Chapter 2

Hades

Fury tore me up from the inside.

Persephone was missing. Cerberus was presumed dead. And the entire horde of gods believed I’d done it.

Themis stood before me, carrying a set of golden scales in her hand, with a white cloth tied around her eyes. Completely blind, she was also the Goddess of Justice.

She was cold, unmoving, and little more than a statue until the moment she handed down judgment.

I growled, looking at a glowering Demeter.

She stood before me, a regal beauty dressed in silks stained the colors of wheat, earth, and grass. Her nut-brown hair was coiled tightly about her oval face. She was not classically beautiful, but there was a sturdy handsomeness about her that had always attracted me.

Of all the gods on Olympus, I’d often thought her the most levelheaded of the bunch.

Until her daughter had turned up missing.

Rich brown eyes turned aside.

Clenching my jaw, I glanced elsewhere. My last hope had been a sign of goodwill from her.

Sneering, I stared down my arrogant brothers Zeus and Poseidon.

“It is not enough that you’ve cast me into this festering Hell; now you threaten torture! Do it, then. Do what you’ve always wanted to do anyway, brothers.”

Seeing as how a god could not be killed, the Olympians had almost created a sport of inventive ways to torture, be it being racked and laid out for the vultures to pick at my eyeballs for the next hundred years or being shut in a box and tossed into the ocean to continually drown and awaken over and over and over again.

The skies above suddenly opened with rain.

Rain in the Underworld never happened.

I glanced at Zeus and then at Poseidon (as the God of the Seas); he had the ability to control rain, too. But they both looked as puzzled as I felt.

Then Poseidon sneered, “Consort, show yourself.”

Consort?

That could only mean one thing. But Calypso never left the safety of her waters.

I sucked in a shocked breath when the droplets formed into the image of a woman more lovely than even the Goddess of Love herself. She sparkled like dew in the soft morning sun.

Hair of the softest green cascaded long and thick in waves down her back and front. She wore no clothes. And each time she shifted, I caught just a glimmer of tight, firm, rounded flesh.

As if unaware of the spectacle she’d made of herself, Calypso planted her hands on her hips and cocked her head, causing a tiny array of golden seahorses to glimmer like copper pennies in her hair.

And her eyes, when she turned them on me, burned like hottest flame.

“Your ghosts are fouling my waters, Dead Boy.”

Everyone gasped.

But not I. I was too devoid of thought to even think of uttering a sound. In all the years I’d known Calypso, two things were constant. One, she never wandered far from her home, preferring instead to live life as a water elemental rather than take on fleshy form. And two, she never spoke.

Not to those above land.

I couldn’t seem to pull my eyes away from the sheer beauty of a body I’d never quite imagined she’d possessed.

Poseidon was the first to shake the stupor off. “What are you doing here, woman?”

A long time ago, the two had been engaged.

A long, long time ago.

Around the dawn of time, to be precise.

Poseidon had called her a bitch with a heart of ice, and she’d caused a worldwide flood in return. Needless to say, the two didn’t get on.

Aphrodite curled her lip. Practically six foot, with a body built for sin, blond hair that fell past her knees, blue eyes that could rival the color of a cloudless sky, and a face that’d caused many a man to beg for death at the chance of having just one taste of her lips, she gazed calculatingly at a very naked sea goddess.

Suddenly the already sheer gown she wore turned completely translucent, and a wave of her power bowled through men and women alike. She hardly cared who worshipped her so long as they worshipped her.

I panted beneath the strain of a now raging erection, as did most of the others around me.

Even Artemis’s—the Virgin Huntress’s—eyes had gone wide, and her pupils dilated.

Calypso crossed her arms, pushing her already voluptuous mounds upward, prominently displaying them, and inclined her head as though in acknowledgement of Aphrodite’s prowess.

The Goddess of Love was a passionate, sometimes volatile woman and was known to have bouts of intense jealousy and rage when she felt in the slightest bit threatened by another.

It was a shock to see her lips twitch with what seemed more like amusement than disdain.

Turning a mercurial gaze on me, Calypso lifted a brow and tapped her foot.

“Well,” she snapped, “have you nothing to say to me?”

“Calypso, what is the meaning of this interruption?” Zeus shook himself as if coming awake after a numbed stupor, his grizzly bear–sized form intimidating to all but the main pantheon of gods.

As far as the gods went, Calypso wasn’t one of us, and that was mostly due to her hermit nature, even though her powers were equally as formidable—some even whispered superior. But instead of cowering in Zeus’s presence, she leveled her chin.

Where she’d been bristly just a moment before, now she seemed contemplative as her intelligent gaze quickly took us all in. Her moods were said to shift as quickly as the turning of the tides.

“Why is Death in chains?” she asked calmly but with a tone that brooked nothing less than immediate answers.

