Chapter Thirteen

I didn't sleep.

I couldn't sleep. My body wouldn't let me. Despite the exhaustion that wracked my body, now healed from the damage caused by the imprisonment in Tartarus, I couldn't bring myself to fall asleep. Lucifer had gotten closer over the night. The bastard tossed and turned like nobody's business. A few times, I heard him mutter, which just made it even more annoying. To make matters worse, his feet were icy cold and he kept brushing my leg with them.

My god, the angel was no angel. He was a Satanic beast that had no concept of personal space.

To make matters worse, Ambrosius kept getting up during the night to drink water or tinker with the television. How restless could one person be? Was Zelios the only one who slept silently? For a guy who just got his voice back, he was still as silent as ever.

And knowing that my sons weren't in a warm comfortable bed like their brothers just made the night all the more stressful.

I was relieved when I felt the tingle in my spine that indicated it was morning. I rose from the bed, and while I was exhausted from lack of sleep, I could feel magic pulsing through my veins. As a quick test, I went to the small bathroom, showered, then used my powers to change into my black battlesuit. Relief swept through me that it had not only worked perfectly, but I still had plenty of magic left over to go back into my palace and get my sons back.

Lucifer woke up next, showered, and seemed to have the same thought process as he changed into a white and burgundy version of Ambrosius's battlesuit. Once Zelios and Ambrosius were awake, I prepared the last of the nectar and ambrosia to hold us off.

"Please tell me you have a plan." Lucifer said as he took sips of his nectar and Ambrosius just stared at his glass as if he couldn't believe Lucifer could savor that shit. I frowned, gulping the rest of mine in one swallow, wiping the back of my hand across my mouth.

"Thanks to your icy cold feet," I began, making him scowl in confusion, "I managed to come up with a plan A and a plan B. Plan A is to take the back entrance. I'm not talking about that nifty one you used that Persephone showed you either, Zelios. I'm talking about my back entrance. One of the doors upstairs isn't totally a decoy. It leads to a room of three more doors, but one of those doors leads upstairs to a hatch in my bathroom. We'll take that exit into the palace and split up into teams of two. Because as much as I hate to say it, we can cover more ground that way, but I want everyone to stay in contact with these fun little toys." I opened up a drawer beside the sink and took out a handful of small ear phones with a coiled out microphone, handing one to each of them.

"Tuck it into your ear and when you want to talk, just reach up and hold your finger over the little button. This should give us the chance to talk to each other in case there's an emergency." I explained. Lucifer studied his piece before wedging it into his ear and uncoiling the mic to hover just over his lips.

"These look a bit similar to the cell phones that are popular in my realm." He commented. I gave him a dry stare.

"Maybe because I was the one who invented them."

"That's incredible." Lucifer complimented. I stiffened, unsure what to say to that. I blinked a couple times and looked away awkwardly, clearing my throat.

"Lucifer and I will hunt down the boys. Ambrosius, Zelios, I need you to get to my helm. I have it hidden in a vault in Persephone's garden, beneath the pomegrante tree. There's a button under the left arm of the fourth stone bench. Push it. The helm will be hidden beneath the tree in a small compartment. Use it to get out of the palace and meet by Charon's. Is that understood?" I demanded. Ambrosius looked startled by my tone, but Zelios immediately nodded. God, no wonder why I loved him. He always listened.

"And plan B?" Lucifer asked warily.

"Plan B is improvision," I replied, making everyone gape at me, "I work best under pressure. Now let's move out. My sons are in there and I'm ready to rip Titan intestine through their sphincters for laying hands on them." Lucifer appeared genuinely impressed as he smiled and gave a nod. Ambrosius and Zelios shared looks before hurrying after us as we left the room and went back upstairs to the three doors.

"How do you know which one it is?" Lucifer asked as I approached the left one. I snorted.

"I don't," I answered, making Lucifer smack a hand over his face and I smirked at him, "I built it so that the locations shift every so often. I was just taking a wild gaze. I'm feeling lefty today." Ambrosius grimaced and looked at Zelios.

"If we die, I just want you to know that it was nice meeting you. Oh, and tell Thorn that he owes me fifty bucks for that bet we made." He told him. Zelios nodded politely. I turned back to the door and twisted the handle, entering a long narrow black hallway. Lucifer, Zelios, and Ambrosius inched after me until the door was closed behind me.

