Death cast her glance toward Hades who locked his jaw and refused to meet her gaze. Tyr would have bet good gold that something happened or was happening between those two. It would seem natural. Death and the god of the Underworld.
“But none of this is why we are here,” Scarlet said, pacing a few steps before stopping to remove her high heels and then resuming again.
“Hel commanded our presence in the Underworld, and I believe she means to bring on the Apocalypse.”
Chapter Five
EVERYONE JUMPED UP AT once, except Tyr who remained sitting with his hand resting on his knee. The man knew how to keep a cool head about him. That had always been such an attractive feature.
“Just wait,” Scarlet said. “Everyone sit, and I’ll explain what happened.”
She recounted how Tyr hunted for her, then the encounter with the hellhound, and finally her threat and their exit.
Hades spoke first, and it almost hurt her to listen to him speak. “Hel wants me in her bed again.” He spoke softly with a feminine cadence, but his voice was richer, more melodious as if it were meant to entrance and ensnare. Some even said it sounded different for each person who heard it.
“It would seem she wants him desperately if she all but abducted a horsemen to question on the matter,” Cloris said side-eyeing Hades.
Scarlet glanced back and forth between them. “Did I miss something?”
“No.” Death’s reply was terse and final.
Scarlet paced back and forth shaking her hands. They always tingled when her adrenaline spiked. “I told her nothing save what would happen if she threatened me again.”
“Can we get back to this husband?” Bianca asked eyeing Tyr.
Scarlet stopped pacing and glared at her. “We have a crisis situation here, and you want to know about my husband?”
She stood and crossed the room to look at him. “Of course. He is part of the family now.”
Scarlet watched as Tyr shifted in his seat, uncertain of what he was supposed to do when confronted by Bianca.
“Give me your hand,” Bianca said as she reached out.
He didn’t hesitate and offered it to her palm up. She cupped his big hand in both of her small ones and stared into the center of his palm.
“You’re a brave one and true. Just for the sake of being just not because you enjoy the recognition that might come from it. You have claimed Scarlet completely as your own, and you offer yourself to her with no conditions.”
Tyr met Scarlet’s eyes as Bianca read his palm, and she forced herself to hold his gaze. Bianca took up palm reading about a thousand years ago. She had grown eerily good at it in that time.
After a moment longer she let his hand go and patted his cheek before crossing back to her own spot, tucking her knees up, and resting her chin on them.
“Did you see anything else?” Tyr asked.
“Of course,” Bianca replied, but she did not elaborate or share what else she might have seen.
It didn’t matter. Bianca approved him being there, and that was enough for the others. One by one, starting with Katherine, they crossed to him and kissed him gently on the cheek welcoming him to the family in their own way. Hades didn’t approach or even look at him for that matter, but Tyr didn’t seem to mind. When they finished, Scarlet stood staring at them.
“Guys. He’s not staying.”
Bianca snorted and smiled a secret-keeping smile.
“I stay,” Tyr said. “I’ll stay by your side until the last breath is gone from my body. This I vow.”
“Witnessed,” Death said.
Scarlet shook her head and sank down onto the carpet as if she were on a carnival ride she wasn’t allowed to dismount. “I don’t have a choice in this. Do I?” she whispered in defeat a few moments later.
“It would seem not, love,” Bianca said.
“Fine. You stay. But I’m going to find a new place to live. He will have to duck through every doorway in my building.”
“I don’t mind,” Tyr said after a moment.
“You should quit your job too,” Bianca said. “Come work at the Café. You will be so much happier.”
Scarlet pursed her lips and sighed with exaggerated force. “Is that a suggestion, Bianca, or did you see it?”
The girl shrugged and put her head back on her knees. Bianca often didn’t reveal some of the things she saw. She said there was a natural order to things, and sometimes people needed to reach conclusions and solutions on their own. Supernatural help was well and good, but she didn’t believe in just dishing it out willy-nilly. Scarlet often saw her read the less fortunate and help in any way she could, like sending a young pregnant woman off with her tips for the day telling her to buy a red scarf or small things like that.
“Now, the question remains,” Death said breaking the heavy silence. “Would Hel really end the world just to get Hades?”
Not a few seconds passed before Tyr, Hades, and Scarlet spoke in unison. “Yes.”
Death pressed on. “Well then. Do you think she knows the parameters of the seals?”
Bianca shook her head slowly looking off into the distance. “No, but I think she has her suspicions about some of them.”
“She did ask after my sword,” Scarlet said.
“Which hellhound did she have with her?” Hades asked barely above a whisper.
“She sent another hellhound to fetch us, but it was Garmr who sat at her right hand,” Tyr growled.
They all looked at him. “Do you know him?” Death asked.
“We have a prophecy.”
“What sort of prophecy?” Bianca asked.
“I’m to play a role at Ragnarok. The prophecy says, ‘Then shall the dog, Garmr, be loosed, which is bound before Gnipahellir: he is the greatest monster; he shall do battle with Tyr, and each become the other’s slayer.’”
Death looked at him and tilted her head to the side. “You have a death prophecy then. These things can change in time.”
