Haven’t you ever been desperate for something? he wanted to ask, but he knew the answer. He could feel it burning between them.
“They don’t agree to a game because they want to sell their soul,” he said. “They do it because they think they can win.”
“Do they? Win?”
“Sometimes.”
“Does that anger him, you think?”
She had pursed her lips at the question, and dread tightened his chest. This woman had connections to Demeter, which meant she had heard the worst things about him. If he had any hope of deconstructing the myth that had been erected around him, he was going to have to spend time with her, and that meant she needed to know who he was, so he answered her question truthfully.
“Darling, I win either way.”
Her eyes went wide, and she stood quickly, almost knocking her chair over. He had never seen anyone so eager to leave his company. His name slipped out of her mouth like a curse.
“Hades.”
He shuddered. Say it again, he wanted to command, but he kept his mouth shut. His eyes darkened, and he pressed his lips together. The look on her face would haunt him for an eternity. She was shocked, frightened, embarrassed.
She made a mistake. He read it on her face.
“I have to go.”
She spun, fleeing from him like he was death himself come to steal her soul.
He thought about chasing after her but knew it did not matter whether or not he followed. She would be back. She had lost to him, and he had marked her.
He swallowed the rest of his whiskey and smiled.
Perhaps Aphrodite’s bargain would not be so impossible after all.
“Fastest path, quickest benefit,” he muttered.
CHAPTER IV – FUCKING FATES
“My lord.” Minthe’s voice brought him out of his reverie. “Your first appointment has arrived.”
Fuck. He was definitely in the wrong headspace to entertain another bargain. He frowned and went to drink from his glass, but realized it was empty. When he looked at the nymph, her brow was arched.
“Smitten, my lord?” Her voice dripped with judgment.
“Yes,” he said. He saw no reason to lie. “I am.”
Minthe’s shock registered in her eyes as they widened, then her lips flattened.
“Desperation isn’t flattering, Hades.”
“Neither is jealousy,” he replied, shoving the empty glass into her hands.
She scowled.
“Where is the mortal?”
Her eyes flashed as she answered, “The Diamond Suite.”
By the end of the night, Hades had won three contracts. Two men in search of wealth, one young and one old, and a woman in search of love. All now faced the challenge of overcoming what burdened their souls most.
The younger of the two men sought to replace his college funds, which he had drained to support his cocaine addiction. He would have to kick his habit before Hades would grant his wish. The older man was seeking to pay for his wife’s chemotherapy, and the greatest burden on his soul? He had been cheating on her prior to her diagnosis. Hades’ terms were that he had to come clean about the affair.
The woman asked for love, or rather, she asked for a specific man to fall in love with her. A co-worker she had been pining after for years.
It was a request Hades heard often, and one he could never grant.
She sat across from Hades, looking desperate and tired, and as he peered at her soul, he saw that it was so twined with the man she loved, she no longer resembled her true self. She was a tangle of vines, marred with thorns, that had grown sharp from years of rejection.
“Change your terms,” he advised.
Her eyes narrowed, and she gritted her teeth, daring to raise her voice. “But he is who I want!”
It was the second time he had heard that plea tonight, and both times, it had been a lie.
“I cannot make another mortal love you,” Hades said. “You either ask for love or nothing.”
She had glared at him for a while, trying to hold back her tears, before agreeing. He supposed she had decided it was better to be loved by someone in the end. Except that she did not win their game, and upon her loss, Hades met her terrified, watery gaze.
“Cease this pointless desire for your co-worker,” Hades said.
She glared. “I can’t just…stop loving him.”
“You must find a way,” he said. “Perhaps when you do, your eyes will be opened to a new love.”
Hades started to rise to his feet.
“Haven’t you ever been in love?” she asked, and when he paused, her eyes widened with the realization. “You haven’t.”
Hades pressed his lips together. “Careful, mortal. This life is fleeting. Your existence in the Underworld lasts an eternity.”
He started to rise again, and the woman grabbed his hand. “Please! You don’t understand! I cannot help who I love!”
Hades jerked his hand away. “You waste your words and feelings, mortal.”
He could have said more. He could have explained that her love for this indifferent man made her resentful, that the moment she decided to release him from her affections, the better her life would be, but he knew she would not hear him, so he did not speak. Instead, he vanished, retiring to the Underworld.
But not to rest.
He teleported to the Library of the Souls, located in the mirrored palace of the Fates. Hades had gifted the three goddesses a portion of his realm—an island that floated in the ether of the Underworld. It was inaccessible to all but him, and the Fates were unable to leave it.
A gilded cage, Lachesis had called it.
A glorified prison, Clotho spouted.
A mirrored cell, Atropos said.
The Fates may have chosen to describe it as a cage, a cell, a prison, but they knew just as well as Hades it was built to their specifications and for their protection.
“Would you prefer to live among the souls and deities of the Underworld?” he asked them every time they complained. “They would stone you, and I would not stop them.”
None of them liked his reply, and they had responded by demanding that he change the gardens outside the palace—a request they made often, and one he obliged.
There were no windows in the library, save for a glass dome ceiling that let in a greyish light. The walls were floor to ceiling bookcases, full of tomes bound in black velvet. Each volume detailed the life of every human, creature, and god.
Hades held out his hand and called for Demeter, the Goddess of Harvest. The book came to him, landing in his grasp with a thump. As he opened it, a projection of threads illustrated a timeline from the goddess’ birth to the present, which could be read or watched like a film.
Hades chose to watch, following her thread from her battle worn birth to her vengeful existence after Titanomachy, to the creation of her nurturing cult, until her thread branched off, signifying the creation of another life-thread.
“Show me who this thread belongs to,” he said, and the gold broke apart until it formed the image of the girl from Nevernight.
As Hades looked at her, his chest tightened.
No wonder she smelled like Demeter—she was her daughter.
“Curious about your future queen?” Lachesis appeared, dressed in white, her face framed with long, dark hair, her head crowned in gold. She was the middle sister, and in her hand, she held a gold rod with which she measured mortal life.