“I don’t need your charity.”
“Don’t you?” he asked. “Or is the one who returned you to your human form offering a hand?”
Her brow creased at his comment. “Was it not you?”
He was concerned by the genuine confusion in her expression and asked,
“Exactly how did you come to be here tonight?”
“I woke up,” she said. “I screamed your name until someone brought me here.”
He stared at her for a long moment. He did not sense a lie, and though she may have omitted parts of the truth, he supposed it wasn’t impossible that she had not seen the person who had restored her to her natural form.
Still, Hades did not trust her. Ilias would have to keep an eye on her activity once she was settled.
He turned to the door.
“I will have my people help you make the transition into this world,” he said. “But beyond that, never contact me again.”
With that, he left.
*
Someone was fucking with him, and he did not like it.
First Kal, then Hera, now Leuce.
He had wanted his confrontation with her to be short, concise, and final, but he knew he’d have to talk to her again. He needed more information on her sudden transformation. He had a hard time believing she didn’t know who was responsible, and her connection to him was too great for someone not to use it against him.
Hades instructed Ilias to find Leuce a place to stay and assign surveillance before returning to the Underworld, and while he’d have liked to return to Persephone, he had one other unpleasant task ahead—visiting the Fates.
Dread pooled low in his stomach, a weight as heavy as the guilt he carried for Leuce. Hades never enjoyed visiting the Fates, but he liked it less when it was personal. They were deities who understood their power and used it to mock, tease, tantalize, and provoke, and he knew that he would not escape their ridicule tonight, which would make the horror of his labor worse.
He manifested outside the Fates’ mirrored palace, the size of which was impossible to detect given that the structure was almost consumed by evergreens and ivy. When Hades had created their isolated realm, the sisters had insisted on many things. Among them, the palace was to be made of mirror and glass.
“To reflect the truth,” Clotho had said.
“To show what is,” Lachesis explained.
“To illustrate reality,” Atropos added.
Hades had no doubt the Fates used the mirrors for more than just truth.
They represented possibility, and while possibility could be grand, it could also be devastating. The Fates were supposed to be neutral deities, but truthfully, they had a tendency to favor tragedy.
“The King of the Underworld is troubled.” Lachesis’s voice was the first to reach him, yet the Fate had not yet materialized.
“The Rich One is in despair,” Atropos said.
“The Receiver of Many is bothered.” Clotho materialized as she spoke.
All the Fates looked the same, even in age, though Clotho was the youngest. They had long, dark hair and wore white. They did not have horns but wore crowns that resembled a nest of gold twigs.
“What is it, King?” Atropos inquired, appearing next.
“Tell us why you have come, Your Majesty,” said Lachesis, incarnating last. They stood in an arc before Hades, and he gritted his teeth. They knew why he had come. He needed to know if they had woven Briareus’s fate and if he could fight it.
“I need the thread of Briareus,” Hades said.
“Demanding, aren’t we?” Atropos said.
“Gruff,” Clotho replied.
“Brutish,” Lachesis agreed.
“Ask nicely,” they said in unison.
His jaw hurt as he glared back at the three so hard, his eyes burned.
“Please,” he gritted out.
The three broke into wicked smiles.
“Well, since you asked so politely,” Lachesis sniffed.
“Pleasantly,” Clotho added.
“Kindly,” Atropos said. “What do you wish to know?”
“I must know Briareus’s fate,” Hades said, hating the way the Fates’ eyes gleamed.
“Briareus, you say,” said Lachesis.
“One of the Hecatoncheires,” observed Clotho.
“The storm giants,” Atropos affirmed.
“Why?” they asked in unison.
“As if you do not already know,” he gritted out.
They were all quiet, and Hades recognized his own behavior in them.
They would not continue until he gave them the answer they wanted.