Time slows down.
He’s not to the point of no return yet. I can pull him back. I just need to get there. I dart forward, intent on grabbing his arm, his shirt, something. No matter what kind of monster he is, no one deserves to go out like this.
He makes contact with my hands, but his fingers slip through mine despite my best efforts. Between one blink and the next, he’s gone, the whoosh of air and a fading yell of surprise the only evidence that he was here to begin with. I stare at the broken window, at the empty dark blue air, at the lights twinkling in the distance.
Did I realize how close we were? Was I intentionally driving him back to a fall to his death?
I don’t think so, but no one would believe me if I claimed this was an accident. Not when I showed up to his office with a gun in the early hours of the morning when no one else would be around.
The icy wind slaps me again, knocking me back into myself. I can’t stay here. If anyone realizes that I broke the treaty, that I effectively killed Zeus, then my people will pay the price. Right now, I’m relying too heavily on Demeter keeping her word, and our short history has already proven I can’t trust her.
I step into the hallway and stop short when I realize I’m not alone. I blink into the darkness, recognition rolling over me. Speak of the devil. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Demeter pulls on a pair of pristine black gloves. “Someone has to clean this mess up.”
Does she mean the scene I left in the room behind me… Or me? I exhale slowly. “Was this all a trap, then?”
She arches a brow, and for a moment, she looks so much like Persephone that my heart gives a painful thud. Demeter laughs. “Hardly. I’ve done you several favors this morning, and it’s the least I can do to see that you’re still around in the future when I mean to collect payment.” She takes a step toward me and stops. “But if you hurt my daughter, I will happily rip out your throat.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“See that you do. They’ll never find the body.” She examines her gloved hand. “Pigs are very efficient creatures, you know. They’re practically nature’s garbage disposal.”
Fuck, this woman is just as terrifying as her daughter. I move to the side as she heads for the door to Zeus’s office. “What will you do?”
“Like I said, clean it up.” She opens the door and glances at me. “My daughter must love you very much if she was willing to ask for my help to keep you safe. I expect you to honor the bargain she made.”
“I will.” I don’t have to know the details to agree to them. Whatever price is required, I’m only too happy to pay it. It’s the very least I can do after everything that’s happened.
“See that you do. Now, get out of here before Ares’s people come investigating.”
Investigating Zeus’s death.
Zeus’s death that I caused.
Persephone will never look at me the same after today.
That knowledge weighs on me as much as Zeus’s death as I make my way to the ground floor. I step out the doorway to find a small crowd already gathering and people peering up into the sky as if the answers lie there. A few of them look in my direction but don’t pay me much attention. Anonymity is a benefit of being a myth.
I turn and walk away. In my darkest heart of hearts, I thought I’d feel victorious once Zeus died. It’s a balancing of the scales, a way of paying back all the horrible shit he’s done over the years. To me, yes, to my parents, definitely, but also to more people than I care to count. The swath of his destruction is wide and stretches back through the decades.
Instead, I feel nothing at all.
I don’t remember much of my trip back to the lower city. It feels like one moment I’ve tucked my hands in my pockets and am bowing my head against the wind in the midst of upper city shops, and the next I blink and I’m standing in front of my home. Only my aching legs and feet give testament to the fact that I walked this whole way.
I turn and look toward Zeus’s tower, barely visible against the skyline from my position. Behind it, the sun is already fully in the sky. A new day. Everything’s changed, and yet nothing’s changed.
I am still Hades. I still rule my portion of Olympus. The remainder of the Thirteen will have some shit to sort out, but ultimately Perseus will step up as the new Zeus, marry a new partner, and create a new Hera. I’ll honor whatever bargain was made with Demeter. Now safe, Persephone will be able to leave the city and chase her dreams. I’ll never see her again. Things will continue, more or less as they always have.
The thought depresses the hell out of me.
I walk through the same door I left and make my way to the converted living room. It’s all puppy playpen now, filled with toys and several beds. I sink down next to the center bed where all three pups are sleeping. Even though I’m quiet, it doesn’t take them long to realize they have a guest. Cerberus comes first, toddling to me on unsteady legs and climbing into my lap as if staking his territory. His siblings follow after his lack of warmth wakes them, pressing their furry wriggling bodies against me.
Petting them releases something in my chest, and I let my head rest against the wall and close my eyes. What kind of monster am I that
