Chapter 12
“Damn Hecate,” I hissed, as I gazed around at the room I was in, heart racing as I tried to take it in. It reminded me of a church, massive vaulted ceilings stretching above me, all made from white marble.
Intricate weaving patterns ran down the stone everywhere, depicting vines and plants and flowers, butterflies flitting amongst everything. Huge drapes, at least twenty feet tall, lined the two longest sides of the room.
In the center was a large table laid for two, next to a circular raised platform. The platform was empty and something about it seemed wrong. Really wrong.
I stepped closer to it, frowning as a hollow feeling spread through my gut, something akin to grief pulling at me. Why would an empty platform make me feel such a sense of loss?
Giving up on trying to work out the unsettling feeling, I turned to the table. There was nothing remarkable about it, except that it was a little large for two and dressed beautifully. There was, however, something remarkable about the two chairs drawn up to it.
Just like the grand thrones I had seen in the fiery throne room, these were decorated with skulls and roses.
But where the thrones were bold and intimidating, these were elegant and stunning.
And even more interestingly, they both had skulls and roses carved into the rich mahogany wood.
The vines of the roses twisted around the skulls seamlessly on both chairs, and something about the pattern felt oddly satisfying.
The two elements were drawn together perfectly, displaying the angry skulls and the fierce roses as equally dangerous and beautiful.
They were nothing like the angry thrones.
As I reached out to touch the wood of the closest chair, a voice spoke sharply behind me.
“How did you get in here?”
I whirled around, starting at the words, then feeling a violent shiver rock though me as I saw the smoky form of Hades.
“Hecate sent me here. With the white-light-flashy thing you all do,” I said too quickly, trying to swallow the fear that leaped up inside me. “I assumed you were expecting me.”
He let out a sigh, the smoke rippling around him.
“That woman needs to learn to meddle less.”
“Oh. Should I go?” I asked hopefully. The smoke rippled, and I caught the briefest flash of silver eyes.
“You shouldn't be here at all.”
“I didn't ask to be,” I snapped, unable to help myself. “Why would I want to be in a place with no outside?” The smoky form rippled again.
“The Underworld is no place for you.” His voice was cold and harsh.
“Then send me home,” I said, my palms suddenly sweating at the thought that he could actually send me back. Please, please send me home.
“I can't,” he hissed, and the temperature suddenly shot up. “My bully of a brother has spoken.” At the word bully, my fear receded slightly, and I cocked my head. Hades felt bullied? That couldn't be right. How could a king be bullied?
“Why don't you stand up to him?” I asked, the brazen words almost failing me as I spoke them. The temperature soared again as smoke billowed from him.
“You think I haven't tried that?” he said loudly, and images of fire began to lick at my mind, the iron tang of blood creeping onto my tongue.
“Please, please don't!” I begged, hearing and hating the fear in my voice, but not able to hide it. “Not again.”
The fear lessened immediately, the images vanishing as the room cooled.
“This is no place for humans,” Hades snapped. “You are likely to get yourself killed here.”
“You mean you're likely to scare me to death!” I snapped back, my nerves frayed. “How the hell am I supposed to have lunch with you if you frighten the shit out of me every time I ask you something you don't like?”
The smoke rippled.
“Lunch?”
“That's what Hecate said.” My head was starting to pound. I'd only met the man twice and I already hated being around him.
“That infernal woman,” Hades muttered. There was a long silence, then he spoke. “Are you hungry?”
“No,” I lied. “You can just send me back to my room.” He paused before answering.
“I'm told you don't like your new room.”
New room? Hecate's word flicked into my head. “You used to share a room with Hades, dummy.”
How? How had I ever shared a room with that thing?
Even if you took the fact that he was made of smoke out of the equation, as far as I could tell he had no personality whatsoever, let alone a sense of humor. Plus he was terrifying. I prayed he wouldn't mention the fact that we were supposedly married once.
“It's very nice, but there aren't any windows. I spend most of my time outside, back at home,” I said, as politely as I could manage.
“There is an outside here,” he said curtly, and I noticed the hissing sound had lessened in his voice.
“Really?” He raised a smoky hand, and the drapes along each side of the room withdrew slowly, and my breath caught in my throat.
