Page 17 of Unleash Hades
“You and I are a team like none other. A team that our peers and contemporaries wish they had.” He casually leaned back in his seat, waving his hand as if we were in a high tower, and there were people below us. That was how he saw the world, didn’t he? Everyone was a peasant, and he was above the rest. “We’re like… Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry the VII. Contentious, but still a unit. A marriage.”
Of course, he’d see himself as a King. Delusions of grandeur were the means of a narcissist.
“Like a Lion in Winter,” he said, smirking. “My own Katherine Hepburn.” He touched my cheek. “A force to be reckoned with, but in the end, we are together.”
I smiled. A forced, pulled smile, as visions danced through my mind. Adelia, pale and lifeless. Me, bloody and bruised. My sons as babies, crying for their mother…
“What ever happened to that cute little French accent you used to have?” he asked out of the blue.
I killed it along with the rest of my soul.
“I don’t know, darling. I suppose I learned to be a little more like you.”
And there was nothing in the world he disliked more than people who were just like him.
“I love you, Calissandra,” he said, leaning down to kiss my forehead again.
I shut my eyes, momentarily transporting myself to another place, another time… with another man. To when I still understood myself…
I opened my mouth to push out the words that Ihadto say, “I love you, too…Darling.”
Chapter 4
Hugo
Strathlachlan, Scotland
“Your left,” Rose warned,before landing her fists of fucking fury on the left side of my rib.
What the fuck were her knuckles made out of? Belt buckles?
“You keep dropping your left guard.” She gritted through her teeth. She was getting agitated with me.
No kidding.
For days, she had trained me not to win a fight, but to defend myself from getting killed. It was a tougher task than anticipated.
I was too old, too sore, and frankly too irritated to ever put in the work of becoming an Underground champion. This was fucking hard!
The things I had going for me were stamina and an already good fitness regimen. But that was nothing when drilled down to the skill of a fighter.
We had decided that it was best to concentrate on surviving, not winning.
“Remember that your opponent is your height,” Rose landed a hit to my sternum, “With your wingspan.”
She kicked my inner thigh, and I grunted, almost falling to a knee.
“She will have an easier time than me,” Rose warned, barely breaking a sweat. “I’m out of shape.”
I groaned. She was pregnant only a few months ago. She was bouncing back just fine!
If she was out of shape, then I was going to fucking die. “You don’t seem to be struggling much.”
Rose smiled, stepping away in that bouncy fighter’s step, her fists up by her face. She was giving me time to catch my breath. I suspected she was being kind.
“Fighting in the octagon is not like fighting in the real world.” And now she’s trying to comfort me.Merde. “You have to learn to fight within the rules, just like it’s chess, or checkers, or cards.”
“I don’t recall getting this winded with cards.”
