Page 20 of Love and Death (Tempting the Fates #4)

HAZEL

C erberus leans heavily against the broken frame, filling the empty space, his chest heaving as he massages one of his shoulders.

“I suppose we will have to find you a new place to sleep,” he says with a grin that doesn’t quite meet its mark.

Weariness drags at him, his dark hair falling in wild waves about his face only further emphasizing his exhaustion, and his clothes, now sweat-stuck to his body, are torn and bloodied.

“What happened?” I ask, the question slipping from me before I can bite my tongue.

The hellhound glances down at himself and raises his eyebrows in exaggerated surprise, as if he is only just now realizing the state he is in.

“Oh, this? This is nothing a little rest will not fix. Come, there is no time to waste,” he says, beckoning me with a half-hearted curl of his finger.

I hurry to obey, sidling past him and into the stairwell before he has a chance to think better of it. Cerberus turns to follow, grabbing my upper arm before I have a chance to put enough space between us.

“I’m not going to run away,” I say, flinching at his touch.

“Somehow, I find that hard to believe. Regardless, I cannot allow you to walk these halls without some form of restraint.”

I don’t quite know how to respond to this, so I don’t, and Cerberus starts down the stairs, pulling me along behind him.

It doesn’t take long for me to notice that I’m not tripping over myself trying to keep up with him as I normally would be.

Frowning, I take a closer look at the hellhound.

There’s a level of wariness to him that I hadn’t noticed before; it pulls at the corners of his eyes and sharpens his movements. But this isn’t what concerns me most … it’s the slight limp in one leg that he’s trying his best to conceal from me.

What could do this to him? And worse still, am I allowing him to lead me into the same trap?

One that not even a guardian can escape from unscathed.

I should have insisted on answers the moment I laid eyes on him. Now, I’m not sure if I even want to know.

The stairs seem to spiral ever downward, the flickering sconces painting our shadows long and thin against the stones.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” I venture when I can no longer stand the eerie silence of our descent.

“Not now.”

“But—”

Reaching the bottom step, Cerberus suddenly stops to look at me, and I nearly run straight into him.

“From this moment forward,” he says, barely a hair’s breadth away from me, “if you know what is good for you, you will keep quiet and do exactly as I say.”

“I wasn’t going—” I start indignantly, but Cerberus gives me a look that nearly has me swallowing my own tongue.

“You will obey me, Hazel, if you want to make it to your father in one piece, is that understood?”

I give him a quick nod of understanding and drop my gaze to the floor, but I can still feel his eyes boring into me. I try my best to look meek as he continues to study me. After all, I really do want to see my father.

“Good. Now, do not whisper so much as a word until I speak to you again.”

Finally satisfied by my prolonged silence, we set off again.

Somehow, our pace is even slower than before as Cerberus moves me as quietly as possible from one shadow to the next. There’s an eerie weightiness to the palace, despite the halls being completely empty thus far, that has every sound, every shift of light, setting me on edge.

Despite the hellhound’s massive size and injured state, it’s my own movements that threaten to expose us.

No matter how carefully I step, I can’t seem to conceal my presence to the same extent that he can, and I have to wonder why he doesn’t move with such stealth all the time … especially in a place like this.

I want so badly to question him, but I find myself unable to open my mouth, let alone give voice to them, as I am suddenly shoved back against the near wall.

Cerberus quickly covers me with his body, nearly crushing me in the process, and a few moments later, I see why as two stone sentinels step into view at the far end of the hall.

They pause, their heads turning in perfect unison to look down the corridor, and my stomach twists as I silently pray that they don’t spot us.

I’d hold my breath, too, if I still had any air left in my lungs to hold. Just when I think I’m on the brink of passing out, the two stone giants finally walk on, disappearing from view.

Cerberus cautiously pushes away from the wall, and I can’t help myself as I drink in a shuddering gasp of air. He whirls on me, wincing as he lifts a hand to cover my mouth, but it’s already too late.

“Who goes there?”

I grimace at the gravelly voice and try to give the hellhound an apologetic look, but he’s already turning away from me.

“It is only I, Cerberus,” he answers, nudging me further behind him as the two stone guards reappear at the far end of the hall.

“What are you doing in this wing of the palace,” one of them asks as I try to peek through the gap between the hellhound’s waist and arm .

