Hades

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Two months later.

"Oh, come on!" I growl, spinning around and kicking the wall.

Hades quietly watches me as I throw my tantrum. He only speaks up when I finally stop kicking the wall. "Have you finished?"

I huff and fold my arms tightly over my chest. "Yes."

"Good." Hades nods. "You need to concentrate, Evie."

"I am concentrating!" I explode angrily, throwing my hands up in the air. I take a deep breath and run a shaky hand through my hair. "I've been concentrating for the last two months, Hades. Fat lot of good that's done for me! We've been at this for over sixty days now, and I'm as close to mastering mind-projection as Pluto is to fitting into a cat carrier!"

"You will not be able to concentrate if you are angry, Evie. You need to take a deep breath and calm down."

I pause, and slowly turn to stare at him.

"Tell me to calm down again." I say in a low voice. "I dare you."

"Alright." Hades steps forward and slowly lowers my hands to my sides. "Perhaps we should take a break."

"Yeah, you think?" I snap. Hades raises an eyebrow. I let out a long breath. "I'm sorry, Hades. That was uncalled for."

"It is okay, Evie." Hades squeezes my shoulder reassuringly after a moment's hesitation. "I understand that you are exhausted."

I nod mutely and allow myself to lean into his touch for a moment. An electrifying shiver ripples through me, right from the spot that his fingers press into my tense muscles. If I thought I was in love with Hades two months ago, I had no idea how much further I'd fall after two more months in the Underworld with him. Even the mere feeling of his hands on my skin turned my knees to jelly and caused my heart to skip a beat: I had seriously underestimated how much the mere touch of him would affect me now. Never in my life had I ever experienced anything like this, felt like this about anyone, and that scared the crap out of me.

But despite all that, this moment, right now, with Hades standing a mere breadth away, was the closest to intimacy I'd had with him over the past two months. Ever since we'd started my training, he'd become distant, distracted, and more focused on helping me develop my abilities than spending time with me. Every day, he would disappear the instant he decided to end the training, and I wouldn't see him again until the following day. He'd barely touched me and barely smiled at me, let alone kissed me. I knew, in the logical part of my brain, that his behaviour was because of the situation with Kronos, and his obsession with trying to piece together all the information, but a part of me still couldn't help but feel hurt by his reservedness. He'd promised he wouldn't keep me at arm's length anymore, and even though I knew Hades wasn't doing it on purpose, I couldn't ignore how much I missed his companionship.

Silence swallows the conversation for several, long beats. My eyes flutter open and hesitantly meet his gaze. Hades stares at me, his eyes flickering down for a millisecond, before he steps back. His hands find their way into his trench-coat pockets.

"Go and find Kezia. She will provide you with refreshments and a short respite. I will find you once you are finished and we will resume your training."

"What about you?" I stretch languidly, smiling a little when I hear the satisfying pop! of my back cracking. "Aren't you going to refresh yourself?"

"I barely feel the need anymore." Hades shrugs. "There is also some business that I must attend to. I will find you once it is resolved."

"Do you want any—"