"How do we know if this is the right one?" Lucifer asked, glancing at the walls. I sighed, frustrated as I ran a hand through my hair.

"It wasn't the right one." I muttered.

"How do you know?" Ambrosius asked. I didn't get the chance to answer him. The walls suddenly rippled and became wet with black ooze that reeked of sulfur, making Ambrosius and Lucifer choke in disgust. Zelios cringed, but he was probably used to the stench considering he lived in Tartarus. The walls continued to ooze the black ick around us and Ambrosius went to turn back, but the door was gone and he cursed.

"Now what?" He demanded impatiently, looking down at the ooze that was gathering around our feet.

"We press on." I stated, moving through the thick gunk around us. It wasn't much like tar, but more like syrup. A very awfully smelling syrup that was as black as the pits of Hell. We continued through it until I felt a tingle down my spine and I turned to stare at one of the walls, frowning.

"What is it?" Zelios asked.

"Found the door." I answered cheerfully, then stuck my arm through the wall of ooze. Ambrosius made a disgusted noise and I rolled my eyes as I fished around in the wall of black goo until my hand found a door handle. I twisted it and instantly the goo around us vanished and a door in the wall swung open, allowing us to step out and right back to where we started with the three doors.

"That was the worst thing in the world." Ambrosius shuddered, shaking his head. Zelios nodded, rubbing at his arm as he watched me reach for the same door again and he winced.

"Didn't we just try that one?" He asked.

"Yeah, but the doors switched. I felt it switch when we opened the doors. So it could be this one."

"Why don't we all just open the doors at the same time?" Ambrosius demanded. I shook my head.

"It'll show all the same hallways. They don't change until you step through. Once you do, the door shuts and you're stuck. And you guys won't know how to get out of whatever trap is flung at you. I, on the other hand, am awesome and know how to do everything." I assured. Ambrosius wrinkled his nose, but said nothing more as I opened the door again and we came inside. The door shut behind us and I waited for ooze, a fire-breathing dragon, or the Kardashians to start filimg on the walls. Much to my relief, the hallway remained the same and we continued until we reached the black door on the other end. I opened it up and came through to the next trio of doors.

This time, I went for the one on the right, and it revealed a narrow spiral staircase. We made our way up the stairs until we were plunged in darkness. It wasn't until we were halfway up that I noticed Ambrosius was walking awfully close to Zelios and I. The more I listened to his breathing, the more I realized he was having an anxiety attack.

"Ambrosius?" I asked, pausing so Lucifer bumped into my side.

"What now?" Ambrosius asked breathlessly in the dark. Due to my night vision, I could perfectly see him panicking while the other two didn't seem to notice. Ambrosius's brows were drawn together in a nervous frown, his lips pursed tightly, sweat trickling down the sides of his face, his eyes locked on the steps beneath us. His heart rate had increased drastically, his hands wringing each other out.

"You're having an anxiety attack," I said after a moment, making him look blindly in my direction, "We're almost there. There's no reason to freak out now. Do that later when the Titans have discovered us invading." Ambrosius still looked distressed, and unfortunately, my words only increased until he was hyperventilating.

"Shit." I cursed and caught him as his knees buckled and he was on the stairs now. I reached up and wiped the hair back from his face, patting at his cheek.

"Ambrosius, calm down. You're all right," I told him sternly, watching him take sharp shaky breathes, hands trembling and his face paling a bit, "Come on, calm down. Deep breathes. Listen to me, and do what I do." I inhaled loudly so he could hear me, counting to seven, then counted to twelve from there as I exhaled. For a moment, Ambrosius appeared confused and frightened, but he eventually caught onto my breathing patterns and started to breath more slowly.

Once he was calm enough to stand, I had him walk between Lucifer and I.

"I had no idea you were claustraphobic." I muttered to him as we walked. Ambrosius made a rude noise, still sounding a bit breathless.

"Yeah, well, you know, really dark creepy places do that to a person, but you'd already know, wouldn't you?" He asked bitterly. I said nothing to that. I didn't need him to remind me of what I'd done when my nightmares were enough. We kept walking until I felt a small stream of cool air coming from above our heads. I looked up, and sure enough, I saw the pale blue outline of an opening in the ceiling. I went ahead and opened the hatch, pushing it open a small crack to peer inside my bathroom.

