The Iron Queen (Daughters of Zeus) (3 page)

Hades opened his eyes and gave me a look so dark I got chills. “I’m well aware of the rules, Aphrodite. I was one of the six who decided which rules to keep and which ones to toss when we created these realms. It’s time for them to be rewritten.”

I gulped. So long as he had a majority of the original six to push the new reality through, he could rewrite the rules of creation. All to save one girl. Demeter would side with him because she would be as desperate to save Persephone as he was, and Hades could easily coerce Hera and Hestia into doing his bidding. Their souls were at his mercy.

But there was a balance. If he tipped it too far to one side…”You could unravel the world.”

He didn’t care. I could see that in his expression before the sentence even left my mouth. One of the most powerful deities in existence was an emotional wreck who wasn’t thinking clearly.

For the first time, I realized how dangerous Persephone was. There’s a reason gods are so ambivalent about their children and that divine marriages are mostly political and not based on affection. Love is a human luxury. A being with the power to destroy everything with a word shouldn’t place more value in one individual than the entire world, but Persephone had that effect on people. Zeus looked at her and saw power he could gain. Demeter loved Persephone with all the fierceness a mother could muster, and Hades…Hades would break the world for her. She meant too much to too many people.

I had to find another way to kill Zeus.

And failing that—I hated myself for even thinking this—but remove her, and there was no threat. I’d have to kill Persephone.

Chapter VI

Persephone

Zeus grinned. “Good morning, sweetheart.”

Lashing out, I shoved him away from me and rolled out of bed, hitting the ground with a thud. I sprang to my feet. Pain washed over me, causing the room to swirl worse than a Van Gogh painting. Jaw clenched, I waited for the room to stop whipping around me, but when the room stopped spinning I discovered a whole new level of disorientation. There was no floor, no walls, no nothing. Through the trapped and hardened writhing gray mist beneath my feet, I could see a brilliant blue sky.

Swallowing hard, I took in the transparent, cavernous ceilings with a blink, keeping one eye on Zeus. How high in the air was I? Sunlight streamed through the walls of mist bathing the room in a strange gray-tinted light. This wasn’t Olympus. The majestic mountain fell to the Underworld
way
before my time, but this place had the same feeling of awe-inspiring power.

“Nice place, huh?” His voice was smug.

Seriously? He’d hit me with lightning and taken me to…wherever the hell I was…and now he was fishing for a compliment? “Excessive. It is just you here, right?”

“For now, though eventually it will be home to all the gods. New Olympus, if you will.” His hand stretched toward my face like he was going to touch my cheek or brush my hair out of my face or some other cliché skeevy-guy move. “You can stay here too if you give me what I want.”

I smacked his hand away before he could touch me, unable to stomach the thought of Zeus ever putting his hands on me again. He looked hurt, of all things.
He’s crazy,
I realized.
Completely certifiable
,
and I’m trapped here with him
.

“You don’t have to be like that.” Zeus kept moving closer, towering over me.

I inched backward. He followed, breaching my personal space, and stared into my eyes with terrifying intensity. Air hissed between my teeth as I drew in a sharp breath. The fact that I was inches away from a guy who could turn me into a living lightning rod had nothing to do with my fear. There was something frightening in the raw power of his gaze. A darkness. It swirled in their blue depths like fire and ice and rage. Meeting his gaze was like looking into the edge of the night, staring into the heart of a storm, or peering into the center of a supernova. I couldn’t break away.

I’d forgotten. Gods help me, I’d spent so much time with my mom and Hades I’d forgotten what kind of power I was dealing with. He was the god king, ancient and forever. Zeus.

“We could have something, you and I.” He moved closer. If his grin were any indication, he was getting off on this cruel game of cat and mouse. “You’re not that bright, but you’ve got spirit.” Zeus inclined his head, sweeping over every inch of me in a lingering once-over. “I like that.”

My back hit a wall, and I stifled a sob as he closed in on me. Zeus’ body crushed mine against the cold wall of swirling mist. When he cupped my face, brushing the tears from my cheeks, I flinched away from him.

