His stoic face gave nothing away, so expressionless, it could still be made of stone. “I am forbidden to say.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out who was responsible for that. “Hades is a dick.”
Cerberus shrugged, even as the barest hint of a smile touched his lips. It was the closest I’d seen him to showing any kind of amusement. “The Underworld is his domain. Everything here must bow to his whims while he still rules.”
“And that’s all you’re going to say about it?”
“Indeed.”
I had the feeling that he would have said more if it weren’t certain that Hades was listening to us.
Ryn skipped to catch up with us. The movement would have been childlike if not for the daggers still gripped in his hands. He seemed like the type to leap into battle with a smile on his face, eyes shining with mirth while he wielded a blade with deadly intent. But when he spoke, there was a note of gravity in his voice that I’d never heard before.
“Hades has always been difficult to please, but nothing compares to his rage at the fallen state of his domain. Few have displeased him as much as we have and survived to tell the tale.” Sharp teeth glinted in his feral smile, and his eyes simmered. “I can only imagine what his reaction will be when you arrive to challenge him. It will be epic.”
“And what did you do?” I asked, genuinely curious. “I know you were his jester. Did you tell him all about himself without getting a laugh?”
Ryn’s smile was grim, but his gaze grew hooded. “I witnessed the escape of one of his prisoners. When he demanded to know which way they had gone, I refused to tell him.”
It surprised me that he would stick his neck out that way. “Why?”
He quickened his pace so that he was ahead of me, and I could no longer see his expression. There was a tense set to his shoulders. “You have never seen what Hades does to his prisoners.”
Which only made me think about Adonis and what kind of shape he’d be in when we finally found him. And I was the dumb bitch who let Hades feel her up while her closest friend suffered unimaginable torture.
The surroundings had only grown more desolate as we’d gotten closer to Hades’s castle. I knew we’d seen the last of the manufactured realities he created from our minds, and this was the true nature of this realm. Dead trees and overgrown brush surrounded us as we walked a path that was full of broken, jagged stones. We had to be close to the seat of his power because this was a land that appeared to be dying from the inside out.
I found it so difficult to make sense of what I saw of this place and what I thought I would see. My fantasy was like an overlay or augmented reality, but the images never quite matched up.
Cleo had fallen quiet on my other side as she listened to the conversation. Her gaze moved over our surroundings with wary curiosity, making me realize that she hadn’t seen much of it before we found her.
Hopefully, this wouldn’t be the last thing she ever got to see.
The salty smell of the sea burned in my nostrils, and I heard the splash of lapping waves. We’d come upon what looked like a long river, but it smelled of a briny ocean. I could see the spires of Hades’s castle off in the distance. Close enough to feel that we were almost upon it, but much too far to swim.
A dock made of rotting wood swayed precariously on the shore with the volatile blue water lapping against the rocks surrounding it. Broken boats with their rigging half-submerged and upside down hulls floated around it. Only one ship appeared to be even remotely intact, although that word was a stretch. The thing creaked loudly as it rocked against the dock with wooden sides that had been bleached by the sun. It didn’t look like it could withstand a strong wind, much less a trip across those dark and turbulent waters.
The sun sank slowly in the sky, the lowest part of its curve dipping just below the line of the distant horizon beyond Hades’s castle. I remembered what Ryn had said about the danger of crossing the sea at night.
“This can’t be the only way across,” I said, though I knew it had to be. Even as I looked around us, the nearly setting sun made this desolate place seem somehow even more unnerving. I imagined that I saw hundreds of beady eyes peering at us in the brush, glowing faintly in the quickly dimming light. Dark shapes moved under the water that I could barely make out. I just knew that whatever twisted creatures remained as this world died would come out to play once night fell. “Are you sure we can’t just go around.”
“This sea stretches from one end of the realm to the other. It must be traversed to reach Hades’s castle.” Cerberus’s voice was matter-of-fact, facial expression neutral, but I knew that his stiffness hid his apprehension. “Boat is the only way to reach the castle.”
Cleo crossed her arms over her chest, shivering as a cold wind picked up and blew in from the water. “Someone should let the city planners around here know that bridges are a thing.”
“It’s further than you think,” Ryn replied flatly. “And if you had any idea what lies beneath those waves, then you’d know that no one is going to build a bridge anytime soon.”
I fucking hated boats.
A comforting hand came to rest on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Cerberus’s reassuring smile. It was only then that I realized I had grabbed his arm and was digging in hard enough with my nails to leave marks on a normal man. The lariat draped partially over his chest, where it had caught on the plate of his armor. All but two of the stones glowed brightly, taunting me in dramatic and beautiful color with how little time we had left to escape this place.
Barely two hours left to cross the sea and enter Hades’s castle.
I couldn’t let fear get the best of me.
“I hope one of you knows how to sail,” I grumbled
“The boat navigates on its own.” Ryn tried to sound reassuring as he said it, but nothing about that idea made me feel any better.
We were just going to have to trust the magic boat to take us where we needed to go and not straight to the bottom of the sea. Something splashed in the water nearby, and I quickened my steps, climbing up the gangplank as it swayed underneath me in a way that made me nauseous with fear.
