escaping.
Just then, Hades walked in with that stupid smirk on his face, the one I couldn’t
wait to remove. When he reached me, he sneered as he said, “I’m going to give you
one last chance to surrender your power to me. I shall spare you and you can go back
home. If not, you can stay here while I continue to torture you until you beg me to
take it.”
I snorted. “That will never happen. I would never give you my power, even if I knew
how, which I don’t.”
“Not even for the life of your flame?” Hades asked smugly.
I stiffened as fear spread over me. Had he found Jace? He couldn’t have—Jace just got here. I could still feel him, and he wasn’t in the building yet.
Hades directed his attention to the door, which opened to two minotaurs dragging Jace
between them.
No. No, no, no!
I concentrated on talking to Jace in my mind, but he didn’t respond. He still felt
like he was somewhere else in the Underworld, not standing right in front of me. I
knew our connection had issues from being apart, but it should have been back to normal
once he was in front of me.
He barely struggled against his captors, and he wouldn’t even look at me.
Jace, look at me! Look at me!
He still didn’t respond. Something wasn’t right. I couldn’t believe that it was Jace.
All of my senses except sight told me it wasn’t, but I couldn’t deny it when he stood
before me. He looked like my Jace, and given I was close to being delirious, I didn’t
put much weight on not being able to hear or feel him.
“Last chance—submit your power to me, or he will die,” Hades threatened.
“But, I don’t know how. Please, don’t,” I begged. Fuck, I don’t want to resort to begging, but this is Jace. I’d have done anything for him, even damn humanity. I didn’t care whether I was being
selfish or not, Jace was my world, the only one that really mattered to me.
Then, my nightmare sprang to life before my eyes. The minotaurs moved away as the
demons and skeletons from the walls converged on Jace. “Jace! No-o-o!”
I pulled and fought against my bonds as tears blurred my sight. I couldn’t feel anything
that was happening to him, which further confused me as to what transpired with our
bond. All I could focus on was Jace fighting off demons as desperation and rage pulsed
through me.
I used it to empower my Akasha, but I was so consumed with emotion that I had no control
over the tremendous power that streamed out of me. It erupted from my body, engulfing
the room in light while wildly shooting in all directions, including upwards where
the invisible bonds imprisoned me.
I fell to the floor in a heap, finally free. I looked up, frantically searching for
Jace among the piles of charred bodies that had been in the path of my Akasha. Chandeliers
sat in fragments in between the multitude of bodies and their strewn parts scattered
across the floor. The thrones were on opposite sides of the room, embedded in the
walls, and piles of ash smoked in various places throughout the chamber.
Hades was nowhere in sight, and I hoped that I had obliterated him into one of the
mounds of dust, even though he had probably fled like a coward when everything had
started happening.
I tried to stand, but I was too weak to support myself. Dots spotted my vision as
I dragged myself down the stairs, praying that I could find Jace in the carnage in
front of me before I blacked out. I reasoned that, since I was still alive, he was
too. I couldn’t fathom that our bond could be that fractured.
I saw the red tips of his hair beneath a mass of blackened bodies. My chest tightened,
my heart strangled by the thought that Jace might be dead or dying because of my carelessness. Please be okay, please be okay.
I crawled over the smoking remains of the demons, the stench of which caused me to
vomit on some of them. I finally made it to Jace, and I pushed the bodies covering
him, but they
Just then, Hades walked in with that stupid smirk on his face, the one I couldn’t
wait to remove. When he reached me, he sneered as he said, “I’m going to give you
one last chance to surrender your power to me. I shall spare you and you can go back
home. If not, you can stay here while I continue to torture you until you beg me to
take it.”
I snorted. “That will never happen. I would never give you my power, even if I knew
how, which I don’t.”
“Not even for the life of your flame?” Hades asked smugly.
I stiffened as fear spread over me. Had he found Jace? He couldn’t have—Jace just got here. I could still feel him, and he wasn’t in the building yet.
Hades directed his attention to the door, which opened to two minotaurs dragging Jace
between them.
No. No, no, no!
I concentrated on talking to Jace in my mind, but he didn’t respond. He still felt
like he was somewhere else in the Underworld, not standing right in front of me. I
knew our connection had issues from being apart, but it should have been back to normal
once he was in front of me.
He barely struggled against his captors, and he wouldn’t even look at me.
Jace, look at me! Look at me!
He still didn’t respond. Something wasn’t right. I couldn’t believe that it was Jace.
All of my senses except sight told me it wasn’t, but I couldn’t deny it when he stood
before me. He looked like my Jace, and given I was close to being delirious, I didn’t
put much weight on not being able to hear or feel him.
“Last chance—submit your power to me, or he will die,” Hades threatened.
“But, I don’t know how. Please, don’t,” I begged. Fuck, I don’t want to resort to begging, but this is Jace. I’d have done anything for him, even damn humanity. I didn’t care whether I was being
selfish or not, Jace was my world, the only one that really mattered to me.
Then, my nightmare sprang to life before my eyes. The minotaurs moved away as the
demons and skeletons from the walls converged on Jace. “Jace! No-o-o!”
I pulled and fought against my bonds as tears blurred my sight. I couldn’t feel anything
that was happening to him, which further confused me as to what transpired with our
bond. All I could focus on was Jace fighting off demons as desperation and rage pulsed
through me.
I used it to empower my Akasha, but I was so consumed with emotion that I had no control
over the tremendous power that streamed out of me. It erupted from my body, engulfing
the room in light while wildly shooting in all directions, including upwards where
the invisible bonds imprisoned me.
I fell to the floor in a heap, finally free. I looked up, frantically searching for
Jace among the piles of charred bodies that had been in the path of my Akasha. Chandeliers
sat in fragments in between the multitude of bodies and their strewn parts scattered
across the floor. The thrones were on opposite sides of the room, embedded in the
walls, and piles of ash smoked in various places throughout the chamber.
Hades was nowhere in sight, and I hoped that I had obliterated him into one of the
mounds of dust, even though he had probably fled like a coward when everything had
started happening.
I tried to stand, but I was too weak to support myself. Dots spotted my vision as
I dragged myself down the stairs, praying that I could find Jace in the carnage in
front of me before I blacked out. I reasoned that, since I was still alive, he was
too. I couldn’t fathom that our bond could be that fractured.
I saw the red tips of his hair beneath a mass of blackened bodies. My chest tightened,
my heart strangled by the thought that Jace might be dead or dying because of my carelessness. Please be okay, please be okay.
I crawled over the smoking remains of the demons, the stench of which caused me to
vomit on some of them. I finally made it to Jace, and I pushed the bodies covering
him, but they
Similar Books
Always You
Jill Gregory
Mage Catalyst
Christopher George
The Princess of Sparta: Heroes of the Trojan War
Aria Cunningham
Into the Future: A Callahan Novel
Celya Bowers
Exile's Gate
C. J. Cherryh
4 Terramezic Energy
John O'Riley
Ed McBain
Learning to Kill: Stories
Love To The Rescue
Brenda Sinclair
The Expeditions
Karl Iagnemma
The String Diaries
Stephen Lloyd Jones