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“It seemed bad, but…not out of the ordinary, right? Nightmares had to be common.”
He lets out another breath and blinks, then blinks again. “It was extremely out of the ordinary.”
“Guys scream, you know. It happens.”
“Not Hades.”
“No.”
We sit in silence for a minute.
“Are you going to tell me why?”
He thinks about it. “You know he can’t be in the light, and the painkillers, all that. Daisy’s the same way.”
“Yeah.”
This bacon is really good.
“We didn’t grow up in a good situation.”
“Ares said something about a farmhouse. And you had a nanny.” I’m not arguing with him. The bits and pieces I’ve overheard or ignored don’t come to mind, so this is all I’m working with right now.
“Our foster father was a man named Cronos, and he hated us.”
“But you’re so charming.”
Zeus laughs, the sound hollow. “He was the one who originally owned the whorehouse. I learned to run it from him. He liked for me to keep things calm so the clients would spend more money. Poseidon mainly fought with him. Cronos had some ideas about getting into shipping, but…” Zeus waves a hand. “It never worked out. Poseidon was too stubborn.”
I don’t like where this is leading.
“Hades was supposed to take my spot.”
“What does that mean?”
“He was the one Cronos wanted at the whorehouse, for whatever reason. It didn’t work out that way.”
“Because?”
“Because he figured out that if he took Hades out into the sun, he’d have a seizure. And all that—” Zeus puts a hand to his chest, like he can feel the unforgiving pressure. “Would go into the ground and become diamonds.”
“You’re fucking with me.”
“Not even a little.”
“Is that why…” I think of everything I’ve heard about the mountain where Hades used to live. How luxurious a prison it was. “Is that why he went to the mountain?”
“It didn’t come with diamond mines when he bought it, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Christ.”
“Yeah. I thought he’d die before Demeter grew those poppies. I asked every doctor I thought I could trust at the whorehouse for ways to slow it down, or stop it, but the damage was done by the time I had any real sway there.”
“How long…” I don’t know which question to ask, or which answer I’m looking for. “His whole life?”
“I’m not sure how early Cronos figured it out. And when Hades was small, so were the diamonds.”
“Meaning…”
