“No,” the god repeats, nearly drawling it with arrogant serenity. He folds his arms and tilts his head, making me think of an executioner contemplating his axe’s best strike point. “Don’t get me wrong, Valari. Your offer is touching, but I don’t accept it.”
Officially, I give up the idea of ever breathing again. For that matter, even speaking.
Gramps jams the ring back into his pocket while pressing forward by several steps. But it’s Maximus who jumps first to voice objection to the verdict.
“Why not?”
Hades lifts his most sickening smirk. “For every reason you just gave me on a platter.” He nods at Gramps. “Technically, you’ve already paid the penance for your crime. It’ll give me no satisfaction to watch you suffer for it all again. Further, you’re going to be my true property, forever and for good this time, in just a handful of years. You’re the milk and the cow and damn near the steak already, Gio.”
With equally decisive intent, he tracks his stare back to me. As his irises glitter, my stomach drops.
“But this fearless and fascinating creature…so maddening and mesmerizing…”
“Is no longer yours to play with, Hades of the Underworld.”
The ethereal interruption on the air has my head snapping up and my gaze searching the sky for the voice. Maximus does the same, joining me in trying to make sense of yet another intrusion into this confrontation. It feels like it’s coming from everywhere at once. In my nostrils, suffused by myrrh and juniper. In my eyes, still examining the stars as if they’re about to become sparkling rain. In my ears, vibrating with evocative bells and musical trills.
But most of all in my blood…which pulses exactly like it did when I first opened the huge grimoire in the underworld library.
And it intensifies as I take in a sight similar to how Hades formed atop the swimming pool. But now the flames are like whirling ice shards, giving off a light mist that chills and enthralls me at once. I can’t look away, especially as the light tower condenses and solidifies into an actual figure. A woman.
A breathtaking one.
She’s tall and graceful, with flawless sepia skin and dark-blond curls that tumble around her proud shoulders. She’s wearing a brilliant green dress with flowing layers that accent her strong curves and long legs. Her chest sparkles with gold necklaces of different lengths, each supporting a gemstone-encrusted pendant.
After one glance, I recognize nearly all the symbols on the assorted jewelry. My fingertips tingle from where they brushed the same shapes on the pages of the grimoire. From where they used them to store psychic energy I’d never experienced before…
“Oh,” I finally manage to whisper. “Wow.”
“What’s happening?” Maximus steps out into a defensive stance. “Who are you?”
I press a restraining hand to the muscles of his forearm. “It’s all right.” At least I hope it is.
Maximus narrows his gaze.
Hades follows suit, for different reasons altogether. “Hecate.”
She meets his harsh greeting with a look of pure serenity. “Hades.” Her voice is silken on the surface but solid as a claymore beneath. “If these were different circumstances, I’d say it’s a pleasure.”
“The hell you would.”
That earns him an impish grin from the goddess.
“What’s the meaning of this?” he snaps. “As you can see, I’m a little busy, and you’re intruding.”
Her full lips part to release a subtle laugh. “Since when did I need an invitation to come visit? You should know by now, I can come and go as I please. And I’m quite sure you already know why I’m here.”
She pauses, almost as if making room for Hades to answer if he’s willing. But he’s still stewing deeply, which she also seems to have expected.
“Kara’s blood has opened the grimoire,” she states. “You know what that means. She’s proven that she’s one of us. As such, you cannot abscond her to hell at your whim ever again. You will answer me now, Hades, to indicate you fully understand my words.”
Despite craving to turn for the pleasure of watching Hades’s reaction, I don’t. It’s enough to hear the profanities that punch out from the rest of his furious mutterings.
“Hades… You cannot claim her. Neither can Zeus. You can keep throwing this temper tantrum of yours, or you can accept her fate and move on to new conquests.”
He twists in place, seeming to stare off at his handiwork over the horizon. Destruction and mayhem. Hell on earth. When he finally speaks, I can hardly hear him.
Hecate clears her throat. “What was that?”
At last, a few decibels louder, he spits, “Yes, yes. All right? I understand. You can have her. I’m…well, frankly I’m bored of her anyway.”
“Wonderful news!” As the high enchantress nods, a warm wind picks up the ends of her hair. The stars themselves seem to shimmer in those long shiny curls, securing her place in my esteem as a fully welcome voice stealer. I’m beyond grateful that hers still works, though. With a forceful jut of her chin, she addresses Hades again.
“So now you will accept Giovani Valari’s generous offer for compromise and return to your world without harming any more humans on the way.”
“On this trip only!” Hades spews. “I’ll not agree to any permanent standdown about the feckless creatures in this pathetic realm. You already know that!”
“And you have not let me forget,” Hecate placates.
“Then you say it too,” the god demands.
“You will not be bound to your word beyond your next return,” she calmly complies. “But if you keep dancing around the subject, you shall also be making your next journey alone, without any soul to add to your legion.” She rocks back with fluid grace but adds a jump of her expressive eyebrows while eyeing him anew. “Do you accept Valari’s offer?”
“Fine,” he mutters. “I accept.”
“No.” All my vocal cords activate in the same screaming rush. “No. Please!” I overcome my church girl awe, bolting toward Hecate with hands coiled in entreaty. “Please.” I fall to my knees. “I’m begging…as one of you now…spare my grandfather!”
“Kara.” Gramps is down in the grass beside me, hands on my sob-racked shoulders. “Hey, ladybug.”
“Stop it,” I sob but am lunging into his arms just as quickly. I turn my head in, breathing in his perfect smell of biscotti and chamomile…already knowing this will be the last time I do. All my appeals aren’t getting me anywhere. “Please, Gramps,” I whisper anyway. “Can’t we just stop everything? Can’t…we…”
“Don’t think there’s an incantation for that one, my sweet girl.” His murmur is the calm in my storm. The rock that’s always been there. But even now, I feel that boulder slipping in the rain of inevitability. Succumbing to forces we can’t fight. Not now, anyway. “This is the best way. The right thing I should’ve done a long time ago.” A heavy sigh quivers through him. “But if I had, the world would never have you. So maybe I really was following the right path all along.”