Hades (The God Chronicles #3) Read online

  “Fear,” he said, inhaling deeply. “How I love the smell of it. Especially now, as it mixes with your adrenaline, fueling all of the darkest parts of your mind, urging you to flee from me.”

  I pressed myself into the trash bin even harder, as if doing so would give me the space I so felt I needed to put between us.

  “Are you. . . The Devil?” I asked shakily, watching the smoke around us swirl in patterns that seemed dictated by nothing other than his soulless eyes.

  “Oh no,” he laughed, the sound barking from his throat. “I’m much older than that, my dear. The Devil wishes he was me.”

  Praise for Hades

  “So damn awesome. You will never read a more amazing, heartfelt book in your life. You will be completely immersed in this story!”

  ~Julie Engle, Amazon Customer

  “When Hades faces a Hurricane, the Underworld will never be the same.”

  ~Raquel Auriemma, Roc N’ Read

  Other Books by Kamery Solomon

  Forever

  The God Chronicles

  Zeus

  Poseidon

  Hades

  Big Apple Dreams

  Too Many Secrets ~Coming Soon!

  The God Chronicles

  Hades

  By

  Kamery Solomon

  Happily Ever After Publishing - Arizona

  Copyright © 2014 Kamery Solomon

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Published by

  Happily Ever After Publishing

  Arizona

  Smashwords Ebook Edition

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  This book is available in print and ebook format.

  Dedication

  For my beta readers~

  You all put up with me and my crazy schedule and I love you for it! Thank you for always being so encouraging and helping me to not second guess myself. I love you all!

  Acknowledgments

  Where do I even start?

  This book has been so long in the making. Even when I first thought of Zeus, Hades was always there in the back of my mind, evolving from several different ideas. Out of everything I’ve written, this is the book I’ve thought about the longest. There are so many people who deserve to be thanked for their hand in bringing it to light.

  Jake-I know I thank you in the acknowledgments of every book I write, but I sincerely mean it! You are a wonderful husband and father and I wouldn’t be able to make it through life without you. Whenever I’m down and need help, you are always the first person I turn to. Thank you for being there for me when I need it the most.

  My family-All of your babysitting and listening to me ramble on about every little detail has really saved me, haha! Thank you for your continued support and love.

  Mom and Belinda-You both count as family, of course, but you’ve listened to me gripe, wine, cheer, and splurge about this book for over a year and still were always supportive! Even right up to the end, as I write this, you’re still encouraging me and helping to calm my nerves. I love you both so much, you have no idea!

  My beta readers-I just love you. You have no idea how many times I’ve shared something and then sat around biting my finger nails, waiting to hear what you thought about it. I get so scared of writing sometimes, haha! All of your input is greatly appreciated. If it weren’t for you, I would probably never write anything again, for fear of it being bad. A special thanks to my betas for Hades specifically as well, Raquel, Julie, Kayla, and Lisa!

  Love Always,

  Kamery

  Prologue

  Hades

  “You’re leaving early this year,” I said, watching her throw her clothes into the suitcase vehemently, just as she did at the start of every spring.

  “It’s warmed up earlier,” she said simply, turning from her task to glare at me with her cold, green eyes. “You know I wouldn’t even come back to this hole in the ground if you hadn’t tricked me into staying.”

  “Here we go again,” I said, rolling my eyes and shoving away from the wall I’d been leaning on. “That was literally millions of lifetimes ago, Persephone. Let it go already!”

  “What part exactly?” she spat out, turning back to the dresser and ripping one of the drawers out, turning it upside down over her bag. “The part where you kidnapped me, raped me, or doomed me to return to the underworld for three months of every year for the rest of eternity?”

  “Raped,” I scoffed. “I did no such thing. You started that rumor in the hopes that Zeus would somehow revoke his ruling and let you leave permanently.”

  “You might as well have,” she said bitterly, dropping the drawer to the ground with a crack and zipping up her belongings safely. “It’s not like you ever did anything for my good.”

  “Hey,” I said in a warning tone. “I have been a good husband. You have everything you could ever want or need here.”

  “I want to leave here,” she laughed humorlessly. “I want to be free to go where I want, when I want.”

  “Sorry you’re suffering here in your palace,” I said snidely, closing the distance between us and grabbing her face, forcing her to look into my eyes. “It must be so hard to be you.”

  “Do you remember when Orpheus came and pleaded for you to release his wife back to him?”

  I freed her, surprised by the sudden turn in conversation.

  “Of course I do.”

