Prison of Hope (32 page)

We’d reached the SUVs when Eos called out from behind us. We all waited by the cars as she left the security of the mansion’s grounds and walked over to me.

She hugged me tightly and grabbed my hand, leaving
something
that felt like paper inside. “This address in thirty
minutes
,” she whispered. “There are things you need to know. Do not be late.” Then she turned and walked back past the gates, which closed after her.

Once I was at the car, I opened the paper, making sure I kept my back to the gates. The address written on it was for a bar not too far from where we were. I told Tommy and Olivia.

“What do you think she wants to talk about?” Tommy asked.

“No idea.” I said. “I guess we’d better go find out.”

Tommy took the car with me on the short trip, presumably because Olivia had her phone out and was talking on it before we’d even reached the cars.

“So, that went better than expected,” Tommy said once we were on our way.

I turned toward my friend. “In what way is that true?”

He ticked the reasons off on his fingers. “One, you didn’t try to tear Deimos into tiny bite-sized chunks. Two, no one died. And three, I managed to keep my temper when that fucking
asshole
spoke down to Olivia like she was something found on the bottom of her shoe.”

“I noticed that,” I admitted. “I was very proud of you. Being all grown up and everything.”

“I’ve been practicing. So far I’ve gone a few years without tearing anyone’s head off for pissing me off. It’s going well.”

I laughed. “Glad to hear it. You know Hera could have killed us all if she’d had the inclination.”

“Oh, yeah, the woman terrifies me. I wonder if she really did kill Zeus. If I were him, I’d have gone into hiding long before she got the chance.”

“Don’t know. My gut tells me he’s dead. But I’ve thought people were dead before, and they popped right back up. If Zeus isn’t dead, he’s somewhere far away from anyone who knows him. Either Hera killed him or removed him from the picture. Either way, something bad happened to him.”

“So, how was seeing Selene again? You managed to embarrass Deimos. Again.”

“Everyone needs a hobby.”

“Pissing off that psychotic little prick is probably one that will come back to bite you in the ass, though.”

“He can get in line; I’m busy.”

Tommy was quiet for a few seconds. “Do you think Kasey
is okay?”

“She’s fine; certainly she’ll be enjoying herself more than we are. But if you’re worried, call her. Brutus wouldn’t let anything happen to her, and Diana certainly won’t. Would you want to go up against Diana?”

“I’d rather fight Cronus.” He took his phone from his pocket and dialed, talking to Kasey a moment later. When he’d hung up, he turned to me. “Kasey said that she wants to go back to Brutus’s place at some point in the future. Diana said there’s loads of stuff she probably won’t get to see.”

“Glad to hear she’s enjoying herself.”

“Living with a teenage girl is like walking through a tiger-infested forest; you’re pretty sure you know where the trouble’s coming from, and you try to avoid it, but just as you think you’re scot-free, a big fucking mass of trouble jumps out at you.”

I laughed. “But I guarantee you: you wouldn’t change it for the world.”

“Nate, I’ve considered shooting her with a tranquilizer dart, just so she’d stop being a moody shit. But, no, I wouldn’t change it for the world. She’s my little girl. Always will be.”

I patted him on the shoulder. “Plan on having more?”

“Fuck no!”

We both laughed as the car pulled to a stop, and were still laughing as we got out and met Olivia. “What’s so funny?”
she asked.

“Nate wanted to know if we were going to have more kids.”

“Fuck no,” Olivia expressed, making Tommy and me l
augh again.

“Every day I wonder if I behaved toward my mum the way Kasey does,” she said as we waited by the cars.

“Did you?”

“Almost certainly. I think the only difference is that my mum was more apt at throwing stuff at my head when I did.”

“Did that make you stop?”

Olivia shook her head. “I think the days of pelting our children with stuff are sadly behind us.”

“Parents these days,” I said with a grin.

“Very funny,” Olivia said. “We’ll send her to stay with you for a week, see how you take to having her roll her eyes at you every time
you
say something.”

I laughed, and it felt good to remove some of the anger and tension that had built up inside me.

The bar was off the main street and appeared to be a fairly classy establishment, with very few people in there. The area was quiet, and there was a park nearby with two policemen walking through it.

