I jerked up onto my feet, horror coursing down my spine. I knew that voice. Re gracefully unfolded into a standing position and frowned at the stairs.
“Who is that?” Trevor got to his feet as well and headed for the stairs.
“It can't be,” I whispered and hurried after him.
“What the fuck is that moron doing here?” Re grumbled. “Fucking Olympians. Athena better not have sent him. We don't have time for their bullshit.”
And there he was, standing at the bottom of the stairs, facing off with a Froekn bouncer—the god who had left me to be tortured by Aphrodite. It was good he had. It was how I took Aphrodite's magic. Still, just hearing his voice made my skin crawl.
“I'll tell them you'd like to see them,” the bouncer said. “Just wait here.”
“The fuck I will!” Hephaestus pointed at me. “There you are! Tell this boy to move aside before I make him into puppy chow.”
“Puppy chow isn't made of puppies, you sicko!” I shouted over the music.
Hephaestus frowned. Several patrons looked over at us. I smiled and waved.
“Let him up, Al,” Trevor called down to the bouncer.
Al stepped aside, and Hephaestus made his way up the stairs, his limp barely impeding him. We backed up as he reached the balcony. The Blacksmith God of the Greeks wasn't someone we could ignore. He was an Olympian, not some random Greek god, and so was I. I was duty-bound to hear him out.
Seeing him come up the stairs made me want to thumb my nose at duty. When Hephaestus interrupted my torture, he barely noticed me. He was too furious with Aphrodite for trying to become Blue's queen. Blue had wanted me, not her, and Aphrodite found this both infuriating and baffling. She couldn't understand why a god would want a human over a goddess. It burned her perfect butt. Thus, the torture. She couldn't simply kill me. Not after I had stolen the god she wanted.
Ironically, being tortured triggered a survival instinct in me, and I did something no one had ever done before—I stole a goddess' magic, turning myself into a goddess in the process. Also ironic is that Blue isn’t one of my husbands. He got over being evil and married his true love, Eztli, the first person he had made a vampire.
But I digress.
“Hello, Hephaestus.” I motioned to the seats where Ereshkigal and Ninkasi were still sitting. “Would you like to join us?”
“I'm not here for a social call, Godhunter.” Hephaestus swung his long, dark hair over one massive shoulder. Althoughhe came across as a savage, he had a ruggedly handsome face. It twisted with irritation. “Athena told me to seek you out.”
“I fucking knew it,” Re muttered.
“Athena?” Trevor asked. “Why? What's happened?”
“Some motherfucker who is soon to die stole my core!” Hephaestus hunched forward as if he were about to pile-drive us.
“Is that a euphemism?” Re drawled.
Hephaestus scowled at Re in bewilderment. “My automaton core, you fool.”
“They stole from you too?” Ereshkigal strode over to us. “This is proof, is it not? It must be your trickster.”
“First, they are not my trickster.” I held up a hand to stop Hephaestus from speaking. “Second, it is becoming more likely. Now, Hephaestus, what is an automaton core?”
“It's a power source,” he said. “I used to create automatons, and the core fueled them.”
“Robots?” Re perked up. “You maderobots?” He looked at me. “Why don't we have robots?”
I cleared my throat and widened my eyes at him. “Uh, don't we?”
Re had created a robot that looked like me. Or maybe a better word for it was android. It looked real. He called it his Vervain doll. It was for times when he had, er, needs, and I was not available. He kept her in a trunk.
Re blinked. “Ah, yes. You are correct.” He motioned to Hephaestus. “Proceed.”
“Automatons, not robots,” Hephaestus repeated as if Re were slow-witted. “The core is a tube filled with ichor—a magical fluid I created that holds energy.”
“A power source,” Trevor murmured. “It's a divine battery?”
