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Finally, Zeus clears his throat.
“Okay.” His voice is wobbly and strained. Anything could set him off, and part of me wants to. I’d rather listen to them laugh than listen to them cry and worry. “Anything we need to do before Demeter gets here? I’d imagine we’ll be in this room until she can test some options and find one that works.”
“Yes,” I say, before anyone can get ahead of me and laugh for another hour.
“What is it, Daze?”
“I want to sleep in my bed tonight.”
I don’t sayone last time.
16
HERCULES
Daisy is so worndown already that it’s only a matter of waiting until she feels like it’sbedtime.She makes it until shortly after ten. Not that the light in the house is any different. It’s always dark, now, and it will be unless Demeter comes through with miracle painkillers. From what I understand, she’s done it once before, not twice, so there’s not so much third-in-a-list-of-threes bullshit hanging over her upcoming visit.
Hades carries his daughter upstairs for the night, staying in contact for as long as he can, and then we start a production that has a real last-time energy.
I hate it.
This isn’t the last time Daisy’s going to sleep in her own bed. It’s fucking not. Even if it feels like that.
She arranges her head on the pillow, and both her parents hover around and kiss her goodnight. Persephone’s the only one who manages to pull off acting casual, and then she has to drag Hades out by the arm. Impressive, honestly. She must have some secret power over him.
Then we’re alone in the dark.
I get into the bed next to Daisy and pull her into my arms. She lets out a contented little sigh.
“Baby.” She could be asleep already, with how tired she’s been.
“Yes?”
“What’s the deal with the bed?”
“It’s…” A long pause. “A semi-firm mattress, and I’d say I’ve had it since I was sixteen, but I’m not sure if—”
“Why did you want to sleep in here?”
“Give my dad a break.”
Her hair is so soft. There’s not a single knot in it. I run my fingers through it again and again with no resistance.
“I don’t think he wants a break.”
Hades isn’t taking one, anyway. He’s sitting in the hallway outside the door. Zeus is monitoring the app to make sure the distance doesn’t kill Daisy. The plan is for him to move toward the bedroom in fifteen-minute increments so we don’t set anything off.
“It could take a while to grow the right flowers for the painkillers.”
“What flowers?”
“They’remadefrom flowers. Demmy made them for him first, with—with—” A huge yawn interrupts her, and a pure, cold terror clutches at my chest. There’s no nightmare in the room now. None of the dread, or the pressure, or the sense of something hovering in the dark. I can’t even feel it in the distance. “A certain kind of moonflower. And poppies she bred.”
“She did that for him, and he keeps her on a mountain?”
Daisy laughs. “He doesn’tkeepher there. She and Gio want to stay.”
“He was keeping her there before, though.”
