“How? How is any of this possible?”
“This realm, like every realm of the gods, is free from mortal reality. The shadows obscured the entirety of this place. All parts of Hades’s castle are connected by the darkness, regardless of where they sit or lie here. This room is no different.”
She turned to face him, and he couldn’t help but pause to acknowledge the absurdity of the situation.
He’d had limited interaction with mortals who were still alive, and those previous exchanges had gone poorly. Each mortal who’d come before had tried to steal from Hades, at least the ones who dared enter his lord’s domain while still alive.
The fact that he had one now, a female at that, standing in his haven, wasn’t lost on him. No other being had ever infiltrated his private space before. The place where he watched over all the souls of Styx making their final journey.
Confused innocence faced him, and he narrowed his eyes.
“I suppose that makes as much sense as anything else.” She glanced around the room. “And now?”
“Now you tell me what Hades sees in you.”
Cyane shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You deny it?” he asked harshly, making her eyes widen.
“I’m just trying to get to Sicily.”
“You’re a long way from Sicily, human.”
She shuddered. “I’ve figured that part out.”
He had taken a step towards her when a prickle coursed down his back.
Hades.
Damn him.
His lord sought him. Leaving the party, in the way that Cerberus had, could have repercussions. And since the scene had played out in front of all the gods in Tartarus to see…
Cyane’s arms moved up to band around her middle. The motion pushed up her breasts and made her dress rise. His gaze flickered, fighting the urge to examine the shift in her clothes.
She was curvy like a naiad, a nymph—a creature of temptation. Of course, they no longer existed in the mortal realm, their mystical touch having diminished after centuries of breeding only with humans.
His mind wandered further, to the erotic nature of such alluring creatures, when the mortal before him cast her eyes downward, flooring him.
Subservience.
Something he understood well.
His groin twitched.
It was a rare trait in a god or goddess, one he hadn’t seen since Queen Persephone was under the throes of Hades's desires. Even Zeus’s closest followers weren’t subservient to him, not truly. But this human mortal gave Cerberus a taste of it, of what it would be like if he were a lord, and she the worshiper.
His hand was halfway to her with the intention to lift her chin when the prickle of Hades’s call slid across his back again. Cerberus snatched his hand away with a low growl.
He couldn’t stay.
Nor could he get attached.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
Cyane met his eyes, and a tiny thrill coursed through him. He didn’t understand it.I intimidate her.Then her gaze hardened, and the spell of her subservience was broken.
“Stay here,” he ordered, turning away from her before he got sucked in again. “We’ll speak when I get back.”
