Eve
The word—mutt—hit harder than the restraints ever could.
Harder than the steel slab beneath my spine. Harder than the accusations. Harder than the venom from the Montegues.
Because it ca from him.
Hades.
My mate.
The man who once whispered my na like a prayer and held like a promise.
And now?
He called a mutt.
It wasn't just a slur—it was a sentence. A rejection of everything I was, everything I had left.
I flinched like he'd slapped . My throat constricted as my heart thundered against my ribs, not in rage… but in grief.
He didn't believe .
He wouldn't.
My mouth opened—no sound ca. I tried again, barely breathing the words.
"Hades… please."
He looked at , but it wasn't him anymore. Not the man I rembered. Not the man who once stood between and anyone that would hurt . His eyes now… were void. Fractured. Sothing darker had taken root in him.
"You have to believe ," I whispered, voice breaking as the burn clawed up my throat. "You knew . You told you did—how can you not see what this is?"
"You have lied to , again and again, yet here you are pleading for your words to hold substance to ."
"I didn't..."
He put off when he wiped out sothing thar made my words die in my throat. Black and still wholly undamaged despite the height that it has fallen.
"No lies?" He taunted. "Tell , Princess."
"It... it... I don't... it was..." My words were was a ss and mind worse. "I should have told you about it."
He chuckled darkly, the sinister words making my blood slow to a crawl. "Oh should you have now? Then why didn't you tell ? Explain to how you rushed down to the bathroom to …retrieve your little secret right after whispering another man's na over dinner?"
His voice cracked like a whip, venom coiling around each word.
I froze.
My mouth parted, but I couldn't force sound past the lump rising in my throat. It was like drowning—except I was fully conscious, aware of the silence strangling the room, the way his words echoed off cold steel and sterile light.
"I heard you," Hades went on, each step he took closer to another blow I couldn't deflect. "I saw the tremble in your hands. The wine. The slip. You said his na, and then you excused yourself to the bathroom."
He was towering over now, the weight of his presence pressing against every inch of my soul. I shrank back into the slab, the cold of it biting through my bones—but nothing, nothing was colder than the way he looked at .
"And in that mont," he continued, voice low and cruel, "you chose him. You chose to lie. To protect whatever ga the two of you were playing."
"No," I croaked, barely able to speak past the tightness in my chest. "You don't understand.
He laughed.
Short. Empty. Broken.
"Don't insult ," he hissed. "You were hiding. You were plotting. You were—"
"I was confused and scared!" I scread. "I could trust you back then..."
"I want you want to now,"
The words tore out of like shrapnel. "I didn't know who to trust. I didn't know what that card ant or why he had given it to . I thought if I brought it to you without understanding it first—it would complicate things. They were strained and that night when we got back you were drunk and all the things you said only confused more."
"Again you look for soone else to bla, first Felicia then ."
"I am not blaming you," I began to struggle more and mode against the binds, my claustrophobia awakening little by little. "I was at fault for making the wrong choices here. I was the one who was reluctant, a coward..." tears prickled my eyes. "…I was anxious," I whispered, breath hitching, "because for the first ti in years, sothing felt right. You felt right."
The words trembled on my lips, barely more than a breath—too fragile for a room this cruel. Too soft for the man who once kissed the war off my skin, and now couldn't even look at without disgust.
"I didn't want to ruin it, Hades," I confessed. "I didn't want to hand you sothing that could destroy us—not yet. That dinner, that night… it was the first ti I felt like I belonged in sothing warm again, like I wasn't just a weapon or a burden or a mistake."
Tears spilled freely now, no use trying to stop them. "I told myself I'd give it to you the next day. I told myself I just needed to understand what was on it first, just a little ti—just one night more."
I closed my eyes, my voice raw and cracking. "Because I knew what truth could do. I knew it could twist a single breath into a war. That it could turn your arms from a haven into chains. And I—I didn't want the mont to end. I didn't want you to look at the way you're looking at now." I just wanted peace, no conflict or drama especially sothing involving the life and family that had spat out. It was ironic now, thinking about because my family was still a subject of conflict not too long ago. It had been a losing battle.
I opened my eyes.
He was staring at like I was nothing.
Like the girl who once curled up next to him on cold nights never existed. Like I hadn't held him when the ghosts of his past tried to crawl into his lungs. Like every touch, every whisper, every 'Red' he ever murmured had ant nothing.
The silence in the room was suffocating.
Lucinda's judgntal stare cut into from the side. Montegue stood as still as stone. Felicia looked smug—because this was what she wanted. For to fall apart. For him to see as the villain she needed to be.
