as I set Eurydice carefully beside her. Her hazel eyes are shining. “Thank you, Hades,” she says quietly. “I know the cost.”

“Take care of your sister. I’ll meet you back at the house.” I shut the door before she can argue and motion to Minthe. “Take them back. Lock the whole house down. No one in. No one out. And so fucking help you if Hermes slips past our perimeter tonight.”

Minthe nods and hurries to the driver’s side. I keep an eye on the car until it’s out of sight and then turn to Charon. “Trouble’s coming.”

Charon’s skin has taken on a waxen tone. “You crossed the river.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

He opens his mouth like he wants to argue but finally shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter, I guess. It’s done. What do we do now?”

I try to stop reacting and think. Will Zeus go for a frontal strike, or will he try to twist my arm to get something he wants to avoid an all-out war? I don’t know. I can’t fucking think. All I can hear are the echoes of Persephone’s cry. All I can see is the helpless look in her sister’s eyes. And all I can feel is the pain across my knuckles from beating a man half to death.

I press my fingers to my temples. What would Andreas say? I snort as soon as the thought crosses my mind. Andreas is going to kick my ass for being so impulsive. “We can’t assume they’ll come in across the bridges. Pull as many people back from the edges of the territory as we can. If they don’t want to go, don’t force them, but get word out. War is coming.”

Charon hesitates and then nods. “Do you want me to pull in all our people to the main house?”

The temptation almost overwhelms me. I want Persephone safe, and I already know she’ll be a target. The urge to bolster our defenses until nothing can get past is a strong one.

But Persephone is not the only person in the lower city who needs protection from what’s coming.

I force myself to shake my head. “No, keep the doubled patrols on the river. Dredge up anyone you need to help those who want to get out of the potential conflict zone.”

“Hades.” Charon has to stop and wrestle the fear out of his tone. “The entire lower city will be a conflict zone if they come for us.”