The hatch opened up in the shower case, revealing it, and the bathroom, to be empty. I led the way inside and opened the shower case to double check the bathroom before giving the okay that it was safe. We emerged into the bathroom before I turned to Zelios and Ambrosius.

"The quickest way to the garden from here is to go out the bedroom down and to the left as far as you can go. Go into my office and use the window. But keep your head low. The garden has a lot of windows." I explained. Zelios and Ambrosius and started to go, but I blocked their path for a moment, causing them to look at me curiously.

I hesitated. I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. There was a part of me that wanted to tell them to be careful, but how stupid would that sound? They'd only respond with something bitter. Or at least, Ambrosius would. Zelios would just do the courtesy of silently disagreeing.

I moved out of their way and they left the bathroom. I watched them go before I turned to Lucifer, who was staring at me.

"You could've told them to be careful." He pointed out. I rolled my eyes.

"And risk another emotional tirade? No, thanks. Let's save the rest of them before I change my mind." Not that I ever would. I was a fool and I needed my sons back, no matter how much they hated me. Lucifer thankfully didn't speak of it again as we left the bathroom and paused in my bedroom, pain lacerating my chest at what had been done to it. The mattress was shredded, silks torn off the canopy, walls dented in and destroyed, clothes strewn from the dressers. It was a horrible mess. All my things...

I was going to kick some serious ass for this.

We left the room and made our way down the hallway as silently as possible. Every so often, I heard footsteps and would stop, but nothing ever came. For a moment, I wandered if maybe the Titans had gotten a hold of my helm, but the helm didn't technically make someone invisible; it just made them fast enough to appear invisible... if that made any sense. And the footsteps were too slow. If anything, they sounded like they were just pacing slowly.

We moved around through a less used hallway to the throne room. It was still heavily destroyed from when I'd had my temper tantrum. But this time, the thrones were also destroyed. Persephone's beautiful flowered throne was burned to a crisp and mine had been shattered.

But worst of all was the body lying sprawled out on a bed of tattered pillows. I set Lucifer as a look out as I approached the body slowly, my stomach dropping as I instantly recognized that wavy, messy blood red hair and the deep scars across his arms and thighs. He only wore a pair of transparent loose black pants and Alexion's god restraints around his wrists and throat, connecting him to the shattered remains of my throne.

"Theo?" Why did my voice sound so small and quiet? I waited to see if Theo had heard me, but he didn't move. He simply laid facedown on the pillows, one arm tucked beneath him while the other was held out over his head. I came closer and knelt down, touching his shoulder.

My god, he was pale. And he'd lost so much weight.

I clenched my teeth, glancing over my shoulder at Lucifer, who quickly looked away to watch the doors to the throne room. I glared at him for a moment, then looked back down at Theo when I heard him make a strange noise. It sounded like a whimper. Panicked, I pushed him back onto his side and bile rose in my throat.

A metal plate had been nailed over his mouth, blood caked around it and running down his chin in dry streams. His red eyes were hooded and rimmed in red, bloodshot. He didn't seem to notice me for a while, just stared at me. His reaction was that of someone who'd been heavily drugged. Nausea and horror seized me. For the first time, in a long, long time, I wanted to scream in agony. I forgot all about Lucifer and grabbed Theo up into my arms, his head lolling back before I managed to lift my arm to support it and he stared up at me. He managed another little whimper and it tore at a heart I had long thought dead.

"Theo." I whispered in pain, brushing the hair back from his face. He was too drugged to even realize I was here. My heart bled as he simply turned his head in toward me and nuzzled his face against me. I clutched him to me tightly, clenching my teeth.

I want blood for this.

I set Theo down as gently as I could on the pillows and reached over, yanking the chains hard from the throne, causing it to crumble the rest of the way. There was no way I could take the chains off without Alexion, and I had no idea where he was. Was he in Hell with the rest? Or enslaved here as well?

Either way, I had to get Theo out of here.

I went to him and waved my hand over his mouth, dissolving the plate over his mouth and healing the damage done there. I cringed at the way the nails had destroyed all his teeth and screwed up his jaw. I thanked the gods I had taken up medical science as I managed to repair the physical damage.

