Page 11 of Where Darkness Bloomed
Aphrodite’s face darkened, but she wisely held her tongue.
Zeus stroked a hand over his beard. “The Fates have not yet proclaimed Troy’s fate. Until they do, none will intervene.” His commanding gaze swept the dais, daring an objection. “This is final.”
Uneasy silence clung to the air like fog.
Then, with a flick of his hand, Zeus gestured toward the edge of the dais. “Let those with other matters come forward.”
Low murmurs stirred the stillness. Movement rippled through the assembly as the first petitioner stepped forth from the gathered crowd.
Kore glanced up—and stilled.
Her mother’s gaze had not shifted. Demeter still looked toward the obsidian throne, her face cold and stern.
Kore followed her stare, caution faltering beneath the pull of curiosity. Half-hidden among the shifting crowd and shadows, she let her gaze settle on him.
Hades sat in stillness, one arm draped along the throne’s edge, his posture deceptively relaxed. But his eyes were sharp, unwavering, tracking each petitioner with unshaken authority.
Then—as if she had whispered his name—his gaze shifted.
Unerring. Swift.
His eyes met hers.
From across the great hall, the Lord of the Underworld looked directly at her.
A jolt streaked through her, sharp and breathless, as though she had been caught in some forbidden act. Her pulse surged, thunderous in her ears.
She tore her gaze away.
Her hair slipped forward like a veil, a feeble shield to separate them, to mask the heat rising in her face. She eased back a step, willing herself to vanish further into the swell of bodies.
Minutes dragged by, heavy and uneven. The hum of voices rose and fell as the Olympians debated matters that she no longer heard. Her thoughtswere trapped, ensnared by the memory of his gaze—the precision with which it had found her.
Finally, curiosity proved too strong. Carefully, she tilted her head, stealing another glance toward the obsidian throne.
The change in him was startling.
Gone was the relaxed repose, the lithe, careless grace that he’d possessed before. Now, the powerful lines of his body were drawn taut beneath the dark robes. He sat rigidly, forearms braced against the carved arms.
But it was his hand that captured her gaze.
His thumb traced a slow path over his bottom lip. It was an absent gesture, but it deepened the warm color rising in her cheeks. Her eyes lingered there, caught in the careless intimacy of it.
Then, inevitably, her gaze rose—
Dark eyes stared back.
Hades watched her, his gaze dark and deep as the void between stars. It cut through the crowd between them, reaching her with silence that felt like touch. As though he bridged the distance between them by the sheer force of his will.
A thrill of fear shivered through her. But, rising with it—something else stirred.
The rush of something wild, untamed. It burned like fire and felt like falling all at once, snaring deep in her chest, warming her from the inside out. Heady and unfamiliar, dangerously alive, rising like sparks into the night sky, coaxed from her by the unwavering pull of shadowed eyes across the hall.
Chapter 5
Hades’s lips twitched, nearly forming a smile.
From his throne, his gaze had drifted over the gathered assembly. Restless, detached.
