Dead Lines

35: Meeting Adjourned

Unedited.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Where I ended up rivaled one of the jokes Schylar told me while I was turning Elite. This time it wasn’t various religious figures walking into a bar.

It was the Virgin Oracle Demigod and the God of the Underworld walking into what looked like a backroom of a seedy bar.

Where Schylar’s joke finished with funny punch line, there would be nothing comical about the following conversation. Or how it would end. Demigod status did not equal immortality in this room. Not with this company.

I’d somehow regained fragile human status and it felt good.

Tread carefully. The two words floated through my mind, accompanied by a brief hand squeeze.

I glanced at Hades.

“How—?”

Later.

“You always say that.”

Part of my charm.

“You have charm?”

Focus. Out of the corner of his eye, I saw him look at me. When we’re in mixed company, focus.

“Mixed company?”

A rumble of noise, like a hum, echoed through my head. He squeezed my hand before releasing me. Focus.

He started walking and as he crossed in front of me, I saw it. Like a mirage, the dark and smoke shimmered to reveal two men sitting at a table underneath the only light in the room. One of the men I recognized instantly.

Even with a cigar in his mouth, there was a devilish half smile curving Poseidon’s lips as he tossed something to the middle of the table. He breathed out a puff of smoke shaped like a trident and smiled full watt at the man whose face I couldn’t see.

There were two empty chairs at the table and Hades kept walking until he stood behind the one directly across from the man who had his back to me.

It was time to join the party but when I attempted to step forward, my feet remained rooted to the floor.

“What—” Before I could finish, my feet were released and I stumbled forward a step “—the hell?”

I didn’t get an answer, not that I was expecting one. If they’d heard me, none of them showed it. The two sitting Gods were focused on something else all together. As I drew closer, a sense of dread began creeping up my spine.

I was about to have a meeting with the three most powerful Gods and there was no way out.

The dread only grew as I rounded the table, putting me into position to see Zeus’ face but instead of there being discernible features, there was only blur. He had no real identity. Every feature changed, from face shape to hair color to old or young. None of the details settled until I came to stop beside the chair in front of him.

All of the changing details ceased the moment he lifted his eyes from the cards he was holding to meet mine. Our gazes locked and it was so startling, I had to check the urge to reach back and grab Hades’ hand.

Light blue with an outer rim of dark. He appeared boyishly middle aged with a light scruff lining his jaw. Short, wavy blonde hair topped his head.

Normal. The King of the Gods, the Ruler of Mt. Olympus, looked normal. And he was doing it on purpose. Unlike the other two Gods, he wasn’t putting off any power vibes to sway me. But he was studying me with the same intensity and scrutiny I was giving him.