Page 29 of Hades

The words hit me like a sledgehammer. He’d known. He’d shot Oceanus knowing it would land him here, knowing Zeus would have no choice but to lock him up. Which meant whatever Oceanus had said, whatever truth he’d been about to reveal, was worth this.

Worth everything.

“Why did you do it?” I asked, my hands clamping around the bars, forehead pressed against the cold metal. It bit into my skin, grounding me, keeping me from losing my shit completely.

He ignored my question and sat back on the cot. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, shutting me out, shutting everyone out.

“Dad.”

Nothing. Just silence. Just the sound of my own breathing, harsh and ragged in the quiet.

“He won’t answer you,” Ares said, his head still bent as he stared at his phone. “He told me no matter what I did, he wouldn’t talk.”

“You aren’t torturing my father.” The words came out as a growl. Low and dangerous, a promise and a threat wrapped together.

Ares finally looked up, his eyes meeting mine. Dark and empty and utterly without mercy. “I don’t want to. Let’s hope my father talks first.” He pushed off the wall and walked upstairs, leaving me alone with the man who’d stayed when my mother hadn’t. The man who now refused to explain why he’d just destroyed everything.

I studied my father. His jaw was set in that stubborn, immovable expression I’d seen a thousand times. He wouldn’t talk until he was ready. Maybe not even then. My phone pinged a text from Zeus telling the officers to get their asses back to church.

With one last look at the stubborn old man, the man I’d worshipped my entire life, the man I’d kill for without hesitation, I tucked my phone back into my pocket and walked upstairs.

Church was quiet when I walked in. I didn’t take my seat. Instead, I leaned against the wall, daring anyone to say a fucking word. Daring them to question me, to push me. To give me a reason to unleash the violence churning in my gut. Zeus shook his head and sat down, recognizing the danger in my posture.

“I just got a call from the sheriff.”

I closed my eyes, wondering what else could go so fucking wrong. What other nightmare was about to crawl out of the shadows and sink its teeth into us.

“Harlen Troy is dead.”

I straightened, my body going rigid. “Heart attack?” I asked, already knowing the answer, already feeling the pieces click into place.

Zeus nodded

“That’s the fifth fucking man in the past year,” Atlas said, his voice grim.

“Harlen wasn’t in the best shape. Could be natural,” Hermes added, but his voice lacked conviction. Like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

“It’s not fucking natural,” Coeus growled. “They’re all young. In their thirties and forties.”

“Coeus, dig into each man and find out what they have in common. I want to know their habits, their diets. I want a fucking genetic history if you can find it.”

“What about Leanne?” I asked, my mind racing, connecting dots that shouldn’t connect, seeing patterns that made my skin crawl.

“What about her?” Caishen asked.

“Leanne was thirty-two when she had her heart attack. It’s not just men.”

“It’s quite uncommon for a woman that young to have a heart attack,” Asclepius added. He’d been quiet since we came home. Withdrawn. Haunted. Carrying the weight of decades of secrets.

“Coeus, get their medical records. Get them to Asclepius so he can go through them. If we add Leanne, that’s six residents of Athens who’ve died from heart attacks in less than a year. Something’s going on.”

Six people. Six deaths. All young. All sudden. All fucking suspicious.

“Do you think it’s drugs?” Hyperion asked softly. He’d lost his best friend in high school to an overdose, and I could see the grief he still hadn’t fully dealt with. The pain that never really went away—it just got buried deeper.

“If it is, it’s someone new to town who hasn’t learned the fucking rules yet,” Poseidon ground out, his voice hard and threatening. The voice of a man ready to go to war again.

“I want everyone out on the streets. Find out if someone’s pushing that shit.”