Page 45 of Guided by the Stars (Creating Destiny #1)

“Why did you bring me here? I mean I…I…thank you,” I say because I wasn’t being ungrateful.

I was grateful to see this after all the walking I had done to get to the palace.

I had practically seen it all except for the inside of Tartarus and I had no plan to see that.

Just standing outside the walls, the stench of burning flesh and the horrendous screams were enough that I never wanted to see the inside.

I had also seen the portraits hanging in the palace. I was noping out of that one.

“This is your surprise, it’s my favorite place here in the Underworld. Persephone forced Hades to make it for her before I came into the picture,” Kai says, lowering himself onto the blanket and patting it softly so I would sit as he pulls out fruits, meats and cheese from the bag.

I sit and bite the inside of my cheek because this guy is amazing, but I’m so afraid.

I never felt a pull to anyone before, but at the same time, I can’t afford to let him in.

“Why didn’t she stop Hades from doing what he did to you?

” I ask, looking away because he has no reason to answer.

I’m not even fully sure why I am asking.

Kai pulls out two glasses and a wine bottle from his bag.

It’s pink moscato, my favorite. I wasn’t a big wine drinker, but I love pink moscato.

“If you expect me to spill my family secrets, I expect the same from you.” He pours my drink.

I take the glass and stay quiet. “So I’ll answer your question and tell the truth, then I’ll ask you a question and you tell the truth.

” Kai holds his glass out, waiting for me to clink mine against his and accept the terms to his arrangement.

I look into his eyes and see the sincerity there, so I take a deep breath. I guess there is a first time for everything. I’m going to open myself up to someone other than Nora. “Deal,” I say, clinking glasses with him and we both take a drink.

“Persephone isn’t my mother. My mother had a fling with Hades and then left him for Zeus.

She came and left me here. I guess no one wanted the son of Hades around, ruining their lives.

So she dumped me in this cesspool and left me to rot without even looking back.

Persephone,” he says with such disdain in his voice, “enjoys punishing me. She creates little cocktails and oils for me and it makes the punishments that much worse.”

He picks up a chunk of pineapple and brings it to my lips. “Were you jealous this morning?”

I wrap my lips around the pineapple, making sure I take my time to lick his fingers.

I see the need enter his eyes and then he glares at me, making me smile as I pull back, chewing calmly.

“Really? That is what you want to know?” He nods, and I promised the truth.

I have always been loyal to my word. It’s something I never give easily and when I do, I follow through.

“I felt something I never felt before, I suppose you could call it that,” I say calmly, because it’s the truth.

“So my turn, who was she?” I ask and amusement dances in his eyes.

“She’s a nymph of no importance. We live long lives, we get bored and pass the time.

Kelsey and Rose are not related to me in any way, so she has warmed my bed.

But I feared for you when she came in. She has powers and could have hurt you today.

” He runs his fingers through my hair. I didn’t even notice that I had locked up.

It wasn’t the nicest thing to hear that some other woman had been in his bed, but as he said, we both have a past. I relax my body as I wait for his next question.

“Adriane.” My name on his lips is so beautiful.

“Do you hate me?” His body stills as he waits for my answer.

Do I hate him?

I know this answer is one he needs. I also know this one answer will change things, the same way my last question for him will.

I pull up and look deep into his eyes because I need him to know, and he can see for himself the truth behind my words.

“Kai, I should hate you,” I say. He still hasn’t moved.

He opens his mouth to speak, but I shake my head and he closes it.

“But, this whole journey we have been on is a crazy one, sure. Destiny is a funny thing, I’m noticing.

I think it was why I fought you so hard, because you’re dangerous, like the devil.

” I smirk and he tries to hide his smile.

“The honest truth is that no, I don’t hate you, I don’t think I ever could.

You make me angry, you push me. You also make me feel alive, and honestly that’s something no one has ever brought out in me.