  “The song that he played was so beautiful and sad that you agreed. I thought that, maybe, you finally understood what it meant to love someone. But then you dragged her back down here without another thought as soon as he looked back to make sure she was following him.”

  “It’s not my fault he couldn’t follow through on his end of the deal,” I hissed, leaning in to her unflinching form.

  “No,” she spat out angrily. “It’s his for trusting a god that can’t feel love.”

  She turned her back on me, gathering her things, and then walked to the door of the room, pausing only a moment to say goodbye.

  “Till next winter, Hades,” she said softly, her hatred for me ever present in her voice.

  Chapter One

  Katrina

  The buckshot exploded from the end of the barrel, rocketing forward and embedding itself into the old, bullet ridden washing machine.

  “There’s the Hurricane I know and love!”

  My best friend, Stacy, smiled from beside me, her own hand gun loaded and ready to shoot as soon as I stepped back.

  “You’re going to start using my nickname, too, now, huh?” I laughed, lowering my shotgun and walking back to the pickup.

  Stacy fired off a few rounds as I laid my gun in the bed and hopped onto the tailgate, pulling our bag of ammo towards me.

  “It fits you well,” she said, sliding her sunglasses from her face and into her long, brown hair. “Barry knew what he was doing when he gave it to you.”

  “He intended it as a punishment for dropping that order in the middle of the bar.”

  “
Yeah. But I’m assuming he didn’t guess you’d love it so much,” she snickered. “Poor guy. He keeps trying to get you reigned in and it just isn’t working.”

  “What can I say?” I said with a shrug. “Daddy taught me to be a tough girl.”

  I found the rounds I was looking for and grabbed a different piece from our lineup of firearms, loading it up as I took the firing spot once more.

  I let a steadying breath release as I aimed for the old television on the other side of the meadow. A tiny thrill of excitement shot through me as I hit the target spot on. I may have not been out in a while, but I could still shoot better than half the boys in town.

  “How are you doing?” Stacy asked uncertainly as I walked back towards her.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to ask,” I said with a grin.

  “I didn’t know how to lead up to it.”

  I pursed my lips together, thinking about how honest I wanted to be about everything with her.

  “You know, it always seemed like only little kids would be upset when their parents get divorced. They would cry and think it was their fault or something. And here I am, eighteen years old, and I still did the same thing when they told me. I think that scared them more than anything—I haven’t cried since the fourth grade.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said, somewhat uncomfortably.

  Stacy had never really been good at talking about feelings. But I knew she cared. It was moments like this that I saw her really trying.

  “It’s not a huge deal,” I sighed. “After a few days I was done with it. I know it’s not my fault. Mom is a drunk and Dad’s had some sudden spiritual awakening about everything. I mean, he still shoots and runs the farm the same, but a couple of the rules have changed.”

  “Does he not drink at all any more then?”

  “Of course,” I laughed. “Mom is the one that left, remember? He doesn’t have to worry that she’ll take it all and go hide in her room anymore. We just pray before dinner now and none of the hands work on Sunday like they used to.”

  “That doesn’t sound so different,” she said with grin.

  “Josh didn’t agree,” I said gruffly, shoving my hands into the pockets of my cut-off, jean shorts and looking away from her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, he threw a fit when Daddy told him he couldn’t live out in the guest house any longer.”

  “He got kicked out?” she said in surprise.

  “Yup. Daddy said he didn’t feel comfortable with his girl’s boyfriend practically staying over every night. He was worried something would happen, if it hadn’t already.”

  “Had it?”

  “Not because Josh didn’t try hard enough,” I said, my eyes returning to her as I closed the rest of the distance to the truck and suddenly took a seat on the tailgate again. “It was all he ever asked about.”

  “And you never gave in?” she asked suspiciously.

  “No! I didn’t like how he was always trying to get me to quit the job at the bar. When he wasn’t asking for sex, we were fighting about that.”

  “What’s so wrong about working at the bar?”

  “He doesn’t like the uniform,” I said with an eye roll. “Like I don’t wear clothes like that all the time.”

  “Hey, if you can rock the Daisy Dukes, you should,” she laughed.

  “Exactly! But Josh took it upon himself to explain to me how the male mind works and what my shorts and tied up shirt do to all the old men at Barry’s.”

  “Was he worried someone would hurt you?”

  “More like he was worried I was whoring around,” I scoffed.

  “What a jerk,” she mumbled.

  “Yup. That’s why I dumped him.”

  “Wait, what?” she asked in surprise, pushing herself up from her leaning position.

  “Josh and I are history,” I sighed happily, enjoying the light breeze starting to blow across my face, my own shoulder blade length blonde hair brushing against my skin softly.

