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Eve

"Sparring blind?" I echoed incredulously.

Hades didn’t even look at me as he retrieved cuffs and a black blindfold.

"You heard me the first time, Red." He rose to his full height, entering the ring once again.

"For the first challenge, you’re sparring blind.

" He reiterated with infuriating calm, as if he hadn’t just said the most bizarre thing known to man. So much for leveling the playing field.

I felt a migraine coming on. "I can’t believe you," I grumbled.

He raised a clueless brow. "Can’t believe what about me exactly?"

I pointed an accusatory finger at him, my voice turning acidic.

"They call you the Hand of Death, and you take my sight in a bid to make me lose." After what had happened with Jules just yesterday, I couldn’t deal with more suspicions. The paranoia was eating me alive. It was a surprise I hadn’t ended up having nightmares.

"So?" he asked easily. "Are you saying you want to back out? You want to run away?" Mockery seeped into his tone.

I felt the ebbing in my head turn into pulsing. I ran a hand through my hair, trying to ward off the growing ache in my skull, but it did nothing as I stared him down. "I’m not running away, you fucking bastard," I all but growled. I stilled.

What was happening to me? I had grown so irritable and sharp-mouthed.

I didn’t even have to look in a mirror to know I wouldn’t recognize myself.

Training with Hades was supposed to help me defend myself—an outlet for the negative emotions slowly eating me alive.

But now, it felt like it was pulling something to the surface—a part of myself I hadn’t even known existed.

I glanced at him, my heart hammering against my ribs. The smirk on his face remained unmoved, as if he wasn’t shocked by my outburst. He seemed pleased. He was doing this on purpose. This was what he wanted. In some sick, twisted way, he was molding me.

My eyes narrowed. "Was this your plan all along?"

Hades tilted his head, the faintest flicker of amusement crossing his face. "What plan, Red?"

I stepped closer, unable to keep the accusatory edge from my voice. "To twist me into… this." I gestured vaguely at myself, frustration simmering beneath my skin. "You keep pushing, provoking—like you’re waiting for something to break."

His silver eyes glinted, unreadable as they swept over me. "Maybe I am."

I felt the words like a spark to dry tinder, igniting the fire that had been burning too close to the surface these past few days. "Why?" I demanded. "Why are you trying so hard to turn me into someone else?"

Hades took a slow, deliberate step forward, and despite myself, I matched it with a step back.

His gaze pinned me in place, sharp and wholly wicked. "Because the version of you standing here now isn’t enough."

The breath punched out of me. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." His tone was calm, but the weight behind his words pressed down like iron. "I don’t need the Ellen who flinches at shadows and second-guesses herself. I need the Ellen who survives. The one who doesn’t hesitate to bite when someone pushes too hard."

I clenched my fists at my sides. "And if I don’t want to become that?"

"Then you’ll die." His voice was like a cold blade against my skin. "And I don’t plan on letting that happen."

A cold silence stretched between us, and for a moment, I couldn’t tell if the anger rolling through me was directed at him or at the truth in his words.

"You don’t get to decide who I become, Hades," I said, my voice quieter but no less sharp. "You’re not fixing me. I’m not broken."

His smirk returned, slow and predatory. "Aren’t you?"

I hated the flicker of doubt his words stirred.

Before I could respond, he dangled the blindfold in front of me, raising a brow. "Still want to spar, or should I start preparing your funeral?"

I glanced at the cuffs in his hand. "You’re taking away my ability to fight back too?" I shook my head. "Why am I not surprised?"

He shrugged before turning his back to me, the cuffs dangling from his fingers. "They’re for me, Red. Do the honors, would you?"

I blinked, caught off guard. "I’ll be blindfolded, and you’ll be…"

"Cuffed. Yes, Red."

I took the cuffs and latched them onto his wrists with a quick snap. He put some space between us before turning to face me. "Now, inject me with the inhibitor." He gestured to the bag.

Dread filled my gut as I followed his gaze, a lump forming in my throat. I opened my mouth to refuse, but when my eyes met his, I saw the warning there. His eyes had darkened to a deep, ominous gray. The threat was clear—inject him, or we’d spar without it. And I would lose.

I didn’t wait. I exited the ring and retrieved the black matte box from the bag. My hands shook as I returned, offering it to Hades.

That obnoxious brow rose. "As you can see, my hands are unavailable at the moment."

I sighed deeply, rolling my eyes as if my legs weren’t threatening to give out under the weight of the moment. I slid the box open, unveiling its sinister contents: a needle and a filled syringe.

