Page 25 of Taming Winter

I’m a fucking idiot. Not performing my due diligence of counting before attacking a group was a novice mistake. I fucking knew better, and yet somehow had skipped a critical step and was now paying for my mistakes.

"Oh good, you're awake." A subtle voice echoed through the darkness and sank into my flesh.

My attacker stood a few paces away. Her raven-colored hair was braided in two rows that accentuated her high cheekbones and lithe figure. Green eyes glowed in the deep navy light, pinned on me with a cold, flat gaze. I returned her glare.

"Apollo is killing people by the hundreds, I was rescuing them. You have no idea what you've done." I spoke in a sharp whisper since the immortal was likely prowling somewhere nearby.

"You’re a liar," she snapped back. "Apollo is a just god; he would never harm anyone that didn't deserve it."

I let out a hard, cruel laugh at that. "An unexpected blight that popped up from nowhere? That isn’t a power Hades possesses, but it would be all too easy for Apollo. You can't be that ignorant, girl."

"My name is Brit, not girl," she sneered. There was a pause, and she shifted on her feet, her gaze avoiding mine. That breadth of uncertainty disappeared quickly, though. She squared her shoulders. "It doesn't matter. He promised to heal my sister. He’s a good man," her words came out through gritted teeth as though they pained her.

My eyebrow raised. I recognized that stubbornness from my own past. When my boss sent me on suicide missions without care for my safety, stubbornness had been the only thing holding me together. I kissed those shoes for so long that the mere notion he had deceived me was incomprehensible. There was no convincing her, so I closed my mouth and worked on taking in my surroundings instead of the woman in front of me.

They had chained me up in a hospital room, likely in Alexikakos. Plain white countertops littered with syringes and rubber gloves surrounded me on three sides. The hospital bed was pushed against one wall to make room for me. A small sink to my left wasn’t properly shut off, so droplets of water clinked against the bowl.

Brit let out a ragged cough that drew my attention back to her. I blinked in surprise at her hunched-over form. When she straightened, her eyes were red and watering.

"You should get that checked out," I commented.

She sneered at me. "I'll get Apollo now, he’ll want to know you're awake."

Then she was gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I took to counting the water droplets as they plinked against stainless steel to fight the emotions that threatened to consume me. I had been done in by a delusional girl caught in the web of her master's lies. A humiliating end, really.

What is Hades doing? My chest hollowed at the possibility that she had taken my absence as betrayal. My first mission with my freedom, and it was unlikely I would return. I cringed at the idea.

The door creaked open. The darkened mass of Apollo slipped in and clicked the door shut behind him.

"I hope you gave Brit a raise," I said without moving.

He clicked his tongue. His voice came out in that similar, monotone drawl, but now it was chilled with a darkness that crept into my very soul. "The black-haired girl? Oh no. She saw far too much and will die of an aggressive, highly contagious disease tomorrow."

I let out a cold laugh. "You are evil."

A bolt of pain shot through my cheek. My head snapped to the side under the pressure of his bitch slap. His expression was contorted with rage. "It’s your fault! I have to find new women to enjoy because of you!"

My lip curled at this immortal’s tantrum over losing his toys. They were human women, but to him they were objects to be used for his pleasure. He was upset about how their deaths impacted him, not the loss of life. I wasn’t a good man, but he was outright evil.

There was no point in talking to him any longer. I knew the game here. Apollo couldn't kill me, but there was a reason he hadn't buried me in six feet of concrete. He wanted information. Unfortunately for him, the Hydras had trained me to endure torture. Not to mention my century of desensitization under Hades’s hand. My mind went to that place held deep within me, where my surroundings were nothing but a television screen.

I let my head drop, making it clear I was done speaking to him.

"Am I boring you, dog? Well, let's make this interesting. Tell me what Hades planned to do with me, and what her next plans are, and you won't suffer."

I ignored him. Apollo was evil, but Hades was a master. Nothing could be as bad as the torture I had endured for the past century. I took to tracing the veins in the marble under my knees to pass the time.

"You will regret that, boy. You seem to forget what I am.” His voice settled into my bones and crept across my unbeating heart like an unending plague set on destruction.

My skin came to life with a blistering itch like hellfire, something I was disturbingly intimate with. A cough racked my body and left my head throbbing. The taste of iron filled my mouth, and a fine spray of blood coated the floor.

He let out a deep, menacing chuckle. "Leprosy, Ebola, syphilis, smallpox, rabies, flesh-eating bacteria. Oh, the possibilities."

Pus erupted from the blisters coating me. It wasn't the burning or stinging that made me want to rip off my skin, though. No, it was the sensation like tiny insects clamoring over every inch of me, as though they were burrowing into the open blisters and festering in the crevices of my blood-soaked flesh that had my teeth chattering to stop from screaming. That sensation somehow twisted together with the foul scent of infection and death.

Despite the agony, I wouldn't give in. Through Lyme disease, the flesh-eating bacteria, even rabies, I hadn't once considered giving in to Apollo. He would eventually become frustrated by my stoic silence and move on to the next horrifying disease. The surrounding ground would clear, and my soul would return to its normal state as though I hadn’t been plagued. Then the next round would begin. I wasn't sure if these were worldly diseases anymore, or if he was concocting his own fun blends just for me. I guess I should've been honored to be patient zero.

A lightning bolt of pain shot through my temple. I swung helplessly against my chains, which creaked under the pressure. Apollo swore, and through the spots in my low-lidded vision I saw his extended foot, where he was recoiling from kicking me in the temple. The pain lingered as a resounding echo, but fortunately it was nothing compared to being burned alive.