I can’t tell if he’s truly angry or if this is an extension of his twisted fascination with me. I fear I’ll be banished from this place before I have a chance to fully unravel the mystery of this dark god.
I scramble to obey, all but expecting his edict. Despots are nothing if not predictable, but his chaotic wrath clouds so much of my senses.
We walk down the hall and enter a huge circular space with a goliath black stone table in the middle. The piece is round, its twenty-foot circumference held up by a crowd of hunched, grimacing gorgons. Again, I’m the mouse in the room, but my human side weathers a pang of pity for them. My demon side fights it, keeping the sentiment tightly concealed. If Hades is about to populate the room as I expect, I’ll need my emotional walls to be as strong as I can make them. He may have found a way to breach my innermost passions, but I must protect as much of everything else as I can.
Without prologue, he stretches out his hand before the table, palm up and index finger out, until he’s covered the whole circle with the gesture. In the wake of his motion, figures appear at the edges of the table, looking like activated holograms before becoming fully real.
The captains have been summoned.
And at once, I’m frowning in perplexity. I count only eight figures around the vast table. If these are the leaders of the districts of hell, my calculations say that someone is missing.
Charlena. She’s the one not occupying her seat straight across the table from Hades and me. But why? Our visit was so strange and brief, but I do miss the comfort of her company. Especially now, surrounded by a new set of fearsome strangers who eye me with unfiltered suspicion.
One big-snouted demon is the first of anyone to find his voice. “What is the meaning of this?” he barks at Hades. “With great and due respect, my lord, I have new arrivals due for their orientation.” His snicker comes out as a series of loud snorts. “My crew has been waiting all day to introduce them to their new fates, and—”
“Shut up,” Hades mutters. “Your wretches can wait, Malacoda. We have a bigger issue to address.”
The demon gives me another dirty glare, clearly playing judge and jury based on the first ten seconds of my presence.
Hades grimaces. “We have a breach.”
A palpable shockwave takes over every creature in the circle. Everyone’s repeating the word, which is clearly a rarity for Hades’s vocabulary.
My heart leaps with hope, but I hide it behind a calm facade. The whispers keep coming, along with frantic glances and discomfited squirms. No doubt they’re well-justified. Because who would dare breach this realm? My guess is they were all expecting Hades to announce an escapee, not an intruder. The list of souls who’d force themselves into hell has to be a short one.
But the more important question is how…and where?
Judging by the stench of stress in the air, I’m certain Hades’s most valued commanders are wondering this too. Depending on the answer, any one of them could be in for a worse fate than their underlings. The beasts in the room are as certain of it as I am. It takes clenching every muscle in my body not to let their fear seep in and debilitate me. The last time my extra senses brought me this much anxiety, I was in a lecture hall at Alameda while Maximus tossed a pair of snickering bullies out of his class.
But I have to stay detached. I don’t have an inch of choice about the matter.
“What kind of breach?” Malacoda demands. “And what do you need from us now, my lord?”
Hades studies them all with pointedly arched brows. “Perhaps some information from your comrades in the Vestibule and Limbo.”
“Minos? Ron?” The demon drags in an ugly snuffle. “But what in all misery is happening?”
Hades tilts his head with eerie intent. “Have you heard nothing? I find it unbelievable that a single one of you would have heard nothing of a demigod marching through my kingdom uninvited!”
I shrink back with the others, cowed by his seething accusation.
“Wait. A demigod?” one of the captains dares to demand. “But how?”
I’m uncertain if my presence here is widely known, but eight sets of wary eyes on me are an unnerving answer for that question. Hades darts a quick glare my way, seeming to confirm their suspicions. He’s serene but fuming as more stunned whispers take over the small crowd. Those ripples explode into full spurts. Some are openly angry. Most are overtly baffled.
“Because of her?” the brave one rumbles, slashing a finger in my direction. “After she defied you with Zeus’s spawn?”
“Punish her!” another cries, its voice like gravel and glass. He glares at me with wild, bloodshot eyes while wielding a rusty Damascus blade. “The pleasure would be mine, my lord.”
The others rally in agreement. My heart races again but this time in dread. The relief of knowing Maximus is closer than I would have ever imagined is swept away by the very real fear that Hades will hand me off to this horrible mob.
I step back but don’t get far. Hades ruthlessly clutches my hand in his own, keeping me from retreating farther. His dark eyes twinkle with knowing calm. Dark satisfaction. Maybe even a hint of mischief.
I barely hold back a desperate sob. He’s enjoying this now. The flying of my heart. The blinding fear for my survival. He must feel it.
Recognition of this game of his is almost distracting me from the alarming tings of metal against metal, the jostle of weaponry among their angry shouts.
“Enough,” Hades says in a biting tone, interrupting our horribly searing connection.
But it does nothing to quell their new hatred for me. Or is it violence? Or all the worst vices in their purest forms combined and embodied in Hades’s most loyal subjects?
“She cannot be spared!” Malacoda shouts, now as unruly as the others. “She is the temptress responsible for our shameless violation!”
Hades returns the creature’s glare with his own twisted lips and flaring nostrils, taking over the energy on the air and the awareness in my head with his fury. I sway in place, dizzy from the awful whomp of it. I debate closing my eyes, certain Hades is about to free everyone of their heads.
“She is not your concern. Finding Maximus Kane and bringing him to me is.”
“But the girl—”
Hades waves a hand, which lobs a large wad of flaming pitch at the angry demon’s face. His muffled scream lasts a couple of seconds before his mouth and jaw melt into mush.
“My God,” I whisper, struggling to wall off my mind from their combined torment. I crumple to my knees from the assault, but I’m sure Hades doesn’t notice. His rage is an equal jackhammer of energy.
“You all have voices.” He sweeps his black glare around the table. “Let this be a lesson to use them for what they are good for. Finding the intruder by any means necessary and bringing him to me immediately. None of you are dismissed,” he bellows when they start shuffling after the reprimand. “In case it’s escaped your feeble comprehensions, a bastard of Zeus is wandering my land as freely as a missionary with four-color pamphlets. Fortunately, his goal isn’t to save every wretch between here and the Gale. He aims only to retrieve one.” He answers that by tugging me back up to my feet. “And whoever brings me Kane successfully shall prove you are truly worthy of your station.”