"Ss..ank.. you... daddy." Theo murmured, his head flopping to the side as he peered up at me through his hair. Grief choked me and I had to bite my tongue to keep from making any sounds. I reached down and gathered him up into my arms, cradling him to me as I went back to Lucifer, who grimaced.

"He's been drugged." He said. I only managed a nod, clutching Theo to me tighter.

"There's no use in asking where his brothers are," I managed to say without my voice cracking, "I can heal the physical, but it's harder to flush his system of the drugs right now with how limited I am in power. If his brothers are in the same condition..."

"I know, Hades," Lucifer said gently, "He'll be fine. You know what you're doing. We'll find your sons and get out of here as soon as possible. I'll cover you in case we're discovered." I nodded my thanks before we quickly made our way back out the door we'd come in at. We started down the hallway toward the front most part of the palace.

"Doesn't it strike you odd?" Lucifer asked after a while, looking around. I frowned.

"What, my interior decorating skills?" I asked. Theo laughed, but I'm not sure if he even understood what I said. He just saw Lucifer's annoyed smirk.

"No," Lucifer said after a moment, "This is supposed to be a fortress. The outside of this place is heavily protected... So why have we yet to run into guards?" I grimaced.

"I've been trying not to think about that."

"There's no use now. It's the truth. The Titans know we're here."

"And they're probably setting a trap."

"Should we leave?" Lucifer asked. I hesitated, looking down at Theo, who was pressing his cheek against me, breathing labored as he shivered every so often and made choking sounds before recovering quickly. I looked up at Lucifer, who grimaced.

"No," I said tightly, "If it's a trap, I know what to do. But I'm not going down until my sons are safe." Lucifer nodded grimly before we continued moving down the hallway when suddenly Theo laughed and touched his hands to his feet.

"Two, two, two, two." He repeated. I scowled, confused by that when I heard the most glorious sound in the world.

"Fuck you, Cain. No, seriously. Fuck you. Get away from me. I'm in pain and I'm about ready to rip your ribs out through your ass if you touch me." Abel's irritated voice snarled.

"You? You're in pain? I'm a hundred percent sure I was used as a crash dummy last time I fell asleep. Why the hell did you let me fall asleep?" Came Cain's equally aggravated voice.

Who would have thought I'd miss their voices so much? Relief sweeping through me, I quickly rounded the corner and sure enough, the twins were chained up outside the throne room's front doors on either side. Abel was chained by his ankles and wrists and neck, wearing a skin tight black leather suit with triangular openings in the side of the hips and chest openings. Cain was in a similar situation.

"Cain? Abel?" I asked to make certain. Abel blinked and snapped his head around so fast, I'm surprised he didn't have whiplash. I resisted the urge to flinch when I saw the horrendous bruising all along the left side of Abel's face, his eye almost completely swollen shut and his lip busted open. His touseled hair was brown again, and it took me a moment to notice that one of the chains wasn't actually a chain, but rather his tail that had emerged due to his lack of power.

"Hades?" He breathed. He actually sounded happy to see me.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Cain snarled instantaneously. His face was no matter than Abel's; heavily bruised around the left eye, busted lip, and there was an extra handprint on his cheek. I wasn't surprised. As much as I loved Cain, he was also the most irritating little shit to have ever been sired. Even I had to admit the guy deserved a bitchslap once in a while... But not torture.

No one tortured my sons.

"Theo," Abel cried out a moment later when we approached, "Oh my god, is he okay? Last I saw him, he was opening his stupid big mouth again and then there was a scream and I didn't hear him anymore and Jesus Christ, Lucifer's here too?" Lucifer just gave him an awkward wave before he went over and pulled hard to rip the chains free from the walls. Abel immediately came to me so he could look at Theo, who had passed out a few moments ago.

"Is he breathing? Is he okay?" He asked, looking up at me. More unbelievable pain cut through me at the sight of Abel's battered face, and the way his crystal blue eyes shone with tears for his brother.

"He'll be better once we're safe." I replied. Abel appeared relieved, looking down at Theo to touch his head before he looked up at me again, a bit confused.

"You're here." He said. I nodded.

"I'm here." I replied. Abel started to smile, then gave a small "oomph" as Cain grabbed him in a fierce hug. Abel sighed and rolled his eyes, offering me an awkward smile as Cain hugged him tightly before shooting me a dirty look.

