Page 31 of Love and Death (Tempting the Fates #4)

HAZEL

I see the moment my command takes hold in Cerberus, the fire in his eyes blazing to life. Slowly, he adjusts and releases his hold on me to turn back toward Hades.

He rolls his head, shaking out his body like an animal just freed that’s been beaten and caged far too long.

“The girl remains her own, unclaimed by touch.”

Hades steps closer, pointing a threatening finger at Cerberus as his face contorts with rage. “What, how dare you defy me! Finish what you started, or I will—”

The hellhound lunges, and for a split second, I see fear in Hades’ face. Then, he is tackled to the floor, and the two become a blur of fire and rage upon it.

The ground trembles beneath their fury. Stones and crystal dust rattle across the sanctum as the two collide.

“I own you,” Hades roars, throwing Cerberus from him with a blast of blue fire. “Obey, or I will strangle you with your defiance.”

Cerberus straightens, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand before grinning at Hades. “I would like to see you try.”

He launches himself at the king, this time his whole torso bursting into flame as he lashes out with claws and gnashing fangs. The scene is as terrifying as it is impossible to turn away from.

However, I cannot help but wonder why Cerberus won’t just turn into his beast and end it. Surely, even Hades cannot stand against him then, just as Death could not.

My stomach twists, and I have to cover my mouth as Hades manages to kick Cerberus to the floor before dropping onto him to throw flaming punches at his face.

The hellhound goes limp before Hades finally sits back on his heels, breathing hard as he straightens the rings on his fingers. Rising to his feet, he gives Cerberus’ boot a kick for good measure and then turns to walk toward me.

“It looks like I will have to be the one to ruin you, and in front of Death, no less,” he says with a mocking click of his tongue. “Not that I mind breaking you myself. It is simply a shame. I had such plans for you.”

He reaches out to run the back of his fingers down my cheek, and for a split second, I fear all is lost. And then, my eyes widen as a massive burning frame looms up behind the king with a rumbling growl.

He barely has time to whirl around before Cerberus’ beast bites down on his shoulder and hurls him across the room. The king slams into the sapphire wall, and it cracks under the force of the blow .

I watch with bated breath as his body slides to the floor, and then, stays there.

Still, and unmoving.

Cerberus falls to his knees, his back to me, once again a man, his chest heaving, sweat glistening across his body. He holds up a hand toward me as I start to move toward him.

“Wait! Wait …” he says through hard breaths.

“What’s wrong?”

“I do not have control yet. I am … the beast still has hold.”

I take a step back to give him space, only to suddenly realize it isn’t just his chest that’s bare. The glow of the sanctum moves over the powerful lines of his back as he breathes, every muscle in his body designed for strength.

My fingers itch to capture the light and the beauty of his form knelt in it—a warrior in the aftermath of battle.

And then he rises, and I have to turn away to allow him his modesty. In turn, I try my best to rework the torn fabric of my own dress.

“You can look,” Cerberus says a minute later, and my cheeks burn hot as I hesitantly turn to find him now wearing the king’s pants and in the midst of pulling on his shirt.

Thankfully, leaving Hades’ silk breeks behind where his body still lies on the floor.

“Is he dead?”

“No, he is unconscious,” he answers coolly. “We need to go. He will not stay this way for long.”

“Death’s body—”

“I will carry it, but on one condition. ”

“Yes?”

“You tell me everything you know about this tether.”

I nod once, and he moves into action. Walking over to the heavy doors, he throws them open before returning to the stone table.

I watch as he removes the shroud with careful reverence before taking Death’s body in his arms. He grunts, straining under the weight of it but doesn’t complain. All I can do is stare in shock, myself, having witnessed the nearly dozen or so men required to carry Death from the arena before.

“Can you run, or do I need to carry you on my back?”

I start to open my mouth to answer, but he’s already crouching.

“Never mind. Do not try to convince me you can keep up. It was a battle-worn question I never should have asked.”

I don’t fight him, despite my first instinct being to do so, and climb onto his back to hold on as best I can.

The heat of his body is like an inferno, despite the layers between us, and I soon find the chill of the thin air a relief as he sets off.

The tunnel blurs past, the blue flames bursting to life as if following along with him.

“The lights.”

“They only react to certain beings,” he answers. “Now, tell me everything .”

Cerberus listens carefully as I tell him about Eros, the moor, and how I escaped Persephone’s room and found the secret stairwell, though I’m careful to leave out some of the more embarrassing details.

He doesn’t say a word as I finish, and we continue our escape in silence as we race down winding tunnels, ducking into offshoots and through strange and wonderful caverns that all light up for him.

He obviously knows this place better than the back of his hand, and I shudder to think where I could have ended up if he hadn’t passed by the stairs and triggered the blue flames when he did.

Gradually, we make it out of the depths, the air warming and filling my lungs once again, despite it tasting like a half-forgotten breath. I look up as we round a much tighter corner and nearly lose my grip on Cerberus as we run straight into a wall.

Except, we don’t run into it … we run through it.

For a split second, I feel as though I’m being pulled through a wall of thick, perfectly smooth jelly, and then we are standing in the all too familiar halls of the sapphire palace. I look back over my shoulder, but the stone wall behind me looks just like any other.