Tremors passed through me as I took out the instrument and assembled it.

Hades’ gaze bore into me, heavy and unrelenting. "You’ve injected me before. What’s the matter now?"

I swallowed hard but didn’t answer. The action felt more daunting this time. The adrenaline had worn off, leaving only cold reality behind. I pierced his skin with the needle and pushed the contents in until the syringe was empty.

"Done," I mumbled.

"Your turn, Red," he said softly.

I snatched the blindfold.

The soft rumble of his chuckle followed me as I tied it over my eyes, plunging the world into darkness.

"Good," Hades said, his voice unnervingly close. "Now, let’s see how sharp those instincts of yours really are."

I listened intently, trying to track his movements by sound alone. The first brush of air against my left side came too late—Hades’ shoulder barely grazed mine before I spun, lashing out blindly.

My fist met nothing but air.

"Focus," he whispered somewhere to my right. I whirled toward his voice.

Another shift, this time behind me. I felt him before I heard him, the heat of his body looming too close for comfort.

I lashed out again, aiming low, but he sidestepped with infuriating ease.

"You’re listening for the wrong things," Hades’ voice ghosted over my shoulder, his breath a near-whisper against my neck. I spun toward him, but his bound hands brushed lightly over my wrist, twisting me just enough to throw off my balance.

I stumbled, biting back a curse.

"Stop relying on sound alone," he murmured, circling me.

His presence was a constant, unnerving pressure in the dark.

"Feel the shifts in the air. The vibrations in the floor. You’re focusing on my footsteps, but you should be tracking the way I breathe, the heat between us.

All the little things you keep ignoring. "

I clenched my fists. "I’m not ignoring anything," I lied. He was right. I was only focusing on sound.

"You are."

His voice was so close it sent a jolt down my spine. I swung without hesitation, knuckles grazing the empty space where he’d just been.

A low chuckle echoed from behind me. "You’re predictable, Red."

"Stop calling me that." That damn word.

"Make me."

I lunged, ignoring the slight tremor in my muscles. But the second I moved, his leg swept out, knocking mine aside just enough for me to falter. His body pressed into mine, pinning me against the ropes.

"You’re hesitating." His breath skimmed the side of my face, and I hated how aware I was of it. Of him. "You won’t last long out there if you keep waiting for the perfect moment."

"Get off me," I ground out, twisting in his hold.

But Hades didn’t budge. His body pressed lightly against mine, pinning me with an ease that was more infuriating than intimidating.

"You’re wasting energy fighting me when you should be conserving it," he murmured. "Relax. If I wanted to hurt you, you’d already be on the mat."

"Comforting," I bit out, squirming under his weight. "Real motivational speech."

His smirk practically radiated through the dark. "You asked for this."

I shoved hard against him, and this time, he let me go. I stumbled back, and just then I felt the tremor on the mat behind me. Instinct kicked in. I swung my leg back, fast and hard.

My foot connected solidly with something. A sharp grunt followed, and Hades fell back onto the mat with a dull thud.

I ripped off the blindfold just in time to see him sprawled beneath me, his bound wrists pinned awkwardly behind him. His silver eyes flicked up to meet mine, narrowed but still glinting with something far too amused for someone who’d just been knocked down.

Before he could recover, I straddled him, planting my knees on either side of his hips and pressing down to keep him pinned.

"Not so smug now, are you?" I panted, strands of hair sticking to my damp forehead.

Hades arched a brow, his gaze dragging lazily over me, lingering just a second too long on the space between us. "Smug?" His voice was rougher than usual, breathless from the impact. "I’m impressed, Red. Didn’t think you had it in you."

I leaned in, letting more of my weight sink onto him. His muscles tensed beneath me, but he didn’t resist. "There’s a lot you don’t know about me."

His lips curled into that damnable smirk. "Is that so?"

I hated how quickly the heat in his eyes made me second-guess what I was doing. How easily the bastard could turn a situation into something else entirely.

"Don’t get comfortable," I warned, shifting just enough to press his bound wrists harder into the mat. "You’re not going anywhere until you admit I won."

His gaze dragged up to mine. "Then I won’t be admitting it anytime soon," he said, voice low and far too smooth. "Because why would I want to go anywhere?"

I froze for half a second, pulse spiking.

The way he said it—slow, deliberate—sent something flickering dangerously in the pit of my stomach. "You can keep me here as long as you want, Red. I’m not complaining."