Page 32 of Love and Death (Tempting the Fates #4)

HAZEL

I need no further encouragement as he forces open the door for us to slip through … until I realize there’s nearly a two-story drop to the ground on the other side.

Cerberus just barely manages to grab my arm and pull me back when I step too quickly to go through it and nearly tumble out into the unusually cool night air.

“Woah, careful! I do not have the strength to carry all three of you. I am going to place their bodies down first, and then I will help you.”

I step back, thankful for his quick reaction, as I watch him take Eros up on his back and then lower himself out to drop down to the ground.

I’m just wondering how he’s going to get back up when he backs up to take a running jump, scrambling up the wall and just managing to grab hold of the door frame before pulling himself up.

He repeats this once more before taking a moment to sit in the open door, his legs dangling over the side .

“How do you have the strength, let alone the energy, to do all this right now?” I ask.

“Who said I do,” he says, and I see exhaustion flicker across his features before he chases it off with a grin. “Necessity will keep me going, for now. Come, let us be gone from here.”

He pats his back, and I move to wrap my arms around his neck. Clinging to him, he drops down to hang from the doorframe by one hand and grabs my clasped hands with the other. I have to close my eyes, and he lets go.

For a few seconds, the world is weightless, and then we land with a thud, though it’s not nearly as jarring as I’d expected.

I slip down off the hellhound’s back, and he scrambles up the side of the wall again to pull the bookcase into place behind us. Somehow, from down here, this feat looks all the more impressive.

Landing beside me, he brushes off his hands as he glances between the three of us.

“I am going to have to find a cart or something to carry them both, wait here. I will not be long.”

I dislike the idea of being left alone, but I do not say as much as Cerberus disappears into the overgrown weeds and thorns that seem to make up the abandoned garden.

The palace wall rises up to one side and melts into the mountain on the other.

I hadn’t realized before that Hades’ palace was built into a mountainside, perhaps that’s why it seems to tower so greatly over the city.

I shudder and move to sit on a nearby rock to wait for Cerberus when I hear voices through the thicket. They seem to be coming from around the corner of the palace wall.

“Any news?” asks a man, his voice strangely familiar.

“Nothing, the city is crawling with Deimos’ men. I heard he has yet to wake up. Is that true?”

“As far as I know, the bite to his shoulder is a nasty piece of work, too.”

I blink in surprise, realizing they’re talking about Hades. I should get closer to listen and maybe find out who they are.

“It has not healed?”

“No one can find the queen to tend to him, so it may never fully heal.”

Guilt pits in my stomach at the mention of Persephone. I never did find out what happened to her. I do hope she’s alright, though, judging by their conversation, I’m starting to doubt that she is.

“At least that is something,” snorts the second voice. “Maybe they still stand a chance of fulfilling—”

I stumble on a broken twig, flinching as the sound stops the voices mid-sentence.

“Go,” hisses the familiar voice.

“But—”

“Go, now. I will handle this.”

I assume they run off, though I hear no footsteps before the brush in front of me parts with no warning. I’m too startled to scream or scramble back as I look up to find a pair of honied eyes framed in thick lashes.

“Rhyzihr,” I gasp.

“Hazel,” he answers, blinking in surprise. “What are you doing here? The whole palace is in an uproar. ”

“You know my name?”

“I dare say all incubi and succubae know your name by now.”

“Why?”

“You can thank your friendship with Florence for that.”

My face falls at the mention of her name.

“I’m afraid I haven’t been a very good friend to her.”

“Nonsense. She would not have risked her life otherwise.”

“Then you know? Is she …” I trail off, unable to speak the words aloud.

“Thrilled to hear of your escape?” he finishes with a wink. “Yes, so do not let her down.”

“I’ll try not to.”

His amber eyes shift to look past me, landing on the bodies behind me. “I am going to assume they did not walk here by themselves.”

“No.”

“So, where is he?”

“Who?”

“Come now, you obviously overheard us talking. We are on the same side, are we not? Where is Cerberus?”

“He went to find a cart for the … for Death and Eros.”

“Ah, of course. I am surprised he made it this far carrying them both.” His eyes flash beneath his thick lashes, and a grin begins to spread across his face. “Wait here, do not leave before I get back.”

“But I—"

He’s already gone, and I’m left wondering how I’m supposed to convince Cerberus to stay should he come back first.

Which, of course, he does.

“You’re back,” I whisper, rising from the uncomfortable stone I’d returned to sit on as I waited.

“Yes, but we have a problem.” His gaze shifts to Eros and Death, and he corrects himself. “We have three problems.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The city is crawling with Deimos’ men. It would be impossible to sneak anywhere now with a cart in tow … and I cannot simply drag their bodies through the streets, like I did the palace halls.”

“Then what are we going to do? We cannot leave either one behind.”

“I know,” he sighs. “I may have a solution for the first problem, but it is going to involve descending into the catacombs beneath the city. Most of the exits that lead out of the city are blocked or caved in, but I know a way.”

“Why won’t there be guards down there then?”

“They are left over from before Aglaia became the city of the gods, little more than crumbling ruins from a time most do not know,” he answers.

“ And , I may have convinced everyone long ago that there were no viable paths left down there that lead out of the city. I thought it might be a good idea to have a few secret exits of my own, I see now that I was right.”

“Okay, so what about them?”

“I think I can sneak us there successfully, but I can only carry one of them at a time. I will have to come back for the other. So, would you rather wait here with one of them or in the catacombs?”

I shudder at the thought.

“Here. Definitely here.”

“I suspected as much,” he says with a wry smile as he reaches for Eros’ body.

“Wait, I think you should move Death’s first,” I say.

“Why?” he asks, his eyebrow arching as he straightens to look at me.

“He is harder to move, for one, and his skin can still kill. He will be safer left alone down there.”

“Are you afraid of what is down there?”

“Should I be?”

“I do not know,” he answers vaguely. “I suppose you will have to be the judge of that.”

He then hauls Death into his arms and disappears through the bramble without elaborating any further. Sighing, I plop back down on the uncomfortable rock to wait.

Not more than five minutes must pass before the brush rustles once again.

“Good, you are still here,” Rhyzihr says, forcing his way through the thorns to lean against the wall beside me.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I was not sure you would care to listen, after our last encounter.” Heat reddens my cheeks as I struggle not to recall what I’d witnessed in the baths.

“Why did you want me to wait?” I ask, hoping to change the topic.

“I will tell you, once the hellhound returns. ”

Several more minutes pass as Rhyzihr makes pleasant small talk, requiring little effort from me, and it is obvious in more ways than one why he was chosen as part of the royal harem.

“What are you doing here?”

I look up, surprised not to have heard Cerberus’ return.

“Ah, there you are. I have something that may help you in your escape.”

He reaches through the brambles behind him and pulls out what appears to be a mess of thick, leather straps and a pair of black boots.

“These will muffle even your mortal steps,” he says kindly, handing the boots to me.

“Thank you,” I gasp, gratefully accepting them as he turns to hand his other gift to Cerberus.

“What in all the gods’ names is this?”

“A harness and bindings,” Rhyzihr says, “so you can carry them both.”

The hellhound stares at him in surprise for a moment, but then steps forward to take them from him.

“I hate to think what you used these for.”

“You can worry about that later,” the incubus says with a knowing smirk. “Now, go before it is too late.”