The Promise of Hades (The Hades Trials #3) - Eliza Raine Page 0,35

my path fuels the demons, and the number of sinners grows every damned minute. Olympus is filling people with greed and hate, and that is not my doing!' Frustration was coursing through me. How many times did I have to tell them? How could I make them see what they were turning our world into, what the consequences of that would be, without admitting to them how much of my soul I had already lost to the darkness?

'If you become unfit to rule the Underworld, someone must take your place,' said Zeus quietly. Every pair of eyes fell on him.

'Are you volunteering to swap?' I asked him sarcastically. I knew he would never relieve me of this duty. And it was too late anyway. Virgo was a part of me, I was bound to the realm too deeply to ever be severed. If I fell, it would be to the dead. I would become a part of the Underworld itself.

'You would be a poor ruler of the skies, brother,' Zeus said, still not meeting my eyes. 'But I believe I owe you an apology.'

'What?' I wasn't the only one who looked shocked.

'The demons you preside over require more strength than I realized and we failed to heed your warnings. But do not take my admission of your strength as a compliment.'

His eyes finally settled on mine, and they were sparking with electrifying purple energy. Every instinct in my body fired a warning, and power surged through my veins. 'The darkness in that creature was pure destruction. And you must be full of it to have such dominion over him. You are more dangerous than I thought you were.'

I could feel myself growing, the monster awake and ready. If Zeus wanted to know just how dangerous I was, I would show him. Too long he had dismissed me, bullied me. And now he had experienced just a taste of what I dealt with daily, he sought to use it against me?

'You chose one of the strongest demons in my realm for Persephone to face because you wanted to torment me, because you wanted to watch me lose her, and now you are shocked when you discover how strong it is?' I laughed, long and loud, and Zeus's expression darkened further as he grew to match me. 'Brother, you have no idea what I am capable of. What I have always been capable of.' Blue light was rolling from my huge body, forming an army of souls that began lining up around me. 'You made me a king, Zeus. A King of the Dead. And I have all the power that entails.'

'And it will never match mine,' Zeus hissed. 'Just because I can't control your fucking demons does not mean you are stronger than me. You would not be able to control my lightning!'

'Nor could I control Poseidon's waves, but I'm not the one fucking trying to! You behave like a spoiled child who wants to play with everyone else's toys and it will end us all!'

'You started this when you deliberately broke our rules and created the thirteenth realm. This is your doing, not mine.'

'Stop fighting like children!' bellowed Hera suddenly, standing up again. 'Zeus, you have tormented Hades by bringing Persephone back, and now you must deal with that. Hades, your feelings for Persephone are clouding your ability to perform your duties, and you must deal with that. Now sit down, both of you.' Her voice rang out so loudly it actually made my head hurt, and the blue army of the dead shimmered and vanished.

Slowly, we both began to shrink back down. I caught the amused look on Dionysus' face and resisted the urge to lash out at him.

'It is extremely important that we do not have a repeat of what happened before. I am referring to when Persephone was sent to Tartarus,' Hera said.

'I agree,' I ground out.

'Then you will understand that you must not watch the last Trial with us, but guard the entrance to Tartarus instead.'

'What? No! If Zeus loses control of the hell-hounds they could rip her to shreds!'

'Then at least you won't have to watch,' Zeus said with a cruel smile. Before I could leap from my chair at him, Athena stood, thirty feet tall before my ass could leave the seat.

'Enough! Olympus is more important than anything else, and Persephone has the ability to cause the end of it, or plunge us into another endless bloody war. Cronos killed how many immortals before