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"Anubis misses you," Thoth interrupted them. "You should see him with Tahirah. It would make any mother's heart glad."
Isis let out a small sigh. "So Persephone tells me. I will come and visit all of you soon. It… It has been too long."
"As much as I hate to admit it, maybe the humans need you again too," Thoth commented and rubbed his chin. "They need something to believe in again, and you were always so easy to believe in. They are forgetting how to cope, how to live, and how much magic is in the world. The stars are moving, and the age of Pisces is ending. It would be a good time to return. The birth of a new age is always an interesting time."
Isis considered Thoth's words even as Hermes tried to imagine how weird it would be if humans were openly worshipping them again. Hades and the Court had their own kind of strange celebrity, but Thoth was right. It was an exciting time to be alive.
"Please don't camp here for the night, Hades," Isis said. "Persephone will return to you in the morning. I have no doubt about it. Go with Thoth and Hermes now. Trust me when I say Persephone is safe in my care." She kissed them all before her iridescent wings wrapped around her, and she was gone.
Hades stared at the water, and Hermes put an arm around his shoulders. "Come on, uncle. Let's go and see what excellent alcohol Thoth has in his cellars."
"I might even let you drink some," Thoth said, opening a doorway to Alexandria.
Hermes had to physically turn Hades away from the water. He went through the doorway as enthusiastically as a man going to the gallows.
Hermes glanced across the water.Come home soon, Persephone. Or we will all suffer for it.
8
Kema and Selene sat in Thoth's kitchen, drinking gin and tonics and eating pistachio cookies that the house's magic always offered Kema when she was stressed out. She shuffled her deck of cards to keep her hands busy. Thoth still wasn't back with Hades and Hermes, and she didn't like it.
"They are going to be fine," Selene said, reading her too easily. She finished braiding her hair and tied it off. "Hermes will make sure Hades doesn't do anything too rash."
Kema stopped shuffling. "Have you actually met Hermes? If Isis has managed to hide herself on some kind of magical island, you know both Hermes and Thoth will want to know how. They won't be able to help themselves."
"I wasn't worried until you said that," Selene complained. Her braid finished, she sipped her gin and tonic. "Are you going to pull some of those cards or just keep playing with them?"
"I'm debating the merits of it. I have suspicions, and if they are confirmed, I don't know how I will keep my mouth shut," Kema replied. She reshuffled the deck.
Ever since she had been learning more about her magic with Hermes and Thoth, her cards had been doing strange things. The pictures would change as they pleased, and sometimes they told her things she was better off not knowing.
Kema screwed up her eyes and flipped the top card. The Empress. She was sitting on a throne in a flowing gown with a crown of flowers on her golden hair. She had a rounded belly and breasts and a cornucopia of riches at her feet.
"Well, shit," she muttered.
"What? What's wrong?" Selene asked, peering across the table at the card. "Oh. That looks like..."
"Persephone. I know. Shit. Notice anything else?" Kema held up the card to her.
"She's pregnant," Selene gasped and then looked about her in case Hades somehow stood behind her. "Holy crap."
"You see? This is why I was reluctant to pull a card!" Kema said and quickly shoved the card back into the deck.
Selene chewed on her lip. "We can't tell anyone until she does. Dark hells, it's starting to make sense why she ran. I would have done it as well, just to think things through."
"You say that like Hermes wouldn't track you down instantly. He could've found Persephone and gone straight to her. He didn't because she asked him to give her time." Kema drained her gin. "Thoth told me it's Hermes's way of being polite."
"Hermes would know if I was pregnant straight away. The caduceus would tell him. Poor Persephone. I wonder why she didn't come to me or Ayla. We are the medical professionals in the family!"
Kema shook her head. "You saw that footage of her outside the clinic. She was freaking out and obviously not thinking clearly. Besides, this family gossips worse than a bunch of aunties. She left because she didn't want everyone in her face while processing. She was smart."
Selene got up to refill her gin and tonic. "We need to keep this to ourselves."
"Agreed. I'm not going to tell Hades. I like Alexandria the way it is…" Kema stopped talking as she sensed Thoth's magic burning through the air. The feel of it still made her heart beat fast and her breath catch.
Hades appeared through the door before Hermes and Thoth. Her lover gave her a concerned look. He always knew when she was hiding something. She grinned at him and looked him over with interest to distract him. Not that she had to pretend. It wasn't just Thoth's magic that still made her breath catch. A tiny tick in the corner of his mouth was enough to tell her that he knew it too. She tore her eyes away from him and looked back at a forlorn Hades.
"What went wrong? You look like you've been kicked in the balls, uncle," Kema said.
