Chapter 19
WOLFE
Hades walked purposefully ahead of me. "It's in a box over here, give me a moment.”
The armory was impressive. Slick black walls were laden with weaponry ranging across the centuries of Hades’s life and beyond. I admired a scimitar with a weathered leather hilt. It wasn't as ornate as its neighbors, but its worn edge claimed a history of battle.
"Here it is." Hades returned with an ornate gold box in her gloved hands. She placed it on a nearby table and stepped away. "You'll have to open the box; I can't touch it."
My curiosity piqued. I lifted the golden lid, the box's unused locking mechanism opening with a roughened creak. Inside was an unassuming chain made of thick black iron. Except, there was a faint purple shimmer reminiscent of Hades’s flames.
Unease spread through me at the greasy, bone-chilling aura radiating off the metal.
I grimaced and forced myself to pull the chain from the box.
The metal was cold, though it felt right in my icy fingers.
My frost seeped into the metal, and the aura blazed a rich indigo.
I glanced from the chain to Hades. Her eyes were pinned to it as though it might bite her.
"It's Stygian iron. It absorbs the power of the user and renders the power of those who come into contact with it useless.
You won't be able to kill Apollo with it, but you can bind him. The metal burns immortals like acid."
"You would burn if this touched you?" I asked, surprised that she would give me such an opportunity.
Hades’s eyes narrowed. "Yes."
"I gave up on hurting you," I said with a chuckle.
Not that striking her would do much good; she would retaliate more pissed and vengeful than ever.
The thought spread a smile across my lips.
I moved the chain between my palms to gauge the weight and malleability.
It had a good weight, so a strike to the head should allow me enough time to bind him.
"Why?" she asked.
I blinked, surprised by the question. I had hated Hades.
Somewhere in the pit of my gut I still resented the goddess that had tortured me, but my fury had fizzled to a low simmer.
There was an inevitability to our collision that made me wonder if we could truly fight this, or if I had cursed our souls to crash into each other for an eternity the moment my blade buried into her skull.
It was as though I was built for her, destined to entwine our existences and become her perfect soldier.
I had always been a dog of death, there was no reason to change now.
Even my undeniable attraction, or how our twisted pleasures clicked, proved we were meant to be.
Maybe she was meant for me too, as the fire to my ice, the pitch to my black.
Either way, I didn't want to fight her anymore.
There was no way to share that with the woman burning me from the inside out with those blazing emerald eyes.
"Because we are inevitable," I said finally, trying to minimize the revelation with a shrug of my shoulders.
Silence followed my statement for what was certainly an eternity, and thanks to Hades, I had a good idea what that felt like. It wasn't an awkward silence, but it held the weight of words unsaid; something that had become familiar between us.
Finally, Hades cut the silence with the click of her stilettos against the obsidian floor. She stopped in my periphery, where she hovered with her arms crossed. "You asked about Zeus last night. Let me tell you."
A shuddering breath cut through her words and sank into my undead heart.
"Our parents thought us freaks and abandoned us when we were still children, so I only had my brothers.
Zeus, being the oldest, took care of Poseidon and me.
He always seemed larger than life, and I worshipped him.
He was going to bring us into the starlight and make sure we had everything we ever wanted.
My power felt like a curse, but he promised people would worship me.
For an impressionable girl, the idea was everything.
By the time I realized I was in the way of his quest for power, it was too late.
He trapped me in the Underworld and made me the villain to the masses, and there was nothing I could do.
Then you came along, and he put bars on my cage, chaining me here forever. "
She rolled her shoulders as though discarding the weight of her words.
"I was a na?ve little girl, and he took advantage. Seeing him reminds me of my weakness, and it infuriates me. Especially now. I promised myself I would never trust another man, but now you’re worming your way into my heart.
It makes me want to end you before you hurt me. "
There was a vulnerability in her scorching gaze that made me pause. I dropped the chain on the countertop and reached for her hand. Flames licked across her flesh, but they snuffed at my icy contact. "I can't hurt you, Master. You own me."
"You’ll always look for a way out. I'll never trust you, Wolfe,” she snarled.
She was right, I had told her as much myself.
She would be a complete fool to trust me.
Even now the echoes of my torture rang through my mind, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.
She had hurt me, and I couldn’t forgive her so easily.
