“I should have expected this kind of betrayal from you.” My father’s voice was as hard as the throne he sat upon. I hadn’t been subjected to a lecture like this since I was a child and I was having a hard time keeping my emotions at bay. “The boy is almost too old to begin his tutoring. He knows nothing about his heritage. How did you let this happen?”

I was tired of lying.

“I chose to,” I said simply. “I didn’t seek out Julio. I didn’t follow him, I didn’t stalk him, and I didn’t groom him, it just happened.” My father and uncles glared down at me, but I ignored them. “I was too late to save Julio. But Cayden gave me a second chance. I didn’t want him to grow up the way I did. But I made the wrong decision. Thero tried to tell me, but I didn’t listen.”

My father sat back in his throne and crossed his arms over his broad chest and raised an eyebrow. “And now?”

“Now…” I sighed. “Now I have to wait.”

“For what?” Poseidon asked.      

“Enough of this drama,” Hades snorted. “Ares has a second spark.”

“Impossible!” Zeus rose from his throne and towered over me. He knew how much I hated it when he did that, and he used that tactic whenever he could. If we had been on equal footing, he would have struggled for this kind of dominance, and I wasn’t going to give it up lightly.

“Is it?” I asked calmly.

I could smell the change in the air. A salt-laden wind that brushed through my hair and caressed my cheek. Amphitrite. There would be only one reason why she would be here.

Niko had made his choice.  

The only goddess to step foot on Olympus in many centuries materialized in the throne room, with Niko at her side. It took everything in me not to take him away from everything, but before I could move, Cameron, my father’s spark, stepped forward and pulled him away. It was better this way. I would have an eternity to explain everything to him.   

“Brother,” she cried. “Ares should not bear the brunt of your anger. It is Hera who is the cause.”

“You have already plead your case,” Zeus growled.

“I have,” Amphitrite replied. “And I will say it again. I am sorry. I should not have taken Hera’s side in this conflict. She preyed on my insecurities… my fears. I was wrong to follow her. I was wrong.”

“You should not be here,” Poseidon said.

“Husband,” she whispered. “I am asking to stay, and to be forgiven.”

“Your sisters tried to kill my spark,” he said sharply, his voice resting on the edge of a shout.

“I am not my sisters,” Amphitrite replied evenly. “And I am not controlled by Hera.”

The assembled Pantheon rose from their thrones to glare at this intruder, and the marble hall filled with the murmur of voices.

“Why are you here?” Zeus’ voice thundered through the hall.

“Forgiveness,” she replied simply. “And to see the child.”

“The child?” Zeus demanded.

“Yes. My husband’s child. I want to see him. Let me hold the boy and give him my blessing, this little god of stormy waves.” Amphitrite’s plea was so persuasive, so plaintive, that even my father softened just a little. Just enough.

 My uncle nodded briefly, and there was a flurry of footsteps, and a child’s laughter echoed off the marble columns as Hali was brought from the nursery. Brooke held his squirming son, as strong as a kraken, gently. He was a bright boy, but like his father, his mood was quick to change. He could be calm one minute and terrifying the next. A true terror. But an adorable one.

Though Brooke hesitated for only a moment, Hali, the tiny god of maelstroms, was calm when he was handed to the Pearl of the Oceans.

“He is beautiful,” she said, and I could hear the emotion, as turbulent as the sea, in her voice. “And so like you.” She smiled at Brooke, her eyes full of saltwater tears before she looked up at Poseidon. “And so like you.” She paused and cuddled the child close. “Perfect,” she murmured.

“Hera’s curse is not broken,” she announced suddenly as she handed the child back to Brooke. “The dagger… the dagger that killed Thero…”

“It is missing,” Apollo interrupted.

Amphitrite nodded. “I do not know who took it, all I know is that this dagger is a danger to us all. This dagger… I do not know where Hera acquired it, or who was responsible for its creation. All I know is that it must be destroyed, and there is only one among you who can do it.”

“Tell us what you know, Amphitrite, and you will be protected here… with us. Tell us the truth, and you can stay on Olympus.” Zeus’ voice was calm, but I could hear the anger beneath it.

“The Fates hold the key to this curse, Almighty Zeus. It is why even you must bend to Hera’s angry words,” Amphitrite replied, and I couldn’t tell if she was being facetious or not.

