Page 85 of Junkyard Dog

“Enough.” Hades sighed, cupping Bo’s chin to still him. “Time to get you three topside again. We’ll feast tonight and send you back up in the morning.”

Cerberus sat motionless on the marble as Hades and Seph exited, oblivious to the turmoil their beloved guard dog was unanimously experiencing. The large doors clanged shut and the beast disintegrated, the brothers rising to their feet.

“He’s fucking joking, right?” Bo demanded, pacing the floor. “This is a fucking joke.”

Ryan’s eyes locked on to the throne, his shoulders hunched as his eyes hardened. “We must have missed one.” His voice was void of emotion. “The Albany Pirithous.”

“I fucking knew it!” Bo snarled, booting a marble pillar and watching as the vase sitting on top tumbled to the ground and shattered. “That kid’ll be thirty by now. He could be anywhere. He could have his own fucking spawn.”

Alex stood silent, his mind shredding through what-ifs as Ryan exited the room, his back rigid.

“I can’t do it again,” Bo muttered beside him before he dropped to all fours and padded across the floor, leaving Alex alone.

*

The brothers enteredthe banquet hall, chitons and chlamys neatly pressed.

“Orion, sweetheart,” Persephone called over to them, waving Ryan over. “Come! I want you to settle an argument.”

Ryan nodded tersely and strode across the room to join his mistress at the table, his left biceps flexing under the sting of his newest tattoo. Bo elbowed Alex in the ribs and pointed to a group of handmaidens eying them before he made his way over, snatching a jug of wine on his way.

“Orion is displeased.”

He glanced over at Hades. “We were under the impression this was the last mission.”

His master shrugged. “As was I, until my seer informed me otherwise. When I tossed the curse, I wasn’t thinking past the immediate ramifications.” He patted Alex on the back and joined his wife.

Ramifications.

Hades had faced none of the ramifications of his curse. It was his loyal guard dog that had been saddled with the weight of eliminating the prolific Pirithous line from the earth. It was Cerberus who was cast into the human realm when the gods shuttered themselves in their own, the last of their followers making them obsolete. It was Ryan who prowled across Europe in the early years, scenting out the bloodline of the man who dared take Persephone from Hades. It was Bo who tracked the line across the ocean into the new world. It was Alex who roamed the streets of the cities, following the stench of death and cursed blood.

Hades had no ramifications.

He sat on his throne, his wife tight to his side. He feasted with his brothers. Conversed with his sisters. For him, the Pirithous curse was a moment of anger.

For them, it was their existence for hundreds of years, bouncing between the underworld and the topside world.

He strode over to Bo, accepting the jug and taking a long swig of the sweet wine. Iris sidled up to him, her arm looping around his.

Passing the jug back to Bo, he disentangled himself from the tiny goddess. “Ah, no,” he muttered, easing his arm out from under her hold. “Taken. Remember?”

*

Charlotte tossed herhat in the back seat as she wove through the side streets, unbuttoning her shirt and fighting the sleeves off her arms before she pulled into the tavern parking lot. Max tore in beside her, tossing his truck into park and hopping out before she had time to unbuckle her seat belt.

“Tonight,” he announced, lifting his arms into the air, “we drink to freedom.”

“Tonight,” she corrected, “we drink to spending one of our two days off in hangover hell.”

He linked his arm with hers. “You should wear that tank more often. You look badass.”

“I am badass,” she huffed. “So how awkward is it going to be with the mumbler?”

Cringing, Max opened the door for her. “Awkward enough for me to consider putting in for a transfer up north.”

She rolled her eyes. “You aren’t leaving me here alone. Suck it up, princess.”

The new bartender waved at them as they entered, motioning toward the tequila bottle and receiving an enthusiastic nod from Max.

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