“Stop. What are you doing?” I tugged harder, but his grip was iron. “You’re hurting her.”
Hades started to change. His cheekbones became more angular, and his eyes transformed into black sockets devoid of anything but that glowing red light.
He tore his gaze from Zotera, focusing that unholy glow on me, as his feet became hooves and wings sprouted from his back. I released him, and I stumbled away.
“You bleed, Goddess, and all those who harm you must pay the price. Even those I favor.”
His red gaze shifted to Zotera, and he extended his other clawed hand to her face.
“Payment is due, daughter.”
Torment laced the statement, and bile rose to my throat as I understood his intent. My tongue tangled over the words that desperately spilled from my lips.
“It was an accident. I tripped. She didn’t cause this. My own carelessness did. Please! Punish me.”
Hades’ claws paused an inch from Zotera’s almost purple face.
“Punish you?”
Fear curled in my stomach even as I nodded. He released her, and she dropped to the ground, an unmoving limp bundle of furs.
“Zotera?” I fell to my knees and pushed her over to check her pulse. Her tear-filled gaze locked with mine.
“I am unworthy of your favor, Mother,” she said softly. “I deserve my punishment for making you bleed.”
“No.”
I stood and faced Hades. He was no longer the monster but once again a naked man. Expression resolute, he closed his fingers over my wrist and pulled me inside the room. The rasp of the lock sliding into place sounded overly loud as did his harsh breathing. Neither promised anything pleasant.
“Is this your game?” he demanded, facing me. “After you remind me of your gentle touch, you will give me endless pain?”
“What?”
He gently wiped a thumb under my nose and showed me the blood there.
“Blood is blood. Any who hurt you must suffer ten times the pain.”
A knife materialized in my hand. Before I could drop it, Hades’ hand closed over my fingers, and still holding my wrist, he jerked it toward his middle. I made a panicked sound and tried to pull back.
Was this my punishment? Hurting him?
I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
Like before, though, my resistance didn’t matter. He continued drawing my hand and the knife toward his stomach.
My eyes watered when I realized what he meant to make me do, and I broke my cardinal rule.
I begged.
“Don’t make me do this. Please!”
The knife immediately disappeared. He snarled and leaned in close, taking up my space and my air with his menacing presence. Dark eyes flickered red with his anger.
“Your place is not to suffer. That is mine. Any punishment you incur will be my punishment. You are not to bleed!” He bellowed that last bit with so much rage that the stone under my feet trembled again.
While my insides quivered with fear I was doing my best not to feel or show, he took a calming breath and the ground settled.
“If not the knife, then tell me how you wish me to suffer.”
