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Chapter 18
Hades
Iwas in a shitty mood, and my adrenaline was on a rampage. X’s appearance hadn’t improved my confrontation with Elyse. I struggled to control myself around her as it was, and as much as Ihadtried to be the nice guy and give her what she wanted, fear and reality seared through me. Even more so after seeing Persephone. That night we visited the Grand Canyon, I’d realized I was falling for Elyse so fucking hard, but what then? Get my heart smashed all over again, become a laughing stock? I couldn’t go through that again, not after all the shit I faced with Persephone. Every time I considered letting myself go there with Elyse, terror spiked through my chest, reminding me of what awaited me when I failed. Because I always failed.
I swallowed the thickness in my throat, my heart racing, still remembering Elyse’s exquisite smile and her laughter when we chatted over the various meanings of the constellations. Those were moments I needed to forget and stop torturing myself. Especially when I had X to do that for me.
It never put me in a good mood to see him, but lately, X and I just weren’t on the same page anymore.
That was saying something for the God of the Underworld and the Greek Grim Reaper.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I barked at him after Elyse had stormed out. I was shaking with fury that he’d driven her away.
Sure, I was the one who’d made her angry. I’d refused to help her. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. But I was terrified of what I was feeling for her. It pissed me off that I couldn’t control my affections. After I lost Persephone, after I’d realized the whole thing had been one big joke, I’d promised myself to never love again. Then Elyse came into my world and tore at my heart. It fucking scared me.
If my brothers and sisters were right, love was something I was incapable of anyway.
But with Elyse, our relationship was something else. I couldn’t help how I felt about her, and not being able to deal with such confusion only made me furious.
“I had a feeling you were stirring up problems, and I wanted to watch.” X’s razor-sharp teeth were on display through his toothy grin.
He pushed away from the wall and seemed to float toward me. I remained seated on the couch, my legs wide, leaning back as if I didn’t care he was in my space. If I showed him he irritated me, he’d only make it worse. X was nothing but a deadly pain in the ass.
“I wasn’t stirring up problems.” I shouldn’t have had to defend myself, but I didn’t want to admit I’d driven Elyse away. Even though I had. Admitting you were wrong was a bitch.
“Yeah, it looked like she got upset for no reason at all.” Mirth danced behind his words. He dropped into one of my armchairs, and I hated that he made himself at home in my space. But X was part of me, and I suppose I should’ve expected it.
“Look, if you’re not here for any good reason, then kindly fuck off,” I said.
X laughed. His teeth were very sharp up close, the fangs of a monster. But nearly everything else about him looked human now. The more souls he consumed, the more human he became. It was almost as if he’d be able to kill more people now, purely because he looked like they’d trust him. He was in predator mode.
Almost.
When X first arrived on Earth, he’d looked like a kind of daemon, the way humans describe them. He was much stronger now, but he looked more trustworthy. It was a deadly combination.
And it wasn’t like I didn’t want to help Elyse get her friend back. I wanted her to be happy. I cared about her, even though I’d said I didn’t.
But I couldn’t get involved without losing a piece of myself. If I acknowledged how I felt about her, I’d end up getting hurt again. And I didn’t like getting hurt. Too much had happened in my life for me to accept anymore.
“Well, if you’re not going to fight her, I will,” X growled.
“I thought you didn’t come for that.” I sat forward on the couch.
X pulled up his shoulders and stirred, stretching like a feral animal “Yeah, well, we can all do with a little bit of fun.”
Before I could answer him, he disappeared. He was going after Elyse. I might have told her I didn’t care, that I wasn’t interested, but I wasn’t going to let X take her. She couldn’t be very far away. He was going to cut her off and fight her.
And I had to be there to look after her. My pulse was on fire, and I shot to my feet.
Even as I rolled my eyes at myself, irritated I couldn't just let Fate do what it wanted with her. I disappeared into a scramble of magic.
It wasn’t hard to track down Elyse. Her power signature rippled in the air, and she stood in the middle of a cloud of darkness. X had already found her. My heart thundered with urgency to shield her.
When I took form, I found them fighting in an empty park in a shady part of town where there were boarded-up houses. None of the other guys had showed up yet, so either they were out of range or X somehow blocked them.
Elyse had gotten hold of her scythe—she must have had it in her car. She wielded the weapon against X in a way I hadn’t seen her do before. When I saw her at the training center, she’d only been practicing. But this…this was war.
I sensed her anger—her fury at me for not being willing to help her, her rage at X for taking Catina, her loathing at herself for not being able to stop him. My heart went out to her. I hated that I was responsible for this mess. And I wasn’t trying to do something about it, either.
