He frowned. “And you’re okay with that?”
“I don’t have much choice.” She sighed. “Anyway, we had a good talk, considering that’s something we haven’t done much of in a long time.” She looked at her nails.
Impatience got the best of him. “And? What did you talk about? You’re drawing this out on purpose, aren’t you?”
She bit one of her fingernails before responding. “I might be.”
“Enough, woman. Tell me the news.”
“First, I have to ask you a question.”
“What? Anything.” She was killing him. The irony wasn’t lost.
“Are you still interested?”
“In?” He could definitely feel himself dying.
“Dating me?”
He stared at her. “Hell yes. But you know that can only happen under certain circumstances.”
“Those circumstances have been confirmed.”
His gaze narrowed. “Are you saying what I think you are?”
She nodded. “My mother confirmed that I’m immortal, just like she is.”
The spring that had been winding in his belly almost snapped. He was going to explode. “You’re positive.”
“Yes.”
He stood there, frozen with possibility. Then he thawed. Every desire he’d ever felt for her came rushing forward in a hot wash of need. He felt the sharp jut of fangs as his vampire side emerged with the storm of emotion. “I’m going to kiss you now.”
She put her hands on her hips. “At least.” She tipped her head at him. “Are those fangs?”
“Yes. But I won’t hurt you.”
Her eyes sparkled with the most wicked intent. “I’m not afraid of a little biting.”
He moved so quickly she gasped. Threading his hands into her glorious hair, he brought her close and planted his mouth on hers. Warm, firm, soft, velvet, delicious. He devoured her, sliding one hand down to the small of her back and pulling her against him. His.
The little mews of pleasure that escaped her only fueled him. Her hands danced over his bare chest, touching and teasing and driving him mad. She was more than he’d imagined, and the taste of her sent him soaring.
A soft, distressed moan reached his ears. She broke the kiss and pulled away, shaking her head slightly. Her lids looked heavy. Wrong.
“What’s the matter? Was I too rough?” He gentled his touch but couldn’t bring himself to release her entirely.
“No.” Her mouth moved like the words she wanted to say wouldn’t come. “I feel…funny. Light-headed and…” Her eyes rolled back, and she went limp.
“Seraphina!” He held on to her, easing her to the floor and kneeling beside her. Panic erased the pleasure he’d just felt, shoving needles of fear into his spine. He put his fingers to her neck, but already her pulse was weakening. He pulled back like he’d been shocked, but the hourglass tattooed over his heart began to burn as it filled. This couldn’t be happening. She was supposed to be immortal. He cursed loudly. “No. No!”
He pounded his fists on the floor beside her lifeless form, then tipped back his head and howled in anger and pain. The glass vase on the coffee table shattered.
Despite Seraphina’s assurance, he’d just reaped her soul.
Seraphina returned to consciousness with a start. The last thing she remembered was kissing Ares. She grinned at the delicious thought. But then she’d gotten faint and felt like she was dissolving.
Now she was no longer in his penthouse, but at least she was upright and on her own two feet. She also felt fine, but nothing looked familiar. A few yards away, water rippled at the edge of a murky black lake, the faint smell of metal and earth wafting past. Swirling fog obscured most of the view, making it impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction, although she caught glimpses of the shore here and there where the fog broke. There was no discernible light source, but the sky had a dusky smolder to it. Wherever she was, the place was dank and dismal and severely lacking in color.
Worst of all, Ares was nowhere in sight. She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. “Where the hell am I?”
“Unfortunately, I know the answer to that question.” Ares walked out of the fog a few feet away.
She exhaled with relief. “I’m so glad you’re here. Where are we? Because I’ve got no—whoa, what are you wearing?”
He looked down and stretched out his arms, causing the long black robe draped over him to billow out. It was cut to the waist, revealing a glimpse of his bare chest. He frowned. “My reaper uniform. Somehow, despite your immortality, I took your soul during that kiss. I’m wearing this because it’s what I wear when I deliver souls to their final resting place. Cliché, I know, but it comes with the job.”
A chill went through her. “Are you saying this is my final resting place? That I’m…dead?”
His chest rose and fell with a deep breath. “You’re a demigoddess. It shouldn’t have happened, but I guess your mother was wrong about your immortality.” He glanced around. “Welcome to the Underworld.”
“How is that possible? I never figured my mother would lie to me about a thing like that.”
“I never would have touched you if I’d thought this was possible.” He shook his head, the sorrow in his eyes almost more than she could take.
“Do you regret kissing me?”
“No. Yes.” He stared toward the lake. “I regret we’ve ended up here.”
The fog over the water parted like a curtain, and the light of a single lantern broke through the hazy purple darkness. The lantern was attached to a boat piloted by a man in a robe very much like Ares’s. Except that the man was nothing but a skeleton.
She backed up a step as she looked from the boat to Ares. “This is the River Styx.” She may have never been to Olympus, but she’d studied the geography of her heritage enough to know the layout of the Underworld.
Ares nodded.
She pointed at the ferryman. “That would make him Charon.”
“Right again.” With a tentative hand, Ares reached out and touched her arm. “You’re real.”
