Page 73 of A Single Thread Of Hope

Poseidon chuckled. “Me too. There’s a monster roaming my ocean with pieces of Lachesis still in his teeth.”

Zeus looked at Wren. “I wish to call a truce. The old Fates are dead, and the new Fates have risen. I wish to protect my Pantheon from retaliation as they come fully into their powers.”

He wished to protect himself, he meant.What a snake.

Demke stepped between the God of the Sky and the woman we loved. She might be immortal now, but Zeus could still strike her down with a thunderbolt. “Your truces mean nothing, Zeus. You break them as easily as you make them,” he spat.

Zeus sighed, as if we were being tedious. “I thought you might feel that way, which is whythey’rehere.” He nodded at Hades and Poseidon. “Do you know who the last powerful brothers woven into an age were?” he asked Wren.

It didn’t take a genius to know the answer, and my girl was as smart as she was suspicious. “I’m going to say you three.”

Zeus nodded. “You’re correct. We rose up and created an entire belief system around us, grasping at the power handed to us. I am loath to let that power go now.” I tensed, ready for a fight, but he just sighed heavily. “But I also acknowledge that the Ouroboros has turned. It’s time for a new age and new Fates. AsI said, I’d like to call a truce. To do so, I am willing to bind myself to the promise not to raise hand or army against the new Fates, or you all, in return for goodwill.”

Hades raised a brow. Yeah, it sounded a little too good to be true to me too. “Nor will you influence, by prophecy or inference, anyone associated with you or your domain, to bring harm to the new Fates, known as the Kuningilin, or their caretakers and loved ones?” He pursed his lips. “And the island of Crete remains the domain of the Minoans, and will become the protected home of the Kuningilin?”

Zeus huffed. “Yes, all that too. Brother, some would say you’ve switched allegiances.”

Shrugging, Hades gave Zeus a predatory smile. “I just like watching you get a little screwed.”

Poseidon grinned, and I felt like we were once again just pawns in a disagreement we knew nothing about. Pulling a golden trident from fuck knows where, he used it to cut the palm of Zeus. “Wren, come here. You will have to stand in the place of the Kuningilin until they are older, as their mother and guardian.”

Néit stayed right on her ass the whole walk over to the Sea God, his ax raised, ready to chop heads. She looked over at Hades. “They aren’t trying to screw us over, right? I don’t hold any ill feelings toward the Greek Pantheon—in fact, I’m quite fond of several of its members—but I swear, Zeus, if you’re fucking with me, I’m going to find a way to hold one of your lightning bolts and shove it fair up your?—”

Luckily, Poseidon interrupted. “I like you. No wonder Hades has gone to bat for you. I thought Persephone was just making him soft, but you really are entertaining.” He sliced her hand on a different prong of his trident, dripping a single drop of Zeus’s blood into the wound. She swayed on her feet, and I lifted my sword to Poseidon’s throat. “Calm now. It’s just the effects of hisblood. A single drop is quite potent. But now they are tied, and he is bound by his word.”

It can’t be that easy, right?

Hades was dusting his pants off and standing, suggesting itwasthat easy. “I’ve got a girl to see and faces to look at that aren’t your ugly mugs. Wren excepted, of course. Zeus, it’s never a pleasure. Poseidon, you should watch the newLittle Mermaid.I think you’d like it.”

A pit the size of a manhole opened up in the ground, and he stepped inside it. It snapped shut, leaving just us and the two possibly hostile Gods.

Zeus nodded solemnly. “I hope never to see you again,” he said lightly to Wren.

She gave him a pleasant smile back, but it was filled with teeth. “It won’t be a moment too soon.”

A lightning bolt hit the ground, the sound deafening, and then he was gone too.

Poseidon sighed and sunk back against the sun lounger. “Those two are always so dramatic. They need to relax a little, go with the ebb and flow of the waves. That binding should hold Zeus, and while I don’t think you have anything else to worry about from our Pantheon, that doesn’t mean there won’t be others who will try and take advantage. That’s the life of a Mythic, really. Always jockeying for power and prestige. No one wants the ocean, though—I could never understand why.”

“Sand in your arse crack?” Néit suggested, and Wren laughed.

Poseidon chuckled as he stood. “It very well could be. I’ll enjoy fucking with people from the ocean, thank you very much. So long, Wren Mahone. Minoans. Nephew.” He leapt, diving into the pool, and then he too was gone.

“Should we fill in the pool?” Néit demanded. Quite frankly, I was down for the idea.

Demke shook his head. “Unless you want to start flushing toilets with buckets, all roads lead to the ocean.”

Sighing, I grabbed Wren back in my arms and relaxed, just a little. The Greek Pantheon had been the boogieman of our lives for so long—well before Wren and the babies—that this felt almost like a dream.

Wren rested her head against my chest. “Is this the part where we live happily ever after, with no snake-headed monsters, bitter old hags, or night sludge? No side quests to Hell?”

I pressed my lips to her forehead. “I sure hope so.”

Epilogue

WREN

Ilooked at the raven sitting on the sconce at the base of the base of the stairs. She turned her head, giving me an expression that I knew was meant to look innocent, but usually meant anything but.

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