Page 23 of Whiskey, Thieves, and Bastards
“True. And I’m sorry for how you were treated. And a lot of that had to do with me and that curse Hera placed on me. She meddled with my mind and then banished me to Earth to force the wonders of wine on people. The things I did were terrible and people talked. There’s a big difference between being cursed and your brain chemistry being different. If I’d known better back then, I would have cleared it up. If youeverwant to talk, just let me know.”
“Fancy and we might take you up on it, but we’ve got an amazing mental health team. If you’re going to be mated to our sister, there’re a few things you should know. We are creatures born of trauma. I don’t care how supportive youthinkyou are. Medusa isn’t going to be able to take those glasses off until she feels safe enough to be out and about without her glasses and snakes.”
“But I do feel safe,” I argued. “It used to be just Dionysus and me, but my adoptive dad was Hephaestus and my best friend was Persephone. Hades is a good friend, too. Poseidon isn’t going to mess with me knowing Hades and Persephone are involved and Athena only crashed into my life if Dionysus wasn’t with me.”
“Gods aren’t the only ones who can hurt you,” Alecto said softly. “Those people at the Coalition were completely human. It’s one of the reasons we love the Underworld—fewer people. Furies have certain powers. You’ll learn. Like, we can portal anywhere, including in and out of the Underworld, even though we’re not gods or dead. We go back to meet with our mental health team, pick up medication, work, and girls’ night out.”
“Girls’ night out gets complicated,” Megaera sighed. “We can literallyfeelwhen someone is about to drug someone’s drink or try to get them alone in the bathroom. We stop them and punish them, of course, but keepingthisface on while doing it was challenging for a bit. If we can do it, then you can make your gaze lethal when you want it to be.”
“There’s alsosomuch more to being a fury that you haven’t even tapped into yet because you didn’t know. We could have told you but this is the first time we’ve met you.”
Yeah,thatpart of this fuckery was on me. I couldn’t do a damned thing about Athena not telling me the truth, but the furies were Persephone’s friends. She told me how amazing they were, but I let old fears get in the way of meeting them when I was in the Underworld. And I trusted Persephone implicitly. She had amazing taste in everything, including people.
“Is it possible to get a crash course on Fury 101? Because we’ve already started the process of bringing the Coalition down.”
Because seriously, I had no doubt Benji and Dionysus’s social media followers were bringing a shit storm down on Hannibal and Saul, but we needed to be there to bring this whole thing home.
Iwas trying to figure out how to be what she needed right now. I hated watching her panic attacks, but I’d been around for a while and made wise investments in the stock market. I decided it would benefit Benji and anyone else I tried to help if I went to school and got a master’s in social work while plotting against the Coalition.
I wasn’t as old as the furies, but they treated the mentally ill like criminals when I was much younger. It was just as bad as what they were doing to supernaturals at the Coalition. I didn’t just want to get people out of there and to safety. I wanted to help themheal.
It sounded like Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera had an amazing team treating them. I wanted to be that for Medusa, butI was still figuring her out. She was ready to come out swinging when it came to Hannibal and the Coalition and that was recent. I hadn’t even sat down to find out if she was ready to talk about it. I still didn’t know how long they’d had her down in that basement.
It seemed like everything traced back to Athena and I got it. Witches and their patron God were supposed to be a sacred bond. Medusa was the only witch I knew who had met hers. She’d given up a lot to become Athena’s priestess, and she thought Athena cursed her and continued to fuck with her.
I hoped now that Athena had finally come clean, she could heal. She was a badass when we all thought she was a Gorgon, but I had a feeling once she tapped into being a fury, she was going to be utterly magnificent.
And I knew she had some issues with her snakes and gaze. I’d be forever grateful to the furies if they could help her with that. Frankly, I didn’t give a shit if I had to look at those beautiful green eyes through glasses for the rest of my life, butshefelt differently.
Ugh. My bear was on edge. Our mate was a little more relaxed than when she got here, but she was still tense. I couldn’t help it. I scooped her up and placed her in my lap so I could nuzzle her snakes with my cheek. And the rest of my co-mates weren’t far behind to shower her with contact. Pax and Dionysus weren’t shifters, but they might as well be based on how tactile they were.
“First things first,” Medusa said. “The glasses were an amazing workaround from Hephaestus, but I need to learn to be without them. If I’m sleeping with my mates, I can’t open my eyes and have to fumble for my glasses so I don’t turn them to stone. It’s hard to remember that sometimes.
“I’m completely fucked if anyone knocked into me far enough to send them flying off my face.Meatball Hellscapeis one of myfavorite bands and I can’t see them live the way I want to in case someone goes crowd surfing.”
“When this is over, we’re going to aMeatball Hellscapeconcert and someone is introducing me to Flying Spaghetti Monster.”
“One, I never confirmed Flying Spaghetti Monster was the lead singer. Two, hehatesbeing called Flying Spaghetti Monster,” Dionysus said.
“Yes, he does, but he’s a beast in bed and he’ll sing you to sleep and cuddle after,” Alecto said.
Benji shrieked.
“You fucked the lead singer ofMeatball Hellscape?Girl, I wantallthe details.”
Alecto just shrugged.
“Everyone has their own ideas about mental illness and they are usually wrong. A lot of people think I’m just moody and change my mind a lot, one of my sisters is off listening to voices, and the other is some kind of crazy ex-girlfriend.
“It’s not like that. We all have outlets outside of work. We’ve got our hands in music, publishing, and art because it’s part of our mental health regimen. I needed a break from the Underworld and fury stuff. I ended up getting caught up withMeatball Hellscape.I helped write most of the lyrics on their second album.”
“That one is my favorite!” Pax, Benji, and Medusa said at the same time.
Alecto beamed at them. Once we all got to know each other better, I was sure we’d all have our things with her. I had things I just did with Benji and things I just did with Pax. Medusa was paired with us for a reason and I was pretty sure the punk scene wasn’t ready for MedusaandBenji.
“So, real talk. Is Poseidon still a danger?” Tisiphone asked.
“No. He forgot about his feud with Athena and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even remember what he did to me if he sees a woman with a Medusa tattoo. From what Dionysus tells me, he’s a beach bum who just cares about surfing now.”
