A Game of Fate (Hades Saga #1)(10)

Thrilled, Hades continued to explain the game.

“There are ten rankings in poker. The lowest is the high card and the highest is the royal flush. The goal is to draw a higher rank than the other player…” he expounded. “If you are dealt a bad hand, fold. It is better than the alternative. Checking and calling would apply if we were playing for coin, but since our currency is answers, the point is moot. Perhaps the most important skill in poker is your ability to bluff.”

“Bluff?” That seemed to pique her interest.

“Sometimes, poker is just a game of deception…especially when you’re losing.”

Hades dealt each of them five cards, and they took their time eyeing their hands and then each other. Finally, the goddess laid her cards down, face up, and Hades did the same.

“You have a pair of queens,” he said. “And I have a full house.”

“So…you win.” She didn’t seem upset so much as contemplative, still trying to remember the rules and understand the game. Hades, on the other hand, was impatient, and he jumped at the chance to ask his question.

“Who are you rebelling against?”

She smiled wryly. “My mother.”

He raised a brow. “Why?”

“You’ll have to win another hand if I’m going to answer.”

He was all too eager. When he won a second time, he did not ask the question, just looked at her expectantly.

“Because…” She paused, and her eyes moved away from his, focusing on the table in front of them, brows furrowing. She was searching for an answer. For a way to avoid telling the truth, Hades realized. She smiled ruefully as she said, “She made me mad.”

There was a hint of darkness to her words, and he wanted to chase that moment. It was the first time he sensed she was holding back. He waited for more of an explanation, but she just smirked.

“You never said the answer had to be detailed.”

His grin matched hers. “Noted for the future, I assure you.”

“The future?”

“Well, I hope this isn’t the last time we’ll play poker.”

Especially now. She was teaching him how she thought and worked, and he would be more than prepared for their next game. She would not be able to cut corners so easily. The terms would be detailed, the stakes higher.

Her expression turned wary, and he got the sense that she had not planned on seeing him again after tonight.

Something jolted through him—an emotion akin to fear.

I have to see her again. I will go mad.

He pushed those thoughts away. Finish the game, he told himself, and dealt another hand and won.

“Why are you angry with your mother?” he asked.

She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then said, “Because…she wants me to be something I can’t.”

Was that what I sensed beneath the surface? Her true nature, desperate to be free?

Her gaze dropped to the cards. “I don’t understand why people do this.”

He tilted his head. “You are not enjoying our game?”

“I am. But…I don’t understand why people play Hades. Why do they want to sell their soul to him?”

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.