Page 59 of Ignited Spirits
“I don’t wanna start anything with Hades’s advisors.” After thinking for a moment, I tack on, “And if anyone should get to kill the douche canoe, it should be me.”
A mildly terrifying grin stretches across Archer’s face, and his eyes light with approval. Or is it Legion’s face now? I don’t know, and I’m too tired to figure it out.
“Mmm, good point, mate,” Legion rumbles. “He is all yours. I can show you ways to kill him that are excruciating and will extend his suffering if you wish.”
The guy gulps, and I can’t help my laugh at Legion’s proposal. “I’m not going to kill him right now, but I will take you up on that offer sometime.”
His glowing gaze bounces around my face before he reluctantly asks, “Are you sure?”
I huff a laugh. “Positive. No killing is needed right now.”
“As you wish, mate.” Legion brushes a strand of hair off my forehead before he relinquishes control to Archer. My usually smiley mate looks just as pissed off as Legion was as he glares at the man over my shoulder.
I hear the thud of a fist hitting flesh behind me and whirl around to see what happened. When I do, I spot Levi standing over the man who’s now sprawled out on the ground with a bloody nose. “Ever fucking say anything like that again about my mate, and theanguiswill be the least of your worries. Do you understand me?”
The guy mutely nods his head before scrambling to his feet and taking a seat as far away from us as possible.
I don’t blame him.
When I look around the room, I see a bunch of unfamiliar faces who must’ve witnessed the whole encounter.
I fight not to let my embarrassment and unease show on my face as I stand taller and throw my shoulders back. Hawthorne Grove prepared me well for this moment because I know exactly how to stuff my feelings down and appear unruffled.
Fake it ’til I make ithas always been my life motto, so let’s hope it works withcuraetoo.
“Are you going to take your seat or just stand, surveying everyone, forever, Isabel?” Hades asks in a bored tone.
When I turn to look at him, he pulls out a chair to his right, opposite Seph.
I hear gasps sound from the assembledcura, so I know something about what Hades said is significant. But I’m not sure what part. I resist the urge to look at him like he’s grown two heads because it’s weird hearing him call me anything other thanearthlingat this point.
Deciding it’s best not to argue with him right now, I silently stride over to the indicated seat and try to lower myself into it gracefully. While I definitely don’t achieve the graceful part, I don’t face-plant or fall off, so I’m going to count that as a win.
As soon as I’m seated, Hades turns to the room. “As Morgan here found out, do not insult Isabel. She is Persephone’s great-granddaughter and Leviathan’s mate. She is under my protection, and any insult or attack on her or her family will be taken as an attack on me. Do you understand?”
Thecuraaround the room mutely nod. Satisfied with the response, Hades turns to my family and mates. “Take your seats.”
Levi is the first one to comply and takes the open seat next to me. My mates and family follow his lead and fill in the seats closest to me and Hades. I have a pretty significant buffer between me and the rest of thecura, with my mates on one side and my family on the other.
Once we’re all seated, Zeus and Poseidon stroll into the room and sit next to my family, separating them from thecurae.
I stare at them as I wonder how they and the rest of Hades’s advisors even knew about this meeting. He never stopped to talk to anyone or said anything about the gathering out loud. It must just be another part of his king abilities.
Hades surveys the now-quiet and visibly nervouscuraebefore sitting down at the head of the table. “Everyone else, find your seats.”
I expect his advisors to fight for the seats, based on the behavior I’ve seen from them so far. They don’t. Instead, everyone already seems to have an assigned place that they fill in an orderly manner.
I’m pretty sure my mates and family are in some of their usual seats, based on the dirty looks they get, but none of us pay much attention to it.
“So, why are we here?” a woman with olive skin and light pink hair asks from where she sits almost at the end of the table. Her pale pink eyes are locked on me and brimming with distrust.
I guess they don’t like outsiders here.
Hades leans back in his chair and is silent for a moment before turning to me. “Isabel, care to fill them in?”
I resist the urge to strangle Hades because I so don’t want to talk to a group of beings from another realm who are probably super powerful and influential. But he didn’t leave me much choice, so I put on my big-girl panties.
“LuaMaterescaped Tartarus and has been increasing her magic by draining mages on Earth for hundreds of years.” Gasps and hushed whispers sound around the table. I let them die down before I continue. “Now she’s gathering what she needs to drain the magic from the Earth’s core before continuing on to conquer or drain the remaining realms.”
