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They started at the same time.
She looked away. “You are not going to harm him, are you?” she finally asked.
Hades’ mood instantly darkened. “You know nothing about what he did.”
“I do! I understand. But this is madness.”
Hades turned away. “I am not going to discuss this.”
“Please, just let them go.”
Hades turned to her sharply and narrowed his eyes. “Would you? Will your brother let me simply walk knowing what I did to you today?”
Her cheeks colored deep red. “He won’t find out. And you didn’t do anything, I was willing.”
“And what if you die here? What if something happens here and you die? Will your brother forgive that?” he roared.
Eloise swallowed and straightened her spine. “Would Ava want you to hurt him?”
Only monsters kill. He shook his head. “Ava is dead.”
“Would Ava forgive you for hurting a man that she had some regard for?”
“He is a pathetic excuse for a man! How any woman can feel anything but disgust toward him is beyond me. She was young. Indiscriminate in her passions.” He paused. “Just like you.”
“What?” Her question was more of a breath.
Hades swallowed. He needed to make her understand. He didn’t deserve her touch. He was a beast, a monster. The devil himself.
“Ava could not have known who was good enough to touch her and who wasn’t. I didn’t teach her, and in that, I have failed. She was innocent. And so are you. I am not fit to touch you.”
Her lips trembled as she asked, “Shouldn’t I be the one to decide that?”
“No!” Because if he let her, she would steal his heart. And nothing good ever happened to the women who possessed his heart.
“No?” Eloise fisted her hands at her sides. “For all your talk about freedom and this place being a sanctuary, it really is a prison, isn’t it?”
“It is a sanctuary for people who have never seen anything beyond hell. But for women like you, this placeishell.” Hades turned on his heel and walked toward the door. He paused with a hand on the door handle and turned his head. “What happened between us today… It is never to repeat again.”
* * *
Eloise woke up in her bed and shivered. The weather was cold, and there wasn’t enough fire in the hearth to warm the entire room. It was probably because most of the wing was not lived in, so the floor was ice cold. To top it off, the weather had turned unpleasant, and it started storming that night when Keyon had left her in her room, ominously promising to never bother her again. He had kept his word for the next two days.
Those two days Eloise had spent in agony, not knowing if he would ever come to her again if she would ever see him again. This thought should not have been on her mind with so many things going on, but she couldn’t help herself.
She wondered, also, if Keyon had been right. If perhaps she was not experienced enough in her passions to differentiate between men she wanted and men she should stay away from. But she had never wanted anyone before in her life. At least, not the way she wanted Keyon. She wanted him with her entire body and soul. It was carnal want, but it was a desire to fill the complete emptiness in her heart, too. What was happening to her?
Another thing preoccupied her mind: Helen and her husband. After that night, the guards had barely left to use the privy. They stood there as soldiers and eyed Eloise suspiciously every time she passed by.
She could not speak to Helen, and nobody would tell her if she was well, or if she was even fed. Their lips were shut regarding the prisoner in the dungeon, too. Verity was not allowed next to her without supervision, either. Now it really felt as though she was a prisoner.
The only thing left to Eloise was to pray to God that Ford would get here in time. In time to save Eloise, Helen, and Helen’s husband. Had Ford understood Eloise’s hidden message? Had he even read the note?
With the hell burnt, it might be easier for him to get to the secret passage. And if so, he could arrive any minute now.
There was a flutter in the pit of her stomach at the thought, and not a pleasant one. It was the kind that warned her that if she left this place, she’d be leaving something important behind.
Eloise unhurriedly performed her morning ablutions, trying to think of ways she could dissuade Keyon from keeping Helen and her husband prisoner. She wanted to help him let go of the pain and the need for revenge, but it was extremely hard to do when he was nowhere to be found.
