Page 62 of Guided by the Stars (Creating Destiny #1)

Adriane

When Souls Break

I am being escorted out, and keeping my head held high so I don’t give away my fear.

The water started bubbling harder all around me.

The need to fight and tear away, to claw myself out of these demented creature’s arms is strong, but I know if I do, it won’t only be me paying the price.

So I allow the anger to boil inside me and the water in the room spews.

A woman with purple eyes looks at me as she exits a hidden door at the back of the room.

Hades opens a portal and the shadows slither around, cold radiating from them.

It’s a black hole and he shoves me through it.

We come out in front of the underground entrance to Tartarus and a suffocating heat hits my face.

I want to cry out, but I don’t. I know this is what this sick-fuck Hades wants.

I won’t give him the satisfaction. I see my old friend Aegaeon but again, I know he can’t stop this and neither can I.

He might not even be a friend, but since he called me little protector I had felt a kinship with him .

The gates open and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, goosebumps all over my flesh.

My stomach is rolling with the stench. He has his minions march me over to a huge alcove and stands there with a smug smile on his face as they chain me to a wall.

I want to scream. I know Kai or Jax couldn’t hear me, but that is what Hades wants.

He wants to see me break. I take a deep breath, the screaming in this place is overwhelming.

The souls here glow a burgundy-red. Though what I see is what nightmares are made of.

Someone is being flayed alive, except they weren’t alive anymore.

They still felt pain though. I could hear it in their screams and see it in their eyes, that look of being beyond pain, when their eyes cloud over and they sink into that abyss.

Looking over to my other side isn’t any better, there is a woman being burned at the stake.

I can smell her skin. I’m assaulted with the smell of pork frying, it makes me gag.

Her skin chars away and my eyes water from the smoke and the smell.

“This is what happens when I don’t get what I want, defying the gods is not recommended, my pet.

” Hades walks over to me and touches my face with his long-fingered icy hand.

I turned my face away but there wasn’t much I could do, being chained to a wall with my arms spread apart above my head.

“Give in, my sweet Delfini,” he purrs in my ear.

“No,” I hiss back, because I’d never give in so quickly.

But as I witness the surrounding horrors, I realize I’m already on the verge of breaking.

I hear a scream that draws my attention away from Hades.

A man is having his liver eaten by two vultures.

The screams in this place, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop hearing them.

The sights here bring memories of my own past to the surface of my mind.

The whippings and all of the blood. I didn’t even know souls could bleed.

I don’t think I could have imagined this in my own nightmares .

Hades creates a whip from a branch with thorns protruding from the sides.

I bite the inside of my cheek because I know I’m in for pain.

I know I’ll do what I can to hold my screams back, but I’m not immortal.

I have been beaten before and dealt with the pain, but never caused by a god and never from whips made by gods.

He strikes the whip out and I flinch. I can still hear the screaming.

I have been watching these horrors for what seems like hours.

Finally, I am released from the chains, but I know it’s not over, not even close.

The whip is still in Hades’ hand and I want to make a run for it, but where can you run when you’re in the Underworld and he is the god that controls it?

I was a fool to think I could have escaped.

“Let’s see if this will change your mind. The second you say you will give me what I want, the sooner this ends,” Hades says. I steel myself, but he has his shadows on me, flinging me around with my hands above my head. I’m facing the wall now and I know I am in for a world of pain.

Before I can even react, a blazing sharp pain shoots across my back and I bite my tongue so hard that I taste blood.

I hear the whip before it lands on my back.

I turn my head and bite into my upper arm to control the scream that threatens to escape.

After two more lashes, I don’t think I can take any more. My back is blazing as if I’m on fire.

Tears run down my face and the lashes keep coming.

I have bitten so hard on my arm that it’s bleeding.

I’m not sure at what point, but I started screaming.

My throat is raw, as if I have clawed it with razors, but he keeps going and my eyes roll.

I hate myself at this moment because I can’t keep myself quiet any longer.