But I didn't care about any of them.
Just him.
And he was colder than winter.
"You made a choice," Hades finally said, his voice devoid of heat, of anything. "You let lies sit longer than truth because they were more convenient. And now you want sympathy because you were comfortable in my arms for a night?"
"I was terrified," I whispered. "You say comfort like it's a luxury I've always known. But for … it was sacred. It was new. And I didn't know how to keep it from crumbling." and then Jules had died, pushing the thoughts of the device away until Jas had ntioned it again.
I was sobbing now, softly, hopelessly. "But you're right. I made the wrong choice. I should've told you. I should've chosen truth over comfort, over fear."
He didn't even flinch.
Didn't blink.
Didn't soften.
And in that mont, I felt it.
The collapse.
Like I was falling through my own ribcage, into a space where all the light I'd tried to build was gutted.
"I'm sorry," I breathed, the words so small, so broken. "I'm sorry I failed you. I'm sorry I let fear win. I'm sorry I didn't hand you that card and trust you to love through it. I'm sorry I ever thought I could keep you and protect you at the sa ti."
He stared at .
And the room remained still, cold, unrciful.
Like even the air had made up its mind.
Like the verdict was already carved in stone.
And all that was left for —
Was the wait for judgnt to fall.
"What is in it?" He finally asked.
I blinked my tears away, my mouth dry as I spoke. "I have no idea." I answered. "I never found out."
His voice softened. "Really?" His gaze was unreadable.
"I really have no idea
Hades' expression didn't change—not imdiately. But sothing in his stillness sharpened. A flicker of sothing that wasn't quite surprise and wasn't quite rage—but sothing far more dangerous.
Calculation.
He took a slow step forward.
"You didn't know," he said, almost to himself. The softness in his voice wasn't compassion—it was disbelief masquerading as patience. "You had it for weeks. You hid it. You ran off with it, kept it tucked away, never once thought to hand it over…"
He tilted his head, eyes narrowing. "And you expect to believe you never looked? Never even tried?"
I opened my mouth. "I—"
"I was hoping," he cut in, quiet and deadly, "that maybe, just maybe, there was a reason. That you had sothing to say. So truth left to give."
I froze, confused. "What are you—"
"But you've made your choice," Hades said. "Again."
He reached into the inside pocket of his coat and withdrew a small, sleek tablet. No flourish. No warning. He simply tapped the screen, and it ca to life—no sound, just light.
And the way his gaze pinned as it glowed between us?
I already knew I wouldn't survive whatever ca next.
He didn't show .
He didn't need to.
"You see," Hades said calmly, "we recovered the files. The corrupted sectors. The fragnts. All of it."
His next words struck like a bullet.
"And they were all about Elliot."
The air left my lungs.
"I—what?"
He took another step. "Photos. Patterns. His class schedule. Hobbies. Routines. Guardian details. Even coordinates matching his school route. So as recent as the week before his disappearance."
My lips parted. My throat locked up.
"I—I didn't—"
Hades' voice dropped to a growl. "You didn't know?"
I shook my head, trembling. "No! I didn't… I never collected anything—I wouldn't—I never—"
"Then how do you explain that?" He nodded toward the tablet. "How do you explain your fingerprints on a drive filled with intel about a boy you've purposefully trying to build a rapport with? A boy who just so happens to be the son of my dead brother?"
My heart was in my throat.
"I don't know how that got there," I said, voice breaking. "I swear, Hades, I never—he's just a child, I would never—"
"But you did," he snarled. "You kept the card. You chose and lied to my face. You lie now. You thought the encryption would work?"
"No," I whispered, helpless. "I didn't know it was about him. I never even opened the files—"
"Then you were either complicit or careless," he spat. "And I don't know which one I hate more."
Silence.
Tearing. Crushing. Devastating.
"I gave you a chance, Princess," Hades said softly. "Right here, in this room. I gave you one more night to give the truth. And all you gave was another lie."
I was shaking now. Physically trembling. "I didn't know. I didn't know…"
He leaned down, just enough so his voice hit like a blade against my skin.
"Then know this," he said. "You were my mate once."
His eyes, so cold they could shatter stone, locked on mine.
"Now, I will carve your na out of my heart… and make sure the world sees what kind of monster you really are. The sa one your family saw."
Sothing in my shattered, sothing that could never be repaired.
Then he turned.
And left choking on the ruins of the only love I ever believed in and in the corner of the white room, glanced Felicia smirking.
Reviews
All reviews (0)