Page 74 of Queen of Darkness
“If we’re going to die, then I’d rather get him all riled up, so he just offs us swiftly out of spite instead of cooking us to a nice internal temperature of charbroiled,” I said. “But you do whatever you want.”
Dave looked at me, a little hurt. “I never said I disagreed with you.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “Sorry, Dave. That wasn’t called for.”
Before he could reply, a warm front gusted through the hall outside our cell. The temperature quickly rose to an uncomfortable level. Nervously, I backed away as the frost inside the cell showed signs of melting.
“Whodaresshow such disrespect?” Hades howled, arriving behind a wave of billowing fire, the flames flickering out and dying swiftly.
His black vest stretched to bursting over his chest as he breathed heavily, his rage at my actions tearing away his self-control.
“You,” I growled, surprising myself with how much backbone I displayed even in the face of fury from a god known to be spiteful and quick to anger.
Hades focused on me, his normally dark brown eyes filled with a white-hot flame. Literally, there were flames burning where his pupils should be.
“What did you say?” he hissed, the sound like hot metal being shoved into cold water.
“I said thatyouwere the one who has been disrespectful,” I said, standing my ground. If he were going to kill me, it wouldn’t be with me cowering in the corner.
Although the others didn’t speak up, I felt their presence nearby. They, too, were going to meet their deaths with some courage.
“Me? Disrespectful? I was not the one who unleashed the cold on my home.”
“No, but you treated us like nothing when we came in good faith to bargain. Tohelpyou. Instead, you decided you would cook us alive and serve us up for dinner. If that’s not being rude, then I don’t know what is. You forced me to do that to save myself. Either way you look at it, this isyourfault, Hades. Not ours.”
I braced myself for the inevitable wave of fire that would flay skin from bone and reduce me to little more than charred ash that the Enkk would sweep from the cell.
The God of the Underworld trembled with rage as he stared at me, struggling to come up with a response.
“Ask Abaddon if you think I’m wrong,” I said, shrugging.
Hades lifted a hand, a ball of fire so bright it hurt my eyes to look at it. “I could kill you without breaking a sweat.”
“Of course you could,” I said, staring at the ground, shielding my eyes with one hand against the light. “Finally, something we agree on. You’re the god, and we’re in your realm. But think about that for a second, Hades. We, I,willinglycame here, to your realm, to bargain with you, knowing that you didn’t want me to come back. Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, there was a good reason behind it?”
The ball of pure sunlight faded until I could look at Hades once more.
“I should just kill you and be done with it,” he muttered. “Such insolence from a nobody.”
“Yeah, but you’re curious now,” I said, smiling in victory.
I had him, and we both knew it. He wasn’t happy about it, but what did I care? As long as I could live through it, I didn’t care much about his feelings.
“Perhaps,” he admitted. “But if I don’t like your plan, I will still kill you.”
“Do you ever get tired of threatening people with that?” Fred called. “You need to come up with something more original.”
Hades turned his attention to the big, gruff vampire. His eyes focused on him, looking beyond the surface in a way I couldn’t. Fred didn’t even flinch.
“You,” Hades rumbled. “So you escaped my hounds.”
“Like always,” Fred said dryly. “But that’s not the point. You should listen to her.”
Hades’ hands clenched into fists. “You do not tell me what to do. You are not welcome here, ever again, understand me? Or I will speak truths you do not wish others to hear.”
Fred snorted. “Two can play that game,” he retorted but declined to say anything more.
I looked back and forth between them. WhowasFred?
