Page 47 of His in the Dark

Though not here.

This is a familiar path to walk along, as far as my thoughts go. They circle around Hades again and again, returning to his insistence that he could help me. Returning to the blood on the floor. Returning to the offer he made of the guards with that dark heat in his eyes. Returning to his lips on mine. Returning to his arm around me in bed.

Returning, and returning, and returning.

Footsteps in the hall jostle me into awareness.

It’s him—that’s my first thought—but it is not. It can’t be.

The footsteps do not belong to Hades. They are too quick, and a bit lighter than his confident, commanding steps. I freeze, holding my breath as they get closer. How many people walked past my rooms on Olympus without me giving them any thought at all? It must have been hundreds. Thousands! And yet now I am wholly attuned to the sound of one man coming and going…

Or whether he isnotreturning. My heart fights between disappointment and an urgent curiosity. If it is not him, then who?

A fair maiden enters the room.

I raise my hand to stop her. It is an old instinct, left over from when I was a child—a simple spell my mother taught me so that I would know it when I gained control of my powers.

The magic behind the spell does not come. Nothing happens, and the maiden is not stopped.

Instead, she raises her own hand in a similar gesture, and the lights flicker. My heart leaps, pounding in my throat with immediate recognition followed by immediate suspicion.

Awitch? Is she a witch?

I feel my teeth chattering then. Feel how the cold has seeped into my bones. It gets more palpable, as if my body is trying to force me to act. As if it wants me to know there is help within arm’s reach.

I take a breath, searching for something to say.

“Help me.” The words are out of my mouth, and it is too late to stop them. I have no time to consider whether they have sealed my fate.

The maiden nods as if she is not surprised to hear me blurt out this plea. “I am here to do just that. What would you like to eat? To wear?”

“I—”

“I have been told not to offer comfort in terms of the cold, unfortunately.” She wraps her arms around herself and glances at the windows. They are open again, if not as far as before. The small gaps seem to let in even more of the cold. I have not seen Hades open or close them, but he must be doing it—giving me the merest hint of warmth, then taking it with him when he leaves.

The woman is tall and lean, with reddish hair swept up and pinned on top of her head. She wears dark, flowing robes. Her eyes are the palest blue I have ever seen. Her expression is very calm, as if nothing in the world could bother her, but there is a spark in her blue eyes that betrays the mind behind them.

As if she knows something I do not.

But where does the loyalty of that sharp mind lie? The most obvious answer would be to Hades. No one can come to me without his permission, so he must know of this woman.

He must alsotrustthis woman. I want to trust her as well, but I don’t trust my own instincts when it comes to my desires. My desire to know more of Hades has been complicated and heartbreaking. My desire to know more of my own magic led me here.

“You can learn magic while in the Underworld?” I ask, finding no other words within me. If this maiden learned to harness her powers, then there is more life than I realized…even here. My mind spins in a new direction.

Magic. In the Underworld. Powers like mine.

I will help you.Those words echo in my memory yet again. I had assumed all this time that Hades was lying. That what he said was a trick to gain my submission.

I will never stand beside you. I will never obey.

A kiss does not mean I will obey.

When I said those things, I did not believe magic in the Underworld was a possibility. Not unless it was to Hades’s doing.

More suspicion floods in. Is this maiden here because Hades is tired of how I have refused to submit? Is she another trap for me to walk into?

I take a deep breath and study her. The light in her eyes is not a hostile one. There is no sign of dislike or disgust in her. I do not know her well, so it is too soon to trust her, but her aura is not one of subterfuge.

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