“It has not since the Ragnarok was foretold, and I no longer question it.”
“Wasn’t it weird seeing him then?” Bianca asked. Her interest in Tyr was strange and definitely out of character. Scarlet wondered if something in a vision caught her attention or if she was simply curious about the new addition to the group.
“No.” He shook his head. “We shall become each other’s slayer at the end of days. Hopefully that will not be soon, and until then I do not worry over things I cannot control.”
“Amen, man.” Bianca said with an appreciative nod.
Hades interrupted the banter and looked between Scarlet and Tyr. “Did she sit on the black throne?”
“She did. Does that matter?” Scarlet asked.
“No,” Hades shook his head ever so slightly sending his brown ringlets spinning perfectly. “It only matters to me.” He glanced back at Death and fell silent.
Scarlet often feared there was more to Hades’ life before he began his service with them than he let on. When Hades came to them after their first creation, they knew Hel had already taken control of the Underworld and that Hades had been captured as her war prize. Unfortunately, even gods sometimes can’t help their own outcomes, and he remained under her care until he joined The Horsemen.
He seemed scarred by that experience, and in the few moments she’d spent in Hel’s presence, Scarlet quickly figured out how that could happen.
Scarlet took a deep breath and shifted to get more comfortable sitting on the floor in her skirt. Tyr stood quickly, picked her up, put her in the chair, and sat near her feet. Scarlet sat speechless at this strange action. The others watched but thankfully kept silent. When Scarlet could form coherent sentences again, she looked back to her companions.
“We need to double security on the seals. We need to keep them on our persons and safe until this threat passes.”
“How are you going to carry around a long sword discreetly?” Bianca asked. “And you don’t have to try to hide a crown. I mean co
me on. There are very few things one can wear a crown with, especially one that can end the world. Even in New York.”
“We will conceal them. We didn’t have to use our magic before as we never needed to hide the seals. Now we do. We can turn them into something else and hide them away like ordinary objects,” Death said.
Scarlet nodded and the others followed suit. They never needed to employ concealment on their seals, but if the time ever came that required such a precaution, they had the ability. Scarlet wasn’t entirely sure what she would turn her seal into in order to both conceal it and use it if she needed, but maybe Tyr could help her figure it out.
The thought surprised her even more than him picking her up off the floor. When did she stop thinking of I and started with the we? It was unnerving how he had been back in her life only a few hours and already commanded her mind and body. Scarlet wanted him. Even now, she longed to feel his fingers on her skin and run her hands through his hair.
Thankfully self-control and discipline had been instilled in her since her creation. She kept her urges in check for the time being. No doubt Tyr would gladly volunteer for anything she asked that involved touching him and vice versa. Even before he’d never been able to keep his hand and lips off her. During sparring especially, she’d had to box his ears more than once to halt his wandering fingers on her cleavage or creeping up her inner thigh. She swallowed the memories and tried to get back into the matter at hand.
“I’ll turn my crown into a pin and just wear it on my shirt at all times,” Bianca said.
Katherine sat forward and pursed her lips. “I suppose I can take my scales to work and turn them into a decoration. Just downsize the scale in order to be able to bring them back and forth. Or I could make them into a keychain.” She looked pensive for a moment. “Yes, a keychain.”
They all looked at Scarlet. “I suppose I could turn my sword into a pen. It would be easily concealable, and I could carry it with no problem.”
They all nodded before looking to Death. She had her forehead wrinkled and stared at the floor shaking her head. “I honestly have nothing. I really can’t hide my seal.”
Bianca interrupted her. “Well, you could tell us what your seal is and then maybe we could help you work it out.”
“Um...” Death looked between them.
Katherine spoke up this time. “She has a point. It has been a very long time. You have to trust us by now.”
Cloris tensed, her shoulders tightening as they always did when she was under pressure. “I do trust you. All of you, with my life.”
Bianca asked the question burning in all their minds. “Then why is it such a big deal that you can’t tell us?”
Death bit her lip. Another sign she was in distress but didn’t want to vocalize it. “It is not my decision to share it with you.”
Scarlet looked around at the others. Everyone wore an equally confused look except Death who just looked sad.
“For Christ’s sake,” Hades broke in. “It is my decision whether she tells you all what her seal is, alright.”
It was the first time Scarlet had heard his voice above a whisper, and she realized how this man could control an entire realm. His voice washed over them in a wave. Scarlet recovered enough to speak first. “You have been with us as long as she. You can’t say you don’t trust us.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you; it’s because you’re women,” he said as if that answered everyone’s questions.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Bianca asked.
“Woman are unreliable when it comes to beautiful men. I have never in my life met a woman who did not fall in love with me instantly...save Death.”
“Is that why you hate her?” Bianca asked, voicing the question that plagued them all for two millennia. She always put a voice to the hard questions.
Hades took a deep breath and locked his jaw. The most outward sign of emotion Scarlet had seen on his face in decades. She also resented the fact that he said everyone fell in love with him. It pained her he thought he meant so little to them. It might be their own fault though, they didn’t go out of the way to make him feel included. He wasn’t a horsemen. He’d simply showed up the day they were created, and that was that.
