“It’s okay, Casey.” Gently, Isadora brushed dirt from her hair. “Can you move?”
“Move?” She pushed up to her elbows. “Um. No. I mean, yeah, I…” Her words trailed off as she took her first look around. And discovered she was still in the center of the Stone Circle. Hades and Persephone were standing off to the side. Beyond Hades’s invisible shield, a group of superbuff men who could only be the famed Argonauts stood in stunned disbelief.
“Whoa.” Casey reached a shaky hand up to her head. “That was a little trippy.”
“Yeah, you can say that again,” Isadora mumbled.
Dazed, Casey searched the group for Theron and had a moment of panic when she didn’t see him. Then her heart lurched when she caught sight of him on his knees at the edge of the group, partially hidden behind Hades, staring in wonder, just like the rest.
Isadora pushed to her feet and whipped toward the gods. “What was that?”
“Dumb luck,” Hades replied with a click of his tongue. “Looks like you were both stronger than I thought.”
That got Casey’s attention. Feeling at a disadvantage still plopped on the ground, she stood and brushed the dirt from her pants. “I don’t understand. That means the prophecy wasn’t fulfilled, right?”
“Wait for it,” Hades said, holding up a finger.
Isadora and Casey exchanged puzzled glances. The Argonauts on the edge of the circle spoke in muffled voices. And then it happened.
A roar blasted up from the bowels of hell and shook the kingdom with such ferocity, it had to have registered at least 9.0 on the Richter scale.
Casey fell into Isadora, and the two sisters clung to each other as the shaking went on. When it finally ended, long seconds later, Hades’s cryptic laughter filled the void left behind.
“What was that?” Casey asked, wide-eyed.
“That,” Hades said with a smug grin, as he wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist, “was one very pissed-off female.”
“Atalanta,” Isadora said.
“Yup,” the god replied. “I’m sure it sucks royally to be mortal again.”
Casey and Isadora looked at each other, and almost as if they could read each other’s thoughts, Casey said, “I thought one of us was supposed to…you know.”
“In order for the prophecy to be fulfilled, that bitch Atalanta had to make sure the perfect Argolean was never created,” Persephone supplied. “One-half human strength. One-half god strength. Doesn’t matter what the bloodline is, or the power, but the purity in the soul. Mortal yet immortal. One-half of each whole occurs in every generation, but because Atalanta’s daemons have been scouring the world for them, they’ve never come together.”
“Until now,” Hades finished. “The prophecy never actually stated one of you would live and one would die. Only that the strongest would survive.”
“Then you did lie to me,” Isadora said. “You convinced me to barter my soul to make sure she was safe, even when you knew she would survive.”
“Lie is such a strong word,” Hades said. “I didn’t actually know she would live. For the record though, little queen, you amused me. I was curious just how far you’d go to save a sister you’d never met.”
Isadora’s eyes narrowed to thin slits. “I’d say pretty fucking far, wouldn’t you?”
Hades barked out a laugh and glanced at his wife. “I think she’ll make a much better queen than either of us expected.”
“Hm,” Persephone said, looking down her nose at Isadora. “Time will tell, I suppose.”
Feeling ten yards behind everyone else, Casey held up a hand. “Hold on. I still don’t understand—”
Hades’s eyes flashed, and Casey snapped her mouth closed. She sensed his patience was at a breaking point, and after what she’d just seen, she really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his wrath. “I really loathe that ‘I don’t understand’ phrase of yours. Let me make it crystal clear so I can get out of this shit hole and back to my realm. Your sister still owes me her soul. There will come a day when she will be mine.” He shot Isadora a wicked glance that traveled up and down her slim body.
That earned him a smack to the back of his head from Persephone. He turned to the goddess with blazing eyes. “Do that one more time, and I swear—”
His wife smiled. “Promises, promises.”
His eyes flickered with an erotic light. “Guaranteed.”
Persephone looked back to Casey and Isadora. “What my husband is trying to tell you is that, assuming neither of you fall off a cliff or get hit by a stupid car, you’ll both live to be very old Argoleans.”
Casey gasped as her knees gave out. “Five hundred years?”
Persephone shrugged. “Or so.”
Thankfully, Isadora was right there to catch her.
“But Isadora—”
“Is fine,” Isadora finished for her quickly. “I’ll be fine. What about Atalanta?”