AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Cheers resounded through the masses, salivating demons giving chase.
Rathbone turned his attention to the female, noting her features. Tangled sable hair, pale skin, and crystal blue eyes filled with tears. His chest clenched. A cut on her forehead dripped blood over one dainty cheek. Dirt streaked the rest of her. The imperfections did little to detract from her fragile beauty.
Her gaze darted, as if she searched for a rescuer. When she met Rathbone’s stare for a mere heartbeat, desire struck him like a blow, snatching the air from his lungs. He stiffened as fierce yearning coursed through every nook and cranny of his body. In an instant, raw hunger threatened to whip him into a frenzy. A reaction he hadn’t experienced since...ever. Yet it was the emotions that caught him off guard. Wonder. Hope. Desperation. Without a taste of this female, could he honestly claim to have lived at all?
Other males seemed to experience the same phenomenon. Aggression thickened the air. Growls blended with panting breaths. Many demons stroked themselves, uncaring who watched.
“I should speak with her,” Rathbone said, all but foaming at the mouth for such an opportunity. “I have questions, and she could have answers.”
“Yes, I’m sure that’s the reason you must speak with her.” Hades’s tone dripped with wry humor. “Do us both a favor and walk away from this female.”
The mere thought twisted his insides into knots. The strongest reaction he’d ever experienced in his lifetime. “Leave her in her tormentor’s care? Your cruelty is showing, Uncle.”
“I know. So why isn’t yours? You don’t have time for this.”
True. Rathbone had one obsession and it was acquiring the perfect kingdom. But. He also didn’t like seeing a female harmed.
His brow furrowed with confusion. He didn’t? Since when?
“I can take a few minutes to save this poor creature,” he stated.
“That so called poor creature doesn’t need your help,” Hades replied. “She’s a Greek goddess of desire.”
A goddess? Of desire? Rathbone peered at the prisoner with new eyes, riveted. A prize among prizes. The male who won a beauty such as her would be envied beyond measure.
She tripped over her own feet and fell, crashing into the cobblestone road. As merciless as the rumors suggested, Styx continued on, dragging her behind him. Though she fought to rise, she proved too weakened. Pained moans escaped her.
Hades shook his head, radiating pity. “Greek deities never leave something better than they found it. This female will wreck you.”
Wreck him? Hardly. “Weare Greek deities.”
“Exactly. But fine. Go this route. I’ll let you figure out the truth on your own.”
Hands curling into fists, Rathbone struggled not to spring into action.Hold. Such unplanned impulsiveness could only lead to his downfall as well as hers. “Go to the palace. Learn what you can. I’ll stay here with the king.”
“The king. Right. I suppose these aren’t needed anymore then.” Hades yanked his arms apart, the chains breaking in two. With little effort, he tore through the metal wrist cuffs, one then the other. Rather than continuing to display his identity to the masses, he pulled his cloak’s hood over his head, bathing his familiar face in shadows. “Just know you owe me extra for this. I expected a fun uncle-nephew day, a real bonding experience.” He vanished.
Rathbone set off, too, following the royal procession to the town square, noting everything at once. From the number of demons present to the type of weapons hidden beneath their clothing.
Styx climbed atop a dais where a trio of torture devices waited. A stock, a chopping block, and a spiked pole. The sovereign strapped the female to the post.
“I don’t deserve this,” she cried, her tears spilling over her cheeks. The salty liquid mixed with the blood dripping from her brow to her chin. “I did nothing but tell you the truth, Styx. I don’t love you the way you love me. I just want to leave. Why do you wish to keep me? Why won’t you let me go?”
“She lies,” the sovereign bellowed, slapping her. Growls brewed in Rathbone as blood trickled from a fresh cut on her lip. “She came to me. Bartered her body for my protection. I accepted, only to learn she’s a traitor seeking to steal my kingdom for her own.”
For several heartbeats, silence blanketed the land. Then someone laughed and others joined in. Everyone viewed his protests for what they were: a hollow attempt to appease his masculine pride. This fragile fluff steal a kingdom of the Underworld? Hardly.
A vein pulsed in the center of the king’s forehead. With a rough huff, he snatched a cat-’o-nine-tails from a hook on the pole and whipped the demons in range of the dais. The collection of tethers slapped each soldier across the face, slicing through skin, scales, muscle, and even bone. High-pitched screams blended with a new round of laughter.
Styx stomped behind the female, who flinched and gagged at the gruesome sight before she scanned the crowd. Her crystalline gaze slipped over Rathbone once more only to snap back and widen. Did she sense his strength?
“Help me,” she beseeched him. “Please.”
Everything inside him screamedyes!
“Yo! Rathbone. Stop lazing, big guy, and wake up.”
He frowned. That voice. Feminine, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. Familiar. Arousing. Embers of fire kindled.
