Hades held up his hand.
“You don’t have to tell me how bad my family is. They are horrible to everyone, including each other. I tried to change things, and they banished me here. Hephaestus and the rest of you need to think long and hard about something. If you kill Zeus, the Olympians will look for someone to tell them what to do.
“I think the only reason they haven’t overthrown Zeus is that they like being told what to think and what to be upset about. They’ve been alive for a long time, but they are stagnant. They don’t like thinking for themselves, and they are more comfortable being herded like sheep. They didn’t like me because I was saying things that conflicted Zeus, and it confused them. Rather than consider what I was saying, they just sent me away so they didn’t have to deal with it.”
Well, shit. There were only two gods I trusted to run an entire realm. Hades was busy with the Underworld, and I didn’t think Hephaestus wanted to be Olympus's supreme ruler. The rest of them, I flat out couldn’t stand. There wasn’t a single one that hadn’t hurt someone in the Underworld in some way.
“Can we just kill all of them?” Pavlina asked.
“I agree. Can’t I just eat them?” Tryphon asked.
“They aren’t exactly innocent,” I pointed out. “Everyone in the Underworld is here because of them.”
“I’m on board with what the rest of the team decides,” Demos said.
What the fuck? Since when was Demos a team player? He always had an opinion, and it was usually different from what the rest of us wanted.
Barbatos cleared his throat.
“I get that they have wronged you, but you realize you are talking about genocide, correct? Does the entire Olympian race deserve to be wiped off the planet? It sounds to me like they followed Kronos, then Zeus. Have they ever really been challenged and given a chance to think for themselves?”
River cocked her eyebrow at her father.
“I thought Hell was all about torture and killing when people did something wrong?”
I’d like an explanation for that too because it seemed like everyone had some sort of dungeon there and got off on it. Why wasn’t he more gung-ho to get them somewhere he could strap them down and peel their fingernails off?
“I have so much to teach you, my dear. We don’t tortureeveryone.That’s just cruel. Some people were merely following orders, or they lack basic intelligence and got tricked into something. We find that out and go for the ringleader to set an example. I don’t know any of these Olympians personally, but how do you know they won’t change and be better if you got rid of Zeus?”
Tryphon just snorted.
“Poseidon is just as bad. He turned me into a monster and kept me as a slave to terrorize and kill for him.”
“It’s true,” Pavlina said. “Poseidon is also a rapist like Zeus. He liked to rape women in Athena’s temple, and she’d always take it out on the woman and curse them. That was how I ended up a Black Widow spider. I used to dedicate my life to Athena. I already know if you kill Zeus, she’s going to insert herself as ruler, and she’ll be just as bad as him.”
“I agree with Barbatos,” Hades said. “This is my family you are talking about, and they aren’t all bad. Apollo, Hermes, Tyche, and several others always seemed receptive to my ideas and willing to think for themselves. Hermes likes his tricks too much to rule. If I had to pick anyone, it would be Apollo or Tyche.”
I blew smoke out my nose. I knew Hades wanted to save his family, but he wasn’t thinking clearly.
“Apollo or Tyche would be rational choices, but Ares, Athena, and Poseidon would never allow it. All three of them are going to want to rule, and they will want Hephaestus’s weapon to do it.”
Hades groaned.
“I’m starting to wish we had trapped Demeter in the Pits instead of ever bringing that weapon into play. If all of you don’t kill my family, they are going to get themselves killed trying to get their hands on one.”
“But the weapon is in play, and now we have to decide,” Barbatos said. “It sounds like killing Zeus won’t be the end, and Hephaestus won’t be safe unless some permanent decision is made.”
Hades bit his lip. I knew we were asking him to make a tough decision. We were asking him to pick and choose which of his family we killed and who we let live. I wouldn’t want to make that decision either.
“Who says an Olympian has to rule Olympus?” Hades finally said.
Okay, what the fuck.
We were all frowning at him. Where was he going with this, and why?
“Hear me out. Olympus is a vast place, but there’s not many people there. My family is inbred, but they stopped having children with each other because they didn’t want another situation like Zeus and Kronos. They fear siring more Olympians because they think the past will repeat itself, and their children will kill them.
“They brought chosen humans up there, and they make demigods, but no Olympians. The population there is more human and demigod than it is Olympian. You’ve said this Fae realm has opened their gates to allow people in. They are openly trading with Hell and Earth. Why can’t Olympus do the same? My family would do well to be exposed to humans that aren’t sacrificing and worshipping them, and there are things there that can be traded you can’t get in any other realm.”
