Page 90 of Hades

“No,” I said immediately.

The word came out harder than I intended. Sharper. Like a blade slicing through the tension in the room. Zeus’ eyes cut to me. Cold. Calculating. The look of a man about to remind me who the fuck was in charge.

“No?” he asked.

“No one’s getting close enough to my woman to stick a needle in her over a hunch.”

My woman.

The words felt right in my mouth. Tasted like possession and promise and something I wasn’t ready to name yet. Something that burned in my chest and made my blood run hot. She was mine. And I’d put a bullet in anyone who tried to take her from me. Brother or not.

“A DNA test would prove it,” Coeus said.

I turned my head slowly. Let him see exactly what I thought of that suggestion. Let him see the violence simmering just beneath my skin. The promise that if he pushed this, I’d make him regret it. I’d break his fucking fingers one by one. Make him understand that touching what was mine came with consequences.

Coeus leaned back in his chair, hands lifting slightly. “Or we wait.”

“Smart,” Ares muttered.

Apollo held up a hand before I could say something to make this worse. “I’m not asking for that. Not now. Maybe not ever if she doesn’t want it.”

I looked back at him. Studied his face. Saw the exhaustion carved into every line. The grief that had lived in his eyes since the day his sister disappeared.

He meant it.

He wasn’t going to force this on her.

Good.

Because if he tried, I’d put him in the fucking ground right next to his sister’s kidnapper. I’d make it quick. Clean. A bullet to the head. Because he was my brother and I respected him. But I’d do it without hesitation if it meant protecting Lettie.

“I mean it,” Apollo said, like he could read my thoughts. “If she’s Colette, then every choice was taken from her before she was old enough to know what a choice was. I’m not taking another one.”

Something in my chest loosened. Not much. But enough that I could breathe without feeling like I was about to explode. Without feeling like I needed to put my fist through the table. Through Zeus’ face. Through anything that got between me and Lettie.

Apollo understood.

He got it.

This wasn’t about him getting answers. This was about Lettie getting to decide what she wanted to know.

And if she decided she didn’t want to know? If she decided her life was fine the way it was and she didn’t need some long-lost family showing up to complicate shit?

Then that was the end of it.

I’d make sure of it.

I’d bury this conversation so deep no one would ever find it again.

“I asked her to meet Dad,” Apollo said. “She agreed.”

“When?” Zeus asked.

“Today. But I don’t know if that should happen now.”

My hands tightened on the armrests of my chair. The wood creaked under my grip. Protesting. Threatening to splinter.

Today.