Page 61 of Hades

I grit my teeth to keep from destroying everything in her temple, including her. “And she has never done anything wrong. Yet you have judged her based on your hatred ofmyfamily. Release her from your banishment,” I demand.

“Or what?” she laughs. “You arenothinghere. Do you think sitting on my throne makes you more powerful than me? I am the goddess of Justice, and you’re nothing more than the bastard son of an ancient. You’re the ruler of a place no one wanted nor wants to be. So what does that make you?”

I can’t help the malevolent smile that stretches across my face. “More powerful than you could ever hope to be,” I say with a calmness I don’t feel as I grip my bident, raise it, and strike it into the floor. The energy wave it releases blows Themis back until she slams into the wall with such force that marble crumbles to dust behind her. The remaining stone pillars tumble to the ground in giant pieces as the entire temple shakes under my wrath. “Release, Aradia!” I yell, “and I will spare what’s left of your temple.”

Raising my bident again to deliver the final blow, I hear her whimper.

“Stop, please, stop!” she cries out.

Pausing with it still in the air, I wait. Themis is a master of trickery and deceit. She’ll take any chance she thinks she might have to gain the upper hand.

“Release Aradia from being human and from your banishment and return her freedom to her,” I instruct. “Or I swear I will destroy you in my family’s name.”

“It’s done,” she says, holding up her hands in surrender. “If she returns to the human realm, she’ll be as she was.” I breathe out a sigh of relief, but it’s a moment too soon as she continues. “However, should you go with her, back to her life, you’ll be able to count her remaining breaths, in minutes,” she adds as a final threat.

“You would kill your own daughter just for loving me?”

“If she loves you, she is no daughter of mine. And what do I get for my generosity?” she asks as she looks around her destroyed temple.

“You get to live,” I snap before leaving her in what remains of her temple.

I don’t stop anywhere before returning to our cabin. There’s no point. The only one I want to see is Aradia.

ARADIA

My dearest Aradia,

I wanted to let you rest. I’ll be back soon.

Take a walk around the lake, it’s beautiful.

All my love,

H

I’ve reread Hades’s note so many times, hoping I’m misunderstanding where he went. Not that he wrote down where he had to go to first thing in the morning, but I can guess.

“Ugh!” I yell as I crumble the note and toss it into the fire. “Do you know where he went?” I ask Argos, who gives me a series of huffs before laying in front of the fire. “You’re no help,” I tell him as I resume my pacing.

A sound outside catches my attention, and when I fling open the front door, Hades is standing on the dirt road in front of the cabin, just looking at me. He’s not the same handsome man who left me this morning, he’s different, and not just his appearance. There is a darkness to him that wasn’t there before.

I’m doing my best to remain calm, but his altered appearance can mean only one thing: he went to Themis without me. I march over to him, glaring at him with my arms crossed. “You went to Themis, didn’t you?” The question comes out far more accusatory than I had intended, but what does it matter? “We should have gone together,” I tell him, hoping he’ll understand why I’m so angry.

Instead, I’m met with hostility.

“It’s done,” he snaps. “I did what was best for you. You were still human this morning and exhausted. You wouldn’t have stood a chance against her,” he states as he walks past me as if the conversation were over.

Grabbing him by the arm, anger surges through me as I tug him to a stop. “You can’t just say you did something that should have been discussed and expect me to be okay with it. That’s not how relationships work.”

He glances down at my fingers gripping his forearm. “I said it was done,” he hisses through, clenched teeth.

“What happened to you?” I whisper because he’s not the same. His appearance is altered, but that’s not what’s wholly different. There is a darkness to him now that wasn’t there this morning, a nefarious quality that seems to have seeped into his very soul.

“This is who I am. This,” he states, pointing out his new, altered appearance, “is why you were banished. She didn’t think the son of the most ancient power in the universe was good enough for you, and maybe she was right.” He barks as he pulls his arm from my grasp.

“What are you saying?” I ask. “Because it sounds as if you don’t want me here.”

Hades lets out a full-bellied laugh that is contradictory to his powerful appearance. “I have tried for centuries to do what is best for you. Now it’s your choice. You can stay here and rule as my queen by my side, or you can go and live your life as you want. The choice is yours, I only made it possible,” he says as he walks into the cabin, now having to duck to allow his fiery horns to pass under the door.

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