I set up my forge away from the Olympians because I didn’t want to hear that, and then I was forced to sleep right next to it.
Zeus never understood me. He never understood women either. He’d been alive for a long fucking time, and he still thought the answer to everything was a pretty face and sex. I’d always thought that would one day be his downfall, but maybe it would set me free.
I knew Aphrodite hated every minute of this, but she could have said no. Anyone on Olympus could have said no to Zeus at any time. Sure, he mastered lightning, but that wouldn’t kill us. Kronos had several children, and Rhea could have hidden any of them away before he swallowed them. Everyone hailed Zeus a hero for getting Kronos’s scythe away from him so the Titans could be trapped in Tartarus, but after growing up around him, he probably just got lucky.
Everyone still kissed his ass about that, even now, and they couldn’t see he’d totally turned into Kronos. He wasn’t swallowing his children as Kronos did, but he was just as bad. He was an abusive bully who had no issues with raping women. I just didn’t know how no one on Olympus hadn’t realized that yet.
Yes, Demeter needed to be stopped, but so did Zeus. Now that he knew that we could forge a weapon to kill an Olympian, he’d never stop until he got his hands on one. I already knew who he would start with too. Hades would be at the top of his list. Hades was the only Olympian who had ever questioned him, and he hated it. He’d move onto Hera next. Hera and Zeus hated each other, but they liked to pretend like they had no way of getting a divorce. Instead of just doing that, Zeus would kill her.
He’d use the blade to strengthen his rule. He left Olympus to become a god once. The only reason he ever left Earth and came back was that he was falling out of fashion. But he loved every minute, and I knew if he could do it again, he would. He’d use my weapon to make damned sure every Olympian was on board and never questioned him.
I had to get out of this room, but I couldn’t leave Olympus. I had to find a place to hide and contact Hades. He had a plan to come here to get me, anyway. We needed a plan to get rid of Zeus because now that he knew something could kill an Olympian, he wouldn’t stop until he had his hands on it, or someone permanently stopped him from looking.
I put on my puppy dog face and smiled at Aphrodite.
“You’re right. I didn’t mean it. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and I regret that we aren’t still married every day. Why don’t you unchain me so I can rub your feet, and we can talk?”
Hook, line, sinker. Aphrodite might be beautiful, but she believed anything that came out your mouth if you also added a compliment about her in the sentence. She pulled a set of keys out her pocket and stepped towards me.
I would get to do something I’ve wanted to do since she set foot in my forge. It wouldn’t kill her for good, but snapping her neck would knock her out long enough for me to get as far away from Ares’s place as possible.
And Olympus was my playground when I was a child. I knew where to hide from Zeus.
Chapter 5
Tryphon
A
ll this waiting around was maddening. I enjoyed teaching River to fight, and her demonic form was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, but I wanted to go to Olympus. I think every monster in the Underworld did. We all wanted Hephaestus back. We couldn’t have ended Demeter’s reign without him, and he was just a nice guy. I didn’t mind sharing him with River or chatting over ale with him. I wanted to do all that again.
But every single monster here shared the same story—a god cursed us and we wanted revenge. It wasn’t just me that had a beef with Poseidon. Plenty of us down here wanted to shove his trident up his ass like a big pointy butt plug. I know I did, and I tried not to get angry often.
We were back to training River. Pavlina was working with her on throwing knives, and Demos was pouting because