"Last—"
"Son of a bitch!" Medusa spat out, moving away from us. "Why, Hades? Why?"
Because I thought I could find her. Because I thought I could redeem myself for the past. Because I hoped she would come back to me once she realized that she wasn't just a vessel for a dead woman's soul, but that she was her. She was a Goddess. An eternal being.
Medusa walked from one side of the room to the other, casting occasional glances my way while her disappointment lived in the air—a living thing suffocating me slowly. But it wasn't anything I didn't deserve. As a matter of fact, I deserved worse than her disappointment.
I deserved their anger, their fury, but as I looked at Alyana, none of those were found on her face. Instead, it was sadness I saw. Pity I fucking hated, and as she sat down on the chair right next to mine, she took a hold of my hand, and looked me straight in the eye.
"I never apologized to you, Hades," she murmured, while her partner grumbled under her breath, probably trying to come up with a plan. "I only ever wanted to save my sister and my niece, completely forgetting how much you have lost."
"It's fine."
"No." She shook her head. "It's not. It took me a long time to realize that just because you're a God, it doesn't mean you're without feelings. I know your secret, Hades." This time I looked at her, while the need to get up and leave this place coursed straight through my veins. "I know you're rotting from the inside, and I know there's only one person that could stop that." I tried pulling my hand from hers, afraid she would see more than I was willing to share, but she wouldn't let me. "But you're not alone. You don't have to fight this battle on your own, and I'm sure we'll find her. I'm sure she will come back to us."
I wasn't. I wasn't sure of anything anymore. Not my role in this world and certainly not my role in Kaira's life.
Alyana's lips parted as she was about to say something, when Medusa interrupted. "We don't have time for emotional bullshit," she said, coming closer to us. "We gather the troops. We find her. Hades." She looked at me. "Get Grimm. He found her once and he will find her again." I didn't even want to ask how she knew about that. "Alyana, we will need both Apollo and Artemis here. They're the only ones who still know how to enter Zeus's domain without being detected. We need them right fucking now."
Letting go of Alyana's hand I stood up, gritting my teeth as a headache spread from the back of my head all the way to the front, forcing me to close my eyes when I could no longer look at the brightness pushing through the window opposite of where I stood.
"I'll get Grimm," I said, hating how weak my own voice sounded. "I'll get Nox and Vesper too. They'll be able to help." One step toward the doors was all I took when the string connecting me to Kaira ignited.
I could feel her, sense her as if she were standing right next to me, her energy wrapping around me and eradicating theheadache threatening to split my mind in two. She was back. She… She wasn't dead.
I turned around and looked at Medusa, my wide eyes meeting her worried ones. "She's back," I murmured.
"Hades, don't?—"
But it was too late for any warnings. Too late for her to stop me as I closed my eyes and let the feeling of her guide me, letting me pass through the fields on the island, all through the forest, teleporting me right to the meadow where she trained just yesterday. And as I finally opened them, my eyes landed on the woman standing on the opposite end, as still as a statue, with her hair billowing on the afternoon wind.
"Kaira," I breathed out, my voice quieter than the wind slamming against me, but that one word was enough to make her look at me. To make her see me. But the moment those silver eyes connected with mine, I knew something was wrong.
Something was terribly wrong, because this wasn't the Kaira that left last night. A dark energy wrapped itself around her, holding her in its embrace.
I should have stayed back.
I should have listened.
But if death was what awaited me, then so be it. I would never let her be alone.
Not again.
28
HADES
Humans often saidthat there were moments when their entire life flashed in front of their eyes, when they were certain they would die. When there was nothing left to do but surrender to fate.
Yet here I stood.
This might be the last time I would get to hold her, because even before she took a step toward me, I knew how this story ended.
Our love wasn't the one authors spent hours and hours writing, leading to that happy ending, because this wasn't a romantic story with an eternity waiting for us and our love. This was a tragedy.
A tragedy of our own making.
My steps felt sure as I slowly crossed the meadow, heading toward her, and the closer I got, the more I could see the dark vines spreading over her throat, toward her temples, and reaching her eyes. The scent of rotten flowers bloomed in the air, only increasing the closer I got, and there was only one other Goddess who carried the smell as if it were the perfect perfume.
