Page 139 of Hell’s Weapon

“You’re not angry at me?”

“Angry? Who told you I was Angry?” Hades looks to his husband, and then Wyatt, and then over to the open bifolding doors where Garrick has also arrived via his own portal; I’ve given him free access to my penthouse as well. “You’ve certainly caused me a lot of work the last few days but did you think I’d resent you in any way for protecting the one you love?”

“You’ve been keeping me here instead of letting me help for the last three days.”

“I was giving you time off after you’ve been working solidly for the last few months. I’d thought you’d appreciate not being pulled away from your humans. I’m sorry I couldn’t extend that to Garrick as well. He can take the time once things settle down.”

“This wasn’t some house arrest situation?”

“Lords, no. Why did you think that?”

“The note you wrote that Khaos delivered. It sounded like an order.”

Hades looks at his husband, eyes narrowed. “Khaos? I didn’t give you a note, I told you to tell her that I’d be in touch, that I was making progress on the investigation and she could call if she wanted updates.”

“Fucking Hell, Tacita. That’s how you took it? I thought you’d chew his–” he points at Hades, “--head off when he arrived, not that you’d have an existential crisis that he was about to send you to Tartarus or something.”

“The note simply said to not leave the apartment and not to interfere."

“Okay, so I wrote it quickly.”

“You had me think Hades was going to fire me.”

Khaos’s eyebrows shoot up. “Seriously?”

Stepping closer to him, I grab the front of his shirt. “I’m going to throw you off this roof!”

Khaos has the audacity to laugh. “I’m sorry, okay? I was in a rush. I wanted to make sure your guys had the potions. But I dropped yours in first before heading to the compound to give the rest of the contestants theirs. I had to make more as the rest got destroyed in the battle. When I teleported in you sounded busy, I didn’t wish to interrupt and needed to leave so I scribbled the note.”

The growl I release as Khaos babbles releases some of my anger but I’m still furious.

Hades moves behind his husband and puts his hands on his shoulders, probably to ensure I can’t actually launch him off the building, but his gaze never breaks from me. “I can’t believe after all these centuries you’d think I’d fire you for being selfish one time. And as I’m sure Garrick explained, you leaving that fight actually helped.”My emotions swirl as I process what I now see as a tad overreaction to Hades’s silence. “You were that upset? You’ve really been driving yourself crazy because you thought you’d gone against your role to protect me?” he adds.

“Of course! You know I love my job, that I’m a total badass. But I truly believe in the Elysium you’ve built. And you're more than my employer,” I say, finally releasing Khaos and taking a step back.

“Love really has made you soft.” Hades laughs but moves to clap me on the shoulder as he assesses the danger to his husband to have past.

Huffing in indignation, I won’t give him the satisfaction that I’m realising that he might be right. Apparently, my emotions control me now.

“Now that this misunderstanding is cleared up, can we tell her why we’re here?” Khaos says.

Hades sobers as his hand drops. I look between the husbands, then to Garrick as I feel Wyatt step towards me. The sense of foreboding in my gut grows the longer they hold onto whatever information they’ve come to share.

“Yes,” Hades answers. “But I want to speak to Milo first, shall we all head indoors?”

Wyatt squeezes my shoulder as I gesture for us all to move into the lounge. Garrick takes a seat and I automatically go to his side to kiss him hello. Wyatt goes to grab Milo from where he’ll be in my private library but he barely breaks away from the group before our shy boyfriend appears in the doorway to the living space.

He’s holding several sheets of folded up pieces of paper but manages to sign. “What’s going on?”

“Hades is here to talk. That’s all.” Wyatt approaches him, putting a hand to his back as they walk back to our group side by side.

“Th-th-that’s g-g-g-ood,” Milo stammers.

“Good?” I ask, curious.

“I, er…, I–” Milo’s voice fails him even as Wyatt gently rubs reassuring circles on the skin between his shorts and shirt. “I just finished this,” he signs instead. He steps forward and hands me the pages from between his fingers. “Can you read it please?”

I unfold the papers, and feel Garick look over my shoulder as I take in the title, written in his neat scripture.