Page 16 of Hades

“He never made it out of his room. Morpheus found him. He’s critical, brother. I’m sorry.”

“I need to get out of this fucking hospital.”

“Doctor said two more days. But I need to talk to you. Some shit went down.”

Eros whipped his head toward me. “What shit?” he asked, his voice low and deadly.

His eyes shifted from concern to cold and calculating. Eros was a scary son of a bitch. All those times he’d disappeared without a word, only to show up weeks, sometimes months later with no explanation. Now that we knew why, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be the one to break this news.

“Did Kronos know? About F.I.R.E. and the ink on your chest?”

“No. No one knew who F.I.R.E. was except the four of us, Nav and his dad.”

“Well, someone knew because you were all targeted.”

“Is Nav—?” Eros asked, trying to sit up.

“Nav’s fine. Cerberus locked him in a closet when the fighting started.”

The corner of Eros’ mouth twitched. “I bet he was pissed.”

“He beat the hell out of the old man once he got free,” I said with a chuckle.

The room went quiet, and Eros studied me. “Just fucking tell me.”

“Kronos is dead.”

“Fuck,” he whispered. “How? Who did it?”

I rubbed the back of my neck and stood to pace the room, feeling like a trapped animal as I searched for words to ease the blow. Eros looked up to Kronos. He’d joined the club without prospecting after saving Kronos’ life in a bar fight.

“Indie killed him.”

“What? Why?”

“Brother, I’m about to tell you something and I need you to keep it contained. I know what you’re capable of, and I need you to remember you got shot in the gut a few days ago and you’re still healing.”

“Tell. Me.”

“I also need you to know that Zeus didn’t know fucking shit about any of it. Neither did I. We still haven’t told Rhea, and Zeus isn’t sure he wants her to know at all.”

“Fucking tell me, Hades.”

And I did. I told him everything, my eyes locked on his face as I shared every disgusting truth we’d learned about Kronos. When I reached the part about Kronos being in the Brotherhood and what his road name was, Eros shut down and told me to get the fuck out.

When I tried to talk him down, the look he gave me sent a chill down my spine. I nodded and turned toward the door. As I opened it, Eros called out, “Hades.”

I turned to look at my brother. I knew in that moment, we’d lost him. Whether for good or not, I wasn’t sure. But he wouldn’t be returning to Texas with us.

“Take Hydros with you. He walks back into this room, he won’t be walking out.”

“Brother,” I pleaded.

“I mean it.”

I studied him for a moment before nodding and closing the door behind me. Hydros stood against the wall across from me. “Let’s go.”

He looked at the door to Eros’ room, then back at me. He nodded and fell in line behind me as I walked down the hall to the elevator. The space went silent as I punched the button for the ground floor.