Sunlight.
I hurried to the glass windows that had been hidden behind the fabric, and recoiled slightly. The land beyond was completely barren. Cracked, dry earth stretched for miles, and other than a few bare stubborn trees, nothing lived.
“What happened?” I breathed.
“Nothing will grow,” he said bluntly. “But I believe it still counts as 'outside'. What is that?” I turned to him as he asked the question, and saw his smoky arm pointing towards my feet. I looked down and blinked as I saw Skop, sitting still and blinking back up at me.
“That's my new guard.”
“It's a kobaloi. Why would you need a kobaloi as a guard? All they do is play tricks on people and try to screw everything,” he said. Skop's tail wagged and a smile sprang unbidden to my lips.
“Apparently Dionysus was under the impression that I needed entertainment more than guarding,” I said.
“He was wrong.” I took a deep breath. Hades thought I needed a guard too? Some of the iciness had left his voice, and the addition of the, albeit faint, sunlight to the room was helping to ease my racing pulse.
I gathered my courage, deciding to try to get whatever information I could out of the man I was supposed to have once liked enough to marry.
“Will you tell me why I need a guard?”
“No.”
“Am I in danger, or is Poseidon right, am I the one who's dangerous?” I pushed.
“Neither.”
I decided to change tack. Hades hadn't scared me for a full three minutes now, and I was feeling bolder the longer we spoke.
“Why does the temperature change when you're angry? Why is it cold sometimes and hot others?”
“That's enough questions.”
“No it's not! I know nothing about this world, surely I deserve a few harmless questions answered?”
“Deserve?” He rippled.
“Yes, deserve. Do I need to remind you that I've been abducted to the freaking Underworld and made to fight demons for a life I don't understand?”
The smoke form contracted quickly, almost turning solid but not quite. There was long silence, and my heart began to hammer again. Had I gone too far?
“It only gets hot when I haven't got control of my temper,” Hades said suddenly, and I was sure the hissing sound had gone from his voice completely. “If I'm scaring on purpose, it's cold.”
My eyes snapped to where I knew his were. He was answering me.
“Are you made of smoke deliberately?” I asked, quickly, as though I needed to get all my questions in before he changed his mind.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't want people to know what I look like.”
“Why not?”
“I'm the Lord of the Dead.”
“That's not an answer,” I said, cocking my head at him and scowling.
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it's not. Are you trying to be more scary?”
“No. I'm trying to—” he cut off abruptly. “I don't need to tell you this,” he said. His voice was definitely different now, deep and rich where it had been cold and scratchy. I took a long breath, and went for the question I most wanted to ask him, almost hoping he would say no.
“Can I see your eyes?”
“No,” he said, but the word was soft.
“Please?” I stepped towards him, staring into his smoky, featureless face.
“Why do you want to see them?” he asked.
“Because... When I saw them yesterday, I knew I wasn't dreaming. I knew this was real,” I said, knowing I was telling him too much, but not able to stop myself. “They're the only thing I recognize in this world.”
Hades' form flashed, and suddenly, there they were. Those intense, beautiful silver eyes. But they were filled with sadness, and pain so evident that my breath caught.
In under a second they were gone again, and I let out my breath slowly. The desire to help him, to make him happy, to fix whatever made him so intensely sad was overwhelming me. I scrabbled for something to say but Hades spoke first.
“You must leave. I'll tell Hecate not to plan something so stupid again,” he said, the hiss back in his voice. Coldness washed over my skin, and I didn't know if it was his power or my own emotions.
“But—” I started, but he cut me off, his voice making me think of snakes when I didn't want to. I wanted to hold onto that emotion, that feeling of intensity. I wanted to help him. “Do not talk to me again. You will not be here much longer.”
Anger cut through my confusion, as my feelings were doused out instantly. One minute he was making me feel all this overwhelming emotional crap, the next he was being a dick to me?
“I hope not,” I snapped.
“Lose the Trials, then leave my realm,” he said, his tone hard and arrogant and cold. Something ragged and desperate gnawed at my gut, but my conflicting feelings were resolving themselves as anger.
“With pleasure,” I spat, glaring at him.