temper on her, and she could be twisted about things in a way I adored. But despite what happened with Demeter, she wasn’t a killer like the rest of us. I don’t think she’d fully processed what happened with Demeter. Or, maybe she had. I was gone so much after that, and I didn’t have long with her before Zeus snatched me like Hades and I knew he would.
I was still hiding in the walls and spying on Zeus until it was time to go back to the Horae and sneak everyone in. I still had a few hours to go, and Zeus was furious.
“What do you mean you can’t get in? Just kick the fucking door down!”
“If Hephaestus could make a weapon that could kill us, don’t you think he also made a door I can’t get into? I’m down for the count. I have to heal before I make any more attempts to break in.”
What the fuck did Ares do? My volcano wasn’t booby-trapped unless you considered the location. Ares had a habit of punching things. I’m sure his knuckles were so calloused, beating my door did nothing, and healing a broken hand was nothing to us. Zeus knew this too.
“If you broke something, you should be healed by now, Ares! Get back to work.”
“His forge is in a fucking volcano! I tried an alternate route. I have lava burns on my ass. Seriously, it nearly melted my perfect ass right off. I have to regrow my ass, Zeus. If he’s in there, I’m going to find those weapons and murder him with them. You’ve seen my ass, right? It’s nicer than anyone’s ass in all of Olympus.”
I guffawed so loudly I nearly gave away my position behind the wall. Only Ares was dumb enough to break into my forge through the lava. He probably thought he was so powerful it wouldn’t burn him. Ares had never been a smart Olympian, but at least he had a nice ass going for him. Until he burned it off in my volcano. I could not stop giggling like a child.
“I don’t want to hear about your ass again, Ares. We’ve all seen it, and we’re tired of you showing it off. I want results!”
“Regrowing your ass is painful, you wanker. It’s not just that my ass is fabulous, and I’m mad about it. It fucking hurts. I’ll bet he did something to that lava.”
“He made a weapon that can kill us! Of course he did something to the lava, Ares. He’s a cripple and bitter about it. Do you honestly think he’s going to fight fair?”
I was biting my fist. I was trying not to laugh so hard. Nothing Zeus said about me could hurt me anymore. He feared me. He was so afraid of me now he didn’t even want to entertain the notion Ares burned his ass on lava because it was lava. I was now so evil to him, I personally burned Ares’s entire ass off out of spite. Honestly, after listening to him talk about it so much and seeing it in my bed plowing my wife, I wish I was responsible for that.
“Well, then send backup! I’ll bet Athena can figure out all his traps. Have Poseidon drop enough water in this fucking volcano until he floats out.”
“Figure it out, Ares! I’m not bringing Athena or Poseidon in on this until I have that weapon in my hands.”
So, Zeus was worried about his family getting their hands on that knife and doing away with him. It would help if we had some Olympians on our side, but I trusted Athena and Poseidon as much as I trusted Zeus and Ares. In fact, the only person in my entire family I could actually trust in this was Hades, and that was because he had shown me I could.
I wasn’t technically related to the Horae or the Fates. They had been here since the Titans and rarely took sides. They had this time. I had been gone for a long time, but I hadn’t seen any significant changes. They still treated humans like garbage, and Olympians were still arrogant, spoiled children.
Ares and Zeus had stopped talking, and Zeus stormed out of his war room. I disappeared back into one of Zeus’s love nests, but I had questions now.
What the fuck had gone down here while I was gone that the Fates were ready to cut strings now? My family had done so much horrible shit. The Fates