Chapter 16 Sera #2
“So what happens now?” I ask him, glancing around. “Am I supposed to run? Because I don’t particularly feel like being chased or hunted right now.”
He huffs a laugh, but it lacks humor. “No, I imagine not.” He clears his throat. “I can show you the home I created. There’s a bed. A kitchen. Magic similar to the one in the cavern. And I… I can attempt to manifest other things, if you like.”
“Can you manifest Maliki or Morpheus?” I wonder aloud, and immediately regret it when Hades winces. “They can’t come in here, can they?” I guess, my stomach twisting.
“Not in its current state, no,” he replies, looking visibly uncomfortable again.
“Can they enter in a revised state?”
He studies me and then nods. “Yes. I can revise the wards to allow them entry, if that’s your desire.”
The words feel loaded, like he’s testing me somehow. “If I say yes, are you going to hold it against me?”
“That you’re even asking me such a question shows how badly I’ve fucked things up between us,” he replies, sighing.
I don’t say anything since my inquiry is a valid one. I don’t know how he’ll react if I say I want Maliki and Morpheus here.
Maybe he’ll allow Maliki entry, but probably not Morpheus.
And I… I want them both here.
Maliki offers me comfort.
Morpheus gives me answers.
I’ve only ever trusted my sister—
“Oh!” My eyes widen. “Is Alina okay?” I thought Hades and Morpheus were going to fight and that’s why Maliki shadowed me to his brother’s place in the Hell Fae Kingdom.
But Hades mentioned that an Alpha issue was the reason the cavern was no longer safe for me. I was so distracted by why this is a safer location that I didn’t seek clarity on what he meant.
“They’re all fine. Orcus took her to an undisclosed location until… until your heat has passed.” He swallows and looks away. “We agreed to separate if found again. Alina might be claimed, but the feral Alphas won’t care.”
“Oh.” That… that makes sense. Not the feral part, but separating. “They need to protect Thea, too.”
“Her designation won’t be as obvious until she’s thirteen or so,” he tells me. “Though, yes, it is likely she’s an Omega, just like her mother.”
I nod. “That’s what Alina told me, too.”
“Has she shared any other details?” he asks. “Like information about what to expect for your heat? Or your need to nest?”
“She’s given me some basics about what a nest is, but essentially said I should talk to Maliki or Morpheus about my, er, heat.” Warmth spreads up my neck. “Sorry. I…” Yeah, I don’t know how to finish that, or why I just apologized, so I simply stop talking.
Hades says nothing for a moment. “All right. Let’s… let’s go this way to the cabin. Then we’ll… we’ll talk more.”
My lips twist as he turns and walks away.
I’m not sure what more there is to say between us. Probably a lot. But I’m not feeling all that talkative anymore. Just tired.
Like I could sleep for a year.
Which is crazy after how much I slept last night.
However, I follow him since I don’t have any other choice. It’s that or go the opposite direction. And given that this is a maze, I don’t think that’s a good idea.
Though the walls really are beautiful. So intricately designed, the flowers forever etched into stone.
I trace my fingers along one of them, noting the pretty lily petals. Fire lilies, maybe, I think.
When the image seems to flutter, I jump back and find myself up against a wall of masculine male. Hades grabs my hip, then reaches around me to pluck the flower off the wall.
My lips part as it begins to sizzle and burn, the orange and yellow petals coming to life right before my eyes. When the stem glistens in a dark green, he holds it out in front of me. “I know it’s not much, but hopefully… hopefully it’s a start,” he says.
“A start for what?” I ask, confused.
“A new beginning,” he replies, his palm leaving my hip as he steps to my side, the flower still hovering between us in his opposite hand. “A way to seek amends. An introduction to who I truly am.” He shrugs. “Or consider it a token of my destruction. Whatever you prefer.”
I hold his gaze and reach out to take the token from him. “It’s a fire lily, right?”
“Yes.”
“What…? What does it do? Just constantly burn?”
He smiles. “No. It simply blooms. Eternally.” He turns again, and I frown at his back.
“But all the ones Pip brought me were black,” I tell him. “If they bloom eternally, why were they charcoal when he gave them to me?”
“Because he’s a creature of death, like me,” Hades says without looking at me. “And most things we touch die.”
“Yet this flower just blossomed,” I point out. “So that can’t always be true.” At least where Hades is concerned.
He pauses at a bend in the maze and glances at me over his shoulder. “I suppose fate isn’t always black and white,” he murmurs.
I blink at him, curious as to what he means.
But he disappears around the corner without another word.
I rush to follow him, just to freeze at the sight before me.
He called this a cabin.
This… this isn’t a cabin.
It’s a skull, just like Death’s Den.
Only there are no blue fires lingering in the eyelike windows here.
Just ice.