ARES
“We must kill her now,” I said to Marcel, pacing around the prison.
Less than five minutes ago, the hounds had stopped howling and growling. Up above, everything was eerily quiet. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that struck fear right into my bones—and I feared close to nothing.
Marcel stood across from Hella with his arms crossed and his jaw clenched. Since he had been down here, Marcel had changed in many ways. His spirit had been broken, and he had become the silent type too. He used to be so outgoing and arrogant.
Hella had silenced him.
“Only Nyx has the power to kill a god,” Marcel said, shaking his head. “We can’t.”
But that wasn’t true. Nyx couldn’t be the only one who was strong enough to kill a god or goddess. How did she get that power in the first place? How was she able to kill Aurora the first time around?
“Let me out,” Hella growled.
I glanced over at her small frame, bound in chains that were powerful enough to suppress even a god’s power. While she had her shoulders pushed back and her back straight—as if the chains weren’t affecting her—her eyes were just a bit dimmer than they had been only moments ago, and there were darkening circles under them.
She could pretend all she wanted, but these chains were hurting her.
“The chains,” I whispered, matching the pieces together and finally realizing that it wasn’t just Nyx who could weaken and kill a divine being. I stepped closer to Hella and crouched to her level. “These were the chains you had Aurora locked inside of as you killed her.”
Like a madwoman who had a death wish, Hella grinned wickedly. “Yes.”
“Did you make them with your own power?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
If she had made them with her own power, then she would’ve escaped them already. I wanted her to start talking, to start rambling. I needed information on how they’d killed Aurora the first time around, so I knew how to make sure something like that could never happen again. I refused to feel any more pain.
Fuck saving the world. I’d choose my mate over anyone.
If that made me a villain, then I’d be the greatest fucking villain to ever live.
“I took part in creating them,” she boasted, showing me her pearly-white teeth. “They were created in the deepest and lowest pits of the underworld, where only gods can survive.”
“Where only gods can survive, huh?” I asked, grabbing one and tugging on it.
Hella moved toward me to ease the pain of the chain on her skin. Around the chains, her skin was turning black, her flesh rotting away. We needed to kill her now, so I could make it back to Aurora in the forest. I needed to find her again.
“What are you getting at?” Marcel asked, running a hand through his long white-silver hair.
“Find me more chains,” I said through the mind link, hoping he’d hear me.
Marcel stayed completely still and quiet, as if he hadn’t heard what I said through our mind link. Then, he glanced up at the door to the prison, where someone banged harshly. The door rattled uncontrollably, and I knew we couldn’t wait any longer.
“Find me more chains now, Marcel!” I growled. “Forget whoever is at the door. I’ll handle them if they come in. Grab me as many of these chains as possible. We’re going to kill a goddess tonight.”
Hella suddenly scurried away from me, the chain searing her skin. “You can’t! It’s impossible!”
“It’s impossible for you,” I growled, watching Marcel nod and scurry into another room. “It’s impossible for a weak, pathetic woman like you. But we’re going to kill you tonight. We’re going to end your life and your reign for good. I don’t care what it takes.”
Hella stared at the door, cheeks red. “My hounds will come in and eat you alive.”
“Let them try,” I growled. “They’re not your hounds anymore. You don’t control them.”
“I do!” Hella shouted, but she sounded too desperate for me to believe her. “I do!”
“Marcel! The chains. Now.”
A couple moments later, Marcel hurried into the room and dragged four more chains that radiated power that even burned my skin—and I wasn’t even touching them. He dropped them at my feet and swallowed. “You think this will kill her?”
“It has to.”
Though I wasn’t sure. But if what I thought was correct—that she’d used the chains to weaken Aurora and then let Nyx kill her with her power—then I would weaken Hella enough so that I could kill her with my anger.
I took the first chain and wrapped it around Hella’s body tightly. Then, I did the same with the second. Then, the third. When I picked up the fourth chain, Hella’s body was burning quickly from the intense pain. Her cheeks had sunken in, her eyes not as bright anymore.
“Stop it!” she shouted, voice hoarse. “Stop it now, or you’ll be cursed to live in the underworld forever!”
Clenching my jaw, I stepped closer to her and wrapped the fourth chain around her body. She seized in the middle of the chains, shaking her head back and forth and crying out loud like the motherfucking baby that she was.
“Shut your fucking mouth,” I gritted out.
Marcel stepped forward, brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ll die here!” she screamed. “Whoever kills me will take on my power and be cursed to the underworld forever! Do you want that?! Do you want to never see that bitch you call a mate again?! Never want to see your family back home again?! You’ll have to kill innocent people to survive down here. Do you want that?!”