Cerberus didn’t wait for her as he strode towards the foyer outside the ballroom. Melinoe mewed sadly at her side. Cyane stepped forward to follow him.
Hermes flew down in front of her. “So you wish to leave so soon? After only one misplaced dance? What a shame.” He smiled wide, and giggles erupted within the room. “If you’d but stay and celebrate, I would show you what it’s like to twirl in the air.” He stepped closer, filling her vision.
“No, thank you.”
His smile grew, if that were at all possible. He also wore a helmet, but it didn’t cover his face like Cerberus’s, and Hermes’s helmet had wings sprouting from the sides, like his sandals. They flapped softly as if they were alive.
Cyane frowned.Some creature’s wings were plucked to make those.Something in her told her that that creature still lived. Wingless. Broken. Eternally.
She tore her eyes from his winged adornments to the man himself.
Hermes was as beautiful as Melinoe. His hair was short and curly, his eyes were a pale blue, and he didn’t have a shirt on. A lean, softly golden, and shallowly sculpted chest nearly blinded her.
She tried to move around him, but he stopped her, stepping in front of her.
“No, thank you?” He mimicked her words. “Well, I don’t believe I’ve ever been rebuffed with such etiquette.” Hermes laughed.
Melinoe wrapped her arms around Cyane. “She is a sweet and interesting creature, isn’t she?”
Hermes glanced from her to Melinoe, his charming face twisting with disgust, but when he looked back at Cyane, his beauty returned.
Cyane pulled away, but the goddess tightened her grip.
Hermes leaned in far too close to Cyane’s face. “Sheisquite sweet.”
She leaned back as far as she could. The sickly smell of a thousand different flowers, pungent and overwhelming, filled her nose.
“Sweet enough for me to steal a kiss. If I can’t have a dance.”
Cyane swallowed, unsure how to talk her way out of this.
Suddenly, Hermes was torn back, and Melinoe’s grip vanished. Cerberus appeared in front of Cyane, grasping her wrist and tugging her away from the god and goddess. She staggered behind him, tripping on her skirts until they reached a corridor much less lively than the one she’d traversed earlier.
The music died in the distance, and it was like being released from a terrible, heady bubble.
Shaking hard now, Cyane jerked her hand free from Cerberus’s hold. She drew her arms to her chest and fell upon the nearest wall, shaking. “What’s happening to me? Who are you really, and what do you want from me? I can’t...I can’t take this anymore!”
She slid down the wall and pressed her hands to her face, squeezing her eyes shut to stem the tears threatening to spill. Everything that had happened in the last day rushed through her, forcing a whimper from her throat.
Cerberus glaredat the girl who was damn-near hyperventilating against the wall, pounding her palms against her forehead.
His lips twisted.
What does Hades see in this woman?
Looking at her now, his lord’s motivations eluded him. More so than before, if that were at all possible.
And if she was anything like the wretched mortals that no longer believed in them… Disgust filled him. The mortal obviously didn’t believe in them. Which made her less than nothing, only worthy of the blood sea beyond Hades’s castle. But as Cerberus watched her, waiting for her antics to cease, his curiosity piqued. A little. This Cyane... She was a mortal who had infiltrated the Underworld, who was a blight to his duties, who represented his first true failure.
She took in a slow, deep breath.
Her breathing is evening out. She’s calming.
It was an improvement over last time but not enough to assure Cerberus he was any good with mortal females or any females at that. Even Minos had noticed his inexperience, calling him out when he had carried her over his shoulder, upside down, and then under his arm. Minos had scowled and instructed Cerberus to cradle her. But even now, Cerberus contemplated throwing her over his shoulder and tossing her at Hades’s feet.
Her breathing relaxed even more, and she lifted her face from her hands.
He knelt before her.
