Page 98 of Love and Death
“Hey,” he snaps, taking his first step toward me, “how did you know about the nightshade?”
“Lucky guess.”
“I don’t believe you.”
I scoff, “Fine. I read the note, and I smell it on you. Simple. Was it you? Should I force you through the gates to stop you causing her more grief?”
“No! No, you don’t understand,” he says, his breaths coming quicker.
“Understand, what?”
“I-I have to talk to her. I need to tell her something.”
I clench my teeth, frustration bristling the hairs at the nape of my neck. “What makes you think she is here anyway? Or even capable of talking to you?”
“She has to be, why else would you care about causing her more grief?”
I run a hand over my face, my head spinning.
I shouldn’t have let him get to me so easily.
The spice of Hades’ musk suddenly permeates the air, and I know there is no time left to argue with the boy.
“Fine, but move away from the gates,” I say in a low growl. “Stay on the bank and clear of the water, or you may never get a chance to talk to your sister, let alone move on.”
Grabbing both sides of the gate, I pull them shut with a loud, metallic clang, just seconds before the tree line gives way, and Hades storms out in all his blazing blue fury. Deimos appears right behind the king, his men marching out with him to fan out in a display of power.
Behind me, the dawn breaks across the sky to spill over my shoulders, bright and soft, as if I am not about to be torn apart for the last time. Still, I find comfort in believing that Hazel is out there, safe for now, as I steel myself for what I am about to face.
I grimace, bracing myself against the gate as exhaustion pulls at me like never before. I feel weak—powerless, but I have to fight.
I promised to buy her time, and I intend to … I just had not expected to need to buy it for myself, as well.
“Traitor,” Hades sneers, his voice bitter with poison, holding up a hand as he comes to a stop about a throne room’s length away.
I smile at him, feeling the blood coating my teeth. “So says the king who would trade the lives of his entire kingdom for power.”
“I will bring him to heel,” Deimos snarls, baring steel, but Hades waves a hand to stop him as he looks past me at the gate.
“Locked,” I confirm. “And the girl gone. Death with her.”
“Foolish beast,” Hades says, his eyes burning with cold hate, “you have no idea what you have just let slip out of our hands.”
“I have enough of an idea to know that it was better to let it slip away than hand it over to you.”
Hades’ hand drops at this, and they charge.
I leap forward, shifting full control to my beast as I slip into myself.
Dawn-kissed metal clashes like thunder against my teeth and claws. I rip through the first line—tearing a shield from one man’s arm, crushing another man beneath my heavy paw.
Deimos lunges, his blade nearly piercing into the same wound on my ribs. I roar, turning on him to bite hard into his arm, piercing his metal armor into his skin with my teeth before shaking and tossing him across the battlefield.
I am surrounded, fighting off the king’s men as hewatches and waits from a distance. Swords and spears pierce me before I can tear them away, but I will not go down easily. I will not give up, not until there is nothing left in me to give.
The fight is so intense that I do not notice that other gods and creatures have come to join me in battle until the swell lessons around me. Fiery determination rekindles in my chest at the sight, and I throw myself into battle with renewed strength.
Slowly, we push back on Hades’ army, and hope begins to rise within me.
