We need to talk, the text message said. Meet me at Triton and Sophia’s.
Hermes charged from the bedroom he and Penny had shared the previous night and barreled into Hades’ office.
“How the fuck did she leave from here?” He glared at his uncle, furious at Hades and scared shitless about Penny at the same time.
“Ah, well, there was an emergency.”
“Emergency, my ass!” Hermes cursed and pointed his finger at the god of the underworld. “If anything happens to her, I’m going to rip you to pieces with my bare hands!”
To his surprise, his uncle’s eyes twinkled at the threat. “It appears that my dear nephew really does love his mortal wife.”
“Of course I love her! Why the fuck do you think I married her?” he growled and ran out of the room and the palace. And why shouldn’t he love her? Penny cared about others more than she cared about herself. Whenever he was near her, he was happy. And when he was separated from her, he longed for her. She brought the best out in him.
As fast as his winged sandals could carry him, he crossed the River Styx and headed for the exit, passing through it without pausing. At the other side, he teleported, landing in the second floor corridor of Triton and Sophia’s B&B a few seconds later.
“Penny? Penny, where are you?” he called out. He could only hope that Zeus had already gotten the news of their wedding and had sufficiently calmed down so as not to hurt Penny once he realized that she was back in the mortal world.
“Penny?” he yelled once more, not even wanting to imagine what could happen to the woman he loved. Yes, loved. There was no doubt about it in his mind. His heart belonged to her. Without her, he was lost. He needed her as much as he needed his next breath. He shoved his hand through his hair, letting out a deep sigh. He couldn’t lose her.
“Hermes.”
Hermes swiveled on his heels, finding Penny standing a few yards away from him. He ran his eyes over her body, assuring himself that she was unhurt, while his feet already carried him to her, his arms outstretched. “Penny!”
She stepped back, avoiding him.
Instantly, suspicion rose in him. He drew his eyebrows together. “What’s wrong?”
She dropped her lids halfway, hesitating.
“You left the underworld. Why? What happened? What’s going on?”
“I think we made a mistake,” she said, her voice barely audible.
His pulse began to race. “A mistake?”
“Yes,” she hurried on quickly. “We shouldn’t have gotten married, Hermes. Neither of us wanted it. And I hate to think I’ve trapped you, trapped myself. I think we should get a divorce.”
Hermes’ heart stuttered to a halt. She felt trapped? By being married to him? “You want a divorce?” The last word tasted bitter on his tongue.
“Yes. Since we consummated the marriage, I assume we can’t get an annulment, right?”
“No, we can’t,” he said matter-of-factly.
She nodded. “Then it has to be divorce.”
His eyes narrowed. “Why so sudden? I thought last night . . . I thought we had something.” How had he not seen this coming? Maybe because she’d been more passionate and loving during their wedding night than ever before. Yeah, that had to be it. She’d been everything he could wish for from a wife. Had it all been a pretense? He shook his head. No, he couldn’t allow himself to believe that.
“Last night was . . . well, we’ve always had good sex. You said so yourself.”
The words hit him in the gut. So it had only been sex for her? What about the affection he thought he’d seen in her eyes, shining back at him? He’d offered her his heart on their wedding night. Maybe he hadn’t said so, but she had to have felt it. “Sex, huh?” he pressed out between clenched jaws.
“We got married for all the wrong reasons. It’s not like we love each other. It’s not like we want to spend the rest of our lives together.”
Hermes looked away, not wanting her to see the disappointment in his eyes. She didn’t love him. Didn’t want a life with him. “So you want your freedom despite what that means.” Did she like him so little that she’d rather be exposed to Zeus’s wrath than live with him?
“I’d still be your ex-wife. Still family, right?”
The words bounced around in his head. Still family? No, she wouldn’t still be family. Zeus would never stand for it. But before he could explain this to her, Sophia came running up the stairs.
“Oh my god, I just heard,” she said breathlessly and hurried past him, putting her arms around Penny. “I’m so sorry about what happened to your father. Is he going to be okay? And then for another bus to hit your colleague. That’s just so tragic.”
Hermes pinned Penny with a stare, her eyes going wide as she pulled herself from Sophia’s embrace.
“Everyone in town is talking about how it looked like the bus swerved over and hit your father on purpose,” Sophia continued. “Apparently, there was some mechanical failure; the steering mechanism didn’t seem to work. I haven’t heard all the details about your co-worker’s accident yet.”
Two men involved in the theft of his sandals had been hit by buses on the same day? Well, if that wasn’t a fucking coincidence.
“Penny!” he said, his voice sharp now, as he grabbed her by her bicep. “Tell me the truth. He came to see you, didn’t he?”
“Who?” she squeaked.
“Zeus! He threatened you.”
Penny squeezed her eyes shut. He knew then that his hunch was right.
“You don’t want to divorce me, do you? Zeus is forcing you to!” he guessed.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Sophia gasped. “What?”
Hermes glanced at her sideways. “It appears that my dear father is interfering in my life again, trying to blackmail my wife into leaving me. And if she doesn’t, he’ll kill her father and Kenton. Isn’t that right, Penny?”
She nodded, tears brimming in her eyes. “Yes.”
“What is Zeus planning to do with you once we’re divorced?”
Penny pressed her lips together.
“Tell me!” he thundered.
“He’ll kill me.”
Hermes felt fury charge through him like one of Zeus’s thunderbolts. “Over my fucking dead body!”