“I’m not poor anymore. I have enough to get by.” I fretted. “I don’t want your money, Dad. My mates are all loaded. They’ll share with me and we—”
“All we have is Cookie’s too,” Axel said. “That’s never a question. We’ll add her name to all of our properties, Mr. Hyperion.”
I shook my head at the absurdity of the situation. We were in a prison visiting my Dad, trapped in the Void with dangers all around us, yet Dad fixated on discussing my wedding and financial arrangements with my mates, as if those were the only things that mattered.
We hadn’t been together that long. None of us had even had a chance to go out on a date.
“Good call,” Dad said to my mates. “I can see that you’re all good kids.”
My mates shared a puzzled look. They might not be as ancient as my father, but they were a planet away from being kids, especially Zak and Héctor.
“Celeste,” Father called.
“Huh?” I blinked, losing my train of thought.
Hyperion lashed out his hand, striking my forehead. I yelped and staggered back. But when the burning sensation vanished, a map to an unknown galaxy imprinted in my memory bank. Dad had shown me the location of my dowry.
But I wouldn’t go. It would be too much work.
My mates dashed forward to stop my father, assuming he wanted to hurt me, but he’d withdrawn his hand since the imprint was done.
“It’s fine, guys,” I called. “I’m fine. And Dad, you don’t need to—”
“Which parents wouldn’t give their children the best?” Hyperion said with a smile.
I didn’t point out that many Titans had tried to eat their own children, and their children had retaliated and imprisoned their forebears. And look at all the bad parents around me—Ares wanted Axel dead so he could take me for himself; Poseidon abandoned Paxton like his son was trash; Zeus treated Zak like second class; and Lucifer whipped Loki in the dungeon.
My father trained his piercing stare on Héctor. “You’re Hades’s heir. Why are you a mortal?”
Dad hadn’t lost his touch. One look and he had known all of my mate’s origins. There was still hope for him to function outside the jail.
“Dad, that’s thebiggestreason I came here,” I said. That might hurt his feelings, but I wanted to be honest and hoped he could deal with the truth. “It’s super important, and Mom said you’d know the answer. We need to restore Héctor’s immortality.”
“Héctor gave up his demigod power to save me,” Zak said. “Please save him if you can, King of Titans.”
“Lamb, I’m fine with what I am,” Héctor said.
I glared at him while tears filled my eyes. “I’m not,” I snapped hotly. “I want to be with all of you all the time, forever. None of you will escape me.”
“My lamb with fangs,” Héctor sighed.
“You like my fangs,” I said.
“I do, and always will,” he said with a smile, his arm around my shoulder.
Dad gave my mates another full-measured look. “But the wedding—”
“Dad, this isn’t about the wedding,” I said and snapped my fingers, which echoed sharply in the vast dome. “Focus. We’ve moved to way more important subject matter. I must know how to reinstate my Héctor’s immortality. ”
“Four of them are better than three.” Dad nodded to himself. “One more powerful demigod to protect my daughter. And with the renewed death power in the death demigod…”
He switched to a language that sounded like gibberish.
“Father—” I reminded him impatiently.
And the coded words flowed into my mind like a stream of liquid light.
“Look who we got here.” A sinister, gloating voice crowed, breaking my connection with my father. I spun and so did my mates, their hands on their swords.