Page 34

Chapter

Thirty-One

P ersephone

A giant wood door the size of at least three normal doors wide and two high, clad in strips of metal held in place by fist-sized bolts, swings open. My heart bobs in my chest at the sight of the God that greets us, and the clearly unwelcoming look that paints his face.

He takes a few lumbering steps from the abode he’s crafted into the side of a mountain, tucked away into the crevices of a realm I very much doubt looks kindly on those of a more reclusive nature. He folds his arms over a wide chest, metal making muscles strain against the white shirt he wears.

His eyes glide over us, the assessment dangerous. They are dark and blasted with shards of silver, as though the very metal he shapes has imbedded itself in his very eyes like splinters under skin.

They shimmer in the muted light of the moon as he cocks his head only slightly to the side, eyes dropping to the girl Ares carries before flicking up to meet Ares’ eyes.

“Ares.”

“Hephaestus.” Ares walks himself and the girl closer. Ribbons of bloodstained hair, once golden, fall over his arm as though stretching for the ground. Her head is tipped back, and no one can miss the very obvious handprints that stain her throat black and blue.

I do my best to swallow my bobbing heart as I move with Ares, closer to the unimpressed God barring the entrance to his home.

“Why are you here?” Hephaestus grunts, voice rough and unwelcome.

“She needs somewhere safe.”

“And you thought to yourself that that somewhere was with me?” The dark incredulity in Hephaestus’ question has me wanting to tuck tail and run.

The girl has already suffered enough. She doesn’t need to be left somewhere she is very clearly not wanted.

“Eileithyia is full,” Ares says simply.

Hephaestus sighs. He hangs his head between his shoulders for a long moment before he sighs again. “What am I to do with her?”

“Give her space and time to heal,” I tell him, fighting not to shrink when those metal blasted eyes land heavily on me.

“She has been so hurt, her innocence torn from her without mercy, her heart shattered beforehand.” When Hephaestus doesn’t take his eyes from me, I press on.

“She was forced to watch her father’s murder in the arena before—before his killer was gifted her in celebration of his,” I swallow the acid that threatens to spill between my lips. Quietly, I finish, “His victory.”

“There is no victory in the arena,” Hephaestus growls. “Only suffering.”

“She needs someone who can be soft with her. Someone kind and patient.”

“Someone like Eileithyia,” Hephaestus grunts.

“Eileithyia’s house is full of girls like her. Girls Zeus has destroyed.”

Hephaestus’ eyes flash almost entirely silver. In just a blink, it’s gone. His jaw hardens as he grinds his molars. “I will take this one. But no more, Ares.”

Ares passes the girl into Hephaestus’ arms. She looks so small there. So delicate and impossibly breakable.

I can no longer fight the tears that spring to my eyes any more than I can help the quick steps I take toward her.

Hephaestus stands stone still as I lean in close to her, pressing my lips to the cool skin of her forehead.

I whisper, “You didn’t deserve a single moment of the pain you suffered.

Please don’t let your end be the thing to destroy all the beauty and love you carry inside you.

You can overcome this. Your soul can live a beautiful life of love and peace. ”

When I step away from the girl, the silver in his eyes has eaten through his pupil to blast through the dark of his iris.

Those eyes lift over my head to glare at the God at my back.

“She has a soft heart. It has no business being in that castle.” He begins to move for the door but pauses.

Over his shoulder, silver eyes pinned to Ares, he says low, “Neither do you, brother.”

Ares says nothing as Hephaestus disappears with the body of the broken girl into his mountain home, the heavy armed door falling closed behind him with a sealing bang that rattles my already shook soul.