I really hated boats.
Its name was written in chipped white paint on a wooden slat nailed to the side, just above the line of the water. The Bittersweet Song.
“That’s not ominous at all,” I muttered to myself, wishing I was anywhere but here. It wasn’t as if I loved heights, but I almost would have rather flown over this stupid sea than sailed across it. Something about being stuck on a floating piece of driftwood out in the middle of that dark water, with no knowledge of what lay beneath it, terrified me.
Onboard, everything stank of salt and rotten fish, with a nice overlay of rotting wood. I wondered how long it would take for mildew to start growing on my dress from all the fetid moisture in the air. I looked down at myself for a bare moment, unsurprised to find that the white silk and pale lace were untouched by dirt or grime, as pristine as it had been when Hades first magicked the dress onto my body.
I could probably rip the thing away, and before I even laid eyes on my naked body, the dress would be back in place and perfect. If it weren’t for my audience, I might actually try it.
The moment all of us were aboard, the gangplank disappeared. I couldn’t say if it fell into the water without a splash or simply vanished into thin air. Either way, when I looked back over the side, it was gone. I had to hold onto the rail to avoid tipping over into the water as the boat suddenly lurched to the side and away from the dock, sailing toward the center of the vast sea.
Faint luminescence shone in a winding path on the water, like a trail leading us to the center of the sea where Hades’s castle stood. My gaze followed it to the distant shore that I could just barely make out through the shadows cast in the pattern of dense trees by the setting sun.
“The journey should take about an hour.” Cerberus spoke from where he stood at the helm, which moved on its own as if guided by
invisible hands. “You should try to rest while you can, I will stand guard.”
Exhaustion made me dizzy on my feet, although I knew it would be impossible to actually get any sleep. I was alert with fear and anticipation. For a moment, I found myself staring at the distant castle, its spires just barely visible in the growing shadows. Hades waited there, sat up on his throne of skulls while he imagined just what he would do to us if I let him win.
I couldn’t let him win.
Ryn came up behind me, hand brushing my waist so lightly that I barely felt the touch. “You look like you’re about to fall right over. There’s a sleeping berth here at the stern. Come lay down.”
There was no point in arguing, even though I found it hard to tear my gaze away from the castle. I imagined that I could see inside of it, straight to the center where Hades awaited us. Some force connected us, drawing a line from my soul to his that drew tauter the closer I got to the seat of his power. I wanted to believe that this link was simply malevolent, more evidence of his manipulation, but a small part of me wondered if it was something more.
Firm hands on my shoulders guided me away from the rail and toward the rear of the ship, where a small shelf had been built into the wooden wall along the far side. Thin blankets had been shoved into a haphazard pile, and I forced myself not to think about how long it had been since they were last washed.
Ryn climbed in first, tucking his long body against the wall to make room for me. He held out his arm with a gentle smile on his face as I crawled in after him. His arm came down around me and tucked me even further against him, his chest at my back. He bent his other arm under my head, so I could use it as a makeshift pillow, the position far more comfortable than it should have been given the tiny space.
Soothing warmth rose from his skin, wrapping around me in a way that encouraged a relaxation just short of slumber. It made me feel secure and comforted, even though I knew the feeling wouldn’t last long. But this was a nice reprieve, like the calm before the storm.
Across the boat, Cerberus still stood at the helm with his hands at his hips as he stared off into the distance. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would remain in that same position for the entirety of the voyage, like a sentry prepared to respond to any threat. It made me wonder if the remnants of his position as a stone guard would fade with time or if he would always be this way.
Ryn’s hand rested on the bench in front of my face. Nearly invisible hairs sprouted along his arm, casting tiny purplish shadows along the skin. With the tips of my fingers, I stroked the back of his hand and marveled at the softness there.
His lips touched the back of my neck. “Rest.”
A shiver worked over me. I briefly wondered how he would react if I rolled over, wrapped my body around his, and kissed him. As attracted to him I was, I knew the impulse was born of desperation. I craved anything that might distract me from what waited for us on the other side of the sea.
But my eyes refused to close. “I can’t.”
He hummed against my ear, the sound soft and melodic like the purr of a contented cat. The sound thrummed along my back, then spread out to the rest of my body. It was like being underneath a weighted blanket made of vibration. His arm tightened around me as he pulled me closer, safe in the circle of his arms as Cerberus stood like a guard in front of me.
I closed my eyes with a soft sigh as my mind finally quieted.
Which meant that I didn’t see the shimmering silver fog that rose up from the water and crept over the sides of the boat. If I had, I would have known to raise an alarm and get us as far away from it as possible. But like an idiot, I was much too focused on my own sorry thoughts to pay attention to our surroundings.
At the best of times, that fog was like the tendrils of steam wafting off a hot cup of chamomile tea. And at its worse, the fog would lure unsuspecting victims into a sleep from which they might never wake. If I’d seen it, I would have screamed at them to get as far away as they could and hold their breath until we could lock ourselves below deck.
Except I didn’t see it.