I couldn’t help but smirk when Zeus’s eyes bulged and his lips tightened to a razor’s edge.

Lightning cut jaggedly through the sky.

“Strike at me, and I’ll flood your hairy ass.” Heavy drops of rain punctuated her statement.

Her words were measured, even, without the slightest pause for dramatic effect, which made the threat all the more believable.

Zeus was Zeus, but even he knew not to further anger a crazy woman.

“They believe I’ve committed treason.” I finally spoke to her, my cadence as calm as hers had been.

Turning on her heel so that she faced me head on, she lifted a brow. A gentle breeze stirred the strands of hair hanging over her breasts, revealing tantalizing glimpses of shell-pink nipples. The weight of her stare felt heavy, almost oppressive. Had I been a mortal, I’d be dead now.

“And did you?”

Themis cleared her throat, looking directly in Calypso’s direction. “He is being tried now, Goddess of the Sea.”

Calypso’s laughter reminded me of the roar of waves slapping against wet sand.

“I know your methodology of justice, blindy. I am not amused.”

I couldn’t hide my grin.

I’d always thought of the seas as being deep but placid—impenetrable and at times terrifying, but also awe inspiring. I’d mistakenly attributed those traits to Calypso as well, and I could not have been more wrong. Oh, she was awe inspiring, but there was nothing placid about this woman.

She had the tongue of a shrew and a body built to inspire odes.

“You have no purpose being here,” Hera snapped, her cow eyes flashing furiously as she took a threatening step in Calypso’s direction.

The raindrops that’d been little more than an annoyance suddenly increased in strength.

It was Zeus who stopped Hera, placing a restraining hand against her chest. “Don’t,” he warned.

Poseidon’s dark-blue hair began to coil and writhe like charmed sea snakes about his head.

Calypso rolled her eyes. “Oh please, fish butt. We’ve danced this tango before.”

“Enough!” Zeus held up his hands as the skies cracked. “The worlds cannot survive another one of your spats. Put your pricks away, if you please.” He stared at both Poseidon and Calypso.

“He started it,” Calypso murmured, curling her nose in utter disgust and defiance.

Poseidon shook himself, causing a trail of hermit crabs to drop from his hair to the grassy floor and scuttle off in a mad bid to hide.

Aphrodite laughed as though wonderfully delighted by the sudden turn the day’s events had taken.

But it was Demeter’s gentle presence that calmed our moods.

“I only wish to learn of my daughter’s fate,” she whispered. “Tell us where she’s at, Hades. Where did you hide her body?”

~*~

Calypso

Hide the body?

Did they think Persephone dead?

Looking at Hades, I could see that was what they thought exactly. His jaw was clenched tight, making the muscle in his cheek jump and snap. Fury vibrated off his taut, firm shoulders.

I’d come to find out why the dork had let bodies pile up in my demesne, but now I found myself with an entirely different reason to stay.

When had Hades gotten to be so hawt?

That was the way Nim had said it once. That Sircco was hawwwt. She’d fanned herself while saying it, which had led me to believe that was an entirely different level of handsome. It was something beyond mere aesthetics, more like...“You are both handsome, and I wish to slather you in oils and sex you up.”

Or at least that’s how I’d understood it.

I very much wanted to slather Hades’ body in oil and have my wicked, wicked way with him.

I would start with his thighs maybe. Dig my claws into them, make him moan and writhe and beg and then hop on his stiffy and bounce my way up and down to satisfaction. I’d seen a sailor and his bride doing that through a porthole once, and it’d looked erotically glorious.

But my daydreams were being continuously interrupted by the shouting going on around me.

There was more blathering going on. Hephaestus—the little midget of a man with a wicked mustache and a shocking flame of orange hair—was shaking his fist at Apollo.

Beautiful Apollo with his golden smile and equally radiant head of hair was smirking down at the little man with the pompous arrogance of a prick. It was rumored Apollo preferred men to women. A shame, too; I might have enjoyed riding him.

Then again, there was a dark attraction to the broody, mesmerizing Hades that beckoned me in a way Apollo’s sunny glories could not.

Talk of bloodstained earth, Cerberus being gone...blah blah blah. I found myself annoyed by the lot of them all over again.

The blowhards were so bloody self-absorbed that they’d probably never notice if I just up and left now.

The gates were open now, the bodies polluting my waters no more. Technically I could leave and none would care.

I looked back at Hades and realized that somehow I’d taken two steps closer to his side. I sniffed as his scent seemed to draw around me—patchouli and wood smoke.

It was oddly...interesting.

I sniffed again.

From the corner of my eye, I caught Dite staring at me thoughtfully. I glanced up.

“What?” I asked.

She approached me, her big, beautiful eyes blinking back at me. “You smell of lust, Sea. I find that rather intriguing. Are you not a virgin goddess?”