“You can go in, you know,” Eos told us from the darkness that sat at the edge of the building. She stepped into view, under one of the nearby streetlights attached to the wall overhead.

Tommy held the door open for Olivia and Eos, who both nodded a thanks. He even held it open for me.

“Good job that, man,” I said in my best upper-class accent.

“No tip?” Tommy exclaimed. “Fucking cheapskate.”

I flipped him my middle finger, which caused Tommy to laugh, gaining the notice of everyone in the quiet bar.

“Are you two done?” Eos asked. When we nodded, she spoke to an older man behind the horseshoe-shaped counter, and he pointed to a booth in the corner.

“You want anything to drink?” he asked Eos. She asked only for a jug of water and four glasses, but left a fifty-pound note on the counter, which vanished a moment later.

“What was that all about?” I asked as I sat at the booth opposite Eos while the jug and glasses were placed between us.

“I didn’t want us to be interrupted,” she told me and turned to Olivia. “Are those guards of yours just going to stay outside all the time?”

“Yes,” Olivia said. “Nate, if you say anything about them not being housebroken, I will kick you in the ballsack.”

Tommy had poured himself some water and found it difficult to laugh and drink at the same time. He gagged, then coughed violently.

“That’ll learn ya,” I said. “Why are we here?” I asked Eos.

“Because you’re a fucking idiot.”

That wasn’t quite what I was expecting. “You probably could have told me that without all the secrecy,” I pointed out.

“Your turning up at Hera’s tonight went down about as well as a fart in an elevator, but that isn’t actually what I’m referring to. You have this anger against my dad and sister, and it blinds you. It’s time you knew what happened and why she left you.”

“We don’t have time for this,” I said and tried to move, but Tommy wasn’t budging, so I sat back down.

“You listen to my words, and maybe they’ll enlighten you. You do it without comment, and then I’ll tell you what I know about Cronus and Hera.”

“Do you know where Cronus is going?” Olivia asked. “Because if you don’t tell us—”

“You have a few hours before he arrives. More than enough time to listen to me and still get there. I don’t wish to have anyone’s death on my conscience, but it’s time for Nate to listen for a change. Because everything that’s happening here links back to you.”

“Ummm, how in the hell is that possible?” I asked.

Eos looked between Tommy and Olivia. “You sure you want them knowing?”

“Tommy knows everything about me, so no problems there. Olivia knows more than most, and being together with Tommy, probably more than she should. I think we’re okay.”

“Before I get to that part, you’ll want to know about my father, Hyperion. A few centuries ago, Hera visited Tartarus and asked Hyperion for him to join her group in exchange for getting him out of there. He turned her down. Pretty emphatically, I’ll add.

“A century ago, while you were with Selene, she repeated the offer. This time she threatened to kill Selene, Helios, and me if he disagreed. He still refused, and she left disappointed. There was no way she was going to kill the three of us; it would have cost her dearly both in terms of manpower and Avalon’s ire. It was all bluster and she knew it. So, because she’s really bad at accepting defeat, she decided to be a colossal douchenozzle and go through his children in the hope that one of us would convince him to help her.

“She came to me first and asked me to help her. I told the hag to go fuck herself with her own broom, and she left.”

“You have a beautiful way with words,” I confessed to her.

Eos smiled. “I’m not done yet. Hera tried the same trick with Helios and Selene, each of them telling her which short pier to take a long run off. I believe Selene was
dating
you at the time—that’s probably the right word, yes?”

“I guess so.”

“Hera retaliated by threatening to kill Selene, which we all knew was bullshit, so she laughed in her face. And then Hera threatened you. Apparently, Selene laughed even more at that. Threatening you when you were still with Merlin was insane; Merlin would turn the fucking bint to molten thundercunt. And Hera knew it.”

She paused while Tommy and I stifled a chuckle. “It was ‘thundercunt,’ wasn’t it?”

We both nodded.

“It’s an apt term for her. Anyway, you two done?”

We composed ourselves and motioned for Eos to continue. “By this point, Hera was getting desperate. We didn’t know what she wanted my father for, but it was certainly enough for her to go after his children, a fact that wasn’t lost on him. She wanted
to ge
t us to work for her so she could show him how dangerous it would be for us if he continued to say no to her requests.

