Time made everything fade though, even the gods they stood before.
Hera and Zeus were dressed in modern clothes that were far more in fashion than Hermes’ jeans and faded band T-shirt. They could’ve passed easily as a Wall Street tycoon and his socialite wife, which was how they had lived before losing their current human aliases and retreating to Greece last year.
Hermes waved his hand at Patrick and Jono as he sauntered across the floor, battered Doc Martens squeaking a little on the marble. He sketched a slight bow in the direction of those who headed his pantheon. “Your guests, as promised.”
“We asked for the debtor alone,” Zeus said, sounding slightly irritated.
“I go where Patrick goes,” Jono shot back.
Hera’s smile was a bit mocking, but he expected nothing less from this lot. “Of course you do. That’s why we gods gave you to him.”
“You can preach about that bollocks all you like, but I know where I stand with Patrick, and none of you dictated my choices.”
“You carry our cousin in your soul. Do you honestly think he had no say in how you feel?”
Jono loved Patrick of his own free will, and he’d be damned if the gods took credit for the matters of his heart. “I promised Patrick I’d be his weapon. Fenrir never influenced me the way you think he does.”
Hera opened her mouth to speak, but her teeth snapped shut with a clack as Fenrir poured through Jono’s soul and mind, control a shared experience rather than a fight.
“This one is not yours, cousin,” Fenrir said with Jono’s mouth. “Watch your words.”
Hera’s gaze flicked to Patrick, and Jono wanted badly to put himself between them. Fenrir kept him where he was, and Jono didn’t fight the god.
“We all felt when Ginnungagap touched this earth once again,” Zeus said, his voice rumbling like a storm through the large room. “The beginning to an end called us back to these shores.”
Patrick stiffened a little beside Jono, but he couldn’t reach out to comfort him in any way, not with Fenrir clawing beneath his skin.
“Ginnungagap is not your concern,” Fenrir said.
“What approaches is all of our concern. Every god who walks this earth on the mortal plane is aware of what comes.”
Armageddon. Ragnarök. Judgment Day. The Fifth World. It had many names across many continents and adherents, but the end-times were all the same in the only way that mattered.
An ending.
Jono knew that from Fenrir and Patrick, but it didn’t make it any easier to face.
Hera pushed herself to her feet, the diamond-tipped gold pins keeping her riot of loose curls in place glinting in the light from the chandeliers. She strode forward, high heels clicking against the marble. The goddess came to stand in front of Jono, her aura breaking open between one blink and the next, haloing her body like the sun.
“Your teeth found Odin once before, cousin. I wonder what they will find this time?” Hera asked.
“This is all our fight,” Fenrir reminded her.
Her attention shifted to Patrick. “Some more than others.”
“I know what needs to be done, but we aren’t going to be enough even with all our alliances. Quetzalcoatl warned as much. Gods within your pantheon and others are helping Ethan out. If you aren’t willing to back us when it matters, then you can’t blame me for the fallout,” Patrick said.
“Our stories aren’t yours.”
“You’ve tied him to the gods of heaven through a soul debt. It is in all our interests to ensure he sees it through,” Fenrir said.
Hera’s gaze snapped back to them, eyes narrowing. “His blood is at fault.”
Jono felt himself smile, the sharpness of his teeth catching on his lips. “I do not argue that. I argue where you place the blame. One of yours took half of the twins to ensure a way forward. Yet it is also one of your own who perpetuates an alliance with Ethan and the Dominion Sect. Mortals have a saying about glass houses. Be careful of your stones, cousin.”
Hera stared at them with enough animosity in her gaze that Jono could almost feel the heat of her anger. Behind her, Zeus got to his feet and went over to his wife’s altar to pour himself a glass of red wine.
“Do what you promised,” Zeus said, attention on Patrick. “Finish what your family started and pay the debt you owe us.”
