“Careful, brother. Your rage may add worshippers to my realm.”
It was the one thing he could say that would at least give Poseidon pause.
The god glared, his chest rising and falling with his anger, but Hades felt his magic ebb. Given his frustration, Hades had forgotten that the chains drew truth from their captor, which meant that Poseidon truly did not know where Sisyphus was.
He needed to ask a different question.
“How do you know Sisyphus de Ephyra?” Hades asked.
Poseidon roared, clearly trying to fight the words the magic pulled from his throat. “He saved my granddaughter from Zeus.”
Ah. Now they were getting somewhere.
“And did you reward him?”
“Yes,” Poseidon hissed.
“Did you grant him favor?”
“No.”
“What did you grant him?”
“A spindle.”
A spindle—a relic—just as Hades suspected. It explained how Sisyphus had been able to steal lives from another mortal.
“You gave a mortal a fucking spindle?” Hades snarled. “Why?”
For the first time since Hades had begun interrogating Poseidon, he seemed to speak with ease as he said, “To fuck with you, Hades. Why else?”
It was a petty reason, but a very Poseidon reason, nonetheless.
“I tell you what, though. I’ll make a deal with you,” Poseidon said. “A bargain, as you call it.”
“Those are brave words coming from someone who has no power to fight the magic holding them captive,” Hades observed.
“I’ll help you find Sisyphus. Hell, I’ll lure him here myself. If…”
Hades waited, hating how slow Poseidon spoke, how much time he wasted.
“If you release my monsters from Tartarus.”
“No.”
Hades’ did not even need to think. He would not relinquish any of the creatures who lived in the depths of Tartarus. They did not have a place in the modern world and definitely did not have a place in Poseidon’s hands.
The ground began to quake, and the ocean rose up on all sides of the island, welling in the cracks Hades had created in Poseidon’s marble. He had pushed too hard. Hades cast his magic like a net, enveloping the landmass in shadow to keep his brother at bay.
“You lost your monsters because you tried to overthrow Zeus,” Hades said through gritted teeth. Poseidon’s magic was heavy, and he felt like he was being buried alive as it battled against his wall of shadow. “Now you are angry because there were consequences for your actions. How childish.”
The disgust Hades felt for his brother in this moment fueled the strength of his magic, though Poseidon’s display was not surprising. His life had been a sequence of childish outbursts that had dire consequences for those involved.
“You claim to be a king and yet follow the rule of Zeus,” Poseidon spat.
“I follow my own rule,” Hades said. “It just doesn’t align with your will.”
Hades didn’t often agree with Zeus, but at least the God of the Sky believed in the existence of a free society. He believed that all gods had their role in the world, and that they should keep order within their specialty and nothing more.
Poseidon was not of the same mind, and if he could rule supreme, he would.
The problem was he had two equally powerful brothers who could—and would, and had—stopped him.
Hades closed his eyes and reached into his darkness, into the part of himself that had been born to war and chaos and destruction. To the part of himself that was desperate for control and order and power. He drew upon that desperation, that will, that strength, coaxing it to the surface until the power that welled deep in his chest exploded in a stream of shadow. It tore through Poseidon and his wall of water, and the god went to his knees, the ground shaking beneath him.
The two gods breathed hard and glared at one another, and as the water settled around them, Hades spoke.
“I have saved your people and your island. I am due a favor.”
There was a chance Poseidon would not agree, that he would go to the same dark place Hades had to retrieve power, but Hades hoped the God of the Sea would realize what was at stake—more than just monsters. If he fought, it would mean the end of Atlantis, his people, and perhaps his freedom.
Zeus had taken that before. Nothing would stop him from doing it again.
“Think, Poseidon. Do you really want your empire to end over this mortal?”
He could see the indecision warring in Poseidon’s eyes. At this point, it wasn’t about a mortal anymore, it was about Hades and the fact that he had challenged—and overpowered—Poseidon in front of his own people.