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Mais’ smile widened, her eyes glittering with malice. “Of course you don’t. The Dark King wouldn’t want his precious little plaything to know what’s coming.”
“What prophecy?” I managed to ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
She straightened, her expression growing more serious, more menacing. “The prophecy that says the Dark King will gain ultimate power by sacrificing a woman touched by dragon magic. A woman just like you.”
My heart stopped, the blood draining from my face as her words sank in.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head in disbelief. “That can’t be true.”
“Oh, but it is,” Mais said, her voice cold and matter of fact. “You’re nothing more than a means to an end for him, Aria. The moment he has what he wants, he’ll kill you without a second thought. And with your death, he’ll reign supreme over all five realms, with no one to stand in his way.”
I felt like the ground had been pulled out from under my feet, the room spinning as the weight of her words pressed down on me. Everything I had felt, everything I had believed about Hades, suddenly seemed like a cruel joke, a lie designed to lull me into a false sense of security.
Did he really love me or was that just a lie, too?
“No,” I said again, my voice trembling with the effort to hold back the tears that threatened to spill. “He wouldn’t… he wouldn’t do that.”
But I knew better. I knew he would.
Mais shrugged, her expression cold and indifferent. “Believe what you want, but the prophecy is real. And so is his ambition.”
I felt sick, my mind racing as I tried to process the horrifying truth. The man who had held me, cared for me, made me feel safe and cherished—was he really planning to kill me? To use me as nothing more than a sacrifice to gain the ultimate power?
“I thought you should know before you get too comfortable in your little fantasy,” Mais said, her voice cutting through the fog of my whirling thoughts.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. It couldn’t really be true, could it?
The problem was it could…
Mais gave me one last sneering glance before turning on her heel and sauntering out of the room, leaving me alone with the crushing weight of the truth.
The silence in the dining hall was deafening. I felt a tear slip down my cheek, and I wiped it away with trembling fingers, my mind spinning with the enormity of what I had just learned.
I needed to get out of here.
I had no choice. I couldn’t stay here, couldn’t let myself be the pawn in some deadly game of power. If the prophecy was real, then I had to escape, to get as far away from Hades as I could before he could fulfill it.
So much for hope. And love…
With a heavy heart, I rose from the table, my legs unsteady as I made my way to the door. I had to leave, and I had to do it now, before it was too late.
Before the man I had come to care for became the one who destroyed me.
CHAPTER 23
Helheim
Aria
I moved through the castle in a daze, shellshocked by what Mais had told me. I hurried down the winding corridors, my footsteps echoing off the cold stone walls as I made my way to the one place that I knew I could potentially find a way out: the armory. My heart pounded in my chest, my mind racing with every possible outcome, every desperate plan. The dagger Hades had given me felt heavier at my side, a cruel reminder of what he had truly intended.
The castle’s twisting passages were familiar now, but they had never felt so oppressive, so claustrophobic. Each turn, each corner felt like it could be my last, the shadow of what I was running from looming over me with every step. But I couldn’t stop, and more importantly, I couldn’t let my fear paralyze me.
I had to keep moving.
When I finally reached the armory, the heavy oak doors loomed before me like a gateway to some otherworldly place. I pushed them open, slipping inside and letting the darkness swallow me whole. The room was filled with the scent of oil and steel. As I glanced around, the faint glimmer of weapons caught the dim light filtering through the narrow windows.
I didn’t have much time. I could only hope that Hades was still occupied with whatever duties had pulled him away, that he wouldn’t return until it was too late to stop me. I scanned the room, my eyes landing on the heavy iron grate in the floor near the back of the room—the entrance to the hidden passages that Liora had told me about.
