Chapter 12
WOLFE
Everything hurt. I stank of sweat, sewage, and blood, and I looked even worse. The only thing forcing my feet onward was the incessant, painful tug of my soul begging to return to its master. Otherwise, I would've keeled over and fallen into the River Styx.
I plodded through the Castle of Hades, leaving a trail of dirt in my wake.
I needed a shower, but the closer I came to my immortal, the more my soul ached from the distance.
It was late in the evening now, and my invisible leash was pulling me to her bedroom.
Good, maybe at least I could use the bathing chambers once I kissed the ring and licked Hades’s boots like the obedient dog I was. Fuck my afterlife.
Without pause, I shoved my way into her bedroom and prepared for whatever verbal spar awaited me, until the sight within made me freeze. Hades stood in that same ridiculous silk slip, but she wasn't alone. Hermes was inches from her, his hand on the small of her back.
The slew of emotions that overcame me nearly caused me to choke. Rage boiled over my already full cup, and I was across the space separating us in an instant. My hand moved of its own accord, grabbing his wrist and throwing it off her.
"Keep your grimy fucking hands to yourself!" I snarled, stepping into the narrow space between them.
A chuckle rolled from his barrel chest, and his dove-like wings puffed at his sides.
He brushed away the flakes of ice coating him.
The frostbite turning his wrist a shade of sickly purple dissipated.
I glared up at Hermes’s smug fucking face.
He looked just as self-absorbed as I had imagined from his interviews and commercials.
He sized me up with a dismissive glance.
"This is your new little assassin?" he asked. His voice was a smooth rumble made for television. I grimaced at the nickname and leveled the cockatoo with a glare.
"Yes indeed." Hades sidestepped my barricade, her burning emerald gaze fixed on me. Scorn furrowed her brow and tightened her lips. "Though his possessiveness is new."
"He just wants to be the only one jumping your bones, darling."
I snarled. Frost spread from my palms over the floor and furniture, leaving an icy sheet of lace that glimmered purple in the low light. Hades let out a scoff and dissipated the manifestation of my anger with a flick of her hand, leaving rivulets of water to trickle down the walls.
"You both wish you could experience such ecstasy, but my vibrator has proved to be the only dick worth my time,” she snapped.
Dark incredulity stained the void in my chest. After everything we've been through, I'm the only one who's earned the right to touch her. The instant the traitorous thought crossed my mind, I recoiled. I stepped away from the immortals, my breath coming out in short pants.
The only explanation could be that I was exhausted from the journey. My soul's attachment to the goddess had manifested into something ugly and obsessive. A long shower and a moment to get my shit together was all I needed. Certainly, that was it.
"How was your little errand?" Hades’s question tore me from the trenches of my thoughts.
"Exhausting," I responded. "Sorry for interrupting. I’ll let you return to whatever you're doing, just let me bathe."
"No need. Hermes was about to leave." Hades said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Unless you want to spend more time together," he growled teasingly. Hades rolled her eyes, and I had to refrain from putting a bullet through his shiny suit. The immortal was grating, and I wanted to rip out his fucking throat.
"You and I are taking a trip tomorrow, handsome," Hades said. "Zeus has summoned us to the capitol."
My stomach dropped. Zeus calling us was not a good sign, and I had no interest in walking into a trap. Besides, I was already exhausted from my multi-day jaunt across Olympiara. "Why?"
She tossed a glance at the immortal beside her, an evil smirk twisting her lips. "Zeus is not happy about our efforts in the hospitals."
I stiffened, my mind a turbulent pond frosting over to reveal something evil within.
This had been her plan all along. Zeus had slighted her and dragged her name through the dirt, and she lashed out by usurping his plan.
Me and the near-hundred innocents I had murdered over the past several days had just been pawns in her game.
Desolation crept over my skin. These immortals titled themselves gods and made us their toys, and there was nothing we could do about it. That hopelessness morphed into an unsettling rage that boiled away at my insides until there was nothing but a deep, resounding numbness.
I didn't want to think about it because my circumstances would consume me. All that was left for me was a dull stubbornness that willed me onward like the wraith I was, purposeless but determined to endure nonetheless.
