You're family, aren't you?

The worst fear

"I knew it, I knew it!" Sephie all but danced in delight around Hades' office desk, and said god groaned, feeling a mother of all headaches starting to build up in his temples. Fates damn the demigods' ADHD and Sephie's over-the-top reactions!

"Persephone Amphitrite Jackson, settle down this instant!"

Sephie stopped moving around and sat back into her chair, but the smile on her face refused to vanish.

"I knew it!" she repeated it, as if Hades needed her to rub the fact into his face. "Why didn't you tell me earlier, though? I've met them over a year ago."

"Zeus," Hades spat out the name of the King of Gods with an expression that made Sephie frown and shift in her seat, "killed their mother Maria while trying to kill them, to prevent them from fulfilling the Great Prophecy."

Sephie's face shifted into disgust and sympathy, before settling on soft smile of understanding. "It's okay, Uncle. I get it. Don't worry, I'll get my mum to enroll me in the same school, and I'll be sending letters as usual."

"About that..." Hades leaned back into his own chair, biting his lower lip as he inspected the demigoddess in front of him. "Could you send a letter every two weeks? If it's no trouble, of course."

Sephie blinked and tilted her head, then opened her mouth in soundless 'o' as the puzzle pieces clicked in her head. "No prob, Uncle!" she chirped, taking the bronze hairpin out of her hair and twirling in her hands. "Once in two weeks – I guess, with three kids of Big Three in one place, I'll have quite a bit to write about. Monster magnets and all that."

Hades leaned away from his grinning niece and the innocuous hairpin – he had heard from Alecto just what hid in the little hair ornament, and Hades would rather Sephie not impale him with the four-feet-long sword.

"Thank you, Sephie."

"Like I said, no prob," Sephie shrugged, returning the hairclip into her hair and pinning the front locks with it in a way that spoke of long practice. "I have been kicked out of every school I attended in the last seven years, so it's nothing I'm not used to. Mum'll be glad I'm taking initiative, and I'll finally have someone I know from day one."

"Every school, Persephone?" Hades questioned in disbelief. "How did you manage that?"

"Field trips," Sephie closed her eyes in a long-suffering expression. "They always manage to mess up my attendance record. Oh, and blowing stuff up when fighting monsters and being a 'disrespectful brat', quote unquote." She air-quoted the title, and Hades found it difficult to reign in a snort.

"You are a disrespectful brat," the god informed Sephie, whose only reaction was to shrug and lean on her elbow, which she placed on the desk.

"Tell me something I don't know. So, letters twice a week, introduce myself to Nico and Bianca as their cousin, keep an eye on them and send them with these," she drew two amulets on silver chain from her pocket, one a silver skull with ruby eyes and the other a round obsidian inlaid in silver circle, "to you the moment monsters try to get to them?"

"Essentially," Hades nodded. "I've never had a lot of children – unlike my brothers, I married for love, not to seal alliances or out of vanity, and my faithfulness is much more difficult to challenge by meaningless flings." Sephie rolled her eyes, smiling lightly, but acknowledged the fact. "I want Bianca and Nico to survive."

"I know, Uncle." Sephie stood up, her peplos swishing around her ankles. "Don't worry about my little cousins – I'll keep an eye on them. Nothing will happen to them if I can help it."