“She got my attention when she threatened my children. Just told me what she’d have some of her people do to them; make me watch it all. I was furious, but I also knew that she would follow through with that threat. I couldn’t risk it, and I caved. I admit it, I wanted to tear her fucking head off and stuff it up Demeter’s ass, but I caved. I had no choice.

“I sent them away to be with their father, and they grew up not knowing me. They had new identities, new lives. I’ll never forgive Hera for that.” Eos stopped and took a deep breath. “The last few years I’ve made contact with them in secret, and they’ve become powerful. I hope that one day I’ll be able to leave Hera and never have to watch my back for her assassins. But until then, I remain in exile from my own family.”

Eos took a drink of water and settled herself, while we remained silent. “Sorry. It’s a raw spot.”

Olivia placed a hand on Eos’s. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“I never knew,” I said. “I mean, I knew you had kids—hell, I met them loads of times, but I was told you broke up with their father and you shared time with them. I’m sorry, Eos.”

A low growl emanated from Tommy. “No one should have to go through that.”

Eos smiled. “Thank you, but I’m not done yet. Once Hera realized that threatening our loved ones had the desired effect of getting us to work for her, and with no retort from Avalon or anyone else—which was the reason she’d waited for so long to use them against us—she went after Helios. He’d run off by that point. He had no one he cared about save himself, so Hera had no leverage. But Selene was a different matter. She wasn’t fazed by threats to her or you or her father; she just didn’t care. Then they stopped threatening you with harm and threatened to expose you if she didn’t join their organization. Deimos had Hera force Selene to leave you and marry him. If she ever spoke of the reasons, she would die, and the leverage they had on you would be public knowledge. Not even Merlin could have put that genie back in the bottle.”

“Why are you telling me, then?”

“Because this is the first time I’ve seen you in decades, and I’m sick and tired of living under the rules that bitch placed on me. My children are grown and are powerful in their own right. Now that Cronus is free, I do not think we will be quite as . . .
needed
by Hera as we were before her plans came to fruition.”

“So what were they going to say about me? That I was Hel
lequin?”

“Your wife, Jane, was murdered by soldiers,” Eos continued.

“I hope this story has a really good point,” I said slowly, my words coated in anger and pain.

“You found her body,” Eos said, ignoring me. “And then went on a sort of rampage for a year, killing whoever you could until you found those responsible and murdered them all. Then you buried the Hellequin name. It’s a touching story, Nate, and it’s the official story too, from what I can find out. Even Merlin admits to you hunting down and killing your wife’s murderer before moving out to America. And all the while, people are still using your Hellequin name and attributing it to more acts of violence against the evil people who lived at the time. But it’s a lie, isn’t it?”

I thought hard about my answer, and certainly from the expression on Olivia’s face, she expected me to deny everything and tell Eos to go fuck off under a bus or something. “Yes,” I said. “I lied.”

Olivia reacted as if she’d been slapped.

“Jane
was
murdered, and I did track down her killers and take my vengeance. And Merlin
did
send me to America to deal with Washington after the Revolution. But I didn’t bury the name Hellequin. I kept using it. I became it.” I’d told Olivia about Jane after Kasey and Tommy had been kidnapped by a maniac seeking revenge. I’d told her that I’d buried the name of Hellequin when I’d killed the man responsible. I’d lied to her.

“What does that mean?” Olivia snapped.

“After Jane’s death, I started to feel resentful toward those who were still alive and using their life to inflict evil on others. So, I removed them.”

“What does that mean?” she repeated.

“I snapped,” I admitted. “I went after people who abused others: rapists, murders, those who hurt innocents. I used the name Hellequin to instill fear wherever I went.”

“Was any of it sanctioned?”

I shook my head. “Humans, sorcerers, people whom Avalon would not have wanted me to kill—I didn’t care. I went after anyone I deemed unworthy of living. I hurt people, a lot of people, in my quest for . . . hell, I don’t really know. For a few years it was fine, but then Merlin started to notice that the Hellequin name was being attributed to a lot of deaths in America.