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“Don’t flatter yourself. I was bored.”
“And now I’m the pathetic one who thought I could be anything more to you than sex.” My words shook from pure rage, shielding the shredding of my heart.
Hades’s shrugged response only made it worse.
I groaned, exasperated. I was so over his shit, over how he blew hot and cold, over how he could be incredibly attractive one moment and revolting the next. I was sick and tired of fighting the monster he’d set free, whether he’d willed it to be or not. I was tired of being scared, tired of being angry, tired of being tired. Who the fuck did he think he was to treat me this way? And I hated that I let him hurt me, and I felt sick to my stomach that I cared, that my throat thickened with the tears pricking my eyes from him pushing me away.
“You know what?” I snapped, my hands curling into fists. “I’ve just about had it with you and all the time you’ve wasted.”
Before he could respond, I launched toward him and punched him in the face. Our fights always turned physical—he was the only guy who didn’t pull his punches because I was a woman. He saw me as a worthy adversary. He fought me with all his power, as if he knew I could take it.
And I could. Now more than ever.
His mouth dropped open—clear surprise at my attack—but he retaliated a moment later. He wasn’t one to stand on ceremony, and he placed a kick in my gut. I’d already anticipated it and started moving away, so it wasn’t nearly as effective as he intended. With the barrier broken, the fight had started, and we both lunged into it with everything we had.
My power surged through me, heightening and expanding around us, the heat building. The energy I’d been practicing using lately was scorching hot. The type of heat that could melt metal. But Hades’s ability had been fiery all along. I remembered one of the first times I sensed it, how I’d felt him burning me up inside.
Of course, we’d been fucking then. Now we were fighting—again. It was always one or the other with him, and I’d been a fool to think our relationship could be anything else. Ha, no…not relationship. Just a fucked-up mess.
“You’re strong,” Hades growled while we punched and kicked and spun around, evading each other, attacking when we thought we could get through. “Stronger and faster than before. But you’ll never win going up against a god. Not against me, and I doubt you’ll ever win against X.”
“If you don’t want to be on my side, fine,” I seethed, breathing hard. I elbowed him on the jaw, and he staggered backward. He recovered almost immediately and counter-attacked. “But I didn’t think you’d be against me.”
“I’m against everyone. The world isn’t a welcoming place, and I don’t expect anyone to back me up.”
“Yeah, your skepticism is clear. It’s a pity you seem to think everyone is against you when there are people out there who care for you.”
“If you say Persephone, I’m going to gag,” Hades spat. “She cares, but she couldn’t even love me.”
“I was talking about me,” I yelled, ducking a punch. I retaliated, and he managed to sidestep me, staying out of the way.
He began to laugh, and the sound grated on my nerves. It was sarcastic, mocking. Hades was taking my affection for him as a joke. It only irritated me more—I wouldn’t have invested any kind of affection in him if he hadn’t shown me his softer side. But maybe I’d been wrong about him. Maybe he was playing me, bored, as he said.
“You really are a dick.” I kicked him in his sternum.
He only took one step back, smirking. “Finally you notice.”
The sound of menacing laughter had us both spinning. X himself leaned against the wall not far from the kitchen entrance, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched us battle.
“The two of you are like an old married couple,” he mocked. His voice danced around me, brushing against my skin and making me shiver. But my anger was greater than my fear at this point. I breathed heavily, my heart pounding, and I was ready to launch at X, but Hades stepped between us and with a well-aimed punch, he flattened me.
I looked at him from the floor. He towered above me, a smug smile on his face.
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically. “Not only are you not willing to help me, but you’re also planning on getting in my way. It just gets better and better.”
Hades ran a hand down his face and sat on the couch. He couldn’t hide his heavy breathing, but other than that, it didn’t look like my attack had affected to him.
X still leaned against the wall, looking nonchalant as fuck, and I had a feeling no matter what I did, asking for Hades’s help wasn’t going to work. Plus, X wasn’t here to fight, only to spectate. To laugh at me, and on my own, I couldn’t take him down. I climbed to my feet, rubbing my jaw, which ached from Hades’s hit.
“You know this is a bad sign,” I said to Hades, pointing at X. “He’s only here because you refuse to accept the good side of yourself. I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now.”
Hades’s face tightened. If he already knew, he seemed to have accepted that fact. If he hadn’t known yet, he didn’t seem to care.
“It’s every man for himself, sugar,” he sneered. “I’m not going to fuss about everyone else who needs saving. There are enough of you in the world willing to do that.”
I wanted to attack him again, drive my fist into his face. He knew just which buttons to push. But I held back, clenching my jaw. It wouldn’t make a difference—I’d never win a fight against Hades. And he didn’t have a limit to what he was willing to do to me.
That asshole had killed me before. Sure, I accepted he’d done it to save me, but now I doubted his reasoning.
So instead of engaging with X, or continuing the fight with Hades, I turned around and stormed to the front door. X wasn’t here to battle me because it wasn’t a big enough audience. Fucking bastard. I hated how everything reduced to dramatic value for these gods… even killing someone.
“Don’t think this is going to stop me from getting her back,” I snarled to X, my hand already on the doorknob. I looked at Hades. “As for you, I think I’m just about done.”
I couldn’t read the look that crossed his face—something that seemed a lot more emotionally charged than I expected. But I wasn’t going to read too much into it. Hades had shown me his true colors. I thought I could lean on him, and he’d proven he wasn’t someone who’d ever have my back.
That Hades had some kind of heart was nothing more than a myth.
