The air in the underworld was thick, heavy with the scent of damp stone and something ancient. It curled around me, pressing against my lungs, making every breath feel like an effort.
I wasn’t supposed to be here.
But I didn’t know how I got here.
The last thing I remembered was sitting in that alley, drowning in my own thoughts, my own failure. And now, I was here, standing before the god who had taken everything from me.
Hades watched me from his throne, his golden eyes gleaming in the dim torchlight. He was patient, like a hunter waiting for its prey to exhaust itself.
I clenched my fists. “What did you do?”
Hades raised a brow. “Do?” His voice was smooth, mocking. “You act as though I dragged you here.”
My stomach twisted.
I opened my mouth to argue, to deny it—but something inside me hesitated.
Had he brought me here? Or had I… come willingly?
I stepped back, shaking my head. “No. No, I wouldn’t—I wouldn’t come to you.”
Hades leaned forward slightly, resting his chin against his fingers. “Are you sure?”
The words sent a chill through me, not because they were cruel, but because they were gentle. Patient.
My breath hitched.
“Of course I’m sure,” I snapped, but my voice wavered.
Hades’ expression didn’t change. “Then why are you here?”
I didn’t know.
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I wanted to blame him, to believe he had forced me here, just like he had stolen my serpents, just like he had twisted my mind.
But what if he hadn’t?
What if I had fallen so far that I had come to him myself?
The thought made my stomach churn. I staggered back another step, my chest rising and falling too fast.
Hades didn’t move. He let the silence sit, let my own thoughts sink their claws into me.
You need him.
The words whispered through my mind, insidious, slithering into the cracks of my doubt.
I squeezed my eyes shut. No. No, I don’t.
But hadn’t I already lost? Hadn’t I already broken?
I had spent my whole life fighting, but now I was nothing. No power. No fear. No identity.
Who are you without your curse?
The question sent ice through my veins.
I didn’t know the answer.
And that terrified me more than anything.
“There, now.”
A voice. Soft. Dangerous.
I flinched as something warm brushed my skin—Hades’ hand, lifting my chin. I jerked away from his touch, but my body betrayed me. I didn’t move fast enough.
His fingers lingered, his grip deceptively gentle.
I should pull away. I should fight.
But I didn’t.
Because a terrible truth was sinking in.
For days, I had been adrift, drowning in my own mind, slipping further into the void. Orion had tried to help, but his presence had been softer, a whisper in the background.
But Hades?
Hades was solid. Real. Unshakable.
He wasn’t fragile, wasn’t delicate with his words. He wasn’t trying to comfort me—he was carving into me, reshaping me into something he could use.
And the worst part?
It felt safe.
My throat tightened.
I didn’t want to feel safe with him. I didn’t want to need him.
But wasn’t this easier?
To let someone else decide who I was?
To stop fighting?
“I hate you,” I whispered, but my voice was barely there.
Hades exhaled softly. “I know.”
His fingers ghosted over my jaw before finally pulling away. The air felt colder without his touch.
I hated that I noticed.
I hated that I missed it.
The First Lie
Hades didn’t demand anything from me that night. He didn’t tell me to kneel, didn’t order me to beg.
He didn’t need to.
Because I had already taken the first step toward breaking myself.
That night, I sat in the shadows of his underworld, staring at my hands, at the skin where my serpents should have been, at the empty spaces that used to make me whole.
I told myself I would find a way to escape.
I told myself I would never kneel to him.
And I told myself I didn’t need him.
But as the weight of the silence pressed in, as the loneliness crept beneath my skin like poison—
I wondered if I had already lost.
