Page 81 of Hades

It was Valen who said the words that got tangled on her tongue, in a way far different and infinitely more vulgar than how she would have.

“Let’s fucking do this shit!”

Chapter 22

Hades stepped out of the teleport at the torchlit entrance hall of Tartarus, Persephone pinned to his side and his bident gripped in his left hand. Immediately, the sounds of battle filled his ears, telling him they were too late. Mnemosyne had already launched her attack on the prison.

Around them, dozens of males and females lay scattered across the black flagstones, with more resting against columns, their sightless eyes fixed on eternity. Over a third of them had belonged to the legion assigned to Tartarus. He looked over his shoulder at the exit.

How many of his prisoners had escaped already?

He turned back to face the way into Tartarus.

Was Mnemosyne still in there or had she already made off with Eris and Harleena, and a new army?

The moment he sensed Ares and Valen appear behind him, he set off, sprinting down the columned black corridor that led into the heart of Tartarus. Ahead of him, metal clashed and men grunted, and some kind of beast shrieked in pleasure. Something within Hades answered that cry with a howl of its own, the thought of launching into the thick of the fray to tear flesh asunder and break bone sending ripples of pleasure through him too. He tightened his grip on the bident and Persephone’s hand as he fought against the rising darkness, determined to keep it at bay enough that he would remain lucid and in control, aware of what he was doing.

Persephone squeezed his hand, offering reassurance he greedily accepted.

“Keras will bring the rest of the legion. We only need to hold them off for a few minutes at most,” Ares huffed behind them, his footfalls heavy on the flagstones.

“Might be easier said than done,” Valen replied and then added in a nonchalant tone, “For you anyway. For me… I’ve got this.”

Hades sensed him disappear and heard the displeasure he felt in Ares’s growled words.

“Little shit. He’ll get himself killed one of these days.” Ares disappeared too.

Hades glanced at Persephone, tempted to teleport her into the midst of the action too. Fear easily vanquished that urge when his gaze lingered on her. She was so slight. So delicate. The thought of her fighting wrenched at him and had the darkness surging anew, swiftly claiming more of him to blot out the light.

Persephone’s emerald gaze met his and she smiled softly. “I will be fine.”

He stared at her as they banked down another corridor, witnessing a transformation in her as they neared the battle. The set of her jaw became hard and her lips flattened into an unyielding line, and her eyebrows drew down as she narrowed her gaze on the route ahead of them.

Looking like a fierce warrioress.

She flexed her fingers around the hilt of her sword as she ran, the shield that protected her arm glinting in the flickering torchlight, and his black helmet bounced between her shoulders, the leather strap tied tightly across her throat. He looked at it, reminding himself that if things got dire for her, she had promised to use it and disappear. No immortal in Tartarus would be able to see her. She would be safe.

He recalled another promise she had given him, and his gaze lowered from the scarlet braid of her hair she wore pinned in a circle on her head like a crown to the supple black leather top and trousers that hugged her curves, matching the armour he wore.

She had promised he could peel that off her.

And by the gods, his claws itched to do just that.

If he had needed an incentive to ensure they both survived the coming fight, she had certainly given him one.

They reached the start of the broad curving stairs that spiralled down into the black earth and Persephone drew to an abrupt halt. He glanced at her, checking on her. Her green eyes were wide as she surveyed the pandemonium before her, a flicker of fear brightening them. He could understand that. He had been afraid too the first time he had gone into battle.

He studied the fight taking place on the stairs, seeking Mnemosyne or Eris or Harleena and trying to decipher who was on his side and who was against him. Many of the cells were open, empty of their occupants, and others were still closed, the males and females they contained rattling the bars and yelling for someone to let them out too.

Already, there were close to three hundred people locked in battle, and it looked as if his side were only a fifth of that number, meaning they were outnumbered four to one. It didn’t deter Ares or Valen. His sons were in the thick of the fight, expertly wielding both fire and lightning to quell the daemons they were battling. Flashes of gold and orange lit up the darkness as they hurled bolts of electricity and balls of fire at their foes, following each attack with their swords and blocking with their shields whenever the enemies retaliated.

Hades growled when he spied a demigod coming at Ares, a blade he must have stolen off one of the guards gripped in his left hand. Ares was too busy fending off three daemons to notice the male.

Before he could send his shadows to dispatch the male and protect Ares, a great wall of brambles shot up between him and the demigod, blocking the male’s path to him. Hades flicked a glance at Persephone as she released his hand and swept hers out in an arc that had long thorns shooting from the brambles to impale several daemons and cut the demigod, driving him back.

Relief washed across her delicate features as she looked at the brambles, and Hades knew it wasn’t only because Ares was safe. It was because she was glad to have her powers back. The relief was there and gone in a flash as she set to work, launching an attack on two daemons who were closing in on Valen’s back.

Hades followed her into the fray, commanding his shadows and tearing through the daemons with them. He scattered the two before Persephone could reach them, impaling one with a spear of shadows through his leg and hurling him away from Valen, sending him screaming into the pit, and twisting his shadows around the arm of the other to throw him against the curved wall. He hit it with enough force that his head exploded, showering a nearby demigoddess with bits of blood and bone.

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