“What did you expect? A ghost?”
“Yes.” He sighed. “I’ve never had someone accompany me to deliver their soul. Something weird is going on here.”
She shot him a look. “You think?”
The ferryman’s boat bumped the shore. He lifted one arm to point a bony finger at Seraphina, then crooked the finger and gestured for her to come with him.
Ares stepped in front of her. “She goes nowhere without me.”
She put her hand on his arm. “Ares, I know you didn’t mean to hurt me, but this isn’t your battle anymore.”
“Like hell it isn’t. I got you into this mess, and I’m going to get you out.” He leaned forward. “You’re taking both of us, Charon. You have no choice. I hold her soul.”
The skeletal figure dropped his arm, went still for a moment, then pointed into the boat. Ares climbed in first, then held out his hand for Seraphina. “C’mon, let’s go see Hades and get this sorted out.”
“You think we’re actually going to see the god of the Underworld?” She shivered.
Ares wrapped an arm around her. “Yes. I take it you’ve never met him before?”
“No. I might be a demigoddess, but my life is far removed from the realm of the gods and goddesses. It’s not like being a demi is that special.” She snorted softly. “None of the gods and goddess are known for fidelity. There are lots of demis wandering around.” She looked up at Ares. “You’ve meet him?”
Ares nodded. “I’m half reaper. I deliver the souls I Collect to their end destinations. And sometimes, that’s here. And he’s the one I deliver the souls to.”
With the fog surrounding them, it was impossible to tell how much progress the boat was making. “How does that whole soul thing work?”
“You know the basics. I touch someone, I take their soul. Once I have it, it’s contained here.” He pulled his robe to one side to reveal the hourglass tatt
oo she’d seen on him earlier. It glowed softly.
“Why is it lit up like that?”
The pain in his eyes was clear. “Because it’s filled. That’s the light of your soul.”
“But how can that be? I don’t feel dead.” She shook her head. “I can’t be dead. Have you ever Collected a demigod or demigoddess before?”
“No.”
“Well, then, maybe this is just how it works for us.”
“Maybe.” But nothing in his tone rang of confidence.
She leaned against him. “Might as well touch you now. It’s not like you can take my soul a second time.”
He said nothing. He also made no move to return the intimacy.
“I don’t blame you for this, you know.” She looked up at him.
“How can it not be my fault?” He stared into the fog.
She turned, forcibly wrapping his arms around her before lifting her hands to cup his face. “Ares, I came to your place of my own free will. With full intent to kiss you if you didn’t act first. This isn’t your fault.” She leaned up and kissed him again, a quick, reassuring brush of the lips.
When she released him, he was almost smiling. The boat abutted the shoreline, and they both turned. Charon held his arm out again, pointing for them to get off. The fog ended on this side of the river, and the land beyond held some color but all of it washed with gray. It was like permanent twilight, and the lack of sun sucked the vibrancy out of everything. Javier would have hated this place.
She stepped off the boat with Ares behind her. A wide path of flat stones led from the shoreline toward a large gated garden. Beyond the gate and the hedge walls, an enormous house loomed, beautiful, but bleak and gray, like everything else.
She studied the mansion. “Is that Hades’s palace?”
“Yes.” Ares positioned himself slightly in front of her. “And that is Hades himself.”
In the grayness of everything, Seraphina hadn’t noticed the man approaching behind the gate. He came through, leaving the wrought iron entrance open. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected the god of the Underworld to look like, but he was handsome enough and well built. Definitely godlike, and despite his short, gray beard and shoulder-length gray hair, there was an air of youth about him.
“Ares.”
“Hades.”
The god stopped a few feet away. “You’ve brought a mortal with you? That is highly irregular.”
“Not a mortal, exactly.” Ares reached down and took Seraphina’s hand. “This is Seraphina Kostos. She’s the daughter of a muse and a demigoddess, which is probably why things have gone so differently this time.”
Hades stared at her. “Come out where I can see you.”
She walked forward, trembling slightly at the unknown prospect of what was about to happen, but managing to hold herself with the upright carriage Cleo had always said was most becoming of a demigoddess. She stopped a few feet from him, brushed her hair back and looked him square in the eyes. “I am Seraphina Kostos, daughter of Cleo. I should not be here. I am an immortal.”
Hades’s gaze seemed to go strangely liquid. “Seraphina,” he muttered. He pointed at her. “That star around your neck, where did you get it?”
She touched the pendant she always wore. “My mother gave it to me. Told me to never take it off.”
He held out his hand. “Give it to me.”
She hesitated.
“I won’t keep it.”
Reluctantly, she unclasped the chain and handed it to him.
He pulled a larger version of it from around his own neck. The smaller star fit perfectly into the larger star. He held the two and looked up at her. “Seraphina, do you have any idea why you’re here?”
“No.”
He seemed to choke up for a moment as his gaze went back to the necklace. “Your mother gave you this to protect you, but even she didn’t fully understand what it was meant for. If ever you were in danger, it would protect you by bringing you back to me.”
“Back to you? And I wasn’t in danger, I was…” She started to point back to Ares, then dropped her hand. “I wasn’t in danger.”
