Page 59 of Bride of Death
Not outside of my dreams, anyway.
Yet it doesn’t matter how many times I say it. Hades didn’t believe me at all. He just kept accusing me of playing a game.
“What did she do?” I say again, only voicing it as a question. “What did Persephone do?”
“Don’t ask me for details, as I don’t know them. However, I know…” Maliki trails off for a moment, his gold eyes seeming to lose some of their light. “I just know that Persephone helped her mother annihilate all of Omega kind. And how she did that had something to do with using and betraying Hades.”
I gape at him. “What?”
He shrugs. “As I said, I don’t know more than that.”
“But I do,” an accented voice murmurs from several paces away.
An accent that sounds like Hades, only more regal somehow. Less deep, yet still very much in charge.
“Morpheus,” I whisper.
“In the flesh,” the God of Dreams replies, his shoulder bracing against my front entry as the door hangs open. He clearly let himself in yet hasn’t stepped over the threshold. “After I’m done handling Maliki, I would be more than happy to elaborate on exactly what Persephone did to Hades.”
My eyes widen. I almost completely forgot what Maliki had done to Morpheus with the slug venom outside.
It’s like Hades wiped my memory the moment he arrived, grounding me solely in the reality of his dominance and commanding presence.
One of the final things he told me was to stay away from Morpheus.
“Don’t earn a worse punishment for yourself by making poor decisions.”
I shiver, Hades’s threat haunting my mind. He was angry. So,soangry. I could feel it in every breath I took in his presence, the fury pouring off him in hot waves that threatened to drown me.
“Sera,” Maliki says, his serious tone pulling me from my thoughts. “As furious as Hades may be at your soul, he will never hurt you.”
I swallow, unnerved by how well he seems to have read my mind.
Or maybe his comment is a response to my trembling.
I… I can’t seem to stop.
Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s getting worse.
My soul helped someone annihilate all of Omega kind.
How does one reconcile that?
Can I even proclaim my innocence? I wasn’t there. I didn’t do it. And yet, I possess the spirit responsible for the crime.
Which is why Hades plans to punish me.
How? What will he do?
“Serapina,” Morpheus murmurs, a strange sort of vibration underlining his accented voice. It continues long after he speaks, the sound seeming to seep into my skin to soothe my quivering.
It’s… it’s so hypnotic. Strangely comforting. A rhythmic hum I feel through every inch of my being.
My eyes begin to close, only to open when I feel a hand on my arm. Maliki stares down at me, concern etched into his features. “Hades is a stubborn asshole,” he tells me. “But I meant what I said—he won’t hurt you. It’s not in his nature to do so.”
“He’s right,” Morpheus says, that alluring vibration growing as he nears me. “Alphas are driven to comfort and protect Omegas, not harm them.”
The reverberations seem to be emanating from his chest. “What is that humming noise?” I ask, a bit dazed by the conflicting sensations rolling through me.
