Page 4 of A Kingdom of Sand and Ice (Kingdom of Gods #2)

Never trust Hades. He lies, and he schemes. I had to learn that the hard way. He made me trust him when we first met, when he told me the truth. The truth about who I really am.

But oh, how he loves to twist it all.

Tabitha Wysteria

Mal tried, and failed, not to let her shock show.

The Underworld. Of all the answers she had prepared herself for, that one had not crossed her mind.

She had grown up worshipping the gods, listening to sacred stories spun from shadows and mystery.

Tales of fire and brimstone, of gates forged from bone and rivers choked with the souls of the damned.

Each kingdom had their own name for it, but the belief was universal.

Still, hearing it from Hades himself sent a chill down her spine.

‘And why would I go anywhere with you?’ she asked, doing her best to keep the sneer from curling her voice.

But it was hard, harder still with this god lording over her family, ensnaring them in invisible chains.

Behind her, Ash’s fingers brushed the back of her arm, a silent reminder of who she was dealing with.

Hades’ smile deepened, curling into something monstrous, something ancient and cruel. Mal instinctively leaned back in her seat, afraid he might reach across the space between them and drag her into the abyss.

‘We’re family, are we not?’ he purred. ‘Don’t you want to get to know your dear old father?’

‘I already have a father,’ she bit out.

Hades chuckled, low and venomous. ‘Ah, yes, you do. Though I’m not convinced he’s particularly worthy of the title.’

His gaze shifted towards King Ozul, and Mal looked too. Something passed across her father’s face, a flicker of emotion so brief it might have been missed, had she not been watching. Recognition. Guilt.

She frowned. That couldn’t be. The gods had been locked away for a hundred years. How could her father possibly know Hades?

But when she looked back at the god, his red eyes betrayed no lies.

Somehow, impossibly, there was truth in them.

Her father did know something. Whether it was about Hades himself or something tied to him, Mal could feel it, see it, in the subtle tremor that had rippled through King Ozul’s composure.

‘I’ll make this simple, Melinoe,’ Hades said lazily, though his voice echoed like a blade sliding from its sheath. ‘If you refuse to return with me, I’ll kill your family. But really, would you be losing much? They’re not even truly your kin, are they?’

He tilted his head towards the others seated in silence—her parents, Kai. Their eyes brimmed with terror, wide and unblinking.

Mal’s mind reeled. Why? Why was he so determined to drag her away? It wasn’t sentiment. Surely gods didn’t care about affection. There was something else behind his desperation, something darker.

Hades’ gaze dipped to the ring upon her finger.

‘You wouldn’t want to lose anyone else you love, would you?’

Mal leaned forward, baring her teeth like a feral animal. ‘How do you know about that?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m a god, Melinoe. I know everything.’

‘Almost everything,’ Ash muttered, just loud enough.

Hades’ crimson eyes narrowed to slits. ‘Perhaps the Fire Prince can tell you what it feels like to lose every last member of one’s family.’

Something glinted in the god’s expression. Whatever it was, only Ash seemed to understand.

Mal felt the sudden tension in him, coiled and ready to strike, and without thinking, she reached behind her, placing a hand on his knee.

A quiet plea. Not yet. She still didn’t know what Ash had become, what he’d endured when she’d cast him into fire to break the curse.

He was no longer the man she’d once known.

He was holding something back from her, and whether it was from mistrust or protection, she could not yet tell.

A sharp cry broke through the tension, wrenching all heads towards the sound. Kai. He had made a sound, choked and desperate, tears shining in his eyes even beneath Hades’ spell. Mal’s breath caught.

He didn’t know.

He didn’t know about Alina. Or Haven.

‘You ought to tell him,’ Hades said, voice like honeyed rot. ‘Spare him the torment. Or shall I?’

Her hands curled against the stone table. She would not let him see her tremble. She would not show weakness.

‘Don’t you dare mock our grief,’ she growled.

‘And what grief would that be, dear?’ he replied, gleefully glancing between her and Kai, savouring every twitch of understanding dawning in the young prince’s face.

‘Stop it,’ she hissed. Her throat ached with the effort not to scream.

Hades gave a casual shrug, then stood and waved a hand. The invisible restraints shattered. Her family gasped as their voices returned, clutching at their chests and drawing ragged breaths.

