Page 12 of Taming Winter

Hades was boring into me with her intense reptilian gaze that made goosebumps creep over my flesh. My lip curled at her, but when I spoke, my attention went to Hermes. "It's time for you to leave."

The man's eyebrow raised in incredulity, and his wings fluffed like a ruffled chicken. "Excuse me, wraith?"

I narrowed my eyes in a glare that I hoped would make his heart skip. I was too exhausted and angry for his burrowing, faux-friendly expression. Frost crept across my skin and spread over the floor at my feet. Hermes closed the space between us, his wings stretching wide. Maybe I should've been frightened, but I doubted that this feathered prick could do anything worse than Hades had already done.

Hades stepped between us, flames flickering across her hands and irritation lancing her face. "I do not have the patience for any more dick measuring tonight."

My gaze went to the fire pooling in her palm. I froze in place as that familiar bolt of fear lanced through me. Satisfied, she turned to Hermes. "Goodnight."

He balked. "You're taking the pet's side?"

"I'm not taking anyone's side! It’s late, and I must visit Zeus tomorrow, which will be grating,” Hades growled.

Hermes’s eyes darkened, but he put on a dazzling smile. "Alright, darling. Good luck with your brother, I’ll see you soon."

He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek, though his eyes gripped mine. I hated that it offended me—hated that I wanted to attack him for touching her. I stuffed the excuse of my soul's bond to the goddess down my throat, because I didn't have the mental space to delve into the feeling further.

They broke apart, and Hermes prepared to depart. He didn't bother with the stairs out of her room. Instead, he dropped from the window. His dove-colored wings splayed open in an impressive wingspan that glimmered in the moonlight. The rough beat of his feathers on the wind echoed through the deadly still night air.

Hades turned her full attention to me, her eyes speaking volumes in the silence. It was an eternity before she broke the silence. "What the fuck was that, Wolfe?"

I didn't have an answer. Instead, I changed the subject with a low snarl. "You used me to fulfill your vendetta against your brother. I do not appreciate being played."

"What did you expect? I would only send you to kill the worst of the worst, that you would be some vigilante of justice?" She snorted. "You seem to forget that I am a god. I do as I please because the affairs of mortals mean nothing to me. A little bloodshed shouldn’t bother you this much."

I bared my teeth. "You have kept me under your thumb for a century, and yet despite everything, I gave in to you. I have been the obedient dog you wanted, and that at least deserves some fucking honesty!"

She paused, her eyes lighting up with a flicker of warped satisfaction. "That's what it is, isn't it?"

Her fingers twisted into the fabric of my shirt and yanked me toward her. "After all I've taken from you, you feel like you're owed something."

Her words lit a fire in my chest. My nostrils flared as a wave of desperation washed over me. I had given my very fucking soul to this woman, and all that remained was an angry obsession in the pit of my gut that feasted on every breath of shared air between us. The need to be as close to her as possible, the desire to have her skin on mine… I fucking craved it. Regardless of whether it was the contract between us demanding loyalty or my own fucked-up brain, I wanted her to give in too.

A soft chuckle escaped her in my stoic silence. "If I had known you were so reward-driven, I would’ve changed my strategy to get you to sign our contract."

She gripped my chin and yanked my gaze to hers. "Is that the trick to you, Wolfe? Do you want to be rewarded for being a good boy?"

I gulped and tried to shift away from the lull of this shark luring me into the depths. My visceral reaction to her words—the sweat beading on my neck and the goosebumps along my flesh—was humiliating. The inclinations of my living days had crept into this fucked-up relationship between Hades and me, making me rash and idiotic. "I fucking hate you," I whispered, my voice breaking.

Something flashed across her face. "You and everyone else," she muttered.

She tore her hand away. "Here's the deal, Wolfe. We are entering enemy territory tomorrow. We’re meeting Zeus, a motherfucker that has been out to get me for longer than you've existed. I need you to have my back because he’s going to do everything in his power to manipulate me. If you support me tomorrow, I promise I will reward you."

There was an air of vulnerability in her tone that I wasn't sure how to take. Hades was evil, of that I was certain.

So why did I want to protect her?

CHAPTER 13

HADES

It had been fifty years since I traversed the vast expanse of the Underbridge. When my power was first realized as a young girl, undead souls clamored for my presence. Zeus had been the one to recommend a city for the dead with me at the center, designed to protect my people. I had agreed, being a trusting, impressionable young girl desperate for a life. It made it difficult to see those I cared for, but at least my people were safe, and the land of the living was safe from them.

Then the assassination attempt. Zeus had insisted on installing guards along the Underbridge and in my home. An undesirable necessity, he had said. Guards were necessary to keep me safe from those sent to kill me by mortals who feared my power. I had not agreed then, but it hadn't mattered. They trapped me away and left me to rot on my island of death and despair.

My driver, Dany, rolled to a stop in front of the first row of guards cloaked in blue garb and waited. The attendant approached us from his post, golden buttons glinting in the lavender morning light.

"Zeus has summoned us," Dany said as a way of greeting. She unceremoniously shoved a letter into his palm. It had been the point of Hermes’s visit yesterday, to deliver the letter granting me permission to leave. Needing permission to leave my own home disgusted me.