Page 5 of Hades

Zeus looked at his uncle as King kept his gun trained on Zeus’ head. Despite the revelations pouring out like blood from a wound, King refused to relent.

“Uncle Isaac?” Zeus’ voice cracked with emotion, breaking on the name. “Tell me he’s fucking lying.”

When Asclepius shook his head and refused to look his nephew in the eye, Zeus’ face crumpled. He turned to Indie, his voice hollow. Empty and broken. “Why? Why the fuck did you kill him?”

Completely unafraid of what Zeus might do, Indie took a step forward. She was small but fierce, a survivor who’d clawed her way out of hell. Scarred and damaged but still fucking standing. She looked around the room and stated clearly for everyone to hear, “Because he was a fucking pedophile who raped me for years.”

The words hit like a sledgehammer. Brutal. Unforgiving. They rang with a truth we’d never known, never suspected, never wanted to fucking believe.

“You lying bitch!” Zeus lunged for Indie, his hands reaching for her throat, murder in his eyes. Pure, unfiltered rage. A shot cracked through the air, deafening despite the openness of the room and the gaping hole in the front wall.

Zeus flew back against the bar, a bullet wound blooming red on his shoulder, blood spreading across his cut like spilled wine. Before anyone else could retaliate, I yelled, “HOLD YOUR FIRE!”

I rushed to Zeus as he slumped to the ground, blood pouring from the wound. Behind me, Mimic growled as he wrapped his arms around his old lady, pulling her back protectively.

“I would’ve shot him in the fucking skull,” Mimic said coldly. No remorse, no hesitation.

I looked up at King, my anger barely contained. A living thing clawing at my chest. “You didn’t have to shoot him, asshole.”

“He fucking lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie,” Zeus snarled through clenched teeth as Atlas grabbed a bar rag and pressed it to Zeus’ shoulder, applying pressure to stem the bleeding. “I didn’t know anything about this shit.”

“Get him cleaned up and meet me in church,” King demanded before turning and walking off, slamming through the double doors of the club’s meeting room.

Morpheus stepped forward, and Zeus, Atlas, and I all looked up at the giant man hovering over us. Zeus’ uncle was a force of nature barely contained, rage and violence simmering just beneath the surface.

“They didn’t know, Prez,” Cerberus said, his hand on Morpheus’ arm, trying to calm the storm brewing in him.

Morpheus turned and punched Cerberus in the face, knocking him to the ground. The sound of bone on bone echoed through the room, brutal and final. “YOU FUCKING DID!” he bellowed.

“I didn’t know shit, asshole. I didn’t know where Gabby went. And I sure as fuck didn’t know what he’d done to Karlyn, or I would’ve killed the bastard myself!” the old man shouted back as he slowly got to his feet, rubbing his jaw.

Morpheus stormed off through the open hole in the front of the building, his fury barely leashed, ready to tear the world apart.

Cerberus shook his head and turned to Nav. “Pull the officers in,” he ordered before walking toward the same double doors King had pushed through.

“I don’t take orders from you, old man!” Nav shouted.

Cerberus held his hand up over his shoulder and flipped off his son as Atlas and I helped Zeus to his feet and set him on a stool. Once I was sure he wouldn’t fall over, I walked over and drove my fist into Asclepius’ face, sending him sprawling. His jaw cracked under my knuckles as bone and cartilage gave way.

“You’ve got some shit to answer for,” I said, standing over him. Asclepius rubbed his jaw and nodded without a word. “Go fish that fucking bullet out of his shoulder.” I hauled him up and shoved him toward Zeus.

This might not have been our war, but it was about to become our fucking problem. It sure as fuck had just become my job to guide us through this shit. Through the darkness, the secrets, and the blood.

Because that was what I did.

I ruled the dead and the damned.

And we were all damned now. The Titan who devoured his children had been devoured by his own sins.

Leaving us to pick up the pieces.

CHAPTER THREE

Hades

The church room felt like a tomb.