“You must have been. You’re standing beside a wraith. Don’t you know what such a creature is capable of?”
“Yes, but I’m immortal. His touch shouldn’t have had any effect.”
“He touched you?” Hades shifted his attention to Ares. “Why did you attempt to reap her soul, wraith?”
“I didn’t attempt to reap it, I did reap it.”
Hades arched one thick, gray brow, but angry lines bracketed his mouth. “Only the power of the amulet allowed that to happen.”
Ares looked as confused as she felt. She held up a finger. “Wait a minute, are you saying the only reason he was able to take my soul is because that necklace made it possible?”
Hades nodded. “Yes, and now that you’re here—”
“How is that possible?”
Hades sighed. “I designed the amulet and imbued it with magic. If ever your life was in danger, it would transport you and the one endangering you directly to me so that I might deal with them and protect you.”
“What? Why?”
“So that I might protect you.”
“You said that part already.” She was about to lose it. “Let’s go back to where I wasn’t actually in danger.”
Hades looked at Ares. “Were you not trying to take her soul?”
“No.” Ares spoke the word loudly and slowly, like he thought Hades might be a little deaf.
“Then why did you touch her? What were you doing to her?”
Ares crossed his arms defiantly. “I kissed her.”
She almost smiled at the blunt declaration.
Hades frowned, and anger danced in his eyes. “Knowing full well that you’d take her soul in the process?”
Ares growled. “I kissed her with the understanding that it was safe to do so. Her mother told her she was immortal.”
“She is,” Hades answered.
“So she never was in any actual danger.” Ares’s voice held frustration, and his hands closed into fists.
“Look,” Seraphina spoke up, “if I’m immortal, maybe you can just show us how to get home?”
“No.” Hades hand tightened around the joined necklaces. “You’re staying here with me. Your time in the mortal world is over.”
“What? No.” The idea of being stuck in this miserable place was almost as bad as being separated from Ares. “You have no right.”
Hades turned and walked back toward the gate. “I have every right. I am your father.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ares went after Hades. God of the Underworld or not, he wasn’t about to let Hades determine Seraphina’s fate so flippantly.
Hades stopped, his hand on the gate. “I am her father. She’ll do as I say.”
Seraphina charged forward. “My mother said my father was a mortal.”
Hades snarled in disgust. “Your mother lied.”
Ares wanted to punch him. “Seraphina is an adult. She can do as she damn well pleases. And if she wasn’t in any danger from me, using that necklace to bring her here is a violation of supernatural laws.”
Hades’s mouth curved in a crass smirk. “Supernatural laws don’t apply to me. You’re in my realm now.” He pointed at Seraphina. “She stays. You go.”
Ares had hidden the darkest side of himself from Seraphina, but to save her, he was willing to change that. He looked back at Seraphina. “Do you want to stay here?”
“Hell no.” She shuddered, her mouth bent in a broken, wretched way. “I want to go back with you.”
He turned to Hades. “There. You heard her. She wants to return to the mortal world with me.”
“Fine. You have her soul. Take it. But I have her body, and it’s staying here.”
Behind Ares, Seraphina let out a harsh sob. “You can’t do this. It isn’t fair.”
Hades moved to focus on Seraphina. “Your mother made a pact
with me. So long as you both wore the necklaces, I’d leave you alone. But for the last few years, your mother has refused to give me any information about you. She said she didn’t know where you were. Actually tried to tell me you’d gone off on your own and were no longer speaking to her. Were her lies fair? Was it fair that I be kept from my child?”
“I don’t know,” Seraphina snapped back. “Did you threaten to keep her prisoner here, too?”
The truth of her words shone on Hades’s face. “I only wanted you both with me because I loved you both.”
“Love? You don’t know what love is.” Seraphina shook her head, clearly enraged. “If you care so much about me, why are you doing this to me?”
If Hades felt any remorse, the feeling didn’t last long. His lip curled. “Because I can.” He glared at Ares. “Charon will take you back to the other side of the river.”
Ares stood his ground. “Name your price.”
“My price for what?”
“For taking Seraphina back with me. What else?”
Hades laughed, the sound booming across the bleak landscape. “You think you love her, is that it?”
Ares snarled. “How will I know if you don’t give me the chance? You’re taking her life away from her so that what? You can show her mother that you’ve won? Let Seraphina go.”
Hades crossed his arms. “You asked me what my price is. Perhaps I should ask how deep your pockets are.”
“Deep.” For Seraphina, he would spend every last cent he had.
“Fine.” Hades nodded. “You and I shall do battle. If I win, you’ll be banished immediately and I get my daughter’s soul. If you win, which you won’t, I’ll tell you what my price is, but there will be no negotiation. You will take it or leave it, and we will be done.”
“Who declares the winner? There are no impartial judges here. And what are the rules?”
Hades’s eyes glimmered with something unspoken. “My wife, Persephone, will judge.”
“You think your wife won’t care who wins the battle over your illegitimate daughter’s soul?”
Sin City Collectors Boxed Set: Queen of Hearts, Dead Man's Hand, Double or Nothing Page 19