“That won’t work here,” Hades chided me. “I’m afraid powers are restricted once you cross the threshold. Could you imagine if this place fell into the wrong hands?” His sick amusement twisted my insides. I remembered what happened to Evaleen when she had spent time with him last year. He hadn’t even taken her virginity before she lost herself in agony and despair.
Images of her unseeing eyes and catatonic state made me shiver.
“I have to say,” Crete continued. “I’m pleased to see you here. You’ve simplified so much.”
Chapter Eighteen
I grabbed at my throat with my free hand, desperate to get my voice to work. My face turned red and my eyes bulged as I tried to force sound from my mouth.If I could just sing...If I could just use these stupid powers at my disposal…
My other hand still clutched Ryder’s and I refused to break that contact between us. I wouldn’t let Crete take him. I refused to let him suffer here for the rest of eternity.
Crete sneered at us. His soulless eyes full of greed and possession examined me unflinchingly. He watched me struggle to speak with a sadistic amusement that churned my stomach. I wanted to be sick; I wanted to purge myself of this icky feeling that infected my entire body.
“Betraying Nix already?” Ryder rasped. It sounded like it was an effort for him to speak too. Not because the ability had been stripped from him, but because it was hard for him to focus his thoughts and turn them into words. His mind was half lost to this place already.
My heart clenched and frustrated tears pricked at my eyes. Crete reluctantly tore his attention from me to Ryder. I could see the utter distaste Crete felt for him. Hades did not want to possess Orpheus.
Hades wanted tomurderhim.
“You wandered into my realm, Musician. You basically gift-wrapped her for me. Poseidon will understand.”
I wanted to roll my eyes.Sure he would.
Nix was well known for his understanding nature.
Ha!
Ryder turned his head to the side and took in the ugly creatures lining up to watch the show. Centaurs, Ogres, Harpies, Dragons, giant carnivorous animals and all kinds of nightmarish monsters that would tear us limb from limb if we stepped within their reach.
Ryder’s voice was stronger when he spoke again. He sounded clearer, more awake. “What do you want with her here?” Ryder demanded. “What can she do for you but rot and fade?”
Crete’s thin lips curled into a smile. “You think this is where I want to spend eternity?” His hand swept to the side. “You think I want to be trapped down here with these vile creatures? I deserve more than the dead for patronage. Ideservethe souls of the living too. I deserve Olympus.”
“You would take the mountain?” Ryder stepped forward, pulling me with him.
“I would storm the mountain,” Crete grinned.
“And this is your army?” Ryder looked at the monstrous crowd again and his whole body jerked with disgust.
Crete canted his head to the side and looked at me again. There was a calculating gleam to his careful expression, but there was also more. There was ambition there. There was a hunger so deep and permanent I thought he must be rotting from the inside out from it. I understood his empty eyes now. He was an empty husk too. His Underworld had scraped away whatever soul he started with and left him a mindless vessel that would do anything to breathe fresh air again.
If Medusa was filled with murderous rage, then Hades was consumed with it. If Persephone had succumbed to madness, then Hades had drowned in it a long time ago. These creatures had been here a long time, but Hades had lived here the longest. They were still in the beginning stages of what this realm would do to them, Hades had long since submerged himself in every horror the Underworld offered.
“It could be,” he explained. His army bristled beyond the path. A ripple of anticipation washed over them and sent fear tearing through me. Hades smiled at me and said, “With the right persuasion.”
Oh, my god.He wanted me to control these… thesethings? He wanted me for this?
No.
I would never unleash these things on the world. Not even Olympus.
They belonged here. With him.
I wasn’t sure if they had any humanity to begin with, let alone after centuries trapped in this place. They would destroy Olympus without hesitation, but that would never be enough for them. The Underworld had fed off their fear and pain for who knew how long. They were empty and desperate. And they would turn that hunger on the rest of the world.
Hades wouldn’t stop until he dominated every last living thing on this planet.
Nothing could make me give him what he wanted.
