Page 118 of Raising Hell
“Yes and no. Mostly, I’m trying to give you something to look forward to. If you’d rather not—”
His lips captured mine, and he pressed his hand against my backside so I could feel how very much he wanted what I’d suggested.
“Tell me what you will do to me,” he rasped when his mouth finally left mine.
My face ignited with heat as I stumbled through the words. I didn’t have the experience to make my description sexy, but he didn’t seem to care based on his erratic breathing and the way he kept kissing my neck.
“We’re here,” Zotera said.
Hades’ breathing and kissing became more frenzied.
“Don’t open the door,” he panted. “All will be lost.”
He knew. On some level, he knew exactly what we’d find in that room.
I ran my fingers through his hair, but it didn’t soothe him as it had before. And his panic started to rub off on me. What if we were making a mistake? What if I forced him to go in there and the thin hold he had on his sanity snapped? What if pushing the truth was what broke the world?
Yet, not knowing the truth might be just as dangerous. Even if the God of Death wasn’t trying to kill me, there was still Persephone herself. I still had that niggling fear that I’d somehow woken her too.
“I’m just as afraid as you are,” I said. “Do you remember your promise to keep me, Ashlyn, safe?”
“A contract paid for with a kiss,” he said as the script flared brightly just over his shoulder.
“There are no consequences listed,” Zotera said from behind him, reminding us that she was still there. “You need to amend this. If Mother is hurt by your hand or another hand that you should be able to control, everything will revert to the way that it was, and my skin will endlessly be flayed from my body for the next century while Father watches.”
“What? No!” I said, grabbing his shoulder to try to see the words myself. “I read them.”
Hades shuddered in my arms and lowered me to my feet.
“Zotera is wise, my love. If you are hurt by my hand or by the hand of another under my control, the consequence is that I must suffer greatly. And I cannot think of anything that would bring me more pain than watching Zotera suffer.” He stepped back so he could look at her too. “Thank you, daughter, for reminding me of my responsibility. Mother’s safety above all else.”
Zotera nodded, her face pale as she glanced at me.
She nodded toward the door as Hades’ gently stroked my cheek.
I looked up at him, trying to memorize the loving look on his face as I reached for the latch behind me.
“Thank you for helping me be less lonely,” I said.
The latch lifted easily, and the door swung silently open as I stepped to the side, revealing a familiar torchlit room with the same stuffy scent I remembered.
Hades’ gaze shifted to the room, and a tortured moan escaped his lips. He stumbled a few steps inside and fell to his knees. I took one step toward him, but Zotera caught my arm. I followed both their gazes to the bed where Persephone remained a dusty pile of bones.
“Mother,” Zotera whispered.
Heart aching, I wrapped my arms around her bare torso and hugged her.
“I remember,” Hades whispered brokenly. “I remember everything.”
His head dropped forward.
“I’d bled. I’d begged. I’d done everything she’d asked of me, yet she continued to withhold my due. She said she would rather die than surrender herself to me one more time. I didn’t believe her. Gods don’t die. When she summoned me, I thought—”
He groaned and looked at the end of the bed.
“I went willingly into the shackles, prepared to suffer for her pleasure. But she took no knife to me.”
He turned his head to look at an empty dish on the dusty table by the lounge.
