The fall of the Gods was something thought impossible. They were supposed to be immortal, unkillable except by the hands of another God. That was until a mortal proved that wrong. It had taken all of forty five seconds for the King of the Gods, the thunderbringer to fall at the hands of a mortal man.

  Olympus had crumbled to ruin. The Gods scattered amongst the mortals, hidden in plain sight where the hunters could not find them. And like that, they have lived since the fall of their home. That was an eternity ago. The years have lost all meaning. All that is known is that today is the anniversary of the death of Zeus. Today is the day that Hades and I were forced to assume power over not only the Underworld but over all of those left among us.

  Poseidon fled to the seas. Zeus was gone. And that left my husband as the last remaining God King. We assembled the council and scattered the others to the winds, to hide among those who sought to kill us.

  All I want is to be free, truly. I want to return home. I want to go back to a time when… while things were hard, they were normal. I want to not have to shed my skin again, and take on a new life because this one had grown too old to remain.

  —-

  Kori’Ann sat at the dining room table, scratching words down in her notebook. A chronicle that she’d decided she was going to keep going forward. One that her therapist had insisted was a smart idea given the coming anniversary. She was tired. Curious as to how Hera had been able to maintain being in charge of the Gods and the Mortals. She still didn’t understand.

  Her gaze lifted from the page to where her husband stood by the counter, brewing himself a cup of coffee.

  “Did you want a cup, my love?”

  Kori nodded, “I need a pick me up before the council meeting.”

  Aiden started a second cup as the first finished, moving about the kitchen to add sugar and cream to the cup in his hand before placing it in front of his wife. He kissed the side of her head, “It’s going to be alright, Seph. I promise. She’d be proud of you, you know.”

  Demeter, her mother, had also been lost through the years to those who hunted the Gods. She still struggled with that. Her mother was a loss far deeper than that of Zeus. It cut her to the bone, and left her with a hole that she could never quite fill.

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  “I wish I could hear her tell me that,” she said. “I wish all of this was just an awful nightmare. I wish we could go home.”

  Far too many wishes, none of which were going to come true. The God Killers weren’t a nightmare, they were real, and they had taken to hunting them to extinction for their essence and immortality.

  “Hades, I’m tired.”

  “I know, and you’re so strong for continuing on in spite of that.”

  “I’m glad you think so.”

  A smile inched its way onto her face as she turned to look at him. He was hovering barely an inch from her. She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips.

  “And there is a silver lining,” he said. “At least we’ve recently changed form, so we won’t have to do that again for a very long time.”

  She scoffed out a laugh, and shook her head at him.

  “I’ll need to tend the garden again soon,” she said. “Before it gets bad enough that the changes are noticeable.”

  Kori lifted her hand and a seedling appeared and sprouted into a beautiful white flower. She handed it to her husband.

  “Beautiful, just like you.”

  “We’ve been married for an eternity, Hades. You don’t need to flatter me every time I give you a gift.” She laughed.

  “I think you’ll find that statement incorrect, wife. You deserve to be flattered and showered with praise at every possible opportunity.”

  “You— my love. Need to finish your coffee and get to work. And I will see you at the council meeting this evening. You’re already running late.”

  Aiden huffed a sigh as he moved back to the counter to pour his coffee into his to-go mug. She couldn’t help but laugh. If ever there was a man who could be called a golden retriever husband…

  She closed the notebook on the table, and stood up to walk him to the door. After he grabbed his car keys from the hook by the door, he turned to her and wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

  “I love you. I’ll see you at 5pm for the meeting.”

  “I love you, I’ll see you then. Be safe.”

  He nodded, kissed her forehead once more and then turned to walk out the front door.

  Once she’d watched him pull from the driveway she turned back into the house and grabbed her coffee cup before heading back to the porch to make herself comfortable on the porch swing and enjoy the morning air.

  And she watched as the moving van pulled up in front of the house across the street.