I know I’m at my breaking point and I am going to give him what he wants to stop this torment.

My knees give out and I can’t hold myself up anymore. “Pl-pl-please,” I say, tears streaming down my face, and I have no dignity left to keep fighting this. As strong as I thought I was, I know now that was just a brave face I put on for the world.

He flips me around and I stare into those intense black eyes.

The smile on his face tells me he won. It’s the raw, calculating smile that every psychopath gets when they know they have broken their victims. That smile brings flashbacks of the evil men I had seen through my foster homes and the cold-blooded monsters you see on TV.

“I will show you I am merciful, and let you go back to my son. But first, as promised, a mark, to show that you are not so free anymore, Delfini.” He is within inches of me.

He moves his hand around and I feel a sensation on the back of my neck, it is intense and cold, like I have gotten frostbite.

Does it hurt? Yes, but not as bad as my back does.

I don’t even know how many lashes I got, I lost count after six. My back must look like minced meat.

“So exquisite, my pet. Don’t worry, this tattoo is just for you.

The next one I give you will be the same one everyone I own has.

That one will be placed on you in a more public setting, that way there is no question that you have bowed to me.

” His voice is full of happiness, he has won and he knows it.

He motions with his hands and the shadows fall away as I fall to my knees, but I don’t care.

I thought I had been through hell and back, but witnessing what could happen to my soul for eternity or what they could do to Nora’s, I’m not willing to risk that.

I watch as a man is being boiled in oil.

It is the most horrific thing I have seen, watching as his skin boils and sloughs off of his bones as he writhes and screams in total desperation and agony.

All these punishments keep repeating because the souls are already dead.

They would never end their torture or escape their fate.

Whipped and tattooed against my will, Hades broke me in ways I didn’t even know I could be broken.

I know something inside me has changed forever.

“Hypnos, my dear friend.” I look up at the sound of Hades’ voice.

I see a man flying with wings, actual wings coming from the top of his shoulders.

They are black as night. The man has long, dark hair and a beard, but his eyes look soft.

He looks at me with compassion. “Put her to sleep, but not for too long, just long enough to get her out of here and have her taken to my son’s room.

Remove those marks, I don’t want her skin marred.

” Hades looks at me before he continues, “Not yet anyhow.” I flinch away.

The man flies towards me and I back up into the vast rock wall, because this man is flying and has wings! What the fuck? And also because I didn’t want to go to sleep against my will. I don’t even know what Hades would do to me while I’d be asleep.

My back hits the hot stone wall and I bring up my knees to my chest, sitting in a ball so he wouldn’t get near me. I don’t think I could handle him being close. “Do not fear, little one, I am the God of Sleep. No harm will come to you, nor will you dream. Just blissful sleep.”

He draws a horn out and I cover my face but it’s useless, this mist swirls between my fingers. It tastes nutty and smells like ripe fruit. I hope beyond hope that I won’t dream, because after being here, I wasn’t sure if I could ever sleep without nightmares haunting my dreams.

My eyes grow heavy with sleep, my body betraying me as it goes slack. Hypnos picks me up and the only thing I can do is lay in his arms. “I’ll take you to Kai.” My eyes close as darkness pulls me towards a dreamless sleep.

** *

My eyes fly open, taking in my surroundings.

The room is dimly lit and my head pounds when I try to lift it up.

The last thing I remember was falling asleep in Hypnos’ arms. “Adriane,” the sound of Kai’s voice makes me wince.

The fog is clearing quickly and the pounding is ebbing away.

My eyes land on Kai and scan the room. I’m in Kai’s room.

He stands next to the bed, his head bowed down.

“Kai,” I respond to him, but my voice is still so hoarse.

I look away from his eyes because they look so haunted.

He has so much guilt in them. This is it.

Hades won. I was accepting defeat in this because I would never wish this upon Nora, and maybe just having me for himself would be enough and he would leave Nora out of it.

“I was wrong, Kai,” I whisper. I am in his arms so fast.