Page 117

Eve

Fear settled into my gut, as heavy as lead. I had let it slip in the heat of the moment like a fool. My legs turned liquid.

I shook me, pulling me violently out of my reverie. "So tell me, Ellen," he growled. "What are you hiding me from me?"

My mind spiralled with lies that I could spew, it he continued to pry, he would find the deception. Just like I had feared, there would be hell to pay if he ever found it and everything that he had just promised reiterated just proved that without doubt.

Dread and horror coursed through me, my tongue tied for a long while.

I swallowed thickly, trying to steady my breathing, but my chest felt tight, my lungs refusing to cooperate.

Hades’ grip was unrelenting, his eyes burning with a mix of fury and something darker—something primal.

Every fiber of my being screamed to run, to fight, to escape, but there was nowhere to go. I was trapped.

"I’m not hiding anything," I said, my voice shaking even as I tried to keep it steady. "You’re overreacting."

He tilted his head, his gaze narrowing like a predator watching prey that had dared to speak back.

The low growl that rumbled in his chest sent a shiver down my spine.

"Overreacting? Funny choice of words, considering you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Or perhaps…

" His lips curled into a slow, predatory smirk.

"A truth you didn’t want me to uncover."

My heart raced, my mind scrambling for a way out. His grip on my waist tightened just enough to make my breath hitch. I tried to push against his chest, but his strength was impenetrable, his body a wall of heat.

"You’re imagining things," I said weakly, my hands pressing against his chest in a futile attempt to create distance. "I don’t know what you think you heard, but—"

"Don’t lie to me, Ellen." His voice was quiet, but it held the weight of a storm about to break.

His free hand slid up to my jaw, his thumb brushing along the curve of my cheek in a way that sent an involuntary shiver through me.

The contrast between the gentleness of his touch and the harshness of his tone made my head spin.

"I can smell your fear. It’s intoxicating. But what I want is the truth."

His thumb paused, pressing just under my jaw, forcing me to look up at him.

The proximity was unbearable. His breath was warm against my face, laced with a faint, sanguine scent that clouded my thoughts.

He leaned in closer, and I could feel the heat radiating from him, wrapping around me like a suffocating blanket.

"Every time you lie to me," he murmured, his lips barely brushing my ear, "you make it worse for yourself. Do you really want to test my patience?"

Desperation clawed at my throat. "I swear, there’s nothing—"

"Enough." His voice snapped like a whip, sharp and cold. His grip on my waist turned bruising, and my pulse quickened as he pulled me even closer, until there was no space left between us. "You’re a terrible liar, Red. You think I haven’t noticed the way you flinch when I bring up the curse?

The way your heart races when I mention anything about your past? "

"I…" My words faltered, and panic surged through me. His closeness, the weight of his presence, the way his eyes bore into me—it was all too much. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

His lips twisted into a cruel smile. "Don’t you?" His hand left my jaw, trailing down my throat, his fingers brushing lightly over my pulse. "Your heartbeat tells a different story. It’s like a drum, Red. And I’m listening to every beat."

A shudder ran through me as his fingers lingered on my neck, just above my racing pulse. My mind screamed at me to think, to come up with something, anything, to distract him. But his presence, his voice, the way his body caged mine—it was impossible to think clearly.

"Hades," I whispered, my voice barely audible. "Please."

"Please what?" His voice was velvet, laced with menace and something more dangerous. "Please stop? Please let you go? Or…" His eyes darkened, his grip softening just enough to let his thumb trace a lazy circle on my waist. "Please keep going?"

My breath hitched, and his smirk deepened. He leaned down, his nose brushing along my temple as he inhaled deeply. "Honey and lavender. Always so sweet, even when you’re trembling. But tell me, Ellen, how much of that sweetness is real? And how much of it is a mask?"

I swallowed hard, unable to tear my gaze from his. "You think you know me," I said, my voice breaking but tinged with defiance. "But you don’t." It was feigned, a farce. My heart was in my throat.

His grip on my waist tightened again, a dangerous glint sparking in his eyes.

"Then show me who you really are. Tell me what you’re hiding.

Or should I force it out of you?" His lips brushed the shell of my ear, sending a shiver down my spine.

"Because make no mistake, Red, I will find out. And when I do, there won’t be anywhere left for you to run. "

"I don’t know what you want from me!" I blurted.

He had an inkling, only that and nothing more.

Because he is he knew anymore, he would not be here threatening the truth out of me.

I would be on a cell, clamped down to a chair, getting prepared to be tortured until i was nothing than a shell and Silverpine. ..

I squeezed my eyes tight against the scenario playing in my head.

The slums had been nothing, when Hades was done with Silverpine, it would be nothing but a ash heap of ruin, and every single soul there would burn under his wrath.

The mere thought of it sent ice shooting through my veins.

I couldn’t let it happen. My secrets, my past—whatever pieces of myself I had left—were the only thing standing between him and Silverpine’s destruction.

If he knew the truth, it wouldn’t matter that I was trying to protect them.

