“We had it all planned out,” she continued. “Until I got tired of the games.”
Her voice dripped with poisonous sweetness, like she was savoring the taste of every syllable.
“Hades doesn’t just play with hearts, darling. He plays with lives. He collects people. Uses them. Then discards them when they stop being fun.”
My heart was racing.
Lungs tight.
But I breathed slow and shallow through my nose, forcing control where there was none.
“Oh, yes,” she went on, circling me like a predator that already tasted blood. “He came crawling back after I left. Pathetic, really. You know how it is—he has this way of making you feel chosen right before he twists the knife.”
I clenched my jaw.
I didn’t want to believe her.
But her words slithered through the cracks I hadn’t even realized were there—cracks Hades had made with every unanswered question, every withheld truth.
“You’re just the latest distraction,” she said, her arms folding like she was discussing the weather—not a man who had become my every breath, my every battle. “He always comes back to me when things get too complicated,” she added. “I can handle his storms. You won’t.”
A pulse of heat surged through me—rage, shame, fear.
I didn’t move.
Didn’t breathe.
She stepped closer, her perfume cloying, her presence oppressive. Her voice dropped, chilling. “Just wait until you see what happens when you push him too far.”
Something in her tone made my stomach twist.
Not because I believed her.
But because I almost did.
I forced myself still. Fingers trembling at my sides, fists clenched so tightly my nails bit into my palms.
And then?—
“Let’s see how long that ring keeps you safe.”
She stepped back, smiling like she’d already won.
But I wasn’t breaking. Not for her. Not for anyone.
I drew in a breath that tasted like smoke and steel and said, cold and clear. “Get out.”
Her smile faltered.
Good.
“Now.”
Something in me snapped.
It wasn’t loud.
It wasn’t explosive.