Cleo was at the bow of the ship, watching as the boat cut through the waves. The fog reached her first, teasing at her ankles and slowly rising while she took deep, even breaths.
I didn’t realize anything was wrong until she collapsed to the deck with a loud thump. When I raised my head from the sleeping berth, Ryn’s heavy arm around my waist weighing me down, it was already too late. Fog rose around us, covering the entire deck of the boat and moving higher.
And as I opened my mouth and inhaled a frantic breath to shout a warning, the fog entered my lungs with a rush of sparkling heat. Before I could say a word, my eyes rolled up into the back of my head, and everything went dark as I passed out.
Chapter Thirteen
Adonis could barely make sense of the visions he saw in the glass orbs. They showed him things that couldn’t possibly be happening at once because the subject always remained the same.
Seph.
He watched her planting strange flowers with too many petals in a garden. He saw her dancing in Hades’s arms. And he witnessed her face transform into ecstasy as they fucked.
That couldn’t be happening for real. He refused to believe it.
Hades was tormenting him with these visions, even if Adonis had no idea why. The strange man seemed to detest him, taking joy in watching him try to force himself to his feet even as overwhelming weakness brought him to his knees, hands curled into angry fists. Adonis knew that Hades had done something to him that kept him too weak to even stand on his feet, and it infuriated him. He had never really understood the concept of impotent rage until now.
Occasionally, Adonis would lay down on the cold stone floor and attempt to sleep. But slumber never came for him, and every time he opened his eyes, another orb lay before his face, showing him a vision of something that could not be unseen, even when he begged for it to stop.
It felt like days had passed as he drifted in and out of consciousness, mouth dry from thirst and stomach cramped from hunger. Hades had told him that Seph had only thirteen hours to reach the castle, but to him, it seemed as if at least a week had passed. In wilder moments, it felt like years since he saw another person’s face, even though the logical part of him knew that couldn’t be true.
Footsteps scrabbled against the floor behind him, distinct from the steady clicks of Hades’s boots. Someone else was here.
Could it be Seph?
“Help me,” he groaned through cracked lips. “Please.”
“Get him up,” an unfamiliar voice rasped, the sound like the screech of metal grinding together.
Dozens of small hands, no bigger than a child’s, reached for him. Adonis looked at the sea of faces hovering over him in confusion and no small amount of fear. None of them stood taller than his waist, but their gnarled faces made them seem ancient despite their childlike size. Long, thin fingers snatched him up, pinching and pulling as they forced him to his feet.
“What the hell are you?” he gasped, feebly trying to evade their grip. But even at full strength, they would have been too much for him to overpower.
A few of the creatures laughed, the sound grating on his ears before one of them spoke. “Imps, a’course.”
Imps. He didn’t have time to think through the implications of that before he was being hustled out of the room and down a long corridor. They forced him, stumbling through the darkness, and only their rough hands with sharpened nails kept him from pitching forward onto his face or crashing into the wall on either side.
His head spun, blood rushing to his ears so loudly that he couldn’t be sure if any of them spoke to him. Pebbles skittered under his feet, making him stumble and nearly fall. The imps only tightened their grip and kept him hurtling toward the glowing brightness at the end of the hall.
They forced him into a bright chamber before unceremoniously dumping him on the floor. Adonis fell to his knees, getting his hand up in just enough time to kee
p his forehead from smashing onto the rocky floor. Leather creaked as a pair of boots appeared in front of him.
He looked up to see Hades staring down at him from his seat on a throne that appeared to be made of sun-bleached skulls and bones.
As soon as Adonis’s gaze rose to meet his, Hades shifted in his seat and threw one long leg over the arm of the throne where it rested across a particularly sharp set of bones. The position couldn’t possibly be comfortable, Adonis thought, but the other man appeared more than relaxed.
He looked triumphant.
His voice whispered along Adonis’s skin like the chill of winter wind. “Have you been enjoying your time in my castle?”
Adonis’s fingers clenched against the stone floor, tiny grooves and pebbles digging painfully into his skin. “How long have you had me here, you bastard? How many days has it been?”
“None.” Hades regarded him with a mocking smile. “I may have forgotten to mention before that time passes differently here than it does in your world. The whims of the Underworld cannot be contained by the ticking of a clock. It may have felt like days to you, but only a few hours have passed.”
The sense of extreme thirst and starvation had already begun to fade as if Hades’s words were enough to remind his body that it wasn’t dying. At least not yet. The last of the discomfort fled on a wave of anger. “You did that to me on purpose.”
“Forgive me, I must find my amusements where I can these days.” Hades’s voice remained mild, even as dark humor swirled in his eyes. “Sit.”
A chair materialized out of thin air beside him. Adonis hesitated for only a second before pulling himself up into it. No matter how much he wanted to smash the man’s face in, he wasn’t in a position to turn down comfort after spending hours on a stone floor.
Adonis did his best not to stare, even though this dude might be the strangest person he’d ever met. Hades lounged on his throne, seemingly impervious to the razor-sharp fragments of bone beneath him. His long legs were encased in calfskin boots up to his thighs, and underneath, he wore only a pair of the tightest fitting leather pants that Adonis had ever seen.
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