Teased by Darkness (Bound to Hades Book 2)

One Thousand (and Twenty-Three)

Years Ago

ades carried the unconscious girl in his
arms down long hallways of the castle as
they passed by him in a blur. Hours had

passed since their escape attempt. He cursed
himself for thinking the worst thing they faced
would be death at the hands of a jealous pantheon
of gods.

Persephone, or Seph as she had insisted he call

her from almost the moment they met, hung in his
arms like dead weight. Only the gentle rise and fall
of her chest gave him any sign that she was still
alive.

He had watched her suffer a mortal injury and

die, then return to life again as if by some miracle.
But  when  he  gathered  her  up  in  his  arms  and  held
her close, the relief he felt was short-lived. She had
grown  weaker  and  weaker,  falling  into  a  state  that
was  nearly  comatose,  until  he  questioned  whether
she had truly been saved at all.

No healers lived in the Underworld. This was a

land  of  the  dead.  The  creatures  here  were  more
likely  to  tear  into  flesh  than  mend  it.  But  he
screamed  for  one  just  the  same,  until  his  throat

ached and his voice had gone hoarse. The daemons
stared at him as if they did not understand what he
wanted, but followed with curious gazes and noses
raised in the air to inhale the scene of freshly-
spilled blood. Hades distantly wondered if they had
any real concern for the fallen goddess or if they
were merely hoping to carve off a tasty chunk.

If Persephone died, none of this would matter

to him at all.

A wizened darkling stepped forward from the

crowd, the creature so old that Hades had trouble
discerning if it was a male or female until it spoke
to him. “Set her down here.”

He laid Seph’s too still body on the thick rug in

the center of the hallway, falling back when the
darkling forced itself between them.

The moment that his touch left her skin, Seph

inhaled on a harsh gasp of air. Her overly pale skin
brightened with the smallest bit of color, but she
gave no more evidence of life.

“Tell me what is wrong with her, lost one.”

Hades’s voice was rich with a command that he had
not yet earned.

“My name is Orin, boy.” The darkling’s voice

was caustic, but his touch was surprisingly gentle as
he inspected the queen. “Back away. Further.”

As equally annoyed as he was concerned,

Hades shifted back by the smallest half-step. He
glared at Orin, but his gaze immediately moved

back to Seph when she let out a soft sigh that
sounded like his name. He rushed forward only to
freeze when that sigh turned to a moan of pain that
only faded when he backed away again.

“What is wrong with her?”
“You.”
“That is absolutely ridiculous…” But Hades

watched  as  her  chest  rose  and  fell  with  more
normal  breaths  as  he  retreated.  Eyes  that  had
previously been closed fluttered ever so slightly as
she  seemed  just  on  the  verge  of  regaining
consciousness.

His beloved was coming back to life, but only

as long as he did not touch her.

Orin gave him a look that could almost be

pitying,  if  darklings  admitted  to  such  emotions.
“This  is  the  Underworld.  We  are  all  dead  things
here.  It  does  not  matter  what  she  was  before  she
came.  Now  she  is  a  queen  of  the  Underworld  and
your power over death alone will not be enough to
save her.”

There were many types of gods, some capable

of saving life and others who could only take it
away. Good and evil were purely human concerns,
but that seemed a petty realization as he lamented
his inability to help her.

But he couldn’t have known it would come at

such a cost.

“Where is Demeter? Where is the goddess of

the harvest? Perhaps there is something she can do,
take Persephone away if she must…”

“Gone.” Orin murmured with a shrug. “Far

enough to be out of reach, but no one will can say
where unless she chooses to return.”

Demeter might be the goddess of the Harvest,

but she was also a murderous fucking bitch. Hades
had  originally  invited  her  to  the  Underground  with
the intent to marry her, misguided as that may have
been. Sharing their power would have made them a
force  that  no  other  power  among  the  pantheon
could  have  overcome.  It  would  have  finally  freed
him  from  his  compulsion  to  stay  only  in  the
darkness of the Underworld.

He had wanted to be free.
Instead, he had fallen in love with Persephone,

the goddess of spring who shone like a bright spot
in the darkness.

They had tried to escape the Underworld on this

very night, but Demeter had discovered them first.
She  had  not  reacted  with  the  fiery  anger  he
expected  at  his  betrayal.  Instead,  Demeter  had
seemed almost coldly calm as she stabbed her own
daughter  through  the  chest  with  a  dagger  and  then
cursed Hades to rule the very land he had been so
desperate to escape.

But Seph had survived the killing blow, and

now he understood what it truly meant to be
cursed.

His fingers touched the gentle curve of Seph’s

cheek and then recoiled when she winced in pain.
“Why does my touch hurt her?”

Instead of answering the question, Orin cocked

his head to the side and regarded Hades closely.
“Tell me how you feel.”

Concern for his beloved had blunted any

awareness  of  his  own  needs.  But  now  that  he  was
forced  to  think  about  it,  Hades  made  the  gradual
realization that, aside from his fear for Seph, he felt
amazing.  His  body  seemed  somehow  lither  and
stronger, power stirring under his skin in a way that
he had never experienced before.

Strong enough to rule the entire Underworld if

that was what he desired.

It was only when he saw the knowing

expression  on  the  darkling’s  face  that  Hades
realized  the  question  was  meant  to  be  more  than
just  casual  interest.  “I  don’t  understand  what  that
has to do with anything.”

“You are Hades, ruler of the Underworld. But

now  you  have  tied  yourself  to  a  goddess  whose
powers allow flowers to bloom and bring life to the
world from the dead of winter. Her power has given
you dominion over life and death, but it comes with
a  cost.  You  will  be  compelled  to  feed  off  her  to
maintain  that  power.  As  she  grows  weaker  and
nearer  to  death,  you  grow  stronger  and  gain  the
power you need to master this place.”

“Near to death?” His mind whirled at the

terrible possibility, even as power burned under his
skin with fiery heat. “And then what?”

Orin’s face was so cracked and wrinkled that it

was  nearly  impossible  to  tell  what  expression  he
wore.  But  his  voice  held  the  most  trace  note  of
sadness.  “She  will  die  and  live  again,  like  the
endless cycle of the seasons, no matter how mortal
the wound she suffers, over and over until darkness
finally consumes the universe.”

The goddess of spring who could suffer

endlessly, but never die.

“We could leave. Escape, just as we planned.”

Hades  reached  for  her  before  catching  himself,
afraid that even the act of holding her close to him
would  cause  excruciating  pain.  “Let  this  realm  be
reclaimed  by  the  darkness.  We  will  simply  find
another.”

“That is the desperation talking. I know you

have  already  sensed  the  truth,  even  with  these
denials.  Hades,  you  are  bound  to  the  Underworld
and cannot leave it, at least not for long. To attempt
otherwise  is  to  invite  your  own  destruction.”  Orin
stood  and  brushed  his  small  hands  against  his
woolen robe. “The queen may grow accustomed to
the pain, in time, which is the best of her available
options.  But  this  place  will  warp  you,  make  you
crave  the  power  that  it  offers  until  you  crave  her
suffering  along  with  it.  As  the  ruler  of  the

Underworld, you must remain unless another takes
your place.”

The dead did not lie. But even if the darkling

twisted  his  words  with  some  hidden  deception,
Hades  felt  the  truth  of  it  down  to  his  marrow.  He
knew that if he were to make for the borders of the
Underworld  and  attempt  to  leave,  the  very  ground
would  shift  under  his  feet  and  great  chasms  would
open between him and any avenues of escape.

He possessed all the power that the Underworld

had to offer, except for the one required to leave it.

His perfect match, his love, was trapped with

him in a nightmare. He thought himself capable
whatever it took to gain unimaginable power. And
now he had it, even as it became the very last thing
he wanted. The irony of it certainly wasn’t lost on
him.

“I don’t want the power that badly.” And

despite  an  eternity  of  coveting  it,  the  words  were
truly  meant.  At  this  point,  Hades  wasn’t  even
talking  to  the  darkling  anymore.  Instead,  he
directed  his  words  at  the  primordial  universe  who
he knew would never answer. “This isn’t at all what
I wanted.”

“Well, you have it.” The darkling disappeared

into the crowd without waiting for a response.

“Hades…”
The fragile, broken whisper had him rushing

forward to kneel at Seph’s side, but he maintained

enough presence of mind to avoid touching her, his
hands clenched into fists at his sides. “I’m here.”

Her eyes were open, but she stared up at the

ceiling  as  if  not  seeing  anything  at  all.  Her  mouth
moved,  but  it  was  impossible  to  tell  if  she  actually
spoke  to  him.  He  leaned  over  her,  careful  to  keep
them from touching. “My love.”

But her head had already lolled back onto the

floor, eyes sliding closed as she slipped back into
unconsciousness.

Hades stared down at her, at war with himself.

At the very least, he wanted to carry her away from
this public hallway and so many sets of prying eyes.
He would have no choice but to touch her, cause
her even more pain, but that didn’t mean he needed
to do it with an audience.

Dozens of daemon servants and darklings who

served in the castle had gathered around them in a
tightening circle.

His anger finally got the best of him.
“Leave us,” he roared.
The crowd scattered as he lifted Seph into his

arms and tried to ignore her tiny moans of pain. As
much  as  those  small  sounds  disturbed  him,  he  also
found  them  strangely  alluring.  He  had  to  resist  the
urge  to  squeeze  her  tighter  in  his  arms,  if  just  to
discover  what  other  sounds  she  might  make.
Already  the  power  tempted  him,  urged  him  to  do
things that he would never consider otherwise. That

desire to cause her pain was entirely unwanted,
even as he felt the first stirrings of magic more
powerful than anything he could have imagined.

Even barely lucid, Seph naturally curved her

body against his. Still barely conscious, her fingers
tightened in the fabric of his shirt as if trying to pull
him  closer.  He  told  himself  that  she  didn’t
understand he was the source of her agony. But as
she  nuzzled  against  him  while  mewling  sounds
escaped  from  her  lips,  he  wondered  if  part  of  her
craved this as much as he did.

What had they become?

Chapter One

donis came awake with the shocked sort
of awareness of someone who was falling
in a dream and snapped back to

consciousness just before their body hit the ground.
His heart beat too hard in his chest, and adrenaline
made him sharply alert, with no transition between
sleeping and waking.

Had he been dreaming?
His body ached as if it had been stuck in a

strange position for hours on end, despite the plush
sheets and memory foam mattress underneath him.
And when he closed his eyes, he could almost hear
the  maniacal  laughter  of  the  man  who’d  spent
thirteen  hours  torturing  him.  And  as  Adonis  stared
down  at  his  hands,  there  were  already  half-moon
indents  on  the  back,  as  if  someone  had  been

holding on for dear life only moments before. Even
the worst nightmares didn’t leave physical marks
behind.

Which meant that it all had to be real.
Scrambling to his feet, Adonis leapt out of bed.

His legs tangled in the sheets, and he nearly toppled
to the floor before righting himself. His haste didn’t
make  any  rational  sense.  Either  the  already  fading
images in his head weren’t only a dream, and Seph
was  already  lost  or  he’d  go  to  her,  all  frantic  and
beside  himself,  only  to  be  reassured  that  she  was
just  fine.  Hurrying  wouldn’t  change  anything,  but
he just had to know.

Seph had never told him exactly what she went

through  when  she  was  younger,  at  least  not
specifically, but he knew that she took medication.
He didn’t know precisely what, just that it was the
stronger  stuff.  The  kind  of  drugs  that  they  didn’t
advertise  on  television  because  the  side  effects
ruined your life almost as much as the actual illness
did.  That  had  never  bothered  him.  Most  people
struggled  with  something,  whether  they  had  a
diagnosis  or  not.  But  he  had  taken  an  intro  psych
class as an undergrad, so he understood the concept
of  a  shared  psychosis.  If  a  sane  person  spent
enough  time  around  a  mentally  ill  one,  sometimes
the crazy wore off.

Folie a deux. Perhaps both of them had just

gone the tiniest bit insane.

But even standing in the middle of his messy

bachelor apartment, the Underworld still felt just as
real  as  when  he’d  been  trapped  inside  of  it.  The
memories  were  distant  and  fading  more  with  each
passing  moment,  but  he  hadn’t  imagined  them.  He
knew that as surely as he knew that Seph was gone,
trapped  in  a  place  completely  out  of  reach  as  if  it
had never existed in the first place.

Technically, Adonis shouldn’t have any idea

where Seph lived. She’d never invited him or
anyone else from their program there before. But it
didn’t take much more than a quick Google search
to find both her building and apartment number.
Nothing was secret in the age of the internet.

The trip took about half as long as it should

have,  a  combination  of  a  rare  occurrence  of
minimal  traffic  and  his  decision  to  drive  like  a
madman.  Some  poor  asshole  cut  him  off  on  the
405, and he nearly ran the guy off the road before
he  got  control  of  himself.  It  wouldn’t  do  Seph  any
good if he died in a car wreck or got shot in a road
rage

incident,

something

that

occasionally

happened on the freeways of Los Angeles.

His hand was already raised to knock when

Cleo wrenched open the door, staring at him like
he’d suddenly grown an extra head. The stricken
look on her face was enough to tell him everything
that he needed to know.

“It really happened, didn’t it?”

Without answering, she motioned him inside

and  firmly  shut  the  door.  Adonis  couldn’t  help  but
notice  the  normally  poised  girl  was  a  nervous
wreck.  Usually,  Cleo  walked  around  like  she  had
just  stepped  out  of  magazine  spread.  But  now  her
perfect  manicure  was  chipped  from  her  biting
compulsively  at  her  nails,  her  hair  was  tangled
enough for birds to nest in, and she was dressed in
shabby  clothes  that  looked  like  they’d  been  pulled
from a hobo’s dirty laundry pile.

“When I woke up, Seph was gone,” Cleo said

with a sigh, looking more lost than he thought
possible. Most of the time it seemed like she barely
cared about her roommate at all, so this turnaround
surprised him. “Her foster mom has been calling me
like nonstop all morning, and I haven’t answered
because I literally have no idea what to tell her.”

That distracted him for the briefest moment.

“Why would Seph’s foster mother be calling you?”

“It’s sort of my job to give her updates on how

Seph  is  doing,  that’s  why  I  moved  here  in  the  first
place. Free room and board in exchange for a little
information.”  Cleo  had  the  grace  to  look
embarrassed  but  balked  at  the  obvious  censure  in
his  gaze.  She  sounded  more  like  a  narc  than  a
friend. “Don’t look at me like that. If it wasn’t me,
then  it  would  have  been  somebody  else,  and  Seph
knew  all  about  it.  We  had  an  arrangement,  so  she
always knew what information I was sharing. Diana

can be overprotective, and I helped keep her off
Seph’s back as much as I could. Maybe it was just a
decent gig at first, but Seph and I became friends.
You have to believe me.”

He did believe her, even if there wasn’t a good

reason to. “Okay, I get it. I assume you just woke
up here, right?”

“In bed, like normal. Except . . .” She trailed off

and looked at him with eyes that had suddenly
become guarded. “You tell me what you remember
first.”

Adonis’s voice was flat. “I remember being

kidnapped and tortured by some guy straight out of
a  fractured  fairy  tale  who  called  himself  Hades.
You  were  there,  and  Seph  was  there.  And  now  I
feel  like  Dorothy  waking  up  in  her  bed  after  the
adventure ended, except it wasn’t just a dream, and
everything  is  definitely  not  back  to  fucking
normal.”

“Same,” she sighed, rubbing her temples as if

they ached. “I can’t decide if I’m relieved to hear
you say that, or not. It might have been better to
find out that I was just going crazy.”

“I get the feeling that’s how Seph has felt for

most  of  her  life.”  He  surveyed  the  neat  apartment
with  a  critical  eye,  noting  that  there  was  only  one
closed  door  in  the  hallway  leading  off  the  living
room. “Is that her room?”

“She isn’t in there. I already checked.”

Adonis had already accepted that the girl he

loved was somewhere far beyond his reach. He
wasn’t surprised to open the door to find an empty
cluttered room. But if there was any hope left of
reaching her, then he would tear this place apart to
find it.

But as the room came into focus, he couldn’t

fight  a  spurt  of  surprise.  And  trepidation.  Every
wall  was  covered  in  paintings  and  drawings  of
fantastical  creatures  and  places.  Most  of  it  looked
like Alice in Wonderland reimagined by H.R. Giger,
whimsically  terrifying  in  other  words.  Some  of  the
pieces were more romantic, done in pastel colors or
with  softened  lines  of  charcoal.  The  large  sketch
hanging above the bed immediately caught his eye
and kept it.

“Who does this look like to you?”
Cleo

stepped

behind

him.

“That’s

goddamned Hades.”

In the bright light shining through the windows,

the  burns  on  his  wrists  from  where  they  had  been
bound  by  rope  were  clearly  visible.  He  wasn’t
imagining  the  ache  in  his  body  that  was  left  over
from  what  he  had  been  put  through.  “It  was  real.
All  of  it.  Seph  was  never  crazy,  not  for  even  a
minute.”

“Don’t say that,” she groaned. “My brain isn’t

capable of comprehending this right now. I think I’d
rather just be crazy.”

“Me too.” Adonis picked up a small sculpture

off the desk, it was heavy and carved from stone.
He could just make out a man’s body taking shape
from what looked like what was meant to be a door.

There were clues everywhere in the room,

recognizable figures and places that he now knew
were so much more than the product of Seph’s
imagination. He understood that somewhere buried
here was the key to finding their way back to her.

His voice was resolute, despite the flash of fear.

“We have to get her back.”

Cleo just looked at him. “Even assuming that I

believe all that shit really happened, which I’m still
only about halfway on board with, we were lucky
to escape with our lives. You can’t be serious about
trying to go back. We’re not wizards, here. Hades
will murder us and giggle while he does it.”

Even if it had only been a dream, he’d finally

come  to  understand  that  his  interaction  with  Seph
had reflected real-world desires. They had seen into
each  other’s  hearts  and  designed  a  shared  world
that fulfilled them both. He would make that vision
of their future real or die trying. As he looked down
at the marks on his wrists, growing more painful as
he  viewed  the  welts  in  the  dawn  sunlight  creeping
through the windows.

“Hades can suck my dick.” Adonis picked up a

book that sat on the corner of the desk. Lament of
the Underworld. Its leather binding was soft under

his  hands  as  if  it  had  been  read  a  thousand  times.
“We  have  to  assume  that  Seph  tapped  into
something, visions or memories, whatever you want
to  call  it.  She  created  stories  and  artwork,  all  of  it
centered  on  this  guy  and  his  world.  Something  in
here  holds  the  key  to  getting  back  there  and
rescuing her. You don’t have to help me. Feel free
to  skip  off  to  class  and  pretend  none  of  this  ever
happened. But I care too much not to try.”

She glared at him. “You think I don’t care?

Screw you. Yeah, the free rent is nice, but I’m here
with Seph because I want to be. Who do you think
makes sure that she doesn’t spend all day drawing
or writing and then forget to eat. It’s me who
counts out pills every day and watches her for signs
of trouble. I’m her friend, and the last thing I want
is to see her get hurt, whether you want to believe
that or not.”

He couldn’t reconcile that with any of the

interactions that he’d ever witnessed. But had he
really been paying that much attention? “Every
time I’ve seen you together, you act like Seph is a
total pain in your ass. Or you’re trying to get under
her skin, like when you flirt with me.”

Cleo gave him a look that made it clear just

how  much  of  an  idiot  she  thought  he  was  being.
“Without  me  pushing  her,  Seph  never  would  have
left  the  house.  Do  you  have  any  idea  how  many
times  she  would  get  anxious  or  self-conscious  and

cancel  plans  with  you  until  I  goaded  her  into
following  through?  Yeah,  I  let  her  think  that  I  was
into  you.  I  figured  trying  to  make  her  jealous  was
the  best  way  to  light  a  fire  under  her  ass.  And  it
worked, didn’t it?”

Girls usually threw themselves at him, it was

something  he’d  gotten  so  used  to  that  he  barely
paid  any  attention  to  it.  Adonis  understood  the
effect that his looks had on women, and more than
a  few  men.  He  had  the  kind  of  face  that  made
people  catch  their  breath  or  hesitate  on  the  street
for a second glance.

He planned to make the most of it, good looks

certainly made a career in entertainment easier, but
it  was  hard  not  to  be  a  little  cynical.  People  paid
attention because he had a pretty face, not because
they  actually  gave  a  shit  about  him.  Not  that  he
expected  anyone  to  feel  badly  for  him,  but  being
good-looking put a wall up between him and other
people  because  he  could  never  really  trust  their
motives.  That  was  what  drew  him  to  Seph  in  the
first  place,  she  seemed  to  like  him  in  spite  of  the
way he looked, not because of it.

And Cleo had always seemed like just another

one  of  the  giggly  girls.  The  ones  who  sat  next  to
him  in  class  so  they  could  pretend  they  needed  to
borrow  a  pencil  or  always  found  an  excuse  to
squeeze  his  arm  or  touch  his  shoulder.  Yeah,  the
attention was sometimes nice, but it made him feel

like an object instead of a person.

It wasn’t an ego thing, he was just surprised.

“So when you were practically crawling into my lap
at the Taphouse, that was just for Seph’s benefit?”

“I hope that doesn’t hurt your feelings too

much.  I  mean,  you’re  a  nice  guy  and  all,”  she
replied pertly, smiling a little at the look on his face.
“The  all-American  boy  type  doesn’t  do  anything
for  me.  But  you  get  extra  points  for  finding  all  of
her  strangeness  endearing,  instead  of  talking  shit
like most people do. She smiles more when you’re
around, so who am I to judge.”

Something in the way she said it made him

pause. “You care about her. Like really care.”

Cleo shrugged, looking suddenly embarrassed.

“Seph  thinks  I’m  mostly  here  for  the  money,  and
it’s  better  that  way.  She  can  be  honest  with  me
because she thinks she understands my motives. If I
acted  like  I  just  wanted  to  be  her  friend,  she
wouldn’t  trust  it.  That  girl  sees  dark  shadows
everywhere she looks.”

“I can see why.” His gaze caught again on the

brooding  portrait  of  Hades.  The  painted  eyes
seemed  to  rest  on  his  face,  all  cold  arrogance  and
dangerous  seduction.  “Especially  if  she’s  had  this
asshole dogging her steps for her whole life.”

Picking up a nearby sketchbook, Cleo thumbed

through it before making a face at a particularly
disturbing image of a demonic creature being eaten

alive  by  its  brethren.  She  tossed  the  sketchbook
aside  and  then  wrapped  her  arms  around  herself,
fighting  off  a  chill.  “Do  you  really  think  Seph  is
some secretly a goddess? It’s like a dark fairy tale.”

But this fairytale didn’t have a Prince

Charming, just an evil King who wanted to
consume the innocent princess, body and soul.

“I don’t know what to think,” he admitted.

“But nothing sounds crazy to me right now. You
could tell me little green aliens are invading Earth,
and, right now, I’d believe it.”

Cleo sighed. “I’m going to make some coffee.

It’s going to take all day just to catalogue this stuff,
and I feel like I got no sleep last night.”

His reply was grim. “That’s because you

didn’t.”

That was something he’d very much come to

understand about the Underworld. There, dreams
were a reality. They might have woken up in their
beds, but that didn’t mean either of them got a wink
of actual sleep.

But before either of them could make another

move,  the  sound  of  the  front  door  banging  open
echoed  through  the  apartment.  A  surge  of  hope
rushed  through  him  as  Adonis  jumped  to  his  feet.
Perhaps  it  had  all  been  a  shared  psychotic  dream.
Seph  had  just  run  out  for  an  early  breakfast  and
would  come  back  in  demanding  to  know  why  he
was rifling through her shit. She would look at him

like he was crazy when he came bursting out of her
room, and he wouldn’t even care about trying to
explain.

Then he would wrap his arms around her and

never let her go again.

At the threshold, Adonis came to a stop so

abrupt that Cleo smashed into his back.

A woman he had never seen before stood in the

open front door of the apartment, eyes narrowed as
she took him in. The only word he could think of to
describe  her  was  handsome.  The  woman  seemed
older,  putting  off  an  air  of  sophistication,  but  her
face was completely unlined. She stood tall enough
to look down at him, even though he was just over
six  feet  in  height,  with  long  coal-black  hair  that
hung like a curtain around her. Lips painted a dark
red  thinned  into  a  narrow  line  against  skin  paler
than freshly fallen snow.

Morticia Addams could eat her heart out.
Cleo jumped out from behind him. “Diana—”
But the woman only slashed her hand through

the air in a quelling motion, her angry gaze taking
both of them in.

“Where the hell is my daughter?”

Chapter Two

hen other girls dreamed that they were
princesses, it usually meant they
needed to grow up.

For me, it meant that I was having nightmares

again.

Except this time, the nightmare didn’t end when

I woke up alone and in darkness.

Dark silky sheets moved under my skin as I

shifted on what had to be a massive bed, large
enough to put even my king at home to shame. My
fingers closed on the pillow that was thick and full
of down. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, the
black walls shimmered slightly like they were made
of cut obsidian. Everything in the room was painted
in colors of darkness, blacks and dark grays with
not even a hint of a contrasting color.

I lifted the edge of the silk sheet and held it up

in a bit of moonlight coming through a high
window. It was only then that I realized I was
completely naked.

With a shriek, I gathered a handful of bedding

in my arms and pressed it against my chest. It
smelled like him, a curious mix of coffee and
vanilla, with just a hint of musk.

This had to be Hades’s bedroom.
Being naked and alone in a strange place was

definitely  bad,  but  naked  and  almost  anything  else
was  probably  worse.  The  real  question  was  what  I
was  going  to  do  once  I’d  gathered  the  courage  to
leave the bed. I squinted around the room, trying to
see  into  its  dark  corners,  but  there  was  no  sign  of
the dress I’d been wearing.

What the hell had happened to me?
I remembered saying yes to Hades, agreeing to

stay  in  the  Underworld  and  be  his  queen.  He  had
picked me up in his arms and carried me away, but
I couldn’t remember anything else after that. When
he  wrapped  me  up  in  his  arms,  it  had  done
something  to  me.  A  strange  weakness  had  swept
over  me  until  I  could  barely  lift  my  head  from  his
shoulder.

It hadn’t taken that many more steps before I

passed out.

Of course, that did nothing to explain how the

hell I ended up naked in his bed.

My legs shifted experimentally under the covers

as I tried to decide if I was sore or felt any wetness
between  my  thighs.  I  wanted  to  believe  that  even
Hades  wouldn’t  stoop  to  violating  my  unconscious
body,  but  it  was  probably  safer  to  assume  he  was
capable of anything.

But nothing about my body seemed out of the

ordinary, aside from the fact that I was naked.

My hands skimmed over the sheets next to me,

stretching  almost  flat  to  reach  the  far  side  of  the
bed.  It  was  cold  to  the  touch  without  even  the
indent of another person’s body. If anyone had lain
there  next  to  me  overnight,  then  they  had  to  have
left  hours  ago,  or  more.  But  I  couldn’t  fight  the
impression that I had slept here alone.

I hated that I felt the smallest stab of

disappointment at that thought.

Hades was beautiful. He might even be the

most  gorgeous  man  that  I’d  ever  laid  eyes  on.
Although  his  beauty  was  almost  too  much,  too
alien,  for  me  to  believe  it  was  real.  Everything
about him seemed specifically designed to draw the
eye  and  keep  it  there.  His  hair  was  the  color  of
blinding  sunlight,  almost  white  until  you  saw
impossible  colors  dancing  in  the  corners  of  your
eyes when you looked too long at it. His sun-kissed
skin, as  if a  single  drop of  gold  had been  added  to
the  mix  before  the  gods  painted  his  face,  seemed
impossibly smooth to the touch.

But it was what lay inside him, behind the

gorgeous  exterior,  that  made  me  recoil  at  the
thought of letting him anywhere near my body. His
beauty  hid  something  evil  and  dark  that  lurked
behind  the  silvery  blue  of  his  eyes  like  a  shark
hiding just under the surface of the ocean. I needed
to remember that the next time that looking at him
stole my breath.

Or while I was naked in his damn bed.
I didn’t have long to think about that for too

long because I heard footsteps just outside the door.
The sound of rusty hinges screeching open sent me
burrowing deeper under the sheets to hide. My
shaking hands pulled the sheets up to my neck as
the door slowly opened.

I couldn’t face Hades in a position this

vulnerable.

But he wasn’t the one who appeared in the

doorway,  illuminated  in  the  flickering  light  of  the
candles  lining  the  hall  beyond.  A  daemon  servant
entered  the  room  and  slammed  the  door  shut
behind  him  with  a  loud  bang,  arms  heavy  with  a
serving tray full of foods I had no interest in eating.

It watched me with intense fascination, not

even looking away as it set the tray down on a
nearby table. A human wouldn’t have stared at the
naked girl in the bed, but daemons were far from
human.

A shiver of fear rolled up my spine.

“Breakfast,” the thing said with a sibilant hiss

as  a  snake-like  tongue  flicked  from  between  its
cracked lips. Its scaly skin reminded me of a desert
reptile  and  the  sharp  teeth  in  its  mouth  were  a
touch  too  reminiscent  of  fangs  for  my  comfort.  I
wanted the thing as far away from me as possible.

“Thank you,” I said through a painfully dry

throat, hugging the sheets tighter to my body. “You
can go.”

But the daemon only inched closer, its tongue

flicking  out  again  when  it  reached  the  end  of  the
long  bed.  I  remembered  reading  somewhere  that
snakes  tasted  the  air  with  their  tongues  because
they lacked a nasal cavity. I really hoped tasting me
wasn’t what the daemon was trying to do.

Because it looked at me like it would have

preferred it to be me on the breakfast menu, not
whatever had been laid out on the tray. It watched
me like I was food.

“My name is Crag…you should remember it.”
“Um, thanks for breakfast. Please shut the door

when  you  leave  because  I  need  to  get  dressed.”  I
strove for politeness through the terror. No need to
mention  the  fact  that  my  clothes  had  disappeared,
and  I  had  no  idea  where  to  find  more.  “I’m  sure
Hades will come looking for me soon.”

Crag clearly wasn’t going to take the hint. “All

us below stairs was wondering why Hades would
leave such a pretty piece of meat unattended, as if

he wants something to take a bite.”

I pressed back against the headboard, drawing

my knees to my chest. Despite my body language, I
did  my  best  to  keep  the  fear  out  of  my  voice.  If  I
stayed  in  the  bed,  then  I  was  completely
defenseless. But leaving it to reach for something I
could use as a weapon would mean facing down a
daemon without any protection outside of my own
skin.  Neither  of  those  were  particularly  good
options. “You need to leave. Now.”

Crag sidled closer. Spittle glinted on his chin,

just below the razor-sharp fangs that were now fully
visible as his mouth split open in a dangerous grin.
“And yet, here you is. All alone.”

“Except she isn’t.”
Hades’s voice rolled over me with a wave of

sparkling  heat.  Hearing  it  was  like  entering  an
overheated  sauna,  searing  hot  for  a  flashing
moment  before  it  faded  into  welcoming  warmth.  I
didn’t even think to question how he’d entered the
room  without  me  hearing  the  door  open.  Instead,
relief rushed through me as he strode into the room.
For  the  first  time,  I  was  legitimately  happy  to  see
him.

Which only made me wonder if he had set this

up for exactly that reason.

But at least he had never acted like he wanted

to bite pieces off me. Not yet, anyway.

“That will be all, Crag,” he said to the daemon,

voice low and threatening. “And if I see you in the
queen’s rooms again, you’ll have a hundred years
of falling down one of my chasms to think about
the errors of your ways.”

The daemon bowed low as he backed out of the

room, but I caught the angry glare he didn’t bother
to hide when Hades’s back was turned, as if he had
to make an effort not to attack. I couldn’t help but
wonder how many more things there were that I
needed to fear in the Underworld.

When the door slammed shut, my gaze flew

back to Hades who stood just a touch too close, his
knees pressing into the side of the bed as he stared
down at me. My feelings made absolutely no sense.
It was crazy to be both this attracted, and this
repulsed at the same time. Both my mind and my
body were in total conflict and neither really knew
what it wanted.

I only had a moment to wonder if he was going

to touch me, and decide how I would respond if he
did.

A mocking smile played at the corner of

Hades’s lips, as if he saw my inner turmoil and it
amused him. When he took a small step back, I
could finally breathe normally again.

“You’ve been asleep for almost three days,” he

murmured, answering the unspoken question in my
wide-eyed gaze. “I had begun to wonder if you
would wake at all.”

Everyone knew the fairy tales about magical

slumber. But Snow White and Sleeping Beauty had
gallant  princes  to  kiss  them  gently  awake.  I  didn’t
have  to  guess  to  know  that,  if  given  the  option,
Hades  would  have  chosen  a  less  PG-rated  way  of
bringing me back to life.

“What happened?”
His gaze coasted over my body. The sheets still

covered  me,  but  they  were  too  thin  to  hide  the
curve  of  my  hip  or  the  shallow  dip  between  my
thighs.  I  felt  my  face  heat  as  his  attention  lingered
there before returning to my face. “I touched you.”

The widening smirk he wore was meant to

make  me  think  of  dark,  seductive  things.  He
wanted me to draw my own conclusions about what
happened  between  us  while  I  was  passed  out,  but
then  hesitate  to  press  him  for  more  details  out  of
embarrassment. Except Hades was one of the great
gods,  deception  was  written  into  every  expression
on his face and in all the things he neglected to say.

I shifted to bring my legs closer to my body and

wrapped my arms around my knees, hiding as much
of myself as I could while he watched in obvious
amusement. “Touched me how?”

The tips of his fingers stroked the silken sheets

as  if  he  imagined  it  was  my  flesh  under  his  hand.
“Are  you  wondering  if  I  slowly  stripped  the
clothing  from  your  body,  my  hands  tracing  every
dip  and  curve  as  I  laid  you  back  in  my  bed?

Perhaps my hands roamed even further, exploring
the hidden places that would bring you the most
pleasure, if you’d been aware enough to experience
it.”

Desire clenched the muscles low in my belly. I

fought  to  hide  my  body’s  reaction  to  his  words,
forcing deep breaths in and out through my mouth.
Even as his words faded into the charged silence, I
felt  their  weight  in  all  the  places  that  he  clearly
wanted  me  to  think  he  had  touched.  A  shock  of
awareness tingled between my thighs and I knew if
I pushed my hand down there that I would be slick
with arousal.

Was this some magic he used to force my body

to respond to him or had I just completely lost my
mind?

“If you’d done any of those things, then you

would just tell me so,” I informed him pertly.
“You’re teasing me with half-truths.”

“Touché.” His hand spasmed where it lay on

the bedsheets, only inches away from the outermost
curve  of  my  thigh.  He  seemed  to  be  fighting  with
himself  not  to  touch  me.  “Teasing  you  brings  me
more  satisfaction  than  I  thought  it  would.  It  takes
the edge off of other urges.”

And I realized then that he was holding himself

back, willing himself to keep from touching me
even though that was clearly what he wanted to do.

I had said yes, pledged to stay here and let him

drain  me  of  life  to  keep  the  Underworld  intact.  It
had  been  pretty  clear  when  I  agreed  that  touch
would  be  a  requirement  for  making  that  happen.
And pain. When he had taken me into his arms and
I collapsed against him, I’d assumed it wouldn’t be
long before he was fucking me up against a wall. I
appreciated  his  restraint,  but  that  didn’t  mean  I
understood it.

Maybe he already regretted forcing me to stay

here. Maybe there was still some piece of humanity
left in his black soul. Could that be what kept him
from fulfilling the darkly sensuous promise I had
seen in his eyes since the moment he first appeared
at the Stockhouse and told me wanted to take me
away?

Or maybe he just didn’t want me in the way I

thought he did.

Then I wondered what the hell was wrong with

me. Was I really feeling put out that he hadn’t tried
to rape me in my sleep? My head had clearly gotten
fucked with at some point, even if my body had
been left alone.

But I couldn’t stop myself from asking the

question, even though doing it while naked in his
bed was probably the worst possible time.

“What sort of urges?”
He knelt on the floor, bringing his body that

much closer and his gaze level to mine, even
though it still very much felt as if he was looming

over me. “Do you really want to know?”

I knew I was only digging the hole deeper.

“Yes.”

“I want to hurt you. Desperately.” His hand

clenched  into  a  fist  as  his  quicksilver  eyes  studied
my  face.  “I  want  to  tear  into  all  this  pale  flesh,
leaving you bleeding and begging me to stop. Then
I  want  to  fuck  whatever  is  left  of  you  into  the
ground.  And  after  that,  clean  you  up  and  start  all
over again.”

The lump in my throat made it difficult to

speak. “That’s sick.”

“It has taken everything in me not to give into

those urges, at least not so soon. But eventually I
will, because I won’t be able to stop myself.”

The idea of it was terrifying and disgusting. But

a  small  part  of  me  also  wanted  to  know  what  it
would  be  like  to  feel  pleasure  from  him  with  the
finest  edge  of  pain  to  it.  Every  girl  who  ever  read
Fifty  Shades  of  Grey  imagined  what  that  edge
would  feel  like,  even  if  they  never  acted  on  their
desires in real life.

Except Christian Grey never had to hold

himself back from killing anyone during kinky sex.

“So, what are you going to do?” I asked, proud

that my voice only wavered slightly.

“Ease my longing with softer hurts. For

example, at this particular moment I’m wondering
what it would be like to parade you through the

castle for all to see just like this, naked as the day
you

were

birthed.

imagine

that

your

embarrassment would taste like sugar, sweetening
the very air on my tongue.”

My mouth fell open in shock. I fought to school

my face so my reaction wouldn’t be what made the
decision for him. If he knew just how much I would
hate that, it would make him that much more likely
to do it.

“But you don’t have to hurt or embarrass me to

take the power you need,” I reasoned, hoping my
words were actually true. “Don’t you ever want to
be gentle?”

“At times,” he acknowledged, with a different

sort of heat in his eyes. “I always want to have you,
in all the ways that it would be possible for one
person to take complete ownership of another. But
the finer details shift with my mood.”

If I’d had any doubts he wanted to fuck me,

they were gone. It was all the other things he
wanted to do that made me want to run away
screaming.

“Is it because you hate me?” I asked, genuinely

curious despite my unease.

Hades seemed to consider that for a moment.

He lowered his head so that a fall of pale blond hair
covered his face and hid his expression. After
several silent moments, I became convinced that he
wasn’t going to answer.

When he finally did, some unnamable emotion

had entered his voice.

“I hate what you have allowed yourself to

become  as  much  I  loved  who  you  used  to  be.  I
don’t  know  if  my  former  love  for  you  can
overcome  how  very  much  I  want  to  see  you
writhing in pain. But we will discover the answer to
that question together in time.”

I still had no memory of this other life he

seemed  convinced  that  I  had  lived,  or  this  other
person  I  used  to  be.  The  Tale  of  Hades  had  been
my favorite fairy tale until it became real. It would
take  a  lot  more  evidence  to  convince  me  that  I’d
lived a previous life as a goddess, but I would play
along for now.

And if any of this were true, I needed to explain

to  him  that  he’d  picked  the  wrong  answer  to  an
obvious existential question. If I couldn’t remember
being  queen  of  the  Underworld,  or  whoever,  then
that made us two distinct people in every way that
mattered.  A  person  was  defined  by  what  they’d
experienced,  what  they  knew  about  themselves.
And  she  and  I  had  led  very  different  lives,
apparently.  Yet  here  I  was,  paying  for  whatever
wrongs Hades believed she had committed.

It simply wasn’t right. Or fair.
But saying that out loud would probably only

piss him off again.

“I can apologize, if you want.” I watched his

face for signs that his anger had returned. “But it
wouldn’t be sincere. I can’t truly be sorry for
something that I don’t remember doing.”

“Perhaps I can be sorry enough for us both,” he

mused, surprising me. “That’s what made you leave
in the end, I think. When my darker urges finally
became too much for you to bear.”

The tormented look on his face made me want

to offer him something, an olive branch.

“I read the story, The Tale of Hades, even

though I don’t know how much of it was true. His
queen loved Hades, that was obvious on every
page.”

Hades studied my face with sudden intensity, as

if  trying  to  discern  some  difference  between  what
he  saw  now  and  his  memories  of  before.  I  tried  to
stay  relaxed  under  his  scrutiny  because  I  knew  he
teetered on the edge between hate and love, anger
and  obsession.  And  I  had  no  idea  what  might
eventually tip him to fall on one side or the other.

