“Thank you, Father.”
Time ticked by slowly as I struggled to come up with another topic to distract us. Zotera saved me by talking about the torch-bearing replicas of me and how I wanted them changed.
“Anything that’s less terrifying,” I said, looking over all the creepy, fleeing poses.
“Allow me,” Hades said a moment before the nearest one changed into a naked image of me showering.
“That’s a view of me that I would rather keep private,” I said.
It immediately reverted to what it had been.
“What do you miss most about home?” Hades asked.
The question surprised me until I realized it was a test. So I thought about it, but there wasn’t really anything I missed except the familiarity. There were things I wished I could miss, though.
“Trees. People. Dancing. Fancy food that I didn’t have to spend hours making.” I turned my hand to hold Hades. “Not that the food you’ve made me isn’t good. It is. It just isn’t the food I’m used to. There’s so much I wish I could have experienced to miss.” I looked away, seeing nothing while I imagined everything. “A movie in the theater. Taking a walk along a beach. Sitting in the open while watching the stars. Actual fishing. Going shopping.”
I didn’t even care if I shopped for clothes or food or farm equipment. I just wanted to leave the confines of Uttira and experience everything. There was so much out there that I didn’t know, and I wondered if I’d know any of it before I died.
“My uncle got me a fish once. A pet fish. I loved it until I realized it was just as trapped as I was. A helpless little creature only kept safe in its small bubble of glass. It died, and sometimes I think that was a mercy.”
Hades’ hand tugged mine, snapping me out of my grim thoughts. There was a clear warning in his gaze when I met it.
“You will not harm yourself,” he said. The rumble of anger in his tone didn’t bother me. It made me feel like someone actually cared.
“There’s too much I want to experience yet,” I assured him.
“I can make more trees,” Zotera said hesitantly.
I nodded and gave her feedback as she worked. The trees she made were beautiful twisted things with so many branches. Instead of a torch, multiple oil lamps hung from the limbs. I leaned forward, loving the way the small flames danced over all the texture in the bark. It reminded me of a fairy forest. Not the real kind but the fake ones in human books.
“Do you like it?” Hades asked.
I realized I was petting his fingers and stopped.
“I do. Can you make it even bigger?”
Zotera nodded, but it was Hades who made it grow twice the size she’d made it.
I was about to ask if I could walk under it when the fury appeared in the doorway. She strode confidently forward, carrying a large cardboard box in her arms. Hades’ hand moved from my hand to my leg, his warm fingers caressing the top of my thigh.
My pulse jumped, and heat flooded my face.
Tearing my gaze from the fury, I looked at him.
“Only my hand, remember?” I said quietly.
“Yes. Forgive me.” He moved his hand back to mine, but there was something in the way he watched me, like he was expecting me to challenge him in some way.
“There’s nothing to forgive,” I said.
Surprise flitted over his face.
“Father, would you like me to put the pizza on the table?” the fury asked.
He held my gaze as he nodded.
“Is there anything else you require of me?” she asked.
