Page 20 of Taming Winter

WOLFE

Hades walked purposefully ahead of me. "It's in a box over here, give me a moment.”

The armory was impressive. Slick black walls were laden with weaponry ranging across the centuries of Hades’s life and beyond. I admired a scimitar with a weathered leather hilt. It wasn't as ornate as its neighbors, but its worn edge claimed a history of battle.

"Here it is." Hades returned with an ornate gold box in her gloved hands. She placed it on a nearby table and stepped away. "You'll have to open the box; I can't touch it."

My curiosity piqued. I lifted the golden lid, the box's unused locking mechanism opening with a roughened creak. Inside was an unassuming chain made of thick black iron. Except, there was a faint purple shimmer reminiscent of Hades’s flames. Unease spread through me at the greasy, bone-chilling aura radiating off the metal. I grimaced and forced myself to pull the chain from the box.

The metal was cold, though it felt right in my icy fingers. My frost seeped into the metal, and the aura blazed a rich indigo. I glanced from the chain to Hades. Her eyes were pinned to it as though it might bite her. "It's Stygian iron. It absorbs the power of the user and renders the power of those who come into contact with it useless. You won't be able to kill Apollo with it, but you can bind him. The metal burns immortals like acid."

"You would burn if this touched you?" I asked, surprised that she would give me such an opportunity.

Hades’s eyes narrowed. "Yes."

"I gave up on hurting you," I said with a chuckle. Not that striking her would do much good; she would retaliate more pissed and vengeful than ever. The thought spread a smile across my lips. I moved the chain between my palms to gauge the weight and malleability. It had a good weight, so a strike to the head should allow me enough time to bind him.

"Why?" she asked.

I blinked, surprised by the question. I had hated Hades. Somewhere in the pit of my gut I still resented the goddess that had tortured me, but my fury had fizzled to a low simmer. There was an inevitability to our collision that made me wonder if we could truly fight this, or if I had cursed our souls to crash into each other for an eternity the moment my blade buried into her skull.

It was as though I was built for her, destined to entwine our existences and become her perfect soldier. I had always been a dog of death, there was no reason to change now. Even my undeniable attraction, or how our twisted pleasures clicked, proved we were meant to be. Maybe she was meant for me too, as the fire to my ice, the pitch to my black. Either way, I didn't want to fight her anymore. There was no way to share that with the woman burning me from the inside out with those blazing emerald eyes.

"Because we are inevitable," I said finally, trying to minimize the revelation with a shrug of my shoulders.

Silence followed my statement for what was certainly an eternity, and thanks to Hades, I had a good idea what that felt like. It wasn't an awkward silence, but it held the weight of words unsaid; something that had become familiar between us.

Finally, Hades cut the silence with the click of her stilettos against the obsidian floor. She stopped in my periphery, where she hovered with her arms crossed. "You asked about Zeus last night. Let me tell you."

A shuddering breath cut through her words and sank into my undead heart. "Our parents thought us freaks and abandoned us when we were still children, so I only had my brothers. Zeus, being the oldest, took care of Poseidon and me. He always seemed larger than life, and I worshipped him. He was going to bring us into the starlight and make sure we had everything we ever wanted. My power felt like a curse, but he promised people would worship me. For an impressionable girl, the idea was everything. By the time I realized I was in the way of his quest for power, it was too late. He trapped me in the Underworld and made me the villain to the masses, and there was nothing I could do. Then you came along, and he put bars on my cage, chaining me here forever."

She rolled her shoulders as though discarding the weight of her words. "I was a naïve little girl, and he took advantage. Seeing him reminds me of my weakness, and it infuriates me. Especially now. I promised myself I would never trust another man, but now you’re worming your way into my heart. It makes me want to end you before you hurt me."

There was a vulnerability in her scorching gaze that made me pause. I dropped the chain on the countertop and reached for her hand. Flames licked across her flesh, but they snuffed at my icy contact. "I can't hurt you, Master. You own me."

"You’ll always look for a way out. I'll never trust you, Wolfe,” she snarled.

She was right, I had told her as much myself. She would be a complete fool to trust me. Even now the echoes of my torture rang through my mind, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. She had hurt me, and I couldn’t forgive her so easily. However, I had started our deadly tango, and I just wanted it to stop. "We could change things."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

"I've been a hired assassin my entire life. I could do that for you willingly, if you gave me the opportunity to."

She reared her head and glared at me, her next words coming in a sharp snarl. "I am not that foolish."

"This is not about foolishness, it's about trust. Can you trust me enough to loosen the leash?"

I fought against the tension in our touch to pull her closer to me, and despite the affront in her eyes and the stiffness in her shoulders, she didn’t resist. "You’re suffocating me, Hades. And I know that's what you wanted before, but we could be more than that. I could be more for you. Wouldn't it be better to have a warrior who was truly loyal to you, contract or not? Someone at your side rather than under your foot?"

"That is impossible," she hissed.

"I see how your friends look at you. They treasure you. Lamia and Dany would support you regardless of their contracts. Why should I be any different?" I retorted.

"Because you're like them!" She yanked away from me and thrust a finger at the wall. Though her decorated nail pointed to a mace, I understood. She was pointing west, to Olympiara—to her brother. I stepped after her, but she evaded me. The room heated with her anguish, and purple flames flickered like sequins over her gown. "You tried to kill me to satisfy the evil in your bones and to line your pockets! I had done nothing to you! I spend my life doing what I can to give the dead peace, but you saw nothing but a cockroach to be squashed."

Silence spread in the wake of her tsunami words, because what was there to say? She was right. I hadn’t stopped to consider the life I was ending in the many hours I spent planning and executing her death. To be fair, I never did. I took life without apology and moved on.

Then it came to me. I stepped toward her again, choking down my fear of her raging inferno. Pain at her hand would be sweet anyway. "There are a lot of things I could say to you. I could explain that I was just following orders, or that I knew nothing else." I kneeled, the chilled floor lancing through me in a way that felt right. "None of it matters. I hurt you, and I am sorry."