” He pulls me back into his arms and I snuggle into them, my heart racing.

I take a deep breath, giving myself a moment.

I can tell this conversation will be over soon. “Why did you take me?” I ask.

I sit up quickly and make myself busy. Picking up a piece of cut up apricot, I bring it to his mouth while I keep an eye on his lips.

He smirks and licks his lips as he takes the fruit from my fingers, making sure to nibble the tips of my fingers.

Once he pulls back, I take a drink and he finishes chewing.

I watch as he lays back, looking up at the green weeping willow.

“You know why, because of your blood. Alexius got to your friend first, but honestly, Hades promised me my freedom and for the punishments to stop. As you saw, it happens often.” My eyes move to the tattoo on his neck and he catches me looking.

“Some of my tattoos were punishments, like this one,” he says, touching the one on his neck.

“To remind me that I belong to Hades, it’s the mark he puts on all of us.

The ones he owns. He doesn’t see us as people, but as his property.

” I reach out and touch his face tenderly.

Then he grabs me and pulls me into him. I lay beside him.

“But I didn’t expect to have these feelings.

At first I just wanted my freedom, I tried to keep my distance,” he says faintly as he runs his hand up my arm. “Why are you so broken, Skoteino?”

I knew he’d ask. He said he saw my dark soul once, and I knew he wanted to know what made me so dark.

“My past broke me, but it also strengthened me. Without a family, I bounced around from one place to another. Foster homes, that’s a place where kids who have nowhere to go end up.

Most, if not all, were despicable. I guess some punishments I got were like yours.

I have scars too, but I just don’t let people close enough to ask.

” He brings my hand to his mouth, kissing my fingers one by one.

He stays quiet so I can continue. “I was flagged as a problem child after one family beat this one little boy in front of me. I stepped in and took the punishment. When they took the boy to the hospital, they told them it was me. So after that I wasn’t able to be placed with anyone for fear that I would hurt someone else.

” He growls and it sends shivers through my body.

“It’s not all bad, I met Nora, and she helped me see that everything isn’t so dark.

Then the moment I hit eighteen I got an apartment and haven’t looked back.

My past showed me this world or well, Earth, is cruel and if you’re too nice, it will eat you up and spit you out.

I decided I would not be one of those people. ”

I close my eyes because I feel like I want to cry.

I’m able to stop it before I let those tears fall.

I was told that crying is a weakness. Weakness was an emotion I couldn’t afford to show.

Instead, I muster up the courage to finally ask my question.

This is the question I have been waiting to ask, afraid of the answer.

It’s one that I need to hear though, because at this point I can still shut my feelings off.

I hope. So before I can change my mind, I spit the question out.

“Tell me, Kai, are you still willing to give me and Nora up for your freedom?”

I sit up and so does he, we stare into each other’s eyes.

I see emotions crossing his face so rapidly that I can’t read them.

This answer right here is what I need to know.

It’s going to be my deciding factor in giving him what I have left of myself.

Because I have little to offer anyone, I am so broken.

It’s why I never wanted to get close to anyone.

I’m like a beautiful house on the outside, but inside I know I’m rotting.

What I have left, I keep guarded because I don’t know if I could survive one more devastation.

So I need this answer from him to know if he is worthy or not.

He touches my face so tenderly and brings my mouth to his as he kisses me, but I don’t return the kiss, not yet, not till he tells me what I need to know.

“No,” he breathes out and I fall into him, devouring the kisses he offers me because I want him, and I want every part of him for however long I can have him.

I already know this won’t end well, but I want it and I’m tired of saying no.

So if this is it, I will gladly be brought to ruin by this devil in disguise.

His kiss is so consuming that I feel like I’m burning in the most delicious fire.

The shadows are around us, their tingly cold kisses against my skin make me shiver with pleasure.

After hearing him say no, I would gladly burn in the hottest fire of Tartarus if it meant I could kiss him and never let him go.