by Vivian Wood
The reality of this crashes over me like the sound of glass shattering.
This was it. This was his escape plan.
And I don’t want to escape. The certainty washes over me like a bucket of cold water. Every nerve ending on my skin screams in protest. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I don’t know if we’ll ever make it to freedom on this train. Don’t know if I’ll ever see the New York Public Library, but in this moment, none of that matters.
Hades. He matters. And the pain he’ll feel when I’m gone.
The pain I feel speeding away from him.
“Decker,” I say carefully, wide awake, painfully awake. “I don’t know if this is a good idea. He’s going to catch up with us. And when he does—”
He stands up, the motion sudden enough to shock me. The backs of my knees hit one of the crates, and I go down hard enough to wince. The wood is unforgiving. Then Decker is right there, throwing his arms around me. My body wants to relax into him, but I can’t.
He waits until I can’t resist him anymore.
“Don’t think too much.” He shakes his head against my neck, pressing a kiss there. “Don’t worry. It’s all going to work out in the end. You just have to trust me.”
I don’t have a choice.
There’s no way out of a moving train, and no way away from Decker. No sudden moves. No sudden moves at all. I let him hold me then sit next to me, and I try my best not to do anything at all. But with every moment that passes, I know one thing: I don’t trust him. There’s a desperation in his movements that makes me nervous.
Time blurs, erasing the distinctions between moments. Still, I recognize the landscape around us. We get close to my mother’s house, to the platform in the woods.
I hold my breath, waiting for the train to slow.
It doesn’t slow. We speed past.
“Good fucking riddance to that place too,” Decker says under his breath.
What does that mean?
I press my lips together and clutch my stomach, trying not to be sick. It shouldn't feel this way, heading toward freedom. It shouldn’t feel like I’m going in the wrong direction. Keeping it together becomes my first priority. Second priority: figure out a plan. Eventually, Decker is going to get off the train. Right? He has to. He’s not going to ride it back to the mountain.
But I am.
A weight lifts off my shoulders the second the idea comes to me. I’ll just stay on the train. I might get punished for it, but I’ll get back to the mountain. I’ll finish what I started.
My body aches from sitting by the time the train rolls into the city. It’s been hours. My heart lifts despite my stiff legs and the pain in my back from sitting on the crate at an awkward angle. I’ve thought my new plan through from every angle. I will step off the train with him, and at the last moment, I’ll jump back on. He’ll have no choice but to let me go. It’ll be another long ride with the crates, and then I can go back to sleep. After Hades deals with me. A shiver of anticipation runs down my spine.
The train comes to a stop, and I pull the coat tighter around my body. The air is cool for the summer, and my outfit isn’t exactly the one I’d choose to be running around the city in. Thank God I’ll only spend a few moments on the platform.
Decker opens the door.
Get out then get back in. I chant it to myself over and over.
He puts his hand on the small of my back, and the look he gives me is so off it’s all I can do not to flinch away. But I don’t. I walk out with my head held high.
Onto a dark train platform.
That’s not right.
At first, it seems right, because so many of the places in the mountain were dark. Here, it’s not right. There should be lights. Decker steps out in front of me and whistles, the sound like one of the birds in the forest by my mother’s house.
“Deck, this seems weird.” My voice only trembles a little. “I’m going to get back on the train.”
He turns around, movements jerky, and clamps a hand around my wrist. “You’re not.”
I pull it back, fresh panic turning my stomach.
“Decker, let go.” I try to yank my wrist out of his grip, but he’s too strong. He doesn’t look strong compared to Hades. But he doesn’t need to be strong compared to Hades, does he? He only needs to be strong compared to me.
No. No.
The train whistle sounds, and I move on instinct, rushing toward it. Decker doesn’t quite know what to do with his arm and he loses his grip. I sprint for the door, picking up speed.
I make it two steps before my toe catches an uneven board on the platform.
My knees hit with a crack and the air goes out of me. I’m going to have to walk back. Back where? Back to my mother’s house at least. Back to the mountain at worst. There’s no way it’ll be better climbing. But I can’t stay here. I wait for Decker to lift me up, to dust me off, but he doesn’t touch me.
He leaves me to get to my feet alone.
My knees are killing me.
“Deck?”
I turn around. Maybe he’s gone. Maybe I can get back on the train.
Or maybe he’s standing there with four other men, all of them looking at me.
“Decker.” Horror closes my throat and brings tears to my eyes. I don’t let them fall. “What did you do?”
I loved him. I loved him. Or maybe I never even knew him.
He shrugs, hands in his pockets. There’s a new bulge there I didn’t see before. Empty pockets now full. He’s a stranger to me.
“I had to get paid, Persephone. You have to understand that.” Money—his pockets are full of money. Cash.
“Paid for what?” He looks down at the ground. “Paid for what, Decker?”
The train pulls away behind me.
The men with Decker step forward, advancing one by one.
And I have nowhere to go.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Hades
The one night I want to lie down, some foreman in the mines can’t handle himself.
I take my work seriously. Seriously enough that when the call came in, I left Persephone sleeping in her bed. I did not want to do that. Fuck no. If I took my work less seriously, I’d have told them to go fuck themselves while I woke her up for another round. I needed to keep my mind blank, and they stole that from me. My one concession was to leave Conor guarding her door.
It’s not blank now.
I feel... alive. Awake. Obnoxiously so. All my senses are turned up to maximum input. Every light is too bright, every sound too loud, and every distance is too great. I need her next to me.
And I’ve finally accepted it.
In reality, I was forced to accept it when fucking her took me over the edge into something like ecstasy. I haven’t felt that in years. With any woman. It’s like discovering a brand-new craving that’s been there all along.