Cerberus slips down a nearby hall and into a dark alcove nestled behind a large statue. He kneels to let me drop from his back before leaning Death’s body against the furthest wall.

“You are absolutely certain of everything you told me?” he whispers, turning toward me.

“Yes.”

“Very well, I will go fetch Eros’ body. Do not stray from here. Is that understood?”

I nod once, having no desire to leave Death alone here or risk getting caught wandering the halls when we are so close to escape .

Cerberus pauses, readying himself to leave, when I grab his wrist to stop him.

“Florence, did you ever find her?”

“I did not,” he answers, his jaw working for a moment before adding, “but someone else did.”

I hardly dare, but I force myself to ask, “Who?”

“Eris.” I frown, not quite sure who he’s referring to, until he adds,

“She is a spy of the king’s and no friend of ours. She handed Florence over to Deimos.”

I suddenly remember her. She was the one who wouldn’t let me speak to Persephone alone.

No . I clasp a hand to my mouth to stifle a sob, fear knotting my stomach.

“Florence is alive, for the moment, though barely. As I am sure you know, Deimos is not one for kindness.”

“It is my fault, I shouldn’t have—”

Cerberus is quick to cut me off. “It is Deimos who should be blamed. Hades. The Fates. This whole festering pit of rot, not you.”

“I need to help her.”

“You can help her by doing what has been asked of you.” He fixes his eyes on me, smoldering from within, and reaches to cup my cheek in the heat of his hand. “You will help no one by risking her rescue. Not now. Trust me in this.”

I nod again, swallowing my tears. I know he’s right, but it pains me still. He watches me for a second, as if not sure to believe me, and then drops his hand from me and slips silently out into the palace halls.

Turning back, I curl up beside Death, clutching a handful of his cloak in my hand as I sob into it. For Death, for Florence, Father, Cyprian … for all those whom I have hurt, and may yet hurt.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I never wanted this. I never meant to hurt anyone.”

I wake with a start, not remembering having dozed off, as Cerberus suddenly reappears with a wave of heat, Eros thrown over his shoulder. He is quick to clamp his hand over my mouth, stifling a cry of surprise, just moments before several stone sentinels thunder past where we’re hidden.

We wait in silence for another minute before he drops his hand and eases Eros onto the floor next to Death, the alcove now barely able to contain the four of us.

“The palace no longer sleeps,” Cerberus says in a hushed whisper. “Hades’ body was discovered, and Deimos has called the guards back to search for the perpetrator.”

“What are we going to do?”

“First, we are going to escape this palace, and then this city.”

“How, with all the guards searching for us now?

“Luckily, Deimos was never a match for me,” he says with a half-grin, shifting forward on his toes to grab Death as he pushes on the back wall. “Especially when it comes to knowledge of secret passageways.”

I stare, mouth agape, as the wall gives way beneath his hand to allow us through .

“What’s inside?” I ask uncertainly.

“The in-between.” My eyes widen as they flicker to Death. “No, not that in-between, just the halls within the halls. You will see.”

With that, he motions me through as he tries to figure out how to carry two gods at once.

Stepping into the wall, I am even more shocked by what I find. Cerberus wasn’t wrong in the way he described it. I can see out from here through the sapphire walls, a path cut through the middle as if I were walking through a parted sea, deep blue waves rising up on either side.

“Quite the invasion of privacy, is it not,” the hellhound says, squeezing in behind me.

“That is one way to put it,” I snort softly, glancing over my shoulder to find him dragging Death in one hand and gripping Eros’ arms around his neck with the other.

“We will find a cart once we are out of the palace,” he says before I can open my mouth to question his methods. “For now, this is the best I can do. Now, turn around, I will guide you.”

Cerberus shuts the wall behind us, and the sounds of the palace die behind it. We move forward, our way lit by refracted light coming through the walls from the rooms and hallways we pass.

“Left here,” the hellhound urges gently when I slow to watch several guards hurry past in the opposite direction, none the wiser of our presence. Further along, I see a servant girl dragged roughly into a room by a noble as he begins to drunkenly tug on his pants.

I stop, wanting to act on her behalf, but Cerberus only growls a soft warning, “We can do nothing, Hazel. Keep going. He will not get far with that one. She bites.”

Rounding a bend, the corridor narrows, and it’s a tight squeeze to get all three men through, but we manage, and the passage widens again. It is here that we pass the throne room, and I am caught off-guard by its beauty without Hades’ presence to defile it.

We walk on for a little longer before Cerberus signals for me to stop.

“Here we are.”

Pressing his hand to the wall again, a small archway opens, and we step out into what appears to be old servant’s quarters, at least in comparison to the rest of the palace, though I would have gladly taken them over Merelda’s old room for me.

Cerberus seals the path behind us and nods toward the far end of the room. Setting Eros and Death down, he moves aside an old bookcase and begins pulling out stones from the wall behind it. It isn’t long before an old, weathered door, not much taller than myself, is revealed.

“What’s behind this one?” I ask when he sets the last stone down, stacking them in such a way that I would never know they were taken from the wall recently.

He grins down at me, and tosses his sweat-damp hair back from his forehead.

“Escape, at least from these cursed palace walls.”