Page 77 of Queen of Darkness
“Stranger things have happened,” Hades said. “Trust me. I was there for some of them. Long-term planning is not unheard of in immortal beings.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“When Elenia was elevated to the throne, she continued funneling souls from my realm into the Direen for Irr to use kill his fellow gods,” Hades said, naming Vir’s insane brother, who was now thankfully dead. Dani had seen to that.
“I know the history,” I said. “What I don’t understand is how you think it’s related.”
“Elenia would have known that at some point I would find out. That I would discover she had assisted Irr. That I would be furious and want revenge. She would want a plant, someone who could pretend to be against her while feeding her information so that she could succeed.”
“Thatdoessound like her,” I said, forced to admit it. “But it’s not Aaron. It can’t be.”
Hades’ lip twitched. Had he been waiting for me to say something like that? Did he know about Aaron and me? He couldn’t.
“Perhaps you are right,” Hades granted. “But I am not willing to trade on ‘maybes’ and ‘possiblys.’ I require hardproof.”
“Okay, I can’t argue that. But how do you want him to prove that he’s not a double agent?” I asked, looking around at the others to see if they had any suggestions. “Obviously, asking her is out of the question.”
“Indeed. I think the best way would be for him to demonstrate his loyalty to someone else.”
“He’ll never pledge his allegiance to you,” I said, trying to refrain from breaking out into laughter. “Come on, Hades.”
“She’s right,” Aaron said firmly.
“I wasn’t talking about myself,” Hades said, grinning. “I meantyou.”
My laughter stopped abruptly. He wanted Aaron to show his loyalty to me?
“Absolutelynot,” Aaron said emphatically. “She’s not ready for that.”
I whipped my head back and forth between them. “Ready for what? What are you two talking about?”
“He wants Aaron to claim you,” Fred explained.
That put to bed any rest that Hades knew something was going on between Aaron and me. How he knew, I wasn’t sure, but he did.
“He already has,” I said. “If it means what I think it does.”
How lovelythiswas. Having my sexual laundry aired out in front of a god and the rest of Aaron’s team. I’m sure the jokes would be endless.
“In the ancient way,” Hades said. “I want to see him formally relinquish his claim on Elenia so that he may take you.”
“Ew,” I said, cringing. “You’re not going to watch, thank you very much. That is private time.”
“He wants me to bite you,” Aaron said in a hard tone. “To quite literallyclaimyou as my own. Not sex.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “But I’m already a vampire. I thought I had to be human for that? To turn me.”
“Turning someone is different than feeding on them,” Aaron said, staring past me at Hades, anger plain to see on his features. “Just more of the same.Claiminga vampire is …”
“Permanent,” Hades said. “Until the claim is relinquished for another. Which is why I require this test of loyalty.”
“I never claimed Elenia,” he countered.
Hades scoffed, disbelieving. “You two were thick as thieves for centuries. Everyone could see you were in love.”
“She wouldn’t let me,” Aaron said heavily. “From the start, she said it was because she wanted to change the way things were done. That women shouldn’t be the property of men and that since they could not claim anyone, the practice was unfair.”
“And you did not see through this?” Hades asked.