He finally touched me then, making my breath

catch in my throat when I tried to inhale. Gloved
fingers stroked my cheek, lighter than the fluttering
wings of a butterfly against my skin. The touch was
uncharacteristically gentle, especially given the
storm of emotions barely held in check that I saw in
his eyes.

Without warning, he gripped my chin bruisingly

hard between his fingers. He forced our faces

together until our lips nearly touched. This close up,
I  saw  that  his  eyes  were  so  much  more  than  a
silvery blue. The iris was multi-dimensional, full of
dozens of shades between the deepest blue and the
brightest  argent.  I  saw  the  froth  of  crashing  waves
against  a  crystalline  shore  and  the  luminescent
silver of scales moving underneath the inky blue of
deepest ocean.

Deep enough to drown in.
My own eyes widened as I tried to pull away,

and his grip tightened. The war he waged with
himself was visible on the battlefield of his face, his
expression alternating between lust and rage.

His lips brushed against mine as he spoke. “We

are both prisoners here, make no mistake. And we
will suffer this imprisonment together, neither of us
the better for it.”

Hades kissed me then, teeth pressing hard into

the  tender  flesh  of  my  lower  lip  with  only  slightly
less  force  than  it  would  take  to  break  the  skin.  It
was enough pressure to force my mouth open as he
used the crushing strength of his fingers on my jaw
to  keep  it  from  closing.  This  was  something  that
could  barely  be  described  as  a  kiss,  not  when  that
same  word  was  used  for  gentle  pecks  on  the
forehead  from  your  grandmother.  He  owned  my
mouth,  obviously  unconcerned  with  whether  I  got
any pleasure from it.

He meant this to be a preview of how he would

own the rest of me. Maybe even a warning.

Unwanted desire surged through me. In a

moment  of  what  I  could  only  describe  as  pure
insanity, I wanted him to bite me and draw enough
blood  that  both  of  us  could  taste  it.  I  wanted  to
know  exactly  what  he  worked  so  hard  to  hide
behind that veneer of mockery and disdain.

It didn’t take long for me to realize just crazy

that sounded.

I tried to fight him off, suddenly terrified of

where this savage kiss would lead. My hands came
up to beat against the muscled wall of his chest, but
I would have had better luck trying to move a brick
wall. He didn’t even try to control my arms, just let
me pound my fists against him as if he didn’t even
feel it at all.

A moment later, he let me go as abruptly as he

had snatched me up. His nostrils flared as he glared
down at me. It was only after he released me when
I  understood  the  true  effect  his  touch  had  on  me.
Weakness  made  the  room  spin  around  me  as  I
fought  off  a  wave  of  dizziness  and  my  vision
blurred.

“Your breakfast is getting cold.” His face had

returned to the familiar mask of indifference. He
withdrew from the bed, even though his gaze never
left my face. “I will allow you the rest of the day to
collect yourself, but you will present yourself in the
great hall for dinner. After that, we will begin.”

Chapter Three

t  took  the  better  part  of  an  hour  for  me  to
summon  enough  strength  that  I  could  leave
the  bed.  The  weakness  had  made  it  almost

impossible to move, though not enough to let me
return to the peaceful oblivion of slumber. I had to
stay awake and afraid of whatever might come
through the door next.

Thankfully, Hades didn’t show up while I was

unable to move and neither did any daemons.

I couldn’t decide how to think of him, even in

my own mind. Hades was cold and cruel, but also
completely obsessed. It was him that wanted me to
see me writhing in pain underneath him. Hades, god
of the Underworld, was the man who had fallen in
love and mourned the loss of his queen. I wondered
if there were any parts of that version of him left.

In the moments he looked at me without anger,

I  could  almost  convince  myself  that  I  saw  the
smallest glimpse of where that love used to be. That
might  have  scared  me  more  than  Hades’s  threats,
because  I  wanted  to  follow  that  thread  and  see
where it led.

Hades from the stories and the dark god who

had  stolen  me  away.  They  were  like  two  sides  of
the same coin, an even more fantastical version of
Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde.  When  one  side  was
revealed,  the  other  one  had  to  be  hidden.  The
incarnation that would show up next was anyone’s
guess, and I couldn’t be sure which one I wanted it
to be.

Both scared me, but for very different reasons.
As soon as I placed a bare foot on the frigidly

cold  floor  and  moved  to  stand,  an  unwelcome
sound  froze  me  in  place.  Footsteps  echoed  on  the
stone  just  outside  the  door,  the  stride  heavy  and
deliberate.  I  was  still  wrapped  in  a  section  of
bedsheet.  When  I  tried  to  yank  more  towards  me,
the ends caught underneath the mattress so I barely
had  enough  fabric  to  cover  the  upper  swell  of  my
breasts.

I watched in mounting dread as the door slowly

swung open, imagining a whole army of slavering
daemons or Hades returned to torture me. Both of
those options would be equally terrible.

When Cerberus stepped into the room and

turned to search for me in the darkness, I felt a
relief so profound that I nearly passed out. Again.

“Lock it,” I said, waving my hand frantically at

the door. “I don’t think I can take anymore
unexpected visitors right now.”

Cerberus complied with a confused shrug and

then  turned  back,  expression  changing  when  he
finally  saw  me  standing  there  wrapped  only  in  a
black  sheet.  He  immediately  looked  away  to  gaze
intently at the ceiling directly above my head.

Even Ryn would have taken a look at the

goodies,  I  realized.  Cerberus  was  cut  from  a
different  cloth.  His  stoic  but  protective  nature  was
exactly  what  I  needed  at  the  moment.  It  made  me
want to walk buck naked across the room and wrap
my  arms  around  him  in  a  hug,  but  that  probably
would

have

just

made

him

even

uncomfortable.

Everything about him reminded me of

restrained  strength  and  discipline.  His  brown  hair
was  cropped  shorter  on  the  sides  of  his  head  so
nothing  distracted  from  features  that  would  not
have  been  out  of  place  carved  onto  a  statue  of  a
Greek  warrior.  He  would  have  just  looked  like  a
gorgeous human man, if not for the faint patterns of
stone  and  granite  imprinted  on  his  body,  giving  a
slightly  grayish  cast  to  his  tanned  skin.  Eyes  the
rich brown of mahogany stared at me with obvious
concern in their depths.

“I would have knocked if I had known that you

were awake,” he intoned, and there was an apology
in his voice. Obviously, Cerberus was the one
person in the Underworld who believed in acting
like a gentleman. “The last several times I came to
check, you were in a sleep almost as deep as death.
Had I not watched you breathe, I would have easily
become convinced that you would never wake.”

I didn’t understand the note of worry in his

voice  until  I  remembered  that  Cerberus  had  spent
years  trapped  inside  of  a  stone  wall.  That  was
probably  even  worse  than  an  enchanted  sleep.  It
made me want to ask if he had been aware of what
went on around him while he was the Hunter, but I
didn’t think I’d like the answer.

“I’m fine. Okay…maybe not fine, but at least

I’m awake and unhurt.”

At least, relatively unhurt. My jaw ached in the

places where Hades had dug his fingers into the
bone, but it was a small thing compared to what he
had wanted to do. Or whatever he might be saving
for later.

Shivering, I wrapped the sheets tighter around

myself.

“I am very happy to hear that.” His relief

obvious  even  though  his  placid  expression  did  not
change. He continued to regard the ceiling, blinking
rapidly  as  if  it  took  effort  not  to  let  his  gaze  shift
back  to  me.  You’d  think  the  secrets  of  life  were

written up there. “You had us all very worried.”

“Some more than others, I’m sure.” There was

a sarcastic note to my voice that I didn’t try to hide.
Hades didn’t seem capable of worrying about me.
Hating, obsessing, controlling? Absolutely. But not
worrying. “Why are you here now?”

“Hades has commanded me to stand guard over

you. I’ve spent most of these many hours as sentry
outside the door.”

I hated to sound aggrieved, but really? “Where

were you when that snake daemon was in here
trying to bite a piece off me?”

“Called away on a worthless errand. Believe

me  when  I  say  that  it  will  not  happen  again.”
Cerberus’s  lips  tightened  with  anger,  although  I
understood it wasn’t directed at me. “Our king may
yet  regret  naming  me  as  your  personal  guard,  but
that is my duty now and I will not give it up.”

There was something more to it than what he

was  saying,  but  I  had  no  idea  how  to  ask  for  an
explanation  without  upsetting  him  more.  “Did
Hades  task  you  with  protecting  me  from  the
dangerous creatures here, or from himself?”

“That is only for him to say.”
Cerberus’s tone made it clear that he had no

more to add about Hades, or his motives.

“Can you at least tell me what the hell is going

on with the daemons? The one that brought my tray
definitely acted like he wanted to have me for

breakfast.”

“Daemons have always been carnivorous, even

cannibalistic when the mood strikes. In the past, the
castle daemons knew to behave themselves.” His
heavy shrug both said much more and also nothing
at all. “It would not be a sign of anything good if
the king lost control of them.”

“No, shit.”
He glanced at me and immediately shifted his

gaze back to the ceiling. “Perhaps it would be
easier to have this conversation if you were
clothed.”

“Uh, right. Sorry.” Even though I had no

romantic feelings for him, I felt comfortable around
Cerberus. It was like he was a long lost pet that had
finally returned to my side. “Could find something
for me to wear? I’m a little stuck here.”

I sat gingerly on the edge of the bed while he

made a circuit around the room, obviously looking
for my discarded dress or anything else that could
be used to cover up my wobbly bits. His shoulders
were set with tension and I wondered if it was
because we were in Hades’s bedroom. There was a
good chance that he’d never been in here before I
arrived.

“It would have been nice if Hades had left my

dress somewhere obvious,” I grumbled.

Cerberus froze. His back was to me so I

couldn’t see his face, but there was an obvious note

of  embarrassment  in  his  voice  as  he  cleared  his
throat.  “It  was  I  who  removed  your  clothing  after
laying  you  in  the  bed.  But  your  dress  does  not
appear to be where I left it.”

My eyebrows flew up into my hairline. I

schooled my expression as he turned back to me so
he wouldn’t see the shock on my face. “Uh, why?”

“I apologize, profusely, for taking liberties

without your consent. But Hades commanded it. He
said  that  you  would  rest  better  without  such  a
constricting  garment  on  your  body.”  His  normally
measured  tone  was  rushed,  as  if  he  was  trying  to
get the words out as quickly as possible. “I promise
you  that  I  looked,  and  touched,  no  more  than  was
absolutely necessary.”

It was a relief that Hades hadn’t been the one to

undress  me.  I’d  trusted  Cerberus  from  almost  the
moment  we  met,  right  after  he  tried  his  hardest  to
kill  me.  But  that  had  been  the  spell  forcing  him  to
be  the  Hunter  and  guard  the  way  to  castle  with
violent force. I knew in my gut that Cerberus would
die  before  hurting  me,  or  allowing  anyone  else  to
do it.

Now he seemed so legitimately concerned

about my besmirched honor that it made me want
to laugh. I resisted that urge because I didn’t want
him to think he was the butt of some joke.

“I believe you, no apologies needed.” I

reassured him, even as a slight smile played at the

corners of my mouth. “Although if you really want
to make it up to me, find me something to wear. I’d
even take window drapes tied into a toga at this
point.”

“There does not appear to be anything of the

sort here.”

“Have you checked the closet? Even Hades’s

hot pants would be better than nothing.”

“There is no closet.”
I examined the stone walls surrounding us. The

only door was the one that Cerberus had used to
enter. “There has to be a closet. You can’t have a
bedroom without a closet.”

As I said it, the ground seemed to shift beneath

my  feet.  My  stomach  lurched  with  the  same  sick
sensation  that  I  would  always  get  during  the  drops
on  a  roller  coaster.  It  felt  like  I  was  falling,  even
though I looked down to see a still solid stone floor
beneath my feet.

And

quickly

the

strange

and

uncomfortable sensation came on me, it vanished
and I was steady again.

“Look,” Cerberus said with obvious surprise,

pointing at the far wall.

Where before there had been solid stone, an

arch  had  appeared  in  the  wall  leading  into  another
room.  A  room  that  looked  very  much  like  the
fanciest closet I had ever seen. Shimmery fabrics in
every  color  imaginable  hung  on  the  racks,

reminding me of the costume shop at Thornhurst
Theater.

“Did I do that?” I asked, fighting off a sudden

headache.

“The Underworld will sometimes respond to

whims  or  fears,  as  it  pleases,  just  like  it  did  when
Cleo  imagined  those  werewolves  and  they
appeared. But I have never seen the castle remake
itself, not even for Hades.” Cerberus strode toward
the opening and passed through it while I watched
fearfully,  afraid  that  the  arch  would  disappear  as
quickly as it had magically shown up, trapping him
on  the  other  side  of  the  wall.  “There  are  many
dresses here. Do you have a preference for style or
color?”

“Just something bright,” I said, wanting him to

just grab something and get out of the closet before
the  castle  decided  to  “remake”  itself  again.  And  I
really didn’t give a shit about colors, although black
was  too  much  considering  the  already  depressing
circumstances  and  I  was  truly  sick  of  white  after
wearing  the  same  dress  for  thirteen  hours  straight.
“Anything will do as long as it fits.”

I watched Cerberus as selected a purple dress

from one of the racks and came back into the room
to lay it on the bed. But as soon as I touched it, the
fabric turned from purple to white. Right before my
eyes, it became the same dress that I’d worn from
the moment I first stepped foot in the Underworld.

With a scream of shock, I pushed it away.

“What the hell?”

Cerberus actually looked worried for a second

before he turned back to the closet. “I will fetch
you another.”

It didn’t matter how many of them he brought

me. He tried again and again. No matter what color
or style of dress he laid on the bed, the same thing
happened. As soon as my hands touched the fabric
it became identical to the lacy white dress with gold
embroidery that I desperately longed to never see
again.

The damn thing was like magical herpes. It kept

popping up, no matter how much I desperately
wanted it to go away and never come back.

After half dozen tries, I waved him away from

the archway. “It’s no use trying anymore. Clearly,
this is what the Underworld wants me to wear. You
did say it has a mind of its own.”

“I

did,”

Cerberus

murmured,

voice

contemplative. “I wonder what else will change in
this place now that you are here.”

That wasn’t exactly a comforting thought.
“I’m going to put on this stupid dress. You mind

turning around?”

His skin pinked, changing to the color of peach

moonstone. He turned so quickly to face the wall
that he almost stumbled over his own feet.
Cerberus moved as if parts of him had not become

completely human after we got him out of the wall.
It made me wonder if the still stone parts of him left
his body slightly unbalanced. The granite and
marble imprints on his skin had never faded
completely, and perhaps they ever would.

Once I got that damn dress back on, I went to

his side instead of telling him to turn back around.
My hand lightly touched his shoulder, the skin there
smooth and hard like river rock. He tensed under
the stroke of my fingers and I felt the effort it took
for his muscles to relax.

“Whatever happens next, I’m glad you’re here

to face it with me,” I said, trying and failing to keep
my  voice  light.  I  was  too  afraid  and  meant  what  I
said  too  much  for  my  words  to  come  off  as
anything  less  than  deadly  serious.  “We’ve  already
seen the worst that the Underworld has to offer and
made it through.”

But when he turned back to face me,

Cerberus’s expression was stonier than I’d ever
seen it and this was a man who’d basically been a
talking rock when we met.

“That was not the worse that this realm has to

offer,” he said, voice grave.

“What are you talking about?”
“Hades always intended for you to reach the

castle.  He  had  you  begin  at  the  center  of  his
labyrinth,  and  your  journey  took  you  only  through
places  over  which  he  still  maintains  some  control.

As the Hunter, I guarded the innermost region of
his domain which is why we met so soon after you
started. But on the outskirts, the Underworld has
become a very different place. A terrifying place.”

“At least we’re safe here in the castle, right?” I

only grew more concerned when he did not
immediately answer. “Right?”

Cerberus suddenly seemed as if he’d had

enough  of  this  conversation.  Instead  of  answering
my  question,  he  merely  bowed  his  head  and
gestured  toward  the  larger  door  that  led  out  of  the
room. “Hades has commanded your presence in the
great hall. We should not keep him waiting.”

If werewolves and enchanted stone men ready

to chop my head off weren’t the worse things that I
could find in this place, then I really didn’t want to
know what else waited for me out in the dark.

Chapter Four

shouldn’t  have  been  surprised  to  see  Ryn
standing  in  the  hallway  waiting  for  us,  the
daemon  guards  nowhere  to  be  found.

Apparently, Hades had meant it when he said that
Ryn and Cerberus would remain here to give me an
incentive to stay.

They felt like my friends, even though I barely

knew them.

If you looked at the situation sideways and with

your eyes squinted, it was almost as if Hades cared.

Or maybe he was just treating them as hostages

to ensure my good behavior.

Ryn’s black hair with streaks of dark purple

flopped over his forehead as he stared down at me.
Violet eyes caught up in the corners in a way that
was more catlike than human glinted with good

humor. He looked like someone that would be more
at home performing in a Cirque du Soleil show than
inside of this dank castle as a jester for its dour
king. His body moved like a contortionist’s, making
me wonder if there were more muscles and tendons
shifting under his skin than a human man
possessed.

And the cheeky smile that spread across his

face was almost enough to make me forget where
we were headed.

“My lady,” he bowed so low that it was farcical

before leaping back up to my side. “I have been
tasked with escorting you to the great hall.”

I glanced back at Cerberus who stood several

feet behind me with his hands crossed over his
chest. “I thought Cerberus was supposed to be my
escort.”

“He’s the bodyguard.” Ryn sidled closer and

slipped his arm through mine, giving me a brotherly
squeeze. “I get to be the entertainment.”

“How are you always so cheerful?”
“Hades has graciously allowed me to return to

the castle as his court jester.”

“Graciously allowed? That sounds like a pretty

way of saying commanded.”

“And we use pretty things here to distract us

from the darkness.” Ryn looked almost pensive for
a moment before the characteristic smile returned
to his face and he chuckled. Although I couldn’t

help but notice that the laughter didn’t reach his
eyes. “I can only hope that you’re the one I’m here
to entertain. Hades hasn’t laughed at one of my
jokes in decades.”

“Perhaps he would if any of them were funny,”

Cerberus murmured.

I turned back and couldn’t hide the surprise on

my face. “Was that a joke?”

Wolfish eyes lit up as he shrugged. It made me

wonder if he could turn into a three-headed dog at
will, or only when Hades compelled the change.
“Only if you found it humorous.”

“I did,” I assured him.
“As if I didn’t feel useless enough already,”

Ryn  grumbled  as  he  spun  me  away,  his  tone  only
slightly  mocking.  “Let  me  tell  you  the  one  about
the  daemon  and  the  darkling  that  walked  into  a
bar…”

For a moment, I could almost convince myself

it  was  possible  to  find  some  small  bit  of  happiness
here. When I laughed at the entirely predictable but
still  hilarious  punchline  to  Ryn’s  joke,  I  wasn’t
thinking  about  the  terrifying  things  Hades  wanted
to do to me or that I might not ever see the brightly
lit Los Angeles skyline again. I could almost forget
that  Diana  would  be  worried  sick,  and  she  would
probably  refuse  to  give  up  hope  even  after  years
passed with no sign of me.

I wasn’t thinking about Cleo.

Or Adonis.
Reminding myself about him was like a punch

to the stomach, enough to kill the little burst of
pleasure I’d experienced at Ryn’s antics.

All I could think about was Hades. Mostly, the

emotion I felt was fear. But there was a strange
anticipation overlying it that worried me more than
anything else.

My unease only worsened when we entered the

great hall. Hades rose from his chair at the head of
the long table to greet us, an imperious expression
on his face. Looking at him made all the anger that
my fear had subsumed come rushing back over me
with full force. I wanted to stomp across the room
and rip into that beautiful face with the sharp points
of my nails, claw at his skin until I drew blood.

I didn’t even care what he did to me afterwards.

I just wanted one shot at the bastard. He could hurt
me for it, as long as I got to hurt him first.

Seeming to sense the shift in my mood, Ryn

directed us to the opposite end of the empty table.

“No,” Hades commanded, his gaze hot enough

to sear skin. “Sit her here, at my right hand.”

Ryn risked a glance at my face.
Hades struck the table with his fist. “Now.”
Cerberus and Ryn rushed to comply, but I

dragged my feet, even as they tried to quicken my
steps. I glared at Hades as we approached, meeting
the icy anger in his gaze with an icy fire of my own.

This was good. We could both be pissed off

together.

Ryn made a point of standing between us as he

helped me into my seat. He hesitated long enough
that it was obvious he was trying to act as a
physical barrier.

“We have no need for entertainment tonight,”

Hades snapped, waving the lither man away. “Go
stand somewhere I don’t have to look at you.”

It was obvious from Ryn’s face that he wanted

to  resist,  but  I  shook  my  head  when  he  glanced  at
me  for  confirmation.  This  wasn’t  his  fight  and  he
wouldn’t be able to stand in between Hades and me
forever. At this point, I was riled up enough to have
myself  convinced  that  I  could  take  on  the  bastard
without anyone else’s help.

Hades narrowed his eyes at Ryn’s retreating

back,  but  didn’t  say  anything  more  to  him.
Cerberus had already stepped back from my chair,
but  not  too  far.  He  kept  himself  between  me  and
the  nearest  daemon  guards,  not  so  much  as
flinching  when  Hades  glared  at  him.  Cerberus’s
placid face stared off into the distance, but I knew
he was alert to respond to any danger.

Then Hades turned his stormy expression on

me.

“You seem to be gathering champions wherever

you go,” he said, voice snide. “What’s next? Will I
find you with one of my daemons braiding flowers

into your hair?”

I felt more than saw the guards nearest to us

shift on their feet, as if they resented the
implication. Although I wasn’t sure which idea
bothered them more, playing lady's maid for me or
that he had said they belonged to him.

A row of daemons guards stood on either side

of  the  room,  but  I  barely  did  more  than  glance  at
them. If I caught even a hint of fang, I was kicking
it  down  someone’s  throat.  My  fear  of  them  would
return  when  my  anger  eventually  faded,  but  for
now  the  look  on  my  face  said  come  at  me,  bro.  A
few  of  them  had  forked  tongues  and  wide  snake
eyes like the one who had accosted me in my room,
but  others  were  even  more  monstrous.  One  had
only  a  single  eye  in  the  center  of  its  face  that
glowed  a  dull  orange.  And  another  had  an  extra,
but smaller, set of arms clasped in front of its body.

I didn’t trust them.
“That seems unlikely.” My fingers toyed with

the  butter  knife  on  my  place  setting,  wondering  if
the  dull  edge  would  be  sharp  enough  to  pop
Hades’s  eyeball  if  I  shoved  into  his  eye  socket.
Killing  him  was  probably  impossible,  but  maiming
him  might  be  nice.  This  asshole  wouldn’t  be  so
pretty with an eye patch over the fresh gaping hole
in his head. “You almost sound jealous.”

When I met his gaze, the cold look on Hades’s

face was enough to freeze ice. “What did you say?”

I shrugged even as my heart rate picked up by a

few dozen extra beats a minute. “I’m just saying
that people might actually want to hang out with
you if you weren’t such a dick all the time.”

His anger swelled into a palpable force. I felt it

like  an  invisible  hand  pressing  against  my  throat.
We stared at each other across the small expanse of
table  separating  us.  I  had  no  doubt  that  in  this
moment  he  wanted  nothing  more  than  to  hurt  me
very badly.

And then the corner of his eye twitched as he

snorted. The chuckle turned into a guffaw and then
Hades  was  laughing  so  hard  that  he  nearly  fell  out
of  his  chair.  After  a  few  moments,  the  daemons
joined  in  with  sounds  that  reminded  me  more  of
yips  and  growls  then  laughter,  but  something  told
me they didn’t actually get the joke.

But let’s be honest, I didn’t get the joke either.

Ryn, Cerberus and I were the only ones in the room
who  weren’t  laughing.  Ryn  had  an  expression  on
his  face  like  Hades  had  just  grown  a  second  head
and  it  had  started  singing  show  tunes.  Maybe  that
was  Hades’s  thing,  have  a  hearty  laugh  before
ordering you dropped into an endless chasm.

By the time he was wiping the tears from his

eyes  and  taking  gasping  breaths,  I  had  finally
moved  away  from  being  angry  to  just  feeling
confused.  It  was  like  this  man  prided  himself  on
never letting me get an actual read on him.

“You planning to tell the rest of us what’s so

funny?” I asked.

Hades just shook his head. When he finally

raised his eyes to look at me, there was a curious
expression on his face. “I cannot remember the last
time someone has spoken to me that way inside of
this castle. It’s almost refreshing.”

“Refreshing? And what is that supposed to

mean?”

He waved the daemons holding serving forward

and lifted a goblet to his lips, regarding steadily me
over the rim. “You seem determined to pick a fight
with  me  this  evening.  I’m  prepared  to  have
whatever  sort  of  interaction  that  you’d  like,  but  I
have  to  express  a  preference  for  something  more
congenial than verbal sparring.”

My confusion only deepened. Where was the

man  who  had  dug  his  fingers  into  my  jaw  and
forced  a  kiss  on  me  that  was  more  threat  than
romance?  Now  he  seemed  almost  genial  in
comparison, gesturing for a servant to fill my goblet
with wine before allowing them to refill his own.

“I don’t understand you,” I said finally. “Not at

all.”

“Tell me what you would like to know and I

will do my best to provide the answers you seek.”

It had to be a trick. It had to be. No one could

change on a dime like this and actually mean it. But
his expression remained placid, even when he

caught me watching him like I thought he was
about to tear all our hearts out.

“I hate you.”
And he nodded, as if he expected nothing less.

“We have much ground to cover, you and I.”

He had to know how hard it was to stay angry

at a person who wasn’t giving you anything back
but an understanding smile.

A daemon placed a platter of food in front of

me, momentarily distracting me from the infuriating
man at my side. The food was some kind of animal
meat, although it was hard to be more specific than
that. The piece in front of me looked like a lamb
shank, but from a much smaller creature. From the
way the daemon servant eyed the food when he set
it down, they must have considered it a particularly
succulent cut of meat.

And I couldn’t have been more grossed out.
“I’m a pescatarian.”
Hades blinked several times as if he didn’t

understand what I’d said. “You’re a what?”

“She said she’s a Pisces,” Ryn piped up

helpfully from the other side of the table. “It means
her birthday is in February. Maybe she wants to
make sure you don’t forget it.”

“Pescatarian,” I repeated, rolling my eyes at

Ryn who had to be messing with us on purpose. “It
means that I don’t eat red meat or chicken.
Although sometimes I have to make an exception

because  restaurants  sneak  chicken  broth  into
everything…”  I  let  myself  trail  off  at  the  strange
look  on  his  face.  “Never  mind,  it  doesn’t  matter.
I’m not hungry, anyway.”

But Hades had already gestured for one of the

servants. “Bring our queen something more suiting
to her palate. Fish or vegetables only.”

The daemon servant quickly obeyed. But it

glanced at me in shock, as if those were the most
disgusting things it could imagine choking down its
gullet.

I should have thanked Hades for his

consideration. And if he were anyone else, I would
have. But we weren’t there yet. “I’m not your
queen.”

Or anything else, I wanted to add.
But Hades’s expression remained placid. “You

can be whatever it is you want to be in the
Underworld.”

“Except free of it.”
His lip quirked, but otherwise his face gave

nothing away. “True enough.”

And I’d finally had enough of this playing

pretend, let’s be friends game. He wanted
something from me and acting like this was
anything else didn’t do either of us any favors.

“Tell me what we’re doing here. Tell me what

you want from me,” I demanded, voice harsh even
to my own ears. “No more screwing around

because I can’t take any more of it. I’m stuck here
with you while you’ve gotten everything you
wanted.”

“You have no idea what I want.” His voice had

gone low, dangerous, and I watched his effort to
keep control of himself. “Just ask your questions, if
you have them.”

“You’re planning something. Just tell me what it

is and be done with it. You said we were about to
begin. What does that mean?”

Hades watched me closely as he lifted the

goblet to his lips and drank before setting it down
again. It made me wonder what he was trying to
hide behind this air of calm.

“I’ve already told you that the Underworld is

returning  to  darkness.  When  it  does,  the  souls  of
the  dead  will  cease  to  exist  with  it.  The  universe
will  lose  its  careful  balance  and  descend  into
chaos.”

“And that me volunteering to stay here so you

could suck my life away would save it.”

“Yes, you must exchange power with me unless

you wish this place to turn into dust. But I never
said that would be enough.”

I felt the anger rising again as I stared into eyes

that had turned the color of quicksilver. “You lied
to me.”

A spark of something dark and rage-filled

entered his gaze before he looked away. “Careful

with the accusations, girl. Others have died for
less.”

I didn’t know why I felt the urge to keep

pushing  him.  The  smart  thing  would  have  been  to
appreciate  this  reprieve  and  keep  the  peace
between  us.  But  I’d  never  been  someone  good  at
taking the easy way out.

“What do you want from me?”
His gaze went hooded. He turned his attention

to the platter in front of him that hadn’t even
touched. At some point, a daemon had brought me
a plate of some limp field greens, but I hadn’t taken
so much as a bite.

This wasn’t a dinner. It was a battlefield, even if

words were the only weapons we currently used.

“The further that one travels from this castle,

the more of the Underworld that has fallen into ruin
and darkness. Your presence here is the first step in
halting that decay, but not the only one.”

One more verbal dodge and I really would

punch him in the face. “And?”

“We must journey into the Underworld so I can

regain control of what has been lost. You will have
to accompany me into the furthest reaches, well
beyond the areas you journeyed past to reach the
palace.”

I didn’t have an explanation for what I did next.

Maybe it was frustration and what happened to
your mind when something got delayed that you’d

been dreading, when it would have been better to
just get it over with. He knew that I wouldn’t ask
the right questions when I had agreed to stay here,
and now there was no going back to my real life.

“You want me to go back out there?” I yelled.

The  meat  platter  still  sat  next  to  me,  just  another
insult  that  I’d  been  forced  to  suffer  in  this  place.
Standing up, I grasped the heavy thing in my hands
and flung it as far as I could down the table. Metal
clanged  as  the  platter  hit  the  stone  floor  and  the
hank  of  meat  flew  through  the  air  to  hit  the  back
wall. “Fuck that.”

But when I turned back to look at him, Hades

barely  seemed  bothered  by  my  angry  display.  His
gaze  moved  to  where  a  handful  of  daemons  had
gathered  around  the  hunk  of  meat,  picking  pieces
off it. When he looked at me again, his expression
gave  nothing  away.  “We  will  also  host  a
masquerade  ball  tomorrow  night  to  officially
announce your return to the Underworld. Those of
my  subjects  still  able  or  willing  to  respond  to  my
invitation  will  draw  power  from  being  near  you.  It
will be the first necessary step in calling this place
back from the brink of destruction.”

I heard Cerberus’s indrawn breath and glanced

at  Ryn’s  face  to  see  an  expression  of  shock  on  his
features.  Apparently,  balls  were  not  an  everyday
occurrence around here. I couldn’t help but wonder
if  the  creatures  that  had  been  invited  were  friends

or enemies.

Hades had done his best to sound cavalier about

the  whole  thing,  but  I  saw  the  way  his  eyes
tightened slightly in the corners. I heard the tension
in  his  voice,  despite  his  best  effort  to  hide  it.  My
past  with  him  was  still  a  mystery  to  me,  my
memories  impossible  to  reach,  so  I  both  knew  him
and  didn’t  at  the  same  time.  But  based  purely  on
instinct,  I  knew  his  relaxed  pose  and  casual  air
were all for show.

Hades was very worried about something.
Which only made me wonder for whose benefit

he was putting on this act, because it clearly wasn’t
mine. Ryn and Cerberus appeared to be beneath his
notice most of the time. I looked at the long line of
daemon  guards  on  either  side  of  the  room,  the
weapons  at  their  sides  dark  with  dried  blood.  A
larger daemon stood nearest to the table and when I
raised  my  gaze  to  its  face,  a  deadly  smile  spread
across a crooked mouth with several rows of sharp
teeth.  It  looked  as  if  every  bone  in  the  daemon’s
face  had  been  broken  and  then  allowed  to  heal
without being put back in the proper position.

The only way to describe it was battle-

hardened.

All the daemons seemed capable of doing

damage  and  we  were  surrounded  by  them.  I
wondered  what  other  things  lurked  in  the
Underworld  and  would  show  up  here  to  ogle  their

returned queen.

“A ball, huh?” I realized belatedly that I was

still  standing  at  the  table.  All  the  frenetic  energy
needed  for  throwing  things  had  faded  away  from
me. It was just so hard to stay mad at someone who
wouldn’t  get  mad  in  return.  Really  took  the  wind
out of my sails. “What if I say that I won’t go? You
can’t just make me do whatever you want—”

“This is the Underworld and I am Hades. I will

do whatever I wish here.”

“Screw you.”
He grabbed my arm in a bruising grip before the

hand I raised to him could land. That touch alone
was enough to send painful heat washing over me. I
could feel the will to fight him leaving me, with
each fragile pulse of the artery in my wrist against
his fingers.

And then I felt the pain. There was no other

way to describe it, but as a taking. I felt something
inside  of  me  being  ripped  away,  like  the  flesh  had
been  flayed  from  my  bones.  All  the  agony  was
centered  on  the  place  where  his  hand  wrapped
around  my  wrist,  although  he  wasn’t  holding  me
with enough force to account for this level of pain.

My knees buckled. I collapsed onto my chair,

nearly sliding to the floor. My other hand gripped
the chair arm to keep myself upright, but it was a
struggle to focus on anything more than the agony. I
would pass out all over again if he didn’t release me

soon, if just from the pain.

I stopped fighting because I no longer had the

strength for it. The taking became a giving as I
accepted the inevitability of it all.

Something changed.
My body still felt like it was on fire, but I could

breathe again. It didn’t seem exactly like magic,
more like my willingness to accept him made
whatever Hades was doing less painful.

It made it tolerable.
I inhaled enough air to speak. “Let me go.”
Hades’s gaze bored into mine. I saw the spark

of  pleasure  there,  because  part  of  him  liked  to  see
me  in  pain.  But  he  also  appreciated  that  I  would
fight  back,  perhaps  even  more.  But  as  soon  as  I
noticed  it,  the  emotion  disappeared  behind  his
normal mask-like expression.

He finally let me go after a few more moments

passed, making it clear that he did it because he
wished to and not because I had demanded it.

“That was but a preview of what may happen if

I  lose  control.  In  future,  I  suggest  you  mind  your
tongue.”  He  stood  abruptly  from  the  table  and
gestured imperiously at the men behind me. “Have
your puppy and your jester escort you back to your
room.  I  suggest  you  avoid  wandering  the  castle.  It
seems  to  have  become  quite  mercurial  in  the  last
few  days.  There  is  no  telling  where  you  may  end
up.”

Without bothering to ensure I complied, Hades

turned on his heel and practically stomped out of
the great hall. If he’d been wearing a cape, it would
have snapped with the force of a whip behind him
given how quickly he moved. He was obviously still
angry, but now the emotion was under control. Or
at least as much in his control as it ever was.

I didn’t want to think about what would happen

if he ever let himself go completely.

“That could have gone better,” Ryn murmured

as he helped me to my feet.

My body still felt weak, like it would take a bit

more time for it to recover from whatever Hades
had done to me. It was as I had a hangover or was
coming down with a bad flu. “Seems to be the
general theme around here.”

Ryn stumbled under the weight of my body as I

lurched to the side. Cerberus stepped up beside me,
so I was cradled between them. He slung my arm
over his shoulder while Ryn held me around my
waist.

I let Cerberus take most of my weight because

he barely seemed to notice it all. My head lolled to
the side so that my temple rested against the bend
of his neck. Vibration rumbled against my skin as
he spoke.

“We cannot protect you from yourself,” he

murmured, just loud enough for me to hear as the
daemon guards we passed watched with obvious

interest. “Although we will make the attempt to do
so until our dying breath.”

I wanted to ask him why he’d be willing to do

that. Hades had said they helped me in the time
before, that they risked his wrath to help me
escape. But none of them had provided any further
detail than that.

“Did he say something about dying?” Ryn

asked, squeezing me tighter with his arm so my
body pressed closer to his. He playfully waggled his
eyebrows when I glanced up at him. “Because if
this is going to end with a suicide mission, then you
need to give me heads up. It’s only fair.”

God, even laughing hurt.
“Nobody is dying,” I groaned. The room was

spinning around me, and light danced across my
vision. “But I do think I might be about to pass
out.”

Cerberus lifted me easily into his arms. The

movement was almost too fast, and I made a sound
of  distress  as  he  pressed  me  against  his  chest.  I
stared  up  at  the  dark  ceiling  as  his  murmured
apology  washed  over  me,  wondering  if  I  actually
saw  the  distant  stars  of  a  night  sky  or  only
hallucinated them.

I had finally managed to make Hades angry,

even though I’d had no idea what he would do with
that fury. And he had told me more about his plans
than he likely would have otherwise if he’d

remained calm. I probably wouldn’t have found
about either the ball or the tour through the
Underworld if I hadn’t pushed him as hard as I did.
But as stars danced in my vision and I wondered if
I would end up in another sleep that lasted days, it
didn’t exactly seem worth it.

Just because I had a right to be angry didn’t

stop me from being a fucking idiot.

Chapter Five

donis  finally  answered  the  persistent
banging  on  his  door  after  it  was  clear
whoever  it  was  wouldn’t  go  away  on

their  own.  When  he  ripped  the  door  open,  Cleo
stood  outside  of  his  apartment  with  her  arms
crossed  over  her  chest  and  an  annoyed  expression
on  her  face.  She  shoved  past  him,  not  bothering
with a greeting.

“We need to get rid of Diana,” she said,

flopping down on his loveseat.

He checked the hallway before closing the

door,  but  wouldn’t  have  been  surprised  to  find
Seph’s  foster  mother  bearing  down  on  him.  Diana
had  been  dogging  their  steps  ever  since  she  had
showed up the morning they returned home to find
Seph had disappeared.

“What, like kill her?” he sighed, turning the

deadbolt. “That’s probably the only thing that
would help at this point.”

“Diana thinks we did something or that we

know something.” Cleo rubbed her temples as if her
head  hurt.  “How  am  I  supposed  to  look  her  in  the
eye  and  say  that  I  have  no  idea  what  happened,
especially  with  the  way  we  were  acting  that
morning?”

It had been beyond difficult to convince Diana

that they’d only just noticed Seph was missing that
morning and had started searching right before she
showed  up.  She  had  wanted  to  know  why  Cleo
hadn’t  been  answering  her  phone  calls  or  what
Adonis had even been doing at the apartment in the
first  place.  Their  answers  clearly  hadn’t  been
convincing enough because the first thing Diana did
was call the police.

Seph wasn’t a minor, so the cops held off a few

days  before  declaring  her  a  missing  person.  That
had given the two of them enough time to get their
stories straight before the first detective showed up.
Regardless of what anyone thought, they had been
the  last  people  to  see  her  that  night.  The  other
theater  students  who  had  been  with  them  at  the
Stockhouse  remembered  going  home  early  and
being  in  bed  well  before  midnight.  There  was  no
one  but  Adonis  and  Cleo  who  knew  that  wasn’t
their memories had been altered.

It pissed him off that it was so easy for magic to

mess with people’s minds.

“You could always try telling her the truth,”

Adonis suggested, tone more than a little sarcastic.

“And end up committed to a psych ward? Yeah,

no  thanks.  Seph  told  me  enough  about  her  time
there  that  I’d  probably  be  better  off  in  jail.”  Cleo
settled back on the loveseat and kicked her feet up
on  the  coffee  table  in  the  only  space  not  covered
with  papers  or  photographs.  “This  place  is  a
fucking  mess.  Hoarding  is  a  mental  problem  too,
you know.”

Adonis hadn’t cleaned much in the last few

days,  or  really  done  anything  at  all  aside  from
feverishly  study  everything  that  Seph  had  left
behind. Like a crime scene investigator, he’d taken
pictures  of  everything  he  could  find  inside  her
room,  then  had  them  blown  up  and  printed  out.
Every  book  at  the  library  that  had  any  mention  of
gods  or  goddesses  in  the  title  was  stacked  in
haphazard  piles  around  the  living  room.  His
apartment was tiny, barely more than a studio with
only  a  half-wall  that  separating  his  bedroom  from
the rest of the space. There was just too much stuff
piling  up  at  the  moment  for  it  to  be  anything  else
but total chaos.

