CHAPTER 191

CHAPTER 191
The ballroom was alive with celebration.

Music poured from somewhere I couldn't see, something dark and rhythmic that made the gods and demons sway in their seats, cups raised, laughter echoing off the high ceilings.

Hades stood on his platform, one foot resting on the edge of his throne, looking down at me with that smile that made my skin crawl. He was holding court, gesturing expansively as he spoke to the crowd, his voice carrying easily over the music.

"You see?" he said, addressing the room like I wasn't even there. "This is what happens when children play at being gods. They come into my home, they make demands, they throw their little powers around thinking it makes them formidable." He laughed and the entire room laughed with him. "And then they end up exactly where they belong. On the ground. Defeated."

I lay on the cold stone with my cheek pressed against it, wrists bound behind me with something that burned worse than fire, and I reached out through the bond with everything I had left.

Nala.

Her response was immediate, frantic, desperate.

“Celeste! We felt you fighting and now, nothing, are you hurt, where are you, what's happening—”

“I'm in the ballroom. I'm fine,” I lied.

I wasn't fine but there was no point telling her that. The burns on my wrists were getting worse, the warded rope digging deeper with every second.

Stay hidden. Don't come for me,” I added, hoping my voice was convincing enough.

“Well too bad. We're coming,” Jock's voice cut through, sharp and absolute, no room for argument. “We're not leaving you in there with him.”

“No!” I pushed as much command into the bond as I could manage, which wasn't much given my current state. “It's too dangerous, we discussed this!”

“It doesn't matter Celeste, we came here to help and you sound so weak that I know you need all the help you can get. Inferno would want us to help, even if it means our demise,” Kelin this time, his voice carrying that stubborn edge that meant he'd already made up his mind.

“Listen to me—”

“No Celeste, like Kelin said, no matter the consequences, we're coming to save you,” Nala's voice was gentle but completely immovable, that particular tone she used when she'd decided something and the entire world could argue and it wouldn't change anything.

“It's too dangerous!” I snapped, heaving as I looked at more Thornicks pouring through the gaps in the curtains.

He knew.

Hades knew I'd brought more forces and he was preparing for these stubborn mules that were trying to run into a blazing fire.

If I lost any of them, I won't survive the guilt.

“We didn't come all this way, didn't cross that barrier and fight those crocodiles and fly through the night just to leave you here alone with that monster. We're coming for you right now and you can't stop us.”

It was Nala and from the strain in her voice, they were already flying.

My throat closed completely.

“Then meet me halfway,” I said finally through the bond, making the decision even as I said it. ‘I'll try to get out. You stay back until I'm clear of the ballroom and away from the palace, then we run together. Do you understand? You don't come in here. You wait for me outside.”

A pause that felt like forever, then Nala said quietly, “Fine. We'll wait.”

I didn't believe her for a second but it was the best I was going to get and I didn't have time to argue.

Hades descended from his platform slowly, taking his time, enjoying every second of this. He crouched down in front of me, close enough that I could see the amusement dancing in his eyes. "Are you comfortable down there? I can have someone bring you a pillow if you'd like. Make you more comfortable while we discuss what comes next."

The crowd laughed again.

I said nothing, just stared at him with as much defiance as I could manage from the ground.

"No?" He tilted his head. "Pity. I was hoping we could have a civilized conversation about your future here. About what role you'll play in my domain now that you've so graciously delivered yourself to me." He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear with a gentleness that made my skin crawl worse than any violence would have. "I have such great plans for you, Celeste. Such wonderful, terrible plans. You'll help me win this war with my brothers during the day and you'll take my cock every night. Maybe even have a child for me, you're a child of Terra, I'm sure you're more fertile than that bitch I married.”

I spat in his face.

The ballroom went silent.

Hades straightened slowly, wiping his face with the back of his hand, and for one brief moment I saw genuine anger flash across his features before the smile returned, colder now, sharper.

"Spirited," he said softly. "I like that. It will make breaking you so much more satisfying."

He turned away from me, addressing the crowd again. "Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks they can challenge me in my own domain. Let this be a reminder of what happens when—"

The ballroom doors burst open with a crash that made everyone turn.

