Lord Hades's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The mother's curses still hung in the cold air. Hades stood in the ruined cottage doorway and listened to her stumble off into the dark cursing the entire way. He knew she would not stay gone. Women like her had kin and She would come back with brothers or other kin, drunk and armed, to drag her children home within an inch of their lives. The girl, Grace, still gripped the broken chair leg protecting the babe behind her, who is howling in his cradle. Hades understood the truth in one breath: this house was no longer safe. His mortal was not safe here. "She'll return," Hades stated plainly as He kept his voice low. "With others. Before the next moon, maybe sooner." Grace's knuckles went white on the wood. She did not argue as She had known it longer than he had. "I have a safe place," he said. "Stone walls. No one gets past the gate or my guards. You and the boy would be safe there." He held out one broad hand, silver rings glinting on his brow. "Come with me if you want to get away from her and all of this." Grace stepped back against the cradle, guarding it with her life. "I don't know you." Her eyes darted to the door, then to Hades, then to her brother. "You could be worse than her." "I could," Hades agreed. He did not soften it. "But she is coming, and I am here. The choice is yours and yours alone.” He crouched slow, the way a man calms a wild dog. From outside strolls in this large hound with three heads and blood red eyes. The dog looked at the girl and babe and wagged his tail excitedly and smiled with their tongues out. “This is my guard dog, Phylax, He guards children. He won't let anyone touch you or the boy." The dog yipped from all three mouths. Grace almost smiled. Almost. Then the baby's cry grew into a wail.. She turned and lifted him from the cradle and Benjamin quieted the moment her arms closed around him. "He wants holding," Grace said. "Not this house. Not her. Not this life.” She looked down at the dirty swaddle, then up at Hades. "Can you keep him safe. Say it plain." "I swear it," Hades said. "On the oath the Fates bound to me. Always." Grace was quiet a long time. Outside, far off, she heard voices. More than one. Male. Getting closer. Her decision came fast then, born of fear, not trust. "We go," she said. "For him." She pointed at Benjamin. "Not for you and if even a hair on his head is harmed you will feel all of my wrath. God or not." Hades did not correct her but simply nodded. He gathered them out the back before the voices reached the porch. His winged mount waited in the field, its many wings washing color over the mud. Grace climbed on with the baby held tight. Phylax raced on the ground below back the castle. They rose into the gray sky. Below, the woman and angered men reached the empty cottage and found only a broken chair leg and wilting flowers. By then the castle was rising ahead, black stone and tall arched windows, its lamps burning gold in the dark. Grace breathed out a tiny sigh of relief. Benjamin was safe but they were inside his walls now. Together but trapped with a god she still did not trust.