The Mad King (The Dark Kings #1)(18)

“What?” He sounded genuinely confused.

I shrugged. “I don’t care a whit for the worship of others. All I want, all I know, is that it is far greater to have a few know and love me, and me them, than to have the idle worship of billions who know me not at all.”

“Who are you? You are not the Aphrodite I know.”

I grinned, then sniffed delicately and gave a slight shake of my head. “Just a woman who wants to make things right.”

“What things?” He leaned forward, the hand that’d been caressing the sword on his lap stilling as though he listened to me with every single molecule of his being.

I wet my lips. “I have a friend. Two of them really. They’ve been torn apart.”

“Ah.” His dark eyes lit and he snorted. “Of course. Let me guess. One has died, and you want me to get that soul for you.” Leaning back on his throne, he curled his lip disdainfully. “You tricked me for just a moment, more fool I.”

Irritated that he’d so quickly think poorly of me, I stomped my foot. “For just one second, get your head of your ass and listen to me, you pompous, arrogant—”

His lips twitching with dark amusement made me pause. I’d expected an inferno of fury to rage at me, not to see him chuckle.

“There you are, little goddess. Telling me of being changed...” He laughed. “Do please continue prattling on and telling me how very horrid I am.” He gestured lazily with a flick of his wrist as he leaned heavily back against his throne.

Clamping my lips shut, I sucked in a sharp breath. I would not lose my head. Not now. I’d been given an audience with him, and I had a suspicion that should I leave now, I’d not be granted this opportunity again.

“You think you have everyone pegged, Death. But you don’t.”

He nodded as if in agreement, but his eyes sparkled with arrogance. I pressed on anyway. If I was going to be cast out of his presence, he was going to know why I’d come.

“I am no whore. I love. Deeply. And there are two I love more than any other in all the worlds, and they’ve been torn apart. Death didn’t separate them, but a curse. A curse neither one remembers. And the worlds tremble from the loss of them. Their children mourn. Ripped apart. Many of them vanished into the ether. One of them drowned eternally if she’d not been frozen in form by a fairy with a kind heart.”

He snorted. “Sounds wonderful.”

“You damned ignorant ass. You want to know who my friends are. You. You and Calypso—the greatest love of your life.”

His eyes widened and he went completely still and for just a second. A second in which I dared to hope. My breath caught and I leaned forward, searching his face for any sliver of remembrance.

But then his head tipped back, and a giant peal of booming laughter echoed like the ghostly wails of death all around me.

“Right. You’re hilarious, goddess. Whatever you say.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m telling the truth. And if you want any chance of getting her back, ever, you’ll do as I say right now. There is a spirit from Earth that’s passed away just this morning. Her name is Alice Hu. She is mate to the Hatter of Kingdom.”

“And I care why? Let her go to the afterlife she’s destined to.”

Taking a step forward, I shook my fist at him. “You want to save yourself, want to find your own happiness? Then save her.”

He continued to chuckle. “Whatever you say, little goddess. Thank you for this most entertaining—”

I shook my head. “The Fates told me this, Hades. You may think me an airhead, and that is your right.”

Instantly his humor vanished and his shoulders stiffened and a whispered “What?” escaped him.

“But you know them. Know they do not lie. Save that girl and maybe you might just save your pathetic excuse for a miserable life!”

I didn’t hang around to witness him mock me again. I vanished, fleeing back to my palace with tears shimmering in my eyes. Fury. Shame. Humiliation. It all warred within me. I’d lied to him. The Fates had told me nothing, but I’d known that if I told him it’d been a fairy from another land who’d sent me to him, he’d never listen to me.

Collapsing onto my bed of dazzling lights, I stared with unseeing eyes at the golden walls and choked on my tears. I’d blown it.

My horrible temper had gotten the better of me, and I’d lost my loves forever.





Chapter 7


Hades


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I’d tried to go on about my business.

Which, admittedly, wasn’t much at present.

All around me raged snow and ice. But I didn’t shiver, because I’d been cold for so long now that I hardly felt it at all.

I didn’t move from my throne, just stared at the room I’d kept myself shut in for the past century.

In all that time, no god had come to me. Not Persephone. Demeter. Zeus. No one. And the very last goddess I’d ever expected to come to me here would have been the vain and silly Aphrodite.

I frowned, tapping my fingers on my armrest in agitation.

Why had she come?

But more important than that, why did I now get the distinct impression she’d meant every word she’d said?

Had I judged her too harshly?