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“Yeah, about that—” I started, but Hades shook his head and interrupted me.
“When I said I didn’t want to see you, I meant it. I’m not going to listen to this.”
He closed the door in my face before I had a chance to finish, without even saying goodbye. I blinked at the door, stunned, but I shouldn’t have been surprised since it wasn’t the first time he’d been a dick to me.Asshole.
Anger replaced my shock, and it burned in my chest like an inferno. For a moment, I wondered if I should break down the door and storm inside—God knew I was strong enough by now to do something like that, to take Hades on, and it would be a fair fight too.
But what was the point? He was quite clearly not interested. Whatever he felt, whatever was inside of him, didn’t matter enough for him to act on it. So why should I? Why was I the one who kept trying to bring him out of his shell when he obviously didn’t want me?
So, instead of breaking down the door and picking a fight that would be the battle of the century, I turned around and stomped back toward my car. Why the fuck was I still trying? Why was I doing all of this when Hades just didn’t want to play along? I had Poseidon, Ares, and Apollo in my life. And Heracles would always be there for me.
I didn’t need someone like Hades. I was perfectly fine with the gods I had. And God knew they all treated me much better than Hades ever would. Persephone told me Hades was the key to this, how I’d never be able to overpower X without him. Maybe that was the reason I kept attempting to make it work with him. But Poseidon and Heracles both believed that I had what it took without him.
I was going to continue without Hades and his bullshit because I had what it took to defeat X. And with the gods at my back, I could figure something out, I was certain.
The hell with Hades.
Before I reached my car, magic rippled through the air, dancing on my skin, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and tried to march down my spine. I shivered and turned toward the magic as if turning my face into the wind.
The power danced like whispers all around me, a promise of death.
I’d died three times, and every time I’d come back to life, I’d been a lot more sensitive to magic than I had been before. Now that I was on my final life, magic spoke to me in a way it never had and when it did, I listened.
And I knew exactly what was going on. X was out there, and he was at it again, but there was no sign of Poseidon.
I followed the magic. When X killed innocent humans, devouring souls instead of sending them to the Underworld the way he should have, I wasn’t scared for my own life or worried I wouldn’t be able to defeat him. He’d promised to kill me if he found me again, and X hadn’t been making an empty threat. But I couldn’t just leave him to kill other innocents out of pure fear. Someone had to stop him, and I was the only one around.
Being the responsible one, I yelled over my shoulder. “Hades! Poseidon!” In case either was listening and understood I was calling for their aid, but when neither showed, I turned and tore after X.
I traveled through the streets on foot, aware I didn’t have any weapons on me—I only needed my bare fists to protect myself on to visit Hades if it came to blows between us as it had before—and the anger inside me was enough to fight with, I was sure. It was dangerous to be alone, but I had to see what was going on, even if I kept my distance. What good was I being a Lowe, a protector of humans, if I remained a coward hiding at home?
The magic grew more intense, so thick around me that it pushed into my throat whenever I tried to breathe. I called to my energy, but it rippled against this power. It felt as if I were being crushed beneath its weight.
Still, I walked on because what the hell was X doing? And when I turned the next corner, heading into a main road that led into Chicago, I spotted him. X had a woman pinned against the wall by his body, her fear so intense, I tasted it on the tip of my tongue. He looked horrifying—a dark devil with red eyes and menacing teeth licking his lips as if he were going to physically eat her.
Instead of biting her head off as I expected from the scene I was looking at, he mashed his lips against her mouth to kiss her. It was a kiss of death, disturbing to watch because I knew exactly what he was doing, and bile rose to my throat.
As I watched, X inhaled, and the woman’s soul left her body. I’d never witnessed this before—something like a silver shimmer that lost its color and beauty as it disappeared into X’s being. And as the soul left the human, her body became nothing more than a dried-out husk, drained of all its life force.
By the time X stepped back, the woman collapsed into a pile of dust that wafted into the wind. He didn’t even leave bodies behind for the authorities to find anymore. She’d be reported missing as everyone else was these days.
I had to stop him, but not alone. Except, I reminded myself, I’d grown more powerful this time and had the element of surprise over him again. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I sent a quick text to Ares and Poseidon.
A rage like nothing I’d ever felt before roared through me, my muscles flexing. I stepped forward and shouted, “You’ve killed your last human, asshole!”
X jerked toward me, and I didn’t hesitate. I unleashed my fury on him.
Moving with lightning speed, I hit him with my shoulder in the solar plexus before he could even blink. I expected him to fly backward because of my sheer power. But unfortunately, he was stronger now, too. Every time X consumed a soul, it made him powerful, and this time, X didn’t fly backward as I’d thought he would.
My body collided with his, my skeleton rattling, and I cried out.
“Well, now you’re in over your head, aren’t you?” he responded with a laugh, his voice raspy and thick. “I’m not going to let anyone else get involved in this. It’s going to be too much fun to do this, just you and me.”
“What do you mean?” I snapped, but he didn’t have to answer.
He emitted some kind of new magic I hadn’t felt before, magic that enclosed us in a bubble. I couldn’t feel anything out there, nothing other than X and his ability, and my need for retribution. He blocked me off from the rest of the world, and the gods wouldn’t know we fought. No one would.
Was this the power he used last time, when none of the gods had come to my rescue?
