“I did not say that.” Erebus shook his head, fixing his glare on the god of the Underworld. “You would be careful not to push me or my words.” Shadows rippled out from around Erebus, making a flicker of fear appear in Hades’s eyes once more.
“Tell us what you think, Erebus.” Poseidon encouraged, coaxing his voice to sound like soft waves. Erebus felt a deep part of him, the part that had always belonged to Nyx, cracking. He had been without her intimacy for well over a year now. The need to be heard and understood was creeping through his ichor.
“If this goes according to plan, I’m sure you would have a more permanent place in Zeus’s pantheon.” Hades shrugged, gauging Erebus’s reaction. He seemed unimpressed on the surface, but there was a slight shift in his eyes. “As would Nyx,” Hades added on. Erebus’s eyes glowed brighter.
“Better her than Hera.” Poseidon rolled his eyes, not in jest, but genuinely believing it.
“I… I see some merits in the idea of overthrowing Kronos.” Erebus chose his words carefully, refusing to say outright that he would support Zeus.
“As we all do.” Poseidon nodded. “Let it be understood between us that there is no love lost for our other brother.”
“He’s a prick.” Hades’s mouth twisted up into a smirk. “In case anyone was curious as to where I stood.”
“We always know where you stand, Hades.” Poseidon gave his brother a playful shove. “You never shut up about it.”
The camaraderie between the two sent another pang through Erebus. He didn’t want to find himself enmeshed with them, not remotely. It drove him to the end of his wits when he thought back to what it had felt like when he and Nyx had never been separated.
“Join us, Erebus.” Hades’s tone was once again somber. Poseidon looked at him with wide eyes, shocked that he would defy Nyx and directly invite Darkness to the fight.
“Careful, Hades.” His warning was laced with the ferocity of deep riptides.
“I live on the edge.”
“Listen to your brother.” Erebus’s voice had dropped once more, a shadow pouring out from his body and wrapping itself tightly around Hades’s throat. “You do not understand what you ask of me. None of you understand what Nyx is capable of.”
“You are afraid of her.” Hades stuttered the words out as the shadow tightened.
“I respect her.” Erebus’s form was threatening to break apart in shadows, his eyes turning entirely black. Poseidon took a few steps back, in awe of the torrents of power that were spilling out of the primordial. “Youcouldn’t begin to understand what it is like to respect and love, God of the Underworld.”
“Do not—”
“You will do well to remember I called you the God of the Underworld. Not of death, of night, or of darkness. Tend to the lands we have given you, Hades, and keep my wife’s name out of your mouth.” Hades opened his mouth to speak, and the shadows answered, wrapping tightly around his throat.
“We’ve heard you, Erebus.” Poseidon raised an arm to avoid the death of his brother. “You may want to overthrow Kronos, but we will let Nyx’s answer be yours. Be well.” Poseidon held his breath, hoping that the respectful farewell would settle Erebus.
He watched on as the shadows snuck their way down Hades’s throat, snaking around him until they were coming out of his ears and mouth. Hades choked, Erebus making a dreadful growling noise before he erupted in a rolling thunderclap. Darkness exploded all around them, sending both Poseidon and Hades to their knees.
The blackness dissipated as soon as it had come, leaving the gods shaking on the ground in the soft light of day. Erebus was nowhere to be seen.
“Well.” Hades coughed and slowly stood up. “It seems that Erebus is having some doubts.”
10
Erebus shook off the rest of his temper and went looking for Nyx. He had sensed her presence in Elysium when he arrived, yet she was nowhere to be found when he spoke with Hades and Poseidon. Their words bounced around in his head as he thought about all the things they had to say. Both brothers didn’t seem that they were overly eager to be involved with Zeus; Erebus didn’t love that part of the plan, either, but it seemed necessary.
Everything had escalated since Hera first began ransacking Nyx’s temples. Erebus’s heart was being caved in two as he thought about each moment that he was spending apart from the Night. He wanted her to be respected, worshipped. Even if she didn’t care about that, he needed the whole world to see what she brought to them. The rest of existence would be nothing without her. Erebus moved as shadows through the Underworld, descending into Tartarus, where he knew she would be.
Once more, he descended in his mortal form as he touched down, wanting to bear himself out to his wife—so she could see the expressions on his face when he spoke to her. Whatever was happening between them, this chaos, the unknown… It needed to end, tonight. Erebus had arrived in the blackness with metaphorical olive branches around his shoulders.
“Nyx…” His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, but he knew that she heard him. She was everywhere; she was the ether.
Nyx appeared in front of him in a whirl of wind, but only Erebus could sense her. She kept her intangible form.
“Erebus.” The word was noncommittal and sent a pang of sadness through his chest. Nyx’s unwillingness to appear in her corporeal body was another message.
“The gods were here.” He knew that she was aware—she knew everything that happened in the Underworld—but it felt like something they needed to discuss.
“I know.”
