“Looks like you took my advice, Apollo.” The older woman winked. “I told you she needed a good distraction.”
“Oh yeah, I did,” he winked back. “It was a good, hard distracting–”
“You told him to do that?” Geri asked her grandmother.
“Well, hopefully, I didn’t have to tell himeverything,”she shot back with a grin.
“Er, can we please find out what happened at the council meeting?” Persephone interjected, then looked at her husband.
Geri twined her fingers with his, and they turned to Hades.
“Well, Hades?” Apollo said. “Tell us what happened.”
The god of the underworld still looked pissed but took a breath before speaking, “Do you want the good news or bad news first?”
“Good,” Geri said before Apollo could say anything.
“Well, the good news is that the council voted in your favor. They’ve granted you permission to eat the golden apple.”
“Oh, thank fuck.” Geri sucked in the breath. “But if that’s the good news, what’s the bad?”
“There are certain conditions and rules you must follow, but most are the same ones we gods live with. But they also added one more requirement, which they have never asked anyone in all the millennia I’ve been on the council.”
“And what’s this requirement?” Apollo groaned.
“As you know, eating the golden apple of immortality will effectively turn Geri into one of us—a goddess, who will share in your power. She must shed her humanity and truly learn what it means to be immortal. So, they have stipulated one requirement from you: you must live in Olympus for an entire year, without leaving.”
“No…leaving?” Geri glanced over at Grannie. “But what about your realm? I can still visit, right?”
Hades shook his head. “No, you must live in Olympus for an entire year straight. You cannot leave for any reason, not even for emergencies, and you can’t just add a few extra days to make up for any time spent away.”
“But that’s not fair,” she protested. “They didn’t ask Persephone’s father to do that.”
“His case was special,” Hades pointed out. “He’d been unjustly trapped in that realm for thousands of years because of Zeus.”
“One year isn’t so bad,” Apollo said, squeezing her hand. “You’ll have everything you need back in Olympus, at my place. You’ll make some new friends, too.”
“And as a goddess, I can visit, and so can my mother,” Persephone pointed out.
“But what about Grannie?” She bit her lip. “I just got her back.”
“And I’ll be here for the rest of eternity,” her grandmother chuckled. “Geri, one year is nothing. And think about it: once you are an immortal, we’ll have all that time together.”
Geri pursed her lip. “I guess that’s fine.”
“It’s settled then.” Apollo gave her a kiss on the mouth. “When does the one-year start?”
“The moment you bring her to Olympus,” Hades said. “Once you bring her there, she can’t leave.”
“I’ll need some time,” Geri said.
“Of course, take all the time you need,” Apollo said. “Well, not all the time. I mean, the sooner we do it, the sooner we can have the year over.”
“I have so much to take care of, my apartment, my stuff, the shop–”
“I can help out some days,” Persephone offered. “And well, I’m sure Adonis will appreciate the extra hours.”
“My brother will want to have some kind of mating ceremony in front of the pack.”
