“Rupert, can’t we talk about this?” I asked, gulping.
He pushed on the barrel. “Sorry, love. There’s nothing left to talk about. I knew as soon as Hades showed me his true face, I was dying. Bloody bleeding ulcers. I didn’t expect this to work, honestly. But a little voice in my head told me otherwise.”
Think. Think. In the story, Ares freed Thanatos. But Ares was a god, capable of bypassing the curse.
“Did you stop to think what happens when you don’t get away with this?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
He poked my head with the gun. “The only thing keeping me from getting away with this right now—is you.” He pressed his lips to my ear. “Don’t worry. You won’t die completely. Remember?”
I never thought I feared death until now. The thought of my life being ripped away by someone else felt unfair. The same way my mother’s life was torn away by a stranger. Was it fate to be killed? Shouldn’t we all die of natural causes?
The faint sound of the revolver clicking filled my ears.
“No!” Hades bellowed. He let out a ferocious yell, wings sprouting from his back. The arches of the wings glowed with fiery embers, morphing into smoke and ash. Remnants of singed feathers floated around him. “These chains may make me weak, but it doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you.”
Rupert shoved me in front of him, his free arm draping over my chest. His body trembled, and he pushed the barrel into my head with such force it made me wince. “You come any closer, and I will pull this trigger.”
Hades’ chest heaved, the ash from his wings suspended in the air, floating around him. He wrapped his hands around the chain, pulling it taut. He snarled, revealing teeth shaped like a wolf. Sharp and deadly. His hand splayed, and the black fog swirled up my leg before passing over Rupert. It curled around his neck. Hades closed his hand into a fist, and his eyes glowed with a white intensity.
The pressure of the gun against my head fell away. Rupert gurgled and gagged behind me. I launched my elbow into the side I’d seen him clutching. He let out a strangled cry of pain and pulled the trigger. A stinging pain blasted over my shoulder, my blood spraying me in the face.
“No!” Hades roared.
I yelped but caught the revolver when Rupert dropped it.
The fog loosened its grip from him, floating back to Hades. I winced as I lifted the gun, aiming it at Rupert.
Rupert laughed as he rubbed his neck. “It’s no use, love. As long as Hades is in those chains, I can’t die. And none of us can break them. Not even me.”
“How did you even get magical chains?” I said through gritted teeth.
Rupert snickered like a hyena. “They fell into my hands in the right place at the right time.”
“You have a gun pointed at your head. Do you really think now is the time for riddles?”
“I’m already dead, darling. Makes no difference to me.”
Darling wasn’t his word to call me. I growled under my breath and pulled back the hammer, holding the hilt with both hands.
“Stephanie.” Hades’ shades of voices passed over me like liquid silk.
I gazed over my shoulder at the beautiful image of him standing in his true form. Embers, smoke, and singed feathers floated around him.
“Killing him will do nothing but damper the light inside you. He’s not worth it.” The chains rattled as he tensed his arms.
“Now I see why it was so easy to get you into those chains, mate. Threaten to kill your dearly beloved, and bring the god of the Underworld to his knees. Literally. It’s embarrassing.” Rupert shook his head.
I was dearly beloved. My chest tightened, and I released the hammer, lowering the weapon but not letting go.
Hades growled, vibrating the paintings hanging on the walls. “Keep. Talking. I dare you.”
The chains. Break them.
A distant whisper fluttered over my ear. Using only my eyes, I looked around. No one and nothing else were in the room. Where did it come from?
The chains.
I ran over to Hades, clamping my hands around the chain. He looked down at me with a quirked brow.
“What in Tartarus are you doing, Stephanie?”
“Something crazy.” I kept his gaze as I yanked the chain with ease.
Blue sparks flew as each link broke. It turned into dust and fell to the ground in a pile.
I blew out a breath, staring at my palms. There was no rationalizing this one.
“What? How? They’re cursed. It’s not possible,” Rupert stammered, backing away toward the window.
Hades’ wings flapped once, and he stood toe-to-toe with Rupert. Hades puffed his chest and clenched and unclenched his fists. Rupert’s entire body shook as he looked up at his fate.
“You have no idea the torturous eternity you’ve condemned yourself to,” he said, his wings starting to wrap around Rupert. “And your time expired hours ago.”
I looked away, shoving my face into my palms.
A hand touched my shoulder, sending me writhing back on my heels.
“It’s only me,” Hades cooed.
I blinked up at him, in awe at the sight of his hair floating around him and the brightness of burning embers at the arch of his wings. “Where’s Rupert?”
“The Underworld. I’ll deal with him soon enough.” The staggered whispers of his voice were deep. Masculine. Commanding.
“What are you going to do with him?”
“You don’t want to know, Stephanie.” His gaze turned sinister.
I gulped. “Do people try that with Thanatos often? Try to bargain with him for their lives?”
“Everyone wants to go to an afterlife in paradise, but no one wants to die.” He said, shaking his head.
Rupert most certainly wasn’t going to the Fields.
I stood up, groaning from the pain shooting down my arm.
He turned my shoulder. “The bullet only grazed you.”
I stared up at the menacing, yet angelic form of the real Hades. If he would’ve appeared in front of me this way only weeks ago, I may have passed out…again. His appearance was intimidating, but he still had an ethereal quality to him, a gentleness that gripped my very soul.
“I can help you with this, I need to—” he started, but was cut off by a gust of wind.
A figure loomed in the corner, blocking the moonlight from illuminating the room. Hades turned around and moved me to stand behind him, his wings wrapping around me like a cocoon. His nails were black, thick, and pointed.
“Thanatos. You’ve made quite the mess,” Hades said.
I leaned around him, attempting to see into the darkness. Thanatos himself was the night. His tattered black cloak draped to the ground, and he floated forward on a bed of fog. All he was missing was a scythe, and he’d be the grim reaper himself.
“I will not go back. Too long have I been feared when it is you who guides my hand. I am nothing but a pawn.” A hand slipped from his sleeve, pointing at Hades. I half expected it to be skeletal, but it was a pale, human hand.
“I may be your King, Thanatos, but Zeus is king over us all. He gave you your reign. You uphold it.”
“We, who are all descendants of Titans, reduced to following an arrogant man with a lust for power. You are almost as bad as he is, Hades.” It was pure macabre the way he stood motionless, fog wafting around him.