At least he’d managed to keep a path carved

out to the kitchen and the bathroom, although his
route to the front door was probably next on the

chopping block. “I’ve been busy.”

Cleo gave him a look that was equal parts

exasperation and pity. “Clearly. People have started
noticing you aren’t going to class.”

“Class isn’t important. Nothing but finding Seph

is important. You really expect me to sit in a room
and talk about Shakespeare?”

“No, of course not—”
“Then why the hell did you bring it up?” he

snapped.

Adonis hadn’t even been given the chance to

save  her,  that  part  bothered  him  the  most.  The  big
showdown  where  he  faced  off  with  the  villian  and
won the girl’s heart just…never happened. It made
him  feel  like  less  of  a  man  than  actually  losing
would  have.  Hades  hadn’t  even  considered  him  a
worthy enough opponent to fight. He’d simply been
magicked  back  home,  like  an  annoying  fly  being
swatted  away  because  you’re  sick  of  it  buzzing
around your face.

Instead of getting angry with him, Cleo just

sighed. “Look, I know you’re angry and scared for
her. But focusing on that isn’t going to get us
anywhere. You want to find Seph and get her back,
right?”

“Of course, I do. How can you even ask that?”
“Well, if you’d quit the pity party and listen to

me, then maybe we can help each other.”
Rummaging in the oversized bag at her side, Cleo

pulled out a thin and wrinkled piece of paper that
had clearly been torn out of a book. “I found a
lead.”

“Where did you get this?”
“Out of the yellow pages.”
He hadn’t even realized that phone books were

still a thing. “And what am I supposed to be seeing,
aside from an obsolete technology?”

“Just look at this advertisement.”
At the center of the page was an ad for some

sort  of  shop  that  sold  healing  crystals  and  other
metaphysical  nonsense.  “This  looks  like  one  of
those  places  that  bilks  cancer  patients  and  tourists
out of their money. How will this help?”

His dour tone did nothing to kill the sparkle of

excitement  in  Cleo’s  eyes.  “I  found  one  of  Seph’s
old credit card statements when I was searching her
room,  probably  because  she  was  trying  to  hide  it
from  Diana.  She  spent  hundreds  of  dollars  at  this
place in a single month on all kinds of stuff. I think
we should go take a look.”

“Seph spends almost that much on Starbucks in

a month. Should we check there, too?”

Cleo rolled her eyes at him. “The phonebook

was the only mention of this place that I could find.
Literally  anywhere.  This  shop  doesn’t  have  a
website  or  a  Facebook  page,  not  even  a  listing  on
Yelp.  If  it  wasn’t  for  the  old  phonebook  we  had
propping  up  our  entertainment  center  and  Seph’s

credit card statement, I wouldn’t believe the place
actually exists. And just look at this ad, there’s
something weird going on here.”

He studied the page in his hand again, trying

and  failing  to  see  what  Cleo  apparently  saw.
“Forgotten  Realms  Gifts  and  Supplies?  I  know  it
has  a  stupid  name,  but  I  don’t  get  what  else  I’m
supposed to be seeing.”

“Look under the name, right above the phone

number. It’s in tiny print there.” She jabbed the
page with her finger and then looked at him like he
was an idiot. “Right here. It says Step into another
world... You don’t think that has to mean
something, especially considering our situation?”

He hadn’t noticed the words, at least not until

she  pointed  them  out.  But  now  that  he  knew  they
were there, it was impossible not to see them even
though  the  print  was  so  tiny  that  he  had  to  squint.
Yeah,  it  was  a  weird  tagline,  especially  for  a
quarter-page  advertisement  in  the  phone  book.  It
didn’t really make sense adding in a line that most
people wouldn’t even notice, Cleo had to have eyes
like a hawk.

Even if she had the brain of a rabid squirrel that

watched way too much T.V.

“I don’t have time for this,” he declared,

tossing the torn paper back onto the coffee table. “I
have too many things to get through here.”

Cleo stuck out her tongue and made a farting

sound with her mouth. “Bullshit. This A Beautiful
Mind crap has got to stop. You’re one bad day
away from writing on the walls in your own blood.
Clearly, you need a break and some fresh air.”

But if there was any word that perfectly

described Cleo it was persistent, assuming you
wanted to be polite. In his current state of mind, the
words royal pain in the ass seemed even more
appropriate. “You can do what you want.”

Cleo stood up from the couch and just looked at

him. With heels on, she was tall enough to almost
look him in the eye. “As much as I want her back,
it’s a good thing that Seph isn’t here to see this.
Whining like a baby is a major turn-off.”

Adonis just shook his head and knelt down by

the table, picking up the papers he’d been looking
at before she showed up. “Thanks for stopping by,
Cleo.”

“I want to check this place out,” she declared,

seeming  entirely  unconcerned  with  his  many
denials.  The  girl  was  like  a  junkyard  dog  with  a
juicy  bone,  refusing  to  let  go.  “And  you  have  to
drive because Diana knows my plate number and I
swear  she’s  watching  the  apartment  to  see  when  I
leave. I had to sneak out of the building through the
service doors in the basement and then catch a bus
to get over here. I hate the bus.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he insisted. “And

that’s final.”

“I already told you that I had to walk over here.

If you don’t agree to take me, I’ll just hot-wire your
car and use that, then leave it in a neighborhood
with a high crime rate when I’m done. Your
choice.”

Adonis blanched, but Cleo was already heading

for the door. “You don’t know how to hot-wire a
car.”

“My dad ran a chop shop before he went to

prison and two of my brothers spent all of high
school in juvie for grand theft auto,” she said airily,
gaze like steel when their eyes met. “You have no
idea what I can do, pretty boy.”

“Do you even know what kind of car I drive?”

he spluttered.

“Pearl white Dodge Charger with a custom

exhaust and black carbon fiber hood,” she replied
with a shrug. “Little too aggressively macho for my
tastes, but it’ll do in a pinch. And I suppose you do
have an image to maintain, although I bet you cry
like a little bitch at the gas pump.”

Adonis was already on his feet and looking for

shoes. “You are such a brat.”

“Right back at you, sweetie,” she replied with a

saccharine smile as she held open the door. “You
can tell me all about myself in the car on the way
across town.”

As he searched the coffee table for his keys,

Adonis realized that he’d been looking at the same

stack of photographs for hours. And the only thing
he’d accomplished was making himself feel worse
than he already did. Even if Cleo’s lead was total
nonsense, he did need some fresh air and a friend.

It made things easier that she had only ever

been  that.  Just  a  friend.  Cleo  was  truly  gorgeous,
but  he  had  never  thought  of  her  in  any  way  other
than  the  strictly  platonic.  And  she  was  one  of  the
few  girls  he  knew  who  seemed  totally  fine  with
that, even preferring it.

They made a good team, even if neither of them

had figured out what sort of game was being
played.

orgotten Realms was located in a
dilapidated strip mall, sandwiched between
a taqueria and a Hispanic grocery store. Its

neon sign was missing more than a few letters so it
spelled out r otten alms, which didn’t exactly bode
well for finding useful information there. But Cleo
seemed so excited that Adonis was willing to let it
go. Worst case scenario this got him out of the
house for a few hours.

A boy, no older than eleven or twelve, ambled

up to them before they reached the door with a
basket full of roses over his arm. He offered one to

Cleo, who passed the kid a few crumpled bills
without taking it.

Adonis couldn’t quite hide his amazement when

she  rattled  off  to  the  kid  in  what  sounded  to  him
like  completely  fluent  Spanish.  He  caught  a  word
here  and  there  but  couldn’t  parse  most  of  it.  His
jaw had probably fallen open wide enough to touch
the  cracked  pavement  when  she  turned  back  to
him.

“He says nobody ever goes into this shop,” she

said in English, lifting one perfectly tweezed
eyebrow. “Really makes you wonder how they stay
in business, doesn’t it?”

But he wasn’t even thinking about the store.

“Since when can you speak Spanish?”

She rolled her eyes so hard they nearly flew out

of her head. “This is California, everybody speaks
Spanish.”

“I don’t.”
“I’m going to head inside.” The look she gave

him was so full of disappointment that he almost
felt bad. “You should probably let me do the
talking.”

Adonis wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting

when they stepped inside Forbidden Realms, but
this wasn’t it. It looked like an antique shop run by
someone slowly sinking into dementia. Clutter of
every imaginable type covered the many tables and
shelves crowded inside the space. It was impossible

to  know  how  much  of  this  junk  was  for  sale  and
what  had  been  set  down  by  random  shoppers  and
forgotten.  The  air  smelled  like  the  odor  of  fried
tortillas  wafting  in  from  the  restaurant  next  door
and  mothballs.  Nothing  about  this  place  made  him
think  of  the  kind  of  magic  it  would  take  to  pull
someone into another world.

Although, what the hell did he really know

about magic?

“Excuse me,” Cleo called. “Does anybody

work here?”

They turned a corner near the middle of the

shop and came upon a glass display case covered in
crystal  formations  and  polished  gemstones.  It  was
the  only  part  of  the  store  that  looked  like  it  might
have something a sane person would actually want
to  buy,  but  he  didn’t  see  price  tags  on  any  of  the
items.

The chick behind the counter was another

surprise.  He  had  been  expecting  some  hippie
woman  in  a  long  flowing  skirt  wearing  beads  with
hair down to her waist. But the shop girl was barely
a  teenager  with  darkly  tanned  skin,  spiky  purple
hair  that  was  long  on  one  side  and  buzzed  to  the
scalp  on  the  other,  a  surly  expression  on  her  face.
She  didn’t  even  bother  to  look  up  from  her
magazine while answering Cleo’s question.

“Depends on what you want.”
“We need some information about purchases

that were made here a few months ago.” Cleo
pulled a sheaf of papers out of her bag and held
them up. “I have the credit card statements, if you
could just tell me what items were bought.”

The girl flipped a page in the magazine.

“Nope.”

Cleo blinked rapidly, that word clearly not in

her lexicon. “Do you mean no as in you can’t, or as
in you won’t?”

“Depends,” the girl said again, voice bored. She

finally  looked  up  from  the  magazine  and  regarded
them  as  if  they  were  the  most  boring  things  that
she’d  ever  seen.  “Credit  card  information  is
supposed  to  be  private  and  I  could  get  in  a  lot  of
trouble for just handing it over to you. I’m not sure
I  even  remember  how  to  look  that  kind  of  thing
up.”  She  raised  a  pale  purple  brow,  making  him
think  that  taking  the  time  to  dye  her  eyebrows
didn’t  exactly  fit  with  the  give  no  fucks  attitude.
“What’s my time worth to you?”

Rolling her eyes, Cleo dug her elbow into

Adonis’s side and spoke in a stage whisper. “Get
out your wallet.”

“You cannot be serious,” he growled back.
“Clearly, she’s asking for cash.” Cleo pouted

and put on a baby voice that she had to know
would sound like nails grinding on a chalkboard.
“And I’m poooorrrr….”

“Jesus, fine. Here.” Adonis pulled out his wallet

and shoved the whole thing into her hands. He
didn’t even care if they took every dime he had as
long as it brought him closer to finding Seph.

And it was a small price to pay for never

hearing Cleo talk in that damn voice again.

Taking out a wad of cash, Cleo started laying

bills one after the other on the counter.

“Let me know when your memory has been

sufficiently jogged,” she said sardonically. “You got
a name, by the way?”

“Names are powerful things to just be giving

away.” The girl watched each bill get placed down
like they were succulent bits of food that she
wanted to gobble up. “You can call me Tricks.”

“I think I prefer Treats.” Cleo replied, not

missing a beat. The wad of bills in the wallet had
already dwindled by over half, and she hesitated
before placing the next one down. “Seriously?”

With sly grin that transformed her face into

something  slightly  less  surly,  Tricks  snatched  the
bills  off  the  counter  and  pocketed  them  in  a
movement  almost  too  quick  to  follow.  “I  was
wondering how long it would take for you to stop.
Pro tip, never negotiate with a Wanderer.”

“A what?” Adonis asked, thoroughly annoyed

at this point.

“Never mind.” Tricks held out her hand for the

papers. “Give me what you got.”

Cleo handed them over with an annoyed sound,

but didn’t say anything.

Tricks took the papers and studied them for less

than a second before getting up and wandering
away.

Adonis followed close behind her, thinking she

was  headed  to  wherever  a  computer  workstation
might be buried in this mess of a store. The longer
he  spent  there,  the  more  it  seemed  like  Forgotten
Realms  didn’t  actually  exist  to  sell  anything.
Occasional customers were purely incidental.

But Tricks didn’t head for a computer or even a

filing cabinet. Instead, she held the bank statement
in one hand and randomly touched shelves and the
surfaces of tables with the other.

“What are you doing?” Adonis asked, unable to

keep the annoyance out of his voice.

“Looking for what your friend bought,” the girl

replied caustically, as if that should be obvious.

God save him from all the women in his life that

he was unable to understand. “We paid you for
information. Stop screwing around or—”

But Cleo grabbed his arm and shushed him with

a quick shake of her head.

Tricks stopped next to a large cabinet with glass

doors.  She  opened  one  door,  and  they  all  peered
inside. There was an empty space on one shelf, the
wood  clean  of  the  dust  that  covered  everything
else,  as  if  something  had  been  there  and  was
recently removed.

“Your friend bought a looking glass. Hand inlaid

wood with a filigree pattern around the edges. It
was expensive.” Tricks turned back and crossed
slim arms over her chest. “Don’t bother bringing it
back because we don’t do refunds.”

Cleo looked disappointed for a second as she

stared into the cabinet, as if she really thought some
magical secret would reveal itself inside this crappy
little shop. Then the expression on her face
changed, and she pointed at something near the
back. “What is that?”

After she said it, Adonis saw it too.
A crystal orb, identical to the ones that Hades

had spent so much time playing around with, sat on
a tiny wooden stand at the very back of the cabinet.
Unlike everything else on the shelf, it had gathered
absolutely no dust. He could see a warped, but
perfectly clear, reflection of his own face in its
glassy surface.

For the first time since Seph had disappeared,

he felt the stirrings of real fear.

“You have a good eye?” Tricks said, glancing at

Cleo with a strange expression on her face. “You
from around here?”

Before Cleo could reply, a bell dinged at the

front of the store as another customer arrived.
Tricks didn’t bother going to the front of the shop,
because she clearly couldn’t care less about good
customer service.

Then he heard his and Cleo’s names being

called in a voice that brooked no arguments.

“It’s Diana,” Cleo whispered, her eyes going

wide.  She  snatched  the  credit  card  statement  from
Trick’s  hand  and  shoved  it  into  the  bottom  of  her
bag,  just  as  Seph’s  foster  mother  rounded  the
corner and caught sight of them. When Cleo turned
around to face the front, her voice was loud enough
to  carry,  but  high-pitched  and  sickeningly  sweet.
“Hi, Diana! What brings you all the way out to the
valley?”

Seph’s foster mother looked like a cross

between  Morticia  Addams  and  the  executive  of  a
Fortune 500 Company. She wore a black suit cut to
hug  her  slim  body  that  was  all  straight  lines  and
angles, the only bit of a color the cranberry red of
her  shirt  peeking  through  the  suit  jacket.  Like
always,  she  stared  them  down  with  an  expression
that  was  just  a  little  too  intense,  as  if  she  mentally
filed  away  everything  that  they  did  or  said  for
future reference.

“I could ask you the same thing,” she

responded with a frown. “I saw Adonis’s car
outside and thought I would stop in to see if you
were both together. It seems to be getting harder to
get in touch with you these days.”

Cleo cleared her throat sharply and gestured

toward her bag. “Sorry about that. My phone has
been acting up recently. Must be a problem with the

network.”

“You mean the phone that I had added to my

plan when you moved in with Seph? I haven’t
noticed any problems. Perhaps yours is in need of
replacement.”

Cleo blanched for a second as her mouth

opened,  and  then  closed  again.  Clearly,  it  was  just
occurring  to  her  that  putting  her  phone  on  a  plan
that  Diana  paid  for  meant  that  Diana  could
probably track the phone’s location.

Which was the only legitimate explanation for

what Diana was doing there, she had to have
tracked them to the shop.

“I assume neither of you have heard anything

from Seph?” Diana asked finally, looking from one
of  them  to  the  other.  “The  police  have  somehow
become  convinced  that  she  left  town  on  her  own,
but  they  don’t  know  her  like  I  do.  I’m  absolutely
sure something terrible has happened.”

Something about Seph’s foster mother just

rubbed  him  the  wrong  way,  even  though  Adonis
had no idea why. At first, he’d wondered if she was
only  trying  to  keep  control  of  Seph’s  inheritance,
but the woman seemed legitimately concerned with
finding her. That didn’t stop his skin from crawling
whenever  she  looked  at  him.  “We’ve  told  the
police  everything  that  we  know,  but  if  anything
changes, we’ll definitely share it.”

Diana stared at him for a beat too long. “Do

you two shop here often?”

“Yes,” Cleo exclaimed at the same time as

Adonis said “Not, really.”

“I do, but he doesn’t,” Cleo hurriedly added.

“You know how I feel about crystals and antique
mirrors. But we were just leaving. Let me walk you
to your car and maybe you can help me figure out
what’s going on with my phone.”

Cleo looked at Adonis and then cast a

significant glance at the orb that was still hidden in
the relative darkness of the cabinet. She made a
jerking motion with her head before turning away.

When Diana’s gaze moved away from him,

Adonis let out the breath that he hadn’t realized
he’d been holding. He turned back to the cabinet
only to find Tricks watching him warily.

“I want to buy that?” he said.
“Just take it. Take it and go.” She stepped back

from  him  too  quickly  when  his  hand  rose  to  grab
the  orb  and  she  continued  to  watch  him  as  if  it
wouldn’t  be  safe  to  drag  her  gaze  away.  “There’s
muti  in  the  air  and  it’s  wrapped  around  you  tight
enough to choke. You need to leave and stay gone.”

There didn’t seem to be an appropriate way to

respond to that. “What is muti?”

“Hoodoo, mojo, magic, whatever the hell you

want to call it,” Tricks snapped. “I can deal with
your friend’s second sight, but I have to draw the
line somewhere.”

“What second sight—”
“No more questions.” She backed away from

him and pulled a metal baseball bat out from behind
a nearby table. “Get your crystal ball, or whatever
it is you want, and get out of here. And don’t come
back, or else. Not everyone you’ll meet in here is as
nice as me.”

Nice? He wanted to remind her that she’d been

the  one  extorting  them  for  money  a  few  minutes
ago.  But  it  wasn’t  worth  arguing.  Tricks  held  the
bat  with  both  hands,  looking  like  she  had  every
intention of using it.

Moving as quickly as he could without breaking

anything, Adonis took the orb off the shelf and
cradled it against his body. “Um...thanks, I guess.”

But Tricks only glared at him. “Just go.”
Adonis left the shop with way more questions

than answers, but it wasn’t as if he’d been given a
choice.  He  couldn’t  decide  what  freaked  him  out
more,  the  sudden  appearance  of  one  of  Hades’s
orbs  or  what  Tricks  had  suddenly  gotten  so  upset
about.

Outside, he saw Cleo waiting for him by his car.

Diana  was  parked  a  few  rows  down  and  sitting  in
the  driver’s  seat  of  a  jet-black  Range  Rover,  her
gaze  pinned  to  him  as  soon  as  he  left  the  building.
On  instinct,  he  tucked  the  orb  more  tightly  in  his
jacket, hiding it from view. It made little sense, but
somehow,  he  knew  it  would  be  better  if  she  didn’t

see it.

But as his bare fingers brushed across the

smooth  glass  surface  of  the  orb,  he  could  almost
imagine that he wasn’t in the broken-down parking
lot  of  a  strip  mall.  Instead  of  cracked  pavement
under his feet, it was the cold stone of castle floors.
He  could  practically  smell  the  earthy  musk  of  the
daemons who had poked and prodded him while he
was Hades’s captive.

Impotent rage and fear rose up to practically

choke him. Before Seph disappeared, he had never
been an angry person. But now that seemed to be
his default state, the emotion rising in him with
practically no effort at all.

He was angry all the time, and his rage only had

one real focus.

It didn’t matter what it took, or what he had to

give up to see it happen, but Adonis resolved then
and there to do anything necessary to get back to
the Underworld. He would finally face Hades and
take that bastard down, no matter what it cost him.

He would kill Hades, or die trying.

Chapter Six

stood on a dais in the center of the bedroom,
struggling with a strange sense of deja vu.
Hades had made it clear that I would

voluntarily attend the ball or be dragged there by
my hair, so I let myself be primped and dressed. A
woman who was at least a foot shorter than me
knelt at my feet, hemming the edge of a gown that
was not exactly like the dress I’d been wearing for
the last few days, but so similar that it might as well
be the same.

Ryn stood a few feet away, leaning against a

wall made of that glittering black stone, and
regarded the proceedings with a critical eye.
“White is a flattering color on you, but I can’t help
but feel like it’s getting a little tired at this point.”

“The closet won’t give me anything else,” I

groused, more than a little upset with whatever
magic the castle was using to manipulate me. “I’ve
tried on a dozen different gowns and they always
end up looking like this one.”

The handmaiden looked up at me from where

she knelt on the floor. She was short enough to be
considered a little person in the real world, but her
body was perfectly in proportion. Her tiny hands
moved with impossible speed as she worked on the
hem of my gown. “The dress is very beautiful, my
Queen.”

That word made me cringe. “You don’t have to

call me that.”

The pixie bowed so low that her forehead

pressed  against  the  ground,  body  practically
quivering  with  tension  as  she  prostrated  herself  on
the  ground.  “Forgive  my  trespasses.  Please  do  not
have  Hades  sentence  me  to  a  century  in  the
chasms.”

And that made me feel like an even bigger

asshole.  “Nobody  is  going  into  any  chasms.  It’s
fine. Just…” I gestured for her to get up, but it took
several  tries  before  she  was  convinced  to  pick
herself  up  from  the  floor.  “What  was  your  name,
again?”

She stared up at me with eyes that were much

too big for her face and wet with unshed tears.
“Duskrose, my Queen…I mean, miss.”

“Well I can promise you, Duskrose, that

nobody is getting thrown in any chasms on my
watch. I’m sorry for freaking you out. You’re not in
any trouble, just finish whatever it is that you have
to do.”

“You should be careful what you say,” Ryn said

as he moved closer to inspect Duskrose’s
handiwork. “Anyone who has been forced to serve
in the castle has grown accustomed to mercurial
changes of mood, usually followed by violence.”

Mercurial. That was one way to describe

Hades. Another would be gigantic fucking asshole.

“I’m not like him,” I snapped, suddenly

annoyed.

“And I know that,” Ryn agreed with a shrug.

“But the servants don’t.”

Duskrose’s hand continued to move with hasty

precision as she sewed tiny beads onto the train of
my gown, but her gaze kept shifting up to me as if
she wasn’t quite sure what she was seeing. It made
me feel like a circus animal on display, but the
dangerous kind that nobody was sure wouldn’t snap
at them if they stuck their fingers into my cage.

“Are you afraid of me?” I asked her.
She swallowed hard enough that I saw her

throat bobbing. “I am whatever you want me to be,
my Queen.”

I’d seen enough to know that the servants in the

castle were no different than slaves. They weren’t
paid, because no currency existed in the

Underworld as far as I could tell, and Hades
seemed to treat them all as entirely dispensable.

Duskrose wasn’t done, but I didn’t particularly

care  if  the  beading  on  my  gown  was  completely
symmetrical  down  to  last  seed  pearl.  I’d  wear  a
burlap sack around if I thought it would get me out
of attending this ball. I shooed Duskrose away with
a  wave  of  my  hand,  and  then  forcibly  tore  the
fabric out of her hands when she tried to hold on to
it.

She only left after I swore up and down that I

wasn’t displeased with her work and that I would
not speak to Hades of my displeasure. The way she
said it made me wonder exactly what sorts of things
she had witnessed here to make her that afraid.

Once she was gone, I turned back to Ryn. “I

don’t think I can do this.”

His expression was briefly sympathetic before it

hardened. “You don’t have a choice.”

Cerberus had refused to come into my room

when  he  found  out  I  was  getting  dressed  for  the
ball.  Seeing  me  in  just  my  underwear  was
apparently  too  much  for  him,  so  he  was  back  to
standing sentry just outside the door, which left Ryn
and I alone.

“You’re mad at me,” I murmured, only realizing

as I said it that it was true. “Tell me why.”

Instead of answering, Ryn slowly approached

the dais. On it, I stood several inches taller than

him, but I still felt small when his intense gaze
returned to my face and I saw the barely hidden
anger reflected in his eyes.

“I knew who you were from the very moment

that  we  met.  And  I  never  would  have  agreed  to
help  you  reach  the  castle  if  I  had  known  that  you
wouldn’t  choose  to  save  yourself.”  His  face  was
stricken,  all  the  good  humor  fled  in  favor  of  some
suffering  that  I  didn’t  understand.  “Why  did  you
agree  to  Hades’s  demands?  Why  did  you  stay
here?”

“You would have died, and Cerberus along with

you. Did you really expect me to just let that
happen?”

But Ryn shook his head, looking more

frustrated  than  I’d  ever  seen  him  before.  “You
don’t  remember  me  from  your  past  life.  We  spent
only  hours  together  while  you  tried  to  reach  the
castle. What could I possibly be to you?”

When he said it that way, my decision made

little  sense.  We’d  spent  barely  thirteen  hours
together  before  I  reached  the  castle  and  Hades
forced me to make a choice. But when I’d stood in
his throne room and finally came to understand that
if I left this place everything in it would wither and
die  as  if  it  never  existed,  there  really  hadn’t  been
much of a choice at all.

I cared about Adonis and Cleo. But I hadn’t

been sending them back to a fate worse than death.

They would get to move on with their lives. And if
they  were  smart  about  it,  then  it  might  be  like
nothing  had  ever  happened  at  all.  Even  if  they
mourned  me,  eventually  they  would  forget  about
the worst of the pain and move on.

But refusing to stay would have ensured that

Ryn and Cerberus simply ceased to exist. They
would never have the chance to be happy, because
it was impossible to find happiness if you were
dust.

Ryn stood close enough that I barely had to

raise my hand to touch him. My fingers stroked the
softness  of  his  cheek  and  then  I  pressed  my  palm
against  the  side  of  his  face.  He  leaned  into  my
hand,  even  as  the  expression  on  his  face  remained
bleak,  making  me  wonder  if  he  sought  that  small
amount of comfort despite his best efforts to resist
it.

“I made a choice and I would make the same

one  again.”  My  voice  was  soft,  but  strong  enough
that  I  hoped  it  would  filter  through  to  him.  “You
cannot  blame  yourself  because  it  was  never  your
decision.”

His hand rose to grip mine hard, pressing my

palm harder into his cheek. A single tear threatened
in the corner of his eye and I watched it fall, a spot
of heat blooming where it fell against my skin. “But
I have to watch you suffer, knowing that you
endure it for my benefit.”

“And for Cerberus,” I pointed out. “Maybe

even the Underworld itself. There have to be other
creatures here who deserve a chance at survival.”

“Yeah well, Cerberus is the type to suffer in

silence.” A brief smile touched his lips, but his eyes
remained serious. “I don’t know exactly what
Hades has planned, but I promise you it won’t be
good. And we’ll be forced to watch it all.”

Bravado puffed out my chest, even as I ignored

a spike of fear. “I’m not afraid of Hades.”

“I know what kinds of creatures have been

invited  to  this  masquerade.  Some  of  the  most
dangerous things in the Underworld will arrive here
to  drink,  dance  and  take  part  in  whatever  terrible
show  that  Hades  has  planned.  These  are  not
creatures  who  find  anything  short  of  spilled  blood
and  torn  flesh  worthy  of  their  attention.  He  must
impress them all to prove that the Underworld can
be  returned  to  its  former  glory.  And  I  will  have  to
watch,  knowing  that  I  cannot  do  anything  to  stop
even the worst of it.”

“Hades needs me alive,” I insisted, with

significantly more confidence than I actually felt.
“Whatever he’s planning to do won’t kill me.”

“But there are so many things worse than

death.” For a moment, his eyes became unfocused,
unseeing, as if he’d become lost in something other
than reality.

I wanted to call him back from whatever place

he had gone, if just because his sudden seriousness
scared  me.  Ryn  used  humor  to  hide  his  pain,  and
when  that  mechanism  failed  him,  it  meant  he  was
running out of hope. “Tell me what kinds of things I
should expect to encounter at the masquerade ball.
You  said  there  would  be  dark  creatures.  I  assume
you meant things that are worse than the daemons.”

“Worse probably depends on your perspective,”

he acknowledged. “There are more daemons in the
Underworld than anything else, but they aren’t your
worst  problem.  They’ve  always  been  too  stupid  to
organize  themselves.  The  darklings  are  the  next
largest  group  and  more  than  a  few  of  them  may
show up. Twisted souls, hellhounds, many creatures
have  called  the  Underworld  home  over  the  years
and  it’s  impossible  to  say  which  will  choose  to
make  the  journey  to  the  castle.  But  nothing  that
shows up would balk at taking a juicy piece of flesh
off you if given the chance.”

My hand fell from his face as I stared down at

him. “You’re trying to scare me.”

“I’m trying to warn you.” A heavy frown

creased his brow. “If only you were smart enough
to heed it.”

“Ryn—”
He abruptly went for the door, still refusing to

look  at  me.  “I’ll  fetch  Cerberus  in  since  you’re
dressed.  Guests  will  be  arriving  soon  and  I’m
expected  to  be  there  to  entertain  them.  I  am  the

court jester, after all.”

I had no idea what had made him so upset, but I

couldn’t think of anything to say as he strode from
the room. And I couldn’t run after him because I
needed help to get off the dais in my heavy dress if
I didn’t want to break my neck.

When Cerberus stepped into the room, all

thoughts  of  Ryn’s  mood  fled  from  my  mind  as  I
stared  at  him  in  amazement.  He  wore  a  suit  of
armor made to fit every curve and swell of muscle
in his body, making it look like he had been dipped
in  pure  silver.  He  practically  glowed  in  the
lamplight, and it was hard to tear my gaze away.

“You look amazing,” I said through a suddenly

dry mouth.

“I am nothing in the face of your beauty,” he

murmured, bowing low. There was a second sword
strapped to his back and twin daggers hooked to the
belt on either side of his hips. It looked like he was
about  to  wage  a  very  physically  attractive  war.
When  he  rose  from  the  bow  and  saw  my  gaze
lingering  on  the  extra  weapons,  his  mouth  thinned
into  a  grim  line.  “Hades  clearly  hopes  to  make  an
impression  tonight  with  a  show  of  beauty  and
strength.”

If I needed extra confirmation that Hades was

very  worried  about  something,  that  was  it.  What
could  he  possibly  hope  to  accomplish  by  dressing
us  all  to  the  nines  and  then  giving  my  bodyguard

enough weapons to outfit a small army?

Nothing fucking good, that was for sure.
Cerberus studied my face. “You seem tense. Is

there anything you require of me?”

What I really wanted him to do was wrap me up

in  his  arms  and  hold  me  like  I  was  a  child,  but  I
couldn’t exactly ask for that. And hiding in his arms
wouldn’t  actually  help  the  situation.  Eventually  I
would  have  to  leave  this  room  and  face  whatever
Hades  has  planned.  “I’m  fine.  If  you  want  to  see
tense, talk to Ryn.”

“He seemed quite determined to get away when

he  passed  me  in  the  hallway.”  Cerberus  stepped
closer  to  the  dais,  making  a  sound  like  creaking
metal  as  it  rubbed  against  stone.  He  held  out  his
hand to help me down. “Do you know the source of
his unhappiness?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. He’s been on

edge since he heard about the masquerade.”

“Perhaps there are things he knows better to

say.” This close, I realized there was something
very close to fear in the earthy brown depths of his
eyes. “The masquerade has already begun, and
Hades awaits you. Are you truly ready for this?”

The answer was obviously no, but a little more

time sure as hell wasn’t going to change that.

Chapter Seven

he Great Hall of the castle had been
transformed so dramatically that I barely
recognized

it.

Floating

lights

were

suspended in midair overhead, giving the illusion of
too bright stars hanging in the night sky against the
dark backdrop of the ceiling.

All the laughter and clinking glasses abruptly

stopped  the  moment  that  I  entered  the  room.  And
even though I kept my gaze trained in the air above
their  heads,  I  knew  I  had  become  the  center  of
attention.  Every  living  thing,  from  the  daemons
guarding  the  door  to  the  eight-foot-tall  creatures
made  of  solid  muscle  that  I  refused  to  look  at  too
closely,  stared  at  me  with  varying  degrees  of
interest.

And hunger, so thick in the air that I could

barely breathe through it.

But it was the man who separated himself from

a  crowd  of  emaciated  girls  with  translucent  skin
that  immediately  had  my  attention.  The  strange
female creatures clung to his arms. He shook them
off  and  strode  across  the  room  towards  me,  gaze
never leaving my face.

Hades came almost within arm’s reach, but

stopped  just  short.  I  hadn’t  noticed  before  how
much  taller  he  was  than  me.  This  close,  I  had  to
crane my head back uncomfortably far to look him
in  the  eye.  His  eyes  resembled  whirlpools,  light
around  the  edges  and  darkening  in  the  center.  His
power threatened to pull me in and then drown me.

And for a moment, I wanted to be sucked in

and consumed.

I pinched myself hard, using the sharp edges of

my  nails  to  bring  me  back  to  myself.  Even  if  I
didn’t  resist  him  physically,  I  had  to  keep
everything  else  out  of  his  reach.  He  couldn’t  have
my mind or my soul.

Hades held out his hand to me, an invitation

instead of his usual demand.

“My Queen. How long I’ve been waiting for

you.”

It took everything in me not to slap his hand

away and remind him for the hundredth time that I
wasn’t a princess, or his anything. But the look on
his face was too intense, too focused, for me to risk

his mood. In front of a crowd of his subjects like
this, he would be compelled to respond to any
challenge I offered with violent force.

And I’d already had a preview of what that

would be like. For now, it was better to just play
along until I figured out what the hell he was
planning to do next.

Cerberus stood at my back like a silent shadow,

ready to defend me at a moment’s notice even to
the death. But he couldn’t protect me from this and
we both knew it.

When I raised my hand, allowing Hades to take

it with his own, I couldn’t stop myself from cringing
in anticipation of the pain. But as his gloved hand
enveloped my much smaller one, I felt nothing but
the slide of supple leather against the skin of my
palm.

I wouldn’t exactly say that I enjoyed his touch,

but  I  didn’t  feel  even  the  smallest  twinge  of  pain.
Surprise  kept  me  from  resisting  as  he  pulled  me
toward the center of the room, twirling me into his
arms  in  a  move  that  probably  looked  elegant  from
afar but only left my head spinning.

There was no music. But as soon as I noticed

the  oppressive  silence,  the  first  strains  of  a  waltz
started playing, seeming to come from nowhere and
everywhere  at  once.  If  there  was  an  actual  band
playing,  I  couldn’t  see  them.  The  music  had  to  be
magical in origin.

His hand moved to my waist as Hades swept

through the first turn. I felt the pressure of it like a
cold  burn,  not  enough  to  be  painful,  but  his  touch
still  distracted  me.  We  were  the  only  couple
dancing  while  everyone  else  watched  us.  No  one
spoke or drank or did anything but stare, their gazes
trained  as  the  room  spun  around  me.  I  averted  my
eyes from the blurry faces, their narrowed eyes full
of avarice and a lust for things I’d rather not name.

But that only left one other place to look.
Hades’s face.
He stared down at me as if deeply fascinated,

his attention enough to make my skin prickle with
fear even as I felt a familiar rush of sexual heat. It
shouldn’t be possible to hate and want anyone this
much, both at the same time.

“Why isn’t anyone else dancing?” I asked,

mostly as an attempt to distract myself.

“They will, but it is customary for my subjects

to watch the first dance between their ruler and
his…my queen.”

There was another word he had planned to say

before choosing that one, but I wasn’t sure I really
wanted to know what it was. “I don’t remember
standing up on an altar and saying I do.”

“We do not follow human customs here.” A

mocking smile touched his lips, and he tilted his
head to the side in mock confusion. “Do you want
me to…I can’t remember what the humans say. Oh

yes, put a ring on it?”

“No,” I snapped. “If I ever got married, which

is unlikely, it would never be to you. Not in a
million years.”

“You wound me,” he murmured, sounding

anything  but  hurt.  The  color  of  his  eyes  shifted
from  a  frothy  blue  to  something  darker,  like  the
overcast sky before a lightning storm. “And would
you  marry  if  the  institution  appealed  to  you?
Perhaps the boy I used to lure you here. What was
his name? Vanity?”

“Adonis,” I growled, determined not to get

angry even if it was apparently what he wanted.
“And I think you know that.”

“A pretty name for such a pretty boy. He must

have girls sniffing around him like pigs searching
for truffles in the soil. I wonder how long it will
take for him to forget you and choose another one.”

“You’re a monster.” I couldn’t stop myself from

saying the words, even as I kept my voice pitched
low enough that only he heard it. Somehow, I knew
that insulting him loudly enough for anyone else to
hear would incite his ire more than anything else I
could do. “And I hate you.”

“Indeed. At least the last, I can also say of

you.”

He spun me too quickly in another turn, and I

gripped his arms to keep from toppling over. It was
only when I looked down that I realized we were

floating almost a foot off of the ground. If I
loosened my grip, there was a good chance that I
would go tumbling to the floor.

And he’d probably let me.
From so high in the air, I could see that the

room  had  been  made  even  more  impressive  than  I
originally thought. Gold shone on every surface and
fixture,  shining  brightly  in  the  light.  In  the  far
corner of the room, I swore I caught the shimmer of
crystal-clear  water,  which  made  absolutely  no
sense. On the other side of the great hall, trees and
vines  erupted  from  cracks  in  the  stone  walls  and  I
saw  movement  there,  as  if  tiny  creatures  played
within the branches.

Light bent in ways that shouldn’t have been

possible,  the  glare  enough  to  hurt  my  eyes  when  I
looked too closely at any one feature of the room.
It was as if I wasn’t meant to see anything in more
than  superficial  detail.  How  much  of  this  was  the
castle  reorganizing  itself  and  how  much  had  been
created  by  Hades?  The  magic  that  suffused  this
room  was  the  most  I’d  felt  in  the  entirety  of  the
time I’d spent in the Underworld.

“Why do I get the impression that you’re trying

very hard to impress someone, or something, and it
isn’t me? What could the great ruler of the
Underworld possibly be so worried about?”

“Hades,” he corrected, tone only a touch too

sharp. The hands he used to twirl us in circles a foot

above the dancefloor were relaxed against my
body. But something in the set of his shoulders and
the lines of tensions at the corner of his lips let me
know that I had struck a nerve. “We are playing
such a dangerous game and yet you cannot help but
stoop to the level of petty insults.”

I kept the neutral smile on my face, aware of

our audience. “Perhaps if you told me the entire
truth for once, I wouldn’t have to speculate.”

“What do I have to worry about? I assume you

consider the death or destruction of anything not
purely evil in this realm to be something worthy of
concern.”

And I realized that this was as much of an

opportunity as I might ever get. Yes, I was trapped
with him in the middle of a dance floor surrounded
by  creatures  that  shouldn’t  exist.  But  he  was  also
trapped  with  me.  He  couldn’t  show  any  emotion,
including  anger,  without  arousing  the  interest  of
everyone watching us.

“I thought you were supposed to be the most

powerful  thing  in  the  Underworld,”  I  murmured,
closely  watching  his  face.  If  there  was  actual  fear
there,  then  he  hid  it  well.  “What  could  possibly
have the strength to destroy you?”

“My power alone is no longer enough to hold

the Underworld.” He saw me open my mouth to ask
another question, but cut me off before I could get
it out. “There are some who see my need for you as

a weakness, as proof that I am unfit to rule. But if I
lose my throne, it will be on the battlefield among
rivers of blood and the stench of death.”

It was too hard to wrap my head around this.

