Lord Hades had sworn an oath he could not keep. He stood at the edge of the mortal world, tall and broad in a dark scholar's coat, and swore to guard one human soul through every trial the Fates sent. But the Fates had not told him who. A god without a target for his loyalty was a blade with no throat to protect. The silver rings in his brow caught the light as he frowned. Somewhere below, one mortal needed him and he needed them. He did not know their name or their face but he was determined to find and cherish them for all of eternity. He had spent countless days searching. He tracked pain and suffering since the strongest souls burned brightest under it. His winged mount carried him low over the fields, its many wings sweeping color across the gray sky. Hades hated how the beast glowed. He wanted to move unseen. But the creature knew grief better than any map, and today it slowed above one broken down home. The cottage sagged under a rotting thatch roof. Its wooden walls had split and gone soft with rain. Broken tools littered the porch. Inside, a woman’s voice roared, thick with drink. Something shattered against a wall. Hades landed hard in the mud and felt his chest pull toward the door, as if a hook had caught behind his ribs. He had never felt this before. His oath had found its anchor… finally. He did not knock. He pushed the door open with one hand. A drunk woman stood over a young girl, her fist raised. The girl had planted herself between the woman and a cradle, protecting her baby brother inside from the angry woman. The girl did not cower as she lifted a broken chair leg and held it steady, ready to swing at her own mother. Her arm shook, but her eyes did not. She was ready to do anything to protect her wailing and terrified baby brother in the cradle behind her. The pull in Hades's chest became a rope of fire. This was the soul. This one, terrified and furious, guarding something weaker than herself. He understood her at once, because he had spent his life doing the same thing. "Enough!" Hades roared. The word filled the room like cold water. The mother turned, saw the size and fury of the stranger, and dropped her fist slightly. She stumbled back and fled through the rear door into the dark cursing the girl the entire way out. The girl did not thank him or move a muscle. She kept the chair leg raised and stepped in front of the cradle again. "Who sent you?" she demanded. "The Fates," Hades said. He knelt to bring his eyes level with hers. The girl was trembling but kept eye contact with him to show no fear as she protected the screaming baby behind her. On the table beside her sat a wilting bunch of dark roses and pale poppies, the only beauty in that ruined house. "I am bound to protect and cherish you as you are mine. I did not choose it. But now that I have found you, I will not leave." She stared at him, unsure whether he was rescue or an even bigger threat. That was the trouble. His oath bound him to her forever. But an oath was not a bond. She had not agreed to anything, and she owed a god nothing. To seal the soul-oath, he would need her to say yes. And she looked ready to run for the hills.

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.