Melinoe, in a titter, agreed and led her from the room.
They soon entered a series of dark, dimly lit hallways, traversing them through numerous twists and turns. Cyane wasn’t surprised that the decor was the same as everything else she’d seen—cave-like and ominous, with candles perched on carved-out slates everywhere. Beads of wax dripped from all, but the wax never seemed to reach the floor.
She pitied the person who had to light all of them.
Melinoe talked up a storm ahead of her, but Cyane barely heard any of it. She knew she should listen, knew she should find out everything she could about these people and this place. But she...couldn’t. The same reverent cloud in her mind that urged her to supplicate herself to the goddess also carried with it an undercurrent of wrongness.
Melinoe wasn’thergoddess. Theyweren’taligned. And so, she fought the compulsion.
God, what is wrong with me?She’d been kidnapped—or saved, threatened, saved again, and now… She didn’t know what was going on. All she knew for sure was that one moment, she’d been with Captain Haros on his sailboat, and the next, she was deep underwater with white hands tugging her down, drowning and struggling to resurface.
Somewhere during that time, she’d left a moody morning on the Ionian Sea, to enter a giant cave, to have a man dressed in armor pulling her from the depths.
Either, she really was in Tartarus (what the hell?) or she’d been drugged up with some shit that would sell for a fortune on the streets and was now part of a live-action-roleplay-group—one who was too committed to realize she wasn’t acting.
Music filled her ears, lilting tunes played on flutes and strings, echoing softly off the walls around her.
“We’re almost there, sweet Cyane,” Melinoe said over her shoulder. “You must dance with me.”
The music built with each step and was soon accompanied by laughter and voices. Up ahead, the hall opened into a decadent foyer with even more candles than Cyane had ever seen in her whole life, creating endless sparks as far as the eye could see above her. Sheer purple and black linens draped precariously throughout, magically avoiding the flames. Some of the flames seemed to bleed together in her mind to create streaks of fire up and down the walls.
This didn’t make sense.It wasn’t right. Pressure built behind her eyes. She rubbed her brow, trying not to panic.
People lingered around, talking, whispering, and laughing in small groups. Cyane and Melinoe didn’t remain near them as the goddess pulled her onward, through the foyer, towards the entryway to the ballroom. A hush settled over the strangers. Cyane sensed their attention like arrows to her back.
Her mouth parted in awe.
A dark ballroom filled with the beautiful and the grotesque stretched before her. Sweeping ceilings soared so high overhead that the darkness clinging to them was as deep and endless as the night sky. Sparkles and whirls of color danced far off in the dark providing the sensation of sickly, twinkling stars.
The walls were formed from the same gray stone, except each stone seemed to vary in design. If she looked out of the corner of her eye, she could see patterns emerging, which disappeared when she gazed at them deliberately.
The room compelled her eyes forward, across the floor, towards the dais on the other end of the room. The throne atop it echoed the castle that housed it, but she couldn't focus on any one aspect as everything seemed to be swallowed up by the imposing figure seated upon it.
Hades.His name filled her head with wonder and terror. His darkness eclipsed everything else.
“Cyane? You’re gaping,” Melinoe teased. “Come. Do not make them wish to eat you alive. Most would love to do just that.” She gripped Cyane’s hand tighter and pulled her into this doom with a giggle.
Cerberus caughtsight of Melinoe entering the ballroom a moment before his eyes landed on Cyane. Melinoe tugged the girl after her into a dance, forcing each step by dragging the mortal woman behind her. Their movements were strained with awkward confusion.
His nostrils flared.
Anger rushed through him as he watched the women dance. The mortal tripped and stumbled but never quite fell, being caught up by Melinoe’s embrace again and again.
He stepped out from the shadows and made his way towards them. The swirl of dresses had nothing to do with it.
He’d hoped to keep Cyane separated from the others, but it hadn’t occurred to him to hide her from Melinoe. He’d planned to keep Cyane locked up until he got the answers he wanted from her. The goddess’s nose for fresh meat was akin to his. She would do anything for a scrap of attention.
It didn’t matter that Hades was the reason the mortal was here. That question was answered. What mattered waswhyHades would go to such shocking and surprising lengths to capture a mortal woman when his lord had never been known to do such a thing before.
At least never with amortal, and never with one so lacking in the attributes Hades coveted in women.
Cerberus couldn’t fathom his lord’s intent, and that infuriated him.The rare times when he’s unpredictable, he abducts and rapes his brother’s daughter.
No, he didn’t like it when Hades acted outside himself.
“A mortal woman? Here?” One of the nearby undying said, pulling Cerberus’s thoughts away from Hades.
“Who is she?” another asked.
