Page 65 of The Catacomb King
Elke. Elke’s face would not be able to hide the truth. I tried to seek her out, but I could hardly see anything, blocked as I was by Hades’s broad body.
Hades was still speaking to the Vizeking. His voice was low and authoritative, as of a royal speaking to a servant. “Besides, we have an agreement, you and I. I keep her until the end of the third day.”
“Mere hours away!”
Hades settled back against the wall. His posture was nonchalant, but he was almost crushing me. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll sacrifice her early —ifmy father attends the ceremony.”
I was pinned. I could not have been angrier. Or more scared.
I couldn’t believe it, but Hades hadusedme. He had made me think he liked me, he had comforted me after Mackr’s death, he had shown me the waterfall, he had fetched me an army, he had pressed his lips against my lips until my whole neck and face and palms were hot, and all of it had been a lie. He had always been going to feed me to the Monarch. Just as soon as I did what he wanted with the reservoir.
If I could get my hands free, I would wrap them around his fucking neck.
“Your father is very busy,” said the Vizeking coldly. “As you know. He has no time for petty rituals.”
“Certainly he does not,” said Hades. “On the other hand, this isn’t really a petty ritual, is it? It’s not like, I don’t know,the blessing of the holiday feast.Thisis communion with our ancestor.Thisis satiating the god’s appetite.Thistakes place only every twenty-five years. Twenty-six, now. Could anything be more important, even to the King, than service to the Monarch?”
Hades had backed the Vizeking into a corner.
The crowd was silent. The lackeys were silent. Mackr’s brother was the most silent of all.
Reluctantly, the Vizeking said, “I see your point. I will… speak with His Majesty.”
“Great.”
“In the meantime, you are to cease building this atrocity.”
“Oh, no, no, no. Like I said, we have another half-day. Unless you can get my father out early.Thenwe’ll stop. And we’ll go to the Lake.”
The Vizeking quivered with rage. But he said nothing. After a moment, he and his lackeys swept off.
The instant they were gone, Elke shrieked, “Your Lordship, you can’t!”
But Hades had already seized me. He was hauling me away while the godlings goggled.
We passed Mackr’s dead brother. More blood on my hands. But I couldn’t focus on that. I was biting Hades, scratching him. He was dragging me along, undaunted. Back to his bedchamber, where I’d be trapped behind that metal door like money in a vault.
Only…
I couldn’t be sure, especially because I was fully preoccupied with trying to rip Hades’s face off, but I thought maybe we were going the wrong way.
We were rising.
And just as I figured that out, we burst into daylight again. Not out the cliffside this time, but onto the grassy land overthe underworld, the land upon which I had stepped a hundred times.
I could see the border to the Lümerlund from here.
The emerald grass was dotted with bloodred edenica herbs, the colors almost intolerable after two and a half days in darkness. The dew glittered. The sun shone. The shadow of the Mountain slashed across the landscape.
After so long without daylight, seeing the sun twice in one day was badly disorienting. I almost wanted to go back underground.
Hades found his footing on the grass and set me down. I was so confused I almost fell. Precious seconds lost, seconds I could have spent running.
“Don’t go anywhere,” Hades said.
“Fuck you,” I spat. I took off like a shot. He grabbed the back of my skirts and yanked me back. I shrieked.
“Sorry,” he said. He let go but caught hold of my wrist instead. “I had to grab either that or your corset strings, and I don’t think you could afford to have those strings tightened any more.”
