Bit by bit, my calm returned. I envisioned the cave at the base of my castle, the abyss of endless darkness. Envisioned the calm I felt there. The relief when I gazed into its depths, and it fed me with strength. With purpose and power. When it knit me back together and made me whole again.
The desire that had surged through me faded finally, and I was once more myself. Cold. Mechanical.
I turned to her, feeling the wind whip my cape at my back.
She stood, staring at me, her eyes wide. “You have wings.”
“I do.” Though I never used them. It had been lifetimes since I had called upon them.
Her eyes flashed, her lips and cheeks pink from our kiss. Despite the blood that streaked down her face, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. She was like stories of the sun that I’d read.
But the sun was not for the likes of me, a creature of the darkness.
“I will never help you achieve your goal,” she said.
“You will. You saw it yourself in a vision of the future. You helped spread my kingdom to the realm of Earth. Helped the darkness claim its own.”
“How could you want that?” Disgusted shock echoed in her voice, and something strange shot through me. Something like discomfort.
I shook it away. “Why would I not?”
She spun in a circle, gesturing to the mountain around us, cold and barren and gray. “Is this not enough for you? This wasted world you’ve created?”
“No, it’s not.”
“So you must destroy the Earth as well?”
“There is purpose to the underworld.” Frustration seethed within me. “Can you not see that?”
“Of course I can. But you don’t need to be so greedy. You don’t need the earthly world, as well.”
“You have no idea what I need.” And I will never tell you. “This is what I was made for. My purpose. I am as inevitable as the moon and the sun. This is inevitable.”
Disgust flashed on her face, and her eyes glinted with tears. “Damn you. I saw your wings. I felt your magic when you used them. You aren’t all darkness. There is light inside you. You could choose it, but you don’t.”
She thought it was so simple? “Nobody is all one thing. Just as you are not all light. But it’s our choice to make, and mine is made."
She shook her head, backing up from me. “You’re a monster.”
“I am.” I called upon Horse, ready to leave.
The beast appeared at my side, stomping the ground. I swung up into the saddle and reached down to her. “Come. We shall go.”
“You don’t want to fly us back?” She glared. “It would be so much easier.”
“No.” The word was sharp enough to cut, yet she didn’t flinch.
I would never use my wings. Not unless they were the last possible option, and even then—
Her glower darkened. “Fine. But you will give me the healing potion for Mac when we return.”
I nodded once, though I had no intention of doing so. Satisfied, she raised a hand, and I gripped her arm, swinging her up into the saddle in front of me. She settled between my thighs, and I slid an arm around her waist, holding her tight.
She stiffened, but I didn’t let her go, too gratified to feel her in my arms. To know that she was now safe. Memories of the kiss haunted me, but I shoved them back, resisting.
I would not dwell on it.
That connection between us was the most dangerous threat to me. Enough to drive me from my power if I were not careful. Her softness, her sweetness.
They could be enough to tempt me from the dark.
I will resist.
Steeling myself, I drew in a breath and removed my hand from her waist. Gripping Horse’s reins, I imagined myself freezing once more into the hard, cold machine that would see my work done.
Seraphia
Hours later—so long that I felt like I’d frozen to the bone and died of it—Horse galloped up to the main gates of the city. They loomed overhead.
I’d never imagined that I’d be grateful to return to this place, yet I was. Anything to get off this horse and away from Hades. I needed to escape his cold, hard strength. From the scent that wrapped around me and forced my mind back to that kiss.
To the shock on his face. To the way his lips had softened. He’d devoured me like I was the last gasp of air to