Emblazed by Nikki Narvaez Read Free Book Online

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