"Seriously, where the hell were you? On vacation or something? Do you have any idea what happened to us?" He demanded, releasing Abel to turn on me. I arched a brow at that and Abel glared at him.

"Cain, not now. You can do your whole bitch fest later. Right now, we have to get to Mal," He said, then turned to me quickly, "We have to get to him. Last I saw, he was in the second dining hall. I thought I heard him... screaming.... earlier, but I don't know. I can't tell whether it's him or Charon." I pursed my lips at that, refusing to comment for fear of my voice shaking. So I merely nodded and Abel quickly led us down the hallway.

And Lucifer was right. Along the way, we didn't run into a single guard or Titan.

Cronus knew we were here. Rhea knew we were here. I had no doubt she was playing with us, making it seem like we were about to reach freedom before she could close it down on us, but she had no idea where the trap door was. If I could get Lucifer and the others out through there, then go off to face her and Cronus alone, then nothing else mattered. Not even myself.

We came to the dining room, entering through a large pointed doorway.

Chained a foot off the ground against the wall, wearing only torn, bloodied jeans, Malachi hung like a lip doll. I was getting kicked in the stomach left and right. The pain was indescribible. Nothing was worse than seeing your children treated like objects, to be tortured and used. Agony spread through me at the horrendous scars marring Malachi's torso and his feet had been slit open, blood pooling beneath him. A leather muzzle was clasped over his mouth, his hair hanging in bloodied locks around his face.

"Lucifer..." I didn't even need to finish my sentence. Lucifer broke away from our group and went to Malachi, who twitched and jerked his head up and went to kick Lucifer back, but Lucifer dodged. Malachi's eyes flashed angrily and an animalistic growl erupted from his throat, muffled by the leather muzzle clasped around his mouth.

"Malachi, it's us," Abel managed, moving to get in Malachi's line of sight, "Remember?" Malachi didn't seem to quite comprehend. He hesitated, tilting his head, then squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. Lucifer moved in again to get him down, but Malachi refused and kicked at him. I cursed, turning to Abel.

"Think you can handle him?" I demanded, holding Theo out to him. Abel nodded and took Theo into his arms as I moved away from him to stand in front of Malachi, whose eyes flashed with raw potent hatred. His hatred was understandable. He, too, fell pray to the rumors of how I had forced myself upon his mother to conceive him out of some crazy revenge scheme against Persephone. To him, I was the rotten bastard who'd raped and killed his mother. The only reason I kicked him out of my home was because the sight of him just reminded me of what I couldn't stop. I never hated Malachi; I hated his mother.

"Malachi, we're trying to help you," I told him sternly, watching him narrow his eyes further, "Hate me all you want. That's fine. But right now, we need to get you and your brothers out of here. Theo's sick from the amount of drugs they've forced him to intake. Abel and Cain need severe medical treatment, and so do you. I need you to let me get you down so we can find your brothers and get them the help they need in a safe place." Malachi's eyes flickered and I saw him turn his head to stare at Cain and Abel, who stared back at him as Abel held Theo in his arms. Malachi's eyes welled up with tears and my heartstrings felt like they were ripping one by one.

Malachi and Theo were always at each other's throats. They were always bitching and whining, playing tricks on each other, terrorizing each other, and being overall little shits.

But in that moment, in the one tear that fell down Malachi's bruised cheek, I realized that for all their arguing, Malachi loved Theo as much as he loved the rest of his siblings.

Malachi gave me a pathetic nod. Lucifer and I came forward, unchaining him from the wall. But he couldn't stand. His legs buckled and he almost fell to the floor, but I caught him under the arms and helped him sit on the floor. I took his feet in my hands and sent a burst of power through them to heal them so he could walk with us. He looked at me gratefully as I peeled the muzzle off his face, grimacing at the sight of blood caking around it.

I helped him stand, allowed him a moment to get his bearings before he managed to wheeze.

"Cerberus... cage... down the hall... the gallery." He managed. I nodded and our group quickly moved from the dining room down the hallway.

"Once I have Charon," I told them, "Lucifer, I need you to take them all back the way we came." Lucifer scowled.

"And you?"

"Someone needs to hold the Titans off their scent long enough for you guys to get to the safe spot and teleport from there to Hell."

