The Passion of Hades - Eliza Raine Page 0,60

make myself known to you.'

'Thank you,' I said.

'Anyone wearing this sigil is part of Hades' guard.' He banged his clawed fist to the metal disc in the center of the gleaming armor that was strapped across his chest. A skull with a snake emerging from its left eye was carved on it. I couldn't help thinking that it looked like the sort of tattoo someone in a biker gang would have.

'OK,' I said.

'Good luck,' the minotaur grunted, then turned and marched back towards the doors.

'Quite intimidating, isn't he?' said a sultry voice, and I turned with a smile to see Hedone. She kissed me on both cheeks.

'He seems like he takes his job seriously,' I said.

'I've no doubt.'

'Where's Morpheus?'

'He couldn't make it tonight, but he wishes you luck.'

'Thank you. Hedone, what kind of creature is that?' I asked her as something with massive leathery wings and what looked like the legs of a lion stalked past us. His nose was a hooked, yellowing beak and his beady eyes swept over me as I stared at him.

'He looks like a Griffon hybrid,' she said. When I raised my eyebrows questioningly at her, she elaborated. 'There are wild and sentient versions of most creatures in Olympus, although some are more prone to staying wild. Like manticores. They are large winged cats with scorpion tails that live in forests, and it's very rare to find them sentient. But Griffons, who are lion and eagle, have enough human in them that most are sentient. It's rare to find them wild. His wings are large for a Griffon though, so perhaps there is some Harpy in there somewhere.'

'So a Griffon had sex with a Harpy?' I tried to keep the disbelief out of my voice as my brain went into overdrive picturing that union. The only harpies I'd seen here were mostly bird with human heads.

Hedone gave a soft chuckle.

'Where there's a will, there's a way,' she said.

'There sure is,' added Skop. 'I'm only three feet tall, and you should see what I've managed to bang.' I rolled my eyes at him, but he just wagged his tail faster. 'It's all down to my enormous-'

'Good evening, Olympus!' The commentator's greeting cut the kobaloi's sentence off, and it was the first time I had been grateful to hear the irritating blond man’s voice. The room stilled, and I followed the collective gaze of the crowd to the middle of the room, where the commentator was standing at the left end of the row of thrones. 'Welcome to the last Trial of Round Two. And we have a bit of a twist for you! But first, please welcome your Gods!' The room dropped to their knees as one, myself included, as a white light filled the room. But I raised my bowed head enough to see Hades, his rippling smoky form on the far right of the row.

'Now, this evening Persephone will have to withstand four endurance tests, instigated by four gods,' the commentator boomed, as everyone rose to their feet. 'She can choose to go and talk to any god she likes in any order, but she does not know which gods will be testing her.' I cast my eyes over the gods’ faces, searching for any giveaways in expression. I saw none. Not one even glanced at me. 'This evening though, there will be no judging,' said the commentator, and a ripple of chatter filled the room. No judging? What? 'Instead, for every test Persephone fails, she will lose one of her existing four tokens.'

Dread trickled down my spine. Lose my tokens? I'd already eaten two, for gods’ sake. Would that mean I would lose the power I'd gained back as well? Plus there were only three more Trials after this one, and I needed six tokens to win. I did the math fast.

If I lost only one seed I could still win, but I would have to get at least one token on the next three Trials. And as I'd already proven twice, getting tokens was not easy.

Anger boiled through my blood as all my hopes of only having to do two more Trials faded away. Not only could I not win any more tokens now, they were actually going to take away what I'd already earned? And possibly my powers too?

'This is total bullshit,' I hissed under my breath. The chances of me getting tokens on every single other Trial were surely slim to none. And even if I hadn't just decided that