“What?”
His eyes bored through her. “I’m fairly certain,” Hades drawled, “you heard that part of my conversation, too.”
“What? No!” But since she could already feel her cheeks turning red even before she finished speaking, she knew she was pretty much busted.
“Shall I propose to you now?”
“What?”
“Never mind, we can talk about it later.” As Hades began to drag her towards the portal he created, they heard someone knock on the door.
Hades stilled. “Are you expecting someone?”
Her eyes widened.
A moment later, they heard the door open, and the pastor’s blustery voice boomed out, “I’m coming in.”
That man was certainly doing as he pleased, Hades thought even as he waved his hand negligently in the air. The scene revealing the Underworld returned to its original state, and by the time the unexpected guest came to join them, there was only a plain wall behind Hades.
The newcomer was a heavyset man in his fifties, with receding grey hair and beady eyes, and his eyes nearly bulged out of its sockets when he saw Ever’s aunt in the corner, eyes wild with terror and her hands desperately cover her mouth.
“What has happened to you, Arisa?” The pastor rushed to his Arisa’s side. “Are you alright?” He scowled. “Has that man hurt you?”
Arisa nodded vehemently, thinking that the pastor could save her from the demon beside her niece. Oh, she knew it! She had it right from the start! Ever was indeed possessed, and the demon responsible for it was right beside her niece.
The pastor glared belligerently at the stranger. “Leave this house, sir, before I call for the police.” He turned to Ever. “Come here, child,” he commanded. “Attend to your aunt.”
Ever shook her head and inched closer to Hades.
“Ever,” the pastor warned, “do not disobey—-”
Hades would have been content to leave the man alone, if only out of pity for the fact that the man reeked of human sickness. In a few years’ time, Hades knew that the man was certain to die if not of chronic heart failure then of lung cancer.
But then he heard the man dare command and threaten his prophesied queen—-
Hades glanced at Ever. “Is this man good to you, milady?”
“Err...” She didn’t want to lie, but she didn’t think it was right to state the truth either.
“How dare you ask such a question?” The pastor’s voice shook with fury. “I am a man of the cloth—-”
Ignoring the other man, Hades kept his gaze trained on Ever. “Well?”
Slowly, she shook her head.
His gaze narrowed. “Has he done something to you?”
“He hasn’t a chance to,” she said uncomfortably.
Hades turned to the pastor again, just in time to catch the man in the process of staring at Ever with a crazy mix of lust and possessiveness.
Ah.
Ever gasped when Hades’ hand started to rise. “Hades?”
Hades’ fingers snapped.
The pastor fell to his knees with a cry of excruciating torment.
The sight made Arisa broke down in tears and she pressed her hands even more tightly to her mouthless face, realizing that she had been defeated.
“What did you do to him?” Ever stammered.
“Cut off his cock,” Hades answered dispassionately. “About the same thing that happened to your aunt, only for this man it was not painless.”
Ever’s face drained of color. “You...what?”
Hades ripped a sheet off the air, and the Underworld came into view once more. “Let’s go, milady. We have wasted enough time here.”
“B-but—-” She looked at her aunt and the pastor, torn between wanting to run into the Underworld with Hades and wanting to make sure that Hades hadn’t permanently harmed the other two.
Hades sighed. “You truly have an inordinate ability to worry.” He glanced at the two other mortals, murmuring, “These two have hurt so many people I think it is more than fair if we leave them as they are.”
“Hades!” She looked at him pleadingly. “Please.”
Her large blue eyes enslaved him, and Hades said resignedly, “You win, milady. As always. I will make sure what they’ve lost will be restored. Now, may we leave?”
She threw herself at him. “Thank you!”
Not wanting to waste time, Hades tightened his arms around her waist and carried her back to the Underworld in the next second.
When Ever opened her eyes, she was at the very center of the throne room, and the eleven Olympians stood before her in a semi-circle.
Oh.
My.
Goooooooood——-
The Olympians burst into laughter as the future queen of the Underworld started jumping up and down.
“Athena is right,” Zeus, the god of thunder, murmured in their ancient tongue. “She is indeed a living trampoline.”
Hades was watching his future queen with a mixture of love and exasperation. “Do you think you can stop jumping long enough for us to crown you?”
She grinned at him. “Probably! Not!”
And there it was again, Hades thought.
Those stars in her eyes that no other being in the world had.
It was strange, magical, and sexy as hell.