cold gray eyes studied Persephone with an intensity that made me nervous.
“If?” Persephone interrupted.
“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Artemis tightened her sleek black ponytail before cracking her knuckles. “Zeus is hunting all of us down. We just need bait.”
“He’s too smart to take any of us as bait,” Ares interjected. “We have to assume he knows we’ve already grouped up.”
“He does,” Persephone confirmed, her hand returning to her necklace, sliding it back and forth along the chain.
I offered her my hand before anyone else could notice the nervous gesture. I didn’t want this group knowing all my wife’s tells.
“Not her.” Hephaestus pointed to Persephone. “He’s looking for her anyway. If he were to find her—”
“Not an option,” I growled, stepping in front of Persephone.
Arguments erupted from the other gods.
“It’s a sound plan!” Athena argued.
“Her! You’re not serious!” Apollo stepped away from the wall, giving Athena an incredulous look. “She’s just a kid.”
“She’s Zeus’ blood as much as any of us are,” Thalia pointed out.
“I said it’s not an option!” I looked to Demeter for support, but she was strangely silent.
“I’m not swearing my power over to a teenager,” Artemis interjected. “No offense.” She tilted her head toward Persephone. “But we all have much more experience fighting than you do.”
“Which is why Zeus will see any one of us coming.” Hephaestus’ mouth twitched on one side, wrinkling his mutated flesh. “But he needs her for his plan to work, so we don’t have to find him if we use her. He’ll do all the work for us.”
“Hey!” Persephone yelled over everyone else. “Don’t I get any say in this?”
“No.” I turned to her. “You don’t understand what they’re asking.”
“Then someone better start explaining,” she snapped. Everyone was still yelling back and forth to each other, so she pitched her voice louder. “If I don’t know what’s going on, I can’t help. If I can’t help, I’m not wasting my time listening to this. I still need sleep, you know.”
“They want you to kill Zeus.” Athena’s voice was patient.
Persephone’s eyes widened. “Kill him?” She laughed. “Me? How?”
“We’d all swear fealty to you. You’ll have enough power if we all pitch in.” Ares looked Persephone up and down and shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. He at least had the grace to look uncomfortable with what he was suggesting.
“I haven’t even come into my powers yet!” she objected.
“How are you not dead?” Artemis asked. “You’ve been away from Hades for weeks now, and you’re…really powerful. I can feel it. If you haven’t come into your powers, then how?”
I’d been wondering the same thing.
“I’ve been using them up.” Persephone shrugged, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears. “Easy enough when you’re at death’s door every five minutes. That doesn’t mean I can channel all of yours.”
“Not for long,” Hephaestus pointed out. “But maybe long enough to defeat Zeus.”
“I’d die.”
Hephaestus shrugged. “If that’s what it takes to eliminate Zeus, it’s worth it.”
I crossed the room in a flash and slammed Hephaestus into a wall. Black veins crisscrossed over his face, expanding into a spider web as they burst. He gasped, pulling at my arm.
“Hades!” Ares tried to pull me back.
I dropped Hephaestus with a thud. “Anyone else want to suggest my wife commit suicide?”
No one spoke.
“I’ll kill Zeus,” Ares volunteered.
“He’ll be expecting you,” Athena pointed out.
“If we find Persephone first—” Demeter clasped her hands in front of her and waited until she had everyone’s attention “—then we could ambush him. This doesn’t have to be a solo mission. We may not be able to kill Zeus, but we’re more than capable of holding him down while one of you does the job.”
“Where’s Poseidon?” Persephone looked around like she just noticed he wasn’t there.
“He won’t help,” Demeter said.
“We’ll see about that,” Persephone muttered.
I felt her willing Poseidon to come here. She put a ton of power behind it. The hair raised on the back of my neck. The other gods exchanged alarmed glances. Persephone really was too strong. Between the power she was born to, half of both mine and Thanatos’ powers, and all the worship she’d garnered thanks to Orpheus and his wife Eurydice, she was a force to be reckoned with. If she could actually control it all without endangering herself, she’d have a shot against Zeus.
Not happening.
“Gods! Can’t you people take a hint? I’m staying out of this!” Poseidon appeared next to Persephone, for once, wearing a shirt.
“Nice pajamas.” I smirked at his teal silk get-up, half surprised he