Page 41 of The Catacomb King
Hades resolutely did not blink. His eyes were shining. “It’s not his fault. My father is… very much of the Monarch.”
“But it’s not fair for him to think less of you just because you look and act human.”
“No, that isn’t what I mean.” His voice was stiff. The wordsAlthough that’s true, toowent unsaid. “What I mean is, I think my father… like the Monarch, like many of our people… they don’t have human bodies, and they also don’t have human hearts. I’m not saying that lack is a bad thing, or a fault. We would say that the opposite is true, that it’s bad to feel too much, to be too sentimental. And then, on the other hand, you have people like me and Elke. It would be said of us that wedohave human hearts. Sometimes, we can’t help being sentimental. But my father… he can always help it.”
We were quiet.
Every muscle in my body screamed to reach out to him. To touch him on the arm, to try offering him, even, a tentative hug. But I did not. I did not touch him at all. He was right: He was my evil kidnapper, and he was not entitled to my mercy.
I still couldn’t help feeling bad for him, though.
Perhaps that was my human heart.
“You respected our customs,” he said suddenly. “That’s why I was staring at you in the graveyard before. I had told you to be respectful of the dead, and you were.”
“Yeah, because I’m not a fucking nightmare.”
“That’s up for debate,” Hades deadpanned. “But I was previously under the impression that such behavior was not, er, common from the tributes.”
“Maybe that’s because you kidnap them and so they don’t owe you shit.” But what he’d said made me think of Elke. “Elke said something like that, too. She was surprised that I couldpronounce some of your words.” I struggled to remember them properly. “Gestörbunlund, chaosgötten, Lümerlund.”
Hades sucked in his breath.
The sound went straight to the heat between my legs. I felt my throat seize mid-swallow.
For a long time, neither of us moved.
I don’t know what possessed me to whisper again, even softer: “Gestörbunlund, chaosgötten, Lümerlund.”
“Stop,” Hades begged suddenly, huskily. “Please.”
We stood side-by-side at the edge of the graveyard. My vision had gone hazy with desire. How fucking mortifying. But the thought that I could make a prince make that sound, just by pronouncing some words in his language…
His body, beside mine, was as still and hard and hot as metal in a forge. Somehow I knew instinctively that if I touched him he would melt.
The spider-husks rustled. Our bodies didn’t move. Our arms remained a quarter-inch apart, not a hair further, no closer. Heat filled the scant space between our bodies. I was so acutely aware of that space, I could have marked it on a ruler.
After a long time, he cleared his throat and rasped, “Are you done with your map?”
I had forgotten about the map. I was still clutching it in my hands. This felt insane to me. “Yes,” I answered, my voice barely above a whisper.
He bowed his head. The motion shifted his body toward me the barest amount. “I will return you to work, then, goddess.”
That stupid fucking nickname almost made me sway into him. But I controlled myself. He was my kidnapper. He was starving me. He’d kill me if I didn’t do what he wanted. I had no excuse for being such an idiot.
Except that the way he’d inhaled when I’d spoken those words in his language made me feel, somehow, likeIhad kidnappedhim.
“Take me back to the bedchamber,” I said. I cleared my throat. “To work.”
He bowed his head. He shifted away entirely, and cold air rushed in to fill the space where he had been. I rubbed my arms.
He did not pick me up this time. This time, we both walked.
The Second Day
Back in the bedchamber, Hades left me with my rough hand-drawn map and an uneven, poorly notched strip of glass, which was what served for a ruler in this godsforsaken place. He went to marshal his team of workers. The next day, we would begin construction.
I had now been in the underworld for, I thought, perhaps just under half a day.
