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I rest my head against his shoulder. “Tell me about it?”
“Tomorrow. It’s late. Come to bed.”
“When I have these babies, I’m going to stop being so tired all the time.”
“When you have those babies, I suspect tired is all we’ll be.” He says it fondly.
We make our way up to our bedroom, and I don’t miss Hades watching me struggle up the stairs. he mutters something about installing an elevator, but I pointedly ignore that.
It’s only when w eclose the door to our rooms that he speaks again. “He’s talking about rebuilding. He’s got a lot of good ideas.”
I don’t remind Hades that he said he didn’t want to talk about this until tomorrow. I also don’t say that this Zeus is hardly his father. The truth is that he’s worse in some ways, because at least the last Zeus was only motivated by selfish desires. He was a monster, but a monster firmly entranced in his seat of power.
This Zeus is a monster who’s been threatened. Who’s flirted with the very real reality that he might lose everything. He’s far more vicious than his father...and far more dangerous.
“The situation isn’t the same as last time,” I say gently. “Even if he’s not an ally, he knows how vital you are to the lower city—and that he has no hope of ruling here. He won’t attack us.”
If he tried, my mother and sisters would do something horrendous. It might be too late to sav eme and the ones I love, but they wouldn’t stand for an attack like the last time.
I don’t tell him that. He knows. He’s thought through this five thousand times, and he’ll do it another five thousand times before I give birth, to say nothing of after.
Hades doesn’t need me to reassure him. He just needs me to be here while he works through it himself. “What did you say in response?”
“I told him that historically, the lower city sees to its own first...but that maybe it’s time for things to change there, too.” His gaze goes distant. “We’re one city. We should start acting like it.”
I don’t even know what that would look like. It feels like the River Styx separating the upper city and the lower city has been a fact of life since the beginning of time. It’s ingrained right into the DNA of Olympus. Except... Alotof things have changed that I thought would be impossible.
Maybe this can, too.
“So we rebuild together?”
He shrugs, the move a study of nonchalance even though it’s clearly a lie. “I’m thinking about it.”
Despite everything, I grin. “You’ve already decided. You knew what you’d do even before you took that meeting. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Hades makes a face. “You see right through me.”
“I hate to tell you this, husband...” I lean in. “Everyone who knows you sees right through the cold, ‘I am the Darkness’ act. It’s not fooling anyone.”
“At least give me my illusions.”
Maybe someday my husband will finally acknowledge the fact that he is almost universally beloved by those who know him, but today’s in that day. I know better than to push them on this. Instead, I change the subject.” Would you like to help me decorate tomorrow? “
His slow smile is reward enough. It lights up his face causing his eyes to crinkle at the edges.” It will take US in an hour to decide that I’m underfoot and command me away. “
For all his jokes they are exactly that — jokes. We’re so busy these days, that I relish any time spent with him. If you help me decorate it will mean that he’s not surprised with a transformation when you get home, but that’s not a bad thing. Maybe this can be the first of the new tile holiday traditions that we built together. “You don’t have to work? “
“I can make time. “
My heart feels so full, its warmth spreads through me in a shot of pure joy. “I would like that very much.”
I’ve gotten used to waking up most mornings without Hades still in bed with me. He tries very hard to ensure that we have time together on the weekends for the lazy mornings I cherish so much, but the world is not always cooperate. Especially these days.
As such, my day is instantly a thousand times better when I open my eyes to realize he’s lying next to me and tracing abstract patterns on my belly. He looks more relaxed in the morning light, the stress constantly a written across his expression nowhere in evidence. He smiles when he realizes I’m awake. “Morning. I have wondered if you’d sleep the day away.”
I glance over to the nightstand to find that it’s already nine. “Hades! You could’ve woken me.”
“You needed the sleep. You haven’t been getting enough of it lately.” He cups my face and presses a light kiss to my lips. “We’ll get everything done we need to today.”