Like I’ve needed her all along, but now I’m finding her.
It doesn’t make any fucking sense, and it doesn’t need to. I’m going to fuck her until I figure out what to do about this little conundrum. Eventually, Demeter will have to know. She won’t be thrilled. But I’ll come up with a counteroffer. I’ll buy her cooperation. I should have pushed harder on a deal already to avoid her temper tantrum. Live and learn.
Those jackasses down in the mines learned something tonight. They learned that if they fuck around enough, I’ll come to set them straight. The ones that lived will pay far better attention to the foreman from now on.
I rub my eyes on the way back to my quarters. I want a shower. I want darkness. I need it. The house has been designed for me, and still, the lights become a problem. The special bulbs only delay the inevitable.
They switch off one by one as I approach, which is how I need things to be right now. Though I hate thinking in terms of need. I suppose it’s something I’ll have to get used to, now that I’ve gone ahead and fucked Persephone senseless. Can’t give that up now.
I’m looking forward to being alone for t
he ten minutes it will take to get clean, then destroy her room a little more.
Only Oliver is waiting outside the double doors to my rooms. No sign of Conor.
“What is it?” His face is pale, almost green, the scar across his cheek standing out, angry and red. “Did those fuckers in the mines give you any more trouble?”
“One of them did,” he says. “He’s dead.”
“Well, yes, Oliver. I thought you saw that I paid a visit.”
“A different one. And one of the maids is missing too. We have a situation on our hands.”
“Which maid?” I don’t give a fuck about the maids.
But I very much give a fuck when Oliver’s gaze slips toward Persephone’s bedroom.
“Her personal maid? What the fuck?”
I wrench her door open before I know what I’m doing. The frame shrieks in my hand. It’s supposed to be strong enough to withstand anything, but it’s not. Not today.
She’s not here.
I tear the blankets off, the sheets, the pillows—they still smell like her. Like new leaves and sunshine and something unbearably sweet. I claw the fitted sheet off the bed and shove the mattress off the box spring. She should be here. She should be here somewhere.
She’s not here.
The closet comes apart under my hands. There hasn’t been time for her to wear all the dresses that fall like feathers onto the carpet, but they all carry her scent. I yank every one of them off the hangers. I search behind every cupboard. If she’s here, anywhere, I don’t care what I have to destroy to find her.
She’s not here.
She’s not here.
A cold dread, colder than the hand of death, grips the back of my neck.
Running footsteps announce Oliver. He looks worse than before, if it’s possible. “I got a call.” His face twists, and I don’t know if it’s fear or grief or both. “We have to… we have to go to the platform.”
“Did our people find her?”
“No. They found— Fuck, Luther.” A rare slip, calling me that. “Conor.”
I’m not aware of the mad rush to the platform, only the searing pain in my lungs. In my heart. Everywhere. A group of people are huddled around something on the ground. They’re standing in a growing pool of blood.
Most of them try to get out of the way when they see me coming. The ones who don’t, I throw to the side. One man goes over completely. I don’t fucking care. The last one standing—kneeling, really—is the veterinarian I keep on the mountain. He owes me a great deal. I’ve never seen his face so bloodless until I’m gripping his white coat, pain’s fists around my own neck. I could die of it.
“What happened?”
“Someone shot him.” Three words, like rocks on glass. My head throbs, splintering. Too much light. I twist around without letting him go.
“Who was it?”
Oliver’s right there, right behind us.
“The person who took her. The same person who took her.” His voice shakes. He knows what this means.
I let go of Dr. Martin. Conor tried to stop them. No fucking doubt in my mind. I ignore the blood and stroke Conor’s head anyway, numb horror seeping in at the edges of my consciousness. I can’t tell if he’s still alive. My own heartbeat is too fucking loud.
“They left on the train,” says Oliver.
“Did you find her, then?” I’m numb. I’m on fire. I’m beneath the ground.
“No.” To his credit, he moves where I can see him to deliver the final blow. He looks me in the eye. “She’s gone.”
Thank you so much for reading KING OF SHADOWS! The deliciously dangerous story of Hades & Persephone continues in SUMMER QUEEN, available now!
”Summer Queen is a sexy shot of antihero goodness—this is the kinky, delicious retelling of the year!" –Sierra Simone, USA Today bestselling author
Persephone’s been stolen from me.
Out of my mountain, out of my reach. I’ll do anything to get her back, even break a truce that’s kept my kingdom safe.
I can only breathe again when she’s back in my arms.
When I can make her pay for every second I spent in fear.
I want more than her body given to me in debt. I want her heart. And I will punish her until it’s mine.
Order Summer Queen now!
Connect with Amelia
Amelia Wilde is a USA TODAY and Amazon Top 100 bestselling author of steamy contemporary romance and loves it a little too much. She lives in Michigan with her husband and daughters. She spends most of her time typing furiously on an iPad and appreciating the natural splendor of her home state from where she likes it best: inside.
Need more stories like this one in your life? Sign up for my newsletter here and receive access to subscriber-only previews, giveaways, and more!
Follow me on BookBub for new release alerts!
Still can’t get enough? Join my reader’s group on Facebook and enter the party today!
See you on the other side! <3
P.S. There’s more where that came from!
Are you in the mood for wounded warrior heroes with huge hearts? Read BEFORE SHE WAS MINE, free everywhere!
Do New York billionaires strike your fancy? Read about the irresistibly intriguing men of the Purple Swan, starting with DIRTY RICH, free for a limited time!
And don’t miss my favorite sweet, angsty, hilarious single dad hero in SINGLE DAD’S WAITRESS, first in my laugh-out-loud Main Street Single Dads series! Read FREE today!