the Percy Jackson movies, Roman. Remember?”
Roman just scratched his nose.
“You’ve shown us so many movies since we got out of prison. I liked the Percy Jackson movies because they were fun. Skoll and I started reading the book, but only for entertainment.”
This conversation just got weird. Skoll and Roman were a little scary, and now I find out they were into YA books. They were both massive and gave off this vibe they could kill me at any minute, and they were into fucking Percy Jackson.
“Still, it stands to reason other Vampires and wolves got interested in the Greek Gods at some point too. Tryphon is correct. Despite everything that is taught about how Olympus is paradise, and it’s quite pretty here, they are going to have to do a massive PR campaign if they want people to get over their past.”
Hephaestus finally joined us. He plopped next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
“That part is handled. I finally found out what mysterious business my mother wants to start. She wants to run a PR firm for businesses and celebrities. She’s already offered to do damage control for things that happened in the past. The Olympians are committed to making this work, Hera included, even if she wants to leave.”
“How are negotiations coming?” I asked.
Hephaestus just grinned at Seraphina.
“Your Fergus is a real hardass.”
She just winked.
“I’m quite fond of his hard ass.”
“The Fae have agreed to trade, but no immigration between realms until Olympus can prove itself as a stable and safe society for their people. That’s fair. Hell only allows realm travel by permission of the kings. Demons may vacation in Olympus with consent, and Hell’s policy remains the same. If a demon claims anyone in Olympus, Hell will enable them to stay. If a demon falls in love and wants to stay in Olympus, they will grant it. The demons apparently don’t believe in denying love.
“Amduscias, Barbatos, and Fergus had conditions, and we all agreed with them. Some of our infrastructure is unsustainable and requires constant upkeep from humans. Even if we paid them wages for it, it’s stupid to make repairs instead of putting in something more sustainable continually. Olympus doesn’t need gold roads and a lot of things we have built from gold. It’s nice to brag about, but should we really be bragging about something miserable to drive on because of the glare and how it continuously breaks down?
“They also require us to set up financial institutions now that we will pay humans. Olympus doesn’t exactly have banks. Everyone hoards their wealth in their palaces. We need currency. Amduscias has apparently gotten very into television and movies since he got out of prison and thinks it’s a crime we don’t have that here. Hell and the Fae have agreed to give us access to their movies and television. We just need to get devices here to play them on.
“Hell and the Fae will send witches and healers to see if they can learn from Hestia and Artemis in Olympian healing. They will also teach Fae and witch healing to anyone who wants to learn. Not all of it is by magic. Some of it is by herbs and potions. Humans can learn some of it, and Olympus will need as many healers as it can. It’s a good trade-off.”
This was good. The demands were fair, and everyone was getting something in return. I had hope for Olympus now. Eventually, they would start making their own art to share across the different realms. Olympus would subsequently be stable, and maybe some Fae would move there.
I didn’t think Hera would be a part of this. I thought we were going to have to kill her. I could understand why she wanted to leave too. She was still doing her part to make things work from Earth, and she was helping plenty of humans who wanted to go.
This could work. We were so convinced we would have to kill everyone here, and Hades’s big plan wasn’t going to work.
I was so glad we were wrong because this was beautiful to watch.
Chapter 31
River
A
fter alliances were made and they built houses, the Olympians didn’t want us there anymore. No one said it, but I knew why. We still had our weapons just in case we needed them, and Olympians only knew how to defend themselves with magic. We all saw how well that played out before.
Pavlina wasn’t waving Athena’s head around, but it was still in a