“I know who Lucifer is,” Hades snapped.
“Of course, my Lord,” Tartarus said humbly. “And Princess Celeste—”
“She’s no princess!” Poseidon interrupted him rudely.
“Of course.” Tartarus bowed again. “I apologize for misspeaking, my Lord. Celeste, or Icy Dagger, as many call her in Hell since she won that title fair and square in Hell’s pit. She wasn’t fond of the endearments her mates used, including Lamb, Cookie, Rosebud, and Buttercup. However, she tolerated them because of her deep feelings toward her four mates. In Hell, she had a chance to be Icy Dagger. It’sIcyDagger, not Ice Dagger, as some—”
“Get to the point, Tartarus!” Hades snarled. “We don’t have all day. We’re in a hurry! So we’re going to nail this affair and get out of here.”
Maybe the gods already felt the Void draining their powers? That was good.
C’mon, Void, sap their energy quickly.
“Speak directly and plainly, Tartarus,” Poseidon ordered. “How did the demon queen get into this dome, fuck one of the most powerful Titans, and breed a demon hellion?”
“Hyperion seduced her with his honeyed, silver tongue,” Cronus barked. “Let’s punish Hyperion severely for treason.”
My father snickered. “What else can you do to me? I already had the worst sentence.”
“We can tear your abominable daughter apart,” Cronus said. “My sons are finally here!”
“Quiet, Father. Or I’ll make you,” Zeus barked. “We’re trying to solve a thorny issue and an abhorrent crime here.” He turned to the warden, his eyes harsh and unforgiving. “Tartarus, explain.”
Tartarus ran his hand through his spiky hair as all eyes trained on him again. “Queen Lilith claimed the Ivory Tower and turned it into the fairyland, the only magical realm in the Void. No one knows how she did it. She’s like the wind, coming and going freely to any place in the Void. She’s a mystery. However, she hasn’t showed up in Tartarus for two decades. Another mystery is the whereabouts of Lucifer. Deceived by Celeste, he fell into the Void along with Ares. The God of War is with you now, my Lord, but Lucifer is nowhere to be found.”
I was wondering where the heck Lucifer was as well.
“Maybe the monsters ate him,” Poseidon said with a shrug.
Tartarus wheeled to Ares, quirking both eyebrows. “Prince Ares, do you have any input regarding what happened to Lucifer?”
“After we escaped the monsters from the valley, we fell into another badland.” Ares shuddered, biting his nail. At his father’s hard stare, he dropped his hand to his side, yet it kept twitching. “As we tried to get out of the place of nightmare, the devil turned on me to ensure his survival, and I returned the favor. My father plucked me out of that horrible place, and Lucifer was just gone. I don’t give a rat’s ass if he died or not. He’s no longer useful.”
“Maybe he’s united with his demon queen in that tower,” Hades pondered. He had a weakness for beautiful women, too. Even after he kidnapped Persephone and forced her to be the Queen of the Underworld, he kept having affairs with other women. But I’m not complaining because I got Héctor out of it. And Persephone should have fought for her freedom instead of playing the damsel.
“Nah.” Tartarus shook his head. “Lilith will behead Lucifer if he pops up in her realm. The archangel queen holds a grudge for eternity.”
Zeus smacked the platform floor with the bottom of his scepter.
“We’re not here to discuss the demon queen’s sparkling personality,” he said through his clenched teeth. He seemed to grind them a lot. “We’re dissecting the unholy coupling between a Titan and a demon queen, which resulted in this abomination.”
He pointed his thick finger at me.
“You’re a very rude old man,” I told him.
“My daughter isn’t an abomination, you moron,” my father barked. “She’s the better of you, better than any of you.”
Well, that proud father’s declaration was going to help doom me faster. But then, none of the Titans were strategists. They were so powerful that all of them relied merely on their brute force. That was how they’d fallen and lost the war to the Olympians in the first place.
“Okay, it’s time for me to clarify a few things, though I don’t need to explain myself to the gods or anyone,” I said. “Lilith, my mother, was an archangel, one of the firstborns of the angelic race. She pursued freedom for her angel sisters and brothers. When she lost the war—good didn’t prevail, unfortunately— her opponents cast her out of heaven and condemned her as a fallen angel, aka demon. If you’re truly into this origin thing and want to get the facts right, you should realize that the angelic race is pretty much equal in rank with the godly species.”
“Blasphemy!” Poseidon yelled. “Silence now, abomination!”
I secretly reached for the Void power inside me, letting it expand from my belly and flow through me like electricity.
“Don’t fucking call my mate an abomination,” Paxton snarled. “And she talks whenever she likes.”
“This bunch of asswipe losers call me names because I’m powerful,” I said. “Given time, I’ll be way mightier than them, so they can’t take it.”