I snorted. “If I smell of lust, can you blame me? Your stench washes through this place.”

A long red fingernail tapped upon her slightly pointy chin. “No, that’s not it. I recognize my own scent. This is different. And may I say, you look different, too. Last time I saw you, you were far more cool and reserved.”

There’d been a time in my not-too-distant past when I’d remained private and aloof, keeping no company other than Linx’s. I’d been content to take care of the children of Seren and wonder about nothing more.

But Nimue was a breath of fresh air, one I’d never even realized I’d needed.

I shrugged. “Times change.”

Straight white teeth gleamed. “You speak differently, too. Far more modern.”

I crossed my arms. “What is your point, wench?”

The tinkling sound of Dite’s laughter broke me out in a wash of goose flesh. No one around us seemed to notice or care that we carried on a conversation all our own.

“My point is, I rather like it.” She waggled her brows. “I’ve grown tired of this lot, but being around you, my love, is like drinking the sweet dew of ambrosia. I think we should be friends.”

I frowned. “I think I should drown you.”

“See!” Aphrodite snuffled with laughter. The sound was entirely unladylike, and yet with her being the Goddess of Love and all, the sound was positively charming. “You are wonderful. I do not need to worry about you smiling in my face and shoving a dagger in my back.”

The thought did not compute. “If I was going to shove a dagger into you, I’d do it while you looked on.”

I was confused that she’d believe otherwise; stabbing one in the back was bad form. Bad form indeed.

Wrapping an arm around my shoulders, she squeezed me gently. “How have I gone my whole life without knowing you, dear one?”

“Because I find you all to be beastly bores.”

Amusement continued to sparkle through her lovely eyes. She confused me.

“I agree. Truth be told,” she leaned in to whisper hotly in my ear, “I only came here today because Hephy made me.”

By some quirk of fate, the enchanting creature before me had fallen madly in love with the deformed little imp Hephaestus. Theirs was an odd match, but it was rumored to be a healthy one.

So far as Olympian matches went, that was.

“What are they doing to Hades?” When I said his name, I looked back at him and again experienced a wonderfully delicious sensation of heat whipping like lava through my veins.

He had a face that would make a master sculptor weep. Classically handsome, with dark, swarthy features. Deep, impenetrable eyes. Yes, I wanted him as my first sex partner.

“Whew,” Dite lifted her hand off me and shook her fingers. “You’re positively brimming with raw lust. So you want to have Count Dracula’s babies, do you?”

“Count Dracula? No, I do not know of whom you speak. Nor do I wish more children. I have plenty. I just want to screw Hades’ liver out.”

Dite blinked. “I believe the expression is ‘screw his brains out.’”

“Whatever.” I shrugged. Nimue often laughed at my inability to form proper phrases. “I want him.”

“What would you be willing to do to get him?”

“Make him my sex slave?” The thought had honestly never occurred to me. But now that it did, there was some merit to it. I could already imagine that big, brawny body strapped to my bed, naked and pleading for mercy.

I grinned.

“Not a slave, dear. You cannot enslave any of us.”

“Oh, I could enslave him. Without my permission to breathe below, he’d drown. He would be required to do my bidding in all things.”

“Such a deviant mind, Sea. I love it!” Dite clapped her hands prettily.

Everything about her was pretty. I might have been nauseated were it not for the fact that she currently amused me.

Themis held up her scales of justice.

Aphrodite leaned in. “They are about to pass judgment, and once it is passed, his fate is sealed. Which means you have less than a minute to decide if sexing up Hades is worth it.”

“What can I do?”

“All here believe Hades has orchestrated a plot to have Persephone removed from his Underworld. Offer to take him as your prisoner instead.”

Anyone who knew the two of them wouldn’t have a hard time believing that to be true. Persephone was the apple of her mother’s eye and a giant douche bag. She was spoiled, rotten, and self-centered.

Hades was also vile, loathsome, and fiercely dangerous.

My heart sped.

I stepped forward just as Themis opened her mouth.

“Excuse me, ladies and gents,” I curtsied quickly, flashing my most winsome and innocent smile. “I think we got off on the wrong fin here.”

“Calypso,” Zeus said through gritted teeth, “step aside before I make you step aside.”

My smile vanished. But it was the quick shake of Dite’s head that held my tongue. Swallowing my anger, I pinched out another smile, this one not quite as believable as the last one.

“What I’m trying to say here is, I want him.” I pointed at Hades, who now had his head bowed and seemed to be glaring furiously at the ground.

“Want him?” Poseidon snapped. “You are mine.”

“Oh, piss off, fish fart.”

