TEASED BY DARKNESS

LILLIAN SABLE

Prologue

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.”

And with those ominous words left in his wake,

Hades swept from the room and slammed the door
shut behind him.

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

what?”

He only smiled in reply and took my hand.
I had no ability or willingness to resist as he led

me to the center of the room.

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

business.” His voice is mild. “The two of you were
lovers for millennia. There’s no shame in it.”

I didn’t even want to know how Ryn found out

what happened in the wraith pool. “It won’t happen
again.”

“Somehow, I doubt that.”

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

rage on his face, but also something else. Something
much worse.

Resignation.

“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.

Also by Lillian Sable

OMEGAS OF PANDORA

Ianthe and Legion

Aura and Castor

FERAL ALPHAS

Hunted by the Feral Alpha

BLOOD AND DIAMONDS

Beautiful Dirty Rich

Gorgeous Nasty Luxe

Seductive Wicked Royal

MAFIA DUET

Their Mafia Bride

DARKEST SOULS

Fiendish Magic

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

Document Outline

Title Page
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Also by Lillian Sable
About the Author

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