Page 7 of Taming Winter

"You cursed yourself, darling Wolfe. But since you asked, you have a power that will make you more efficient in your tasks, and you will be a statement to my enemies."

An enraged growl tore from my throat, and my fists weighed with the buildup of ice. This monster had ripped away my very essence. She took away my eyes, fragments of my memory, and my ability to fight back. I wasn't even sure what bits of me were left. The man I was… whatever my name had been, he never would have signed a deal with an immortal. He had known better—I had known better. "You're a monster."

"I hoped you would use our time apart more wisely," Hades groaned.

She approached me until her breath warmed my cheeks, then grabbed my hand in hers. Heat engulfed my ice-coated fists so rapidly that I yelped and jerked away to escape her flames, but she wouldn’t let go. I snarled and readied to fight, but she shoved my hand away at the last moment. My ice was gone, leaving behind only my unharmed skin. Of course she would give me a power utterly useless against her.

"Your anger will do nothing but aggravate me. I suggest you calm down before you encase yourself in ice again and piss me off."

She walked out of the bathroom and moved to stand in front of her window, the silent expectation of me following her dangling in the air between us. I hated that I followed her without resistance. It was well into the evening, the only source of light was the flickering purple flames in the hearth. I no longer felt the warmth, but I avoided it regardless.

Hades broke the silence first. "I never asked… why did you try to kill me?"

I blinked back my surprise. Her tone was calm and didn't hold its usual venom. It caught me off guard and drew forth a response. "I thought you knew my cabal was hired for the job. Don't worry though, next time I bury a blade in your eye, it will absolutely be personal."

She snorted at that. “Was it your cabal that told you to stab me?"

“The customer.” Again, I was taken aback by the line of questioning. It was less her actual words that surprised me and more her tone. She was speaking to me as though I wasn't a pest under her shoe, and that was a recent development I wasn't sure I liked.

She turned toward me fully, her red curls dancing about her shoulders. "Why would they do that, you think? They must have known it wouldn't work."

My eyes widened. My boss had been the one to tell me that a silver knife to the brain would do the job. I had never questioned him. He had received that information directly from our customer. All these years, I had assumed his intel had been inaccurate. What she was insinuating made my blood boil. "His intel was bad," I said matter-of-factly.

A knowing smile curled her lips, though her usual sadism wasn't twisting her expression. Something must have really shaken her. "Certainly."

I grit my teeth. "Tell me why I'm an icicle."

"You're funny when you're mad, handsome." Hades laughed. "You need to learn to control your temper if you don't want to spend your time walking across a skating rink."

Rage rose in my throat, but I choked it down. Despite my desire to lop her head off, her earlier threat had hit its mark. I didn’t want to be burned alive again, so I needed to mind my fury. "Everything I touch is frozen. You took my eyes, my name, this," I gestured to the crystal on my sternum, "is fused to my skin. You gave me a fucking dog bed to sleep in. I deserve a reason."

Anger twisted her face, leaving a monster where a lady previously stood. She fisted my shirt. "You deserve nothing but my wrath, you scum. Do not forget why you're here! It is not my fault. I've weighed your soul. You lived a wretched life and earned every moment of horror you endure in death."

She shoved me hard enough for me to stumble to the floor. Purple flames flickered over her skin, pooling in her palms and eyes. She had a temper too, and I was now the focal point of her rage. She stepped forward, and I scrambled away once more. "Tomorrow morning, you will head into Olympiara. Your mission is to eradicate the Hydras from the fucking earth. Don't you worry, Wolfe, you'll understand the value of your newfound power when you wipe your cabal from existence.”

Genuine horror clutched my throat. The Hydras were my cabal. They took me in and gave me purpose in a wretched world when I wasn't worth the food needed to feed me. Though those I had known were long gone, I wouldn't turn against them.

"I-I can't murder my people," I whispered. She was terrifying, certainly. I would be an idiot not to fear the goddess, but I had to fight this.

A ripple of flames rolled over her skin and pooled in her palm. Without even a twitch in her expression, she launched a fireball at my head. My entire being filled with terror at the glowing orb and the encroaching heat that I narrowly avoided. I shouted and scrambled to my feet before she could launch another. "Anyone else. I'll take out anyone else for you."

"You will kill whom I tell you to," she snarled. "Do not for a second think this isn't a test of your loyalty to me."

"Loyalty to you?" I balked, my eyes widening. Ice crept over my fingertips and up my wrists. Fear be damned, this bitch was off her rocker. "You own me, you don't need my loyalty."

Her face went slack, and a strange expression cast a shadow across her features. She blinked and shook her head before turning away from me. "We should get some sleep, we both have big days ahead."

"I don't need to sleep anymore, according to you," I snapped.

She shot me a roasting glare over her shoulder. "You are going to sleep as long as I do, and you will do so in your new bed, or I will light you on fire."

The threat was unnecessary because the moment she uttered the command, a wave of exhaustion overcame me. My lids and limbs felt heavy. A yawn tore itself from my throat despite my best attempts to fight it. My feet fumbled toward the pad on the floor like a lifeless machine, and I collapsed on top of it. I hated how comfortable it was, I hated how I had been reduced to this pathetic pet, and I hated Hades and the control she had over me. I hated it but was dragged kicking and screaming into the depths of sleep regardless.

CHAPTER 8

WOLFE

I didn't belong in the world of the living. I was a curse to this world, spreading a sheet of ice with each step. Clouds of frost left my lips with every breath. Whenever my fingertips brushed the buildings I passed, spiderwebs of ice danced across their surfaces and froze into crystalline sculptures. Fluffy snowflakes languidly fell to the frostbitten ground and clutched to the ridiculous black suit Hades had insisted I wore. Despite the verglas etching over my skin, I couldn't feel the chill.