Chapter 31 A Question Of Time
A Question Of Time
LYRA
Shit. Oh shit. I said would be, didn’t I? I didn’t say it was or it had been or will be. How in the name of…well, Hades…did he make that logical leap? He’s always been too smart for my own good.
“No.” I say it quietly and take a breath. “Only your father possesses that ability.”
“And you know my father.” Not a question.
Also no hatred. I don’t think he’s imprisoned his father yet. Which means…if this is truly the past…that whatever makes him and the others do that hasn’t happened yet, either.
There is also a layer of satisfaction in his voice that I don’t trust.
“Lyra,” he prompts.
He wants a confirmation.
“Is he sending you to me?” he asks when I don’t answer.
Not exactly. Cronos broke time. That’s all. “No.”
“But you are from a time yet to come?”
Gods, this is so hard. I want to tell him. I want to curl up in his lap and confess everything and let those broad shoulders handle the weight with me. Let that sharp mind help me find a way through this.
But I can’t.
I can’t risk it. Not yet.
I swallow. Hard. “All I can tell you is that I would never hurt you. You or anyone you love. That’s going to have to be enough. It’s too risky to say more.”
I know Hades. I know it won’t be enough for him.
I wait for him to go cold. To release his hold on me and walk away. To leave me here to reconsider what I have to say.
Instead, there is a soft clank of sound—the lock on my cage giving way.
My gaze flashes to his, a thousand questions passing between us.
“Very well.” He lets go of me so that we can both get to our feet before he swings the cell door open and beckons me out.
He doesn’t back away when I step into the cavern, though, and the warmth of his body seeps into mine as we stand so close, felt deeply despite the fire flowing by.
His fingers come under my chin, gently tilting my head up so I can meet his gaze.
He leans slowly, inexorably closer, and I hold my breath.
Is he going to kiss me?
Gods, I want him to. I’ve missed his touch, the taste of his lips, so badly that I ache with the need of it. I quiver.
But he stops just shy of touching. “Break my trust, even once, and I’ll throw you down here and forget where I put the key or that you even exist.”
What would he do if I tipped forward just the tiniest bit? “Just so long as you realize that there are things I can’t tell you and questions I can’t answer, and it’s not because I’m breaking trust.”
His gray eyes glint like molten silver, and he runs the pad of his thumb over my lower lip. The softest brush that makes my breath hitch audibly.
His shoulders rise and fall on a silent breath. “I have the strangest sense, my star, that you are going to be trouble.”
When I smile, it presses my lips more firmly against his thumb, and I imagine the way his eyes would flare if I sucked his finger into my mouth. But I don’t. Somehow, I wrangle a smidgeon of self-control and don’t. Instead, I lean away. “I promise I’m more trouble than even you imagine.”
He huffs a short, soft laugh, then abruptly steps away, his shoulders drawing back, spine straight as a lance. “Come.”
A hand goes to my elbow, and we blink out, then blink back into an ornate hallway inside a building—all brilliantly painted marble and golden adornments. We’re back in Olympus, I guess.
“I can’t be seen here.” I glance around.
He lets go of my elbow and starts walking. “You won’t be.”
I follow him through a set of double doors directly in front of us. It’s not until I’m fully inside what is clearly an opulent suite of rooms that the few personal touches sink in. I stop dead on the intricate mosaic-tiled floor. “These are your rooms.”
“Yes.”
“Is that a good idea?” My heart is screaming yes it is, but that’s not fair to him. To either of us, really.
He stops and gives me a look. “Afraid you won’t be able to resist me?”
“Yes.”
From the way his shoulders stiffen slightly, I know he wasn’t expecting that bald truth.
But he doesn’t say anything or acknowledge my admission in any other way.
Instead, he turns through a doorway that leads to a lush bedroom, fully appointed with, of all things, a sunken tub—or maybe it’s a small swimming pool—in the center of the room, already filled with steaming, oil-scented water. “You may bathe here.”
Heaven. “Thank you.”
He goes to leave but pauses at the door to pin me with another look, this one devoid of any emotion. A look I know is deliberate and probably hiding a whole host of emotions. “I’m not going to fuck you, Lyra.”
My throat goes desert dry in an instant, and I give a little cough.
“I won’t kiss you. Or touch you in any way that is intimate.”
I manage to clear my throat. “That is…” Disappointing? Maddening? Makes me want to channel Aphrodite and see if I can tempt him past his conviction? “Probably for the best.”
There’s an ever-so-slight crack in his emotionless wall. Did he not like that answer? “As long as we understand each other,” he finally says. Then he leaves me alone in this beautiful room.
All I want to do is run after him and break that damned rule he just threw down. But the timeline is clear.
I close my eyes tight and breathe through the urge. Breathe through the realization that this moment is happening ages before he met me that night at Zeus’ temple. Before he kissed me to give me safe access to the Underworld and mark me as his.
That first day of the Crucible, he pulled back from that kiss that should have been brief and chaste but turned to flame and desire in an instant, and he murmured, “I wondered.”
Was that truly our first kiss? Did he wonder about kissing me before that moment? Did he wonder today? What it would feel like? What I would taste like? The sounds I would make for him?
All this time, did he wonder?
The way he was looking at me…
Another deep breath, and I force my eyes open. Just in time for a shimmering, crystalline, bloodred crack of time to swallow me whole, taking me away from Hades and depositing me back in Tartarus.
Only instead of a day having passed, I end up where I left, in the tunnel with the Titans. As far as I can tell, to them, it’s been only minutes.
“Fuck,” I think I hear Koios say. “Already?”
I’m still trying to process everything. All these stolen moments with Hades, and also that interaction with his replica down here, are mashing up in my head, and feelings are flying around inside me like bullets, leaving me riddled with holes no one can see.
Mnemosyne takes one look at my face, and all she does is put her hand on my shoulder. I’m swimming through my head. She looks at Rhea.
“We can wait to tell you more,” Rhea says.
“It’s okay,” I finally manage. “I’d rather…keep going.”