Hades stood to leave, but Death reached out and clutched his arm. He ripped it from her grasp and stepped forward as if to strike her. Everyone surged to their feet, including Tyr.
“This is why I said she couldn’t tell you. You all treat me as an outsider even though I have been with you since the very beginning. I would never strike her, ever.”
“Hades,” Cloris said in an attempt to placate him.
“No, don’t speak me in that voice of yours. I’ll not be bewitched. You all want to know why she can’t transform her seal?”
They all stared waiting for the bomb to drop. “Because it’s me. I’m Death’s seal.” He said it glaring at them all, one by one, and then stormed from the brownstone. The door slammed in its frame hard enough to rattle the windows.
The news shocked Scarlet to her core. She’d never even considered what Hades’ presence was to them and what his place might be in the end of days. Of course they’d all read the prophecies, but Death’s had always been sort of vague, as was the whole damn book. She shifted before sitting back down in the chair. Everyone else followed suit.
“Well, are your gatherings always like this?” Tyr asked.
“I wish they were,” Bianca said. “We might actually accomplish something and say things that weigh heavy on our hearts.” She turned a pointed stare toward Scarlet.
“Come on, are you really going to get on my case because I had a secret husband?”
“It sounds like the headline of the Maury show.” Bianca giggled.
Scarlet shrugged. Nothing could be done about Bianca or her attitude, and she doubted even the end of days would be able to squelch it.
“What should we do about Hades?” Bianca continued.
“Nothing,” Cloris cut on. “I will handle Hades. You all might not see it, but Hades and I work well together. I’ll fix this, and he will be more polite next time.”
Scarlet didn’t know if that was a promise or a threat.
Chapter Six
THE GATHERING RESUMED ITS silence while they all considered Hades’ confession. Eventually everyone looked to Death who sat with her hands tucked under her knees like she was used to this sort of behavior.
“What? He didn’t want me to tell you guys. I figured I’d at least give him that courtesy.”
Scarlet spoke up again. “How in the hell could you have kept a secret like that for two thousand years?”
Death shrugged as she crossed her legs and arms leaning back into the couch. Her posture clearly said, you will get nothing from me.
Katherine spoke up. “Well, then we will have to take turns to protect Hades. If he can’t be transformed into something more protectable, we will just have to do it the old fashioned way.”
They all nodded in agreement, and Scarlet stood. “I think we should go. I’m tired, and I’m supposed to be at work early.”
They all groaned. Bianca threw a plush red pillow at her face, which she dodged neatly. Tyr stood up off the floor and nodded to them all in turn.
“So formal,” Bianca quipped. “I like him.”
Tyr smiled at the tiny immortal. He wanted to know her age, well, why she looked so much younger than the others. Bianca held secrets, ones she kept hidden beneath a shiny veneer of brutal honesty and sarcasm. He hoped one day she would consider him a friend enough to confide in him. That went for all of them. They were friends and eternal companions, but that didn’t mean they all did not have their own secrets to protect. Hell, he himself had been one of Scarlet’s for a long time. It was nice to finally be out in the open. He took full advantage of it, stepping up to take Scarlet’s hand in his own. She looked down between them and up in confusion. But she didn’t pull away, and that was enough for Tyr.
“Le
t’s go,” she said. Hands entwined, she all but dragged him from the house.
“I would take you on the subway, but I fear you wouldn’t fit,” Scarlet said staring up to the top of his head pointedly. “Also that you would seriously frighten the other passengers.”
“I’m wearing a suit, how frightening can I possibly be at this moment?”
“You’re a large bearded man missing an extremity. Your appearance, although tidy, doesn’t necessarily inspire comfort.”
“Is Justice meant to be comforting?”
“Can the philosophy wait until we get home? I need food and a shower and coffee...not necessarily in that order.”
He nodded as they climbed into a taxi and headed back toward her place. Tyr stepped out of the taxi first on high alert for another hellhound, but the twilight cast innocuous shadows across the ground. Nothing waited for them in the darkness.
She led him to her apartment, and as he ducked slightly upon the threshold he realized she hadn’t been exaggerating. Her apartment was small. Also one room made up the entirety of the place. His heart threatened to break seeing her live like this when the others lived more lavishly. Scarlet would probably decline assistance from them, but she wouldn’t dare decline her own husband.
“Pack your bags.” The hollow tone of his voice belied the anger surging through him as he spoke. His heart took up a heavy beat as his anger rose, but he held it back so he didn’t shout at her on the first day of their reunion.
“What?” she asked and tossed her keys on the table.
“Pack your bags now. We are leaving this place.”
“This is my home.”
“No, no, it is not. You’re telling me you left me, my home in Asgard, everything to live in a hovel without any support from your friends. This is preferable to asking for help or taking charity from others?”
“Yes,” she said turning to square off with him.
His voice rose steadily as she tested his patience. “Pack your bags, or I’ll do it for you and drag you out of here.”
“We’re not in Asgard. You can’t force me to do anything.”
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