Zeus held up his hand. “Olympus save me,” he groaned. “Calypso, the evidence is clear. Hades has either killed Persephone or knows the fate that has befallen her. Either way, he must be made to pay. And unless you have new evidence to present—”

I smiled sweetly. “Well actually, thunder butt, I do.”

He gnashed his teeth, and Aphrodite looked like she was about to come unglued from suppressed laughter.

Themis’s scales tipped sharply downward. “She speaks truth.”

Hera rubbed the bridge of her nose furiously. As Queen of the Pantheon, she had equal rights to demand answers in this trial. “Then tell us, Calypso, for all our sakes.”

Walking over to Hades, I once again was cocooned in the warmth of his scent. Placing a hand on his shoulder until he looked into my eyes, I asked him, “Oh, God of Darkness, tell me, when was the last time you left this hellhole?”

“I’ve not left in thirty-seven years and fifty-six days.”

The scales leveled out.

“Truth,” Themis decreed.

Turning to the crowd, I held out my arms, striking a dramatic pose. If there was anything in this world more dramatic than the waters of the deep, I did not know it.

“So you see, it was not him.”

“That literally tells us nothing.” Zeus shook his head.

I rolled my eyes. “Poseidon, you ignorant fool, tell them what you smelled back in the blood-soaked field.”

His eyes widened, and as I’d suspected, I knew he’d withheld one very important, key bit of evidence from the bloodthirsty mob.

Zeus twirled on his brother, his white beard beginning to darken and fluff up like a thundercloud. “What did you smell, brother?”

Behind me, I sensed rather than saw Hades’ head snap up.

“Just because I smelled it doesn’t mean that Hades wasn’t involved in some way. We all know the history of loathing that exists between the two.”

“What the hell did you smell!” Zeus roared. A flash of lightning struck at Poseidon’s heel, making him jerk away.

“If you weren’t all so quick to make snap judgments—” I said and then was rudely interrupted.

“You’re one to talk,” a deep male voice said. My coral was on Apollo.

I smiled; he’d be getting a nasty surprise when he got home later to discover his once-immaculate mansion now dripping with seawater and kelp.

Pressing on, I ignored his little jab. For now. “—then you’d know that the air reeked of Seren cone snail. A nasty little creature with a most venomous touch. That, oh,” I tapped a finger to my chin, “lives in the deepest parts of my waters and cannot survive more than fifteen minutes in the Above before dying. Poor dear. To be frank, there are so few of us here who could possibly get our hands on one that I’d be more apt to lay the blame on fish breath first.”

“You devilish hag!” Poseidon roared, and rain fell in thick sheets around us all.

But I remained toasty and dry, tossing up a deflective shield over not only myself but also Dite (since I rather liked her after all) and Hades because he was hawt and I wished to bang the liver out of him.

Everyone began yelling then, snarling at Poseidon to turn off the waterworks. I merely stuck out my tongue at him.

Themis’s scales leveled out. “All true. Judgment must now be delayed until I can study the new evidence that has come to light.”

Demeter lifted a hand. “Until Persephone is discovered, I cannot allow Hades to remain here. If her body is buried here, he’ll try to—”

“You have no right!” Hades finally spoke up for himself. “I’ve told you often enough what your daughter has done. Her wildness has led her here. This is not on me!”

“And yet her soul screams out to me!” Demeter snapped, her eyes brimming over with tears.

I did feel a small thread of sympathy; after all, I was a mother myself. Should any of my precious babies be lost to me thus, I’d lose my poop. Or was that shit?

Probably shit.

Poop sounded so silly.

I sighed. “I want him. I’ll take him. Considering he cannot leave my waters unless I grant it, he will be perfectly tortured until you can discover where Persephone has gone.”

“Tortured?” Dite frowned, obviously thinking I’d misspoken again, but this time I hadn’t.

I did mean to torture him. In every conceivable way. I’d make him scream my name to the very heavens. My thighs tingled at the thought.

“Calypso,” Poseidon drawled, no doubt ready to go all caveman on me again and claim me as his own.

We hated each other, and yet he hated to lose what was “his” more.

“Oh, shut your trap and go mate another porpoise.”

Themis shook her head. “I will now pass judgment.”

She had to mostly scream to be heard above the hullaballoo. “Calypso, Goddess of the Sea, your request has been granted. You shall keep Hades within your Kingdom for the next fortnight. He cannot be allowed into the Above for any reason while we follow the evidentiary trail toward the true culprit. Should he escape, he will be lashed a thousand times by Athena’s whip, chained to a rock, and have his eyes picked on by vultures for the next thousand years.”

“Oh, is that all?” Hades growled.

My lips twitched. He was funny.

“Hades, should all signs still point to you, however, you will suffer the fate laid out after the two weeks are up. I hope these terms are sufficient for all.”

It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway.

“Not really.”

“Good,” Zeus boomed. “Then take him and go.”