And the gloved hand that moved along the curve of
my bare back didn’t exactly make thinking any
easier. “Someone here wants to kill you.”

“Several someones, if I my instincts are correct.

And not just me, both of us.”

“Who—”
The music changed abruptly, the tempo

increasing  in  speed.  Others  joined  us  on  the
dancefloor,  pressing  closer  than  would  have  been
polite  anywhere  in  the  human  world.  There  would
be  no  more  conversation  between  us  save  what
could be safely overheard. And I just knew he had
been about to tell me something important.

Hades guided me to the edge of the dance floor

quickly enough that I couldn’t be sure when we
transitioned from floating on the air to standing
firmly on the ground.

“I will give you some time to circulate before I

return to fetch you,” he said solemnly as he pushed
me toward Cerberus, who I got the impression had
been  less  than  a  few  feet  away  the  entire  time  we
danced. He’d probably been stalking circles around
the  dance  floor.  “Our  subjects  are  expecting  a
display  of  power.  We  must  give  it  to  them  before
this night can end.”

Hades disappeared into the crowd before I

could think of a response, or even ask him what the
hell he meant by a display of power.  At  any  other
point,  I  would  have  chased  him  down  and  insisted
on  getting  answers.  But  something  had  changed
when  I  realized  that  Hades  didn’t  necessarily  hold
all the power here.

His fear made him seem more like a person and

less like a monster.

Cerberus was watching me when I turned back

to face him. He seemed to study my face, as if
searching for something. “I’ve been instructed to
stay close to you. Lead and I will follow.”

Before I could think of a response to that,

another voice spoke up from behind me. And this
one had an obvious note of sarcasm.

“I’m willing to follow but I need to know where

we’re going first.”

Ryn appeared beside me as if he’d always been

there.

“I need a drink,” I muttered.
As if summoned by some unseen force, a

daemon appeared at my side bearing a tray full of
goblets. I took one without thinking and then stared
into the gleaming depths, wondering what sort of
drink looked like it was made of liquid gold.

I took a careful sip, and the smallest amount of

tension eased from my shoulders. “This is good.”

“Shall we make a tour?” Ryn waved the

daemon  away  with  an  annoyed  movement  of  his
hand  without  taking  a  goblet  for  himself.  “I’m
particularly interested in whatever is going on over
there.  Apparently,  the  castle  decided  to  create  a
swimming pool.”

His hand touched the small of my back as he

guided me forward, Cerberus following behind us
like an unhappy shadow.

“Are those stygian over there?” I asked, only

realizing my voice was probably too loud when Ryn
shushed me. I lowered my voice, but even I could
tell it wasn’t exactly a whisper. For some reason, I
was suddenly having problems controlling my
volume. “Is that not what they’re called?”

“They are and it is,” Ryn murmured, looking at

me a little strangely. “But it’s probably best not to
attract their attention.”

As if I had any chance of not attracting

attention at this point.

The stygian, who looked like slabs of muscle on

oversized  skeletons,  stared  us  down  as  we  passed
and I made a point of not making eye contact. But I
felt  the  weight  of  their  gazes  like  a  physical  thing
and  it  was  impossible  not  to  feel  intimidated.  Just
one of them looked strong enough to bench-press a
Buick. “They look like they want to eat me.”

“Unlikely,” Cerberus murmured, voice as

solemn as it was barely audible. “Stygian are
foragers, and almost exclusively vegetarian. They

may tear you apart, but they won’t eat the pieces
afterward.”

“Good to know,” I replied pertly. What he’d

said should have scared me more than it did. All I
could think was how nice it was to find another
creature that shared my aversion to meat.

That had to mean the alcohol was doing its job.
We bypassed the stygian quickly enough, Ryn

and  Cerberus  seemed  convinced  the  things  were
dangerous  regardless  of  their  eating  habits.  When
we  reached  the  back  of  the  room,  I  couldn’t  do
much more than stare in amazement.

It was as if part of the floor had caved in. Water

bubbled  up  to  fill  the  hole  from  some  Underworld
source  like  a  hot  spring  inside  a  cave  grotto,
creating  a  pool.  Vines  and  flowers  grew  around  it,
completely  incongruous  against  the  marble  floors.
Anywhere  else  but  the  Underworld,  I  would  have
thought  it  was  an  inviting  scene,  but  nothing  was
entirely what it seemed here.

And the pool wasn’t exactly empty.
The same skeletal women that had gathered

around Hades earlier swam under the water. Their
bodies moving so quickly that, at first, they looked
just like a school of koi fish.

The women looked different underneath the

water. Their translucent skin made them nearly
invisible against the gently lapping waves of the
pool, their bodies shiny and iridescent in a way that

mesmerized me. I’d thought them too thin above
the surface, but now their bodies moved with
impossible quickness, as if they had fins where legs
should be.

Most of them didn’t even bother to surface as

we approached. The few who did stared with eyes
that were a little too large for their faces and
seductive smiles spreading their lips wider than a
human’s could ever go.

But there was something strangely alluring in

those smiles, and it was difficult to tear my gaze
away.

“Are we going for a swim?” I asked.
Ryn scoffed, but it was Cerberus who gripped

my arm as if to hold me back.

“These are wraiths,” he said.
I couldn’t keep the confusion off my face.

“So.”

“I believe they are also called sirens in your

world.”

Sirens. As in the mythical creatures who sat up

on  jagged  rocks  and  sang  enchanting  songs  to  lure
ships  into  changing  course  and  crashing.  Stories
varied  on  whether  they  had  been  beautiful  or
monstrous,  took  the  appearance  of  mermaids  or
human  women.  But  regardless,  their  intent  was
always  to  collect  the  souls  of  men  lost  at  sea
because of the deadly lure they cast.

“If I get in the water, will they try to kill me?”

Cerberus made an almost amused sound in his

throat, but his hand stayed firmly wrapped around
my wrist just in case I got any ideas. “Among other
things.”

The nearest wraith swam closer to the edge of

the pool. She came out of the water enough that I
could see she was naked from the waist down
before her arms rose to rest on the rocky ledge and
shielded the rest of her from view.

“Goddess,” she hissed the word in a way that

sent shivers of awareness skittering down my spine.
“Bring her closer. Let me look at her.”

“This is Maeve,” Ryn whispered softly as he

leaned over my shoulder. “She is the High Wraith,
their queen in other words.”

A daemon passed by with a full tray, and I

grabbed another drink. As soon as the liquid hit my
tongue,  it  was  easier  to  confront  the  wraith  with
razor-sharp teeth and an aggressive smile. The gold
wine  didn’t  remind  me  of  anything  I’d  ever  tasted
before,  and  I  wanted  more  of  it.  I  wasn’t  exactly
getting  drunk,  but  with  each  sip  my  head  felt
lighter.  It  was  getting  harder  to  understand  what
had made me so afraid before.

I approached the pool but stayed well out of

reach. I didn’t trust Maeve not to yank me into the
water. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Is it really?” Maeve swam backward, her chest

floating above the water so the globes of her

breasts were fully on display. Her smile widened
when I forced myself not to look away from her.
“You’re not like what I remember.”

“That’s because I’m not what you remember.

I’m something else,” I admitted, watching her eyes
shift in the light. It was only as she glided closer
that I realized her eyes were entirely black, without
even the whites of an iris, like some sort of bizarre
eye condition. “My name is Seph.”

“You should have another drink, my dear

Seph.”

There was another daemon servant standing

beside me, not even the same one as before, with a
full tray in its hand. I couldn’t even remember
putting down the last empty goblet, and I tried hard
to recall what I had done with it as I stared down at
my hands.

Had I set the drink down somewhere and

simply forgotten, or had it disappeared from my
hand like it was magicked away? It didn’t make any
sense that I hadn’t noticed before. But that was the
nature of magic, after all.

But why couldn’t I remember?
It was only when I brought a fresh goblet to my

lips  and  drank  that  I  realized  I  must  have  taken
another  from  the  tray.  Liquid  slid  down  my  throat
in  a  mouth-tingling  burst  of  sugar  and  heat.  Each
sip  tasted  slightly  different  from  the  previous  one,
the  first  reminded  me  of  strawberries  and  the  next

left a hint of cinnamon in my mouth.

“This stuff is really good,” I said.
Maeve made an amused sound as she accepted

her own goblet from the daemon servant. “Indeed.”

Ryn leaned into my shoulder. His lips pressed

close enough to my ear that his breath tickled along
my skin as he spoke, making me shiver. “Perhaps
we should continue to circulate.”

I stumbled as I tried to turn around, gripping

Cerberus’s arm with my free hand. It was suddenly
way more difficult than it should have been to put
one foot in front of the other. The lights floating
around me were fuzzy around the edges and too
bright in my vision.

“How are these lights so pretty?” I breathed,

reaching out to touch one. My breath exhaled in a
gasp when my fingers passed through a glowing
circle. Ryn caught me as I stumbled forward.
“What are they made of?”

“Magic,” he replied shortly.
He had a strange expression on his face, it

looked like equal parts concern and dread.

“Are you okay?” My tongue felt too thick

inside of my mouth. I couldn’t help but slur the
words.

He just shook his head. “I will be, eventually. I

hope.”

It confused me when he took a step back, his

arm slipping away from my waist. I opened my

mouth to protest, but then nothing came out. And a
moment later, I couldn’t remember what it was I
wanted to say.

Then I blinked and someone was standing

directly in front of me, but it wasn’t Ryn.

As he stared down at me, Hades’s smile was

brighter  than  I’d  ever  seen  it,  enough  to  put  the
noonday  sun  to  shame.  I  couldn’t  help  but  smile
back,  even  though  I  had  no  idea  what  we  were  so
happy about.

He held the rim of a goblet to my lips and

tipped it up high enough that I had no choice but to
drink the golden liquid or drown in it. This time the
drink tasted like contentment, like acceptance. It
burned down my throat to settle in a warm ball at
the center of my chest.

I wanted to feel this way for as long as possible.
Cerberus still stood behind me, but his hands

slowly fell away until he no longer kept a steadying
grip on my arms. Without his touch, with no one
touching me, I felt strangely bereft. I was alone on
the island of my body and that couldn’t be how it
was supposed to be.

I wanted to be touched.
I needed it.
For a moment, I felt a kindred understanding

for drug addicts who would do literally anything for
their next fix. The unfamiliar need was like an itch
under my skin that no amount of scratching could

reach. I couldn’t call it painful, not after all the
other things I’d experienced in the Underworld, but
it was a discomfort so profound that there were
many things I’d do to relieve it.

I was too far gone to notice the satisfied smile

on Hades’s face, but I would remember it later.

Firm flesh that was too warm to the touch

coasted under my hand, hairs so fine that they were
invisible  tickled  the  tips  of  my  fingers.  I  traced  a
path  upwards  to  find  that  I  was  stroking  the  patch
of bare skin in the hollow of Hades’s throat where
the  top  button  of  his  linen  shirt  had  been  left
undone.

My first thought was that I didn’t remember

deciding to touch him. And the second was that this
was the only time our bare skin had come into
direct contact and some sort of pain hadn’t
accompanied the touch.

In fact, I felt the opposite of pain as my fingers

played against his heated flesh.

His smile widened as he watched me. For a

moment, I saw in his eyes what it might look like to
be loved by Hades, instead of despised. But the
emotion was gone as soon as I realized I would miss
it.

“Are you ready?” he asked, voice wrapping

around me like a physical thing.

It took several tries for me to find the words

through the muddle of my thoughts. “Ready for

Chapter Eight

ur silent audience parted as if they
responded to some unseen signal. With
each step I took, the floating lights above

us dimmed. When we reached the center of the
room, the light was low enough that I couldn’t see
much more than Hades’s face swimming in my
vision.

Hades pulled me toward him, as we stopped

next to a flat table that had been covered with a
white sheet. He did not stop pulling until my body
was flush against his and he bent to whisper in my
ear.

“Are you ready?”
“No,” I replied promptly.
He only laughed in response.
Hades helped me to climb up on the table,

although insisted might have been a better word for
it. No words passed between us, but I felt the heavy
pressure of his hands on my skin. In the next
moment I laid face-up on the table as distant stars
and barely visible lights swam across my vision.

Distantly, I wondered if I should resist him, but

that seemed like such a ridiculous notion when
nothing bad was happening. I saw Cerberus on the
edge of the crowd, standing at attention with a long
sword held against his side. It was as if his presence
marked the demarcation for a line that could not be
crossed.

That made me feel safer, even though fear felt

like too distant of an emotion for me to worry about
right now. Instead, I felt other things like
anticipation and a longing so deep that I could
drown in it.

Hades spoke to the assembled crowd as he

stood over my prone form. It was hard to keep up
with what he was saying, my mind moving so much
more slowly than he could speak. I heard him
welcome them all once again and promise a return
of the magic that so many of them had lost.

My attention did not shift from the now

impossibly black ceiling until a knife appeared in
his hand.

Fear spiked through me at the same time that I

realized I couldn’t move. Hades must have noticed
the panic on my face, because he stroked gentle

fingers down my cheek. My head would have
shifted closer to him if I’d had any control over my
body, but I didn’t. I couldn’t do much more than
blink up at him, confused and afraid.

He had removed the gloves at some point and

the feel of his bare skin on mine was like slipping
under the water of a warm bath. I closed my eyes
as I imagined the gently lapping waves carrying me
away.

The first slice of the blade didn’t cause me any

pain. I didn’t even realize I’d been cut until he
lifted the knife into the air and I saw that its edge
glinted with the bright red of blood.

My blood.
It took significantly too much effort to turn my

head.  And  when  I  did,  I  saw  that  the  arm  hanging
over  the  side  of  the  table  nearest  him  bore  a  long
red line. Blood welled in the surface of the cut. As I
watched,  it  dripped  from  the  wound  and  fell  to
splatter  on  the  stone  floor,  startling  red  against  the
white and gold.

The blood continued to run along the floor as I

watched,  as  if  it  was  being  pulled  by  some  unseen
force.  It  left  a  glowing  trail  in  its  wake.  I  had  a
moment  of  fascination  before  it  hit  home  for  me
that it was my blood pooling on the floor.

It still didn’t hurt, at least not yet.
I should fight this, I realized. The calmness that

suffused every cell of my being was a lie. A trick.

There was no logical reason for me to be putting up
with this.

But when Hades lowered his mouth to my still

bleeding  skin  and  licked  that  fresh  wound,  I
momentarily forgot why I would ever want to fight.
His  tongue  probed  the  fine  edges  of  the  cut  in  a
way  that  would  have  normally  been  more
appropriate for a different type of flesh. The rough
lathing should have hurt, I knew that, but I felt the
muscles  clench  deep  in  my  belly  with  each  stroke
of  his  tongue.  It  was  pleasure  where  there  should
have been pain.

And there wasn’t enough of my mind left to

question it.

I angled my head to face the gathered crowd,

the movement taking what little strength I had left.
Their  faces  blurred  in  my  vision.  There  were
daemons here and a stygian there. Wraiths rose out
of  the  pool  to  creep  closer  to  where  my  blood
coated  the  floor,  long  tongues  licking  out  of  their
mouths.

One face stood out from the rest. Cerberus still

stood  in  front  of  the  crowd  like  a  soldier,  a  knight
Templar who would stand to the last man in a losing
battle  because  death  was  preferable  to  dishonor.
But  he  turned  his  head  away  as  Hades’s  mouth
moved  over  the  fragile  skin  of  my  wrist,  as  if  he
couldn’t bear to see it.

He was ashamed of me.

That realization was enough to make me aware

of  the  pain  as  my  eyes  squeezed  closed.  All  the
magic  and  liquor  in  the  world  wasn’t  enough  to
fight  the  disgust  that  I  saw  in  his  eyes.  My  wrist
ached  where  it  had  been  sliced  with  the  knife  and
the  roughness  of  Hades’s  tongue  abrading  the
wound,  pain  spiked  through  me  without  the
slightest bit of pleasure to temper it.

The white table cloth underneath me was

soaked in splashes of red, all of it from my blood.
Suddenly, that seemed like so much more than I
could bear.

I screamed from the pain that crashed into me

all at once.

The crowd erupted in laughter and applause, as

if it were just another part of the show.

My hands shifted the smallest amount off the

table as I fought the invisible bonds keeping me in
place. I needed to get away. It made no sense, but
somehow, I had the idea that if I stayed here on this
table that I would never come back from wherever
Hades planned to take me.

When I stared out at the crowd, Cerberus still

held them at bay, but he seemed further away. I
wanted him next to me, touching me in a way that
would chase some of the pain away.

But when my lips parted, I didn’t have enough

breath left to speak. There was no way to
communicate how much I needed him.

I heard the slice of the knife through the fabric

of my dress and then felt the cool rush of air across
my overheated skin. Pieces of fabric floated down
to the floor where they had been sliced into ribbons
by the knife. But I didn’t even care that he had
bared me to the world.

Because along with the pain came fear.
Hades stood over the table with a blood-stained

knife in his hands. The crowd watched us as if he
were about to cut into succulent Thanksgiving
turkey with a carving knife.

And maybe he was.
Suddenly

was

hyperventilating.

shimmering  blood  than  should  have  been  available
in  my  body  spread  out  on  the  floor  around  the
table.  I  didn’t  believe  that  all  of  it  could  be  mine,
but  there  was  no  one  else  being  cut  up  here.
Daemons  knelt  on  the  ground  at  the  edge  of  the
crow,  swiping  their  hands  along  the  floor  and
licking their fingers clean, making their mouths look
red and shining.

My arms struggled to rise against whatever

force kept me trapped on the table. A high-keening
sound assaulted my ears, the cry of a wounded
animal, and it was only as my throat ached that I
realized it was coming from me.

I was going to die like this.
A face filled my fading vision.
Hades smiled at me even as sadness filled his

gaze. The side of my head pressed so hard into the
table  that  I  felt  the  rough  weave  of  the  tablecloth
against  my  skin.  He  cupped  my  cheek  gently,
hesitantly, as if even he questioned the decision he
was  making  to  intervene.  The  touch  of  his  skin  on
mine  made  me  think  of  a  newborn  kitten  being
licked  by  its  mother  or  being  wrapped  in  a  heavy
blanket  next  to  a  roaring  fire  on  a  winter  night.  It
was  pure  comfort,  the  most  comforting  thing  that
I’d ever experienced in my life.

The pain remained even when he touched me.

But it was less acute, as if I didn’t have to care
about it as much anymore, even though I still knew
I was experiencing it.

It didn’t make any sense
His face shifted away, attention momentarily

drawn from me. I heard sharp voices over my head,
as  if  they  were  arguing.  But  I  couldn’t  understand
what  was  being  said  and  barely  had  the  energy  to
remain  conscious,  much  less  care.  Hades’s  hand
shifted  away  for  just  a  moment,  breaking  the
contact  between  his  skin  and  mine.  Agony  came
rushing back over me like the lick of flames against
my flesh. I couldn’t stop myself from crying out.

Hades’s face filled my vision as his hand

returned to my cheek. The pain immediately eased
enough that I could breathe again. This close his
eyes reminded me of cut diamonds being held up to
the sun, so light reflected from each facet in shades

of the entire rainbow.

Those eyes closed as he leaned closer.
When he kissed me, it chased the last of the

pain away on a rush of euphoria. His mouth tasted
like  the  golden  liquid  that  had  been  in  my  goblet,
sweet  and  sharp  at  the  same  time.  I  tried  to  chase
that  realization  because  it  felt  important,  but  it
floated  away  with  the  awareness  that  it  was
Hades’s  mouth  moving  over  mine.  And  then  that
was the only thing I could focus on.

He kissed me like it was a gift, giving

everything  while  expecting  nothing  in  return.  His
hand  cradled  my  cheek  gently,  with  only  the
lightest pressure, as if he held something he thought
would  shatter  in  his  hands  if  he  used  too  much
force.  It  made  me  feel  like  some  precious  thing,
more than just a means to an end.

And when he broke the kiss and pulled back

enough to see my face, I realized that he had kissed
me like he loved me.

The silver of a knife blade glinted in the corner

of  my  vision  and  came  down.  It  sliced  into  flesh
that I knew was my own, so deep that there was the
white  of  bone  in  the  wound.  But  I  didn’t  feel  the
pain  of  it  like  I  should  have,  and  I  watched  as  if  I
saw  it  all  happening  to  someone  else.  This  wasn’t
my trauma, at least not in that moment.

Things would likely seem very different

tomorrow.

More blood spilled, the pool of it spreading

further to coat the floor in a thick pool. The crowd
pressed closer to reach the edges of the growing
circle of glowing red. They fought to reach it first,
coating their hands and bringing it to their faces to
draw patterns with it on their skin.

Everywhere I looked I saw the shine of my own

blood.

Blood-stained fingers entered the periphery of

my vision as Hades brought his hand, the same one
responsible for all this damage, to my face. He
stroked the jut of my lower lip, leaving a streak of
blood behind as he pulled away, its coppery scent
sharp in my nostrils.

My lips trembled as I tried not to fold them into

my mouth and lick the blood away, even as I had
no idea where the urge had come from. But it was a
losing battle, I had no choice but to taste it.

Power surged through the room, choking out

the  very  air  and  making  it  impossible  to  breathe.
Everything and everyone gleamed, even things that
my  blood  couldn’t  possibly  have  touched.  I  heard
the  gathered  crowd  react,  screeching  and  howling
as the magic burst over them in a rush stronger than
any drug.

Pressure built inside of my chest, finally putting

me back in touch with my body. And then I could
feel everything again, not just the painful pricks of
magic on my skin but the open wounds on my arms

so deep that the knife must have struck bone. Deep
enough to leave me bled dry.

Pain and magic built higher and higher until it

was possible to know which sensation was more
excruciating. I couldn’t do anything to escape from
it, not even lift my hand up enough to scrub the
sickly tang of blood from my mouth. Very quickly,
it became too much to bear.

I screamed as the world broke into pieces and

collapsed around me.

floated in a place between sleeping and
awaking. My body felt suspended, like I
drifted through the blackness of space without

the force of gravity to bring me back to earth.
Peace and calm suffused my mind, as if I only
existed in that dream-like place where nothing bad
could touch me.

Then I realized that I wasn’t drifting through

the vastness of space, but floating in water that was
almost exactly the same temperature as the
surrounding air. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if I
hadn’t opened my eyes and seen waves lapping
against my breasts.

My naked breasts because my dress was long

gone.

And I wasn’t alone.
I was being held against someone’s bare chest,

the  skin  only  slightly  warmer  than  the  tepid  water
that  surrounded  us.  A  slim  but  muscular  arm
wrapped  around  my  waist  was  all  that  kept  my
head above the bubbling water.

Eyes caked with gunk, I blinked against the

light that hurt more than it should have considering
the near darkness. I was still in the great hall, but
the room was entirely empty even of the contingent
of daemon guards who usually held up the walls. I
floated in the water of the grotto that the castle
must have seen fit to leave opened within the floor.
Luckily, the wraiths had apparently left, along with
everyone else.

Well, not everyone else.
I craned my neck to see that it was Hades

cradling me against his chest. His eyes were closed
as his head rested against the side of the pool. But
despite the gentle rise and fall of his chest, I knew
that he was very much awake. I didn’t want to
break the fragile peace, but I couldn’t stop myself
from speaking.

“What happened?” I croaked.
“You don’t remember?” His voice was mild, but

I felt the muscles of his chest tense underneath me.

“I’m getting very tired of people asking me that

question.”

Memory wasn’t a reliable thing in the

Underworld. It never matched up to the reality I
saw before my eyes. I looked down at my arms, my
view of them hazy and wavering underneath the
water.

I remembered being sliced open, deep enough

to cut through muscle and tendon, all the way to
the bone.

I remembered bleeding enough that it coated

the floor, more of it spilling than should have
existed in my body.

I remembered pain, so excruciating that it

seemed like I could die from it.

But when I raised my arms out of the water and

inspected them under the meager light, my skin was
perfect and unbroken. There were no wounds, not
so much as a scratch. I felt no pain. In fact, I didn’t
feel anything at all aside from confusion and a
persistent calm.

My memory was fucked.
When I tried to turn and look more fully at him,

Hades’s arm at my waist arrested the movement.
For some reason, I got the impression that he didn’t
want me looking him in the eye. “Just tell me what
happened.”

His voice rumbled against my back. “We

proved to our subjects that I possess the power to
rule them.”

I shifted my hips lower in the water to raise my

head, which pressed more of my backside against

him. It was only then that I realized Hades was also
naked under the water. That froze my thoughts and
made it impossible to focus on anything else.

Pressed this close against him, I could tell he

wasn’t particularly happy to see me. It shouldn’t
have bothered me, considering the circumstances,
but it did.

My voice came out in a near-whisper. “How did

we end up here?”

“The water has healing properties. For all their

savagery, wraiths are closely connected to the
earth.” Hades shifted his hips the smallest degree,
the movement probably involuntary. “This spring is
fed directly from their grotto, at least for as long as
it lasts. I wondered what the castle was thinking by
bringing it here, but it’s useful now.”

He had to know that the actual question I was

asking was why he was here with me, but
deliberately chose not to answer it.

“I’m not hurt and I should be.”
“The grotto—”
“I mean mentally. Even before you touched me,

I  was  way  calmer  than  I  should  have  been.”  I
twisted  in  his  arms,  trying  to  look  him  in  the  eye.
“That  golden  drink  the  daemons  served.  I  tasted  it
on your lips, but you never had a drop.”

His eyes closed, and he let out a sigh. “What do

you want from me, Seph?”

“Tell me about the drink.”

His gaze slid from mine as he stared at the air

above my head, obviously trying to avoid looking
me in the eye. “There are many tricks a god learns
as centuries past, including how to create an elixir
that takes away pain.”

“You knew that you had to cut me up and just

how  much  it  would  hurt.”  I  grabbed  his  face  with
both  hands  and  forced  him  to  look  at  me  when  he
would  have  turned  away.  “But  instead  of  warning
me, you plied me with magical roofies so I wouldn’t
experience  the  pain.  And  then  you  touched  me,
kissed me, when that wasn’t enough. Why?”

His diamond eyes shone with some indefinably

emotion. “What answer would satisfy you?”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt. There was

anger  there,  obviously.  He  could  have  told  me  his
plan,  let  me  prepare  myself.  I  wanted  to  assume
that Hades had kept the truth to himself because he
wanted  me  to  suffer.  But  I  didn’t  understand  what
impulse  drove  him  to  alleviate  the  pain  that  he
caused. And I needed to understand.

My hands still cupped his face as my body

practically straddled his. With his eyes open, he had
no choice but to look at me. “Tell me why.”

He exhaled on a long sigh. “I had to do what

was  required,  but  I  knew  it  would  only  cause  you
more  distress  to  know  the  details.  Without  that
display of power, I cannot guarantee your safety in
the  Underworld.  And  I  feared  that  if  I  told  you

what was in the goblet…”

“You thought I wouldn’t take it.” The

realization made me look away from him because I
couldn’t take seeing that raw emotion in his eyes.
“You thought I would choose to deal with the pain
without help. And the last time you left a choice up
to me, it led to my suffering. So, you made the
choice for me.”

His expression was blank, but I sensed the

chaos of emotion that he kept hidden. “The pain I
visited on you saved you from something far
greater and I do not think you would have made the
choice willingly. Was I wrong?”

“Consent is a thing, you know.” I couldn’t

decide  if  I  was  angry  or  not.  Hades’s  attempt  at
shielding  me  from  pain  was  almost  sweet,  in  a
completely  inappropriate  way.  “If  you  had  just
wanted to fuck me, would you have drugged me for
that,  too?  There’s  a  word  for  that,  you  know.  It’s
called rape.”

A stricken expression crossed his face before

the familiar mask descended. “I only meant…”

My hand over his mouth silenced whatever he

was going to say next. “Never take a choice away
from me again, even if you think you’re just trying
to help. And no more hiding things. I want to know
everything you know, even if it’s bad.”

“I won’t,” he said solemnly, voice muffled

because I still had my hand pressed over his mouth.

“And thank you.”
His eyebrows shot up his forehead. “You’re

thanking me?”

“I agreed to stay here, to help you save the

Underworld.  And  you  tried  to  spare  me  more  pain
than  was  necessary.  But  I  want  honesty  and  I  will
burn  this  realm  to  the  ground  if  you  lie  to  me
again.”

“I will promise you honesty,” he said solemnly.

His lip quirked with dry amusement. “Even when I
know it will bring you no pleasure.”

The word pleasure hung in the air between us

like  a  physical  thing.  My  naked  body  settled  over
his  under  the  water,  and  my  legs  parted  over  his
thighs.  Even  the  slightest  movement  of  his  hips
would  bring  him  into  contact  with  the  overheated
flesh between my thighs.

My thoughts immediately turned to the dream

I’d had of the two of us together. I told myself that
he wasn’t what I wanted, but my body seemed very
ready to disagree.

And I inexplicably wanted to press closer to

him. Even though there was no more physical pain,
his touch was the closest thing to comfort that I had
ever experienced in the Underworld. His touch
didn’t just chase away the pain in my body, but the
kind in my heart as well.

“The magic isn’t gone,” he whispered, voice

almost awed.

“No, it isn’t.”
I kissed him with the same mess of emotions

that had me vacillating between anger and desire. It
mattered that he had lied to me, tricked me. But it
also meant something that he had tried so hard to
keep me from hurting.

This was the softest that I had ever seen him, as

if he’d forgotten for a moment how much we hated
each other.

There was a sense of wonder in his response to

me, as if he couldn’t quite believe that I hadn’t
shoved him away or refused to speak to him again.
Hades kissed me back, but it was a hesitant thing,
as if he expected me to change my mind about it at
any moment.

But there was nothing hesitant in the way his

body arched against mine under the water. Large
hands settled at the small of my back, urging my
hips to rock against him. His hardening cock flexed
against my ass, sending a shiver of awareness over
me.

It would be impossible to explain to him that his

touch  chased  all  the  bad  things  away,  at  least
temporarily.  If  I  couldn’t  tell  him,  at  least  I  could
show  him  how  much  having  him  here  and  alive
meant to me.

My fingers teased along his chest, tangling in

the nipple rings that it took me way too long to
remember were there. I pulled slightly on one of

them, and he released a gratified groan into my
mouth.

The line between pleasure and pain just kept

getting murkier.

“Another few seconds,” he gasped into my

mouth, grinding his hips so he rubbed himself
against the cleft of my ass. “And I won’t be able to
stop this.”

“Then don’t.”
His grip on my waist tightened as he lifted

slightly more of my body out of the water so my
entrance was poised at the very tip of him. “When
the magic lifts, my anger at you will return.”

I stared up at him with hazy eyes. “Mine too.”
Without waiting for him to voice anymore

doubts, I forced my hips down. Water rushed inside
me along with him, wringing a surprised gasp from
my throat.

How had I never tried sex under water before?
“Does it hurt?” he asked with his lips pressed

against the skin of my neck.

“No…I don’t think anything could. Not right

now.”

Heat spread along my skin as if the surrounding

water got hotter with each thrust. Strong hands
gripped my hips, stopping me from sinking down on
him again. I made a frustrated sound as my gaze
flew to his.

His grip on my waist tightened, fingers digging

hard into the skin. It would have been painful if not
for the magic surrounding us. He forced me down
onto him while thrusting up hard with his hips, the
movement sending a wave of water crashing over
the side of the pool to soak the floor.

Any capacity for complex thought fled as he

fucked me with single-minded intent. I wondered
distantly if he was trying to leave a metaphysical
mark on me, claim a piece of my soul so I wouldn’t
forget all about him when the magic faded and we
both returned to reality.

His hands moved over me with a familiarity that

was  as  arousing  as  it  was  confusing.  The  attention
he paid to every emotion that crossed my face and
gasping  breath  I  took,  that  was  the  behavior  of  a
man  who  had  been  waiting  for  something  a  very
long time.

Like he had been waiting for me, for a very

long time.

His touch didn’t just take away the bad

thoughts, but also the doubt and fear, all the
emotions that would inevitably come crashing over
me as soon as I climbed out of the water.

But not yet.
I groaned as he shifted my hips so that his

hardened cock rubbed against the front of my
channel, hitting that spot that sent pleasure spiraling
even higher.

“Oh, God…”

“There are so many of those,” he murmured in

my ear. “I am only one of them.”

If there were a sex deity, Hades would

definitely be in the running. He fucked like it was
the most important thing in the world, watching me
closely for every reaction so the depth and position
of each thrust brought the maximum amount of
pleasure.

My hands pushed into the silk of his hair,

marveling at the softness of the strands. Everything
about him was the strangest mix of softness and
hardness. I desperately wanted to memorize every
detail.

But there was a wicked grin on his face that

didn’t match the tortured look in his eyes.

Before I could think too much about that, he

captured my lips in another searing kiss.

I braced my hands on his shoulders as he

moved  my  hips  in  a  rhythm  that  was  too  hard  and
fast for me to manage on my own. His flesh swelled
impossibly  large  inside  of  me,  the  sensation  so
intense that I almost couldn’t take it. He felt thicker
and  harder  than  should  have  been  possible.  I
wondered  if  he  could  do  other  impossible  things
with his body than make it appear and disappear at
will.  The  stretch  was  enough  to  rob  me  of  the
ability  to  breathe  and  I  exhaled  in  panting  gasps,
feeling suddenly lightheaded.

My channel spasmed around him in reaction to

his assault and he let out a low groan, glowing eyes
drifting closed. But I wanted to see him, and I
wanted him to see me.

“Open your eyes,” I gasped as my arms

wrapped around his neck. “Look at me.”

Those luminous eyes made me feel like I was

drowning in violet light, so bright it was nearly
blinding. I felt myself falling into him as if my soul
had been freed from my body. It had to be the
magic, but I imagined that it was more than just our
bodies coming together. My very spirit merged with
his, as if our bodies barely existed at all.

Hades did what I asked, not breaking eye

contact  with  me  even  as  the  thrust  of  his  hips
became harder and faster. I was in a position to be
riding  him,  but  that  wasn’t  how  this  worked.  He
had  taken  control  of  my  body  in  every  way  that
mattered as he moved me the way he wanted.

The eye contact was what made it too much. I

saw things in the glow of his gaze that I was never
mean to see.

Passion. Heartache. The finest bit of rage. And

maybe even…love.

My hips jerked against his hold, involuntary

movements that I had no control over as the
pleasure spiraled higher. Small, desperate sounds
came from my throat and I didn’t have control over
that either.

I hadn’t exactly assumed that this would just be

sex, but that’s because I didn’t think about the
consequences of it at all. This had been about
doing, not thinking. But now, I knew the look in his
eyes would be seared into my vision even once we
were done.

He might never say it and perhaps nothing

about how he treated me would change, but I
wouldn’t be able to pretend that I hadn’t seen it.

Hades loved me.
Maybe as much as he hated me.
As his hands skimmed down my thighs and

forced me down onto him, it finally sent me over
the edge into spine-bending orgasm, I knew I could
love him, too.

And God help us both.

“T

Chapter Nine

here’s a bridge!”

I said it aloud, but in an annoyed

whisper that wouldn’t have been

audible to anyone else. No one had spoken in the
hour since we left the palace.

That treacherous boat ride across the inland sea

to  reach  the  castle  was  a  recent  enough  memory
that  thinking  about  it  still  sent  a  shiver  of  fear  up
my  spine.  From  the  moment  that  Hades  informed
me  we  would  venture  out  into  the  Underworld,
crossing the sea on some rickety boat had been the
part I dreaded most.

Except we weren’t crossing the sea by boat, but

on foot across a massive bridge that stretched so far
into the fog that it was impossible to see all the way
to the other side. Still terrifying, especially when

water  splashed  against  the  stone  piers  beneath  us
and  I  wondered  what  might  be  hiding  beneath  the
flat  waves.  But  nowhere  near  as  bad  as  the  boat
would  have  been.  At  least  the  bridge  felt  solid
beneath  us,  not  rocking  back  and  forth  with  every
wave in a way that made me want to puke.

Hades wasn’t even making me walk, instead I

rode  in  an  open  carriage  being  pulled  by  a  black
horse.  That  did  make  the  crossing  a  little  worse,
because  I  sat  high  enough  to  see  over  the  sides  of
the bridge to the dark water down below. Every so
often,  large  shadows  gliding  just  under  the  surface
that seemed to be tracking our progress. Something
down there was hungry and eager. Anything edible
that  entered  that  water  would  not  be  coming  out
again.

But at least we weren’t in a damn boat.
I desperately wanted to ask if this bridge had

been here before, but didn’t want to break my self-
instituted vow of silence. I wasn’t sure which
option would be worse, taking that boat ride when
we didn’t have to or the idea that the Underworld
could change itself in such a fundamental way.

Or maybe it had just been Hades screwing with

me.

The moment he had slipped out of that pool, we

had gone right back to hating each other

I continued to steal glances down at my arms,

covered now by a heavy fur as I rode in the

carriage. Each time I pulled them out and looked at
the  skin,  I  couldn’t  quite  believe  that  there  wasn’t
so  much  as  a  mark  there.  The  image  of  that  knife
coming  down  was  burned  into  the  back  of  my
eyelids.

Not even a scar remained. It didn’t matter how

much  healing  power  was  in  that  water,  that
shouldn’t  have  been  enough  to  knit  flesh  together
so  entirely  that  there  wasn’t  so  much  as  a  scratch
left  behind.  I  wanted  to  demand  an  explanation
from Hades, but that would involve talking to him.

And I sure as shit wasn’t going to do that.
Only the three of us were making this journey.

Hades seemed wary of the daemons who served as
his  guards,  although  I  knew  better  than  to  ask  him
about  it.  So  there  wasn’t  any  buffer  between  me
and  them,  not  even  a  handmaiden  to  talk  with
about fabric patterns.

The first few hours passed in near silence.

Cerberus ambled beside the carriage in the shape of
a three-headed dog. We hadn’t yet left the interior
region of the Underworld nearest the castle, but
clearly, he still expected some kind of trouble. Ryn
walked on the other side, his daggers in his hands.

Hades rode ahead of us on a white horse with a

shimmering  mane  and  tail  that  looked  like  bits  of
glitter  were  caught  in  the  hairs.  His  body  blocked
my  view,  but  when  he  had  mounted  the  horse,  I
could  have  sworn  that  I  saw  a  bony  protuberance

from its head that glowed ever so slightly under the
moonlight.

I was resisting the urge to punch him in the

back of his stupid head. Only the memory of that
mind-blowing orgasm kept me from doing it.

I desperately wanted to ask if he was riding a

damned unicorn, but I wasn’t willingly going to talk
to him. And I would not give in on that point, even
if it meant not getting a closer look at my favorite
magical creature ever.

But after another hour passed, I’d finally had

enough.

“I’m going to throw myself out of this carriage

if someone doesn’t say something. Literally
anything.”

Ryn made a sound that almost sounded like a

laugh, although his face was carefully blank when i
looked down at him.

“This is funny to you?” I snapped.
“Hobs will laugh all the way to the gallows,”

Ryn murmured from the ground beside me. “What
else but laughter will ease the soul in the darkest
times?”

“Except we’re not exactly on our way to the

gallows,” I pointed out testily. “And I’m really
struggling to see the point of a jester that isn’t
making anyone laugh.”

“Would you like to hear a joke?”
“My entire life is a joke. So, no thank you.”

Ryn choked on a laugh that he swallowed back

as Hades slowed his horse and fell back enough to
ride beside me.

This close, I could see that he was definitely

riding a horse with a foot-long silvery and
incandescent horn growing out of its forehead.

“Holy shit,” I gasped. “Is that a unicorn?”
Hades looked at me like I was a complete and

utter buffoon. “I do not see what else it could
possibly be.”

“What is a unicorn doing in the Underworld.”
“Unicorns are creatures of pure magic,” he

replied testily. “They go wherever they wish.”

“You don’t have to be an ass about it. They

don’t exactly have these where I come from.”

I reached out to touch the glowing horn that

looked like it had been carved out of silver, the
color shifting like liquid mercury.

Hades grabbed my wrist when my hand was still

inches away. I opened my mouth to shout at him,
but his grip immediately loosened and he let me go.

“Unicorn horns are like the edge of razor on the

tips. Never touch them there.” He guided my hand
lower,  to  the  base  of  the  horn  that  was  nestled  in
tufts  of  shimmering  mane.  “Touch  it  here,  instead.
Watch the ridges because they can be sharp to cut
through skin. The horn is a protrusion of bone that
connects  to  the  spine.  They  bend  their  necks  and
use it to impale prey.”

