knows damn well how to use the sword on his belt. I’m being protective. He can handle himself.
So why do I feel like I just sent him off to his death?
5
Hecate
I’m scarfing down the food, not even bothering to taste the roll, soup, or whatever the hell meat is on the side. I drink the water in gulps. I’m panting when I finally finish and stare in disappointment at my empty tray. Persephone’s lady waits on the other side with a nervous expression, and I push the empty tray and the cup back through the bars of my cage.
“Thank you,” I murmur.
She opens her mouth to respond when we both hear a sound in the distance. Within seconds, she’s darting in the opposite direction of the sound. I stare at the empty space where she once stood, feeling disappointed.
A long time ago, I’d tried to ration the food the Queen of the Underworld snuck to me, but I realized I was going to lose too much of it to the rats, and started eating it as fast as I could. It’s a strange feeling to be hungry all the time, then strangely full, but it’s better than wasting away to nothing. Still, I always like to steal a second or two with the queen’s maid when I’m done. She visits so rarely that I look forward to it nearly as much as the food. Having some small sound scare her off pisses me off. It was probably nothing anyway. There’s always…
I hear a door open and a small movement.
Fuck. Someone is heading down the hall. It’s either someone to drag out a prisoner and torture them, or food. It’s not time for food, so I already know what it is. Drawing back from the bars, I try to make myself as small as possible in the corner of my cell. Yeah, most of the time Hades had already asked for a specific prisoner. But every once and awhile, I think he told his guards just to pick someone.
I don’t want to be that someone.
Outside my cell, I hear keys jangle. A second later, Andros is there. I leap to my feet, ready to run into his arms, but he has that stoic look that says this isn’t going to be a pleasant visit.
My hands curl into fists. “What does tiny dick want now?”
Andros’s eyes squeeze shut. He takes several deep breaths, then his eyes flash open. “He wants you at his party to entertain his guests.”
My teeth clench together so hard they hurt. If it was anyone else but Andros, I’d fight, but that’s exactly why Hades sent him.
“Okay.”
I try to hold my head high, even walking in rags. Even so filthy I don’t want to be near me.
Andros takes me down the many halls, where the skeleton guards soundlessly open the doors at our approach. When the final door opens, I pause for a moment. Stretching out in front of me is the beach covered in black sand and bones. Beyond that is the river of souls, and the bank on the other side where the souls that don’t have the payment to cross stand for eternity. To my side is the path leading up onto the wall.
“Keep going,” Andros says, no emotion in his voice.
I go forward. It’s strange. The air smells of coppery blood and brimstone, but at least it’s cleaner than in the cells. And being able to stare at something other than walls...it’s a gift in itself.
He leads me up the wall. There are trapdoors every so often, and he takes one, a familiar one. We weave down a tightly spiraled stone staircase, with only torches lighting the darkness. When we reach the bottom, he leads me away from the area of the Underworld that’s filled with people being tortured, and toward the area Hades and his people live. I’m led to an unfamiliar room.
There, Andros opens the door. Several of Hades’s women are standing in nearly see-through, white togas. In the center of the room is a massive bathtub filled with roses, and the smell of roses fills the room. I inhale deeply and shudder, just imagining what it’d feel like to be able to take a warm bath.
“Go on then,” Andros says.
I look back at him, frowning. “Go and do what?”
He looks straight ahead. “Hades wants you clean and changed before being seen by his important guests.”
My jaw drops open. I hate entertaining Hades’s guests, but they must be really important if he