Prisoner

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

"Is it too much to ask for a son that doesn't do anything? Just once, I'd like a prophecy to say something like, your son will do literally nothing and have no effect on anyone and we'll all live happily ever fucking after. That's all."

"Instead," Hades continued, shooting me a glare for slurping loudly on my milkshake, "I'm stuck with too many of you dramatic motherfuckers. That's it. Lucy, you get to take the testosterone train to Tartarus. I'm going to stay here with the girls to avoid going fucking insane." Lucy seemed to be trying to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. I swung my gaze over to where Bali, Wednesday, and Dania sat at the huge business meeting looking table. Bali looked up, blinking owlishly and Wednesday was picking her nose before she thumped her fist on the table at the prospect of spending time with Lucy. Dania cocked her head and averted her eyes.

"Ah, yeah, you're gonna wanna take that last part back," she said, making Hades and Lucy look at her curiously and she smiled grimly, "Yeah, mama done pissed the angels off, sorry, daddy. Oh, and other daddy." Hades and Lucy looked at each other before Hades tilted his head back and covered his face with his hands, moving away from the table before he slapped someone.

After an hour or so of calming down the Windstorm clan long enough to get them settled, the rest of us had retreated to the wonderful gaudy palace in Hacian. By the rest of us, I mean Hades put out an urgent call to all of his children, and Lucy's, who now sat around the table.

This family was way too fucking big, I decided.

It didn't help that Lilith and Apollyon had also gotten bullied into attending the family meeting and were standing near a banquet table of finger foods. Everyone else managed to get a seat at the table, except Theo, because he was gross and insisted on sitting in Adonis's lap so he could play with the guy's hair while he ate cheese sticks in hot sauce.

I glanced over where Malachi was sitting tensely with Adrian at his side. Adrian was murmuring something to him and stroking his hand, but Malachi just closed his eyes and lowered his head, almost like he was ashamed of something. Adrian looked pained at the gesture and leaned in to wrap him in a hug. I rolled my eyes, then looked over where Lily was picking up food from the table and showing Apollyon, who simply grimaced.

"There's no way that is edible, Lily, put it down," he muttered, trying to look around Lily at Lucy, who was frowning at him from the table.

"But it tastes so good," Lily exclaimed, popping it in her mouth, "Ooh, it's so spicy! This is so much better than beef stew, sweetie, really, you must try it."

"Lily, I don't think--" Apollyon's complaint was interrupted when she popped the food in his mouth against his will. Apollyon decided to make a big deal about choking it up and glaring at her and Lily just smiled innocently at him.

"Okay," Hades announced, returning to the table once more and silencing the murmurs, "Let's lay it all out on the table then. Right here, right now. What the fuck is going on and what are we going to fucking do about it."

"Why do we need to do anything," Cain scoffed from his seat beside Abel, who sighed and stared up at the ceiling as if asking for assistance from the Source, "This isn't our fucking problem. We have bigger fish to fry. In case we've all forgotten, Hera's still gunning for us. She seems more dangerous than a fucking prophecy, which by the way, is what anything this guy says a prophecy or is he just trying to spook us?" He gestured with his thumb toward Apollyon, who frowned at him. Lilith beamed and eyed Cain with an almost evil grin.

"You don't believe he speaks prophecy? Baby, wait 'till you find out what Apollyon did to your--"

"Anyway," Hades said loudly, glaring at Lily, who whistled innocently and looked away, "That's not important. I mean, it is, but it isn't. Goddamn it, we're getting hit from every angle. It can't be a coincidence."