Chapter 29 #2
Hades didn’t walk in. He stormed in—like a war god painted in blood. His hands dripped crimson, dark and wet and gleaming under the firelight, and his eyes—
God. His eyes were feral.
They locked onto me like I was the only thing that mattered. The inferno didn’t touch him. Nothing ever did. The entire world dulled beneath the sound of his footsteps—heavy, deliberate, mine.
Then his hands were on me. And the chains that had held me like a prisoner? Gone. Ripped apart like they were paper, his bare hands shredding them without a second thought. I gasped as freedom hit my lungs, cool air slicing into the smoke that choked me.
I stumbled forward, dizzy and shaking, but my eyes locked onto something small—silver. The lighter.
Hope flared hotter than the fire.
I dove for it, fingers closing around the slick metal just as Callista turned to run, her expression twisted into something that might’ve been regret or maybe just survival.
“No,” I growled, voice rough from the smoke but alive with fury. “You don’t get to walk away.”
I hurled the lighter.
It landed exactly where she’d started this madness—her exit path, soaked in gasoline.
Fwoom. The flames answered like they’d been waiting. A ring of fire erupted, trapping her, snarling and snapping like a beast set loose.
She stopped short, eyes wide. And I didn’t care.
I turned back to him—to Hades.
He was watching me like I’d just become something new. Something terrible. Something he understood.
His hand reached out, fingers brushing my arm, grounding me and setting me ablaze all at once. Firm. Steady. Possessive.
And for one impossible second—just one—everything else vanished.
The smoke. The screams. The fire.
There was only him.
And me.
And the way we burned.
The flames howled, furious and alive, clawing their way up the walls like they wanted to devour everything. The heat pressed in from all sides, searing, suffocating—but I didn’t move. I wouldn’t.
Callista stumbled back, her face twisted into something grotesque—rage and fear tangled up behind those wild eyes. She looked feral. Cornered.
“You were always his whore!” she spat, voice sharp enough to slice bone. “You really think he won’t turn on you next? He will. Just like he turned on me.”
Her words tried to claw into me, but they couldn’t reach. Not anymore.
Because he was at my side now—Hades. Solid. Silent. Radiating wrath like a loaded gun with the safety off. I didn’t have to look at him to feel it, that storm coiling beneath his skin, held back only because I was still holding the line.
But this wasn’t his to fight alone.
This was mine too.
I stepped forward. My body ached from the restraints, from the smoke, from the chaos—but my spine was steel. My voice came low, sharp, and steady. “No,” I said, each syllable slicing through the heat. “He’ll destroy anyone who tries to hurt me.” My eyes locked on hers. “That includes you.”
She flinched. Just barely. But I saw it.
The fire behind her surged, swallowing the beams like they were sugar. Her bravado cracked as smoke curled around her feet, rising up like it wanted to pull her down. She glanced around, like maybe there was still a way out.
There wasn’t.
“You don’t understand!” she shrieked, pressing her back to the wall, eyes darting like a caged animal. “You don’t know what he really is!”
“Oh, I do,” I said, voice cold as the steel she’d bound me with. “And I’m not afraid of him.”
Her lips parted like she wanted to argue—but she couldn’t. Not with the fire licking at her heels. Not with me standing tall, and Hades a step behind me, carved from shadow and rage.
This wasn’t fear anymore.
It was power.
I tilted my head, watching her squirm. “You lit the match, Callista. Now burn with it.”
She gasped—just once. A sound too soft for someone who’d screamed so loud. Then the flames rose, and her face vanished behind the smoke.
I didn’t look away.
And neither did he.
Together, we watched her world fall. No more running. No more games.
Just fire, and truth, and us.
The heat clawed at my skin, chasing us like it didn’t want to let go. One second I was in that hellhole, smoke thick in my lungs, and the next—I was airborne.
Hades had me. His arms locked around me, iron-willed and unrelenting, like I might vanish if he loosened his grip.
My heart thundered against my ribs, adrenaline still ripping through me, but all I could feel was him.
The fire was behind us, smoke curling like a curse, but he moved through it like a god.
Like nothing could touch him. Like nothing would touch me.
He tore through the hole in the wall—his hole, jagged and brutal—and the moment we broke into the night air, the world shifted.
The cold hit me like a slap, shocking and sharp. But he didn’t slow. Didn’t falter. Only when we were clear—clear of the flames, the smoke, the lies—did he set me down.
My knees buckled.
I wasn’t built for this kind of survival. But he held me steady, hands anchoring me like I was something sacred. Like I hadn’t just almost burned alive. Like I was his.
And maybe I was.
The warehouse behind us was a glowing inferno, casting long, snarling shadows across the pavement.
I turned to face it, heart hammering in rhythm with the crackling wood.
Watching it fall apart felt like shedding a second skin—one made of Callista’s threats and every lie I’d been told since the day she vanished.
Hades stood beside me, silent and solid, as our team stepped out of the darkness like ghosts.
Gideon broke first, because of course he did. A grin tugged at his mouth, all teeth and trouble. “Told you she’d come back,” he said, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Scar stood next to him, arms crossed, eyes sharp. “You two look like shit,” he said flatly. It was practically affectionate, coming from him.
I managed the smallest of smirks, breath still shaky. “We’ve had worse first dates.”
Hook leaned against the hood of a sleek black car, that permanent smirk of his flickering at the edges. Jafar didn’t move—just stared, unreadable and unnerving, like he could see the ash still clinging to my soul.
Behind us, the fire roared, burning Callista’s legacy to nothing but dust and smoke. And for once, she couldn’t twist the truth. Couldn’t rewrite the ending.
I looked at the flames, then at Hades. His hand found mine, and I didn’t let go.
Something in me had changed.
Whatever softness was left had hardened into steel.
And I knew one thing with absolute certainty…
This war wasn’t over.
But I wasn’t running anymore.
I had fire in my lungs and Hades at my side.
Let them come.