through our rock wall, and I shivered, pulling my cloak tighter about me.
Across the flickering flames, I watched his still form. He lay on his back, broad chest rising slowly.
Could I kill him while he slept?
No.
I quickly discarded the idea. He was Hades. A god. Immortal. I would just get myself hurt.
But could I maybe eat my protein bar?
I debated it, then discarded the idea. This hunger wouldn’t kill me, and I couldn’t risk another of my friends. If he knew Beatrix could come here, he could possibly capture her somehow.
I couldn’t live with that.
As I stared into the flames, the memory of what he’d said about his non-childhood flashed in my mind.
Born from darkness.
Of course he lacked a moral compass. He’d been created for a terrible purpose, and he worked tirelessly to see it done.
Yet the way he looked at me sometimes . . .
It was like he was seeing the world for the first time. Seeing it in a new way.
He’d never experienced anything good. Not ever.
I was certain of it. That didn’t absolve him, of course. Just made things more complicated for me.
Exhausted and freezing, I propped my head on my knees. If only I could sleep sitting up. I didn’t dare lie on this cold ground. It was freezing my butt just sitting on it.
At some point, I must have drifted off, because the cold and the hunger faded. I woke intermittently, my shivers dragging me from the oblivion of sleep.
When Hades arrived at my side, scooping me up into his arms, I curled into his warmth, halfway in a dream.
Barely conscious, I registered him laying me down on the sleeping pad and settling in behind me, yanking my chilled body toward his.
Though he wasn’t as warm as a normal person, he was still far warmer than the ice-cold air. Caught in a partial dream state, I snuggled my back against his front, trying to absorb as much of his scant warmth as I could.
“Be still,” he growled.
I froze, my mind moving toward full wakefulness.
I am in Hades’ arms.
Holy fates.
I blinked into the darkness, suddenly wide awake.
How had I gotten here?
Foggy memories filtered back.
Oh, right. He’d come and carried me over, no doubt worried about his captive freezing to death.
Yet he was so terribly tense. I looked down, feeling his hand against my stomach. In the faint light of the fire, I could see that he still wore the thin black glove.
Every inch of him was covered. Bound tight.
I tried to sleep, but I tingled with awareness. His breath feathered against my hair, his scent wrapping around me like a dream. He surrounded me, his body so big and hard that it formed a cage.
“Rest,” he grated.
I snapped my eyes shut and tried to sleep, praying that I didn’t dream of him.
12
Seraphia
Morning came, finally.
I rolled my aching body out of the terrible little bed, putting as much distance as I could between Hades and me. It had been a long, silent night of tension. Neither of us had moved an inch, but by morning, I swore my body had memorized his.
We didn’t speak as he moved the rocks away from the entrance.
As soon as they were gone, I darted out into the snow. “Privacy, please.”
He said nothing but didn’t follow me. I headed to the right, searching for a place to pee in secret. It didn’t take long to find a private outcropping, and I ducked behind the rocks, scarfing down a protein bar as quickly as I could.
There were three left in my pockets, and I debated having one more. My stomach still gnawed with hunger, so I yanked the wrapper off a second one and chowed it down in two bites. There was no telling when I’d have another private moment anyway.
I took care of my other business, then hurried back to the cave entrance, grateful to see Hades already astride Horse. He looked like a conquering warlord—the kind who laid waste to towns and coldly destroyed all in his path.
Including me.
I shivered, not wanting to join him on the steed but knowing that I had to. The sooner this was over, the sooner I would have a cure for Mac.
He directed Horse toward me. As he neared, he leaned down and yanked me into the saddle, a move accomplished so smoothly and gracefully that it had to involve magic.
Within moments, we were moving swiftly toward the upward slope of the mountains. As he’d promised, the weather had turned for the better, even though