AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t you want gloves or something?” Hades asked, cringing at the squishy sound it made.
Apollo said nothing as he fished around. “Ouch! Motherfucker!” he said, pulling out his finger. As he did, he shook his hand, sending a spray of bodily fluids across the room.
Hades shielded his face. “What is it?” he demanded.
Still Apollo did not answer and grabbed a long pair of tweezers. This time, he shoved them into the wound, and after a few seconds, something clanked onto the metal table.
Apollo picked it up and rubbed his thumb over it. “What is it?” he asked.
“It’s the tip of a scythe,” Hades said. “The tip of Cronos’s scythe.”
CHAPTER X
HADES
Hades kept the tip of Cronos’s scythe.
He hated the feel of it—heavy and hot, as if the metal might burn through the fabric of his pocket and brand his chest. When he returned to his chambers, he reached inside to check it but found the metal was cool to the touch.
He was going to need it when he confronted Poseidon about how it had found its way inside a mortal man and far from his shores.
The blade itself was forged partly from adamant and had been given to his father by Gaia. It had the ability to wound the divine. Cronos had used it to castrate his father, and the blood that had dripped to the earth birthed the Furies, the Goddesses of Vengeance and Retribution.
Once Zeus had rescued Hades and Poseidon from Cronos’s bowels, they had taken his scythe, the weapon that had come to symbolize his power and struck fear in other gods, and tossed it deep into the ocean.
Then, Poseidon had been a different person, as they all had been, but it was never too late for regret, especially seeing the chaos his brother was so willing to cause.
Being mortal, Adonis would not have survived a single stab wound, much less the fourteen that had punctured his body. Equally as worrying was the fact that someone was still in possession of the rest of the blade. Being broken did not make it any less powerful.
What if these attackers went after a god? Even a minor one?
What things might spring from their blood?
Mortals likely did not understand the consequences of god killing, but Poseidon was well aware.
A shocking wave of hatred twisted his gut. He could not figure out who exactly he felt it for more—Cronos or Poseidon. Whatever game his brother was playing was dangerous. Something was happening, moving beneath the surface of the world. There were too many weapons that could cause harm to gods—first the ophiotaurus, now the scythe, and Demeter’s fucking snowstorm did not help mortal opinion of the gods. What was next?
The more he learned, the more he feared for Persephone.
He looked up, expecting to find Persephone sleeping or even awake and waiting for him, but the bed was empty. He panicked for only a second before managing to relax. He could feel her here in the Underworld, her presence skating across his skin as if she were beside him.
She was near.
He left their room and started his search of the castle, finding her rather quickly in the kitchen. She stood behind the island mixing some kind of batter in a bowl.She was completely oblivious to his presence, and he liked it that way for now. He could observe her freely, without any sort of mask she might put in place to hide herself.
He should not be surprised to find her baking—she did this often when she could not sleep. She hummed quietly as she sprinkled flour into the bowl and paused now and then to sip from a bottle of his whiskey, which was almost gone.
His brows rose at how easily she seemed to be consuming it, recalling that the last time she’d tried it, she hated it.
He wondered just how drunk she was.
When Persephone finished mixing, she poured her mixture into a pan, and he watched as she smoothed the spatula over the top and then brought it to her lips to lick away what remained.
She hummed her approval, which was Hades’s sign to make himself known, because he too wanted to know how it tasted—but on her tongue.
“How does it taste?”
He manifested behind her, so close his cock pressed into her ass. He leaned forward as she turned her head toward his voice and answered.
