Page 73 of Whiskey, Thieves, and Bastards
“We’re real, but so are the other gods,” Athena said. “Our existence shouldn’t negate your belief. There’s an ebb and flow to this. We came forward because this is wrong, not to gather followers. As I said in the chambers, I believe the angels went rogue when they started this. They are supernatural creatures just like the ones they turned you against, but they are also believers.
“Supernaturals are also an insurance policy for gods. Supernaturals live a lot longer than humans and are a lot harder to kill. Gods waste away when people stop believing in them. The old gods are still alive because supernaturalskeptthem alive and eventually modern humans started paying homage.
“Supernaturals from various ages believe in different gods. Some of them go to your churches and some are religious leaders there. This almost seems like anattackon Yahweh. If a vast community thinks he’s turned humans against them like this, they’d stop believing. It would prevent future generations from believing and that includes humans. It’s a slow death for a god and if you completely remove supernaturals from the equation, then it’s how a god could die. We don’t knowwhythe angels came down and started the Coalition, but that’s an angle to consider.”
Ugh. Fuck me. It was gettingreallyhard to stay mad at Athena. Because that was an angle Ihadn’tconsidered and it gave the humans something to pawn the blame off on. They could also rally behind us. We might notneedto fight the angels because Athena took care of that.
The reporters had a lot of questions for Hades about what happened after you die. He didn’t ruin anyone’s religion and just explained you went to the afterlife of your pantheon, which everyone seemed to get. We answered a lot of questions. Some ofthe human reporters were up and up on their Greek mythology and wanted to know why there were four furies, so I outed myself as Medusa.
Before we left, Pepper pulled us aside.
“I meant it. I insist you all come for dinner. I have a million questions and there’s going to be a lot of fallout from this. Your polar bear has access to a network I don’t and all of those people need help getting back to their loved ones. If Medusa is still alive, then there’s no telling how long the Coalition has had some of those people. Some of them might be overwhelmed with the modern world. We need to make sure they have resources.”
We did. Hera’s tits, we were doing this.
Sweet mother of fuck. We did it. We still had a lot to do, but if my parents were still alive, they’d be released soon. Moms was a shadow demon, and she’d always be able to find me. As soon as the angel tears were out of her system, she’d poof to me. Or I could poof to her once she was out of the wards. I was so close.
We were all in Pepper Crane’s living room while she cooked dinner. Well, Cas wasn’t. He was in there trying to swap recipes. The dude was massive and could tear your throat out with his teeth or claws, but he was happiest being domesticated. Cas loved being in the kitchen sharing recipes. And he was sexy as fuck doing that.
I could be feral for both of us.
We were sitting in Pepper’s living room talking to her husband. I wasn’t shocked Pepper had four degenerate cats. Cats didn’t just mooch off everyone. They only mooched off the good people. I definitely worried if a dog didn’t like someone because that was just fucked up, but if a cat was judging, I sure as fuck was, too. Which was weird because I wasn’t any type of cat shifter.
Medusa and Dionysus were cuddling me because I was honestly about to lose my shit about my parents. Pax was being Pax and coordinating with the gods and Callum Crane. I’d do that in five minutes. I needed to lose my shit for a minute.
Medusa squeezed me.
“Hey, no matter what happens, you’ll at least know for sure what happened. And we’ll all be here. If you want revenge, you’ve got a god and a fury with dubious control over her magic.”
I whined and rubbed my face in her neck. The werewolf half of me was tactile as fuck. My demon half was a little needy. The person underneath all of that had been kidnapped as a child and tortured by fanatics. IknewI was a badass shadow wolf, but sometimes, I needed to be coddled and promised violent revenge against the people who hurt me.
“It’s the not knowing. If you share shadows with someone, you can always find them, but I couldn’t feel my mom’s as soon as they got me behind the wards. I still couldn’t feel her when I got out. I’m not being blocked anymore, but they might be. Or they’re dead. I want to know, but I don’t.”
“We could find out and break the news gently,” Dionysus said, stroking my back.
“Doesn’t work like that with shadow demons. I share my shadows with my mom. That bit of my shadows in my mark on Medusa is how we protect our mates. If I feel through the mate bond she needs me, I can use the shadow to find her anywhere.It’s like that with families, too. Once the angel tears are out of my mom’s system, she can find me or I can find her and my dad.
“If they are still alive. The Coalition has had them a long time. We are hard to kill, but we’ve been known to give up and let ourselves fade away. I don’tthinkmy parents would if they knew I was still out there, but these people are liars. They could have told my parents I was dead.”
“Fate is a funny thing,” Dionysus said. “She’s put us through alotof shit to get to this point, but I think she’s going to reward us for pulling this off. Medusa and I get all of you and a home because we got the closure we needed to settle somewhere. I honestly thought we were going to be nomads running from Hera and Athena forever, but we don’t have to anymore. I can justfeelyou’ll get your family back.”
“I hope so. Not getting them back after all of this is like downloading a BookTok book because everyone is talking about how utterly filthy it is and the author keeps repeatedly usingmoistin the sex scenes. It’s morally reprehensible,” I said, shuddering.
“Benji?” Pax said.
“Yes, my love?”
Pax knew when I was like this, I could barely focus. He was doing what he needed to do while I was getting the care I needed. He would have been over here cuddling me himself, but our group had expanded. Pax was about to say something to make it better.
“Callum is a lawyer for a nonprofit. His boss was watching and has already called and offered to help. She has shelters all over the country to take people in, doctors and mental health professionals to help them, and the resources to help find their families.”
“Well, that’s a good thing, right?” I asked.
Because Pax was looking at us like it was a bad thing. If my parents were alive, they could just poof to me. They had separated us by several states, so I was guessing it was the same for other supernaturals. Shadow demons could travel by shadows, but there weren’t many supernaturals that had means of travel like that. They’d have to do it the hard way.
And they were probably beat up, half-starved, and mentally traumatized. Anyone who was willing to step up and help with that was okay in my book.
“Is she equipped to handle supernaturals?” Medusa asked.
