“Ah, there’s finally a spark.” Hades sighs, her eyes alight. “Those who are left may tell you I was the only one with an army, but I wasn’t. They all dabbled. It’s just I had the most loyal servants, like Rook here.” She turns to him. “Why don’t you show her your true self, darling?”
He doesn’t budge, his expression blank.
“Well, go on,” she says. “We don’t have all night.”
Rook lets me go, and I’m too shocked to run. His eyes glaze over. For a moment, the air in front of him distorts, like a heat wave wafting off asphalt after a summer rain.
Then his edges sharpen again, and gone are his gray eyes. In their place are pits of darkness. Curved horns have sprouted from his head. Black veins run the length of his neck and forearms.
“Demon,” I whisper.
I shake my head, willing it to be untrue, but the evidence stands before me. Demons are hellhounds. And hellhounds are shape-shifters. What had my captor said? That all demons were beholden to a Titan?
“Rook…” I say, voice begging for it not to be true, but I know it’s useless.
He shape-shifted into human form and conned us. Conned me. All in the name of serving his Titan. He was never working for the Cult of Hades. Heisthe Cult of Hades.
“Did you really think,” Rook says, his voice resonant with demonic distortion, “that you just happened upon someone who was grieving a sibling, who wanted the same thing you did, who saw you like you wanted to be seen? Were you really that naive?”
He expects me to crumble, but he truly doesn’t know me if he thinks I’ll shatter just because he hurt my feelings.
As if I have those.
“One day,” I say, teeth gritted, staring in his fathomless eyes, “I’m going to destroy you.”
A corner of his mouth twitches. “Looking forward to it.”
“Now, now, children,” Hades says, smiling giddily. “Let’s not fight.”
“Oh, this isn’t fighting,” I say. “You’ll know when I’m fighting.” I let my eyes linger on Rook for a moment before turning back to Hades. “So what do you want?”
She blinks, confused. “What do I want?”
“Why are you here?”
“I was in hell,” she says, as though speaking to a small child. “Of course I would want to escape. I was kept there for millennia.”
I scoff. “For millennia, your little cult couldn’t figure out how to resurrect you, and it took me and my crew less than a month.”
Hades’s smile turns pitying. “There is so much you don’t understand. So much no one told you. Because they didn’t trust you. They didn’t see how intelligent and talented you are. It’s such a shame your potential has been wasted.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Is this the part where you ask me to join you?”
“I’m not asking.” She laughs softly to herself. “I’m going to raise an army, little necromancer. Orresurrectan army, I should say. And if you do that for me, you and your friends get to live.”
I can’t help it—my eyes flick to Rook, who stands tall in full demon regalia in the graveyard. I always saw my marks as weak and gullible. Pitiable. In some ways, deserving of their fate.
Turns out, I’m just like them.
“Think about it,” Hades says. “I’ll give you three midnights, and then I’ll come for you myself.”
The weight of everything hits me. Whatever happens next, it’s because of me. I brought Hades back. Whether I help her or not, it’s a sunk cost. The damage is already done, and I could protect Tolliver and the others while I’m at it.
But I know a con when I see one. At least, I thought I did. At any rate, I do know this: I can’t trust anyone. Especially the god of the underworld.
“I don’t need time to think,” I say. “I’m not going to help you with your zombie army or whatever. I’m good, thanks.”
She huffs through her nose, pressing her lips together. “Then you are of no use to me.”
