God of Thieves. Aimee Carter

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СКАЧАТЬ murmur rippled through the council, and I sat up straighter. “What do you mean, gone?”

      But of course Zeus didn’t respond. After ignoring me for so long, it was entirely possible he’d trained himself to tune me out. Wouldn’t put it past him. Across from me, however, Ares jumped to his feet, already reaching for his sheathed sword. Typical.

      “We will scour the world until we find them, and we will show their captors what happens when one dares to kidnap a god,” he growled. “Hermes! Where are they?”

      So now they wanted to talk to me, when I was the only one who could help them. But I wasn’t exactly in a position to demand any niceties, so with a sigh, I closed my eyes and dived down, focusing on the one clear memory I had of Helios. When I was six, he took me for a ride in his chariot—which, contrary to popular belief at that point in time, was not actually the sun. Just a representation of it, more or less. And that was when I spotted Apollo’s cattle, and the plotting started from there.

      I focused on Helios’s face. Tan, with deep-set pale eyes and a narrow nose. The details were important; names sometimes weren’t enough, and the more I could picture who or what I wanted to find, the easier it was. Though I didn’t actually go anywhere, I felt as if I was flying above the earth, scouring the land for any sign of him. He’d be easy enough to spot—whatever I wanted to find stood out like sunshine against the greens and browns of earth.

      But I couldn’t find him. I mentally circled the world three times, but nothing jumped out at me.

      Great. I repeated the process again, this time picturing Selene’s pale, oval face and her doe eyes. I’d never met anyone who looked like her before, and it should’ve been easy to spot that unique glow.

      Three times around again, and still nothing. I huffed with frustration. This never happened. I always found what I was looking for.

      I opened my eyes, and everyone—even Demeter and Hades—was staring at me. My lips thinned. This wasn’t exactly the break I needed to get back on their good side. “I couldn’t find them.”

      “What do you mean—” started Ares, but I cut him off.

      “I mean, I couldn’t find them,” I snapped.

      “Did you check the cold lands?” said Ares, and I nodded. “What about the Underworld?”

      “Of course.” I wasn’t stupid. “They aren’t anywhere.”

      Silence. Ares sat back down slowly, while everyone else glanced at one another, too afraid to say anything.

      “You are sure?” said Zeus in a low voice, glaring at me as if this was my fault.

      “I’m sure,” I said. “I checked three times. It’s like they don’t exist anymore.”

      “Cronus warned us this might happen,” said Hera. “He said we would not last forever, dependent as we are on mortals. Our purpose is so wrapped up in them that when we are no longer needed—”

      “But who among us is more necessary to mortal life than the sun and the moon?” said Demeter. The two of them glared at each other, and while normally I would’ve been on the edge of my seat in anticipation of a catfight, somehow now didn’t seem like the time.

      Hera raised her chin half an inch so she could look down her nose at Demeter. Not that I was judging—I wasn’t Demeter’s biggest fan right now, either, after the way she’d treated Persephone. But still. Life and death, people. “I hardly see their importance now that Apollo and Artemis have usurped their roles.”

      “We didn’t usurp anything,” said Artemis, bristling. On the other hand, maybe a catfight would help take our minds off this. “We apprenticed with them. We didn’t steal their jobs.”

      “And yet here we are, with every shred of evidence pointing to Helios and Selene having faded,” said Hera. “Tell me, do you have any other explanation?”

      Artemis clenched her hands. “I don’t know. Maybe Rhea went rogue.”

      “And decided to kill them instead of us? I highly doubt it.”

      Poseidon cleared his throat. He never spoke up much during meetings, since we mostly dealt with mortal problems, and the sea was his realm. But when he did, everyone paid attention. “If Hermes believes they are no longer present in any of the realms, then we have no reason to question it. His judgment is as sound as each of ours.”

      Across from me, Hades hissed, but he said nothing. Coward. If he had something to say to me, he should’ve said it to my face.

      “Hermes, do you believe they are gone?” said Zeus, and I nodded. Had to focus on the big picture here. Hades was never going to like me again no matter what I did—no point in wasting energy trying to win him over.

      “If I can’t find them, then they’re nowhere at all. And the only explanation is that they’ve faded.”

      A hush settled over the council again, and in the throne beside Ares, Aphrodite dabbed her eyes. “Are we next?”

      “No.” Hephaestus set his hand over hers, ignoring Ares’s glares. “We are simply too important to fade like that.”

      “So were Helios and Selene and who knows how many others,” said Athena. “How can we possibly be sure this isn’t the end of the age of gods?”

      “How could it be?” said Hera. “Perhaps some minor gods may be facing the end, but we are indispensable. Mortals still need us.”

      “For how long?” said Athena. “For another century? Millennia? How long until they have moved beyond us? Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we are in danger, and we cannot continue to revel in ignorance. We must figure out why this is happening. If Helios and Selene are missing, there may be others, and our best shot is to find out who is gone and discover a common link.”

      “I can help with that,” I said. It would take a while, tracking down every single god and goddess, but if it meant they would start treating me like family instead of a fungus, the time and effort had to be worth it. “And maybe I could go down to the surface as well, see what I can find.”

      “Are you sure that is wise?” Hades’s voice seemed to fill the throne room, even though he was practically whispering. “May I remind the council what happened the last time Hermes offered his help where it was not welcome?”

      My face grew hot. Who the hell did he think he was, talking to me like that? “Persephone has nothing to do with this,” I said.

      “On the contrary. Perhaps if you had not been so engrossed in your affair, you would have done your duties and realized Helios’s and Selene’s absences sooner.”

      So we were back to this again. “That was thousands of years ago,” I said through gritted teeth. “I am not Adonis. She did not die for me. Get over it already.”

      “I will get over it when we are even,” he said, and a rumble of thunder interrupted my retort.

      “Enough,” said Zeus quietly. “Bicker in your own time. Hermes, we will need to know who is still among us and who else has faded as soon as possible. But I do not see what mingling with mortals will accomplish.”

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