"Yeah, but, Hades--"

"Oh, don't pretend like you give a shit about me," I told him flatly, making him frown, "Just don't. If you have even a slight loving bone in your body, you'll take my sons to Hell and keep them safe." Lucifer clenched his teeth, a tic forming in his jaw, but he said nothing more as we reached the gallery. It was a large room that displayed the numerous art pieces I'd managed to get a hold of over the years.

And unfortunately, it was now Cerberus's prison. A small cage sat in the center of the clean white room. Inside, a black wolf was crammed inside. I cursed at the sight of the gold god restraint around his throat to represent a collar, holding him in the awkward level one stage of his transformation ability.

The moment we entered, Cerberus growled and his fur rose, red eyes flashing dangerously. He bared his teeth and saliva flew as he barked.

"Cerberus, shut up and let me get you out of there." I commanded. Cerberus appeared momentarily confused, blinking up at me until he recgonized me and his ears perked straight up. He pawed at the steel bars and whimpered low in his throat. I paused at the bars, though, a cold chill sliding down my spine.

The cage. The sounds of his brothers being tormented.

Cerberus had a nightmare about this. He's had the nightmare when Alaric had been here. They'd told me about it and I had brushed it off as Cerberus having too much booze in one night. I immediately hated myself for not having taken it seriously before.

I reached own, sent white hot power into my hands and melted the bars open so Cerberus could slink out. I stood up and he came to me with his ears laid back against his head and tail tucked between his legs, his cold wet nose bumping against my hand. I sighed, ruffling the fur on his head as he sat down and pressed himself against me.

I couldn't do anything. His voice said in my head. He sounded agonized and wracked with guilt.

"It's all right, Cerberus." I told him. He didn't believe me. He just lowered his head, ashamed. Cerberus had always prided himself in the ability to keep his brothers safe, and now they were hurt and he blamed himself for not having tried harder. Not that he could have. The Titans would have torn him to pieces if they hadn't of seen him as useful and locked him away like a display. The very thought of that made my stomach churn.

"Come on," I said, "We need to find Charon." Everyone nodded as we left the art gallery and moved back down the hallway. The whole way, everyone was silent, even Cain. The twins walked side by side, Theo still asleep in Abel's arms. Malachi managed to hobble along with Lucifer's help and Cerberus trotted beside me, his ears up and alert. It was a strange sensation to be walking with my sons, and an archangel that I had once considered an enemy.

Why was he helping me? Surely he wasn't doing it out of the kindness of his heart. That wasn't how Lucifer worked. As much as he loved his kids, I knew that he didn't share that same love with the rest of the world. The rest of the world spurned him more than they did me. To them, Lucifer was the epitome of all that was evil and wrong. He was the one who tempted them to sin. He was the one the mortals blamed when they did something wrong. Instead of admitting their own faults, they pointed the finger at Lucifer because one simple mistake he'd made in the past.

Now why did that sound familiar?

"Wait," Abel whispered as we paused in a hallway near the lobby, "Do you hear that?" We all paused and I frowned, listening to what sounded like footsteps when suddenly a voice burst in my ear and I was startled by Ambrosius's voice coming through over the speaker in my ear.

"Yeah, hi, sorry to ruin your whole rescue mission thingy," Ambrosius said rapidly, sounding out of breath, "But we managed to find Charon on our way back to the super secret toilet escape. He was with Alexion. We're headed to the entrance right now. Did you get everyone else?" I rolled my eyes, but turned to Lucifer and nodded that everything was okay and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"All right," I told Ambrosius, "I'm sending everyone else your way."

"Wait, sending? What do you mean? Where are you going?"

"I have a score to settle. Just go with Lucifer and the others, Ambrosius."

"Uh, yeah, I don't think so."

"What happened to your undying hatred of me?"

"Nobody's kicking your ass, except me. You're coming with us."

"Sorry, Ambrosius." I took the speaker out of my ear and gave it to Lucifer, who frowned at it, then looked up at me warily.

"Hades..." He started, but I shook my head.

"Just go, Lucifer. Keep my sons safe." I commanded. I could see the determination in Lucifer's celestal blue eyes, his natural need to argue and call me an idiot, which I was. This was a suicide mission, but I didn't care.

Those bastards had hurt my sons. I wasn't about to let them get away with it.

