a flash, the cold god returned, his worry and desire replaced with ice. The quickest one-eighty I’d ever seen. When he spoke, his voice was cut like glass. “You’re a disgrace.”
“What the hell do you know about being a disgrace?”
“I know that you’re one of the most powerful supernaturals to ever live and this” –he gestured to the dried roots all around me, most of them so light they blew away on the wind—“was the best you could do when faced with a threat.”
Shame burned me.
Then rage.
I’m going to kill this bastard.
11
Hades
Persephone advanced on me, her eyes bright with fire. The wind whipped her dark hair back from her face, and her cheeks burned pink with rage.
She was magnificent.
“I have almost no magic because I had to hide it all my life. So that I could hide from you,” she screamed, pushing me. I didn’t budge. “All my life I hid, and I ran, and I ignored my magic, all so you wouldn't find me. But you found me anyway!”
“Exactly.” I needed to fuel her rage. Make her stronger. “I will always find you. I can feel your magic—I can feel you—like a limb. And now you must embrace what you are.”
“I’m not Persephone!” She picked up a handful of dried roots and crushed them in her palm, then showed me the remains. “These aren’t even alive, and yet I called them to me. That is not something the goddess Persephone would do. She was life and light and plants. I am something else.”
“You are more than you think you are. More than you ever believed.”
Her eyes burned with an unholy fire that spoke to something deep within me. Her words vibrated with her rage. “I swear to fate I will kill you one day.”
“Kill me?” The mere idea was laughable. “Impossible. I am a god. I am darkness eternal, endlessly reborn from the abyss. There is nothing in this realm or any other that can end me.”
She shivered and stepped back.
Her fear drew me, and I advanced. “That’s it. You’re getting it now. I am power incarnate. And you will do as I command.”
Her jaw tightened and her eyes flashed, but she said nothing. Plotting my demise, no doubt.
I turned and clicked my fingers, calling Horse to me. “Come, we must go.”
Though I couldn’t see her, I knew she didn’t follow me. I couldn't so much as hear the faintest footstep. Horse stopped at my side, and I mounted the beast, turning it to face her. She glared up at me, seething.
I leaned over and pulled her up, ignoring her hiss of indignation. She settled between my thighs, her body tight and vibrating with rage.
“I hate you,” she hissed.
“It is not mutual.”
“Only because you don’t feel, you damned machine.”
“True.” I looked over her head, toward the mountain slope above. “Hold on.”
I nudged Horse with my heels, and the beast took off at a gallop, racing toward the other side of the plateau where the mountain rose high once more.
Storm clouds rolled over the horizon, as expected. Dark and ominous, they often shrouded the upper levels of this peak. We wouldn’t make it to our final destination tonight, but if we could reach the second plateau, it would be easier to find shelter.
It wasn’t long before Persephone was forced to settle back between my thighs. She burned into me, a distraction that nearly tore my mind in two.
It took everything I had to ignore it and look ahead, keeping Horse on the proper path as we tried to outrun the storm. Wind whipped her hair back, wrapping her scent around me. The pure pleasure of it made my heart twist painfully in my chest.
As desperate as she was to get off this damned animal, I was more so. Her mere presence awakened something inside me that hadn’t existed until she’d appeared.
It was better left alone.
The air temperature dropped significantly as we ascended, and the clouds grew thicker. Soon, we could barely see in front of Horse.
“How much farther?” Her teeth chattered.
“A long way to the top, but we are near the second plateau. We can camp there.”
“Camp?” Disbelief sounded in her voice. “With what?”
“I brought supplies.”
“The crap on the back of the horse?”
“Yes.”
“For the king of hell, I’m not impressed.”
Irritation pricked. “You want palaces the entire way?”
“What I want is to not be here.”
I couldn’t say the same. This was the culmination of years of hunting. My end goal was so near.