  “For real?”

  “For real.”

  “Are you sure you’re not just overreacting from everything that’s going on in your family?” she asked hesitantly. “I mean, he was all you ever talked about in high school. When you guys finally got together before graduation you were practically flying, you were so happy.”

  “Things change,” I said, shrugging again. “And he wasn’t who I thought he was.”

  “Okay,” she said uncertainly.

  A small silence spread between us as I looked out over the meadow. We used to come shoot here every weekend, but after graduation we got busy with other things. It was nice to be out in the middle of nowhere again, a loaded gun ready to take out all of my frustrations on old, rusty appliances.

  “Come on,” I said suddenly, jumping down again and grabbing a gun. “Let’s have one good last round before we head back.”

  I picked up another and handed it to her, snagging my own sunglasses in the process. If we were both going to be shooting at the same time, I would need something to protect my eyes.

  We both made our marks and opened fire, a mutual happiness between us. It really felt like a few months ago, before everything had changed. As the last shots rang out, I grinned widely, pleased I’d consented to coming out today.

  “Are you working tonight?” Stacy asked, turning towards me.

  “No. I told Daddy I’d help bring the cows in.”

  “Have fun with that,” she chuckled.

  “I will,” I said calmly. “I enjoy doing it.”

  “A hurricane that loves chaos? Who would have thought,” she said, a smile covering the whole of her face. “It’s too bad you won’t be working. I was hoping to have some company on my first night.”

  She turned and walked back to the truck, starting to put everything away.

  “No way!” I said, following suit and helping to pack all the guns up. “Barry gave you the open position. He didn’t even tell me.”

  “He probably doesn’t know we know each other. I’ve never been in there before.”

  “Isn’t it funny? We’re too young to go in and drink but not to serve it to everyone else in town.”

  “Welcome to Texas,” she laughed.

  As soon as everything was properly stored, we got in the cab and headed back towards the farm. Living on a full blown ranch meant I already lived out of town a ways, but we still had somewhat of a drive before we would be there. Our shooting range was far away on purpose—we were less likely to hit someone who happened to be passing by.

  The radio blared country music through the old speakers, wind blowing through the open windows and our hair as we left a trail of dust behind. It was all so relaxing to me.

  I itched to do something more though, to go out and see the world. It was so tiring, looking at pictures online and dreaming of the day that I would actually see things in person instead of through a screen. Daddy needed me though, especially now that Mom had dropped us like a bag of hot rocks and run off to who knows where.

  He was taking the divorce hard. He loved Mom, that much I was sure of, but she’d needed help we couldn’t give her. Even if we’d been able to, she’d made it clear that she didn’t want or need it. Eventually, things just fell apart. Daddy’s spiritual reawakening had come from him trying to find a way to help her she wouldn’t fight about. In the end, that hadn’t worked either.

  I didn’t even know what to do to help. She wasn’t the same person when she drank, which was all she did there at the end. If there had been anything I could have done, you bet I would have.

  After about twenty minutes, I could see the house coming up in front of us, all of the cows still out to pasture in the field to the right. Every time I saw our family’s land, I filled with pride.

  The ranch had been in the family for several years. My great grandfather had started it as something to help the family out. It was tiny and aimed at feeding his kids and teaching them how to work. When he passed away, my grandfath
er took over, bought the land immediately surrounding the house and farm, and started breeding his own livestock to sell. When Daddy took over, he started selling the cow’s milk to the local grocery store. He continued to raise horses as well and more recently started acquiring chickens and selling the eggs.

  It was a good business, generations in the making, and our community appreciated that. We’d been treated very kindly by everyone. It was hard to imagine that other people didn’t live in a tight knit group like we did.

  We drove up the gravel driveway and I hopped out the door, grabbing my things out of the bed.

  “Good luck tonight,” I chuckled. “Don’t let Barry ruffle your feathers.”

  “Me?” Stacy said innocently. Her look of surprise turned to one of devilish glee. “He won’t know what hit him.”

  “Have fun,” I laughed, slapping the side of the truck as she pulled away.

  I hefted my bag up onto my shoulder and ascended the wooden steps up to the house.

  “Katrina.”

  My father’s voice called out to me through the kitchen window, off to the right side of the door.

  I walked down the porch until I was in front of it, watching him wash potatoes through the sheer curtains.

  His face was tired, but clean after a day’s work, framed by his short, dark hair. I had many memories of his and Mom’s good times, when they would dance in the kitchen and she would run her fingers through his tresses, delicious smells wafting through a house filled with laughter.