"Where are you going?" Abel asked carefully. I looked at him.

"An errand to run. Go with Lucifer." I ordered. He appeared reluctant, but Theo sighed in his sleep and buried himself closer. Abel bit his lip and nodded to me. I looked at Lucifer, who gave me one last look of despair before I watched him take off with my sons. Once they were out of sight, I turned back and headed for the throne room again. I could feel a huge hot power source inside, pulsing and coaxing me toward it. If I wasn't mistake, the power source belonged to none other than Rhea and her piece of his husband.

I reached the doors to the throne room and pushed the heavy doors open, stepping inside to the rancid stench of smoke and ash. On the opposite end of the room, Rhea and Cronus were standing there, looking as attractive as ever now that they were fixed up. Rhea stood tall and proud with her deep auburn hair piled on her head and held back with gold bands in the traditional Greek style for wealthy women of status. She wore large gold earrings and a gold chiton with a blood red sash around her waist. Beside her, Cronus stood tall and proud, clean shaven and narrow-eyed, wearing ancient gold armor.

"You can so totally tell that you've both been locked away too long," I scoffed as I stepped inside, ignoring the way the doors slammed shut behind me, "Those outfits went out of style eons ago." Rhea just smiled and opened her arms.

"Hades, sweetheart, you've arrived. It's so good to see you again." She said, stepping off the platform that housed my destroyed thrones. I raked her with a sneer and held my hand out, summoning a long black sword with a gold ornate handle.

"Bitch, I ain't fallin' for that one again." I warned, holding the sword out at her threatenigly. Rhea stopped, appearing baffled as she dropped her arms to her sides.

"Hades, where did you learn to talk like that? I'm your mother--"

"And he's my sperm donor, congrats. What do you want? A hero cookie?"

"Now, Hades--"

"Don't speak," I sneered at her venomously, making her take a step back in mock surprise, "I'm here to rip your throat open and bath in your blood. Not because you spent the first century of my life annoying me shitless, or that you chose Zeus over me, or even that you stole my powers and imprisoned me in Tartarus for almost a month. I'm going to make you suffer because you dared to go near my children. I may not be father of the year, but those are my sons you tormented and my bloodlust will not be sated until I have seen you beg for mercy. No one touches my sons and gets away with it." Rhea's eyes flashed angrily.

"But they don't love you!"

"I don't give a shit. Now open your arms again so I can introduce your cold unfeeling heart to my blade."

"I think not," Cronus spoke up dangerously, moving down to step beside Rhea as he summoned a gold sword out of nowhere, "Back off, cum-stain."

"Wow, that's so creative. Did you spend all those eons coming up with that, or did you steal it from your wife, like you stole your balls?" I mocked. Cronus roared and lunged for me. I parried his attack, did a spin out of his way and went to plant my sword into his side, but he leapt back and bashed me in the face with the back of his wrist, causing my jaw to dislocate. I mentally cursed, my powers rushing to heal it. Cronus went for me again, but I parried. Our boots squeaked and protested as we moved swiftly across the floor, metal clanging against metal, sparks flying. I went to send an energy blast at him, but he deflected it with one of his own before following it up with a blast of fire.

I didn't have time to block it, so I rolled out of the way and lunged at him again. He parried and slammed his sword straight through my stomach. Pain rocketed through my stomach and I choked, blood pouring out of my mouth and caking my stomach as I looked down at the sword, then up at Cronus, who curled his lip at me. He kicked me hard off his sword so I stumbled back and fell to one knee before I shot back up and stumbled as I went for him again, but he backhanded me so hard I went flying and slamming into the wall beside the doors, sending it in severely before I fell to the ground, panting in agony.

My powers were already diminishing. I hadn't had enough nectar or ambrosia.

Shit!

I was losing!

I started to get up, but my knees buckled and once again, I hit the ground. Cronus laughed, moving toward me and holding his palm out facing up as he summoned an electrical ball of screaming energy. He threw it at me and I ducked, but it never hit me. Something moved out between us and deflected the attack back at Cronus, who shrieked in rage, only to have Rhea dart out and destroy it before it could hit him.

I looked up through the black that was swallowing my vision, my hand clasped over my bloody stomach.

And I swore I saw Lucifer standing there before I passed out.