Page 24 of Taming Winter

My rage reignited within my chest, and the flames of my flesh roared to life. Glowing purple embers flickered from my skin and caused Hermes to take a few steps back. "How fucking dare he!" I shrieked. I wasn't sure if I meant Apollo, or Thane for being foolish enough to get captured. It didn’t matter.

"To be fair, you put out the hit on Apollo's life—" Hermes was cut off by a fireball narrowly missing his head.

"I don't give a fuck what I did!" I snarled. I stood, leaving a bed of fire licking at the surface of my chair. The stone warped under the heat of my footsteps. "You should leave, Hermes."

His eyes widened, and he disappeared in a flurry of feathers that ignited in my embers.

With him out of my way, I prowled forward. The only sound was the roar of my inferno and the screaming of my own thoughts. It was time to collect my man and burn down anyone in my way.

CHAPTER 23

HADES

I took my first step onto the Underbridge, purple flames clinging to the sleek concrete. Dany and Lamia stood on either side of me, silent shadows to my fire. The groaning symphony of wraiths at my back melded into a chorus that floated into the land of the living on violent curls of wind. Their footsteps blended with mine in the sound of dull thunder as we moved to take the bridge that had held me from my true home. No longer.

Shouts echoed from the guards, the clang of their weapons sharp against the dull groan of my people. The same guard who approached our window when I last left my home rushed toward us, clanking with every awkward step. He stopped a few paces from me, his sword pointed at my chest. "Halt! Or we’ll use deadly force."

A sardonic smile tightened my lips. "So will I."

He smirked, and this mere human looked upon me with an air of contempt, as though I was merely a girl to be scolded. "You know his armor is covered in hydra scales. It's fireproof."

A laugh erupted from me, the sound resonating through my army with a dull cackle imitation that boomed like thunder. "Oh honey, but you are not."

I launched a violet fireball that hit him square in the chest. He was right, the fire did not cling to his armor. Instead, it grasped at the cerulean fabric joints and consumed it like acid. Screams of agony blossomed in the night air as the fire ate away at the slivers of exposed flesh and spread upward underneath his protective shell. The armor worked as the perfect insulator, trapping the flames against his flesh until the tinge of charred meat hit my tongue. The purple glow finally spread to his face, underneath the helmet that was designed to protect him from my fury. Then the screaming stopped.

The men beyond the soldier were frozen, the whites of their eyes glued on their fallen comrade I had burned to pork roast. Though they clung to their weapons, none of them dared to approach me next. Fear tinged the air, and I basked in it, letting my manic laughter spread unease through their ranks. I turned my attention to the two women beside me, my flames glowing off their satisfied expressions. "Kill them all."

"Gladly," Dany responded. Lamia nodded her agreement and unsheathed her scythe.

With that, we marched on the soldiers that had trapped me for a century.

Lamia and Dany rushed ahead. Though they held no powers of their own, centuries of training as my companions had made them ruthless fighters. It didn't matter if the soldiers managed to pierce them with blades or shoot them, they kept going, relentless in their pursuit of destruction. Death spread like ink in their wake. Any soldier who made it past them met my fire. Screams of agony at being burned alive ate away at the crisp evening air. Many of the sad saps jumped from the towering heights of the Underbridge into the churning black tide of the River Styx. The excited moans of my people below as they devoured those hapless souls echoed as the background to the screams.

A soldier leaped past one of his comrades that I had set ablaze to bury his sword to the hilt between my tits. His expression was that of a dog catching its tail. His eyes widened with shock, then with satisfaction. That was until I gripped his gauntlet until the hydra scales glowed violet. He screamed and thrashed against the blistering heat to no avail. I tore the weapon from my chest despite his best efforts to stop me. The steel melted into pools of molten iron that trickled over my fingertips and onto the concrete beneath us. I shoved my hands between his gorget and helmet and clutched his cheeks in a tight embrace. The melted steel fused to his flesh until flaps of skin fell from his cheekbones.

I loved the intimacy of his murder. Watching his eyes widen with terror, then agony as the heat of my rage burned him alive under my palms was the brutal sensation of ripping back my power, blood-soaked and all. I threw his lifeless corpse to the ground for my wraiths to devour, then licked my blood-and-iron-soaked hands. The metallic taste was foul, yet so satisfying.

Halfway across the mile-long bridge, the soldiers turned tail and ran. No matter, though. We would deal with them regardless. My friends returned to my side, stained scythes held at the ready. Wraiths clamored out of the gurgling mass of the River Styx below, desperate to reach their goddess. Me, I was their goddess. It was time to remind these fuckers who they were dealing with. Hundreds of new undead souls awaited us on the far side of the Underbridge, ready to join the horde of swirling darkness at my back. I stepped into Zone 8 with a shuddered breath of victory, then turned to my army.

Their semi-corporeal forms blended into a thick midnight purple mist that blocked the light of the setting sun. I raised my fiery arms, and silence enveloped them. "Leave the small homes alone and allow people the chance to flee. Other than that—” my expression darkened, and my people became restless at the change, “—destroy everything."

The air filled with the mournful bays of my undead army. They descended upon the Zone of Ares like a plague of locusts. A deep-rooted, cruel satisfaction blossomed in my chest until a toothy grin contorted my face. Oh yes, my family would rue the day they fucked with me.

When Zeus had first banished me to the Underworld, I had accepted his deceit with grace. Somehow, I had convinced myself it was for the better—I got my castle, and my people would be safe. Then he had taught the living to fear me. Sure, they worshipped me, but out of terror of an afterlife wrought by my vengeance. He had made me the creature that went bump in the night for his own benefit. I had accepted that, too. Best to take it and not make waves. He then sent an assassin to excuse trapping me in place. He had clipped my wings and chained me to near isolation with no hope of reprieve. It was supposed to be for my safety, so I hadn’t fought him. Then he blamed the blight on me, and I finally retaliated. Mostly to put an end to whatever conniving plan he had concocted, but also to remind my brother dearest that this monster had fangs.

Then they took him.

Thane had pulled my interest the moment he stabbed me. His icy personality had matched my fire in a perfect, twisted harmony. My sadistic side had purred to life with his existence. I wanted to claim him in ways that went against the very religion erected for me. He was mine, and they had taken him from me. For that, they would finally feel centuries’ worth of my rage.

Before me lay a city coated in rubble. The air was choked with ash and the sound of screams. People tore from Main Street, clutching valuables and running for their lives. I smiled at the terror. My people had done as I asked and focused their energy on the glistening ruby downtown skyscrapers. Hordes of wraiths plowed through the interiors of polished buildings and targeted the pillars holding the upper floors. There was no concern for their safety—perks of having an undead army. The light posts I passed were reduced to dust, the benches that once trimmed the street sat in incoherent balls of iron.

As I passed the main town square, a wave of sound like a crack of bone crashed upon us. I didn't need to look back to know a building was coming down. Euphoria gripped me by my throat and spread icy bliss through my body as dust and debris coated the world. Oh yes, they would know better than to take what's mine.

CHAPTER 24

THANE

My senses filled with a sterile, chemical scent and the drip of water. It felt as though a hammer had been taken to my skull, and my mouth felt like I had sucked on cotton. I opened my eyes and was met by a soft blue darkness. I groaned and attempted to wipe my sweat-slicked hair from my face, only to realize my arms were bound above my head. A ragged cough erupted from my chest. Based on the chain’s glow, I assumed my wrists were wrapped in the same Stygian iron I had brought to restrain Apollo. Oh, the irony. With the chains holding my power, there was nothing I could do to get out of this.