Page 7 of Hades

“We stayed close, but once Lucas got his hooks in her...” He trailed off. “He came to my room that first night and told me she thought he was younger. Said if I told her the truth, he’d kill me.”

Zeus’ breathing turned ragged, his chest heaving like he’d run a marathon. A war raged within him between the need to believe his father was a good man versus the mounting evidence that he was anything but.

A monster wearing a hero’s face.

“And the others?” King asked, his voice hard. “Did they know?”

Asclepius snorted, a bitter sound that held decades of resentment. “The others didn’t give a damn what he did. They went along with it. Lucas convinced them that if he had Rhea, he’d have the Brotherhood in his pocket. That he had to get her pregnant and marry her before Kalden found her.”

Zeus’ elbows hit the table. He held his head in his hands, shoulders shaking. From rage or grief, I couldn’t be sure. Maybe both, tangled together until they were indistinguishable.

“Did you know what he was doing at the Trick Pony?” King asked.

“No, I swear,” Asclepius answered, snapping his head toward King. Fear and disgust twisted his features. “If I had, I would’ve told Rhea. I would’ve killed him myself.”

“But you kept other secrets, didn’t you?” I asked, my voice cold.

Asclepius nodded, his shoulders sagging under the weight of his guilt.

Zeus’ head snapped up. “What other secrets?”

Asclepius wouldn’t look at him. He wore the guilt and shame like a heavy coat, suffocating and inescapable. I clasped his shoulder and wondered how we’d missed so much. How many lies had he swallowed? How many times had he looked the other way?

Zeus looked up at King. “How bad is it?”

“As bad as it gets.” King’s jaw tightened. “Everyone out except Zeus, Cash, and Hades.”

Every man at the table stood. Poseidon caught my eye and raised a brow. I nodded, letting him know he could leave. The room emptied slowly. Indie leaned down and whispered something to King. He looked up at her and shook his head. “No.” That was all he said. She nodded and made her way to the door, Zeus tracking her every step with eyes that promised slow and brutal vengeance.

“Don’t even think it, brother,” I whispered.

“She killed my father.”

“And we’re about to find out why.”

“I don’t fucking care why, Brock. He was my father.”

His head twisted as she walked out the door, and Mimic narrowed his eyes at him. “I won’t hesitate,” he said to Zeus, his voice low and deadly. A promise spoken as a threat.

“Mimic, out.” When he didn’t move, King slammed his hand on the table. “NOW!”

Mimic and Zeus stared each other down, but Mimic finally broke the tether and walked out.

The silence that followed was deafening. King locked his eyes on Zeus. “The only reason I’m letting you live is because I believe you didn’t know who and what your father was.”

Zeus snapped his head around to King. “He was my father!”

“He was a twisted motherfucker who raped little girls!” King shouted, his voice echoing in the closed room, bouncing off the walls, filling every corner with the ugly truth.

The words hit like a physical blow. Bile rose in my throat, hot and acidic. I wanted to be sick. Wanted to call King a liar, defend the man I’d respected and worshipped as a hero.

But I couldn’t.

Because something inside me was screaming that it was all true.

Cash stood and left the room. I wondered briefly where he was going, but King pulled my attention back.

“The Trick Pony was worse than hell on earth,” King began, his voice steady but filled with a rage that simmered just beneath the surface. “Devlin Scott was the face of the Trick Pony, but he wasn’t the man in charge. There were others. Men and women who worked in the shadows. Motherfuckers who kept their connection secret.” He paused, letting the words sink in, letting them settle like poison in our guts. “Nemesis was one of them. Only, we didn’t know who he was.”