The Promise of Hades (The Hades Trials #3) - Eliza Raine Page 0,10

looking at me. 'People bow to me, not shake my hand.'

'I know, but he's my brother and he’s a little bit shocked. It might be easier to ease him into the god/king thing.' Hades looked from me to Sam, then reluctantly held out his hand. Sam stared at it for a few seconds, then stumbled forward and took it.

'You were telling the truth,' he whispered, looking at me.

'Yeah,' I nodded.

'Does that mean you really have magic powers?' His voice was filled with awe, and I looked at Hecate.

'How much have you told him? I'd have thought he'd be at least a little used to the idea of Olympus by now.'

'I haven't told him anything. He was irritating me, so I had Hypnos put him to sleep,' she shrugged. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw a moment as Hades dropped Sam's hand.

'Hecate, not that I'm not grateful to see my brother, but why did you bring him here?'

'He said I was outrageously hot.'

'That is not a good reason,' said Hades.

'It's a fucking excellent reason,' said Skop.

I sighed.

As if I didn't already have enough to deal with.

Six

Persephone

I asked Hades to conjure some nectar, and once Sam was sitting down, with the reinforcing drink working its way through his system, he was a lot easier to talk to. I couldn't help the beam of satisfaction I got from the amazement in my big brother's face when I showed him my vines. Usually Sam was the impressive one. He'd gotten a great job building apps for cell phones, completely self-taught, and had been the one to finally improve my parents’ living space from the shitty trailer we'd grown up in, to an RV.

But as much as I loved him for that, I couldn't deny that it felt good to be the impressive sibling for a change.

I showed him how the vines changed color and told him about the conservatory and how I could grow plants, although I left out the part about my gold vines. I did not want to talk about magic sex powers with my own brother.

I told him about the Trials so far, Hades' face darkening with anger the more I spoke, and Sam's a mask of horror by the time I'd finished. With Hecate and Skop there though, I didn't mention what Hades had told me about Cronos and Tartarus. I wasn't sure if they were supposed to know about it. Hell, I wasn't sure I wanted them to know about it. Being a walking, talking bomb that could destroy their world wasn't exactly something I wanted to share.

'So... Now you have to do three more Trials, and win them all to marry Hades?'

'Yes.'

'And...' His eyes flicked between me and Hades. 'Do you want to marry him?' He whispered the question. I felt a wave of heat come from Hades, and couldn't suppress my smile. What in the world did Sam think he could do to stop Hades if I didn't want to marry him? I loved him for asking though.

'Winning the Trials is certainly the best option I have right now. At least if I win, I have a choice,' I said carefully. More heat rolled off Hades.

'You know, I only just decided that I'm in love with you. You can't just assume I want to marry you already,' I told Hades in my mind. I made my tone teasing, but there was an element of truth in the words. Being parted from him would be worse than death. It would be tortuous.

But I'd literally only slept with him that day. Marriage commitments seemed a little premature.

'You are mine,' Hades said in my mind.

'Yes. Body and soul,' I answered. The air cooled. 'But where I come from you don't just claim people if you want to marry them. We should discuss this later.'

'Fine,' he grunted.

'Sam, now that you know I'm safe, I think Hecate should take you back to New York,' I said, sitting down beside him on my bed and looking pointedly at Hecate.

'No way! You're safe right now, but you've got three more of these Trials to do!'

'And how would you help me?' I asked him gently. 'You're in more danger than I am here, you have no powers.'

'I'm not leaving you to these maniacs,' he said stubbornly. Another wave of heat rolled off Hades.

'Sam, you could be used against me. In my first Trial they nearly killed Skop because they knew I cared for him. Imagine what they would do to my own brother?'

'I