A Thonick stumbled in, breathing hard, his armor dented and scratched like he'd been in a fight, his expression urgent in a way that made every head in the room snap toward him.

"My lord," he gasped. "Your wife, she's—"

Hades went completely still. The temperature in the room dropped so fast I saw my breath mist in front of my face, saw frost forming on the edges of the nearest tables.

"What about my her?" His voice was soft, deadly, the kind of quiet that came right before an explosion.

"She's escaping, my lord. With the intruders. They have her, she left with them willingly, she—"

The rage that exploded from Hades was physical, a wave of darkness and fury that swept across the entire ballroom and made every god and demon in the room flinch backward. Glasses shattered. The music cut off abruptly. The very air seemed to vibrate with his anger.

"They have Nellie?" Each word was enunciated perfectly, terrifyingly calm.

"Yes, my lord. She's with them now, they're heading toward the eastern gate, we tried to stop them but—"

Hades was moving before the Thonick finished speaking, striding toward the doors with that terrible controlled fury radiating off him in waves that made the floor crack beneath his feet. "Find them. Bring her back to me. Kill anyone who tries to stop you. Kill everyone except Nellie and bring me their bodies." Then to himself, “Until I'm done, she will never leave me. I'll be the one doing the leaving!”

He swept out of the ballroom and half the Thonicks went with him, their heavy footsteps thundering down the corridor, the sound fading as they moved deeper into the palace.

I didn't wait even half a second.

The moment they were gone I rolled onto my side and started crawling toward the corridor that led to the fire section. Every movement sent pain shooting through my ribs where I'd been hit during the fight, my bound wrists making it nearly impossible to get any leverage, but I kept moving because this was my only chance and I wasn't going to waste it.

The remaining Thonicks were distracted, murmuring among themselves about Nellie, about the audacity of the intruders, about what Hades would do when he caught them. The gods and demons who'd been celebrating moments ago were now whispering nervously, some of them already moving toward the exits like they wanted to be anywhere else when Hades came back.

None of them were looking at me.

I reached the corridor and kept crawling, my knees scraping against stone that was still cold from Hades' rage, my shoulders screaming in protest with every movement. The heat hit me as soon as I entered the fire section, that dry baking warmth that came from the walls themselves, and I had never been more grateful for anything in my entire life.

I maneuvered myself until my bound wrists were pressed directly against the wall where the heat was strongest, where I could feel it radiating through the stone like a living thing, and I held them there.

The pain was immediate and excruciating. The warded rope began to smoke, the material resisting the flames because of course it did, because nothing could be simple, and I gritted my teeth and pressed harder, feeling my own skin blister and burn right along with it. The smell was nauseating, burnt flesh and burnt rope mixing together into something that made my stomach turn, but I didn't pull away, couldn't pull away, because this was my only shot at getting out of here alive.

The rope snapped with a sound like a whip cracking.

I fell forward onto my hands and knees, gasping, my wrists raw and bleeding and burned so badly I could see bone in places, but they were free. I scrambled to my feet, swaying slightly as the world tilted around me, and I ran.

The maze tried to shift around me but I didn't let it, channeling just enough earth power to stabilize the corridors even though it cost me, keeping them solid and straight as I sprinted toward the exit. My powers were coming back slowly now that the warded bonds were gone, trickling back into my awareness like water returning to a dry riverbed, not much but enough.

“I'm coming,” I sent through the bond, pushing the words out with everything I had. ‘Where are you?”

“At the Eastern gate,” Nala replied immediately, relief flooding through the connection so strongly it almost knocked me over. “We see the palace, we're waiting, keep running, we're right here—”

I burst out of the palace doors and into the open air and saw them.

All three Tamzyns, massive and beautiful and fierce, waiting just beyond the eastern gate exactly where they'd promised they'd be. Nala saw me first and made a sound of pure relief, already moving toward me with her wings spread wide.

I ran faster, my burned wrists forgotten, my broken ribs forgotten, everything forgotten except getting to them.

I was maybe twenty feet away when the air around us turned to ice.