CHARON: THE COURT OF THE UNDERWORLD by Thorn Alessa

Author:Thorn, Alessa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

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Hours later, Charon was sitting in his favorite armchair, his shoulder and side pounding in agony. He and Erebus had spent the better part of an hour cleaning their wounds and taping them up to stop them leaking ichor. It would take hours to heal, and every second would pulse in pain until they did. From neck to arm, Charon was a pulpy mess of teeth marks and his back and side was torn to shreds from the claws of the hybrid.

Charon had left it to Hermes and Thanatos to tell Hades what happened and what it could mean. Every time, he thought they had seen the limit of the horror Pandora had created, they found another layer.

Charon poured another straight whiskey with his good hand and downed half of it as his phone rang. Circe.

"Hey," he answered, fighting to keep the pain from his voice.

"Sorry if I woke you. I had a weird feeling and thought I better check on you," Circe said softly.

"I wasn't sleeping," Charon replied, leaning back on the chair and letting his head fall back.

"Are you okay? You sound hurt." Circe's concern hit him low in the chest. It was rare that anyone other than his brothers checked in on him. He was very good at making it seem like he was always the one that was all right, even if he wasn't.

"Really rough night," he said, too tired to keep pretending he wasn't in pain.

"Want to talk about it?" she asked.

"Not particularly." Charon had enough of mechanical minotaurs for one night.

"Do you want me to leave you alone?"

"Fuck no. Tell me about your night. Did the women gossip you to death? Did you learn any sordid secrets of Hades's?" Charon needed the distraction as his body rebuilt itself, and he didn't want her to go. Her warm honey voice was a balm to the horror in his mind. He thought about the kiss that he hadn't taken proper advantage of, wondered what it meant, and if he would risk getting another one. Fuck yes, I would.

"They were great. Hades loved entertaining such a bevy of charming and beautiful women," Circe replied, a smile in her voice. "He actually laughed when I told him about Persephone blowing up my scrying bowl today. I never thought I would make the God of the Dead laugh."

"Persephone did what? You didn't tell me that," Charon chuckled.

"I didn't get much of a chance to tell you, seeing as how your dinner was cut short."

"Persephone has a habit of being good at everything, so I bet she didn't like it one bit."

Charon forgot all about the pain in his side as Circe told him about her day with Selene and Persephone and the night that he had missed out on.

When Circe was done with those stories, she started to tell him about Helios's court, letting one story flow onto another until he fell asleep, the sound of her voice in his ears and a smile on his face.

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