“This doesn’t have to end in blood.” His eyes locked to mine. Planting one hand beside me, Zeus allowed the other to travel down my arm, touch feather-light until he reached my hand and twined his fingers between mine. I faltered under the eternity of his gaze. I didn’t have a chance against him. This was the god who imprisoned the Titans, brought forth all of creation, stood in the center of the universe, and watched time turn. What was I against that? I was…

I was…

I was quoting
Doctor Who
.

I broke free of his charm and shoved him off me. “Get out of my head.”

Zeus slammed me into the wall, gripping the base of my neck with hands that crackled and sparked with electricity. My knee shot to his groin, but he sidestepped with ease. Electricity coursed through my veins.

With a wail, I collapsed. The misty floor swirled and churned beneath me as though agitated by his rage. My hands pressed against the floor on either side of his worn running shoes. Joel’s shoes.

“That’s more like it.” His fingers wrapped in my hair, and he yanked my head up. “Shall we try again?”

I thought fast. “Xenia.”

Zeus cocked his head, grip easing. “Xenia?”

“It’s hospitality in Greek—”

“I know what it means,” Zeus snapped. “But why are you bringing it up?”

“Showing kindness and hospitality to strangers from another land was so ingrained in Greek culture that even kings took in travelers off the street. The myths say you promised to always honor that code.” Gods can’t lie. It was a long shot, but anything was worth a try at this point.

Zeus snorted. His gold hair fell into his face, and he brushed it back in a gesture so reminiscent of Hades it hurt. “Daughters aren’t guests. They’re property.”

I lifted my chin. “I am
not
your property.”

“Oh, you’re adorable.” Zeus flicked his fingers, and a bolt of lightning shot down from the ceiling.

My screams ricocheted off the walls. He dragged me to my feet, a maniac gleam flashing in his eyes. “Swear fealty.”

I gasped for breath, tears sizzling down my cheeks as my flesh began to heal. Trembling, I shook my head. The small motion almost knocked me out it hurt so badly.

Zeus steadied me. “Oh sweetheart,” he murmured, gently brushing a strand of hair from my face. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

When I heard the crackle of electricity going live in his hands, I squeezed my eyes shut. The lightning struck me again, and again, and again.

Chapter VII

Aphrodite

“What do you mean Zeus has her?” Demeter’s eyes blazed so bright with fury it was amazing the small bridge Hades and I stood on didn’t disintegrate. “You told me you’d keep her in the Underworld where she’d be safe.”

The wooden bridge didn’t feel like much protection against the angry goddess. I’d thought Hades was paranoid when he recommended we find neutral ground to break the news to Demeter that her daughter had been abducted. I was wrong. There wasn’t much water beneath us, but with the air all around us, the lake below, and the earth on either side, we were in as neutral a territory as we could find outside of dreamscapes.

Demeter’s gaze fell on me. “And what is
she
doing here?”

Hades stepped in front of me before Demeter could do any damage. “We were wrong. Joel was Zeus—”

“Joel is Zeus?
What?”

Hades backtracked, bringing Demeter up to speed. “…and when he created Aphrodite, he programmed her to follow orders.” He shot me an apologetic glance that almost canceled out the lingering rage on his face. Almost.

“Not just his,” I interjected. “I’m loyal to all of my family to some degree, but I
have
to obey any family who outrank me. Including Persephone.”

Hades’ eyebrows shot up. “Persephone wouldn’t control you.”

“Uh, have you ever
met
your wife? She’s bossy and—” I glanced between Hades and Demeter and cleared my throat. “Gosh, she’s just a wonderful person. I’m sure she would have toned down the orders had she known I didn’t have a choice in the matter.”

“Joel is Zeus?” Demeter’s shocked voice pulled the conversation back to its focus. I waited for Hades to make some sarcastic comment about Demeter not paying attention, but he remained silent. Allowing her time to process the news, maybe? She didn’t need it. “What else were you ordered to do?”

