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Hadria gives a sniff. "You have a perfectly good name in Aurora. Still…" She brushes a chaste kiss to my forehead. "It's true, you've brought a little sunshine into Elysium."
"Hadria," I say quickly, catching her hand before she turns away, "may I ask for something?"
"Anything."
"My mother…I'd like to see her again. Please."
She thinks for only a moment before nodding. "I did say she would be allowed to visit. Not your father, mind—and if Sylvia thinks she can bring him along again?—"
"She won't," I say, though I have no idea at all whether she will. But I don't think it was her decision to bring him along last time, either. "Thank you," I add, and press a kiss to the palm of her hand, the scent of my own excitement still faintly on it.
Hadria's other hand strokes over my hair, and then she's gone, a lithe shadow disappearing into the night. Alone once more, I sink back into the cool grass and bring my hands to my face, inhaling Hadria's scent now, trapped on my skin again.
And doubt winds its thorny vines around my heart.
This fragile thing blooming between us is undeniable. And part of me wants to give into it, to stay here, a princess locked away in a tower, and enjoy all the things that Elysium—that Hadria—has to offer.
But that part of me is theoldpart, the weak little girl who shrunk away from any conflict. I've changed in my time here. I can fight, now. I can shoot.
I can kill…probably. If I have to.
But my heart isn't yet the stone I wish it was. I still have more work to do—more plans to make—if I'm going to snatch my freedom for myself.
And maybe my mother can help.
CHAPTER 24
Hadria
The next night,I sit enthroned in my chair on the raised dais at the far end of the war room. I'm early tonight, alone before anyone arrives, and I stare unseeing at the heavy oak table. My thoughts drift to Aurora, as they so often do these days.
How completely things have changed between us, in ways I could not have predicted when I first brought her here. That day she was a trembling fawn dragged away by a lion. Now she walks the corridors and grounds of Elysium with her head held high.
Yes, she's come a long way from the delicate, wraith-like girl I first laid eyes on in her parents' living room. And I've fulfilled my promise to her, to strengthen her, to remake her.
So why does her transformation fill me with disquiet?
Last night in the garden, I noticed again the hollows under her eyes that no amount of rest seems able to banish. She still takes delicate bites of her meals, as though her stomach has shrunk too small to want full nourishment. Her skin has lost the radiantglow it held when first she came here. She's still beautiful, but it's a colder beauty now, pale and remote as the moon.
Not so sunny these days.
But she's everything I aimed to shape her into, so why does victory feel so hollow?
"Well, if it isn't my favorite crime lord brooding on her throne," drawls a familiar voice, and I look up to see that Lyssa is standing there at the foot of the dais, an insolent grin on her lips. There are very few who would dare approach me with such casual irreverence, but Lyssa knows damn well she will always get away with it.
"What's got you frowning like that?" she goes on, leaning on the arm of my chair. "You'll scare all the new recruits away if you keep making that face."
I raise an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware I employed so many cowards. Perhaps I should reconsider their positions."
"Oh come on, don't be like that." She wanders down to the table and hops up on the edge of it, ignoring my glare. "I'm just saying you've seemed...distracted lately. Distracted and conflicted. Very unlike the Hades I know."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I say dismissively. "I'm focused on the work, as I always am."
"Mmhmm." Lyssa fishes a switchblade from her pocket and begins casually cleaning her nails with it. "This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain captive turned protégé, would it?"
"Aurora is an asset, nothing more. Her contributions to the Syndicate's operations have proven useful, that's all. And she saved my damn life, Lyssa. I won't forget that in a hurry."
"An asset." Lyssa repeats my first words skeptically. "So those drippy looks I've seen you giving her, the private meetings in the garden…that's all just business, is it?"