He would see it as betrayal, as deceit, and he would unleash hell without hesitation.

I opened my eyes to find his piercing gaze still locked on me, his expression unrelenting. "Stop playing games with me, Ellen," he said, his voice a low growl. "If you think I’ll stop at words, you don’t know me at all."

I forced a shaky breath, the effort it took to calm my pounding heart almost unbearable. "And if you think threatening me will get you the truth, then you don’t know me either." Lies, lies, lies. I had almost told Jules the truth just a week ago. I wished Kael was here to save me now.

His grip loosened slightly, enough to make me think I’d gotten through to him, but then he laughed. It wasn’t a warm or kind sound—it was dark, cold, and laced with disbelief. "You’ve got fire, Red. I’ll give you that. But don’t mistake my patience for mercy."

His hand moved again, trailing down my side, each touch deliberate and slow, sending a strange mix of fear and something far more unsettling coursing through me.

"You think you’re protecting them, don’t you?

" His voice was softer now, almost mocking.

"Silverpine. The slums. Your people." He leaned in closer, his lips brushing against the shell of my ear again, and I shivered despite myself.

"But here’s the thing, Ellen. Every second you resist me, every moment you waste lying to my face, you make it worse for them. "

My throat constricted, and I shook my head, panic clawing its way up my chest. "I’m not lying—"

"Enough!" His roar was sharp and final, cutting through the air like a blade.

His grip turned punishing again, yanking me flush against him, and I gasped.

"Every denial is another match waiting to light the fire. Every heartbeat that tells me you’re holding back is another reason for me to destroy them all. "

"Don’t," I breathed, the word slipping out before I could stop it. My voice cracked, my desperation bleeding into the single syllable.

His eyes narrowed, a spark of triumph flickering there. "Then tell me, Ellen. What did you mean when you said you’re cursed? What are you running from? Who are you protecting? What are you hiding from me!" He was so close to the truth that bile rose in my throat.

"I…" My voice caught in my throat, the weight of his questions and the impossibility of answering them crushing me. I couldn’t give him what he wanted. I couldn’t.

But the way his eyes burned into mine, the way his body pressed against mine like a cage—I didn’t know how much longer I could keep this up.

"You’re mine, Ellen," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "And that means your secrets are mine too. You don’t get to keep them from me."

I flinched at his words, my chest constricting until I could barely breath.

My thoughts were in a whirlwind of chaos, cold sweat sliding down the back of my neck as the weight of his words pressed on me like a suffocating force.

He wasn’t going to stop. He wasn’t going to let this go.

And every moment that passed felt like the walls I’d carefully built were crumbling brick by brick under his relentless pressure.

"I’m yours," I said, the words barely a whisper, my voice trembling with fear and a weak attempt to placate him. "I am all yours."

A devilish smile crawled its way to his lips.

"I love this," he growled. "Another beautiful strategy by my wife. Defiance did not work, and now you’ve switched to submission.

Clever, Ellen. But not clever enough." His grip on my waist tightened as he leaned in, his face mere inches from mine.

The dangerous glint in his eyes burned brighter, his lips curling into a smirk that sent chills down my spine.

"I’m not playing a game," I said, my voice cracking despite my efforts to sound resolute. "I’m telling the truth."

"The truth?" he repeated, his tone dripping with mockery.

"The truth is that you think you can manipulate me with your trembling voice and doe-eyed innocence. But here’s the thing, Red.

" His fingers trailed up my side, his touch both infuriatingly gentle and suffocatingly possessive.

"I see through you. Every lie, every crack in your armor—I see it all. "

My breath hitched as he pressed his forehead against mine, his eyes boring into me with a ferocity that made it impossible to look away.

"And now," he whispered, his voice dangerously soft, "you’re going to tell me what I want to know. Not because you’re mine, not because you think you can control me with submission, but because you’re afraid of what I’ll do if you don’t. "

I felt tears prickling at the corners of my eyes, the weight of his words and the proximity of his presence suffocating me. "You think this makes you strong?" I choked out, my voice trembling. "Threatening me, breaking me down? You think that’s power?"

His lips twitched, his smirk fading into something darker, more dangerous. "Strength is knowing exactly how far you’re willing to go to get what you want. And trust me, Ellen, I’ll go further than you can imagine."

My heart pounded in my chest, a wild rhythm that seemed to echo in the silence between us.

His grip softened slightly, his fingers brushing against the small of my back in a way that sent a confusing jolt through me.

His gaze flicked to my lips for the briefest moment before returning to my eyes, and I hated how that fleeting look made my stomach twist.

"You want to protect Silverpine," he said, his tone eerily calm now, almost tender. "I understand that. But if you keep holding out on me, I’ll tear it apart piece by piece until there’s nothing left to protect. Is that what you want, Ellen?"

"No!" I blurted, panic flooding my voice. "I don’t want that."

"Then stop lying to me," he growled, his voice cutting through the air like a blade. "Stop hiding."

"It was Eve!" I screamed, and felt him flinch.