My gaze flew to his as I gently stroked the horn.

“Prey? They don’t eat berries or rainbow ice
cream, or something like that.”

“Unicorns are carnivores. They consume a diet

of exclusively fresh meat.” He almost looked
amused as I snatched my hand away. “Mine is well-
trained, but I suggest you avoid any wild ones.
They prefer daemon meat, but anything bloody will
do.”

This was the Underworld, not a Lisa Frank

poster. I wasn’t sure why I ever thought anything
here could be nice or sweet. Unicorns with razor
sharp horns who hunted daemons were pretty much
in line with everything else I understood about this
place.

My attention moved back to Hades, who

stroked  the  unicorn’s  mane  with  what  almost
looked  like  fondness.  He  wore  a  slightly  more
rugged  outfit  than  normal,  sturdy  pants  for  riding
and  a  thick  doublet  over  his  shirt,  although  still
done  all  in  white.  My  gaze  moved  to  his  chest
because  I  refused  to  meet  his  eyes  and  that  was
when  I  noticed  that,  instead  of  the  usual  gold,  his
shirt  had  been  embroidered  with  patterns  of  dark
red.

Except the longer I stared, the more I realized it

wasn’t embroidery at all.

The red was drops of blood.
I wasn’t going to ask why he was covered in

bits of blood, because I didn’t really want to know
the answer.

When my gaze rose again to his face, Hades’s

mouth had thinned into an unhappy line. He
abruptly spurred his unicorn mount faster until it
was even with the black horse pulling the carriage.

“I hope you’re done sniping like a fishwife,

because  soon  we  will  be  in  the  wilder  parts  of  the
Underworld.”  Hades  narrowed  his  eyes  at  me.  “I
would  suggest  you  save  any  further  arguments  for
later.”

His words made me feel like a child being

chastised.

“Stay here with the queen,” Hades said, his

gaze taking in Ryn. “If any harm comes to her, I
will hang you upside down and flay you alive while
forcing you to tell me jokes so I can laugh while
you bleed to death. Cerberus, with me.”

With a yip, Hades spurred his unicorn mount

forward while Cerberus hurried to follow.

“He seems to be in a mood,” Ryn commented.

“Did something happen?”

I shook my head hard enough to make my head

ache. “No. Nothing.”

His eyebrow arched. “That isn’t what the blush

on your face says.”

My face heated. “How about you mind your

own business.”

“The restoration of the Underworld is all of our

Chapter Ten

hen I saw the familiar sight of a
broken-down Ferris wheel, I started to
get nervous. And as our makeshift

caravan  reached  the  rotten  steps  of  the  mirror
maze, I couldn’t hold my tongue. There was no way
in  hell  that  I  was  going  in  there.  The  last  thing  I
wanted  to  see  was  whatever  the  memory  palace
would show me.

“We’re going around this thing, right?” I asked,

fearing that I already knew the answer.

But Hades shook his head. “There is no way

around, only through. Perhaps you should go first.
That way, you can hurry through quickly without us
getting in the way.”

“What about the horses? They can’t even fit

through the doors.”

“Unicorns are creatures of pure magic. They

can  go  anywhere  they  choose,  remember?”  He
patted  his  mount’s  side,  the  movement  almost
loving. “I created your horse and carriage with my
own  magic.  I  will  simply  make  another  when  we
reach the other side of the maze.”

“We’ll be right behind you,” Cerberus assured

me as he held onto the sword at his hip with one
hand while Ryn nodded in agreement.

It wasn’t as if I had much of a choice. I wanted

to ask Ryn or Cerberus to go first, just so I wouldn’t
have to take the first step across the threshold on
my own. But I didn’t want to admit to that
weakness in front of Hades, not when he was ready
and willing to use any weakness against me.

The rickety steps of the Mirror Maze creaked

beneath  my  feet,  in  the  same  way  they  had  when
I’d visited it at the fairgrounds as a child. It didn’t
surprise  me  that  the  Underworld  had  used  my
nightmares to change itself, but I had won Hades’s
challenge  and  reached  his  castle  in  time.  It  didn’t
make sense that this was still here.

Unless it hadn’t been the Underworld that

placed it here in the first place.

My hand touched the door, but I didn’t open it.

I felt frozen in place, paralyzed with fear and dread.

“They are only memories,” Hades reasoned

from behind me, voice so placid that it would have
raised alarm bells if I’d been smart enough to pay

attention. “You have nothing to fear in the maze
but your own mind.”

Any argument I could think of would just make

me look like a coward. He sounded so reasonable.
Why would I fear seeing the things that had
happened to me, seeing the things I’d done, if I had
nothing to be ashamed of? His words did nothing to
assuage my fear, but I refused to let Hades see that.

So I pushed the open door and stepped inside

the  dusty  interior  that  smelled  like  stale  popcorn
and rotten wood, just like I remembered it. I turned
to  watch  the  others  follow,  but  Hades  stood  just
outside  with  his  arms  spread  wide  to  prevent  the
other men from moving past him.

And then the door slammed shut in my face,

leaving me in the darkness.

“What the hell?” I shouted, fear peaking as I

tried to rip open the door and it refused to so much
as budge. “Get me out of here.”

But Hades spoke as calmly as he had before, as

if nothing about this situation had surprised him.
“The only way out of the memory palace is through
it. We will meet you on the other side.”

“I’m not doing this again,” I screamed, banging

hard enough that my hangs ached. “Let me out.”

I heard Cerberus and Ryn shouting for him to

release me, but Hades gave no response.

“I will kill you if you don’t let me out of here.”
Eventually I stopped banging on the door

stopped and then I heard his voice speaking calmly
to me through the door.

“The memory palace is yours, as are any

memories you see while in it. It is important that
you see them. That is the only way that you can
become what you once were.”

“What if I don’t want to be what I once was?” I

asked caustically. “Pretty happy with who am I
now, thanks.”

“Because I am not giving you a choice.”
Wood creaked under his feet as he retreated,

and I knew that he wasn’t going to open the door.

My only way out was through.
The wooden door pressed against my back as I

leaned  against  it,  trying  to  slow  the  rapid  pace  of
my  heart  and  breathe  in  a  way  that  wouldn’t  turn
into  desperate  hyperventilating.  I  was  an  orphan
with  a  history  of  mental  illness  who  couldn’t
remember  much  of  what  happened  to  her  before
elementary school. I couldn’t even recall the faces
of my birth parents. Those memories were probably
inaccessible for a reason.

Trauma had a tendency to do that to you.
And if I really had lived previous lives as some

tragic princess doomed to be killed by her lover
over and over again, I didn’t want to remember any
of that shit either.

“I will never forgive you for this,” I shouted

through the door, unsurprised when I received no

response.

A dozen dusty versions of my reflection passed

me as I walked through the maze. I was only a few
yards in, but so far it looked just like a funhouse
amusement and not some magical record of all the
worst things that had ever happened to me.

But it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
As soon as I had the thought, the mirror closest

to me fogged over until I could no longer see my
reflection. Once I touched it, the mirror would clear
and have something aside from my terrified face
reflected in its surface.

But what choice did I have if I wanted to get

out of here?

I heard Hades’s disembodied voice even though

I should have been too far from the door for the
sound to carry this far.

“Waiting will only make it worse.”
“Fuck off,” I muttered, not even caring whether

he could hear me.

Placing my hand against the mirror, I braced

myself for whatever I would see.

I expected something horrifying, but only my

face  was  reflected  back  at  me,  open-mouthed  and
slightly  worried.  Then  I  looked  closer  and  realized
it  wasn’t  me  at  all,  at  least  not  how  I  was  in  this
moment.

My reflection wore a black dress so dark that it

made her seem like a disembodied head floating in

midair. She seemed to inspect me as I did the same
thing to her, but then I realized she studied her own
reflection in the mirror when someone spoke from
just out of view.

“Staring will change nothing, you know. It will

always be the same sorry face staring back at you.”

That voice sounded so familiar that I should

have been able to place it, even though I couldn’t.
It was a woman, possibly older, and I willed her to
come closer so I could see her face.

“I like my face,” my reflection said, turning to

look behind her. It was only then that I noticed her
dark hair was impossibly long and caught up in a
complicated braided design that wrapped around
the tiara on her head. “Do you see something that I
should be concerned about?”

The other woman scoffed. “How much time do

you have? Even magic is beyond helping some
things.”

My reflection turned back to the mirror so I

could see her face and the expression that she tried
to hide. Her eyes burned with discontent, even as
her tone remained placid and gave no indication of
her genuine feelings. “I appreciate that you are
always honest with me.”

But I’d heard that voice before because it was

my own. It was the one I used when my desire to
remain pleasant was at war with the anger I tried to
keep at bay.

There was movement on the far side of the

glass,  as  if  someone  was  coming  closer.  I  leaned
forward  eagerly  but  then  stumbled  as  the  mirror
disappeared,  leaving  me  facing  another  hallway
that led further into the memory palace.

“It would be nice if this place showed me

something useful,” I yelled, my voice echoing off
the walls, so it sounded like a dozen of me had
spoken at once.

If Hades heard me, he chose not to respond.
But I desperately wanted to know who that

other voice had belonged to and why it had been so
harsh.  I  recognized  that  look  of  silent  suffering  on
my reflection’s face because I’d seen it so much on
my  own.  Growing  up  as  a  strange  kid  with
occasional psychosis, I understood why I had been
rejected  by  most  of  the  people  I  encountered.
Nobody  wanted  to  get  too  close  to  the  crazy.  The
people who were meant to love me unconditionally,
my parents, had died without ever getting to know
me.  I  had  a  bit  of  a  right  to  walk  around  with  a
perpetual chip on my shoulder.

But how Hades had spoken of her gave me the

impression  that  Persephone  had  led  a  life  of
privilege  and  comfort  before  they  were  both
cursed.  That  wouldn’t  explain  the  expression  of
silent  suffering  I’d  seen  on  her  face,  like  she  had
spent years being beaten down into the ground.

Of course, she’d been cursed by her own

mother out of jealousy, so maybe the sadness made
sense. Even as a foster kid, I’d been treated better
than that.

I was slightly more relaxed when I reached the

next  mirror.  Seeing  Persephone  felt  like  looking  at
someone  else’s  memories.  It  was  maybe  a  little
voyeuristic,  but  didn’t  cause  anywhere  near  the
level of angst compared with seeing glimpses of my
own past.

As the mirror fogged and cleared, I waited for

the princess to show up again, but she wasn’t who I
saw.

Hades rode on his shimmering white unicorn

through the gates of the castle as I watched from a
vantage point that had to be high in some tower. He
looked  even  more  beautiful  than  he  did  normally,
practically  glowing  against  the  dark  backdrop  of
forest  behind  him.  Even  from  this  high  up,  I  could
see the line of a jaw that was sharp enough to rival
a  knife  blade  and  pillowy  lips  that  settled  into  a
secret smile, as if he knew something that I didn’t.
The  scene  around  him  was  darker  than  the
Underworld  had  ever  been  before,  without  even  a
moon  hanging  in  the  sky  to  bring  some  small
amount  of  light.  But  I  saw  him  clearly,  as  if  there
was  something  in  him  that  chased  the  darkness
away,  a  bit  of  sunlight  that  he  had  swallowed  and
kept inside of him.

He stood out like a beautiful rose among thorns.

I blinked and shook my head, wondering where

these  fantastical  thoughts  were  coming  from.  Of
course,  I  had  noticed  that  Hades  was  gorgeous
before,  but  it  wasn’t  usually  enough  to  make  me
recite  lines  of  poetry  in  my  head.  It  made  me
wonder if I saw him how the former version of me
remembered him, instead of the reality.

Unlike the other memories, this scene suddenly

shifted. I couldn’t tell if it was hours or even days
later.

Hades stood in front of me, staring directly into

my eyes. With a start, I realized that I was seeing
from the perspective of the princess, his face filling
my vision in the way it must have when she looked
at him.

“Persephone…” His voice floated over me like

a warm undercurrent, pulling me out to sea.

I knew that it wouldn’t just invite me

underwater, but drown me. Still, it was hard to
resist.

And I heard what sounded like my own voice,

even though my mouth hadn’t moved.

“Call me Seph. You know I hate all that useless

formality.”

His hand rose to my face, disappearing past the

edge of the mirror. And even though it wasn’t real,
I could swear that I felt the stroke of his hand
against my cheek.

“You are the most beautiful thing that I had

ever had the pleasure of laying eyes upon.”

He shifted nearer, bringing his face close

enough that I could see the ever-changing color of
his eyes up close. Every shade of blue and silver
reflected in his iris, turning a different color each
time that I blinked.

And then the vision of him blurred slightly, as if

his face were too close to focus on. He had kissed
me  before,  as  a  threat  or  a  punishment,  but  never
with  this  love  in  his  gaze.  It  only  made  it  more
difficult  to  harden  my  heart  against  him  when  he
looked  at  me  like  I  was  the  most  precious  thing  in
the universe.

I had to remind myself that it wasn’t really me

he was looking at, even if it felt like it was.

The mirror disappeared in the moment before

his lips could touch mine. It was only when I
stumbled that I realized I had been leaning forward
in anticipation, as if waiting for a real kiss and not
just an imaginary one from someone else’s memory.

This was why I hadn’t wanted to come inside of

the maze. I knew it would mess with my mind.

Exactly like it had done before.
The last time I was here, this place had shown

me  memories  of  Hades  with  his  queen,  even  if  I
didn’t  understand  that  was  what  was  happening  at
the time. I knew they weren’t scenes from my own
life,  but  how  real  they  felt  had  stuck  with  me.  If  I
hadn’t seen images of this past life when I traveled

through here before, if I hadn’t caught a glimpse of
what Hades could be, then I might never have
agreed to stay in the Underworld.

It had been subconscious, but this place had

planted  the  seed  of  doubt  in  my  mind  about  who
Hades could be to me. And that had been enough to
sway  me  into  agreeing  to  what  he  wanted.  I  hated
seeing  him  through  the  eyes  of  someone  who  had
been in love with him. I didn’t feel that way about
him,  but  watching  her  memories  made  it  seem
possible.

“I won’t love you! I won’t. No matter what you

do!”

I screamed the words until I was hoarse, even

though  I  had  no  way  to  know  if  Hades  could  hear
them.  And  it  wouldn’t  matter  if  he  had,  because
this  was  quickly  becoming  a  case  of  the  lady
protesting too much.

When the next mirror fogged, I almost hoped

that it would show some devastating scene from my
own past. The rotted-out husk of my childhood
home would be better than another close-up on
Hades’s face.

The image cleared, and I saw only more

darkness  and  coalescing  shadows.  I  waited  for
something to happen, for it to show me something,
but  all  I  saw  was  more  penetrating  black.  It  took
another  minute  for  me  to  realize  that  there  was  a
pattern to the darkness. It was some kind of ebony

fabric that had been pressed close to my face.

The fabric shifted and moved backwards, taking

on a more human shape. It was a woman, wearing a
dress so matte black that it became one with
darkness as if crafted from shadows.

The woman hugged me to her, cradling me like

a  child  with  my  head  in  her  lap  so  I  couldn’t  see
anything  but  the  full  skirt  of  her  black  dress.  The
position  should  have  been  a  comforting  one,  but  a
sense of foreboding washed over me even though I
knew  I  was  watching  something  that  had  already
happened.

When a silver dagger appeared at the edge of

the glass, I knew my instincts had been correct. But
in the memory, there was no reaction. My reflection
didn’t see the attack coming until it was much too
late.

The hand that held the dagger was feminine

with  long  nails  painted  a  dramatic  red.  I’d  already
known that it was a woman, but those details made
the  scene  seem  somehow  more  familiar.  I  didn’t
quite believe it when I reminded myself this wasn’t
happening  to  me.  My  body  still  reacted  when  the
blade struck. It took all of my willpower to keep my
hand pressed to the glass when the dagger plunged
home. It was pulled back to stab again and again, as
if  whoever  wielded  it  wanted  to  ensure  they
delivered a killing blow.

My body jerked, and I had to look down at

myself to ensure that it wasn’t really me being
stabbed.

But the despair that washed over me as I

watched  the  scene  unfold  felt  as  real  as  anything
that had happened in my life. Seph had trusted the
woman  who  held  her,  pressed  close  as  if  her  arms
were  meant  to  be  a  safe  place.  Then  the  princess
had been betrayed.

The blackness receded as the woman stepped

away, allowing this other me to collapse to the floor
in a pool of our own blood. I willed myself to get up
and fight, but it was no use. The blood was coming
fast enough that the blade must have struck my
heart.

My vision swam, fading in and out at the edges.

It was strange to die from afar, perfectly safe
physically but still experiencing all the emotion of
bleeding to death.

Hades’s face appeared in the glass, this time

twisted  with  fear  and  rage  instead  of  love  and
caring.  Tears  filled  his  eyes,  and  I  watched  in
amazement  as  they  fell,  sparkling  like  distant  stars
on  his  cheeks.  It  seemed  impossible  that  he  cried,
but  I  watched  it  happen  in  startling  clarity.  The
mirror  might  as  well  have  been  in  high  definition
for all the detail that I saw of his features. It would
be easy to convince myself that he was really there.
I  reached  out  to  touch  the  glass,  tracking  the  path
of  a  single  tear,  surprised  not  to  feel  actual  skin

against my fingertips.

“Don’t die,” Hades begged as he cried. “Please,

don’t die.”

And then he stood and turned away, obviously

assuming that she was gone.

The sounds of a struggle filled my ears, empty

threats  and  demands  as  Hades  squared  off  against
the mysterious woman. She sounded smug and self-
assured  while  the  desperation  in  his  voice  was
impossible  to  mistake.  I  still  hadn’t  seen  her  face,
but  I  could  imagine  the  look  of  dark  triumph  she
wore.  Hades  sounded  like  a  man  who  had  lost
everything  and  was  eager  to  die  because  he  had
nothing left.

It made my heart ache to hear it, even as I told

myself that I didn’t care. But I couldn’t let this go
on  if  there  was  any  chance  of  stopping  it.  My
mouth  opened,  and  I  heard  the  words,  but  I
couldn’t  tell  which  one  of  us  had  spoken.  I  knew
what  the  princess  would  say,  like  a  song  I  had
memorized even though I couldn’t remember where
I first heard it.

“Please help me…”
Hades returned to my side, face filling my

vision again.

“You’re alive. It’s a miracle.”
“Hades…”
His name tasted bittersweet on my tongue,

relief with a tinge of despair. And the same

emotions  I  felt  second  hand  were  reflected  in  his
concerned gaze. He was happy to see me alive and
terrified  of  what  it  meant.  I  watched  as  that
realization  tempered  his  joy  and  brought  an
excruciating sadness.

This wasn’t a miracle, but a curse. I understood

that before the woman explained it to the
incredulous man in front of me. To die and live
again, over and over, until the pain of it became too
much to bear.

The woman’s cackle echoed in my ears, long

after the vision was gone.

I stumbled out of the memory palace a few

minutes later, what I’d seen still burned into my
retinas. My anger was gone, replaced by a sad
longing that made no sense even as I couldn’t stop
myself from feeling it.

Hades stood at the center of the clearing,

watching me closely. It took a herculean effort not
to close the distance between us and throw myself
into  his  arms.  I  forced  myself  to  stop  even  as  the
stricken  sadness  I’d  seen  on  his  face  swam  in  my
vision.  I  reminded  myself  that  I  wasn’t  the  girl  he
had fallen in love with, even if he was desperate to
pretend that I was.

“This doesn’t change anything,” I insisted, even

as I used the back of my hand to swipe rogue tears
from my cheeks. “I’m not your queen anymore.”

It was only when his smile widened as he

turned away that I realized one battle had already
been lost.

I had acknowledged that I used to be his queen.
And if I had been it once, that opened the

possibility of me being it again.

The wall I’d erected to protect myself had

developed the smallest crack, giving a brief glimpse
of what there could between us.

And there could only be so many cracks before

that wall completely shattered.

Chapter Eleven

hen we reached the gate of the
immense stone wall that encircled the
interior

the

Underworld,

immediately recognized it. This was the place
where I had found Cerberus when he was trapped
in stone and forced to be the Hunter.

We had passed none of the other places that I

saw  before,  not  the  abandoned  village  or  even  the
junk  pile  where  Cleo  had  been  trapped  in  an
illusion  of  our  living  room.  And  it  had  taken
significantly  less  time  to  reach  this  point  than  it
should have.

“I chose the wrong path, didn’t I?”
The carriage had stopped, the horse responding

to some silent command while Hades and Cerberus
approached the wall.

Ryn shifted slightly closer.
“It was called the Path of Destruction,” he

murmured,  attention  on  the  swaying  trees  around
us.  He  seemed  alert  to  any  possible  danger,  which
made  sense  considering  Hades’s  threats.  “We  told
you that.”

“Cleo was on that path, even if I didn’t know it

at the time. If I had taken another way to the castle,
I might have missed her.”

“Perhaps…” His attention moved beyond me.

“Oh, no.”

I followed his gaze to where the other men

stood. The narrow trail ended suddenly at the wall,
with  no  gap  or  opening  that  would  allow  us  to
continue.  I  had  assumed  that  an  archway  or  gate
would  magically  appear,  but  that  wasn’t  what
happened.

Hades stepped aside as Cerberus approached

the  wall  and  stepped  into  it.  There  was  no  other
way  to  describe  it.  The  tone  imprints  on  his  skin
had never completely faded, but they became more
pronounced as I watched. With each step Cerberus
took,  his  body  moved  more  slowly  as  if  the  every
joint and muscle stiffened and became less capable
of  movement.  When  he  finally  reached  the  wall,
the bricks in it shifted around him until they formed
the  shape  of  a  door.  Horrified,  I  realized  that  his
body was merging completely with the surrounding
wall, until it was impossible to tell where he ended

and the stone began.

“No!” I was already jumping down from the

carriage  and  tripping  down  the  path  as  the  skirt  of
my  damn  dress  caught  around  my  ankles.  It  was  a
wonder  that  I  didn’t  fall  flat  on  my  face.  The
moment I reached Hades, I turned on him with rage
in my voice. “You can’t do this to him again.”

His voice was mild. “It’s done. The gate needs a

guard to ensure that nothing passes through here
before we return.”

Cerberus no longer looked even liked a real

creature.  If  I  hadn’t  watched  it  happen  myself,  I
would have thought someone had carved a perfect
replica  of  him  in  the  stone  door  that  had  appeared
where  previously  there  had  been  a  blank  wall.  I
couldn’t tell if he was still aware of us, but his eyes
were frozen open and I felt them staring into me in
a way that made my heart ache.

This couldn’t be the only option. If a bridge

could appear across the sea where one hadn’t been
before, then there had to be another option.

I turned to Hades, so angry that I could barely

stand it. “Why are you doing this?”

“It was his idea. Without him here, any of the

creatures  on  the  outskirts  could  cross  into  the
center  of  the  Underworld  and  reach  the  castle.”
Hades  dismounted  and  approached  the  door.  He
placed  his  hand  against  Cerberus’s  chest  and  the
door swung open, revealing the trail that continued

into thicker forest.

“Can’t you get a daemon to do it?”
“I cannot.” He let out an exasperated sigh.

“The gate guard must be a creature that I can trust
completely,  something  with  remnants  of  humanity.
Cerberus  has  served  in  this  function  since  he  was
brought  to  the  Underworld.  It  used  to  be  that  the
guardian  could  travel  the  Underworld  without
leaving  the  gate  unguarded,  but  that  power  has
been lost.”

My gaze flew to Cerberus’s normally expressive

eyes  that  were  now  frozen  in  stone.  He  gave  no
indication  that  he  was  aware  of  what  we  were
saying,  or  even  realized  that  we  were  there  at  all.
But  something  in  his  eyes  made  me  stare  for  a  bit
longer, wondering if I actually saw sadness there or
just imagined it. “This is heartless.”

“This is the Underworld.”
Hades stalked away before I could think of a

response.

When I returned to the carriage, Hades was

already disconnecting it from the horse. The door
was barely wide and tall enough for a person on
horseback to fit, so the carriage wouldn’t be going
with us.

Ryn mounted the horse. I moved toward him,

when Hades moved into my path.

“You’re with me,” Hades said, his expression

full of challenge.

I refused to let him think I was afraid of him.
But I stared up at the unicorn with dismay,

anger  momentarily  receding  while  I  tried  to  figure
out  how  the  hell  I  was  going  to  get  onto  it.  There
was no saddle or stirrups, and the horse’s back was
about  level  with  my  face.  I  would  have  to  be  an
Olympic hurdler to jump onto it.

Moving me gently to the side, Hades gripped

the horse’s mane and launched himself onto it with
the  ease  of  a  cat  leaping  onto  a  countertop  three
times  taller  than  it  was.  He  leaned  down  with  his
hand  held  out  and  a  challenging  smile  on  his  face.
“Allow me.”

Hades lifted me onto the horse with the strength

in one arm, which sent a thrill of awareness up my
spine.  I  had  no  doubt  that  he  was  significantly
stronger  than  I  was,  which  only  made  his  restraint
more  meaningful.  He  was  choosing  to  be  gentle,
because he had the option to be something else.

My back pressed into his front, the heat of him

enough to keep the worst of the cold from seeping
into me. I tried my best to relax against him, even
as I felt an answering clench of desire curling in my
belly. If we were attacked, hopefully he would
prove to be less easily distracted than I was.

Hades wrapped his arm around my waist. I

risked  a  glance  up  at  him  as  the  unicorn  surged
forward.  He  resembled  something  from  a  fantasy,
broad  back  almost  impossibly  erect  as  he  rode  a

shining  white  unicorn.  His  long  fingers  gripped  the
shimmering  mane  of  hair  in  a  way  that  forced  you
to  imagine  what  they  would  feel  like  trailing  along
your skin. White-blond hair, even paler than normal
in  the  moonlight,  was  caught  in  a  tight  braid  that
trailed over his shoulder. I couldn’t help but notice
how closely it matched the unicorn’s coat.

But there were drops of blood on the crisp

white of his shirt and those hands were capable of
violence. If I could see his face, I knew there would
be a cruel twist to his mouth and cold eyes
narrowed in deadly focus.

That was the part of him I needed to keep at the

forefront of my mind. His beauty was matched only
by his cruelty. He would look at me like he loved
me in one moment and then literally cut me to the
bone in the next.

Finally, I couldn’t stand the silence anymore. I

was aware enough that we were in a dangerous
place to keep my voice pitched as low as I could
while still being heard. “Are you planning to tell us
where we’re going?”

Hades didn’t respond for a long moment and I

wondered if he heard me. Eventually, his voice
floated over us as it carried on the wind. “To the
mountains of Tartarus.”

Ryn jerked on his horse. But when I glanced

back at him, there was no hint of an expression on
his face.

“What’s in Tartarus?” I asked.
The question hadn’t been directed at him, but it

was Ryn who answered me in a voice that sounded
almost stricken.

“Darklings.”

t didn’t take long for the trees to recede into a
more barren landscape. The parts of the
Underworld I’d already seen had seemed

more desolate with how I had imagined, but that
was nothing compared to what I saw in the outer
reaches.

The path had steadily widened until there were

practically  no  more  trees  at  all,  certainly  few
enough  that  what  remained  couldn’t  really  be
called  a  forest.  There  were  no  leaves  on  their
spindly  branches,  no  hint  of  anything  green  or
growing.  The  ground  beneath  our  feet  was  more
pale  sand  than  dirt,  as  even  if  the  soil  had  been
stripped of life. Everything I saw made me think of
decay.

Or death.
When I saw the huge mounds of sand ahead of

us, I knew that we approached a desert. A desert
large enough that I couldn’t see anything else on
the distant horizon.

“Where are the mountains?” I whispered.
Hades shifted behind me, but his body had lost

none of its tension even after hours of riding.
“Tartarus makes up the southernmost border of the
Underworld. There are other things between here
and there.”

“What kinds of things?”
I sensed his shrug, but his arms tightened

around me by the smallest degree. “I have not
ventured this far in some time. Enough has changed
that I cannot say.”

“Are you okay?” I asked, turning slightly so I

could look back at him. “You seem really tense.”

He gave me a slight smile that seemed more

than a little forced. “I’m fine. You shouldn’t
concern yourself with me. Keep your mind on…
more important things.”

I didn’t really want to know what he meant by

that.

“We will make camp here for the night,” Hades

said suddenly, drawing the reins up sharply enough
that I fell back against him. “Crossing the Mourning
Fields will be the most dangerous part of the
journey and we should only attempt it well rested.”

Hades slid easily off the horse, while I surveyed

our surroundings. A full moon hung low on the
horizon, but I couldn’t tell if it was rising or setting.
Time obviously worked differently here, along with
all the things one would usually use to mark its

passage. I hadn’t seen sunlight since I agreed to
stay here, and I dismally wondered if I ever would
again.

Both of them had mentioned the dangers we

would  face  in  the  Underworld,  but  we  hadn’t
encountered anything but desolation and quiet. We
hadn’t seen a single other living thing since leaving
the  palace,  dangerous  or  otherwise.  It  made  me
wonder  if  they  were  just  paranoid,  or  if  I  was
missing something.

And it was really going to annoy me if this

entire trip had been for nothing, if just because
riding a horse for hours without a saddle was a
literal pain in the ass.

“Dangerous, huh?” I murmured as Hades

helped me down off the back of the horse. He
basically had to hold his arms up for me while I fell
over the side, catching me around the waist before I
hit the ground. “Sure would be nice to have a
bodyguard right about now.”

Hades’s arms tightened around me for a brief

moment before he let me go. I wanted Cerberus
here, not stuck in some wall like a hunk of rock,
and I wouldn’t pretend otherwise.

“His sacrifice is necessary. We all do what we

must.”  Hades  released  me  and  I  stumbled  back
from  the  sudden  loss  of  balance.  “Railing  at  me
won’t  change  that,  no  matter  how  vexing  it  might
be.”

He made vexing sound like something worse as

he spat out the word. A crystal orb appeared in one
of his hands as he balanced it on the tip of his
fingers. For a moment, I wondered if he was going
to throw it at me, but then it dropped and hit the
mix of sand and dirt at his feet.

I assumed the orb would roll away, but instead

it sank into ground as if it were being sucked into
quicksand. The sand began to move as if falling
away from something that pushed up from below. I
watched in fascination as an elaborate tent emerged
from the ground as if it emerged from the center of
the earth, dirt and sand running off the cloth sides.

It was the kind of luxury tent that glampers

used  when  they  wanted  to  pretend  like  they  were
roughing it. I had to back up as the thing continued
to rise from the ground and finally took up at least
twenty  feet  of  space.  The  flaps  at  the  front  were
pulled back so I could see there was a thick rug on
floor  inside,  mounded  with  colorful  pillows  and
blankets.

All I wanted to do was crawl inside of it and

curl up, but I didn’t trust that impulse one little bit.

“If you can use magic to make something like

this, why not create a plane to just fly us to the
mountains?”

Hades smiled slightly as he wrapped a rope

around the unicorn’s neck and tied the end to a
nearby tree. “That wouldn’t be much good since

none of us know how to fly it.”

I rolled my eyes, even as I wondered if that was

his attempt to make a joke. “A magic carpet, then.”

“Even my power has its limits.” He patted the

unicorn on its neck before turning away from it. “I
used to be able to traverse the entire Underworld in
the blink of an eye. Although I can manage parts of
it, Tartaruss is well outside of the extent of my
ability, especially to do it while others are with me.”

If it bothered him to admit that he wasn’t as

powerful as he used to be, Hades hid it well. He
gestured toward the tent. “Rest. Ryn will watch
over you, while I find something for us to eat.”

I raised my eyebrows at that. “You can’t turn a

crystal ball into a pizza, or something?”

“Magically

created

food

provides

sustenance. Like an illusion, regardless of how
good it may taste, it is the same as eating nothing at
all.”

“And you couldn’t have brought something

from the palace for us to eat?”

This time his smile was genuine as he

unsheathed the short sword that I only just noticed
was hanging at his hip. “Why would I when hunting
is so much more fun?”

“I guess.” My gaze moved to the tent where

Ryn was checking the ties holding it to the ground.
“So this isn’t real, either?”

Hades shook his head as he strode toward the

thinning  line  of  trees,  but  his  voice  carried  as  he
spoke  over  his  shoulder.  “Real  enough.  Even  a
strong  enough  illusion  would  prevent  you  from
feeling  the  effects  of  the  elements,  so  ultimately  it
does not matter.”

“Be careful out there, or whatever.”
He glanced back at me, smile widening, and I

immediately regretted saying it.

I still didn’t understand exactly how his magic

worked,  but  I  didn’t  want  to  ask  any  more
questions as he disappeared into the darkness. The
more  reasonably  that  Hades  spoke  to  me,  the
harder  it  was  to  remember  that  I  needed  to  hate
him.  Friendliness  was  a  far  cry  from  the  love  that
we supposedly shared in the past, but it was a step
away from hate.

And even one step might be too much if I

wanted to protect myself from him.

Ryn returned to my side, his expression very

carefully neutral. “He is right that you should try to
rest, at least. I will protect you while you sleep.”

“Protect me from what, exactly?” I asked as he

followed me to the tent and let down the flaps once
I was inside. “The two of you are acting so on edge,
like we’re about to be attacked any minute. But it
doesn’t even look like there’s anything left out
here. What is Hades so worried about?”

“I don’t think he knows.” Ryn hesitated with

one flap open only enough that I could still see his

face. “Hades has not ventured this far from the
palace in over twenty years. None of us have.
There is no way to know what might be waiting for
us out here.”

Ryn let the cloth flap fall and then left me

alone, again with more questions than I had
answers.

His last words weren’t exactly the kind that left

me ready to fall asleep. It was a little hard to relax
when  I  had  no  idea  if  some  mythical  monster  was
moments  from  attacking  us.  Ryn  might  be
significantly  stronger  than  me,  but  even  he  had
referred to himself as more of a lover than a fighter.

That made me wonder how much of the cruel

anger  I  saw  on  Hades’s  face  was  a  cover  for  his
fear.  He  had  lost  so  much  control  of  the
Underworld  that  he  had  to  wonder  how  much
longer he could survive it. Even though he had had
compelled me into staying here with him, that alone
clearly  wasn’t  enough  for  this  place  to  return  to
what it was.

Or for his power to return to what it was.
I crawled in between the pillows and

underneath  the  blanket  as  I  tried  to  assure  myself
that  nothing  was  about  to  eat  me  alive.  Ryn’s
shadow  moved  in  front  of  the  closed  flaps,  his
profile  black  against  the  pale  cloth.  I  wondered  if
he stood so close so I would know he was there and
feel  reassured  by  it.  And  I  was,  but  I  knew  that  I

wouldn’t be able to fall asleep until Hades returned.
Not that I trusted him, but I knew that he was
better able than Ryn to keep me safe.

Even as I assured myself that the yearning for

his  presence  was  born  of  fear,  I  knew  that  my
thoughts  had  gone  to  a  dangerous  place.  Wanting
Hades  for  anything,  even  protection,  was  way
further than I could allow myself to go. It made me
wonder  if  he  had  instilled  fear  in  me  about  this
journey  on  purpose,  so  I  would  look  to  him  for
support.

I forced myself to think about the slice of a

sharpened knife as it slid into my skin. Even as I
stared at the perfect and unblemished flesh of my
arms, I imagined them cut up and bloody, the pain
of it enough that it felt like I could die from it.

That was what Hades represented: blood and

pain.

Nothing more and nothing less.
I used that thought to carry me finally off to

sleep, because I refused to let him have any more
of me than he had already claimed. He would
always be a monster and I refused to let this small
spark of need grow into more.

Ultimately, I should have known, sleep is never

easy in a land of the dead.

Chapter Twelve

dreamed of a life that I knew wasn’t my own,
even though it felt like it as I walked the halls
of Hades’s castle.

But somehow, I knew that these halls didn’t

belong  to  him.  The  walls  were  the  same  dark  and
glittering stone that I'd seen in his bedroom, not the
white,  gold-veined  marble  that  they  should  have
been.  Creeping  darkness  made  shadows  that
seemed  to  follow  behind  me.  This  castle  was  the
same, but different in fundamental ways.

Instead of the white that I couldn’t seem to get

rid of, I wore black instead. The long skirt of my
dress weighed more than it should, dragging behind
me so that each step was harder than the last.

The hallway stretched impossibly far until I felt

as if I had walked for miles, lungs burning with

each step. And then, in the way of dreams, I was no
longer in the glittering, black hallway. Instead, I
stood at the door of the throne room.

Daemons filled the space, more than I’d ever

seen  in  one  place  before.  Dozens  stood  along  the
walls  and  more  gathered  together  at  the  center  of
the room. Instead of casting me ravenous looks as I
passed,  they  respectfully  averted  their  eyes.  They
seemed nervous around me, but not as if I was the
one  they  were  afraid  of,  more  like  they  had  been
warned off.

Something frightened them more than Hades.
I expected to see him bearing down on me like

a nightmare made flesh, but he was nowhere to be
found.

An unrecognizable woman sat on the throne of

thorns. Something about her was achingly familiar,
like hearing a few notes from a song that you
hadn’t listened to in years. But the closer I looked,
the more that the details of her features seemed to
shift and change. None of it remained the same
long enough for me to identify her.

Hair so dark that it was nearly black cascaded

down in perfectly placed waves that curved around
her body to sweep the floor. She had pale skin and
eyes  that  shone  like  bits  of  silver  in  the  light.
Daemons  surrounded  her,  many  of  them  on  their
knees  while  others  presented  platters  to  her  filled
with bits of fruit.

A raven with glowing white eyes sat on her

shoulder.  It  stared  at  me  as  if  it  found  me
disturbingly fascinating. I didn’t need to be told that
it  was  no  ordinary  bird.  As  I  watched,  the  thing
fanned  its  wings  out  as  if  annoyed  at  my  staring
before settling back down.

Somehow, I knew that I was supposed to

approach the throne with all the grace of a trained
courtier. I was distantly aware that this existed only
as a dream, but it felt like so much more. This
strange woman was important in some terrifying
and unknowable way. The last thing I wanted to do
was get any closer to her.

The woman made an imperious gesture with

one  hand.  All  movement  ceased  in  the  room  as
every face turned at the same time, dozens of eyes
suddenly  trained  on  me  in  a  way  that  was
unnerving  even  through  the  haze  of  a  dream.  The
daemons  seemed  less  interested  in  me  than  in
following the direction of this woman’s attention.

She gestured again, obviously beckoning me

closer. But my feet were frozen in place. I was
unable, and unwilling, to move.

When she rose from the throne, I had to remind

myself to breathe. Her dress seemed to be literally
woven from shadows, made f deepest blacks and
swirling grays that shifted unnaturally in the light. It
wasn’t as much clothing as bits of darkness that had
wrapped themselves around her body.

“Come closer,” she purred, holding her hand

out to me. “Let me see you.”

I resisted the urge to go to her with every iota

of willpower I had. Her voice washed over me with
compelling force and I dug my nails into the skin of
my palms to resist the pull. It didn’t make any
sense, but I knew that letting her touch me would
be a very bad idea.

To my relief she stopped at the edge of the

raised  dais  where  the  throne  stood,  her  hand  held
out  to  me  in  entreaty.  Long  fingernails  painted  the
same bloody red as her lips waved in the air as she
urged  me  to  come  to  her.  It  was  entirely
nonsensical,  but  I  imagined  that  those  nails  were
razor sharp and ready to tear into my flesh if I came
close enough to reach.

It was strange to recognize that I was in a

dream,  but  also  know  that  whatever  I  did  here
could  have  very  real  consequences  when  I  woke
up. In the real world, dreams were wholly separate
from  reality  and  one  had  no  impact  on  the  other.
But not here, not in the Underworld.

Here, dreams very much had consequences.
The woman made a pretty pout with those

crimson lips. White teeth flashed in a smile that was
more threat than welcome. I could practically see
those teeth digging into flesh, rending and tearing
until that mouth turned even more red with spilled
blood.

It was only then that I noticed the crown on her

head. It was made of some dull metal, so dark that I
had barely noticed it against the midnight black of
her hair. That crown confused me, especially when
she wore it while sitting on a throne that shouldn’t
belong to her.

