Prisoner

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Except I had one really important detour.

Because let's face it; Hades wouldn't have killed that guy. Not until he knew more details. So the chances of Hades keeping this guy somewhere nearby was pretty high. The problem was, despite having supposed access to everything in the palace, I knew for a fact there were areas I had yet to see. I had explored most of the family wing and the guest wing, but I hadn't really explored the offices and I knew there was an infirmary here because I'd been there before, so the question was how the fuck do I get from here to wherever Hades could be holding that guy prisoner?

So that was my first stop while Hades was distracted.

Hades's office.

The door opened no problem, so he was pretty confident about his privacy. Or it was some kind of trap.

I paused just inside the door and looked around slowly to scan the area.

Looked like a typical office, definitely Hades's style. While Lucy's office was warm and welcoming with fucking scented oils and photographs of all of his family, Hades's was a little more minimalist. His office had no chairs to sit and lounge around in, which meant he only came here for work, not for fun. I guess that's what Lucy's office was for.

There were book shelves along the sides with numerous books and scrolls and papers sticking out and in the middle of the left wall was a fireplace that was currently lit, but only crackling softly with low flames. The office was huge and shaped like a horseshoe with two different computers and all kinds of papers on his desk. It looked like he had tried to organize it in the beginning with paper holders, but those things were overflowing out onto the desk where several stacks of papers sat all rumpled up and messed together.

I came forward to the desk first and wiggled the mouse for both the computers. The monitors turned on and I rolled my eyes.

Of course.

There were the family photos.

The screensavers on his monitors were photo after photo of every member or person who had touched Hades's life. For a moment, I was kind of surprised by how many people there were. Hades wasn't really that friendly, so I found it hard to believe the guy had any friends, and sure, most of these were family photos, but he still cared about them enough to keep them on his computer.

I plopped down in his swivel chair and studied the photos for a moment. A lot of them were of his kids, and not just his own kids, but Lucy's too. Photos of Alaric and Ambrosius hugging, one of Theo and Cain having fallen asleep during a movie binge, one of Cerberus, Blaine, and their kids all huddled together and waving at the camera. Photos of the Cousins, from Hadrian holding an award at a ceremony to Floki cutting the ribbon to some kind of research site on the side of a mountain and even a photo of a little version of Wren being held by Alaric and Stanton and three dogs surrounding their legs, all wagging their tails.

He even had some photos of his students, from the looks of it. There was also a photo of Hades and Rowan posted together in front of what appeared to be a new hospital building. I had a strong feeling I knew who took the photo, but a second later, there was the same photo, but Ryk was in it, as if someone had made him go stand with them. He stood between them and there was a very obvious look of discomfort on his face, but Hades and Rowan seemed oblivious to it as they stood beside him, stern and proud of their accomplishments.

Hm. No wonder Ryk had an inferiority complex. He had to compete with fucking Hades and his own dad to get any sort of attention. Kudos to whoever pushed him into the photo.

I clicked off the screensavers and opened up into some kind of program I couldn't begin to understand. There were numbers and colors and letters all mixed together and even two other languages that I could only guess were probably Atlantean and maybe an earlier version of Greek? I squinted, studying all the numbers and colors, unsure what any of it meant, so I minimized the tab and it opened up yet another program.