There was no question—I’d waited until the very last moment to return to Hades, and this was the result.
Bastard.
I pushed myself farther, army crawling across the cold tile floor, my vision nearly gone from weakness.
Finally, I reached the black pool. I could hear the sound of his magic—waves crashing against a cliff wall—and taste it on my tongue—dark, bitter chocolate. I dragged myself into the deepest, darkest part of his magic, feeling it all around me, suffocating. It grabbed hold of me, dragging me through the ether and spinning me through space.
For one blissful, exhilarating second, I felt nothing, just the wild spin of the ether as it took me to hell.
Then I collapsed on the cold ground of another library.
Panting, I lay on the stone floor, staring up at the ceiling that soared overhead. In a split second, I took it all in. Ah, yes. I was back in the library that Halloween forgot.
The stone rafters had been carved from an ebony rock. Narrow and arching, they looked like bones blackened by fire. On either side of me, oak bookshelves soared tall, filled to the brim with tomes bound in dark leather. Spiderwebs stretched in front of the volumes, glittering like string threaded with diamonds. Emerald and amethyst spiders skittered across the webs, beautiful yet terrifying.
And yet, every bone wasn’t aching. My muscles didn’t feel like shredded meat. Even my lungs worked properly.
I’m better.
The physical effects of the potion had worn off. Relief surged through me, and a massive grin spread across my face.
Oh, thank fates.
Only seconds had passed since I’d arrived, but Hades….
Was he here?
I sat up, keeping my movements and my breathing silent. With any luck, my invisibility potion should be holding strong.
The door to the library burst open, slamming against the wall. Hades strode in, power incarnate, lethal and terrifyingly beautiful—that is, if beautiful commanded an army of the dead and personally tortured the shit out of the fallen souls in his realm.
His ocean-dark gaze searched the library for any sight of me, his strong jaw set with determination. The sight of him standing in the door, dark cape flowing back from his broad shoulders and his body cast in shadow, sent me back to the moment I’d escaped this place.
I’d nearly made it to the portal when he’d blasted through the door, shirtless and glorious, with his golden wings flared wide and his body corded with muscles hewn in war. Rage had vibrated from every atom of him, his fallen angel’s face terrible in his anger and grief.
His beauty made me hate him all the more.
“Seraphia.” His voice rumbled like thunder, deep and low, flowing inside me like smoke and filling me up with a prickling tension. “I know you’re here.”
Silently, I rose. I stood only fifty feet from him, right in plain sight. Thank fates for Eve’s potion, which was definitely working.
Silently, I stepped to the side, creeping toward a bookshelf. He just needed to get farther into the library and leave the door open. Then, I could sneak around him and get the hell out of here. With any luck, I might be able to find the cure for the pomegranate potion without ever speaking to him at all. Then I could escape forever and never see him again.
It’d take all the luck in the world for my plan to work out that way, and I was ridiculously short on the stuff.
Still, I’d try
He strode deeper into the library. There was no sunlight in this miserable place, but he stepped into a pool of light cast by the chandelier above. The sight of him nearly made me gasp.
He looked like hell.
His cheekbones were even sharper, his ocean eyes shadowed like the grave. Once again, he was dressed entirely in black leather armor, down to his gloves. His shoulders were just as broad, but I had a feeling I’d find the muscles cut even more fiercely. Hewn like iron. There was something raw about him, as if he’d been pared down to his basest parts.
Is this what my absence had done to him?
I swallowed hard, having no idea what to make of it.
Get it together, ninny.
I crept toward the door, determined to ignore the tortured twist of his lips as he looked around the library, clearly searching for me. Silently, I slipped by him, holding my breath so that I made no sound at all. Fortunately, my trainers were silent on the tile floor, my jeans and loose jumper easy to