Hades was boring into me with her intense reptilian gaze that made goosebumps creep over my flesh. My lip curled at her, but when I spoke, my attention went to Hermes. "It's time for you to leave."
The man's eyebrow raised in incredulity, and his wings fluffed like a ruffled chicken. "Excuse me, wraith?"
I narrowed my eyes in a glare that I hoped would make his heart skip.
I was too exhausted and angry for his burrowing, faux-friendly expression.
Frost crept across my skin and spread over the floor at my feet.
Hermes closed the space between us, his wings stretching wide.
Maybe I should've been frightened, but I doubted that this feathered prick could do anything worse than Hades had already done.
Hades stepped between us, flames flickering across her hands and irritation lancing her face. "I do not have the patience for any more dick measuring tonight."
My gaze went to the fire pooling in her palm. I froze in place as that familiar bolt of fear lanced through me. Satisfied, she turned to Hermes. "Goodnight."
He balked. "You're taking the pet's side?"
"I'm not taking anyone's side! It’s late, and I must visit Zeus tomorrow, which will be grating,” Hades growled.
Hermes’s eyes darkened, but he put on a dazzling smile. "Alright, darling. Good luck with your brother, I’ll see you soon."
He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek, though his eyes gripped mine. I hated that it offended me—hated that I wanted to attack him for touching her. I stuffed the excuse of my soul's bond to the goddess down my throat, because I didn't have the mental space to delve into the feeling further.
They broke apart, and Hermes prepared to depart.
He didn't bother with the stairs out of her room.
Instead, he dropped from the window. His dove-colored wings splayed open in an impressive wingspan that glimmered in the moonlight.
The rough beat of his feathers on the wind echoed through the deadly still night air.
Hades turned her full attention to me, her eyes speaking volumes in the silence. It was an eternity before she broke the silence. "What the fuck was that, Wolfe?"
I didn't have an answer. Instead, I changed the subject with a low snarl. "You used me to fulfill your vendetta against your brother. I do not appreciate being played."
"What did you expect? I would only send you to kill the worst of the worst, that you would be some vigilante of justice?" She snorted. "You seem to forget that I am a god. I do as I please because the affairs of mortals mean nothing to me. A little bloodshed shouldn’t bother you this much."
I bared my teeth. "You have kept me under your thumb for a century, and yet despite everything, I gave in to you. I have been the obedient dog you wanted, and that at least deserves some fucking honesty!"
She paused, her eyes lighting up with a flicker of warped satisfaction. "That's what it is, isn't it?"
Her fingers twisted into the fabric of my shirt and yanked me toward her. "After all I've taken from you, you feel like you're owed something."
Her words lit a fire in my chest. My nostrils flared as a wave of desperation washed over me.
I had given my very fucking soul to this woman, and all that remained was an angry obsession in the pit of my gut that feasted on every breath of shared air between us.
The need to be as close to her as possible, the desire to have her skin on mine…
I fucking craved it. Regardless of whether it was the contract between us demanding loyalty or my own fucked-up brain, I wanted her to give in too.
A soft chuckle escaped her in my stoic silence. "If I had known you were so reward-driven, I would’ve changed my strategy to get you to sign our contract."
She gripped my chin and yanked my gaze to hers. "Is that the trick to you, Wolfe? Do you want to be rewarded for being a good boy?"
I gulped and tried to shift away from the lull of this shark luring me into the depths.
My visceral reaction to her words—the sweat beading on my neck and the goosebumps along my flesh—was humiliating.
The inclinations of my living days had crept into this fucked-up relationship between Hades and me, making me rash and idiotic.
"I fucking hate you," I whispered, my voice breaking.
Something flashed across her face. "You and everyone else," she muttered.
She tore her hand away. "Here's the deal, Wolfe. We are entering enemy territory tomorrow. We’re meeting Zeus, a motherfucker that has been out to get me for longer than you've existed. I need you to have my back because he’s going to do everything in his power to manipulate me.
If you support me tomorrow, I promise I will reward you. "
There was an air of vulnerability in her tone that I wasn't sure how to take. Hades was evil, of that I was certain.
So why did I want to protect her?