“Who are you?” I asked.
She only smiled instead of answering me,

beckoning me forward again. “Come.”

Even dark magic had rules. That didn’t change

just  because  I  was  inside  of  a  dream.  If  she  could
leave  the  dais  to  come  after  me,  then  she  would
have.  She  hadn’t,  which  made  it  even  more
important that I not take even a single step forward.

“Tell me who you are and then I’ll decide.”
A brief smile touched her lips, but the longer I

watched the more it looked like a sneer. “You
already know. You just have to remember.”

Daemons surged toward me. I knew they were

planning  to  drag  me  toward  the  dais  and  force  me
into contact with this terrifying woman. I turned to
run,  but  it  was  too  late.  Their  grasping  hands
wrapped  around  my  wrists  and  arms,  forcing  me
forward from behind. The weight of my black dress
made  it  too  difficult  to  fight  them  off.  Sharp  nails
scratched  at  my  skin  while  their  fingers  tangled  in
my  hair  and  pulled  hard.  I  shouldn’t  have  felt  any
pain in a dream, but that didn’t stop it from hurting.

The woman watched it all with a satisfied smile

on her face, murmuring for them to hurry and bring
me to her. I wondered what could have happened to
Hades that she felt confident enough to sit on his
throne, and then I realized that I shouldn’t be
worried about anyone but myself.

Her hand loomed closer in my vision as the

daemons shoved me forward. The long skirt tangled
around my legs, trapping my ankles, but they
caught me when I would have fallen and forced me
forward.

Fear and panic rose in me as I fought against

their  hands.  I  couldn’t  let  her  touch  me.  That
knowledge was embedded in my mind in the same
way  that  I  knew  my  own  name,  intrinsic  and
unquestionable. Her eyes shone with equal parts of
cruelty  and  anticipation,  more  terrifying  than  even
Hades at his worst.

“Bring her to me.”
The raven flew toward my face with its wings

spread and talons aimed at my face. I raised my
arm to protect myself, batting it away as feathers
beat at me and its claws wrapped around strands of
my hair.

I had to wake up.
Just having the thought made breaking the

dream  seem  possible.  The  woman  frowned,  as  if
she  realized  it  at  the  same  time  that  I  did.  She
snarled something to the daemons surrounding me,
their  movements  growing  more  frantic,  but  it  was

too late.

The moment that I understood that I should end

this dream, it became a simple thing to do. I needed
to wake up before something terrible happened.

So I did.

opened my eyes to total darkness, but I still
wasn’t alone.

A warm body was at my side, pressing

close in the same way that the daemons had. I felt
the scratch of their nails against my skin and
smelled the fetid breath as their faces loomed close
to mine, remnants of the dream that hadn’t
completely faded away.

When I tried to get away, hands tightened on

my  body.  I  didn’t  have  the  presence  of  mind  to
know  if  they  were  daemon  fingers  or  something
else, especially in the darkness. Fear spiked higher
as  I  thought  of  that  woman’s  shifting  face  and  the
terror I felt at the thought of her touching me.

I screamed.
Hades’s face swam in my vision, but this wasn’t

a dream. Light bloomed from the orb he held up in
one hand so I could see that he was on his knees
beside me, leaning forward to peer into my face.
We were still inside of the tent he had magicked out

of nothing and I laid on the bed of furs and pillows.

It was hard not to feel like Sleeping Beauty

waking  up  from  her  eternal  slumber  as  he  loomed
over  me  while  I  laid  on  my  back.  I  was  really
hoping  that  he  hadn’t  used  a  kiss  to  wake  me  up,
but  now  that  the  thought  was  stuck  in  my  head,  I
had a hard time getting it out.

My mouth felt dry, and it took several tries to

get any words out. “Where is Ryn?”

“Standing guard, as he was ordered to do.” His

features  were  indistinct  in  the  darkness,  the  light
from  the  orb  only  enough  to  cast  jagged  shadows
across  his  face.  It  made  him  look  even  more
intimidating  than  he  did  normally.  “I  have  food
prepared, if you desire to eat.”

He left the tent without looking back, leaving

me lying there with my mouth fallen open. But
when I shifted into a sitting position, I realized that
I was holding something in my hand. When I
looked down, I saw something that should not have
been there.

A dull black feather.
Fear and foreboding rolled over me as I tucked

the feather away in the folds of my dress. It seemed
like a bad idea to just leave it, even though I had no
idea where it had come from. Maybe this random
feather had been there all along, shed by a bird in
the forest and here when the tent was created.

I didn’t actually believe that, but I couldn’t

decide how worried I needed to be about it.

The impossibility of falling back asleep and the

smell of food finally lured me out of the tent.
Seeing Hades stirring a bubbling stew wasn’t a sight
that I ever thought I would witness. It was hard to
tear my gaze away. He hovered over a cooking pot
that hung over a small fire with the intensity of a
scientist, adding ingredients one by one as his eyes
narrowed in concentration.

I had to look away when his tongue pushed out

the  side  of  his  mouth  as  he  selected  a  handful  of
herbs and brought them to his nose, deeply inhaling
before tossing them into the pot. For a moment, the
only  thought  in  my  mind  was  that  he  looked  cute
when  he  acted  all  domestic.  He  wasn’t  the  cruel
ruler  of  the  Underworld,  but  just  a  guy  taking  the
time to cook me dinner.

Those were very dangerous thoughts.
I had to find a reason to get back on familiar

ground. Even the most slightly pleasant interaction
was too dangerous.

My eyes squinted at the mystery stew as he

stirred. “You know I don’t eat—”

“Anything with a face, I am aware.” He

gestured to his side where a small rabbit had been
skinned and laid on a rock over the fire. “There are
only roots and vegetables in the stew. I am
preparing the meat separately.”

“That’s considerate of you.” And it really was,

damn it. Every reason he gave me to hate him
ended up tempered by something else. “Thanks, I
guess.”

An amused smile touched his lips at my tone,

which was anything but grateful. “You are very
welcome.”

We ate in silence because I was afraid to say

anything else that might invite conversation with
Hades. Ryn had joined us, but looked ready to fall
asleep where he was standing. I cast my gaze over
him as he took a slow bite of rabbit, eyes closing as
he chewed but then remaining closed after he
swallowed.

“Maybe you should try to sleep next,” I

murmured.

Ryn turned a bleary gaze on me. “You coming

with me.”

I wasn’t ready to risk falling asleep again. Not if

it meant seeing that black-haired woman. “Maybe
in a bit.”

Lurching to his feet, Ryn stumbled to the tent

like he was drunk. It wasn’t until he disappeared
behind the flaps that I realized he’d left me alone
with Hades.

I kept my gaze trained on the wooden bowl full

of  stew  in  my  lap  as  I  took  the  smallest  bites
imaginable  to  give  myself  something  to  do.  It
actually  tasted  pretty  good  considering  all  the
ingredients had been foraged from the surrounding

forest. We could add decent cook to the list of
Hades’s talents, as if I needed another reason to
soften toward him.

“What about you?” I asked without looking at

him. “Don’t you need to rest?”

“I do not.”
He said it so abruptly that I felt compelled to

look at him. Luckily, his gaze was trained on the
barren horizon where the Mourning Fields awaited
us.

“You have to sleep sometime.”
Flames from our campfire reflected in his eyes

as he turned his head to look at me. “I have not
slept in over two decades.”

“That can’t be true.”
“It is.”
I tried to imagine that and couldn’t. “Not even

a nap?”

“Since you left, the Underworld has rebelled

against my control. Even the smallest weakness on
my  part  would  see  all  of  it  reclaimed  by  oblivion,
along  with  all  the  souls  here.”  His  gaze  bored  into
mine  as  if  willing  me  to  understand  a  hidden
meaning  in  his  words.  Like  he  was  a  teacher
prodding  a  recalcitrant  student  into  recalling  a
forgotten  lesson.  “The  embrace  of  slumber  is  a
luxury that I can ill-afford.”

Something about the way he said it broke my

heart just the smallest bit. In the human world, lack

of sleep could kill. Insomnia that lasted long enough
would  drive  you  mad  and  then  burn  up  your  brain
until  there  was  nothing  left.  Magic  aside,  it  was  a
wonder  that  he  was  still  walking  and  talking  after
several human lifetimes without sleep.

“Would you dream, if you actually fell asleep?”
“Perhaps.” He seemed to consider it before

elaborating. “That possibility concerns me more
than anything that might happen while I was asleep
and unable to stop it.”

“I had a dream when I was sleeping before.” I

told  myself  that  I  shouldn’t  be  talking  to  him,  not
about  this  or  anything  else.  But  I  had  spent  my
entire  life  being  accused  of  playing  pretend,  for
once  I  wanted  the  entire  truth.  “I  saw  a  strange
woman  with  black  hair  down  to  her  feet  and  a
raven on her shoulder.”

His eyes flashed with some unnamed emotion

before he looked away. “Did you recognize her?”

“No. But this was in my hand when I woke up.”

I  pushed  aside  the  heavy  fabric  of  my  dress  and
held up the feather for him to see. In the firelight, it
appeared  even  more  innocuous.  The  thing  almost
taunted  me  with  how  benign  it  looked,  like  I  was
the idiot city girl freaking out because she found a
feather in the damn forest.

Then I risked a glance at Hades’s face. He

stared at the feather with an expression that had
gone entirely blank. I got the impression that he

was deliberately hiding his reaction from me,
although he couldn’t manage it entirely.

He held his hand out for the feather. I hesitated

for the barest moment before handing it over. I
wasn’t sure what I expected to happen, a crack of
lightning or the swelling pressure of magic on my
skin, but he simply held it up to the firelight.

“This feather is from a crow, not a raven.” He

tossed  it  into  the  flames,  watching  the  thing  hiss
and  curl  in  the  fire  as  if  even  he  expected  it  to  do
something  more  than  just  burn.  “Did  the  woman
say anything else? Do anything else?”

“You act like you know something I don’t.”
I assumed he would take offense, maybe even

wanted him to because that would distract me from
the  brooding  expression  on  his  face.  But  his  gaze
never  left  the  withering  remains  of  the  feather
while  it  disintegrated  into  ash,  as  if  he  wanted  to
ensure  himself  that  it  was  gone  before  looking
away.

“I have no idea what you need to be told and

what  you  must  remember  on  your  own.  That  is
something  I  have  struggled  with  every  day  since
you  arrived.”  The  gaze  that  he  finally  turned  back
to  me  was  bleak.  Fear  was  overlaid  with  anger,
some amount of it directed at me. “I want so badly
to punish you for what you’ve done, but then I look
into your wide, innocent eyes and I find it difficult
to hold on to my anger. Hating you has been all that

sustained me for the past twenty-four years.”

Twenty-four years. He could probably track

them  back  to  the  very  day  that  I  was  born.  I
desperately wanted answers, but it was hard not to
feel like I was trapped inside of a cage with a wild
animal.  Hades  remained  calm  for  the  moment,  but
that could change in an instant. He cycled through
moods  more  frequently  than  most  girls  changed
their underwear.

I wanted him to fill in the missing pieces of

who, or what, I was. But I also recognized that he
was always on the verge of violence. Pushing him
too far was the absolute wrong thing to do.

The moment that his anger got the best of him,

he might flay me alive.

My gaze shifted away from his face as his eyes

narrowed,  lingering  on  the  bloodstain  on  the  front
of  his  shirt.  The  speckles  I  had  noticed  earlier  had
grown  larger  until  large  spots  of  red  stained  the
fabric.  Hunting  rabbits  wouldn’t  have  accounted
for that much blood.

“Are you bleeding?” I asked.
He shifted away, glaring into the fire. “It is

nothing.”

But now that the thought was in my head, it

was impossible to get it out. “Let me see.”

It seemed like he was about to shove me away,

but then didn’t fight as I pulled the tucked shirt out
from his pants and pushed it up his abdomen. His

skin  practically  glowed  under  the  firelight,  like  he
was  carved  out  of  moonstone.  And  his  abdomen
would have been as smooth as polished stone, if not
for  the  jagged  wound  stretched  from  one  end  of  it
to the other.

The cut wasn’t fresh, but still oozed blood. It

would have required stitches if he were human.
Even so, the look of it was raw enough that I fought
off the urge to gag.

Seeing the look on my face, he whipped his

shirt back down to cover the wound and glared at
me. “It’s nothing.”

“Tell me what happened.”
“I just cut myself,” he replied through gritted

teeth.

“Not while hunting,” I insisted. “I saw blood on

your shirt before we even left the palace. And the
angle of that cut makes it look like you did it
deliberately—”

I cut myself off because I didn’t want to say the

thought out loud. The last time I’d seen him with a
blade was during the masquerade ball. And I’d
been the one who had gotten sliced up.

Abruptly, Hades stood. “I must walk the

perimeter to ensure it remains secure.”

“Why didn’t it heal in the wraith pool?” I asked

to his back as he turned away. “You said it has
healing powers.”

“That’s an old wives' tale to lure wayward

travelers  into  their  domain  so  they  can  drag  them
underwater,  drown  them  and  feed  on  their
corpses,”  he  scoffed.  “Wraiths  kill.  They  don’t
heal.”

And then he took a harsh breath, seeming to

realize that he had given away an important bit of
information. Waving his hand, as if it to dispel his
words from the air, he turned away from me with a
sneer on his face.

But it was too late, and the wheels were already

turning inside of my head. If the wraith pools did
nothing to speed healing, then I should be wearing
twin wounds on my arms as deep as the one across
his belly. Except that I wasn’t. My skin was as
smooth and unblemished as it had been on the day I
was born.

There wasn’t even a scar.
I stared up into his rage-filled eyes as

realization dawned. It was impossible to say who he
was angrier with, me or himself.

“You never cut me at all, did you?” I surged to

my  feet  because  the  pent-up  energy  wouldn’t  let
me  stay  still.  It  was  a  choice  between  pacing
around  the  fire  and  slapping  him  full  across  his
face.  I  knew  his  patience  could  only  be  pushed  so
far before it snapped. “It was all an illusion. All of
that blood spread all over the floor wasn’t mine at
all.  It  was  yours.  You  wanted  everyone,  including
me, to believe that you had cut me wide open.”

He averted his gaze, but didn’t deny the charge.

“You’re confused. Your blood was a requirement
for raising power.”

“But I didn’t bleed in the way that you made it

look.”

“This is nonsense.”
Inspecting my arms, I finally found it. There

was a nick so small that I could convince myself a
low-hanging tree branch had scraped me. This was
nothing compared to what a knife blade could do.
He had spared me the worst of it and cut himself.

And I needed to understand why.
“You made it seem so real even for me,” I

whispered.  A  strange  sensation  had  invaded  my
chest,  like  a  warmth  that  burrowed  deeper  in  the
same  way  a  parasite  would.  “You  wanted  all  of  us
to think you were capable of…that. Why?”

“I am capable of anything.” His gaze was cold

as  he  glared  down  at  me.  Before  I  could  react,  he
had  crossed  the  small  distance  separating  us  and
roughly pinched my chin between his fingers. “This
discovery  means  nothing.  You  may  think  I  won’t
hurt you, but I will. I have to.”

When I tried to pull away, his fingers tightened.

I felt a moment of genuine fear as his angry eyes
filled my vision. But then I reminded myself that he
had been given an opportunity to hurt me badly and
hadn’t taken it. In fact, he had chosen to hurt
himself instead.

Staring into his turbulent gaze, it almost seemed

possible to love him.

But it was almost as if he’d forgotten what

happened in the wraith pool. He gave absolutely
nothing away.

As if he saw the emotion in my eyes for

himself, Hades turned away from me with a pained
expression. “Return to the tent. I will stand guard
until morning. You must prepare yourself
tomorrow.”

Like always, I couldn’t stop myself from asking

the worst question. “What happens tomorrow?”

“We parlay with the darklings.

Chapter Thirteen

spent  a  fitful  night  lying  next  to  Ryn  in  the
tent  and  fighting  off  sleep.  When  he  yawned
and  stretched  his  arms  over  his  head,  I

squeezed my eyes shut so he wouldn’t know that I
was awake. My eyes didn’t open until I felt him get
up and leave, fabric flapping closed behind him.

It hadn’t escaped my notice that Hades didn’t

come  into  the  tent  at  any  point  during  the  night.
Either  his  claim  to  never  sleep  was  true,  or  he’d
managed  it  while  standing  upright  and  doing  an
endless  circuit  around  the  campsite.  Even  while
pretending  to  be  asleep,  I’d  tracked  his  every
movement  as  his  shadow  moved  across  the  fabric
of the tent. I couldn’t decide if it was hope or dread
that  had  me  watching  the  front  each  time  he
passed, wondering if he would finally come inside.

But he never did.
Once we were mounted together on the

unicorn, I felt the tension singing through his body.

“Tell me about the darklings,” I said.
“Why would you want to know anything about

them?” Ryn spat.

“Because we’re apparently about to make some

sort of deal.” I tried to turn back and look at him,
but Hades’s arm tightened around me, making that
impossible. “What aren’t you guys telling me?”

The desert sand around us looked like what you

would  see  inside  of  an  hourglass,  glittering  and
smooth.  Both  of  them  had  made  it  clear  that
stepping foot on it would be a deadly mistake, but I
couldn’t quite fight the impression that there was a
prettiness to it. The Mourning Fields wasn’t hot and
dry  like  I  had  assumed  it  would  be,  instead  a  cool
wind blew across the mounded sand.

“The darklings have lived in the Underworld

longer than almost any other creature, perhaps even
the  daemons.  They  are  territorial  and  hoard  their
magic.” Hades’s voice rumbled against my back as
he  spoke,  tearing  my  attention  away  from  the
glittering  sand.  “Darklings  are  vicious  and
bloodthirsty, but cunning.”

Ryn’s voice floated over us, sounding resigned.

“It isn’t only blood that they thirst for.”

The rest of the journey across the desert

continued in silence. They both seemed unwilling to

speak.

Forest trees thinned and disappeared behind us.

The  terrain  became  so  barren  that  I  struggled  to
remember  they  had  existed  at  all.  Sand  dunes  and
nothingness  extended  into  the  distance,  unbroken
by  anything  but  the  full  moon  hanging  high  in  the
sky.

It wasn’t until I saw the first dark peak of a

mountaintop  that  I  realized  we  were  headed  for
something  dire.  Sand  turned  to  melted  glass  under
the  horse’s  hooves  from  the  persistent  heat  in  the
ground.  The  horizon  became  dotted  with  bits  of
fiery red and orange that could only be the molten
tips of volcanoes. Dust settled in my mouth, making
it  dry,  and  I  wondered  how  much  of  human
imaginings of hell might have been based on this.

the

Underworld

had

consumed

imagination when I was a child, this was something
out of a nightmare. Black mountains dominated the
horizon, darker even then the night sky, a darkness
so penetrating that it felt like we were being sucked
into a void of nothingness. I had convinced myself
that Hades’s palace was the most dangerous place
in the Underworld, but I had clearly been mistaken.

We were journeying into the very center of hell.
I stared up at the red-tinged sky as I finally

spoke after hours of silence. “I don’t think I can do
it.”

The Mourning Fields might have been

intimidating in name, but it was nothing compared
to the black mountains dominated the horizon,
tipped with molten fire.

“We don’t have a choice,” Hades replied,

grimly.

But I fought to get down off the unicorn, its

pale white mane seemed more of a gray against the
penetratingly black backdrop of the mountains. It
was completely irrational, but I knew that entering
those mountains would mean death and destruction.

Hades wrapped both arms around me to keep

me from dismounting. In the struggle, my belly
ended up pressed against the unicorns’s back while
he gripped me under the arms in an attempt to pull
me back up.

“You can’t touch the ground,” he cried.
I was too far gone with fear to hear him. My

feet kicked out like pin wheels and I pushed against
the unicorn’s side with my hands while Hades held
onto me for dear life. The unicorn was tall enough
that my toes hovered almost a foot above the
ground.

“Let me go!”
I knew that we were supposed to stay on the

horses  until  we  reached  the  end  of  the  Mourning
Fields.  Neither  of  them  had  explained  to  me  what
would happen if I stepped foot on the sand, but the
implication  hadn’t  been  good.  In  that  moment
though, I didn’t care about anything except getting

as far away from Tartarus as possible.

“Help me with her, damn it—”
Hades’s grip involuntary loosened the smallest

amount  so  my  body  slipped  closer  to  the  ground,
enough  that  my  pointed  toes  were  almost  close
enough  to  scrape  the  ground.  I  heard  muted
hoofbeats, which meant Rynwas riding towards us.
By the time he reached us, I would lose my chance
to escape.

With one last desperate movement, I wrenched

one arm out of Hades’s grip while he still clung to
the other. My body slipped down the side of the
horse until my chest pressed against its side.

Only the pad of my foot brushed the glassy

sand, but that was enough.

Pain rocketed through me, flashing heat so

profound  that  I  opened  my  mouth  to  scream  but
didn’t have enough air left in my lungs to make any
sound.  I  could  have  pressed  my  flesh  up  to  a  hot
iron  and  it  wouldn’t  have  been  this  painful.  Fire
seared every nerve-ending, starting at my foot and
moving  upward  until  it  seemed  like  it  would
consume my entire body.

A strong arm wrapped around my waist and

hauled me backwards against a solid chest. Even no
longer touching the sand, the pain didn’t abate. I
stared down at my foot, surprised when I didn’t see
black, curling flesh because it felt like the
appendage had burst into flame.

“The pain will ease.” Hades’s voice rumbled

against my back. “Focus on your breathing, in and
out.”

His gentle tone did more to calm me down than

anything else and the pain eventually did start to
recede. I tried to take deep breaths, but they came
in hiccupping and gasping gulps as I fought back
sobs.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked, swiping at

the tears on my cheeks.

“The Mourning Fields cannot be traversed by

most  creatures  without  causing  pain  so  severe  that
it  makes  you  wish  for  death.  Hooved  animals,  like
horses  or  unicorns,  are  an  exception.  Although,  if
they  were  to  lie  down  on  the  sand,  they  would
experience the same affects as you did.”

“You could have told me that.” My voice was

caustic, but that was mostly because I hated how
good it felt to be nestled in his arms. Even the fear
had mellowed a bit, although I still really wanted to
go running in the opposite direction of those
mountains.

His tone was droll. “I made it clear that you

should not touch the sand. I did not realize
additional explanations were required. Do you also
require a detailed description of what will go wrong
if you were to stick your finger into an electrical
socket?”

I looked back over his shoulder to see Hades

watching me steadily. I recognized his expression
because I’d seen it a dozen times before. It was the
look people give when they think you’ve
completely lost your mind and might do something
truly crazy.

Like jump off a building or run off into a desert

that will burn you from the inside out.

It wasn’t as if I hadn’t earned that look, but that

didn’t mean I had to like it.

“You can let me go now,” I said with a sniff. “I

won’t try to get down again.”

Instead of answering, Hades’s arm settled more

solidly around me until it felt like a band of iron.
Clearly, he didn’t believe that I wouldn’t try to
make another run for it.

The fear was still there but felt significantly

more distant as I pressed back against him. His
fingers played gently along the sensitive skin of my
arm, almost absentmindedly, as if he didn’t even
realize he was doing it. It was a soothing gesture for
both of us. I loved and hated that.

Hades’s grip did not loosen as we approached

the mountains.

A high gate made of obsidian or black iron rose

above  us,  but  I  couldn’t  see  any  hint  of  what  lay
beyond  it.  My  mind  spun  out  terrible  fantasies  of
darklings living along the edges of active volcanoes,
throwing  each  other  into  them  for  fun.  I  no  longer
held  any  illusions  that  I’ve  already  seen  the  worst

that the Underworld had to offer.

The sand at our feet became patchy with soot

and  dark  ash  until  even  the  ground  had  turned
nearly  black.  As  we  drew  closer,  I  could  see  that
the gates weren’t made of metal all, but bone. Bone
that  had  been  coated  with  soot  until  it  was  black
and dull, like everything else in sight.

Skulls of every size and shape topped each

fence post. I stared at them a little too intently,
trying to figure out what sort of creatures they had
come from. Sick fascination was my only excuse
for not realizing we weren’t alone until Hades bent
to whisper in my ear.

“Say nothing. Let me do any of the talking.”
Apparently, he thought my mouth was likely to

get  us  in  trouble.  When  I  followed  his  gaze  to  the
line  of  darklings  approaching  in  black  and  red
armor, complete with helmets that had been molded
to  look  like  monstrous  faces  screaming  in  agony,  I
realized that he was probably right.

The souls were more varied in height than I

thought  they  would  be,  with  some  slightly  shorter
than  me  but  others  almost  as  tall  as  Hades.  Some
were squat like daemons, while others were so thin
that  it  seemed  almost  painful.  But  the  one  thing
they  had  in  common  was  how  unnatural  they
appeared,  slightly  twisted  and  malformed  in  a  way
that made my skin crawl.

All I knew was that I didn’t want them

anywhere near me.

Two dogs that were almost the size of donkeys

and  leaner  than  greyhounds  trailed  behind  the
darkling  who  stood  at  the  front  of  the  procession.
Their  fur  was  black,  shot  through  with  streaks  of
violent crimson that glowed faintly in the darkness.
They  had  eyes  colored  the  same  fiery  red,  making
them seem demonic.

Hellhounds, I realized as I recoiled.
Hades stopped his mount a handful of yards

away from the line of well-armored darklings. One
of the tallest of them stepped forward. The helmet
he  wore  masked  every  inch  of  the  darkling’s  face,
but  I  had  no  doubt  that  it  was  a  him.  His  armor
molded to his chest like it had been forged onto his
body.  The  cuise  covering  his  thighs  hugged
powerful  muscles  while  the  gap  between  them  left
no  question  that  he  was  very  much  a  male  of  his
species.

“The darklings welcome you to Tartarus,

Hades.” His voice was faintly mocking, even
muffled by the metal faceplate. “And a greeting for
your companions, as well.”

Ryn kept his horse well back from the line of

darklings. When I turned in Hades’s arms to look at
him, his eyes were wide with fear even as his hands
shook with anger. The characteristic humor was
gone from his expression and he looked ready to do
something violent.

He must have felt me stiffen because Hades’s

arms tightened around me in warning, a reminder
not to put any of my angry thoughts into words.

“We have come to solidify our truce with the

darklings,”  he  called  to  the  darkling  leader,  voice
echoing  against  the  walls  of  rock  surrounding  us.
The  gate  blocked  access  to  the  narrow  pass
between  two  gigantic  mountains  and  I  could  only
assume that the darklings lived somewhere beyond
it. “May we enter your domain?”

“Our domain?” The darkling raised his arms,

and I felt a flash of fear, thinking he was going for a
weapon.  But  he  only  lifted  his  hands  to  his  head
and removed that disgusting helmet. I expected the
face underneath to be twisted and deformed like so
many  other  things  in  the  Underworld,  but  this
darkling was beautiful. He had a square jaw and full
lips paired with eyes like pieces of jet. Claw marks
cutting  across  his  cheek  were  the  only  thing  that
tarnished the beauty of his face. That, and the cruel
smile twisting his lips. “Hades rules all that he sees,
from daemon to darkling. Is that not the way of it?”

“I am open to discussing any potential sources

of  discontent  among  your  people.”  Hades’s  voice
was  mild,  but  I  was  pressed  close  enough  to  sense
the  tension  singing  through  his  body.  “The
invitation  I  sent  welcoming  you  to  my  castle  must
have  gone  astray.  Although,  you  may  have  heard
that  I  have  much  to  offer  those  of  my  followers

who choose to be welcomed into the fold. Much is
open to discussion and negotiation, Azazel.”

The darkling’s eyebrows rose slightly at

mention  of  his  name,  as  if  it  surprised  him.  That
made  me  wonder  if  the  Hades  had  said  it  for  my
benefit. It wasn’t as if he had prepared me for this
in  any  meaningful  way.  I  wondered  if  my  lack  of
memory was meant to be a secret.

“And what of your lovely companions, are they

open for negotiation as well?” Azazel’s gaze passed
briefly over me and it felt like insects crawling
along my skin. Despite his beauty, I innately
understood that this man was very dangerous.

“We can come to no agreement while standing

at the gates,” Hades replied reasonably, which I
couldn’t help but note was neither an agreement
nor refusal. “Will you allow us to enter or have we
made the journey for nothing?”

“Enter as it pleases you, Hades.”
The gates slid open with an ominous creaking as

Azazel  stepped  to  the  side  to  allow  us  to  pass.  All
the other darklings followed his example, so we had
to  ride  between  them  like  passing  through  a
gauntlet.  Azazel  only  moved  far  enough  away  that
that  the  trail  of  my  long  dress  brushed  against  the
plate  metal  armor  covering  his  chest.  His  fingers
caught it for one flashing moment as I met his eyes
and a fearful awareness rushed over me.

I saw too many things in his eyes, but foremost

among them was hunger.

And I had no idea what it was he wanted from

us.

Ryn spurred his horse forward, so it pressed

close behind us, to the point that the white unicorn
kicked out its back legs in an aggrieved movement.
None of us were particularly happy about entering
the realm of the darklings.

The darklings trooped behind us in a line and

Hades allowed it, even though it felt very much like
having an enemy at our backs. I tried to ignore a
surge of fear as the bone gates swung closed behind
us, preventing any escape.

My fingers tightened around Hades’s arm in

reaction  and  I  made  an  involuntary  sound,  but  he
hushed  me  and  stroked  the  back  of  my  hand,  the
movement  surprisingly  soothing.  But  he  could
pretend all he wanted to, I knew that us being here
wasn’t an ideal situation. As Hades, he had only the
smallest  bit  of  control  over  the  darklings,  and  this
far from the center of his power anything could go
wrong.

But apparently, we were doing that thing where

we pretended everything was just fine until it all
blew up in our faces.

The air smelled of sulfur, thick enough to make

me gag on it. And that smell only grew stronger as
we rode through the pass and further into the
mountains. Dramatic rock faces rose skyward on

either side of us to blot out the full as the path
narrowed ahead of us. Our mounts picked their way
carefully down the rock-strewn path, but the terrain
quickly became something that only a billy goat
could easily traverse.

And then it only got worse.
The pass opened up into a path that comprised

solid mountain on one side and a sheer cliff face on
the other. I made the mistake of looking down and
saw  a  drop  hundreds  of  feet  down  into  the  cavern
below.  The  darklings  followed  behind  us  as  Hades
and  I  led  this  makeshift  procession.  I  wondered  if
that  was  because  they  wanted  to  see  us  fall  when
the jagged edge crumbled beneath us and we fell to
our deaths. I would have questioned whether Hades
knew where he was headed, except for the fact that
there was precisely one way forward.

I clung to Hades as the unicorn stumbled

underneath  us  for  the  briefest  moment,  sending
pebbles  and  small  rocks  skittering  over  the  side  of
the  cliff.  It  might  seem  preposterous  that  after
everything that had happened, this would be how I
died, but at this point I definitely saw a plummet off
the side in my future.

Rumbling sounded against the back and it took

me a moment to realize that Hades was laughing at
me.

“Unless you can fly, you need to shut the hell

up,” I harshly whispered, squeezing my eyes shut as

the unicorn stumbled again. God forbid he ride a
damn pegasus. Wings would be a lot more useful at
this point than a stupid horn.

“Duly noted,” he murmured back, but there

was a smile in his voice.

“If you get me killed, I won’t ever forgive you.”
“If I get you killed, there will be nothing to

forgive. My death will inevitably precede yours.”

I only had a moment to think about what he

meant by that ominous statement because I finally
caught sight of what the darklings had been hiding
deep in the mountains. And then I didn’t have any
attention left to give Hades, because I could only
focus on just how screwed we were about to be.

Chapter Fourteen

f Hades’s castle had made me think of
darkness and desolation, then I didn’t have
words for the place the darklings called home.

Their  fortress  had  been  built  into  the  very
mountains  themselves.  It  was  impossible  to  tell
where  the  towers  and  spires  began,  and  the
volcanic  peaks  ended.  Jagged  black  stone
surrounded  us  as  picked  our  way  down  a  narrow
trail that was barely a foot across with a sheer cliff
face on either side.

I studied the fortress so I wouldn’t look down

and guess how far we might fall if the unicorn lost
its  footing.  There  were  gaps  cut  into  the
mountainside and I realized they had to be windows
as  curious  faces  peered  down  at  us.  A  drawbridge
slowly  lowered  over  a  wide  chasm  as  we

approached, the only entrance into the fortress that
I could see.

Azazel strode ahead of us when we reached the

barred  door  of  the  fortress,  his  feet  practically
dancing  over  the  loose  rocks  as  he  leapt  between
them. “The council of darklings has agreed to speak
with  you,  dear  Hades.  Follow  me  to  the  meeting
chamber.”

Hades slid off the unicorn first and then pulled

me after him. His hands shook just the smallest
amount as he set them on my waist and helped me
the rest of the way off the unicorn’s back. That was
the only evidence of the nervousness that he kept
well hid under a placid expression. A small part of
me liked to see him off balance, but that was only
because he had done so much to make me fear him.

I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know what had

him so uneasy.

“I assume our mounts will remain unmolested,”

Hades said as we turned to the now open door.

“Certainly,” Azazel replied with a wide smile on

his face that promised nothing good. “You have
come to us under a banner of peace. No harm will
come to you or your creatures.”

For now hung in the air between us, unspoken

but heard by us all.

The fortress was so dark on the inside it was

impossible to see anything more than the gleam of
Azazel’s armor as we followed him down a wide

hallway. Hades kept one hand at my waist and used
it  to  pull  me  closer  to  his  side  as  the  hallway
narrowed, Ryn following along behind us. I held no
illusions  that  his  touch  was  meant  to  be  romantic.
No, it was purely possessive, as if he felt the need
to  stake  some  claim  in  front  of  the  darklings
watching us closely.

There was a clear undercurrent of tension that I

didn’t understand. It hadn’t escaped my notice that
Azazel said Hades’s title as often as he could away
with, like he taunted him with it.

The meeting chamber was an overly large room,

practically full to overflowing with darklings. A
long table had been placed along the far wall with
five chairs lined up behind it, although only four of
them were taken.

It didn’t surprise me when the crowd parted and

Azazel strode to the table to take the last seat at the
very center. As he settled into the last chair, it was
as if he took on some air of power. This man was
the most dangerous of all of them. I didn’t need
anyone to tell me that to know that it was true.

“Let the darkling council receive Hades, god of

the  dead  and  ruler  of  the  Underworld.”  Azazel’s
voice  boomed  over  the  whispered  conversations
and hushed murmurs, forcing them to quiet until he
had everyone’s undivided attention. “He is here to
prove  that  a  return  to  our  former  glory  is  possible
through continued allegiance to him.”

Hades stepped forward into the center of the

room,  pulling  me  along  with  him  as  the  crowd
backed  away  to  let  us  pass.  It  was  hard  not  to
notice  that  we  were  surrounded  as  I  pressed  close
to his side. If Hades wanted me to turn to him like
the only port in the storm, then he’d finally gotten
his wish.

“Greetings to you, darkling council, and I thank

you for your hospitality.” Hades spoke formally and
without inflection. But he didn’t address them like
a monarch with his subjects, more like a sovereign
nation that happened to be adjacent to his own. “I
have come before you to solidify our pact of peace
and offer you gifts from a land that has been
reborn.”

“You’ve come far afield for a social visit,”

Azazel commented, voice dry. “Speak plainly,
Hades. What is it you seek from the darklings?”

“I seek nothing. It is what I offer that should

interest you.”

An elderly darkling with a wizened face who

also sat on the tallest seat at table spoke next.
“Who is that with him?”

“The queen has apparently returned to us,

bringing renewed power with her.” Azazel said,
skepticism obvious in his voice. “But we’re still
waiting for proof.”

I couldn’t decide which part of that concerned

me more, the mention of darkness or trying to

figure out what kind of proof they were waiting for.
I wasn’t the dark one. Until a few days ago, I had
just been a normal girl.

Or at least, mostly normal.
“Cementing our allegiance is of utmost

importance,” the Hades said, inclining his head.
“What proof do you require?”

A darkling seated further down the table spoke.

“Orin lived in the palace. What does he think?”

“Orin is blinder than a mole rat,” Azazel

scoffed. “He can barely see past the nose on his
face.”

“And yet, the darklings still follow me,” the

wizened  one  drawled.  He  sat  almost  hunched  over
the  table,  but  it  was  obvious  that  some  power  still
resided  in  that  small  body.  All  the  other  darklings
fell silent as he spoke, save for Azazel.

“For now,” Azazel snapped, crossing his arms

over  his  chest.  The  silver  and  red  armor  that  he
wore caught in the small amount of light, refracting
like  a  prism.  That  flash  of  brightness  caught  my
attention. When I turned to look at him, Azazel was
staring  at  me  in  a  way  that  was  frankly  predatory.
He looked at me like he was ready to jump from the
table  and  land  on  top  of  me,  but  I  didn’t  think  it
was  violence  that  he  wanted.  His  gaze  bored  into
mine as he spoke in a threatening whisper. “My day
will come sooner than you think.”

“My son can be impulsive, but he speaks the

truth.”  Orin  turned  to  look  at  me  as  his  low  voice
echoed  in  the  silence  of  the  room.  No  one  else
spoke  as  Orin  considered  his  next  words.  Even
though he was smaller than the other darklings and
so  old  that  I  would  probably  have  difficulty
fathoming  the  number,  there  was  a  weight  to  his
gaze  that  kept  me  just  as  frozen  as  everyone  else.
“Bring her closer so I can see her better.”

Azazel muttered something that sounded like

blind as a bat, but it was difficult to know for
certain.

Ryn stayed close behind me as I took a half-

step closer. Darklings surged closer, but stopped as
Hades’s glare was leveled at them. Apparently, he
was intimidating enough that none of them would
risk his wrath individually.

But there were so many more of them than us.
Hades had not prepared me for this at all, which

had to have been deliberate. If I had known that
agreeing to meet with the darklings would result in
an interrogation, I never would have agreed to
come.

Orin’s eyes, filmy and white with cataracts,

turned  to  me.  He  might  actually  have  been  blind,
but  I  got  the  impression  he  looked  at  me  with
something  more  than  normal  vision.  “This  is
Persephone. I would stake my life on it.”

Gasps and shocked sounds came from the

gathered darklings, but the surly expression on

Azazel’s  face  didn’t  change.  He  slammed  his  fist
down  on  the  table,  silencing  the  crowd.  “I  don’t
believe  she  is.  Not  without  more  proof  than  the
ramblings of a senile old man.”

“I still lead here, boy.”
“But I command your army. They follow where

I lead and I am not convinced.” Azazel turned to
me with a smug smile. “This girl is not the princess,
she said it herself.”

The look Hades cast me was hot enough to melt

steel before he looked back at Azazel. “Who else
would she be, if not the Queen?”

“An imposter? A trick that you have paraded

before us because you know that you lack the
power to rule the Underworld through force.”

Hades spoke through gritted teeth. “I am ruler

here.”

“Prove it. Prove that you have the power to

rule us,” Azazel crowed, voice triumphant. He had
set a verbal trap and Hades had walked right into it.
“Prove  that  the  true  queen  has  returned  and  that
you  will  bring  us  back  the  glories  we  knew  for
millennia before you came along. Unless you can’t.
In  which  case,  we  will  kill  your  worthless
companions  while  you  fight  to  escape  with  your
own life.”

“You dare speak to me this way. I rule the

Underworld and every creature in it. I will meet
threats with violence. I am Hades!”

Hades’s voice was heavy with the threat, but

I’d spent enough time around him to hear the trace
of fear in his voice. Azazel had an army of
darklings behind him and we had strolled into their
mountain, letting them lock the gate closed behind
us.

And Hades had said himself that he lacked the

strength to magic us away. We were well and truly
trapped here.

