Monster Song (My Beautiful Monsters #2) - J.B. Trepagnier Page 0,9

my monsters—as much as they fought about the spoons the night before, they didn’t fight about who sat next to me. They knew I wanted to sit by Hephaestus, and they already seemed to have assigned seats.

Hades steepled his fingers.

“This is what we know. Barbatos, River’s father, has left to go bargain with the kings of Hell. If they agree to send a shadow demon, she can pop into the temple Demeter is keeping Persephone in and get her right back out. We were hoping to surround Demeter and get the key from her neck, but we have you now. What can you do with those collars?”

Hephaestus just shrugged.

“I made the collars. I made the key. I just made a second copy of the key. My forge, my rules.”

Hades just laughed.

“I love it when a loophole works in my favor. You said you had a plan?”

“Well, I didn’t know you already had one. I planned to get the collars off whoever was fighting and have them attack the audience instead of each other. Demeter will be pissed. While she’s distracted, the rest of the monsters in the dungeon grab Persephone and get her to safety. Once she’s safe, we can deal with Demeter.”

“I can still work with that, and all these monsters deserve a little revenge. I’m not sure when Barbatos is coming back and letting us know if we have a shadow demon to help us.”

Demos gave this epic hair flip.

“We might not need one. Most of Demeter’s army doesn’t want to be there anymore. They’ve seen her threaten Persephone, and they talked about how cruel Demeter is to her around them. They are thinking she’d be better off here, and they believe her when she says she wants to stay. If Demeter is at the fight with her inner circle, then I have a feeling we could just walk up and say we are there for Persephone. They would give her up without a fight if they were promised protection from Demeter and Artemis.”

“Still, let’s leave that plan until we know we won’t have Hell’s help. There could be some in her temple that are still loyal to Demeter and will kill my wife if we show our hand.”

“Doesn’t my father have a cell phone you could call him on? I mean, you have them in the Underworld.”

“Yes, actually, and it’s spelled to call across the realms. Give me a minute.”

Well, shit. I loved my cell phone and always got the latest model when it came out. It was like a shiny new toy. But sometimes, I couldn’t even get service in certain areas and here and in Hell, they could just dial across realms. My phone was still sitting in my purse at my clinic, but I wanted a phone like that. I didn’t know a single person in Hell to call, and I only knew a handful of people in the Underworld, but still.

At least Hades put in on speakerphone, so we didn’t have to listen to a one-sided conversation.

“Hades! I was just about to call you.”

“Hephaestus has offered his help to get all the monsters free of their collar. He has a plan to distract Demeter at one of the fights while we rescue Persephone. We just need to know if there is any progress on your end.”

“It’s already done. Bael would have done it without open trade between us. Solron wore him down, and her best friend Serafina had some words about it too. Trust me. You don’t want those two working together against you.”

“Demos will fight in two days, but I never know who he’s up against. Demeter recruited one of Athena’s who thinks I was rude to her once. She’s set up this encrypted server and changes the password daily. They keep careful track of who does and doesn’t get the new password.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing Solron doesn’t just like torture. She’s not just Bael’s lover. She’s the best hacker in Hell. She’ll find out who Demos is fighting.”

“She can crack something written by one of Athena’s children?” Hephaestus asked.

My father just laughed.

“She’ll think it’s a fun game, but she can do it. Bael also likes the idea of an alliance with the Underworld now that he’s thought about it. We now have open trade with the Fae, and we’ve created remedies that benefit both realms. Plus, Bael finds the whole kidnapping your wife and making people fight for sport uncouth. He thinks enough time has passed since the takeover