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HADES
Okeanos sat in a chair opposite a mirror.
He was still and restrained, head leaning back, chest gaping from where Aphrodite had stolen his heart. From what Hades knew, she still had it in her possession, though he had not seen her or Hephaestus since that night at Club Aphrodisia.
“What’s the mirror for?” Hermes asked.
Hades met Hermes’s gaze in the reflection. “So Okeanos can watch his torture.”
“Kinky,” Hermes said and then turned to look at the demigod. “I hope you tear him to pieces.”
Hades glanced at the god and raised a brow. “And you said I was a psychopath.”
“He ripped Tyche’s horns from her head,” Hermes said.
Hades narrowed his eyes.
“Wake,” he commanded, and the man took a gasping breath, though his chest rattled where his heart shouldbe. He looked around, confused, until his eyes settled on his reflection in the mirror, as Hades expected it would. Then his gaze moved to Hermes, then to Hades.
“Release me!” Okeanos demanded.
Hermes chuckled. “Listen to him. He thinks he can command you.”
“How dare you,” Okeanos seethed. “I am the son of Zeus!”
“So am I,” said Hermes. “It’s nothing to brag about, trust me.”
“You wish to overthrow my brother, and yet you use his name as if that will protect you,” Hades said. “The hypocrisy.”
“You are one to speak, God ofDeath,” Okeanos seethed.
Hades dealt a blow to the demigod’s pristine face, the bones giving way beneath the punch. His head snapped back, and blood poured from his ruined nose.
“That,” Hades said, shaking the blood off his hand, “is not my title. You would do well to remember, given that you are in my realm.”
Okeanos smiled despite the blood, despite his ruined face. “Is that all you’ve got?” he asked. “A measly punch to the face?”
Hermes cast Hades an annoyed look. Hades knew what he was thinking—I told you to tear him limb from limb.
Hades was not so certain he wouldn’t by the end of this.
“Go ahead,” said the demigod. “Do your worst.”
“The audacity,” said Hermes.
“I believe the word you are looking for is hubris,”said Okeanos. “Isn’t that what you Olympians like to punish? The so-called fatal flaw of humanity?”
Gods rarely needed to punish hubris. The consequences came about on their own, as they clearly had with Okeanos, yet he seemed oblivious to that fact.
“Why Tyche?” Hades asked.
Okeanos shrugged. “It seemed like the thing to do.”
“You ritualized the death of a goddess who caused you no harm,” Hades said, his voice shaking.
“There are always casualties in war, Hades.”
“As you well know,” Hades said pointedly.