“You are a pretty boy godling with delusions of

grandeur. Just because you took the mantle as ruler
of the Underworld when the old gods fell does not
mean another cannot take your place. Few of us are
old enough to remember a time before you, Hades.”
Azazel  rose  from  the  raised  table,  seeming
impossibly  large  for  a  darkling  as  he  loomed  over
us.  “But  I  was  a  boy  when  you  rode  through
Tartarus  on  a  shining  white  horse,  glimmering  like
precious  jewels  and  divine  excess,  convinced  you
shit  diamonds.  The  darklings  were  never  asked
what we thought of it. But I am telling you what I
think  right  now.  When  I  inherit  my  father’s
position, the first thing I will do is order my army to
march  on  your  precious  castle,  unless  you  can
convince  me  now  that  you  possess  the  strength  to
prevent  me  from  seizing  it  for  myself,  and  your
supposed  queen  along  with  it.”  Pure  and  covetous
evil  lit  Azazel’s  face  as  his  attention  turned  to  me,
gaze  boring  into  in  a  way  that  felt  like  a  sword

plunging  into  my  chest.  “At  one  point,  Demeter
was  meant  to  be  your  queen.  The  dark  goddess  of
the  harvest  promised  her  daughter  to  the  darklings
before  you  stole  her  from  us.  Persephone  would
have  been  given  to  the  darklings  before  you  stole
her from us.”

That was more than news to me. I glanced at

Hades, but his expression was stony and gave no
emotion away.

I remembered from the Tale of the Underworld

that Demeter, mother of Persephone, had originally
been engaged to marry Hades. Demeter had cursed
her daughter when she was spurned by Hades.

But there had been nothing in the story about

Persephone being promised to darklings.

I forced myself to speak, meeting his forceful

gaze with my own. “I belong to no one.”

“That remains to be seen.” Azazel’s smile

widened, revealing the sharp edge of his elongated
canines. Then he turned back to Hades, eyes
narrowing in challenge. “Show us your power,
Hades. Give us a show and perhaps you will make
it out of here alive.”

When I didn’t hear the angry response I

expected from Hades, I turned back to look at him.
And I didn’t exactly like the expression that I saw
on  his  face,  not  at  all.  He  didn’t  look  like  a  man
prepared  to  fight  and  die,  but  one  who  knew  that
surrender  had  become  his  only  option.  There  was

“I

Chapter Fifteen

am not letting you cut me up again, even
in an illusion,” I hissed to Hades as we
followed Azazel down the hallway. Even

with  the  lack  of  scars  and  the  wound  on  his  skin,
my  brain  wasn’t  quite  convinced  that  what
happened at the ball had been fake. And even if it
was,  I  still  remembered  the  pain  as  if  it  had  been
very much real.

We had negotiated for something more private,

with only Azazel and Orin present. But the younger
darkling  was  the  one  I  worried  about  the  most
because  all  the  others  would  follow  his  lead.
Regardless  of  their  long  lifespans,  Orin  would  not
rule the darklings for much longer. And as soon as
he  stepped  down,  there  would  be  nothing  standing
between us and war.

Unless we put on the same show that we had

during the masquerade ball.

“There is more than one way to raise power,”

Hades said, nothing about his tone reassuring. “But
I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

Azazel walked several yards behind us. I

glanced back to see his lips spread in a knowing
smile, that predatory look still in his eyes. He would
love to see me cut up and would do it himself if
given the chance.

“How?” I asked tightly.
But Hades just shook his head instead of

answering  and  glared  at  Orin’s  back.  The  darkling
was  taking  us  to  his  private  receiving  room.  He
didn’t  frighten  me  anywhere  near  as  much  as  his
son  did,  if  just  because  I  sensed  in  him  a  desire  to
play  fair.  But  that  didn’t  necessarily  make  any  of
this better.

“Do you know what he’s talking about?” I

asked Ryn, who walked a half-step behind me.

“I have my suspicions,” he replied sourly. “But

I think he should explain it to you himself,
considering he’s the reason that we’re here and all.
And if you’d like to try making a run for it, just say
the word.”

“We can raise power with touch, as long as I

am taking and you are giving. Flesh is as good as
blood.” Hades’s normal mask-like expression had
returned, though I couldn’t decide if he was hiding

disapproval or just unfettered shock. “If you will
offer it under these circumstances, then that is what
we will do.”

I didn’t love him, he already knew that. But

meaningless sex was still preferable to experiencing
the pain of my arms being split open down to the
bone. He was a moron for thinking otherwise.

Ryn made a protesting sound, but I glared him

to  silence.  He  didn’t  get  to  make  this  decision  for
me,  especially  given  the  situation.  Anything  would
be  better  than  going  through  something  like  what
happened at the masquerade ball again.

“Get on with it then.” Azazel let out a guffaw

and rubbed his hands together. “Let’s fuck.”

knelt at the center of a tattered rug with
Hades in the same position across from me.
We’d opted for the floor because the bed was

covered in the fresh skin of some kind of large
animal. I didn’t want to get anywhere near it.

Orin had left after showing us to the room,

probably because he didn’t want to see any of what
was  about  to  happen,  not  that  I  could  blame  him.
We  had  made  it  clear  to  Azazel  that  he  couldn’t
touch  me,  but  I  didn’t  trust  the  look  in  his  eyes.  I
knew that he was planning something, even if I had

no idea what that might be.

He wanted power, that much was obvious. But

the darkling didn’t strike me as the type to serve
happily underneath anyone, no matter how
powerful they might be.

I focused solely on Hades’s face as he stared

down  at  me.  There  was  no  expression  there,  the
cold  mask  firmly  affixed  in  place,  and  I  searched
his eyes for some indication of what he was feeling.
Was he hiding anticipation or was he dreading this
because  the  reality  of  me  could  never  compare  to
the  memories  he  held  onto  for  the  past  twenty
years?

As I stared, I couldn’t help myself from

imagining what sort of lover he would be this time,
when  it  wasn’t  a  dream  or  the  aftereffects  of
intoxicating  magic.  Demanding  or  considerate?
Would  he  throw  me  on  the  floor  and  take  me  like
an  animal  or  cradle  me  gently  while  whispering
sweet nonsense in my ear?

The thought of it already had stirrings of desire

curling in my belly. Even when I hated the sight of
him, those same questions had drifted in the back
of my mind. I wanted to know the answers more
than I cared about our hostile audience.

I wanted him, even if I wouldn’t ever admit it to

him out loud.

“Are you ready to begin?” Hades asked evenly.
“Doesn’t matter if I am,” I said with a shrug,

licking my suddenly dry lips. I was nervous, not so
much of him, but what my reaction to all this would
be. Somehow I knew that I would walk away from
this different from when it had begun. “Let’s go.”

“That’s the spirit,” Azazel called smugly. “I

want to see if that smooth skin continues all the
way down.”

“Quiet,” Ryn snapped. “If you interfere, then

our deal is void.”

Azazel raised an eyebrow. It was obvious he

baited us on purpose. “Does a court jester speak for
Hades, now? My, how things must have changed in
the castle.”

And I’d had about enough of all the

testosterone. They might as well be locking horns
like rams fighting during mating season.

“Everyone be quiet.” Before he could respond

to Azazel’s taunting, I grabbed Hades’s face with
both hands and pulled it towards mine. I whispered
against his frowning mouth. “If we put on a show
that might be enough to shut him up.”

His lips moved against mine in the briefest smile

before  parting  for  a  deep  kiss.  The  kiss  started
almost  sweet  as  he  leisurely  explored  my  mouth
and  my  body  melted  against  his.  He  didn’t  touch
me with any other part of his body, holding himself
back even now.

We’d kissed before, but never with this amount

of heat. He kissed me like he knew it would lead to

something more, drawing out the moment to build
anticipation. When I pressed forward to deepen the
kiss, he leaned back by the same distance so I had
to chase him.

I got the feeling that was what he wanted me to

do.

“Time is ticking, kiddos,” Azazel grumbled.

“And I get violent when I’m bored.”

Hades’s eyes flashed with angry heat. That was

the last thing I saw before he picked me up by my
arms and threw me down onto the floor.

I heard ripping fabric and then felt the rush of

cool air against my skin before I realized he had
torn my dress nearly in half.

His body settled between my thighs like it

belonged  there.  Before  I  could  think  too  much
about  how  good  it  felt,  he  grabbed  my  wrists  and
wrenched  them  over  my  head  in  a  violent  motion.
He pressed down hard enough that it was barely on
the right side of painful.

His lips slid against the shell of my ear as he

whispered. “Keep them here or I’ll be forced to do
it for you.”

Without waiting for a response, his hands slid

back down my arms and skimmed my sides as he
traced the curves of my body.

I should have known that Hades would be the

type to take control.

When his mouth closed over one of my nipples

and sucked hard, a shock of pleasure chased away
any more conscious thoughts. Large hands pushed
my breasts together so he could reach them both
without turning his head, licking and sucking at the
sensitive flesh.

My whole body felt like an electric current had

run through it, starting where his hands and mouth
touched my skin then shooting out to the rest of
me. Helpless sounds escaped my throat as I fought
to keep my hands where he’d put them. I wanted to
grip his head and force it down lower on my body,
closer to where I needed him most.

It wasn’t as if he had tied me down or used

magic to bind me, but I wanted to let him have that
control.  The  more  I  thought  about  letting  him  do
whatever  he  wanted  with  me,  the  higher  the
pleasure  surged.  That  was  enough  to  make  me
forget all about the pained expression on Ryn’s face
or the greedy one that Azazel wore.

“Please,” I whispered, not even sure what I was

begging him for.

Hades’s head lifted, a very masculine and

satisfied smile on his face. His mouth lowered
again, achingly slowly, and he set his teeth into the
mounded flesh on the side of my breast. He didn’t
relent until my back bowed and I begged him to
stop on harsh gasps of air.

“Pain helps the magic grow,” he murmured

against my skin. “And there is a type of pain that,

when combined with pleasure, is no longer really
pain at all.”

There was a question in his voice, even though

he  didn’t  make  it  sound  like  he  was  asking
permission.  That  was  likely  for  Azazel’s  benefit,
who  studied  our  bodies  like  he  was  imagining  the
horrible thing he wanted to do to them. It might not
be the best idea to let Hades hurt me for his benefit,
because that might give him even worse ideas.

But I also wanted it. So much.
“Show me,” I whispered.
Hades groaned like a drowning man who had

just gripped onto a life raft. “Move your hands and
I will make you regret it.”

His mouth lowered to my skin again, lip curled

in a feral smile. My body jerked as he nipped at my
breast again and then shifted down my body,
alternating between kissing and biting as he went.

My fingers curled into the rug underneath me,

nails  scraping  the  stone  floor.  I  parted  my  legs
wider  as  he  forced  his  wide  shoulders  between
them. He forced them even wider with the palms of
his  hands  and  let  out  an  amused  chuckle  when  I
groaned, muscles aching from the stretch.

I hadn’t been wearing anything under the dress,

mostly because the castle hadn’t seen fit to provide
any  underwear  with  the  rest  of  the  clothes.  I’d
forgotten  about  that  particular  detail  until  Hades
lowered  his  head  between  my  legs  and  there  was

nothing between his mouth and my skin except
empty air.

“Oh, I like this.”
I keep my lady parts waxed, just like every girl

in Los Angeles who wasn’t letting herself grow wild
as some sort of political protest. It was more a
hygiene issue than anything else and something I
did because I preferred it.

But the look on Hades’s face as his gaze took

me in was enough to make my toes curl. He looked
like he had just discovered the best prize at the
bottom of the cereal box.

I looked down the line of my body and his eyes

met mine as his mouth lowered to my skin. The eye
contact made this seem even more intimate than it
already was.

His tongue teased my outer lips with a touch

that was featherlight. He continued to watch my
face as he pleasured me, adjusting the pressure and
position in ways he had to know would drive me
mad.

I shifted my hips to force his mouth closer to

my center, but he responded by pulling away. He
planted a kiss in the notch where my inner thigh
met my bikini line.

Then he bit the skin hard enough to make me

jerk. “Be a good girl.”

“Then stop teasing me.”
He smiled with his mouth pressed against my

too sensitive skin. “No.”

This situation was so dangerous that it made me

feel  crazy  to  be  thinking  of  my  own  pleasure.  But
his  words  sent  a  spike  of  delicious  heat  running
through me. For the moment, it didn’t matter to me
that  Azazel  was  watching,  looking  for  any  excuse
to  go  to  war.  Or  that  Ryn,  who  hid  his  fragile
feelings  behind  a  veneer  of  bravado,  had  been
forced to be here and watch this.

All I cared about was whether Hades would put

his mouth on the place I needed him most.

Finally, because it felt like I had been waiting

for a lifetime, the very tip of his tongue stroked
through my folds and found my clit.

My hips jerked with enough force to lift my

body off the ground, but I kept my hands above my
head and pressed to the floor. He forced my thighs
apart when they trembled and tried to close
involuntarily, his mouth determined in its
destination.

The first swipe of his tongue over my clit made

me  forget  how  to  breathe.  My  butt  arched  off  the
floor  to  press  myself  closer  and  he  created  a  shelf
with  his  palms  under  my  thighs  to  force  me  even
harder against his mouth. A low groan reverberated
against my skin when his lips slid further down and
found me soaking wet.

My nails drove so hard into the floor that I felt

them break under the pressure. The urge to grip

handfuls of his hair or stroke his face, touch him in
any way that I could, was overwhelming. I had
never wanted to be fucked so badly in my entire
life.

“Just do it, I can’t take it…” My voice trailed

off on a breathy sigh when his tongue pushed inside
me.

“Patience,” he whispered, kissing the top of my

mound. “Is a virtue.”

“Not today it fucking isn’t.”
He bit down hard on the curve of my belly and

I screamed as the sharp scent of blood filled the air.
It  should  have  hurt  enough  to  chase  away  the
pleasurable  haze,  but  had  precisely  the  opposite
effect.  Delicious  heat  spiraled  through  my  body,
surging  higher  as  a  current  of  electricity  shot
straight  from  where  his  mouth  met  my  skin  to  my
aching  center.  I  could  feel  myself  growing  wetter
and more ready with each passing second.

Hades stalked over my body like a predator that

had  just  taken  down  its  kill.  The  look  on  his  face
was  more  animalistic  than  I’d  ever  seen  it  as  his
stormy eyes became level with my own. He looked
at  me  like  he  wanted  to  eat  me  and  it  was
impossible to know if the urge was more human or
animal.

The thick length of his cock pressed against my

thigh. I looked down to see that the head of it was
tinged red from where it had rubbed against the

bloody imprint of his teeth on my belly. That should
have disgusted me, but it didn’t.

In that moment, there was nothing he could do

to me I wouldn’t welcome.

He braced himself on his elbows as he stared

down  at  me.  His  hands  moved  up  to  clasp  mine,
and  he  gripped  them  hard,  as  if  warning  me  that
there  was  still  more  barely  restrained  violence  to
come.

We kissed as his hips drove forward. His mouth

swallowed my cry at the force of his sudden
invasion. There was no opportunity to adjust to the
thrusts because every time I lifted my hips to meet
his, he altered the depth or the speed so I had no
choice but to accept whatever he gave me.

His long hair fell around our heads like a

curtain, blocking out my view of the room. That
made it easy to pretend like we were alone in our
own little world, a world where the press of his skin
against mine and the way he felt inside me were the
only things that mattered.

The soft kisses he brushed across my mouth and

cheeks were completely at odds with the harsh
force of his thrusts. He pounded into me as if he
wanted to turn my body inside out, merge us until it
was impossible to tell where he ended and I began.

He captured my lips again in a gentle kiss, even

as he forced himself deep enough to bottom out
inside of me. I’d always hated it when guys were

long enough to hit my cervix, and the sharp stab of
pain when they went further than my body seemed
designed to accommodate. But with Hades, I
welcomed that feeling because somehow he made it
so I liked the way it hurt.

Rug fibers burned against my back as the force

of his thrusts ground my body into the floor. Every
nerve ending in my body felt alive, my skin lit up
like a Christmas tree with pleasure, pain and
everything in between.

Pleasure spiraled higher, icy shocks that made

my toes go numb and clenched the muscles deep in
my belly. It wouldn’t be much longer before I came
hard enough that it knocked me unconscious.

Hades brought my arms down, so they wrapped

around his neck. One thumb stroked along my
cheek, the movement almost loving despite the fire
burning in his eyes.

“Are you ready?” he asked, gaze boring into me

while  too  many  contradictory  emotions  swirled  in
his  eyes.  I  saw  anger  and  obsession,  hate  and  the
sort  of  love  that  could  only  lead  to  destruction.
“The magic is waiting.”

I had no idea what he was asking me, but that it

was too late to stop this.

Even if I had the strength to try.
My head had only moved in the barest nod of

assent when he yanked me up into his arms. His
hands gripped my hips hard enough to bruise as he

sat up and settled me on his lap so I straddled him.

The hard look on his face sent a thrill of fearful

anticipation through me. “Hades…”

When I whimpered his name, it seemed to

finally  break  the  last  bit  of  control  he  held  over
himself.  His  hands  wrapped  around  my  back  and
pulled  me  down  onto  him  as  he  thrust  up  into  me
with the force and speed of a jackhammer.

He had been gentle until now.
Grunts and moans assaulted my ears, and I

didn’t  know  which  of  us  created  what  sounds.  He
fucked  me  like  a  ravaging  conqueror,  claiming  my
body  for  his  own.  His  mouth  touched  my  neck  as
he laid a gentle kiss there before his lips parted and
I felt the sharp edge of his teeth.

Arms tightened around my waist, forcing me

sharply exhale. And then he bit down hard on the
curve of my neck so I no longer had enough air to
scream when pain rocketed through me.

Our skin glowed with unearthly light, brighter

than  a  full  moon  against  black  and  starless  sky.
Power  built  in  the  air,  higher  and  higher.  It  was
enough  to  choke  on,  the  pressure  of  it  beating
against  my  skin  and  forcing  itself  into  my  lungs
until my screams turned silent.

His arms around me kept me from moving

away, even as I fought to breathe because all the
oxygen had been sucked from the room.

The glow blew out from us like an explosion,

bathing  everything  in  blinding  light  that  I  knew
would  extend  down  the  winding  hallways  and  fill
the darklings’ mountain enclave. All of them would
feel  the  power  filling  their  lungs  and  beating  their
skin.  They  would  all  know  what  was  happening
here.

His cock jumped inside me, pulsing in a way

that no human man’s could. My arms squeezed
around his neck as if he was the only port in a
storm, even though I knew he was the very eye of
this hurricane.

Orgasm hit me with the force of a punch to the

stomach  and  I  screamed  with  pleasure  and  pain.
Hades came with me, with a groan like his soul was
being  ripped  from  his  body.  Liquid  splashed  my
insides as he forced himself as deep as he could go,
hot  enough  that  I  wondered  if  it  would  burn  me
from the inside out.

I collapsed against him because I no longer had

the strength to keep myself upright. His arms stayed
around me as he lowered us to the floor, weakness
overtaking him in the same way. I turned my head
to the side, so it rested against his chest, finally
aware again that we weren’t the only people in the
universe, much less even the room.

Azazel was on his knees at the very edge of the

rug,  the  look  on  his  face  making  it  clear  that  he
pressed  as  close  to  us  as  the  surge  of  power  had
allowed.  He  watched  me  with  obvious  desire,  but

instead of my breasts or my ass, his gaze focused
on the wound at my neck. As if all he wanted in the
world was to crawl forward and lick the last of the
blood from my skin.

Ryn still stood, but his back pressed against the

door  as  if  he  tried  to  get  away.  The  daggers  were
raised in a defensive posture, warding off whatever
the magic had made him feel. When our gazes met,
he  stared  for  a  long  moment  before  looking  away,
as  if  he  couldn’t  bear  to  see  whatever  was  in  my
eyes.

Hades’s pale hair spread out around us, strands

mixing with my own sable waves and creating a
stark contrast. We had been twisted together,
complete opposites that somehow seemed perfectly
matched when put together.

Purity and vice.
Light and dark.
Two halves of one whole.
I shifted to look at his face. He gave me a

wondrous  smile  that  made  him  seem  even  more
beautiful  than  should  have  been  possible.  As  our
eyes met,  I realized  this  was what  it  felt like  to  be
adored.

He loved me.
And for the first time, feeling the same way

about him felt possible, even likely if we continued
on this way.

Warmth suffused my limbs, making my body

feel heavy and lethargic. I recognized distantly that
I was about to pass out. Raising so much power had
wrung me out until it was too much to ask that I
even remain conscious.

By contrast, Hades’s body practically quivered

with barely suppressed energy. I knew that he
resisted the urge to leap to his feet, energized and
ready for anything.

No matter how much I enjoyed it, that was the

nature of what existed between us. I would give,
and then he would take, until I had nothing left.

My last thought before oblivion took me was

that love hadn’t been enough to overcome the
suffering before. I had no reason to believe it would
be enough now. But in this moment, I really wanted
it to be.

Even when it inevitably killed me.

Chapter Sixteen

donis surveyed the mess of papers spread
out over the cheap card table where he
used to eat his meals, back when things

like food mattered to him. The crystal orb sat on its
little wooden stand in the middle, mocking him.

“Are you sure this will work?” he asked for the

dozenth time.

“I won’t pretend to know how it got to our

world, but this is one of Hades’s orbs. I’d stake my
life  on  it.”  Cleo  was  excited  enough  not  to  be
annoyed  that  they  had  already  had  this  exact
conversation  a  few  minutes  ago.  “And  if  it  can  be
here,  then  there’s  no  reason  why  we  can’t  be
there.”

“In the Underworld.”
Even saying it made him remember the torture

he had suffered. Daemons sneaking up behind him
in  the  dark  and  scratching  him  with  their  nails  or
prick him with their daggers, just so they could lick
the  blood  from  his  skin.  Even  though  he  felt  the
pain  of  it  and  smelled  the  tang  of  blood  in  the  air,
he  would  look  down  at  himself  and  see  only
unbroken  skin.  He  could  never  be  sure  which
tortures  were  real  and  which  he  only  imagined,
making all of it so much worse.

Cleo watched him with a sympathetic gaze.

“They really worked you over, didn’t they?”

“That’s one way of putting it. Hades seemed to

have a hard-on for making me suffer.”

“He was jealous,” she replied airily, as if it was

the  most  obvious  thing  in  the  world.  “That  means
he  saw  you  as  a  threat,  which  he  totally  should.  I
can’t wait to see that jerk’s face when we show up
and  go  all  aggro  on  his  ass.  I  mean,  he  basically
kidnapped Seph. And the moment she sees you, it’ll
be like a scene out of a Hallmark movie. She hates
Hades even more than we do.”

But Adonis wasn’t so sure about any of that,

especially  the  part  where  Seph  became  Hades’s
unwilling  victim.  He  knew  her  better  than  pretty
much anyone else, probably even Cleo, and he saw
the  strength  in  her  that  everyone  else  usually
overlooked.  Seph  was  quiet  and  eccentric,  but  she
wasn’t  a  pushover.  Her  stubbornness  was
something  he  had  run  up  against  on  multiple

occasions.

Nobody forced Seph to do things she didn’t

want to do, including Faery kings in stretch pants.

They’d had one moment together that had been

little more than a dream. And that clearly hadn’t
been enough to bring her back to him.

“What if she doesn’t want to come back?”
Cleo’s mouth fell open. “You did not just say

that.”

“You said yourself that you disappeared into a

hole  before  they  got  inside  the  castle.”  Adonis
wanted so desperately to be convinced that the love
of  his  life  was  waiting  for  him  to  rescue  her  like  a
damsel-in-distress.  But  he  couldn’t  fight  the
thought that Seph was no damsel, and he wasn’t the
dashing  prince  in  this  story.  “So  you  don’t  know
what happened after that, what that jerk might have
said to convince her—”

“I saw them together,” Cleo snapped,

interrupting him. The angry expression on her face
made  it  clear  exactly  what  she  thought  about
Hades.  “I  saw  the  way  he  tormented  her,  messed
with  her  head.  There  is  no  way  she  would  just
choose  to  stay  with  him  of  her  own  free  will.  I
promise you that.”

There was a half-full bottle of bourbon on the

table in front of him, but all the glasses in the house
were dirty because he hadn’t done the dishes in
over a week. The liquor was the same private stock

he’d  drank  with  Seph  at  the  Stockhouse  on  the
night  they  all  disappeared  into  a  damn  fairyland.
Every  time  he  saw  the  bottle  with  its  hand-printed
label, he thought of her.

He picked it up and took a swig directly from

the bottle while Cleo looked on in obvious
disapproval. She made a point of glancing at the
stove clock, where the red numbers glowed a time
that was barely past noon.

As if he gave a fuck about time at this point.

The hours he’d spent in the Underworld had felt
like days, so those minutes ticking away didn’t
matter to him at all.

“What happened then?” he asked, coughing as

the  bourbon  burned  a  trail  down  his  throat.  “You
made it sound like she was moments from reaching
the  castle  when  you  got  separated.  Hades  would
have  kept  all  of  us  if  she  didn’t  make  it  in  time.
Why did we make it home, and she’s still there?”

Cleo sighed. “I don’t know.”
“She was all alone.” He took another swig of

bourbon,  even  though  it  did  nothing  to  ease  the
tight feeling in his chest. “She was alone and Hades
could have said anything to her, convinced her not
to  leave  using  one  of  his  many  tricks.  No  one  else
would  have  been  there  to  stop  him  from
manipulating her with false promises and lies.”

A strange expression crossed Cleo’s face. She

opened her mouth as if to say something but then

closed it again, an almost guilty look in her eyes.

“What?” he asked, leaning forward in the chair

so she couldn’t look away. “What aren’t you telling
me?”

“Seph wasn’t exactly alone.” She bit her lip at

his glare and rushed to add. “I didn’t think it was
important to get into all the details, but there were
people that helped us get through the Underworld.”

“People?”
She blew out a rush of air that was hard enough

to  ruffle  the  long  bangs  that  swooped  across  her
forehead.  “Guys,  okay.  But  they  weren’t  like
normal  dudes.  One  of  them  was  basically  made  of
stone  and  the  other  could  make  parts  of  his  body
disappear.”

Painful pressure built in his chest and he

couldn’t  decide  if  it  was  anger,  fear  or  a
combination  of  both.  “These  guys  helped  you  get
through  the  Underworld.  How  did  they  do  that
exactly?”

“They kept me from eating garbage that

probably would have killed me, for one. Seph never
would have been able to wake me up from Hades’s
illusion if they hadn’t been there to tell her how to
do it.”

It was anger, he decided. More than a little of

which was aimed at Cleo for being so colossally
stupid. “And what makes you think they weren’t
working for Hades the entire time?”

“Because we never would have made it through

the Underworld on our own. I’d still be sitting on a
pile of filth and watching a TV that was really just a
refrigerator box with a square cut out of it.”

Adonis had never had to try so hard to stop

himself  from  throwing  something  as  he  did  in  that
moment.  The  neck  of  the  bourbon  bottle  was
gripped in his hand and he glared at the crystal orb
that  sat  at  the  center  of  the  table.  It’s  blank  and
glassy  surface  mocked  him.  How  many  orbs  just
like  this  one  had  Hades  surrounded  him  with,
taunting  him  with  images  of  Seph?  He  wanted  to
smash  the  thing  into  a  thousand  pieces,  but  took
another  swig  from  the  bottle  instead.  Hard  drugs
had never been his thing, but if someone showed up
right  now  to  offer  him  something  that  could  force
all  of  this  anger  and  pain  away,  he  would  happily
take whatever it was, even if it killed him.

“Did it ever occur to you that was exactly what

Hades  wanted?”  He  asked,  voice  so  soft  that  he
could barely hear himself over the background hum
of  decades  old  appliances  in  his  kitchen.  “These
guys were right there to convince her she needed to
stay,  just  like  that  dick  wanted.  You  let  Seph  walk
right into a fucking trap.”

Cleo’s mouth fell open as she stared at him in

surprise. Adonis rarely cursed, not usually even the
softer words. His mother was the type to bring a
fluttering hand to her chest if he took the Lord’s

name in vain, much less anything else. But he was
quickly losing touch with who he was. It was one
thing to think that Seph had been stolen away, kept
unwillingly in a nightmare, but if she had chosen
it…

He couldn’t bear the thought.
She took a deep breath before responding. “You

didn’t meet them. Cerberus and Ryn hate Hades as
much as we do. He hurt them. They would never
encourage her to stay with him.”

But pieces were already starting to fall into

place  for  him,  snippets  of  conversation  he  had
overheard while in the castle and things Hades said
that  had  made  no  sense  at  the  time.  That  monster
had  been  desperate  to  make  Seph  stay  with  him,
even  mining  Adonis’s  memories  to  do  it.  No  ploy
would be sinking too low.

“Seph got into a car wreck about a month ago

because  she  swerved  when  she  thought  she  saw  a
frog  in  the  road.”  An  almost  deadly  calm  had
entered  his  voice,  as  if  his  body  responded  to  the
heightened  emotion  by  shutting  down.  “Did  you
know that?”

Cleo blinked, but didn’t look away from him.

Her expression made it clear he was making her
nervous. “Of course. I was the one who picked her
up from the service station so she wouldn’t have to
call Diana.”

“Seph won’t use bug spray even when the

mosquitos  are  at  their  worst  because  she  says  it
isn’t  right  to  kill  something  that’s  just  trying  to
survive.  Mouse  traps  are  out  of  the  question,  even
the humane ones. She told me to put cheese in the
hallway to lure rodents out of my apartment when I
mentioned  that  I  was  thinking  about  calling  an
exterminator.  Seph  doesn’t  think  about  herself
when  a  living  creature  might  be  in  danger.  And
she’d be the first one to sacrifice her own safety, if
it meant saving someone else.”

“Shit.” She finally looked away as if the

intensity in his gaze was too much for her. “Do you
think she sacrificed herself for us so we could come
back?”

“It doesn’t matter. All we have is a crystal ball

and a bunch of nonsense printed off the Internet.
None of this matters!”

Adonis had never felt anything like this rage. It

suffused  his  entire  body  and  made  it  impossible  to
focus on anything else. His arm flung out in a wild
movement,  sending  the  nearly  empty  bottle  of
bourbon flying across the kitchen to smash against
the  refrigerator.  The  glass  bottle  was  too  thick  to
break,  but  the  sound  it  made  reverberated  through
the room like a gunshot.

Cleo barely reacted, just moved the orb so it

was out of reach. “I hope that made you feel
better.”

He glared at her. “How can you be so cold?”

“I’m not cold. I’ve just seen worse than

anything  you  can  come  up  with,  no  matter  how
pissed  off  you  get.  Point  a  gun  at  me  like  my  dad
did the last time I saw him and then you might get
me a little nervous.” She went to pick up the bottle
and  set  it  on  the  counter  with  a  sigh.  Her  fingers
touched  the  rim  for  a  brief  moment  before  pulling
away as she turned back to him. “This isn’t going to
help,  by  the  way.  Numbing  yourself  just  makes
everything that much worse when you finally sober
up.”

The anger was still there, simmering under the

surface. But as she stared at him with an endlessly
patient expression on her face, it seemed possible
to maintain at least a little control over himself.
“I’m sorry.”

“I know.” Cleo came back to the table and sat

down across from him. “You have a right to be
angry. Just don’t throw anything else at me and
we’ll be good.”

Adonis didn’t want her to tell him that it was

okay  to  be  angry  because  that  emotion  already
threatened to take him over in the most devastating
way  possible.  He  felt  on  the  verge  of  tearing  the
apartment  down  around  their  ears.  “Tell  me  again
that you can do something.”

“You’re right that most of this metaphysical

stuff is bunk.” She shuffled the papers around.
Almost all of them were from Google searches that

landed on bizarre websites named Modern Dieties
or Lore and Rituals of the Gods. “But I found this
one incantation that I think might be the real thing.
It’s supposed to be used to travel between worlds.”

“If it works then why isn’t everybody flying

around the universe like a coked-up Superman?” he
asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“First of all, asshole. If this is a proper spell,

then you need magic to get it to work, dressing up
in weird clothes and lighting sage in your bedroom
isn’t going to cut it. And second, you need a focus.
Something that’s in your own world but came from
another.” Setting down the page, she picked up the
orb still sitting on the table next to her and held it
up. “We have our focus. Now, we just need to find
someone with magic.”

“You make it sound so easy.” He laughed, even

though none of this was even remotely funny. “I’m
pretty sure there’s like a million-dollar prize being
offered by some Vegas magician to anyone who can
prove that magic is real. If spells posted online
actually worked, then I think someone would have
claimed it by now.”

“I don’t think real witches or whatever usually

spread their secrets around,” Cleo replied pertly.
“We just need to find someone willing to try.”

“And we’re going to look where exactly?”
Her expression turned sheepish. “Forgotten

Realms might be a good place to start, since that’s

where we found the orb.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’ve been back there,

haven’t you?”

She had the grace to look abashed. “Just like a

few times, and only when I was sure Diana wasn’t
following me. They sell some cool stuff. And that
foul-mouthed little girl who works behind the
counter seems to know her mystical shit.”

“That girl looked like she was twelve.”
“Fifteen,” Cleo responded hotly, then hesitated.

“I think.”

“And still so precocious for her age.” Adonis

resisted the urge to tell Cleo precisely what he
thought about their chances with a high schooler
and a crystal ball. “Didn’t she say that you had like
a third eye, or something like that?”

Cleo shrugged. “I don’t know about any of that.

But that shop is the only decent lead we have.
Might as well try it.”

A loud banging on the door stopped him from

answering. He glanced at Cleo, wondering if she
was expecting someone. It would have been pretty
ballsy of her to invite people over to his house
without asking first, but there wasn’t much he’d put
past her in that department. But the look of surprise
on her face had to mean she didn’t know who was
out there either.

This building wasn’t exactly in the best part of

town and there was almost always someone coming

or  going.  At  least  one  of  his  neighbors  dealt  dime
bags,  and  he  was  sure  that  the  unit  down  the  hall
had at least ten people living in it who all worked at
the  garment  factory  a  few  blocks  away.
Occasionally someone would come knocking on the
wrong door and he’d have to shoo them toward the
right apartment.

The loud knocking came again, this time

accompanied by a commanding voice. “I know
you’re both in there. Please let me in.”

“It’s Diana,” Cleo mouthed with wide eyes.
And because she hadn’t been careful enough

coming here, now he had to deal with Seph’s foster
mother.  His  annoyance  spiked  again,  and  he  knew
that  he  didn’t  have  enough  patience  to  deal  with
this  pleasantly.  That  woman  had  seen  to  it  that  he
had endured multiple rounds of interviews with the
cops, where he either had to lie or look like a crazy
person.

“If she thinks I did something to Seph, then we

can settle this right now.” Adonis stood with
enough force that it sent the folding chair he’d been
sitting on toppling to the floor. He stomped to the
door and ripped it open. “What do you want?”

The anger deflated a bit as soon as he got a look

at what was on his doorstep.

Diana no longer seemed like the impressively

put together and intimidating force that he was used
to seeing. Lines of stress creased her face and

instead  of  the  smooth  waves,  her  long  ebony  hair
was  pulled  into  a  messy  bun  on  top  of  her  head.
This  close,  he  noticed  there  was  the  finest
smattering of white at the temples. It was as if she
had  aged  ten  years  since  the  last  time  that  he  had
seen her.

“I need to talk to you,” she said. “Both of you.”
He realized with a start that her gray eyes were

a very similar color to Seph’s, not exactly but close.
That realization froze the angry reply on his tongue.

Diana looked at Cleo, who was practically

hiding behind the half-wall that separated the
bedroom area from the rest of his studio apartment.
Her smile was more than a little sad. “You’ve been
avoiding me.”

“Not at all,” Cleo insisted, even though it was

obviously a lie. “I’ve just been really busy.”

“Too busy to answer your phone.”
“Oh, you know how finicky this damn thing can

be.”

With a sigh, Seph’s foster mother surveyed the

small apartment. Whatever she thought about it,
she kept to herself. But judging from the Birkin bag
hanging loosely from her hand and the black Ralph
Lauren overcoat she had draped over her
shoulders, this was the very definition of slumming
it for Diana.

But it was impossible to read anything from her

gaze when she turned back to Adonis and raised a

midnight black eyebrow. “May I sit?”

Feeling suddenly embarrassed, he hurried to

clear  a  space  on  the  couch  that  was  covered  in
notebooks and papers. Cartons of old Chinese food
littered  the  coffee  table,  and  he  grabbed  a  handful
of them to carry to the kitchen trash. Even though
Diana  hadn’t  said  a  word,  he  knew  that  his
apartment looked like raccoons had been nesting in
it for weeks. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” Diana replied primly.

Her level gaze stayed on them until both Cleo and
Adonis each grabbed a folding chair and brought it
to  the  other  side  of  the  coffee  table.  Once  all  of
them  were  seated,  she  spoke  again.  “It  has  been
two  weeks  to  the  day  since  Persephone  went
missing.  I’m  not  sure  how  much  longer  I  can  take
feeling like I’ve done nothing about it.”

Adonis assumed that he understood her

meaning.  “We  didn’t  do  anything  to  hurt  Seph,  I
swear.  And  if  we  knew  how  to  bring  her  back,  we
would. The police have asked us dozens of times at
this  point.  If  we  knew  where  she  was,  then  we
would have admitted it to them. We want her back
as badly as you do.”

Her gaze rested on the orb for a split second

before shifting away. “But you do know something,
don’t you? You need to tell me, whatever it is. I’m
willing to believe anything. I promise you that.”

Adonis opened his mouth to insist again that

they knew nothing, but Cleo beat him to it. “You
wouldn’t believe this.”

“Cleo,” he hissed.
“It’s a crazy story,” she continued, pulling away

when he tried to pinch her into silence. “Like, not
the kind that a normal person would just believe.”

Diana straightened as her gaze narrowed with

sudden intensity. “Tell me.”

Adonis was forced to listen in horror as Cleo

laid  out  the  truth.  The  complete  truth.  She  spilled
everything,  from  the  moment  that  they  read  the
words  from  the  play  while  hanging  out  at  the
Stockhouse  then  waking  up  in  the  Underworld  to
ending up in their beds the next morning as if only a
few hours had passed.

And Diana listened to all of it without so much

as a change of expression, even though the rush of
words sounded indistinguishable from the ravings
of a madwoman.

Finally, Cleo stopped talking. She studiously

avoided looking at Adonis who still glared at her.

He turned back to look at Diana, expecting to

see outrage or disgust, but instead she looked
pensive, even considering.

“And this man is the one who you think has her

now?”

Adonis was shocked. “You believe us?”
Back ramrod straight, Diana straightened. Her

height was imposing even while seated. “I have

been  caring  for  Persephone  since  she  was  a  child
and  she  has  always  been  a  magnet  for  strange
things.  For  a  long  time,  I  thought  her  instability
resulted  from  trauma  and  so  I  hired  all  the
specialists that money could buy to get her treated.
But once I started listening to her, really listening, I
realized  there  was  a  method  to  even  her  madness.
As  I’ve  started  going  through  her  old  journals  and
artwork,  I  wonder  if  there’s  something  I’ve  been
missing  all  along.  My  heart  aches  to  think  what  I
might have subjected her to out of ignorance. All I
want now is to have Seph back.”

Her voice broke on the last words, and a pang

of sympathy shot through Adonis. He’d spent this
entire time thinking of Diana as a woman to avoid.
It had never occurred to him that all of them were
on the same side.

Which made sense, because they all wanted the

same thing.

“It felt real at the time, more real than almost

anything ever has.” He couldn’t quite bring himself
to  admit  that  a  story  this  fantastical  could  be  true.
He knew that it was, but listening to Cleo describe
everything  that  happened  to  them  made  him  feel
like he should be the one seeking professional help.
Sitting  in  his  crappy  apartment  with  the  sound  of
the neighbors coming through the walls, he couldn’t
truly  believe  in  the  Underworld.  “And  we  know
that  Seph  is  gone  when  she  would  never  just

disappear on her own. Everything else still has a
question mark behind it.”

“We have a spell.” Cleo leapt up from her chair

and went to retrieve the papers still laying on the
table. “I can’t explain it, but I just have a gut
feeling that this will work. We just need somebody
with actual magic to cast it for us.”

To Adonis’s even deeper surprise, instead of

scoffing, Diana studied the page as if it wasn’t just
nonsense printed from a random website. Seeming
to come to some decision, she passed the page back
to Cleo and clasped her hands together in her lap.

“I think we should try the spell ourselves first

and  not  waste  any  more  time.  If  it  doesn’t  work,
then  we  can  decide  on  a  different  plan.”  Diana’s
voice was resolute, but there was a note of surety in
her  tone  that  surprised  him.  Clearly,  she  was  the
type  of  person  who  didn’t  leave  room  for  doubts
once she decided on something. “We should easily
be  able  to  find  everything  that  this  paper  says  we
need. I assume that ball is the focus it mentions.”

