For me.
For the past that was stolen from us.
And then the ground groans.
The air tightens, as if it’s being sucked from the world, and goose bumps pebble on my arms.
A void opens directly in front of me—ripping reality apart at the seams—andhesteps through.
Hades.
He doesn’t speak at first, but then again, he doesn’t have to. His presence says enough. Everything in nature recoils from him—leaves shrivel, the sunlight dims, and even the clouds seem to float away.
Hades tilts his head slightly as he stares at me. There’s something behind his eyes I’ve never seen before, at least from him. Respect, maybe? Pride? Whatever it is disappears before I can analyze it further, replaced by his impassive mask once more.
His gaze drops to Ares, who moans at his feet.
“So,” Hades says, his voice like stone tumbling down a mountain, “this is what’s become of the God of War.”
“He’s behind all of this,” Krystian snaps, tears forming in his eyes as he glares down at Ares. “He stalked her. Assaulted her. He…”
He looks away with a choked sound, his hand tightening around his bow.
“He called it love,” Rafe adds, disgust curling his lip.
He hasn’t peeled his eyes away from Ares once since we took him down. My blood fae is seconds from losing the remnants of his sanity.
Hades turns towards me, his expression unreadable. “And you? What do you call it?”
“Violation. Control. Obsession.” I glare down at the pathetic waste of space.
Fuck, I want to stab him. End him. I’m not even sure if my dagger is capable of such a thing, but if it is…I want to be the one to do it.
“If he’s the one behind your imprisonment, then we need to figure out a way to drain the power out of him,” Hades says calmly.
Too calmly.
But there’s something in his eyes that makes me pause.
I mentioned before that I’ve never seen Hades angry before.
I think that’s about to change.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Ares snaps, snarling. “The little bitch is lying?—”
Hades lifts one hand, and shadows erupt from the earth like writhing chains. They wrap around Ares’s body, hauling him into the air. I stagger backwards—landing against Everett, who has shifted back into his human form—as Ares floats in the air, thrashing against the restraints.
“You are no longer fit to walk amongst the living,” Hades says simply, his cold, malevolent gaze fixed on Ares. “You’ve dishonored Olympus, your name, and yourself.”
The chains tighten, binding Ares like a fly in a web.
“I will place him in Tartarus,” Hades says to us. “Where time forgets. Where screams echo without end. He will not touch you or your world again.”
Ares’s eyes widen in panic. “You can’t do this! Zeus will never let you!”
A smile slashes across Hades’s face. “You damn well know Zeus won’t stop me.”
His words hold some sort of meaning that I don’t understand, but Ares obviously does.
