54

54

Fault

Charon and Cerberus greet me at breakfast the way they have the last two mornings since Dionysus’ Labor. Zai is sitting at the other end of the table on the terrace, far away from them. Cerberus might scare him more than Hades does. That could also be the allergies speaking.

He made it out with the others. Barely. They had to use all the rest of the vodka to do it. Diego also used all of his. Which made Jackie, with her two bottles, the winner.

Hades, however, hasn’t been home since the Daemones took him.

Today is no exception.

I stare at the chair where he should be seated. The swirling pit in my stomach is a new constant companion. It’s more than worry about not being able to get through the Crucible alive without him. It’s much more.

I don’t want to feel more, though.

“Any word yet?” I ask as I set my axe, which Amir returned, on the table.

Charon is watching me closely, like I’m a grenade that might explode at any second. “Some.”

Not bothering to grab food from the sideboard, I drop heavily into the seat beside him. “What?”

Charon hasn’t said, but I’m pretty sure Hades being absent from the Underworld for days is causing all sorts of chaos. And yet he chose to be taken anyway. Away from the thing that makes him who he is.

“So…what have you heard?” I ask again.

“You should know the Daemones already came for him once before this,” Charon says instead of answering. Cerberus nods all three heads.

“What?” I sit up. “When?”

“When you used the dragon teeth and the axe,” Cerberus says.

Exactly like Hades warned me would happen. Only he didn’t say they’d come for him. That sounds…more serious.

“He convinced them they were relics you already owned and brought with you.”

“Those are mine,” I say. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

Charon leans back in his chair. “He told us not to tell you.”

Of course he did. “Why are you telling me now, then?”

“Because he’s being a stubborn prick.”

I latch on to the important part of that. “‘Being’? As in you’ve seen him? Talked to him? Is he—”

“He’ll be fine,” Charon assures me.

My stomach bottoms out. “Which means he’s not fine now? What did they do to him?”

Charon exchanges another glance with Cerberus.

“He had no choice but to explain about giving the pearls to you with the tiara before the Labors officially started and not telling you what they did,” Cer says. I think he’s trying to be gentle, though it’s hard to tell in that rusty voice. “They threatened to kill you because he bent the rules.”

They threatened…

I can feel the blood drain out of my face.

Charon speaks slowly, as if choosing his words carefully. “He convinced them no rules had been broken and to give him a lesser punishment in your place.”

“Holy shit,” Zai mutters, then grimaces. “Gods, right?”

I return my attention to Charon and whisper through stiff lips. “What punishment?”

He looks away. “They cut his palms with the Dagger of Orion. For mortals, it creates a wound that never heals. For gods… He’ll heal, but it will take another day or two.”

I swallow hard. “Why didn’t he warn me?” I’m asking myself more than them.

“I warned you,” Charon says, turning harder than he has been with me until now.

“Not enough,” I snap. “You said I’d be punished. I was thinking restricted meals or solitary confinement or something. Not this.” I look down at my own palms, picturing the slices, and my stomach sours.

“Would you have not used the pearl if you knew?” he shoots right back.

I can’t hold his gaze because I don’t know. Meike probably would have died if I hadn’t. “Hades should have told me. All of it. Why is he doing this, anyway? The real reason.”

“You’ll have to ask him,” Charon says, holding my gaze.

I shake my head. “Why is it such a big, almighty secret?”

The ferryman makes a face. “Mostly because the more people who know a secret, the harder it is to keep. But also, partly to protect you from the backlash…”

So there is a reason. “And partly something else?”

Charon runs a hand through his hair. “He wouldn’t admit it, but after Persephone, Hades holds his emotions and reasons and actions even closer.”

I don’t like the way my heart pinches—for Hades’ loss, but also because…

No. I won’t give what I’m feeling a name. Naming it gives it power. “He must have loved her very much to be so devastated.”

“He did.” Charon tilts his head. “But not the way you seem to believe.”

I frown. “What?”

“They weren’t lovers. She wasn’t his wife.”

“But…she was his queen.” The histories and acolytes of the temples didn’t get that wrong, did they?

“Not through marriage. He signed a pact with her, giving her power over a portion of his realm.”

Is this true? “Which part?”

“Elysium.”

And now Hades has to rule it again without her.

Charon smiles. “Persephone had the softest and sweetest of hearts.”

Exact opposite of me, then.

“And she is the reason Hades made sure flowers bloom in the Underworld, so she never had to miss the spring when she was there.”

“That sounds like someone he loved to me.”

Charon and Cerberus both shake their heads. “He saw her as a friend, even as a younger sister.”

My heart contracts and then seems to expand with this knowledge, giving a hard thump. It shouldn’t. I shouldn’t care. It makes no difference to me whatsoever. Caring would make me a fool a thousand times over.

“My advice is to give your trust to him…” One side of his mouth quirks. “And a whole lot of patience. Stop asking questions. The Fates will take it from there.”

I already handed over my trust. And patience? Years of working off debt teaches you that shit real quick. But stop asking questions?

I drop my gaze to my feet, kicking at the base of the table.

Hades’ continued absence is starting to scare me because I think I’ve begun to lean on him more than I realized. Sure, he’s got his challenging points—arrogant, argumentative, dragged me into this shitshow of a competition.

But since the very first day of the Crucible, I’ve never been afraid of him. And there is one thing he absolutely is—constant.

Steady. I can trust steady. It’s inconstancy that makes me wary.

“Excuse me. Lyra?” One of the satyrs appears at my side. He’s holding a silver tray with two letters. One with my name.

With a small frown, I pluck the golden, gilded envelope from the tray and open it.

“What is it?” Charon asks.

“It’s an invitation to the next Labor.” I read back over the glittering words, then glance at Zai, who is reading his. For the next Labor, apparently, our presence is requested at Apollo’s home at a prescribed time.

We compete in another Labor. Tomorrow.

And Hades is still being punished. In my place.

“Shit.” I look up at Charon, trying not to panic. “Is he even allowed to be there?”