He followed her gaze to the orb, light winking

off it in a way that sent a shiver down his spine.
“How did you know that?”

Diana’s thin lips briefly twitched into a rueful

smile. “It’s the only thing in this apartment not
covered in a layer of dust.”

Something about this seemed too easy to

Adonis, too pat. Diana had been dogging their steps

for weeks as if both of them were her prime
suspects in Seph’s disappearance. Now, she not
only seemed to believe their story but was ready to
drop everything and help them.

It made him feel like something important was

happening here that he didn’t understand.

“Assuming we ever get the spell to work and

we  transport  ourselves  to  the  Underworld,  what
then?”  Adonis  asked,  forcing  himself  to  focus  on
what was important. “That place is more dangerous
than  walking  through  skid  row  at  midnight  with
cash hanging out of your pockets. Hades isn’t going
to just let Seph go. What are we going to do about
him?”

Diana rummaged in the bag at her side before

she answered him. When she pulled her hand back
out,  a  dagger  was  gripped  in  her  fist.  The  metal
blade  was  so  black  that  it  seemed  to  absorb  the
light  instead  of  reflecting  it  as  she  held  up  the
weapon  for  him  to  see.  Its  deadly  sharp  point
looked  capable  of  cutting  through  anything,  or
anyone.

When she spoke, her voice was full of deadly

intensity.

“You’re going to kill him.”

Chapter Seventeen

was too weak to move as multiple voices
talked over me.

Hades’s voice was a low rumble that

reverberated through my bones. The force of him
beat against my eyelids and rang in my ears. I knew
without looking that he was within arm’s reach, if I
still had the strength then I could reach out and
touch him.

From the tone, Azazel was thrilled with what he

had seen, even if he didn’t want to admit it. There
would  be  no  more  talk  of  war,  even  as  Azazel
hemmed  and  hawed  over  the  terms  of  an
agreement.  The  magic  had  streaked  through  every
darkling  in  the  warren  and  they  still  felt  its  effects
long after we were done. It was the type of power
that  streaked  through  their  bodies  and  left  them

stronger. Stronger and ready to swear their
allegiance to Hades.

Even as I didn’t have the energy to pick myself

up off the floor.

At some point, Hades had picked me up off the

floor and laid me on the bed. It was a testament to
how  out  of  it  I  was  that  I  didn’t  even  balk  at
touching  the  animal  fur  so  recently  skinned  that  it
still felt like it was alive. It took too much effort to
keep  my  eyes  open,  so  I  felt  more  than  saw  him
stare down at me for a long moment. Azazel talked
to his back, insisting that there would be no formal
agreement until he had spoken with his advisors.

I distantly heard them agree that we would stay

for the night while the darklings conferred.

“I would buy tickets for that show any time,”

Azazel drawled.

“Enough, darkling.” Hades’s voice rang with

more authority than I’d ever heard it, as if the
borrowed power affected even the way he spoke.
“Only return to us when you are prepared to make
a deal.”

There was a smile even in Azazel’s voice and I

didn’t trust it. “Rest assured that I will return very
soon.”

I wanted to tell them we couldn’t stay here, but

when I tried to speak my voice only came out in a
pained groan. No matter how deeply I breathed in,
there still didn’t seem enough air to speak. This

place was darker and danker than anything else I’d
seen in the Underworld and I didn’t want to stay
here any longer than was necessary.

When I tried to tell them that, pain ratcheted

through me like a bolt of lightning.

“Settle. You need rest.”
The door opened and then slammed shut. My

last thought before passing out was that I hoped
Hades didn’t go too far away.

y eyes snapped open and I froze in the
darkness, alert for whatever had
startled me awake. It was so dark that I

waited what felt like forever for my eyes to adjust,
but all I saw was more penetrating blackness.

I laid on my side with Hades cuddled up behind

me,  his  chest  pressed  against  my  back.  His
breathing was slow and even, meaning he was still
asleep.  I  wanted  to  wake  him,  but  that  would
require  making  some  kind  of  movement  or  sound
and I really didn’t want to do either of those things.

Unlike every horror movie heroine ever to be

on  screen,  I  knew  that  it  made  no  sense  to  say
something  stupid  like  “hello”  into  the  darkness.  If
there  was  something  creeping  around  out  there,  it
was  just  stupid  to  give  yourself  away.  And  if  the

monster already knew you were there, might as
well save your breath for screaming while it tore
into you.

When several moments passed with no sign

there was anyone else in the room, I lifted my head
up slightly from the bed to check that the door was
closed. I could just barely make out the outline of it
in the darkness, but it appeared to be securely
latched.

I settled back down on the bed and closed my

eyes, trying to convince myself that I had to be
imagining things as I attempted to fall back asleep.

When a hand slapped over my mouth, I didn’t

have  enough  warning  to  draw  breath  for  a  screen.
By  the  time  my  mind  reconnected  to  my  body,  I
was  already  being  dragged  out  of  the  bed  and
towards the back of the room. There was no chance
to even look and see what they were doing to Ryn
before I was being pulled through a gap in the wall
where previously there had only been solid stone.

My legs kicked out but were quickly captured

and  lifted  off  the  ground.  More  hands  grabbed  my
arms as I was carried like a suckling pig about to be
roasted over an open fire. I tried to fight, but it was
no use. There were too many hands lifting me in the
air  and  pushing  me  along.  It  was  still  too  dark  for
me  to  see  anything  clearly,  but  there  had  to  be
several of them.

Blazing red eyes filled my vision as Azazel’s

face pressed close to mine and the hand covering
my mouth slid away. “Scream and I’ll bite out that
pretty little tongue.”

“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
The smile that spread across his face was cold

enough to freeze the blood in my veins. “Where
Hades will never find you, of course.”

That might be the only place in the entire

Underworld scarier than this one. “Why?”

“With the daemons on our side, Hades can be

overthrown and the Underworld reclaimed by those
actually fit to rule it. These tunnels run from one
end of the Underworld to the other and Hades
doesn’t know as much about them as we do. By the
time he realizes you’re gone, it’ll be too late.”

“I don’t understand this. You wanted a display

of  power  from  Hades  and  you  got  it.”  Even  to  my
own  ears,  my  voice  sounded  high  and  reedy  with
fear,  but  I  fought  off  the  urge  to  panic.  “Why
betray us now?”

“All I saw was the power that he stole from

you. This has been a thousand years in the making,
dear Persephone, and no show was going to stop it.
I’d  hoped  to  be  the  one  to  tear  Hades  apart,  but  I
can’t  risk  giving  up  my  prize,”  Azazel  replied
cheerfully,  his  tone  making  it  clear  that
dismemberment  was  among  his  favorite  pastimes.
“With  you  be  my  side,  no  one  will  question  my
right to claim the throne.”

“Hades won’t let you get away with this.” I said

it forcefully enough that I almost believed the
words were true.

“The usurper is nothing but a toothless lion. I

was  initially  disappointed  when  he  brought  you
back  because  I  was  already  planning  to  kill  him.
But this has worked out even better than I hoped. A
true king would have wrung you dry until there was
nothing left and ruled us all. It was so noble of him
to spare your feelings and take only what you were
willing  to  give.  That  kindness  will  cost  him  his
kingdom and his life. It’s almost poetic.”

“I will never help you,” I spat.
“Oh sweetling, I love that you think you have a

choice.”

I fought them in earnest then, but there wasn’t

any use. It would have been easier for me to punch
a hole through the thick stone that lined the tunnels.
There were at least a dozen darklings with Azazel
and whenever I escaped the grip of one, another
was right there to take its place.

One of my legs hit the ground and I used that as

leverage to kick away from them. It worked for
long enough that I had freed both of my legs while
Azazel still gripped one arm. With strength born of
desperation, I wrenched that arm free and turned to
run back in the direction we had come from. I’d
rather plunge blindly into the dark then just let the
darklings take me.

Then I froze.
Two hell hounds that I hadn’t noticed before

blocked my way. Their overly large heads were low
to the ground with hackles raised as they growled at
me, sharp teeth glistening even in the low light. I
took one step forward and their growls deepened as
I took a half-step forward, the sound threatening.

Fear made me hesitate for too long. Azazel’s

arm wrapped around me from behind and wrenched
me backwards, hard enough that my feet
momentarily left the ground.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,”

he growled into my ear. “None of us are worried
about a little spilled blood.”

My choice was to comply with them or be torn

apart.

They forced me through a maze of diverging

paths  in  the  penetrating  darkness.  My  eyes  had
finally  adjusted  and  I  saw  the  glittering  pieces  of
stone in the walls that reflected just enough light to
see  that  each  time  we  took  a  turn,  there  were  a
dozen  other  branches  leading  in  different
directions.

Even if Hades knew to look for me down here,

tracking  us  would  be  impossible  unless  he  knew
exactly  which  path  to  take.  I  could  only  hope  that
the  power  he  took  from  me  was  still  surging
through  his  body,  because  I  was  totally  screwed
otherwise.

For a moment, I thought I saw a face staring out

at me from the shadowy stone wall, but when I
blinked it was gone. And who was I kidding,
anyone that we ran into in these tunnels would be a
daemon or a darkling.

One of the hellhounds that followed behind

made a whining sound and lowered its head to sniff
the ground. The other one bayed, the sound like the
scream of an injured tiger. When they growled and
scratched at the stone, we stopped moving forward.

A tremor shook through the cave walls, like we

were at the epicenter of an earthquake. Pebbles and
dust  rained  down  on  us  and  from  the  low  ceiling,
skittering  down  the  walls.  It  seemed  like  a  strange
thing to have made them all so tense this suddenly.
Then  I  heard  a  sound  that  started  distant  but
quickly  grew  louder.  It  was  like  shallow  water
rushing  over  river  rocks  after  a  storm  when  the
currents were deadly fast.

With a curse, Azazel shoved me to the ground

and unsheathed his sword.

I had only just opened my mouth to ask what

was going on when the attack came.

There was a screeching sound like metal being

ripped  apart.  The  floor  opened  up  beneath  the
hellhounds,  that  was  only  way  to  describe  it.  One
moment  there  was  nothing  but  dusty  stone
underneath  their  feet  and  in  the  next,  the  ground
melted  apart  in  the  same  way  that  it  had  to  create

the passage into the tunnel.

The floor sealed up again as quickly as it

opened,  but  I  could  still  hear  the  barks  and
whimpers of the hellhounds. They had been trapped
into  the  cracked  stone  floor  to  suffocate.  My  gaze
searched  the  darkness  for  the  familiar  figure  of
Hades, but didn’t see him.

And this didn’t feel like his magic. In fact, it

barely felt like magic at all, but as if the very
Underworld itself had decided to fight back.

Large pieces of rock flew off the walls to strike

the darklings, so hard that a few were knocked out
cold on impact. I pressed closer to the ground as
the pieces soared over my head, but they seemed to
be aimed specifically at the sensitive places on the
darklings.

Stalactites with deadly points surged up from

the ground. I gagged as a darkling was impaled, the
stink of blood filling the air around me. I scrambled
back as more of them emerged from the ground,
bracing for one of them to pierce me next.

It was a battlefield with no clear enemy. The

darklings fought even as they died, swinging at the
jutting pieces of rock as if it would do any good.
They were no more than dark figures in the cloud
of dust and penetrating shadows. My ears rang with
angry yells and groans of pain.

Azazel emerged from the fray. He grunted as a

large chunk of the wall hit him in the stomach. But

I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t go down. He
stalked toward me with murderous intent in his
eyes as he reached for me.

I kicked out at him, catching the curve of his

hip, but he shrugged off the blow and yanked me to
my feet.

“This is your doing,” he snarled. “Stop this or

I’ll slit your throat. Throne be damned.”

I knew I wasn’t doing it, not even

subconsciously. But there wasn’t any explanation in
the world that would convince him of that. “Stay
away from me.”

“No chance of that, little bitch.”
How quickly I had gone from being a princess

to a bitch. Turns out you didn’t need to be human
for toxic masculinity to be a problem. “Fuck you.”

“Maybe I will, with whatever pieces of you are

left.”

He lifted his sword and I lifted my arms to

protect the rest of me, but the blow never came. A
small chasm had appeared between us, widening far
enough that it was too large for either of us to jump
over it.

Then I heard the last thing that I expected to

hear.

Cerberus’s voice rang out from everywhere and

nowhere at once. “You have to run. I can only hold
them off for so long.”

“Cerberus!” I scrambled to my feet, rough

stone  slicing  into  my  palms  as  I  pushed  off  the
ground.  My  gaze  searched  the  darkness,  but  I
couldn’t  see  anything  more  than  shadows,  stone
and angry darklings. “Where are you?”

“I am the stone guardian, as Hades willed me to

be. But there are many things built of stone in the
Underworld.” His tone turned commanding, voice
ringing loudly enough to hurt my ears. “Run!”

Azazel’s angry scream followed me down the

tunnel as I took off running. One last look at the
murderous expression on his face told me that if we
ever met again, he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt me
badly.

And I understood that even made of stone, if

the darklings got their hands on him, Cerberus
would be ground into dust.

My feet slapped against the rough ground as I

ran headlong into the darkness. It was a miracle I
didn’t slip or snap my ankle in half. I couldn’t see
more than a foot in front of my face. For all I knew,
I was moments from smashing into a wall. But I had
to get away.

I kept running even when the sound of war had

faded  behind  me.  The  silence  that  surrounded  me
might  have  been  even  worse,  oppressive  in  the
same way that the battle cries of the darklings were
without  even  the  comfort  of  knowing  I  wasn’t
alone.

My headlong flight came to an abrupt end when

I ran straight into a solid male chest. When arms
came down to wrap around me, I screamed and
fought for my life.

“Relax,” Ryn whispered in my ear, muscles

flexing as he fought to keep me from attacking him.
“It’s just me.”

I relaxed the smallest fraction against him, so

relieved to hear his voice that it almost robbed me
of the ability to speak. “We have to get out of
here.”

“Yes,” he replied quickly, but there was a

strange note in his voice.

He turned me in his arms and that’s when I saw

another figure striding toward us, his form outlined
with a glow brighter than the light from a noonday
sun.

Hades looked so dramatically different that I

barely recognized him. Armor made of a burnished
metal  with  the  slightest  hint  of  gold  covered  his
body, polished to a shine that wasn’t diminished by
streaks of someone else’s blood. He wore a helmet
that  had  to  have  been  designed  for  war.  The  face
plate  was  raised  so  I  could  see  his  face,  but  the
metal  of  it  was  thick  enough  to  withstand  a  direct
shot from an arrow fired at close range.

“Take my hand and I will carry us away before

the darklings reach us.” He held out his bare hand,
one of the few parts of him not covered in armor.
“Now, Seph.”

There was an urgency in his tone which made

sense,  but  something  else  made  me  hesitate.
Distantly,  I  heard  the  sounds  of  feet  slapping
against the stone and roars of anger. The darklings
had gotten past Cerberus’s chasm and were headed
straight  for  us.  That  should  have  been  enough  to
make me hurry, except it wasn’t.

I took a single step toward Hades, and Ryn let

his arms fall away from me. When I turned to look
at him, his daggers were out as he faced in the
direction that I had just come running from. “What
are you doing?”

There was a determined sadness in Ryn’s gaze,

but it was Hades who answered me.

“I only have the strength to carry one other

person along me.” His voice was apologetic but
determined. He regretted the need to do it, but the
decision had already been made. “Ryn will have to
remain here if I am to save your life.”

“No!”
But Hades only shook his head, expression

descending into the familiar mask of an imperious
royal. “This isn’t a choice.”

He saw the refusal on my face and his gaze

narrowed.  Before  I  could  attempt  to  evade  him,
Hades’s  hand  closed  in  a  death  grip  around  my
wrist.  He  pulled  me  toward  him  as  his  other  arm
settled around my waist like a band of iron.

“Let me go—”

A rush of frigid air blew back my hair and stung

my skin. The force of it made me grip his arms and
hold on for dear life because the only other option
was  to  be  blown  away.  Everything  swayed  around
us  as  if  the  very  earth  had  paused  its  rotation  and
then  started  up  again  at  double  the  speed.  My
stomach  lurched  with  a  sickening  nausea  as  my
arms  wrapped  desperately  around  his  armor-
covered shoulders because he was the only port in
this storm.

My eyes squeezed shut as wind whistled around

me, loud enough that we could have been huddled
under an overpass during a tornado and it wouldn’t
have felt much different. Air froze my lungs and
made it too difficult to take a deep breath. I felt on
the verge of passing out.

As quickly as it had gone topsy-turvy, the world

righted itself again.

And I opened my eyes to find myself still

wrapped around Hades’s body in the quiet of his
otherwise empty throne room.

I shoved him away from me. “You have to go

back for them!”

“We barely made it out of there alive.” He

glared down at me, eyes like the light from a
refracted prism. “Why would I go back?”

“Because letting them die would make you a

monster.” I said the words even though I didn’t
actually think there was any hope of convincing

him. “And if you’re completely irredeemable, then
agreeing to stay here was the worst mistake of my
life.”

His eyes narrowed on my face, as if searching

them for something. “I cannot stand alone against
an army of darklings. Why would I risk my life for
them?”

“Because you’re not doing it for yourself.

You’re doing it for me. Because you loved me
once.”

Pressure built against my skin, as if the very

universe were holding its breath as we stared at
each other. Hades looked away first and I could
almost imagine that I saw the sheen of unshed tears
in his eyes.

“Not just once.”
It wasn’t until he winked out of existence,

quicker than the span of a blink, that I realized if he
failed, I would lose them all.

Chapter Eighteen

waited for what felt like hours, but couldn’t
have been more than a handful of minutes.
Every second that passed could have been an

eternity as the realization of what I had just done
settled over me.

All of them were gone and I was alone. If none

of them returned, then I would spend an eternity in
the Underworld on my own.

Or at least as long as an eternity could last once

Azazel got his hands on me.

I’d never been particularly religious. Diana

wasn’t the church-going type, so I was never
baptized or sent to Sunday school as a kid. I wasn’t
anti-religion, it just wasn’t something that I often
thought about.

But in that moment, I was willing to pray to

anything that might listen, whether it was God with
a big G or a little one. I prayed that I hadn’t sent
the last person standing between me and the
darkness to his death.

And that all of them would come back, though

that seemed impossible even with a miracle.

I heard a sound like hundreds of rocks tumbling

against  each  other.  Muscles  tensing,  my  gaze  flew
to  the  walls,  searching  for  signs  of  anything  that
wasn’t solid stone. My eyes had barely adjusted to
the  light  that  seemed  so  much  brighter  than
anything  in  the  darkling  warren.  The  change  was
enough to make my head ache.

“Cerberus?” I called, voice breaking. “Are you

here?”

“Princess…”
His voice, so weak and soft that I barely heard

it, came from behind the throne. Spindly branches
with thorns longer than a knife blade cast shadows
across the wall and I had to squint to see him.

Cerberus’s face was so sunk into the darkness

that I could barely make it out. He laid on the
ground, collapsed on his side. But less than half of
him emerged from the stone. And as I watched, he
seemed to sink into the wall like the shimmering
stone was made of quicksand.

He was here, but he hadn’t been released from

the stone. “Where are Hades and Ryn?”

“They were behind me.” He spoke on a gasping

breath, as if moving even his lips caused him pain.
“Now, I don’t know…”

“I’m here.”
I looked up into Ryn’s face. There was a

crimson slash across his face where he had been
wounded. My fingers traced the very edge of it as I
gave him a tremulous smile.

“I am never doing that again,” he groused.

“Fighting darklings, I mean. Not the kissing. We
can do that as much as you want.”

“But where is…”
Ryn gently turned me around so I could see the

man who stood a few feet away.

There was no hint of gold in Hades’s armor

now. It was so covered in blood that the only color
I  saw  was  vibrant  red.  He  looked  as  if  he  had
bathed in the arterial spray of a dozen darklings. It
was  impossible  to  tell  how  much  of  the  blood  was
his,  if  any  of  it  even  was.  There  was  a  long  and
deep  wound  across  his  neck,  as  if  something  had
tried very hard to slit his throat.

I took a step forward him and then stopped, just

out of reach. “Did Azazel do that?”

He raised his hand as if about to touch his neck,

but then let it fall. “He did.”

“Is he dead?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Hades gestured to the

blood covering his armor. “But much of this is his.
It will be some time before he is again a threat to

anyone, but darklings are difficult to kill.”

“Do you mind taking off some of that armor?” I

asked. “If I kiss you like this, it will get my dress all
dirty. And the closet will only let me have this one,
so I don’t want to mess it up.”

The briefest smirk touched his lips, which was

the only sign that he got the joke. Ryn and Cerberus
helped him remove the armor and set it aside.
Underneath, he was dressed more simply than I’d
ever seen him. He wore no shirt and only a pair of
loose pants.

Heart pounding, I stepped into the circle of his

arms  when  he  held  them  open  for  me.  His  own
heart  beat  steadily  against  my  chest,  slower  than
average because his body was always under perfect
control.  Our  bodies  pressed  together  and  his  arms
wrapped  around  me,  I  felt  more  surrounded  than  I
ever  had  before.  Secure.  As  if  I  was  finally  in  the
place that I was meant to be.

The one thing that I had been sure of was that

Hades would never have my heart.

And I’d been wrong.
Hades had plunged headlong into danger,

sacrificed  himself,  solely  because  I  had  asked  him
to.  The  possession  and  jealousy  that  had
characterized  every  other  interaction  between  us
had  no  longer  mattered.  It  would  have  been  a
simple  thing  for  him  to  refuse  to  act.  If  he  hadn’t
gone  after  them,  Cerberus  would  be  trapped  in

stone forever and Ryn would be meat for the
darklings. But he had rescued them instead.

For me.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
The heat of his mouth as it captured mine

chased  away  the  last  of  my  doubts.  I  couldn’t
change  any  of  the  things  that  had  happened,  only
choose  how  I  wanted  to  move  forward.  And  I
wanted  the  future  to  be  like  this,  with  these  men
surrounding me. Because when I was in their arms,
I  didn’t  have  to  think  about  the  things  I  had  given
up, or what I had lost.

A dull ache started in my belly and spread

lower, as Hades’s hands roamed over my body. My
fingers slid up his chest as I marveled at the heat of
him, as if an inferno burned underneath this taut
skin. The tip of my nail skidded over his exposed
nipple and he groaned into my mouth.

He momentarily broke our kiss. “Shouldn’t you

be thanking me on your knees? I am Hades, after
all.”

I grabbed the sides of his face and pulled back

so I could look into his silvery-blue eyes. “You are
so much more than that.”

For a moment, we shared a perfect

understanding.

There

was

nothing

the

Underworld that we couldn’t face. And when
Hades smiled, I felt the warmth on my skin, like the
sun coming out from behind clouds.

I felt the change in him before I saw it, a new

tension that froze his muscles. I watched his eyes
widen as he stared over my shoulder. The look on
his face was similar to what he would wear if he’d
just been shot, fearful and wide-eyed.

“What is it—”
He surged past me, forcing me behind him as a

sword appeared in his hand. I stumbled as I turned
to see what had him reacting this way.

And I saw my foster mother standing on the

other  side  of  the  room,  somehow  not  seeming  out
of  place  in  her  black  Chanel  suit.  But  that  was
Diana,  she  could  step  into  any  space  and  make  it
her own.

I was so struck by surprise that it took a minute

for me to realize that she couldn’t possibly be here.

“Diana…” Embarrassment was the first feeling

that washed over me, like when she’d caught me
sneaking in after curfew during high school. That
didn’t exactly make sense, but she always made me
feel a bit like a little kid. “How…I mean why…”

I trailed off because there wasn’t any question I

could ask with an answer that would explain this.

When I tried to step forward, Hades roughly

grabbed my arm. “Do you know this woman?”

“Of course, that’s my foster mother, Diana. I’ve

known her since I was like four years old.” I tried
to pull my arm away, but he wrenched me back
toward him. “What’s your problem?”

Ryn stepped up to my side, but his body

quivered as if this was as close to Diana as he could
force himself to get. “That is not your foster
mother, or at least she is not only that.”

Their reactions didn’t make even the slightest

bit of sense. “What the hell are you talking about?”

It was Cerberus who finally answered the

question. He stood closest to Diana, facing her with
his back to me. A sword gleamed in his hand, but
he stopped just short of pointing at her. When he
spoke, his voice was completely emotionless.

“That is Demeter, goddess of the Harvest.”
I stared at her, the woman who had raised me

after I was orphaned, and I expected her to deny it.
Even with her standing here in a place that she
couldn’t possibly be, I didn’t want to believe that it
was true.

The smile that spread across her face was pure

malice.  She  had  always  been  impressively  tall,  but
as I watched she seemed to grow even larger, as if
she  took  up  the  very  shadows  and  added  them  to
her  physical  form.  When  she  spoke,  her  voice
differed  from  the  one  I’d  heard  since  childhood,
now  it  was  too  deep  to  be  feminine  and  darkly
hypnotic.

It was the voice I had heard in my nightmares.
“Hello, daughter of mine.”
Demeter and Hades had been engaged to marry.

It wasn’t an alliance made of love, but out of a

thirst for more power. Hades had broken his
promise because he fell in love with someone else.
Demeter had responded with violent rage.

It hadn’t mattered to her at all that the other

woman in question had been her own daughter.

That realization was like opening a floodgate.

Memories came rushing back to me like a life
flashing before my eyes or a highlight reel on
instant replay.

Memories of my own life and this other one

merged  and  overlapped  in  my  mind  until  it  was
difficult to tell the difference between them. I heard
this voice berating me, calling me weak and useless.
She  told  me  I  would  never  be  strong  enough  to
come  out  from  under  her  shadow  and  that  I  had
always been a disappointment as her heir.

And I remember the pain and surprise I had felt

when my own mother plunged her dagger into my
heart.

Then she had cursed me so my love became

torment.

Fuck this bitch.
“What are you doing here?” If I’d had a sword

in my hand, I might have tried my luck with it.
Instead, I shoved forward even when Hades tried to
snatch me back. “Killing me once wasn’t enough,
so you came back for seconds.”

Diana gave me a long once-over, expression

mocking. “I have to admit that I found playing

humans with you amusing. You were a strange and
sorry  thing  even  in  the  mortal  realm.  I  had  hoped
that a thousand years of watching you suffer would
satisfy me. And when you came to me, wailing like
the  spoiled  child  you  are  and  begging  for
forgiveness so I would end your torment, I did what
any mother would and granted your wish. A human
life  then  a  human  death,  and  in  exchange  I  would
finally be rid of you forever.”

“Nice plan,” I spat, sarcastically. “Definitely

looks like it worked out the way you thought it
would.”

Her eyes narrowed, a spark of anger in their

pale depths. Hades stiffened behind me and
touched my arm, as if begging me to tread carefully.
It was the fear that I sensed that made me hesitate.

“I underestimated the desperation of this one

and  the  lengths  that  he  would  go  to  bring  you
back.” Diana looked at Hades like she was eyeing a
well-fed pig at the market. There was covetousness
in  her  gaze,  and  hate.  “Without  your  queen,  I
thought  the  Underworld  would  grind  you  up,
Hades. Perhaps I even hoped that you would return
to  me  when  you  realized  that  oblivion  was  your
only other option, but you held out for longer than
should  have  been  possible.”  When  her  gaze
returned  to  me,  cruelty  twisted  her  lips.  “I  am
finally  taking  the  kingdom  that  should  have  been
mine. And I will finally do what I should have done

a thousand years ago.”

“You can’t kill me, not here,” I claimed, not

even sure if it was actually true. “I’ll only come
back, just like last time.”

“I know.”
The widening smile on her face should have

been a warning, but I wasn’t smart enough to figure
it out in time.

“This is for Seph, you asshole.”
Hades jerked and stumbled into my back with

enough force that I almost fell. As I turned, he was
already sliding to the ground. I grabbed onto him,
but I didn’t have the strength to slow his descent as
he hit the floor hard on his knees.

A black dagger stuck out of his side, pushed in

between the ribs up to the hilt. It was a true strike
to the heart. His mouth opened on a gasping breath
as he tried to say my name, but couldn’t produce
the sound. All I could do was watch as his eyes
rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed to
the ground.

Behind him stood another person who never

should have been able to come here.

Adonis had a triumphant smile on his face as he

held an expectant hand out to me. He looked
exactly like Prince Charming would after rescuing
his princess from an evil monster, expecting her to
fall into his arms at any moment.

Except he didn’t know that the princess had

fallen in love with the monster. Her happily ever
after was in the darkness, not the light.

“What have you done?” I whispered. There was

barely enough space for surprise when I felt such
overwhelming horror.

“We’re rescuing you, chick.” Cleo emerged

from the shadows behind Adonis, looking as happy
as he did. She hesitated at the look on my face and
her tone changed. “Right?”

I could only shake my head as I crawled

through the growing pool of blood to reach Hades’s
side. His skin already turned unnaturally pale and
cold to the touch. There was only enough life left in
him to whisper something, but even as I bent closer
to him it was impossible to make it out.

“I can’t kill you, but your sad little love is a

different story. He doesn’t have the power to cross
back  to  life  after  death,  to  renew  like  the  spring.”
Diana’s voice washed over me as she strode toward
us, full of mockery and dark triumph. “Now, I will
send you back to your pathetic little human life so
you  can  die  an  ignominious  death.  Your  little
friends  will  forget,  but  you  will  suffer  with  these
memories until your last breath. Your magic will be
useless to you in the mortal realm. Your only choice
will  be  to  suffer  or  take  your  own  life  to  end  the
torment.”

I screamed for them all to run as shadows

gathered around us, but no one listened.

Ryn and Cerberus reached my side at the same

time. Both of pulled me back, tried to get me away
before it was too late.

But it was already too late. Diana would not let

any of us escape and there was nowhere left to hide
from her. Pressure built in the surrounding air,
beating against my skin and making it difficult to
breathe, much less speak.

I stared up at Diana as the darkness gathered.

Her face was barely recognizable. Cheekbones cut
impossibly high in a face that was too gaunt to be
human. Hair that had been only slightly longer than
average trailed behind her like a cape, the ends of it
brushing the ground. My foster mother was gone, if
she had ever existed at all.

This was Demeter, goddess of the harvest.
Except it wasn’t only crops that she could

gather, but also souls. She could swallow them
down and grow ever more powerful.

The Underworld was the most fertile hunting

ground in the universe.

The shadows burned like poisonous gas as they

crept  over  my  legs  and  further  along  my  body.  It
was  painful,  but  distantly,  as  if  my  body  was
already  shutting  down.  The  burn  was  even  worse
when  the  shadows  were  close  enough  that  I
breathed  them  in.  It  was  like  when  you  tried  to
drink soda and coughed, so you inhaled it instead.

And I knew that the worst of it was still yet to

come.

My arms wrapped around Hades’s body, blood

soaking  into  my  dress  until  the  long  skirt  had
entirely  turned  red.  I  huddled  against  him  as  the
darkness  crept  ever  closer  like  a  black  fog.  My
hands pressed against his chest where his heartbeat
had slowed so much that I couldn’t remember how
many seconds had passed since I last heard it beat.

His eyes were still open, unseeing as they stared

at the ceiling. I’d fought so hard to keep him from
taking power from me that I didn’t even know how
to use, but now I would give anything to bring him
back to life. The irony of it only made the pain
more intense and suffocating.

Hades was dead.
And if Diana had her way, the rest of us would

follow right behind him.

I held onto his body as the world disintegrated

around us, praying that I could trade my life for his.

Chapter Nineteen

didn’t need to open my eyes to know exactly
where I was.

The smell of it was what hit me first,

industrial  disinfectant  combined  with  the  sharp
scent  of  sweat  from  unwashed  bodies.  When  I
cracked  open  eyes  gunked  up  by  unshed  tears,  I
wasn’t surprised to see wall paint the pale yellow of
baby vomit and chipped tile floors.

I was in Falmer Psychiatric Hospital.
It had been years since my last visit, but not

much had changed. If anything, it was amazing how
much  the  place  looked  exactly  the  same  as  it  had
ten  years  ago.  For  all  I  knew,  I  was  lying  in  the
exact  bed  that  I  had  the  last  time  because  all  the
rooms looked exactly the same.

I tried to roll on my side to face the door, but

couldn’t complete the movement. When I
attempted to raise my arm, I heard the familiar
swish of Velcro rubbing against itself.

Both of my arms were secured to the metal

frame  of  the  bed  with  soft  restraints,  as  were  my
ankles. The restraints were made of light blue cloth
and Velcro that had been secured with tiny dangling
locks.  These  were  the  kind  they  used  when  they
wanted  the  same  effect  as  shackles  while
maintaining the appearance of being humane.

It also meant that the staff were afraid I would

hurt myself, or them.

A nurse bustled into the room with a syringe in

her hand. She started a bit when she saw me staring
at her, clearly surprised to see me awake.

“I have to give you this, doctor’s orders,” she

said, by way of an introduction. “I can switch it out
for pills, if you’ll agree to take them.”

I shifted my hips so that my backside was

exposed as I stared at the wall. The yellow wall was
stained with smears of something darker, probably
blood, and I distantly wondered how old it was. “It
doesn’t matter. Just give it to me.”

She only hesitated for only a fraction of a

second  before  bustling  forward.  Her  movements
were  efficient  as  she  pushed  aside  my  hospital
gown  and  administered  the  injection.  I  barely  felt
more  than  a  pinprick  as  the  needle  slid  into  the
meaty flesh of my right flank.

I’d felt real pain before. Compared to that, this

was nothing.

Or maybe I’d lost the capacity to feel anything

at all. The numbness in my heart had spread to the
rest of my body and then to my very soul. If I let
even the smallest amount of pain pierce the fog,
then I’d have to feel it all. And I didn’t want that.

Hades was dead.
Adonis had killed him.
I wondered if I should be angry, probing my

own mind the way your tongue teased constantly at
a cut in your mouth, trying to figure out how much
pressure was too much. If I let myself get angry,
then that would mean acknowledging the thing I
was angry about.

Adonis had always been the boy scout, so

upstanding  that  sometimes  it  was  too  much.  He
wouldn’t  have  done  what  he  did  unless  Diana  had
gotten  to  him,  twisted  his  confusion  and  sadness
into  rage,  then  used  that  to  control  him.  If  I  could
ask him why, his answer would almost certainly be
that he’d done it for me.

But he wasn’t here to ask, so the question

would have to remain unanswered for now.

I hoped he made it back and Cleo, too. Diana

had  no  use  for  them  anymore  so  they  wouldn’t  be
safe  anywhere  near  her.  Ryn  and  Cerberus  might
have  gotten  away,  if  they’d  had  the  sense  to
abandon me when they got the chance and run.

“My name is Jackie, by the way,” the nurse

announced as she pulled down my gown.
Apparently seeing my bare ass reminded her of her
manners. “If you promise to stay calm, I can undo
these restraints. It’s time for you to get up for range
of motion, anyway.”

My gaze stayed glued on the wall as she moved

around the bed, my body unmoving. “How long
have I been here?”

“You don’t remember?”
I sighed. “Apparently not.”
“You came in last night.” She wrapped a blood

pressure cuff around my arm and puffed it up. “The
cops  found  you  on  top  of  Wilshire  Grand  Center.
At  first  they  thought  you  were  a  jumper  until  they
realized  you  were  blitzed  out  of  your  mind.  The
staff  has  a  few  bets  going  on  what  drug  you  were
taking.  Whatever  it  was,  didn’t  show  up  on  your
tox screen.”

My eyes closed as I tried to fight past the

lethargy caused by whatever had been in that
syringe. “I didn’t take anything.”

“I’ve seen your chart. You’ve had episodes

before, but nothing like this.” The nurse sounded
almost marveling as she spoke to my still turned
back. “For your sake, I hope it was drugs.”

The last thing she did was undo the restraints,

as if she’d been waiting to see how I reacted to her
conversation. She paused after each one, hesitating

in case I suddenly attacked her.

Hopefully she realized that I wasn’t going to do

much more than stare at this wall and contemplate
my own misery. It was nothing personal, but I
didn’t give a shit about her or anyone else here.

But wallowing clearly wasn’t in the cards.

Jackie forced me into a sitting position over my
objections and urged me to my feet, prattling some
nonsense about blood flow and skin integrity after
being in bed for so long.

Jackie was a conversationalist and she chatted

while  putting  a  pair  of  socks  on  my  feet  that  had
rubber  grips  on  the  sole.  I  remembered  that  from
my days in and out of here, slip-on shoes or grippy
socks  only  were  allowed  to  be  worn  on  the  unit.
Wouldn’t want someone to kill themselves with an
errant shoelace.

I’d always wanted to point out it’d be easier to

hang yourself with the bedsheets, but didn’t want to
get those taken away over a joke.

“You were fighting us like a banshee when you

were brought in, shouting all kinds of thing,” Jackie
said as she pulled me unwillingly to my feet with an
arm  wrapped  around  my  waist  before  ushering  me
toward the door. “It took an entire squad of cops to
bring you in. Both of you were a raving mess until
we  loaded  you  up  with  antipsychotics.  Although
your  friend  was  in  even  worse  shape  than  you
were.  You’re  lucky  the  cops  found  you  when  they

did.”

Lucky to be strapped on a bed in the psych

ward.

And then I realized what she had said. “Friend?

What friend?”

She raised her eyebrows. “The guy who you

came with. I just assumed you knew him. Your
dealer, maybe?”

This was going to a long hospital stay if they

were intent on making me out to be a junkie, but
that wasn’t the important thing to focus on right
now. “What’s his name?”

“No idea. He didn’t have ID on him like you

did.”

A strange feeling bubbled up in my chest. Hope.

And that had the potential to hurt me even more
than the pain. “Is he still here?”

“Of course. Both of you are on seventy-two-

hour safety holds.”

“Where?”
“The dayroom, probably. Hey, take it easy—”
But I was already lurching down the hallway

toward the large room at the far end. If the hospital
hadn’t bothered with a coat of paint in ten years,
then it was unlikely that the layout had changed.

I skittered to a stop in the open doorway of the

dayroom, only to find it empty. My stomach
lurched painfully as I remembered why hope was
so much worse than the pain of loss. Hope left you

with just as much grief, but with the added tang of
disappointment.

And then a head covered in achingly familiar

blonde  hair,  so  pale  that  it  was  the  color  you  saw
when  staring  directly  at  the  sun,  popped  up  from
behind  a  short  bookshelf.  Even  against  the  dingy
backdrop  of  plastic  chairs  and  chipped  wooden
tables  and  wearing  a  hospital  gown,  he  looked
every bit like the prince of a fairy tale.

Watching him die in my arms had to be the

worst thing I had ever experienced, even with
Persephone’s memories bouncing around my head.
Nothing could have prepared me for the pain of it.

“Hades!”
He turned to look at me and smiled. I felt the

warmth of that smile like the first day of spring
after a hard winter.

But when I rushed toward him expecting his

arms to open wide, he took a step back and looked
at me like I was every bit the crazy girl in the
psychiatric ward.

“Hades?” I said again, only this time it was a

question.

He looked at me curiously and inclined his

head.

“Do I know you?” he asked.
My smile widened as I prepared to laugh at his

terrible joke, but his expression didn’t change. I
took another step forward and he straightened

completely, obviously resisting the urge to back
away. “You don’t remember me?”

“Maybe I should call for a nurse,” he said

gently, voice soft like he was soothing a growling
dog with its hackles raised. “You look like you
could use some help. What’s your name?”

He came out from behind the bookshelf. My

gaze passed frantically over him, trying to convince
myself that my vision and my mind had become
disconnected. Maybe this was a hallucination or a
dream.

I locked my knees to keep them from collapsing

underneath me and put a steadying hand on a
nearby table. Hades continued to watch me
carefully, clearly unsure of what I might do next.

The last time we’d been together I watched him

die, and thought it was the worst thing I could ever
experience.

In his hand, bound in dark leather and

completely out of place amongst the pulpy
paperbacks with colorful covers, was the Tale of
Hades.

And it was then I realized that there were things

even worse than death.

o be continued.

About the Author

Lillian Sable writes erotic romances with ultra-Alpha heroes.
She is a former office-worker who spent more time fantasizing
and daydreaming than doing her actual job. She started writing
her fantasies down and turned her dreams into reality. Lillian
lives in Indiana with her husband.

Visit my website:

www.lilliansable.com

Follow me on Facebook: @lilliansableauthor

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