Acheron winked at him. “Good answer.”
“Who’s Katra?” Sera asked Max.
“Sin’s wife and Acheron’s daughter. As his wife, she’s technically part of the Sumerian pantheon and could descend into Irkalla with us, should she choose to do so, and as Ash said, she would do it to protect Sin. But she’s also the daughter of Artemis. With that lineage and those ties to that many competing pantheons, who knows what could happen to her if she went in there. While most of the gods should be sleeping, we don’t know for certain if that’s true of all of them. Our luck, and my personal experience, says prepare for a nasty surprise.” Max sighed heavily. “To be safe, we have to do this independent of outside pantheons. With the exception of Illarion, whose father is Ares, the drakomai can go without a problem.”
“What about a Hellchaser wolf?”
Max inclined his head to Fang. “You are welcome, brother.”
“Amazons?” Sam asked.
“Are you a demigod?”
She hedged a bit. “Granddaughter of Ares. Does that count?”
“Closer than we should chance, especially given the disgruntled look on Dev’s face.”
“Yeah,” Dev said irritably. “Back to the Katra thing. You go. I go. Don’t turn me into a demon, Sam. I’d look bad with serrated teeth.”
She groaned at her mate.
“That also leaves Chi out, and me,” Acheron said. “We better not chance it either.”
“But I’m still in.”
Sera scowled at Styxx. “How can you be in if your twin isn’t?”
Styxx let out an evil laugh. “That’s a long story. The shortest version is he was hidden in my mother’s womb as a fetus to keep his pantheon from killing him. While his mother is a goddess, my mother was a human queen. So even though we look alike – another trick of his mother’s to hide and disguise him – I’m a Chthonian. He’s a god. Clears me for active duty in nether realms ruled by ancient pantheons that bar his participation.”
Fang checked his phone before he spoke again. “And that’s my boss. Thorn’s got his own major situation exploding that’s requiring his full attention. In fact, he wanted me to help with it, then decided he’d call in Cadegan and Varyk instead, and leave me to deal with this.”
Sera crossed her arms over her chest. “So we’re a handful against a horde?”
A playful light darkened Styxx’s eyes. “Typical odds for me.”
Max jerked his chin toward Styxx. “Styxx was the commander of the Stygian Omada.”
It was her turn to have her jaw drop at the name of one of the most successful and famous armies in history. It ranked up there with Achilles and his Myrmidons. In the Greco-Apollon wars, the Stygian Omada had been invincible. “That was you? But you’re just a baby.”
Styxx laughed at her unintentional insult. “So was Alexander the Great. It’s amazing what people can do when they’re highly motivated and there’s an enemy army about to swarm over your carcass, should you fall.”
“Very, very true.”
Now it was Acheron’s phone that rang. He stepped away to answer.
“Blood moon,” Dev said, feigning an evil accent. “What we live for.”
Cherif scoffed. “I can handle that. It’s the dying for it that terrifies me.”
Fang nodded in agreement as he went over their latest plan in greater detail. Though to be honest, Seraphina still wasn’t happy with it. Something was nagging in the back of her mind.
After a few seconds, Acheron returned, his features pale and drawn. “That was Artemis. The gallu are attacking Olympus.”
“Mia!” Sin vanished immediately.
Sera scowled at his terrified reaction.
“Mia’s his daughter,” Max explained. “She must be with her grandmother.”
“Oh crap.”
Max met Acheron’s gaze. “Lead us in.”
“Thank you.”
They stood back as Acheron teleported them to Olympus. Because it belonged to the Greek pantheon, only the gods, or those they permitted, could access it. Obviously, both Acheron and Sin had permission to visit.
At least Artemis’s temple, if not the rest of the buildings on the mountain, since that was where they appeared a few seconds later.
Max had never liked going into battle with family. He liked it even less with Sera by his side. But he knew that this was who and what she was.
A fierce Amazon warrior.
It would be the worst of insults to ask her to stay home and sit this out. So he did the only thing he could. He manifested her helmet and sword and handed them to her.
She frowned at him as she took them, and put the helm on her head. With an adorable smile that did awkward things to his body, she unsheathed her sword. “How did you do that?”
“I’m the one who gave the sword to you, remember?”
Seraphina narrowed her gaze suspiciously on him before she examined the hilt of her sword as if seeing it for the first time. “It’s enchanted, isn’t it?”
The blush on his face and bashful tilt to his head answered her question.