However, I had started our deadly tango, and I just wanted it to stop. "We could change things."
Her eyebrows furrowed. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
"I've been a hired assassin my entire life. I could do that for you willingly, if you gave me the opportunity to."
She reared her head and glared at me, her next words coming in a sharp snarl. "I am not that foolish."
"This is not about foolishness, it's about trust. Can you trust me enough to loosen the leash?"
I fought against the tension in our touch to pull her closer to me, and despite the affront in her eyes and the stiffness in her shoulders, she didn’t resist. "You’re suffocating me, Hades.
And I know that's what you wanted before, but we could be more than that.
I could be more for you. Wouldn't it be better to have a warrior who was truly loyal to you, contract or not?
Someone at your side rather than under your foot? "
"That is impossible," she hissed.
"I see how your friends look at you. They treasure you. Lamia and Dany would support you regardless of their contracts. Why should I be any different?" I retorted.
"Because you're like them!" She yanked away from me and thrust a finger at the wall.
Though her decorated nail pointed to a mace, I understood.
She was pointing west, to Olympiara—to her brother.
I stepped after her, but she evaded me. The room heated with her anguish, and purple flames flickered like sequins over her gown.
"You tried to kill me to satisfy the evil in your bones and to line your pockets!
I had done nothing to you! I spend my life doing what I can to give the dead peace, but you saw nothing but a cockroach to be squashed. "
Silence spread in the wake of her tsunami words, because what was there to say? She was right. I hadn’t stopped to consider the life I was ending in the many hours I spent planning and executing her death. To be fair, I never did. I took life without apology and moved on.
Then it came to me. I stepped toward her again, choking down my fear of her raging inferno.
Pain at her hand would be sweet anyway. "There are a lot of things I could say to you.
I could explain that I was just following orders, or that I knew nothing else.
" I kneeled, the chilled floor lancing through me in a way that felt right.
"None of it matters. I hurt you, and I am sorry. "
The world stopped on its axis. Hades’s fingers trembled at her sides, and her fire stuttered and sparked. Her burning emerald eyes welled at the corners. "What did you just say?"
"I said I'm sorry, my goddess. Whatever excuses I have don't matter, because I hurt you, and for that I am sorry. Can you please, after all we have endured, forgive me and give me the chance to do right by you?"
She let out a shuddering breath. Her eyes were still wide, her expression slack and unsure.
It was an eternity before she stepped toward me.
The click of her heels against the cold floor vibrated through my core.
When she was close enough that the neat stretch of fabric around her waist filled my vision, she dropped to her knees as well. "No one has ever apologized to me."
"I am honored to be the first," I said with a gentle smile. "And I will be honored to tear repentance from your enemies' throats for you."
Her eyes glistened in the flickering purple cast of her flames, her expression somewhere between shock and reverence.
She leaned in as though she intended to touch her lips to mine, but she stopped short.
Her hand came to caress my cheek. "I am sorry, too.
" She paused and gulped. "Why would you want to stay beside me? "
I thought about it for a moment. My eyes caressed her face and body as my mind worked, though I hardly saw her beautiful form. It wasn’t a loaded question—for once, she wasn't playing a game of chess with her tongue. It was a challenge to respond to that vulnerability.
She had given me honesty, and I strove to give it in return.
So, I allowed my deepest truth to leave my body.
"Because I’m curious about you and what we can become.
The Hydras raised me to be a mindless soldier, yet I have found my mind twisting into knots to figure you out, and why I’m so fucking drawn to you despite how you torment me. "
Hades nodded. Though resolve etched her features, her fingers trembled on my cheek. She leaned back to create an icy space between us that pulled tight against my chest. A familiar, worn piece of paper appeared in her outstretched palm.
I winced at the parchment that held the deed to my soul.
The paper weighed down the air around me and caused my breath to shorten.
Its presence felt like claws raking over my heart and spiders crawling over my skin.
I was ready to ask her why the hell she would show it to me when ultraviolet flames viciously devoured it.
As the last scrap of parchment left her palm as a glowing ember, I gasped a ragged breath. A parasite had been torn from my body, freeing but shockingly painful. I clawed at my hollow chest as though I could clutch my now-adrift soul, but it didn't save me from the feeling of free fall.
She leaned in until I felt the heat of her fire as though it were my own. "You're free now, Thane. Don't make me regret this."