“Again,” Cerberus’s center head barks, his tone like stone. “You don’t stop until you do it right.”
My head aches, but I know complaining will only get me lashes across the back.
I try again, forcing my body to move, but I’m not fast enough. Not strong enough. Not fucking good enough.
Then, without warning, the air shifts. A chill careens down my spine, and the ground under my feet seems to tremble with unencumbered power. A shadow falls over me, and I hesitantly look up.
The sight of him… It shakes me. His presence is so overwhelming and domineering that my chest tightens. He’s tall, his form draped in shadows, his handsome features sharp and unyielding. His eyes burn like hellfire, molten and intense.
Hades.
I know it’s him, even before Cerberus’s heads turn in unison, his demeanor shifting. One head dips in submission, while the others grow still. And I realize then that my father—this terrifying, monstrous being—is not the ultimate authority. Not truly. There’s someone far more powerful out there.
Someone like this god.
“Leave the boy,” Hades drawls lazily, waving a hand in my direction. “We have much to discuss.”
I glance up at my father, my heart hammering in the general vicinity of my throat.
Cerberus has never allowed us to end a training session early. He has made me fight with broken bones and bruises and gaping wounds.
But no one can say no to Hades, not even my father.
“Understood.” Then, without another word to me, he turns and follows Hades, leaving me alone and confused.
I stagger the rest of the way to my feet, trying to catch my breath.
My father never gave me comfort before. He didn’t hold me when I fell or praise me when I did something right. All I ever saw in him was that cold, indifferent face he wore like a mask. My entire life, I thought he was the biggest, baddest monster of them all. That he was invincible.
But there’s something out there much, much worse.
The raw power Hades exuded…
The malevolent glint in those inhuman eyes…
The darkness he seemed to wear like a cloak…
He wasn’t a man who simply lived in the shadows; he commanded them.
It makes sense that Hades’s right-hand man would grow to be just as cold, just as angry.
I pray I won’t end up like them.
That eternity won’t wither away my softness the way it did theirs.
Swallowing heavily, I move my fists into position again. Cerberus may not be here, but that doesn’t mean I can’t train.
I need to be the best, and to do that, I need to practice.
So I do it alone.
I wakewith something soft wrapped around me, cocooning me in warmth.
I blink groggily, wondering which of my brothers placed a blanket on me. But then someone shifts beside me, and I know it wasn’t any of them.
It was Thea.
Beautiful, irritating Thea.
