Nope.
And I didn’t want to. I wanted to face him down.
A moment later, he stepped through the vines and into view, his gaze on me. The deep blue of his eyes burned as he took me in, his fists clenching, the thin leather of his gloves gleaming dully in the light.
His magic rolled out from him, so powerful that I nearly staggered. The sound of waves crashing on cliffs was nearly deafening, and the scent of firelight nearly suffocating. He was strength and power personified. A god.
It had never been more obvious than now that I was up against the near impossible.
Worse, he looked so damned good that I wanted to kick him.
“You’re back,” he said. Then the bastard smiled.
He smiled.
The memory of the agony I’d suffered, of the choice he’d taken away, flared through me. Rage like I’d never known lit a fire in my chest. It blazed, an inferno that devoured every rational thought in my head.
“You,” I hissed.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t miss this place.” His voice rolled like low, distant thunder. “That you didn’t miss the darkness.”
I hated that he was almost right. That my dreams had sometimes brought me visions of him. Visions of us. And this place made my magic so much more powerful. I could accomplish anything here—I felt the power seething through my veins, wanting to be used. I shrieked, the rage bubbling up until it came out of my mouth as a banshee’s wail.
All around, the vines rose up, towering over us like massive snakes. They’d revealed the pomegranate tree in the middle of the garden.
That tree.
I reached for it and clenched a fist. The enormous vines responded, stretching toward the tree and yanking it out of the ground, roots and all.
The most incredible sensation rushed through me—strength and power and confidence. It filled me up like a balm, washing away all my doubts and insecurities and pain.
All I felt was power. Pure, unadulterated power.
Hunger for more followed on its heels, along with the rage.
“Stop!” Hades shouted.
“No!” The vines followed my every command, acting before I could consciously form the thought. They tore the tree apart, rending it limb from limb, trunk from roots.
The sheer violence of it, the power, made my blood sing and my mind fog.
This is amazing.
I’d never felt so good in my entire life. The world was chaos around me, but I was calm. The rage had faded, and I was in control.
Hades stared at me from thirty feet away, his gaze burning into me. Something like triumph flickered in his eyes, but I was too far gone to figure out why.
“Seraphia, stop.” A masculine voice sounded from my side, and a hand gripped my arm.
Shock punched me, and I lashed out with the vines, grabbing up the intruder before I’d even turned to look at him. By the time I saw that it was Lucifer, he was already captured by two thick vines wrapping around his chest and thighs.
Yes. Squeeze him.
The thought seemed to come from nowhere, but the vines obeyed. They constricted tighter around the handsome fallen angel who had once been—almost—a friend to me.
Dark delight flared inside me as I watched the frown crease his brow. As his skin flushed darker, the delight only increased.
“Stop!” Hades roared, striding toward me.
Lucifer snarled at me, his power flaring. It smelled of cold rain and sounded like thunder. Massive black wings burst from his back, tearing the vines apart.
Pain shot through me, and I shrieked, stumbling backward.
Freed, Lucifer dropped to the ground, and his wings disappeared. The torn remains of the vines lay scattered all around him, seeping an emerald, viscous fluid that felt like my own blood leaking from my limbs. The pain sharpened my mind, and I gasped.
What the hell was happening to me?
I’d just tried to kill Lucifer.
I would never do a thing like that…yet I had.
I looked for him, but he was already gone, disappeared into the garden.
Panicked, I spun back to face Hades. He was striding toward me, so close that I could see the dark pupils of his eyes and the too-thick lashes that framed them.
A growl rose in his throat as he reached me, his face set in lines of frustration. Without a word, he heaved me into the air and flung me over his shoulder
I shrieked, kicking and pounding his back. “Let me go, you bastard!”
All around, my vines waved in the air—responding to my distress, no doubt, because I certainly wasn’t controlling them. I wanted to. I wanted to use them to grab Hades and toss him into the air.
But I couldn't. Not after the way I’d just lost control.
Still, the vines seethed around us, a threatening dance of death that made a shudder run down my spine.
A low growl sounded from Hades’ throat. He had one arm wrapped over the back of my thighs like an iron bar, but he lifted the other. It was impossible to see from my position flung over his shoulder, but I could just imagine him with his arm outstretched toward the plants, his hand wrapped in thin black leather. The plants would obey him, even though they were mine. He could control objects with his mind, and they would be no different.
He’d done the same when he’d commanded the night wolves and when he’d forced boulders aside to save our lives at the Temple of Shadows.
All around, the vines began to drop, docile and calm as they curled up on the ground.
“Stop controlling my plants.” I tried punching him in the kidneys—or at least, where I thought the kidneys were. He didn’t so much as budge.
“You certainly can’t be trusted with them,” he rumbled.
Well, that was true. But still, I didn’t like him controlling what was mine.
“Put me down,” I demanded.
“I have no idea why you think I would ever listen to you.”
“I’m going to get you for this, you bastard.”
“No, you aren’t.” He turned and strode back toward the castle.
“You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“You’re right. I don’t. But you’re still a fledgling god and no match for me.”
I hissed, so angry that I couldn’t get so much as a word out.
His long strides ate up the ground, and my stomach bounced painfully against his huge shoulder, reminding me of all I’d suffered the last two weeks. I punched him again, getting nothing but sore knuckles in return.
He stopped at the back door to the castle, and I gave the garden one last look. The sight of the massive, coiled vines sent a shiver down my spine.
I’d nearly killed Lucifer with those vines.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Hades yanked open the castle door and strode inside. He took a convoluted route through the castle, making so many turns that I lost track. Every step made me angrier, and by the time we reached another door, I was a seething mess of rage once again.
He swung open a door and set me on the ground, then stepped back. With horror, I realized that I stood in a dungeon.
A dungeon.
3
Hades
Seraphia stood in front of me, so beautiful that it hurt to look at her. Humans described looking at the setting sun to be painful yet glorious, an agony worth suffering for a glimpse at incredible beauty.
It had to be like staring at Seraphia.