‘Nothing.’
His eyes narrow. ‘Where were you?’
‘Goodnight, Hades.’
‘You were with the spirits, weren’t you!’ For a moment he sounds excited to have figured it out. Then his expression darkens. ‘I told you not to go and see them. Now look at you – they’ve dragged you down just as I knew they would. Why would you go there when I told you –’
‘Will you shut up?’ I snap. ‘I don’t care what you told me.’
‘Well, you should. You look dreadful and it’s precisely because you did the one thing I told you not to do.’ He’s not even raising his voice and it’s enough to make me want to scream.
‘I’m fine,’ I hiss.
‘You aren’t fine – what was it? A starved peasant? Some murdered child?’
I shouldn’t be surprised any more but I step back with the shock of it. I’d prepared for his indifference, not his callousness.
‘What is the matter with you?’ I demand. ‘How can you just so casually mention those things?’
‘Ahh – so the child?’
‘Fuck you.’
Every inch between us suddenly becomes tangible, the distance the only thing keeping me from trying to tear his eyes out.
Hades has the audacity to laugh. ‘My, my, now this is more like it. Kore of the flowers showing her thorns.’
‘Is this all just a game to you?’
‘Darling, what else would it be?’
Bastard. All that sadness and pain morphs into a rage so hot it’s all I can do not to scream – and then I can’t stop it all. ‘Is this what you do?’ I yell. ‘See all the pain and anguish and laugh at it? Then come back up to your palace and just sit and readyour scrolls and feast on the food they grow for you? What a petty existence.’
I’m no longer leaning against the door to support myself but halfway across the atrium.
‘Excuse me?’ he scoffs but his facade is crumbling, irritation clipping sharp corners into his words.
‘You like to pretend you’re different, sitting down here instead of up there with the rest of them. Smiling to yourself that you’re better than the Olympians – and for what? So you can ignore the world you’ve created just like they do? So you can jeer at the humans and revel in the righteousness of being a god? You arrogant arsehole, name one way you’re superior.’
Hades laughs but it’s weaker, forced, and then he drops the veneer of his amusement altogether. He takes a step towards me and tendrils of smoke reach out menacingly, clawing even closer. ‘Please, Kore. Your very name means “naive”. Let’s not pretend you have any idea how the world works. Why don’t you go plant some more flowers and stick to what you know?’
But I’m too far gone to stop now. ‘You’re supposed to be one of the greats, one of the originals stolen by Kronos! You were gifted an entire realm. You’re supposed to be powerful and this is what you do with that power?’ I snipe, almost breathless with anger. ‘It’s pathetic, Hades.Youare pathetic.’
His eye twitches and he takes another step. He’s right in front of me now, drawing himself up and growling words with such venom he can barely get them out. ‘You spend your whole life on an island, swallowing your father’s lies and –’
‘So either you’re a truly and deeply hideous person,’ I shout right into his face, his efforts to intimidate me only incensing me more, ‘or you’re just terrible at your job.’
‘Cutting,’ he jeers. ‘Your insults need work, my dear.’
By the Fates, I want to break him.
‘You don’t deserve a thing you’ve been given,’ I spit. ‘Maybe someone should take it from you.’
‘You dare,’ Hades seethes, his words deathly quiet and icy cold, clashing with the fire of my rage, ‘challenge me in my own halls.’
His hand shoots out towards my face and I don’t hesitate. My sickle is pressed flat against his throat.
I’m shaking. I have been angry before, so angry I thought I could tear the Earth apart with my bare hands. But this is the first time I have truly felt I could hurt someone.
