“Maximus, no. Don’t be foolish!” Kara keeps fighting to drag me back, even tearing my shirt more with her furious effort. Part of it slips down one of my arms, but it doesn’t matter. I’m everything at once—passion and adrenaline and exhaustion and utter fearlessness—because I see it all now. Hades and his full, undeniable plan. His scheme to whip me up like a volcanic meringue and then watch me froth over the edge right at him. For the sheer fascination of it.
Fine. I’ll give him what he wants if he keeps his focus off Kara. I’ll take the bait and entertain him with my rage. I’m already painting an invisible target on the middle of his torso, right where I’m going to smash my knee into his cold and calculating heart—
My offense makes psychological incisions he can’t ignore. His upper lip twitches as our visual standoff goes on, confirming thoughts I’ve only harbored as hunches until now.
Until I’m suddenly thrown down to my back.
Deflected by a fire blast that’s like a flamethrower burn, except it’s still only Hades standing there. At least I think so. My view now consists of the library’s gold leaf ceiling, as well as the pair of minions pinning me down. But not for long. Their weight, even combined, is already succumbing to my struggle. All I have to do now is plant my feet for some leverage and then shove up and—
“What the—” I’m suddenly choking hard. Then bursting into a violent bellow. I pump my legs, kicking out—or trying to, as several spots along both those limbs are immobilized by shots of searing pain.
My protests only make the torment worse. I have no direct sightline at what’s going on courtesy of the hell disciples kneeling into my ribcage and elbows, but it feels like someone or something keeps taking mini blow torches to my ankles, shins, and knees. Any second now, I’m positive I’ll be smelling my charred flesh. When a minute passes and I’m still only inhaling stale dust off the floor and pungent sweat from everywhere else, a more gruesome truth hits.
That relief isn’t coming.
This is hell, and I’m going to burn like this for as long as Hades dictates it.
“Maximus!”
Kara’s shriek is like an echo, haunting the rational thoughts that still huddle in the corners of my mind. But they won’t crawl out far enough so I can connect them to words. My throat is nothing but agonized clenches as my senses fight to process my physical torment.
Perhaps…if I can just look at her again…
Somehow, I rally enough strength to raise my head again—but my timing couldn’t be worse. I refocus just enough to glimpse Hades dropping a finger, giving two more demons permission to go at me. They swarm in with gleeful cackles and snarls, joining their friends to clamp me down harder. I swear and grunt against their holds, but it’s no use. Their grips are like stun guns, drenching all my muscles in paralysis. All the protests on my lips and stamina in my limbs are abandoned to a thousand shadows of grim, dark surrender.
And a million new horizons of scorching pain.
Chapter Sixteen
Kara
I don’t let up my protesting screams. They spill from me over and over again, but everything still moves too fast, beyond my control. In less than a minute, I’ve gone from tugging on Maximus to clawing at Hades’s pawns, my nails tearing into their half-dead flesh like kids’ clay. But it won’t matter to these eternally dead creatures. None of it will stab harder, pierce deeper, or torture as brutally as this misery of a moment.
Maximus’s roars take over the air. His agony sears my soul. The captains sear slits into his clothes, clearing the way for his fresh agony.
But it’s not just the pain he’s physically enduring. It’s the harrowing helplessness that’s twisting at his psyche…that’s hauling him, inch by exhausted inch, toward the precipice at the edge of his sanity. The escape, like a welcome dream to him now, into nothingness. I know because I can feel it more acutely than anything else, even my own blinding fear.
“Maximus!” I shriek out. “Don’t go there, Maximus. Please don’t go!”
But while his head lolls over, responding as I invoke his name, his gaze is as vacant as a dead monitor screen. He looks right through me, lost to everything but the unending fires of his torture. But in the most central part of my awareness, in that inexplicable place so deep in my chest, I feel fire of a different kind. A spark of something so desperate and exigent, stretching out to the corresponding part of me.
It’s him.
“Oh my God,” I rasp, knowing it as utter fact.
Suddenly, beyond those empty screen eyes and the awful sounds from his throat, I can hear his voice echoing inside me too.
Kara.
With my heart tangled in my larynx and my hands wringing the tatters of his shirt, I force my head up and my gaze all around.
Come and find me, Kara.
I don’t know where to look or what to do. I’m misplaced and terrified. Since the first day we laid eyes on each other, our bond has been palpable and powerful. We both suspected it before we even touched. After that first kiss, we knew it. We were both so sure of each other. So thoroughly led by our faith and belief in each other. My grandfather might have been his guide to physically get here, but Maximus’s courage for the journey was driven by his tethers to me. And I persevered through the nightmare because of a hope that was tied to him.
A hope that’s fading fast…
But isn’t gone.
“Not yet.”
I rasp it aloud because my spirit needs to hear it like that. Because I sense Maximus’s does too. But the affirmation still feels pointless. Even struggling to my feet feels like trying to dock a broken ship in the middle of a raging squall. My heart is ripping. My courage is slipping. My mind is spinning. My instinct tells me to lurch forward, leap at Hades, and rip into his face the same way I’ve gouged parts of his minions.
But there’s an instant disconnect. I yearn to do it but can’t. The ugly truth behind that doesn’t take long to come. There’d be retribution, swiftly delivered—and not to me. The love of my existence is still in Hades’s ruthless custody. His captains don’t make a move without his calculated permission. I shudder to think what would become of Maximus if more of his temperamental buttons were pushed. There’s no way I can help unless it’s to wreck Hades himself. But how?
Then I finally see it. Most vitally, I hear it.
Find me…
The last time he sent those words to me, we were joined in a half-conscious fantasy. One of the best dreams of my life—until it wasn’t. Until Hades invaded my memories, down to their last detail. Until he looked at me with such voracious intent, like he planned to do so again.
So why should I be the one to deny him now?
I quickly set fire to the feeling. For this crazy plan to work, crazy is all I can permit in every synapse right now. All the insanity of my frustration. The consuming darkness of my fury. The dizzy senselessness of my pain and sadness and loss.
It’s not hard to bring them all back. After stumbling forward and dropping as close as I can to the savage fray, the sight of Maximus’s straining neck and quivering limbs has me mentally reaching out, battling to soothe him in even the tiniest way. But it’s no good. He’s already so far gone. And I’m still so useless to him.