I was too tired to pick a fight with the Titan cavemen on their choice of entertainment now, and besides, they’d fought for Dad and me. I also accepted that not all the guys fighting for the good side were decent guys.
The monsters I’d freed patrolled the perimeter as I commanded. Some beasts were still feeding on the Titans and giant sentinels they’d taken down, and I let them. They’d been starved for too long.
Ares’s corpse was nowhere to be found. He might be in the bellies of the beasts—a fate he’d tried to impose on my mates and me.
I didn’t want to dig deeper into Axel’s emotional pool at the moment. Right now, he was trying his best not to look for his father’s body. Good thing I provided a perfect distraction.
In the end, we’d need to deal with it together. There’d be a lot of healing to do, but I’d pull him through. I’d have to schedule some expensive therapy sessions for him, but he was my mate. Good sex might help him, too, and my other mates for sure would punch some rage out of him, which was how the demigods dealt with trauma anyway.
Mom and Dad were conversing, mostly flirting after being apart for decades. Mom’s horns sparked crimson, which meant she still fancied Dad, and Dad gazed at her with stars in his dark green eyes.
My flaming, cold gaze snagged on Tartarus, and a muscle twitched nervously under his left eye as he attempted to crack a smile, which unsurprisingly turned to a grimace.
“I didn’t side with the original gods, Princess.” He was quick to defend himself. “I risked their displeasure for you.”
“If you had sided with them,” I said, “you’d have joined them in the dome.”
Tartarus shuddered as if he had a bad cold.
“We should just send the warden and all of the guards to the dome and be done with it,” Axel advised. “They didn’t lift a fucking finger to help us.”
“I did,” Tartarus cried in protest. “I left the door open to let your Titan father out to even the odds for you.”
I regarded him, and he dropped to one knee. “Princess of the Void, I pledge my sword and services to you.”
The other guards who had wisely chosen not to go down with the gods all knelt and crossed their arms over their chests in surrender.
“Should we also pledge our fealty to the Princess, too?” a Titan asked, and they stopped singing. “Everyone is kneeling.”
“Why? We serve King Hyperion already,” another Titan asked in confusion.
“His heir is more powerful,” another Titan chimed in. “Do you want to go back to your cell?”
“Nay,” the questioning Titan said.
And then all the Titans went down on one knee beside the door of the dome.
“Princess Heir,” they called. “We pledge our fealty to you as we once pledged to your father.”
“That’s fine,” I said, gesturing for them to get up, and they jumped to their feet right away, about to sing a bawdy song again. “You don’t need to guard the dome. My flame will do.”
I waved a hand, and three entwined rings of fire encircled the silver dome, and the door slammed shut, sealing the bellows and screams of profanities inside.
“You warded the dome with your flame, Princess?” Tartarus blinked and asked.
“You have a problem with that?” Paxton hissed.
“No, of course not. It’s just the Princess’s method is unconventional,” Tartarus said, giving Paxton a worried look. “I was only curious about what happened to the ancient ward we used to cover the Eternal Prison. My hammer was keyed to the ward.” He turned to me. “Your mates are very dominating and aggressive, which is good.”
He hated anyone being aggravating toward him. That was why he wasn’t a fan of the original gods.
“You have no need of that showy hammer of yours anymore,” I said. “It’s out of style, and it won’t open any door. You’re welcome to try slamming it on any door if you don’t trust me.”
“I trust you, Princess,” he said, only eager to please me. I was the new boss. And I bet he’d ram it everywhere to test as soon as I turned my back, but he’d only disappoint himself and feel bitter.
“Then hand me your hammer,” I said.
He hesitated before lifting his hammer toward me.