Chapter 5
Tryphon
A
ll this waiting around was maddening. I enjoyed teaching River to fight, and her demonic form was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, but I wanted to go to Olympus. I think every monster in the Underworld did. We all wanted Hephaestus back. We couldn’t have ended Demeter’s reign without him, and he was just a nice guy. I didn’t mind sharing him with River or chatting over ale with him. I wanted to do all that again.
But every single monster here shared the same story—a god cursed us and we wanted revenge. It wasn’t just me that had a beef with Poseidon. Plenty of us down here wanted to shove his trident up his ass like a big pointy butt plug. I know I did, and I tried not to get angry often.
We were back to training River. Pavlina was working with her on throwing knives, and Demos was pouting because he wanted to take her flying with those spiffy new bat wings she had. She promised him that later they could. May I say that I loved how Pavlina was dressing River? So much black leather, so little time.
River was trying to fling knives while fending off my tentacles when Hades came running into the room. I had no idea what he wanted, considering we hadn’t seen him in a while, so he could try to placate Zeus verbally. Like that would ever work, but we had to keep up appearances. River dropped her knife to her side, and I used the opportunity to yank her to my chest before Kimon could grab her. That Minotaur was sneaky with his hugs.
“Please tell me we are going to Olympus now,” she said.
Hades ran his fingers through his black hair.
“Hephaestus jumped the gun and escaped. Zeus will most likely be coming here to search for him.”
“Where is he?” River demanded.
I’d like to know that myself. Hephaestus always came to River when he was here. The only time he was apart from her was when he was on god business. Was he caught? Hades looked furious and started pacing.
“Hephaestus has some good points and some terrible ones. On the one hand, Zeus will not stop now that he knows there’s a weapon out there like that. On the other, Hephaestus wants to kill Zeus.”
And the problem with that was what now? Kill them all. I’d never dined on Olympian before. I’d knife them in the heart and feast on god flesh. Fuck, I’d eat every last one of them until I got a little tummy ache. I looked at Pavlina, and she gave me a curt nod. She wouldn’t mind eating them either. They’d hurt every last person in this room, including Hades.
Kimon just rumbled.
“I think we should let him. Zeus hurt Hephaestus, and I doubt they were having tea while Zeus had him now. Kill them all!”
“Zeus is going to be even angrier because Hephaestus snapped Aphrodite’s neck to escape.”
“Go Hephaestus,” Pavlina said.
“I wouldn’t mind snapping that bitch’s neck either,” River growled.
“We aren’t mad at Aphrodite, remember?” Hades pointed out.
“I am,” River said.
“I’ve never liked her,” Demos sniffed.
“She’s not all that bad,” Persephone said, floating into the room.
That was Persephone for you. She was always looking for the good in people. I met Aphrodite through Poseidon, and she was a total twit. I didn’t have to ask him to know how she treated Hephaestus. I wouldn’t mind snapping her neck myself.
“Oh, she is,” Kimon said. “Remember when you had lunch, and she dumped that stupid kombucha on the waiter because he messed up the photo she was taking for her Instagram?”
Persephone grimaced.
“Okay, yeah. She is pretty bad.”
“When Zeus realizes he’s gone, he’s going to come here looking,” Hades moaned. “Ihatewhen he visits.”
Barbatos had been watching training.
“If the goal is to kill Zeus, why don’t we kill him at the gate? He had to knock the last time. I guess he doesn’t know about the entrance I used?”
