better at lying and breaking into people’s houses to re-home the pets they were abusing. Since I was pretending I couldn’t hear animals anymore, we talked about life and dealing with high school.
And high school was pretty fucking traumatic. I was skinny, awkward, and went through my goth phase pretty hard. The fucked-up thing was, not even the other goth kids liked me. It was weird having so many lovers right now when not a single person in my high school would piss on me if I were on fire. They were seriously not very nice to me.
But having someone to walk me through how to deal with life when nearly everyone in your high school just couldn’t let you be weird in peace was a tremendous help. I was using many things Doctor Wood taught me to deal with all the shit that had happened since I got kidnapped. Doctor Woods wouldn’t have been very proud of me for losing my temper and setting Hades’s trousers on fire, but high school bullies didn’t exactly kidnap me to an entirely different realm and throw me in jail with monsters. He deserved it. It was probably a good thing I didn’t know I could set things on fire in high school.
So, I didn’t have a lot of unresolved shit to process, so my demon side didn’t go popping out all the time. I had years of learning skills, so things didn’t fester, and I learned not to dwell on things I couldn’t change.
Still, there was that entire issue of feeling threatened now that I’d accessed my demon side, and therapy didn’t prepare me for this. I didn’t even know if that was what it was. I wasn’t scared when Tryphon wrapped his tentacle around my neck, so she either popped out because she was or she wanted to play with my men.
I didn’t feel any different when I was using my demonic side aside from being a lot stronger and more powerful, so it wasn’t like I could have a conversation with her and tell her to stay put unless I called for her.
We were all sitting around talking about my feelings, and I have to say, Doctor Woods was a much better therapist than a demon, four monsters, and a witch. Doctor Woods would listen to everything I said before he gave his input. No one listening to me talk about anything I thought I might still need to process could do that. There was a lot of growling and threatening to eat people. Even my father, who had the best resting bitch face of anyone I knew, was offering to bring people to his dungeon and torture them.
We weren’t getting anywhere, and I was so relieved when Hades interrupted us. I pretty much adored knowing everyone close to me would cut a bitch if someone hurt me, but some of these people I still considered dreaded foes were now in their thirties with a picket fence and 2.5 children. They’d long forgotten teasing the weird girl in high school. They put me through some shit, though, and I wouldn’t mind my monsters giving them a little scare for some payback.
Hades looked intense, and Persephone was with him this time. I had seen little of her lately. Her bodyguards were jobless at the moment. Persephone was glued to Hades’s side, and I didn’t blame them. I could tell they were deeply in love, and after they had been forcibly separated, they didn’t want to be apart.
“Hephaestus made allies, but they are super vague. Honestly, I’m shocked the Fates even revealed as much as they did. Many Olympians and demigods have asked them about their strings and what’s in store for them, and they are super anal about revealing any spoilers. Hephaestus said Zeus has been visiting them every day for answers.”
“How does he know that? Is he safe?” I demanded.
All I wanted Hades to tell me was that Hephaestus was fine, and we were closer to ending this so my life could be as drama-free as possible dating four monsters and a god. Hades looked like he was about to give me a very Hades answer, but Persephone just smiled.
“Hephaestus is just fine. He’s right under Zeus’s nose, and he doesn’t even know it. The Fates visited the Horae and told them to help him, but they would have done that, anyway. Hephaestus is older than I am, but he always made me curious because everyone was so mean to