The God & The Shadow

Chapter 76

LORE

"You're mad."

"No need to state the obvious, brother." I gave him a smile as I paced around in his office. Rarely did I ever get the chance to see it, but I believed it to be a good thing. There was a little too much white and an annoying lack of darkness in this place.

Demitricus exhaled an exasperated breath and bit on his lip. "Hades, I won't allow it. Marrying Demeter's daughter? Absolutely not."

"And why not?" I asked with my eyes trained on a model of well-carved lightning bolt held up on a pedestal by his wall. Pretentious prick.

"Why not? Where the hell should I start?" He stood in his frustration and ran a hand through his silver hair. "Besides the fact that she's Demeter's child, she isn't even one of us yet. Fine, she's a goddess by blood, but what exactly does she do, Hades? What will come out of this union? A child?"

"You have no reason to worry about that, brother." I cut in. He raised his brows in question, and I wanted nothing more than for the next words to come out of my lips to be anything but the truth.

"It won't last. I'll become a widower soon after."

He frowned and I chuckled. "Hades," he started.

I shrugged carelessly and continued my perusal of his absurd collection of nonsense. "She has a plan and I'm merely following it through. It's the least I could do for her before she..." I felt his pitiful gaze on me, but I turned to him with a smile. "Well, you know the rest."

"How many times have I told you? You were supposed to make her accept her fate! It is the only way for her to stay." He argued.

"And how many times do I have to tell you that I will not do that? Tell me, brother mine, if you believe for one second that I would let my selfishness conquer the love I have held out for so long." When he did not answer, I persisted. "Whatever she wants is whatever happens. Her word is final, and I am no one to contest it."

"I don't care, Hades. It is her destiny, her fate. There is a reason for that, just as all things do. I'll come down and make her do it myself if that's what it takes."

"Don't make yourself an enemy and place yourself on her radar, Zeus." His eyes flickered to a dark shade of gold when I mentioned the name he went by among the mortals. It was a hobby of mine to get a rise out of my brother, and it worked every time.

"Fine. If I bless this marriage, what will become of it if your wife is to die soon after? What is this for? Love?"

"Power." I said with my power subtly wrapping around my fingertips. A silent, but effective threat for him to realize I was dead serious.

"She refuses to go down without a fight, brother. If she were to become Queen, she'd have a power like no other. If she were to become my Queen..." I smiled at the mere thought of it—her beautiful figure on my throne, attending to the people of the Underworld. A sight that will always remain a fantasy.

"Why should I grant you the power you need to start a war?"

"It is the power we need to end one." I replied with more bite than I could hold. "If it were not for your meddling and pompous obligation to do every single thing the fates require, we wouldn't be having this now, would we?"