Page 26 of Hades is Mine

Chapter 11

Hades

The humans couldn’t feel power and magic. They weren’t omnipotent the way gods could be. So, they invented some kind of system that allowed them to broadcast what was happening in the world.

The news was something largely negative, in my opinion. It didn’t seem worth watching, but it wasn’t without its merits. There were days when I switched on the television and watched it just to distract myself from the noise in my own head. And sometimes the way the humans supported one another emotionally could be entertaining.

This time, when I switched on the television, the shows weren’t fun at all. In fact, it pissed me off. More humans were disappearing, the missing persons list in Chicago growing. It wasn’t death and destruction being broadcast—there was no proof of bodies being mutilated and ripped apart—but I still knew what was happening.

X was at it again, killing more and more humans to devour their souls, and it was getting out of hand.

The missing bodies were more than enough proof of that. And I was getting tired of this gig.

What also pissed me off was every time X did anything, the gods seemed to think I was to blame. I gritted my teeth, irritated with being pinned as the bad guy every single time. Yeah, sure, X was my shadow, the guy who came to take the souls when the thread of life was cut. But I was nothing more than the God of the Underworld. How was any of this my fault?

Of course, everyone thought I put him up to this, that I had set him free. As if I had the capacity to do that.

I was going to talk to him, to have it out once and for all.

Time for X to realize he was nothing without me. I was fucking king.

It wasn’t difficult to find him. The guy was shrouded in darkness wherever he went, even though none of the humans could pick up on it. His energy signature was crazy, numbing out all feelings and snuffing out all lights. Finding him meant following the patch where life didn’t exist.

X had set up some kind of hole for himself. It was on the edge of the city, and it looked more like a garbage dump inside a house than anything else. But there was a semblance of structure, and he sat on a large couch, his legs up and eyes closed.

I marched to him and kicked his feet off the edge of the couch. X looked different. Darker. Almost like one of the many monsters he used to send to Earth to kill humans. X didn’t look startled. He merely opened his red eyes and looked at me.

“I tasted your anger from a mile away,” he declared in a voice that sounded like metal scraping on concrete. “What do you want?”

“To stop all this shit. Why don’t you go back to the hole you crawled out from?”

He laughed, and the noise was like a rusted gate. “Right, because you coming here and telling me to stop is exactly what it will take to chase me away. Well done. I’ll pack my bags right now.”

X sat up so there was space for me to sit down, too. As if I was going to make myself at home in this shitty place.

“It’s the girl you’re worried about, isn’t it?” He chuckled. “That’s all this has ever been about. Don’t act like you give a shit about the humans I’m killing.”

“You’re disturbing the natural order of things. You’re taking over a job that doesn’t belong to you, and you’re disregarding the Fates. All of that is wrong.” I roared the words in his face.

He nodded. “You’re so right. I don’t give a fuck and neither do you. Admit it, Hades. I’m a part of you and the only thing you care about is that stupid girl. Let me save you the hassle…she’s not going to make it.”

“You don’t know that.” I balled my hands into fists, his words slicing through me more than they should. I could attack X right now, knock him down and sit on his chest, punching him until his face was a bloody pulp.

That wouldn’t help at all. Have you ever heard of someone beating up a devil? He wasn’t like the rest of us, not even like the rest of the gods. He was an entity of his own, and somehow the bastard had branched free from me.

“But I do know that,” X said, his mouth splitting into a menacing grin. “I’m ready to take her out. Every time she attacks me, her power leaves my skin covered in goosebumps. I’m aware of what she’s capable of, and she can’t increase her power the way I can. After I take a few more lives, I’ll have her right where I want her. She’s not going to make it out alive, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

An inferno raged inside my chest, spreading, swallowing me, and I was going to snap. It took everything I had not to physically attack X, but it would do nothing.

He looked at his wrist as if he had a watch on, as if he weren’t immortal. It was a ridiculous human gesture he must have seen from his victims. Was he being sarcastic, or had he really picked up their habits because he’d devoured so many of them?

“Look at the time,” he said. “Love our talks, but I’ve got to go. Reaping is such rewarding work, don’t you think? And I like to do it in the afternoons, you know? It just feels right.”

Before I could react, he disappeared.

Anger boiled deep inside me, hot as lava, and it churned, starved for destruction.

X was right.

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