‘I’ll give you until dusk to say your farewells,’ he said airily. ‘Then I shall return to take you home, Melinoe. Do not attempt to deceive me, tricks will not avail you. If you wish them to live, you will come with me.’

Mal opened her mouth to respond, but he was already turning away. He strode to one of the tall, glassless windows and dropped out into the void, vanishing into the night.

…

At first, Mal couldn’t move. Couldn’t think.

Her parents reached her in an instant, their arms flung around her, holding her close as though they could shield her from the weight of the world pressing in.

Words spilt from their lips. Pleas, questions, desperate demands to understand, but Mal remained still, her purple eyes locked with Kai’s dark ones across the table.

Brother and sister sat in brittle silence, neither daring to speak, for what needed to be said was far too heavy for words. The truth passed between them in a single, shattering look. A truth too cruel to utter.

Mal looked away when Kai’s expression finally cracked, his grief unfurling across his face like a storm breaking free. Her heart fractured anew as he stood, shoulders trembling, and left the hall without a sound.

She removed Haven’s ring and placed it gently on the stone table.

The gesture spoke louder than anything she could have said.

Her mother collapsed with a wail, her sobs unrestrained, raw and echoing in the chamber.

Queen Senka crumpled, a queen undone by a mother’s grief.

The king, always so composed, drew her close, his voice breaking as he asked the question Mal could not answer.

It was Ash who spoke in her place, his voice low and steady. ‘Witches,’ he said, his hand resting on Mal’s shoulder like a tether. ‘They have taken the Kingdom of Fire. They m-murdered the king and queen, my pa-parents.’

‘And your sister?’ King Ozul asked quietly.

Ash did not reply. His silence said enough.

The king nodded, his face ashen. Without another word, he helped his weeping wife to her feet and led her away. The echo of their departure lingered long after the doors closed behind them.

Mal stared at the ring on the table, untouched, alone. Her hand hovered above it, hesitating.

‘She would want you to ha-have it,’ Ash said, his voice catching.

‘Would she?’ Mal whispered, her fingertip brushing the dark band as though touch might conjure her sister back from the void. But there was only silence. Only the truth that Haven was gone. She looked at Ash, her eyes brimming with a grief too vast for words. ‘Can I trust you?’

‘It’s still me,’ he said.

Mal searched his face, those haunting golden eyes. She wanted, needed , to believe him. But sometimes, she caught him staring into the distance, far beyond her reach, as though his soul were adrift in another world. ‘Then why won’t you tell me what you’ve seen?’

Ash’s jaw clenched. His silence wrapped around them like a second betrayal, and Mal turned from him, the cold steel of fear settling in her chest. Haven was gone, and now, she feared, she was losing Ash too.

His hand closed around hers, firm and urgent, pulling her back.

‘I have seen our paths,’ he said, his voice raw. ‘But if I tell you, they will cha-change. And then, I would not for-foresee the way.’

She cupped his face, gently drawing him closer, searching the depths of his gaze for something, anything, that might convince her he was still the man she had once married.

Her fingers traced the curve of his jaw, the lines carved by grief and fate.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, his eyes glowing like twin embers in the twilight.

‘Tell me what to do,’ she breathed, her hands sliding into the softness of his hair.

His expression crumpled, as though her plea had pierced something buried deep.

‘You must go with your father, Mal,’ he said. ‘You must be-become Melinoe.’

She looked away, her breath hitching. The words rang in her ears like a bell tolling for the dead.

She had to go. Not just for her family, but because Ash had seen the path, and this was the only way left.

Will I return? she longed to ask, but the question stayed lodged in her throat, too afraid of the answer he might give.

Ash picked up the ring and slipped it back onto her finger, his touch reverent.

‘And you?’ she asked, the blue flames in the hearth dancing low, casting the room in deepening shadow.

Ash rose to his full height, a quiet storm behind his eyes. ‘I will raise an army,’ he said, ‘and take back what was mine.’

…

Mal found her brother by the temple, standing motionless before the lone tree she had so often prayed to.

The sight of Kai, usually a storm of movement and mischief, held still beside something so sacred was unsettling, as though the world had tilted slightly on its axis.

She wondered, fleetingly, what might happen if she were to pray now.

For all her life she had longed for the gods to answer.

And now that they had, she wished only for their silence.

‘They’re both dead, aren’t they?’ Kai’s voice was low, stripped of its usual lightness. It was a tone she had never heard before. A stranger’s voice, rough with sorrow.