Understanding flickered in the demigod’s eyes, and an amused smilefollowed.
“It’s been ages since I felt anything like this,” he murmured, lowering himself beside me. He reached for my waist, and the moment his hand touched the pendant, the weight lifted as if it were nothing more than air in his grasp.
“When I heard that prayer,” Hadeon continued, voice quieter now, “I had no idea it came from the prince of the mortal realm. But when I arrived, he laid himself bare, his darkest thoughts, his quietest hungers. I learned the truths hidden in his wretched soul. And the bargains he offered, even Vengeance would have been tempted to strike.”
“But you accepted the bargain,” I countered, jaw tight. “Not Vengeance. And for what?”
“For power,” Hadeon answered, “if the prince fulfills what he has promised. In time, you’ll understand that nothing in this world is simply given. Mortal or divine, power belongs to those who claim it. And I’ll do whatever I must to claim what’s mine.”
“So will I.” My voice was weaker than I wanted.
Hadeon gave me a faint smirk. “What the prince offered to me was no ordinary bargain, Odessa. As a matter of fact, it was worth a thousand in its weight. This binding is not something that ends after one act, or ten, or even a hundred. It will feed my ossiraen with every thread of its unraveling. And as it deepens, so does my power. The truth is, the demigods who endure are the ones willing to gamble everything. Because in the end, they understand that the greatest power demands the greatest cost.”
The smile suddenly faded from his lips. “This trial will not spare you, Odessa. I know what the prince intends to do, and he will break you. Should you rise again, it won’t be as who you once were.” His tone chilled to ice. “But understand this, you are here because you failed. You faltered where a god would not. Your weakness opened a path that gods wait lifetimes to find, and I made use of what you were unable to. The bargain that followed is one I may never see again in this age or the next. And for that, I owe you thanks.”
Before I could answer, Hadeon shifted, his fingers slipping from the pendant. His body began to dissolve into shadow, the darkness gathering around him until it swallowed him completely. I watched his silhouette fade, slipping into the folds of the curtains of my bed. Within moments, he was gone. But even then, I could feel him. A faint hum of his power lingered, telling me he had not truly left.
Hadeon’s voice settled into my thoughts like smoke:
Remain vigilant, halfling. Today marks the beginning of my due.
51
“Today, fate begins to turn,”Gadriel said, seated across from me at his private dining table as the bell tower chimed. He spoke casually between bites, each one stoking my anger a little more.
After Hadeon vanished, the same stewardess from the night before returned to help me dress. She brought a fresh set of clothes and guided me to the bath. Through it all, the chain around my waist never came off. It hung loosely around me while the fabric of my old clothes had to be cut away, torn until I stood bare. The chain was the only thing that remained, and I still couldn’t fight it. She washed my hair, lathered my skin in soap, and all the while, my thoughts kept circling back to the pendant, how it had done nothing to Hadeon.
I sat expressionless, no different from a doll placed at Gadriel’s table. The stone’s oppressive force left me docile and languid. Even the idea of lifting a hand felt impossible.
“The stewardess managed well enough,” Gadriel commented, eyeing the Hyrallean-style shift I’d been dressed in. It was the only thing thin enough to slip beneath the chain. “It’s almost as if you never left.”
“You cut her tongue,” I mumbled thickly. “Why?”
His eyebrow lifted, as if pleased I’d spoken at all. “Because it had to be done. It is a precaution for you, for us. Imagine what the folk of Hyrall would say if they knew I was harboring a devil in the castle. It would stir quite the uproar.”
He set his fork down and leaned forward, his amber eyes roaming my face. “Only three folk know you’re here, that you’ve returned to Hyrall. And I intend to keep it that way. You are my prized possession, Odessa. No one can know you exist. Everything depends on your power and what you’ll do for me.”
“Why do you think I’ll obey you?”
“Because I control what lives inside you,” he replied. “Hadeon explained what happens when a devil goes too long without striking bargains. You’ll weaken. You’ll waste away. Sooner or later, you’ll come to me because you won’t have a choice.”
“And if I choose to die?”
His eyes were almost pitying. “Then I’ll help you see reason. Slowly, painfully if I must. You’ll serve me because I’ll find a way to bend you to my will. And then I’ll make sure death is the one thing you’ll never reach. You’ll beg for it, Odessa. And I’ll be there to say no.”
I raised my eyes to him and lifted my chin as best I could.
“I’ve stood with death more times than you could count, Gadriel. I know what it craves, what it desires. Death seeks the fearful. I’ve met it, faced it, and come back again and again. Some things don’t break the way you expect them to.”
Something vile flickered across Gadriel’s face as he stood abruptly, his chair dragging back with a grating sound. He breathed out once, and his expression smoothed over.
“You hear them, don’t you?” he questioned.
I didn’t respond, but his tone was unsettling.
“When the bell rang at first high-chime, the order was given. The sentries gathered every cityfolk, highborn, lowborn, it made nodifference. They’re all waiting now, outside these walls to hear the speech I’ve prepared. And as for you, I’ve arranged something special.”
Gadriel stepped away from his chair. “Bring them in,” he ordered over his shoulder, his eyes never leaving mine.