“The Fates?” This phrase came as a chorus from the gathered Olympians. There was nothing my father hated more than something he couldn’t control. The Fates were not to be trifled with, and even my father couldn’t argue with their decisions.

Except this decision. This one was special.

“You must find the Fates and beg them to release the curse. They have heard nothing but Hera’s poison for centuries upon centuries. You must make them see the truth; and what you have done with it.”

“Is this all you can tell me?” Zeus was intrigued now.

“It is. She and Persephone were very secretive in their dealings with the Sacred Three.”

“Where are they?” It was Hephaestus who spoke up this time and several surprised faces turned in his direction. A hush fell over the throne room and every deity and mortal alike seemed to hold their breath.

“Knossos,” Zeus said suddenly.  

“I will go,” Hephaestus shouted as he jumped up from his throne of jagged volcanic rock. “I will petition the Moirai for their forgiveness. For my father, my uncles, my brothers… for all of us.”

Zeus leaned forward to regard his youngest son. Hephaestus had always traveled beneath our father’s notice, but now he had the full attention of the Master of Olympus. “And what do you hope to accomplish, my son?”

“Forgiveness,” my flame-haired brother replied with a shrug of his muscular shoulders.

Our father said nothing for agonizing minutes. “Go,” he said finally. “Bring our story before the Fates… tell them everything.”

“Everything, Father?” I asked. Some parts of this story would not help us.

“Everything. If there is any lie spoken, they will know,” Zeus replied.

“Fine.”

Hephaestus nodded shortly and loped down the stairs to stand beside me. He slapped me on the back and smiled like an eager puppy. He would do what he could, and I would be sent in later to clean up his mess. Same as it ever was.

“Goodbye, Brother,” I said. He was my only true brother, and it was only fitting that we had defied our mother together.

“I’ll be back soon.” Hephaestus winked at me and then the marble tiled floor rumbled under my feet, and my brother was gone.

The bedchamber was darkened when I entered, and even though it was never truly dark on Olympus, somehow, Niko had managed it. He was sitting up on the bed, waiting for me.

“Ares,” he greeted me, and I felt my stomach tighten at the sound of my name on his lips. I would burn cities to hear my name on his lips.

“Was it a hard choice?” I asked.

“No. Not at all,” he said with the most serious expression on his beautiful face.  

“Liar,” I chuckled. He held his hands out to me and I stepped into his embrace.

“It was the easiest choice I’ve ever made. My father might not agree, but in time... in time I’ll explain everything to him.”

“You don’t feel any guilt?”

Niko shook his head. “None. My father wanted something for me that… that wasn’t me.” He reached up and laid his palm against my chest. “This is me.”

I grasped his hand and ran my fingers through his hair. “And you are content to be mine?” I asked. Niko’s olive-green eyes caught mine and held them fast as my hand tightened against his scalp. Niko’s lips parted slightly at the twinge of pain he must have felt.

“More than content,” he replied. “Are you content to belong to me?”

I looked down at him incredulously. “The Lord of War belongs to no man.”

“Kánete láthos,” he said softly. Niko stood up from the bed and pulled me close. “You belong to me.”

He rose onto his toes to press his lips to mine, and that all-consuming fire of my passion for him began to lick at my vitals. This mortal who had become a god. This god who had been beaten down and humbled by the most human of emotions... and had come through the victor.

Niko was beautiful when he slept, all tousled locks and curling lashes, and I wondered which of us our child would favor. Cayden looked like Julio, with his blue eyes and his pointed chin, and I imagined that this child would take more after me. A warlike boy with hair like flames and a battle cry that would strike fear into the bones of our enemies. But did we have enemies, now? If my brother was able to turn the Fates in our favor, Hera’s curse would fade away, and there would be noone to challenge us.

But Hephaestus… he had been a sheltered boy, forgotten and abandoned by our parents, and I could not be sure that he could be trusted with such a quest. It was an important task that he had accepted, and I knew that I was not the only one who doubted he would come through it as the victor.

The moment we needed the help of the Fates the most, was the moment they would be most resistant to us. If he survived this journey—if he could convince the Fates that they had made a mistake—everything would change.

Everything.