Worth It - Lisa Oliver Page 0,24
of instructions on his keyboard and hit enter. Leaning back in his chair, he eyed his sister. “What’s wrong with her this time?”
“That ungrateful bastard Hades has locked Persephone out of the Underworld. You have to do something. She is completely devastated, and she’s been humiliated beyond repair. I really need your help with her.”
Demeter did the whole sorrowful face and hand wringing thing really well, but Zeus had seen it a million times, and unlike the last time he’d been asked to intervene on the part of Persephone and Hades, he was unmoved.
“One. Hades is no more a bastard than you or I,” Zeus reminded with a quelling stare. “Two. Persephone hated being forced to go to the Underworld for any part of the year, something I’ve regretted insisting on for countless years. Why on earth would I intercede with Hades to let her back there now?”
Demeter looked taken aback. “She’s the queen of the Underworld. You decreed it and now Hades has taken it back. He’s humiliated her.”
“Hades did nothing of the sort.” Zeus checked on his screen, but the program was still working on his last set of instructions. “The Underworld, as an entity in its own right, recognized Hades’ mate Ali as Consort, so a queen is no longer required. End of story.”
“But Hades can force the realm to accept Persephone as queen again if you make him.” Demeter’s voice started to rise. “After the centuries my poor daughter tortured herself, forgoing the simple pleasures like the warmth of the sun on her face and the fresh sea breeze in her hair, all for him, he has no right to discard her now. She’s been a loyal wife despite him forcing himself on her innocent person…”
“Enough!” Zeus jumped to his feet, thumping his desk. “You’ve gone too far. Our brother never forced himself on Persephone, ever, and you damn well know it. I was the one who did wrong in that affair. I knew Hades cared for her, and I told him a grand gesture would win her heart. I was wrong. Persephone never had a heart to win. But in my arrogance, and through your fucking whinging and whining about it, I decreed that Persephone should rule as queen and insisted she spend time with him each year. I thought she would soften. I thought she would come to care for our dear brother, but she did nothing but make his life a living hell. I’m glad Hades found his mate and this whole nonsense has finally come to an end.”
“His mate,” Demeter scoffed, and Zeus sighed. That was the problem with having pushy relatives. They seemed immune from Zeus’s yelling. “How on earth can you condone the new consort of the Underworld being a chipmunk of all things?”
“Ali is cute, and Hades and the rest of the Underworld adores him. I’ve never seen our brother so happy.”
“It’s a freaking chipmunk.”
“And?” Zeus glanced back at his screen. Still nothing.
“Zeus! That wretched god of the Underworld has replaced my beautiful daughter with an animal. You can’t allow for it to continue.”
Zeus laughed and then tried to hide it in a cough. “Hades is his own man.” He said as Demeter continued to glare. “Ali is his fated mate. Persephone is no longer the Dread Queen. There’s nothing more to be done about it.”
“Zeus!”
“It doesn’t matter how much you bleat about it.” Zeus eyed his sister firmly. “Hades is happy. Something he hasn’t been in more centuries than you or I can count. He has someone by his side who makes his days and his job more bearable. Ali, as a shifter, is completely devoted to him and he makes a wonderful consort for the Underworld. I don’t give a shit what you, or your daughter, or anyone else says about it. Understood?”
“You haven’t heard the last of this,” Demeter swept towards the door. “I’ll speak to Hera, I’ll see my daughter queen of the Underworld again, you mark my words.”
“Maybe you should consider your reputation before you go doing anything you regret, sister,” Zeus warned. “It was your grief, your sorrow that plunged the world into winter year after year – the grief of a mother who’d lost their daughter to the Underworld for three months out of twelve. You wept and the world wept with you.”
Demeter’s eyes narrowed and Zeus smiled. “One would think such a devoted mother would be overjoyed their daughter was no longer plagued by the tarnish the Underworld brings its occupants.