“‘Yes, Sir’ is the proper response when we’re in this room.” He points at the spot I just vacated. “Sit down.”
“What happens if I don’t obey like that?” I snap my fingers.
He’s back to watching me closely, his body poised and tense as if he’ll spring at me given half the chance. Maybe that should scare me, but it’s not fear beating a pounding drum in my blood. It’s excitement. Hades leans forward very slowly, very pointedly. “Then you’ll be punished.”
“I see,” I say slowly. A choice, then. There’s no one watching right now, no one to playact for. I don’t have to be perfect or sunny or bright or any of the labels I’ve acquired over the years. The realization leaves me feeling giddy and almost drunk.
I look around the room again. “What is this place for you? Freedom from labels?”
“This place is the label.” When I frown, he sighs. “There are only so many methods of holding power. Fear, love, loyalty. The latter two are fickle at best, the first difficult to acquire unless you’re willing to get your hands dirty.”
“Like Zeus,” I murmur.
“Like Zeus,” he confirms. “Though that bastard has enough charm that he doesn’t have to get his hands dirty when he doesn’t want to.”
“Do you get your hands dirty?” I glance around the room again, beginning to understand. “But then, you wouldn’t have to if everyone is scared of you, would you?”
“Reputation is everything.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Hades studies me. “Do you need one?”
Do I? It’s not required for our bargain; I’ve already agreed and I have no intention of backing out now. But I can’t help the curiosity that sinks its fangs into me and refuses to let go. My fascination with Hades goes back years, but meeting the real man behind the myth is a thousand times more compelling. I’ve already divined the purpose of this room, this carefully curated stage. I want to know more about him. I hold his gaze. “I’d like an answer, if you’re willing to give it.”
For a moment, I think he won’t respond, but he finally nods. “People are already primed to fear Hades. As you keep pointing out, the title is the boogeyman of Olympus. I use that, amplify that.” He motions around the room. “I have exclusive parties for carefully selected members of the upper city here. My tastes already ran kinky; I simply use that predilection to serve my purposes.”
I study the room, focusing on the throne. All the better to create the larger-than-life image of Hades, a dark king to Zeus’s golden one. Neither of the images they present to their audience are the truth, but I much prefer Hades’s version. “So you sit there and preside over this den of iniquity and indulge your desires in a way that gives everyone watching a shiver of fear and a story to whisper.”
“Yes.” Something strange in his voice makes me turn to look at him. Hades is staring at me like I’m a puzzle he’s dying to put together. He leans forward. “They really don’t know what an asset you are in the upper city, do they?”
I paint my usual sunshine smile across my features. “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re wasted on those fools.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.” Hades rises slowly. All he needs is a cape to flow around him to complete the menacing-sexy picture he creates. “Shall I give you a demonstration of how our first night here will go?”
Suddenly, this is all too real. A shiver works its way through me that’s part nerves, part anticipation. “Yes, Sir.”
He glances at my feet. “Are they bothering you?”
Truth be told, they already ache just from standing here for a few minutes. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Nothing you can’t handle,” he repeats slowly and shakes his head. “You’ll run your body right into the ground, given half a chance. I wondered if that first night was the exception, but it’s not, is it? It’s the rule.”
I flinch, guilt flickering through me even as I tell myself I have no reason to feel guilty. It’s my body. I can do with it what I need to in order to survive. If sometimes my flesh bears the cost? That’s the price of life. To distract myself from the uncomfortable feeling unfurling within me, I take another step back. “I said it’s fine, and I mean it.”
“I will take your word on it. This time.” He continues before I can say anything. “But I will be checking your bandages at the end of the night, and if you’ve damaged yourself further out of stubbornness, there will be consequences.”
“You are outstandingly arrogant. It’s my body.”
“Wrong. For the duration of this scene, it’s my body.” He motions to the low stage set up in the center of the room. “Up.”