AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A two-toned beep alerts me that Zeus—Dad,for fuck’s sake—is indeed calling. “Time’s up.” I switch calls, disconnecting from Ares. “This is Hercules. What’s your emergency?”
“I hope I didn’t wake you,” Zeus, my not-Dad says, as if he can’t hear that I’m using full sentences and was obviously not in the middle of a REM cycle.
“You didn’t. I’m at the gym.”
There’s an exceptionally brief pause, during which Zeus is probably debating whether to mention that it’s almost one a.m. “I’m glad you’re up. I need you to clear your schedule and take a job for me.”
I release the band on a count of five and pull it back again. “What job? If somebody hacked into your shit at the shelter, that’s not—”
I’m interrupted by an enormouscrashin the background of the call, followed by shouting.
“You pirate-assmotherfucker.I’m so fucking done. I willendyou.” My not-Uncle Hades.
“You’ll have to try harder than that, sweet pea.” My other not-Uncle Poseidon.
An even loudercrash. Wood splinters.
Zeus sighs. “Hades, you’re paying to replace the table.”
“If you think for one second that I won’t tear this house down with my bare fucking hands—don’ttouchme, Poseidon, I swear on the graves of every—”
“It’s a hug!” bellows Poseidon. “I’m trying to hug you! It’s an expression of comfort, you obstinate asshole.”
“I don’t want a hug,I want to find that motherfuckerandsnap his—”
Hades’s voice fades, like he’s chasing Poseidon elsewhere. I can almost see Zeus in his house—in the house where I lived for a year and a half, which doesn’t make it mine—on the other side of the city. He’ll have his thumb and index finger to the bridge of his nose. He’ll still manage to make his exasperation charming. He’ll be trying his best to temper the mood in the room. I don’t know how he does it. Could be sheer force of will. But if Hades and Poseidon are at each other’s throats in Zeus’s house, then…
Things are not good.
“This is a mindset issue,” Zeus says, mostly to himself. “Mindset.”
“Want to fill me in on why your brothers are in a fight to the death?”
“It may surprise you to hear this, but that wasn’t a mortal battle.”
“Oh? What was it?”
“That was Poseidon doing me a favor. Hercules, I need you to get on a plane. There’s been a situation with Daisy.”
My heart falls out of my chest. I haven’t moved from the bench, but the adrenaline rush is as powerful as it was in the field. My face goes hot, then cold, then numb. If she’s dead—
“Daisy who?”
“Hercules.”
Heavy footsteps speed into wherever Zeus is standing, and there’s the sound of a collision, one body against another. Zeus grunts, and something slams on the floor, and I can’t tell what any of them are saying. A dog barks, loud and frantic, and doesn’t stop barking. That’s Hades’s dog.
Zeus’s voice rises above the fray. “Sit thefuckdown, Hades. Poseidon—”
“Give me the phone,” Hades demands.
“Do you need me to come over there and break up—whatever the hell this is?” I ask.
“Hades.Hades.” Someone—Zeus?—snaps his fingers. “Look at me.Conor’s losing his fucking mind. You know what that means. Hades. Come on. You have to get ahead of this. That’s the only option. Otherwise, I have to—”
“No,” Hades snaps. “Don’t touch me.”
“I’m handling this. Here. I’ll sit on the floor, too.”
