Page 56 of Hades

Keras was wise, but was he wise enough to think of Hades’s helmet and the power it held?

She worried that he wasn’t.

That worry fell to the back of her mind, taking Keras and her family with it, as the rowboat drifted closer to the rocky shore directly below her.

The closest a vessel had ever come to her tower.

Persephone leaned out of the tower through the open slit that was barely wide enough for her head and craned her neck, trying to keep sight of the boat as it bobbed on the calmer turquoise waters near the shore.

Were they close enough that they would hear her?

“Hello!” Persephone yelled, willing them to hear her and to look up. She wasn’t sure how far the invisible barrier around the tower extended, so there was a chance they might have already breached its borders and would see her. If they could only hear her, they might venture closer to try to find out where her voice was coming from. “Help me. Please. I need your help!”

The younger man at the oars paused his movements and looked around.

Her breath exploded from her. A chill skated down her arms and thighs. He had heard her. She couldn’t believe it.

To be sure, she yelled even louder. “Hello! I am up here. Can you hear me?”

The older, grey-haired man who sat facing the one at the oars lifted his head. His eyes widened and he reached for the arm of the younger man.

“Yes. Please. I need your help.” Persephone ducked back and reached her arm through the narrow window. She waved it, struggling to see from the angle she was at. “Up here. Help me!”

Their voices drifted up to her as they spoke in Greek and she pulled her arm in and poked her head out again, her heart hammering faster as she saw they were coming ashore.

That same heart lodged into her throat as two men dressed in black hoplite armour came out of nowhere and seized the two mortals before they could leap back onto their small wooden boat. She gasped as one of the guards slit the throat of the older male, and the other gutted the young man as he reached for his fallen friend.

What had she done?

She covered her mouth and backed into the room, and shrieked as the door behind her burst open. She spun to face it, her eyes widening as two guards pushed into the room, their swords drawn. Her gaze darted to the one on the right.

The former palace guard.

His dark eyes narrowed on her and then shifted to his comrade as that male advanced on her, stealing her focus.

“You were warned to keep quiet.” His fingers flexed around the hilt of his sword.

Persephone swallowed and backed away from him, not getting far. Her spine met the tan stone wall of the tower. She glanced at the guard who had remained at the door, silently beseeching him to do something. He remained where he was, a war playing out in his eyes as the other male approached her. Realising she wasn’t going to get any help from him, her gaze darted to her right and she kicked off in that direction.

The other guard grabbed her scarlet hair and pulled her backwards, and she cried out as her scalp stung and she hit the floor on her backside. She immediately scrambled onto her knees and tried to get away from him, bashing his hand with her fists in an attempt to make him let go. When he twisted her hair around his hand, gaining a firmer hold on it, she took to clawing at his wrist and hand.

He let out a pained hiss.

“Bitch,” he snarled and hauled her up onto her feet by her hair, ripping another cry from her, and shoved her face-first into the wall. His big body pinned her against it, his black breastplate hard against her flesh, and his hot breath bathed her neck as he pressed into her, his voice a low whisper in her ear. “Maybe I ought to teach you a lesson.”

She tried to shake her head, but his hand shoved it against the rough stone.

Her heartbeat shot off the scale, her entire body trembling, as he seized her nightgown and pulled it up. Cool air kissed her bare flesh and tears burned her eyes as she struggled against his hold, frantically trying to free herself. He chuckled roughly in her ear.

Slapped his hand down on her naked backside.

Persephone squeezed her eyes shut and gathered her strength, refusing to let terror steal it from her. She put all of it into her next blow, bringing her elbow up hard.

And hit nothing but air as the weight of the male disappeared.

She turned in time to see a blade punch through his breastplate from behind, the tip of it smeared with his blood as it shot towards her, and then it disappeared again just as quickly. Her wild eyes leaped to the other male as he shoved the dead one away from him, letting the body drop to the floor. His face was dark with rage as he glared down at the corpse, twisting in a vicious sneer as he turned his blade point down and rammed the tip of it through the male’s skull. He yanked it out again and his brown eyes leaped to her.

“Are you all right?” His deep voice was smooth and warm, holding what she hoped was genuine concern and not another trick of Mnemosyne’s.

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