“What am I doing?” Cerberus repeats, his voice suddenly dangerously low. “What are you doing that you would dare to question me ?”

“We have our orders. No one is to enter this wing of the palace without—”

“On whose orders?”

The two stone sentinels glance at one another as if confused, though their stony faces do little to show it.

“Deimos’ orders.”

Cerberus lets out a snort at this, his eyes narrowing on them.

“And since when has Deimos’ authority surpassed my own? Or have you forgotten that I am the one you answer to in Hades’ absence?”

Again, the guards exchange a look, though this one I find entirely unreadable.

“That may have been true before yesterday, but Deimos has since been given authority over the guard in the king’s absence,” one of the giants says as they both take a threatening step forward. “So, again, I ask, what reason do you have to be in this wing of the palace?”

I can tell by the way Cerberus’ body tenses that this isn’t the response he was expecting.

“Very well. If you must know, I have an audience with the queen.”

What? My stomach twists at his words, but I otherwise force myself not to react.

“The queen is not to receive any guests.”

“Again, on whose orders?”

“Deimos, as we have already—”

“Is that so,” the hellhound chuckles darkly. “Then I will just have to inform Hades upon his return that not only has Deimos overstepped his authority, but so have his guards.”

I have to admire his quick thinking, not to mention the silver of his tongue, as he admonishes them so effortlessly, despite his wounded state.

“To think that anyone besides the king would dare restrict the queen from doing as she pleased within her own home. If I did not know better,” he trails off, shaking his head as if he can’t believe what he was about to say. “No, surely it is impossible ...”

“What is impossible?” The two guards shift slightly, stone grinding softly against stone, as they wait for him to clarify.

“To think that Deimos would try to usurp the throne in Hades’ absence and that his own men would be too blind and dumb to see it.”

Neither of the guards reacts to this, and I brace myself for their fury as they stare down at Cerberus in true, emotionless rock form. At least, that’s what I think they’re doing … until they both suddenly bow their heads in grating unison.

“Forgive us, but we are bound to do as the king commands,” one of them says. “If what you say is true, then rest assured that Deimos will not succeed. However, as things are, orders are orders.”

“So, you will deny the queen her request,” Cerberus says testily.

There’s a long pause as the stone beings appear to process his statement, and I have to wonder just how autonomous they actually are .

“No, but we cannot allow her actions to go unreported.”

“Naturally, I would expect nothing less from the king’s own guard, given the circumstances.”

The three men eye each other for an uncomfortably long moment before the guards finally nod once, square their shoulders, and turn together to march off.

“Come, we must hurry,” Cerberus orders, throwing caution to the wind as he drags me along with reckless abandon. I can’t help but grimace at my own plodding footsteps as I suddenly find myself struggling to keep up with him, despite his limp still causing him obvious pain.

“I thought you said we had to be quiet,” I hiss.

“That was before you alerted the entire palace to our presence.”

“Perhaps I wouldn’t have needed to, if you hadn’t nearly crushed me to death,” I retort, incredulously.

He immediately stops and turns to look me in the eye.

“I apologize. I spoke out of turn, and you are right, I should not blame you for my own mistakes,” Cerberus says, his sincerity taking me entirely by surprise.

“I do not always know my own strength, especially when it comes to mortals. Now, come, we must hurry before Deimos can be given a full report.”

All I can do is nod in response as he turns to lead me onward again.

“Is it true what they said?” I ask once I can find my tongue.

“Is what true?”

“That Hades left Deimos in charge of his men.”

“Yes. ”

He says this single word with such venom that I decide not to press him any further on the matter.

At least, for the time being.

Besides, I have far more pressing concerns to worry about right now, especially with the halls beginning to look and feel all too familiar.

“Where exactly are you taking me?”

“To your father,” Cerberus replies bluntly.

“Yes, but where is he being kept?”

Cerberus’ jaw hardens as he trains his eyes forward, refusing to so much as glance back at me … which is all the confirmation I need to know I’m not going to like the answer.

Rounding another corner, a cold sweat breaks out across my skin as a set of looming double doors comes into view.

So, he told the stone sentinels the truth.

He’s bringing me to her .

To the one woman that I now fear facing most in this place.

The queen.