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But it wasn’t just Hades.
From the shadows, a massive form leaped into the fray, its fiery eyes blazing with fury. It was Liora, but she was in her hellhound form. She was a terrifying sight to behold. She tore through the darklings with savage ferocity, her jaws snapping around their throats while her claws tore through their flesh.
With Hades’ and Liora’s combined power, the darklings’ ranks quickly began to thin. The once-overwhelming horde was nowa scattering of terrified creatures, desperate to escape the wrath of the Dark King and his hellhound. But Hades was relentless, his fury uncontained as he hunted them down, one by one, until there was nothing left but silence.
Breathing heavily, I pushed myself to my feet, clutching my injured side as I stared at the devastation around me. The darklings were gone, their bodies reduced to nothing but smoldering remains. Hades stood among them, his chest heaving with exertion, his eyes still glowing with the remnants of his power.
He turned to me, his gaze locking onto mine, and in that moment, I saw the fear in his eyes—fear for me. The darkness that had always surrounded him seemed to almost waver, replaced by something raw, something that made my heart ache.
“Aria,” he breathed, his voice hoarse as he took a step toward me.
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could say anything, Liora bounded over to me, her large body pressing against my side as if to shield me from any further harm. Her fiery eyes met mine, and I saw the concern in them. I reached out and pet behind her ears, soothing her in silence.
“Why did you run?” Hades demanded, his voice a mixture of anger and something deeper, something I wasn’t sure I could face. He was close now, his presence overwhelming, his gaze burning into mine and I had trouble piecing together what I wanted to say next.
“I—” I started, but the words caught in my throat, the weight of the truth pressing down on me.
“Do you have any idea what could have happened?” he growled, his voice tight with barely controlled emotion. “You could have been killed. I nearly lost you?—”
“I know about the prophecy,” I whispered, my voice trembling as I finally met his gaze. “I know what you’re going to do to me.”
The world seemed to stop as the words hung in the air between us, the truth finally out in the open. Hades’ eyes widened in shock, and for a moment, he looked as if the ground had been pulled out from under him.
“I don’t want to die.” My voice broke as I took a step back, the distance between us suddenly feeling insurmountable.
Hades’ face twisted with pain, and he reached out for me, his hand trembling as he tried to bridge the gap between us.
“Aria, please—” he started, but I shook my head.
“I can’t do this,” I said in barely a whisper as I took another step back, the cold night air biting at my skin. And with that, I turned and ran, the darkness of the night swallowing me whole as I fled from the only man I had ever loved.
I didn’t get far.
My feet carried me only a short distance before I heard him behind me, his footsteps heavy, desperate. My heart pounded in my chest, every instinct screaming at me to keep running and put as much distance between us as possible, but something inside me wouldn’t let me. Maybe it was the part of me that had begun to care for him. I didn’t know.
“Aria, stop!” Hades’ voice cut through the night, filled with a raw emotion I’d never heard from him before.
Against my better judgment, I slowed, then finally stopped, my breath coming in ragged gasps. I turned to face him, my heart lodged in my throat as he approached, his face a mask of anguish and desperation.
He stopped a few feet away from me, his chest heaving as he struggled to find the words. For a moment, neither of us spoke, the tension between us thick and suffocating. Then Hades did something that took my breath away.
He dropped to one knee.
“Aria,” he began, his voice trembling with a vulnerability that I had never imagined from him. “Please, listen to me. I need you to know that everything has changed—everything. I’ve forsaken the prophecy, I swear it. I will never let anything happen to you. I can’t. I won’t. You mean more to me than power, more than anything I’ve ever known.”
I stared at him, disbelief warring with the hope that sparked in my chest.
“You… But how? Why?” I asked, my voice shaking.
His eyes, usually so guarded, were wide open now, pleading with me to believe him.
“Because I’ve realized that nothing matters without you. The prophecy, the power—it’s all meaningless if it means losing you. I’ve spent centuries seeking control, seeking to be the strongest, but you’ve shown me that strength is nothing if it comes at the cost of the one thing that I care about most.”
He took a deep, shuddering breath, his hand reaching out for mine but stopping short, as if he were afraid to touch me.
“Aria, I’m asking you to stay with me. Stay with me as my equal. As my queen. I know I don’t deserve you, I know I’ve done nothing to earn your love or your trust, but I’m begging you—please, give me a chance to prove that I can be the man you need, a man that you can love…”
I gulped, my emotions swirling in a storm of confusion and longing. The way he looked at me, the way he spoke—it was so different from the Hades I had come to know. There was no arrogance, no coldness—only a raw, aching sincerity that left me trembling.
