Free The Iron Queen (Daughters of Zeus) by Kaitlin Bevis Page A

nicest person I’d ever met.
    The doorbell rang, and since no one else moved to get it, I turned and pulled the door open. A man wearing a black leather jacket stood on the porch.
    Not just any man. Tall. Dark. Handsome. And a god. Nice. I stood speechless, captivated by his fiery eyes. He seemed equally stunned and let out a low whistle.
    “Got to say,” he murmured in a voice almost too low to hear. “I’m liking the newer models.”
    “And just who the hell are you?”
    He shot me a rakish grin. “Ares.”
    God of war. Bloodshed, screams, battle cries. People dying by the thousands. A wooden horse. Fire. Blackened bodies. Sick and wounded soldiers with melting faces. The images came too fast. Too overwhelming. I tore my gaze away from him and stepped back, stumbling in my haste. He stepped forward and grabbed my arm, steadying me.
    “That was stupid of me, I’m sorry.” He sounded like he meant it. “It’s been a long time since I’ve met a new deity. I should have let you guess.”
    “Everything all right here?” Adonis’ voice came from somewhere over my left shoulder.
    “And if it wasn’t? What would you do about it, halfbreed?” When Adonis didn’t reply, Ares smirked. “Yeah, I thought so.”
    He moved past me and stalked into the room. Everyone fell silent. I stood, staring at the open door, too stunned to turn and investigate the silence behind me. All those dying people…
    Adonis moved between me and the door, breaking my gaze. He studied my face. “Hey, what happened?”
    Behind me, Ares and Athena started arguing. I couldn’t focus on the words. I just kept seeing the bodies, the blood, the death.
    “Aphrodite?”
    I shook my head to clear it. What was I doing standing here in shock over the death of a few…million…humans? Humans died, it happened. War was great for gods. There’s no beating wartime worship. Fear and desperation gave it a potency that was hard to replicate in the day to day goings on of the typical human life.
    But their faces…
    “Aphrodite?” Adonis touched my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
    I pulled away from him, temper flaring. “What do you care?”
    Spinning on my heel, I stalked off. Stupid humans and their stupid wars and their stupid lies and fake concern. And stupid me, for giving a damn about any of them.

Chapter XVII
     
    Hades
     
    “Are you sure this is the right place?” I stared at the… I could only describe it as a church, half hoping Demeter had the wrong address. Only half. It had taken Demeter weeks to track down Apollo. We’d found almost everyone else.
    Persephone hadn’t turned up in the Underworld, which meant she was still alive. Zeus had to be hurting her so badly that it took all the power she had to heal, so her excess power didn’t kill her.
    That was sort of good news. Gods, I hated Zeus. Only he could turn the world upside down enough for me to see a bright side to my wife being tortured.
    Demeter motioned to the sign on the church. “Unfortunately.”
    It looked like a church, which was odd in itself in this industrial area, but instead of crosses and such on the stained glass windows, there were suns everywhere.
    Staring at the billboard that proclaimed “WE WORSHIP THE SUN” in disbelief, I couldn’t decide if I was horrified or impressed. Silhouettes of bikini-clad girls in sunglasses lined either side of the sign. Unbelievable. Apollo had started a cult in the center of L.A, a large city by human standards, while the rest of the gods were hidden in the shadows struggling to find enough worship to survive. And no one noticed.
    Apollo had always been a bit eccentric, but this?
    “Wazzup!” A group of kids in board shorts approached a gaggle of girls in daisy dukes and bikini tops.
    Wazzup,” they replied in solemn voices.
    The two groups bowed to each other, and I thought I might have an apoplexy.
    Demeter took a deep breath and walked in the door. I followed, pushing aside the beaded curtains to find myself in a