I squirmed under her piercing green eyes. She looked like a taller version of Persephone with the same blonde hair, same tan, same build. But she had a coldness Persephone lacked. Something in her expression told me she would not only throw me to the wolves, but she’d watch them rip me apart with a smile on her face.

My mouth went dry, and I swallowed hard. “Nothing yet. But if I were you, I’d keep me supervised by someone who can’t be charmed.”

Demeter’s hands shook. She took a deep breath, clenched her fists so tight her knuckles whitened, and glared at Hades. “
This
”—the venom in her voice had me edging backward—“is
your
fault.”

“I’m aware of that.e di Hades’ voice was flat, void of any emotion.

Demeter didn’t care. “You brought that thing to
my
realm and put it under
my
roof with
my
daughter, and then you let Zeus—”

Let
Zeus? I thought of Hades’ crumpled body on the ground, the anguish in his eyes when he’d woken up and discovered her gone. She made it sound like he’d just handed Persephone over. My nails drummed on the wooden railing, and I looked over the glistening water. Somewhere between here and the path it had stopped raining, and the sun had emerged. Maybe it was a sign everything would be okay.

“I did
not
let him take her,” Hades snapped. “If you weren’t so stingy with your teleportation authorization, I’d have been able to get to her—”

Or maybe not. I glanced from Hades to Demeter, two of the oldest remaining gods in creation. Surely they could come up with a plan.

Well, a good plan. Hades hadn’t mentioned anything about his whole “rewriting the rules” idea yet.

Demeter gasped. “Are you suggesting this is somehow
my
fault?
You
made her a target when you forced her to marry you—”

Forced? From what Melissa had explained, Hades married Persephone to rescue her from Boreas, the God of Winter. He’d saved her life.

“She was already a target! And thanks to you, she was helpless without any clue of what she was—”

I inspected my nails, but they didn’t seem to notice or care how bored I’d grown. This could go on all day. “Really, the blame game’s the most important thing on the agenda right now? Okay, I’ll take a turn. This is your fault”—I gestured at Hades—“because you’re an idiot. Had you treated her more like a goddess and less like an addlepated teenager, she wouldn’t have given Joel a second look. Your marriage should have
made
her too powerful for Zeus to charm. Instead you left her weak. If you two were linked the way you should be, then you would have known about Thanatos and the Reapers.

“But don’t look so smug,” I added, turning to Demeter. “You’d have her believe she was nothing more than some silly mortal teenager. She shouldn’t have been going on dates and hanging out with friends while there were demigods and minor deities going missing from your realm.”

Demeter looked at me in surprise.

“Oh yes, I know all about that,” I said with a condescending smile. “Did it ever occur to you she could help? That she
should
? You know”—I put a finger to my lip as a startling thought occurred to me—“the only person who treated her with the respect due to her station is Zeus. He at least treats her like a threat. You two”—I waved my hand—“seem to have forgotten she can actually be useful.”

Demeter sucked in a breath like she was about to say something, but Hades cut her off. “We don’t have time to argue about this right now. We need to rescue—”

“Rescue!” I threw my hands in the air, almost smacking a bright yellow butterfly that fluttered away on the breeze. “You still don’t get it, do you? She’s powerful! She ranks, and incidentally, she’s part of a very small group that can kill Zeus. Use her.”

Gods can’t die. But everything has a weakness to keep balance and all that zen crap. We’re vulnerable to ourselves. An ingenious workaround that still allowed for a balance, yet made us very difficult to kill because using our powers to hurt ourselves goes against our instincts. It would be like a human trying to gouge out his own eye. Every fiber of his being would rebel at the idea alone, forget acting on it.

But there was an unintended side effect to only being vulnerable to our own powers. Children. Gods pass powers onto their offspring. That power
can
be used against the god it came from, which meant that as Zeus’ daughter, Persephone could kill him
without
breaking all of creation.

Demeter shook her head. “She’s not strong enough.”

I scoffed, propping myself up on the rail of the bridge overlooking the sparkling fountain. “Well then, let’s fix that. I swear fealty—”