The bleak question throbs through my mind, wilting my impossible optimism with its cacophony. It compels me to release my arms from their panicked grip around myself. “You’ve torn me from the only life I knew and brought me into this strange new place. I’m…overwhelmed. And until just now, I didn’t know my fate. Needless to say, I’ve thought of very little else. Sleep has been impossible.”
His lips curl into a grin that’s regal but predatory. “Your worry is to be expected,” he says with a condescending lilt. “But surely you must be excited as well? At least a little? This place has been the object of your fascination for so long.”
I purse my lips, now relieved he’s unable to fully read me. At least for now.
“Well, you’re here at last,” he goes on. “And I will satisfy all your curiosities. Every one of them. I promise.”
That’s what terrifies me most. I swiftly shove the thought aside, focusing on returning a tight smile instead. It’s my pathetically strained effort to match his enthusiasm, but for the moment, I think I have him fooled.
He takes my hand and brings it up to his smiling lips, kissing it slowly. “For now, though, we will let you rest.”
This time, my smile is a lot more genuine. “Thank you.”
“And I have just the place to soothe those tattered nerves of yours.”
And there I go again with the premature sincerity. “But—”
He tsks loudly and tugs me after him at the same time, ending my objection to our new journey. For the first time since arriving here, through what portal I still can’t figure out, I leave the prison of my room. The arched door swings open effortlessly as we approach it, revealing a narrow stone hallway. The cold floor shocks the bare soles of my feet. My flimsy robe, despite its long and sweeping train, is little defense against the chill. I do the best I can to manage the garment as my captor speeds up our pace.
More than a few times, I nearly trip as I follow him along the endless halls and stairways that wind through the castle. Swiftly the sounds of the busy moors are replaced with the sharp chatter of the creatures who clearly do Hades’s bidding here in his home. I really am curious now, but we’re moving so quickly, I can only glimpse flashes of the scenes as we pass.
There’s a harshly lit room filled with ghastly demon soldiers, shoving and shouting at each other past mottled maws with rotten teeth.
In a room that offers a welcome blast of heat, a beastly wild-eyed demon berates a small cowering servant, a table of platters covered in decadent dishes between them.
And there’s a library. At least I think so. The room looks like a hurricane blew through, with loose papers strewn about and books stacked messily all over the floor.
Hades leads us to the frigid outdoors through an arch-lined breezeway. Far below, there’s a wide, fully frozen canal. Even from this distant vantage, I peer harder, curious about what’s giving it such a strange texture.
Suddenly I see it. I see them—the malformed outlines of human figures trapped in the confines of the thick ice, their silent bulging eyes pleading eternally to the sky.
I slap my hand to my mouth, but not fast enough to hold in my terrified shriek.
Hades stops so suddenly, I fall against his rigid body. I shriek again, this time more from fear of him. Of our disturbing proximity. He casts a confused gaze down on me, especially because I can’t conceal my own bemusement. His body temperature is neither warm nor especially cold. His countenance is neither benevolent nor betraying his pure evil. Everything about his appearance—from the moment he appeared so coolly at Rerek’s party days ago—has struck me as oddly human, which gives him a disarming quality that worries me the more time I spend in his presence.
I can’t ever fool myself into believing his deception. I can’t ever let my guard down with him. Just doing the same with Rerek, one of his devotees, was the opening act of this nightmare. I can’t bear to contemplate what would happen if I offered Hades that kind of trust.
“What is it, Kara?”
I let out a few harsh breaths before my gaze slides to the frozen waters below.
“Ah.” He takes advantage of our new closeness to rub some warmth into my arms. “You must be wondering what these vermin must have done to deserve such a fate.”
Actually, I don’t need to ask him, because between my first gruesome discovery and this moment, my knowledge has supplied the answer. The horror before me resolves with the cantos and the vision my imagination created of those punished within the desolate confines of Judecca.
I stood now where the souls of the last class
(with fear my verses tell it) were covered wholly,
they shone below the ice like straws in glass.
“The treacherous to their masters,” I say with a painful exhale.
Hades’s lips curl into a satisfied smile that can only be made of pride. “You’re exactly right.” He regards me a moment more, his expression more intense than any camera lens I’ve ever had to face off with. “I cannot wait to see your mind, Kara. Truly.”
I tense in his gentle hold: my silent, desperate protest to the suggestion. He answers with a gradual withdrawal, leaving me chilled by the relentless wind tunneling through the loggia.
“And if you don’t show it to me…” he warns. “If you dare betray me once more, you may find yourself locked for eternity with them, which I personally would not mind at all. I use this overpass often and would relish the gift of your beauty frozen just below the surface, your gaze locked into mine for all of time.”
Every cell in my body grows colder than it was before. The dread of his threat seeps below my skin, penetrating my bones like stabs of a thousand ice shards. I can’t think of a worse fate than the torment he’s drawn so vividly for me, but I trust there’s no end to his list of awful possibilities.
Will I be subjected to them all at some point?
Is this my life for the rest of all time?
He steps back some more, though his cool retreat does nothing to ease my dread. “Come,” he says. “We’re nearly there.”
I follow behind, careful to keep up with his swift steps and grateful he’s no longer dragging me to our destination. I should be glad the relentless pace helps to warm me up a little, though I’m certain part of my chill is now bone-deep and permanent.
At last, we stop before a tall arched door, no different than the many I’ve already passed. But instead of a crush of demon soldiers or a bustle of attendants, the opened door reveals an oddly serene room.
We step inside. I stop abruptly at the motion before me, fearing we aren’t truly alone. But the movement is simply our two figures reflected in the handful of tall mirrors propped up against the farthest wall. Each one stands at least eight feet tall and just as wide, ornately framed in gold leaf. The middle one also reflects the gold soaking tub that faces it.
“Wow,” I breathe out.
The room is strikingly different than anything else I’ve seen in the castle. It’s beautiful, even. A massive chandelier hangs from the vaulted ceiling, shooting prisms of light off the two shallow pools set into the marble floor. Two waterfalls feed seamlessly into them from golden spigots set into the polished stone walls. The same luxurious color is threaded through plush bathmats in front of each tub.