The Passion of Hades - Eliza Raine Page 0,70

I heaved as a vulture swooped down out of nowhere, driving his hooked beak into the man’s exposed guts, and he screamed. I turned my head so that I couldn't see, terror now taking over from fear as the giant’s agonized shrieks continued. What the fuck was this place?

The flames died down again, and as soon as they did I dropped to my knees. There was no way I was walking through the darkness when I was surrounded by people being tortured. But crawling, I could feel what was before me before I reached it.

I'd barely moved a foot on my hands and knees, before the flames leapt again. My mouth fell open as a wheel made of fire burst to life high above me. It was spinning like a freaking firework, and strapped to its center, skin red raw and blistered, was a naked man. He was screaming the word 'Hera' as he turned and turned, the flames biting at his skin.

Something in my horrified mind jolted, a distant memory of my ancient history studies slotting into place. A man punished for trying to seduce Hera, strapped to a burning wheel to represent burning lust. And a man punished for serving his own son at a feast for the gods by being surrounded by food and water he could never reach. They were both sent to live out their eternal punishments in the depths of hell.

I was in Tartarus.

Thirty-One

Persephone

I shouldn't be here. This wasn't part of the test, it couldn't be. Something somewhere had gone horribly, horribly wrong. I stayed where I was crouched, my eyes fixed on the grim burning wheel above me, my mind racing as fast as my out-of-control heart. I needed to get out of here. I was trapped in an endless pit of torture, and I needed to get the fuck out of here.

But there were no exits, no pathways, no freaking light. I was so far out of my depth I was drowning.

'Hades,' I whispered, his name coming to my lips unbidden. This was his realm, he was in charge. Surely he would find me here.

'Oh come now, don't be sad. We'll find plenty of people for you to play with down here, fledgling goddess,' a rich female voice echoed from the darkness.

'Who's there?' I called, unable to keep the wobble of fear from my voice.

'My name is Campe, and I guard Tartarus,' she answered, and the man on the flaming wheel soared backwards as a creature I could never have even come close to imagining slithered into the space in front of me.

At least five times my size, she had the body and head of the most beautiful woman, full round breasts and a heart-shaped face housing deep brown eyes and voluptuous lips. But from the waist down she was made of snake. Her enormous lower half was that of a coiled serpent, and as the end of her tail flicked up I saw that it was itself made up of what looked like a hundred smaller snakes. As I dragged my eyes back to her body my gaze was drawn to what was around her neck. It was the most hideous necklace I'd ever seen, each charm lining the golden rope the head of a creature.

'You are admiring my jewelry? It is made of the heads of the fifty most dangerous creatures in Olympus,' she purred. I blinked as I took in the heads, a lion, a bear, a dragon, and many other things I'd never ever seen, and hoped I never would.

'Why am I here?' I choked out.

'That's not my business,' she said, staring down at me. 'But we rarely get such fresh blood down here these days. You will be a delight to the residents.'

'Residents?'

'Oh yes. You've already met Ixion up here,' she gestured to the man on the flaming wheel, 'and poor Tantalus, who fed his son to the gods. But the Titans rule Tartarus. They are deep enough in the pit that they have not yet sensed you, but they will soon enough.'

The fear inside me was so strong that it had forced my tears and panic away entirely. I had reached the point bang in the middle of the crippling terror Hades caused that made me pass out, and the indecisive panic that burgeoning fear instilled. This was fight or flight, and there was nowhere to run.

I forced myself to my feet.

'I am a member of the Underworld palace,' I lied, with as much authority as