Reese stands and smiles. “But you are here, and we have such a wonderful future ahead of us.”
“Shayne!” I call for him again, praying this time he’ll hear. He has to come and get me.
Reese starts laughing and walks toward me. “Shayne can’t come save you this time.”
I shudder, feeling revulsion mixing in my throat with his odor. I hate him. He is everything I despise. My brain knows he is nothing but a liar. A master of deception. It tries to tell my body this, but with each second that passes, my body is refusing to listen.
“He’ll come,” I say.
But Reese shakes his head. “Shayne isn’t allowed here. This is my domain.” He’s made his way to me now, and he leans in, kissing me on the lips, trying to force my lips apart with his tongue.
I don’t let him, and I don’t kiss him back. I cannot kiss him. Can’t go down that path again. Even if I go crazy with my internal fight. I just can’t do it.
Reese leans away, but the taste of him lingers on my mouth. I want to lick my lips, to taste the sweetness, but I keep my teeth clenched so tight they might shatter.
“Let me show you something, Piper.” Reese walks away, toward the glass doors, and swings them both outward. The wonderful smell of fresh air pours into the room, and I gulp in as much clean air as I can. In this reprieve, I remember I have to get out of here. I reach to a nearby table and pick up a metal sculpture of two centaurs fighting. It’s small enough for me to hold in one hand, and I hide it behind my back. And then the breeze dies, and Reese’s smell again takes over.
Outside are the sounds of battle. Guns. Yelling. Screams of men dying. Reese walks onto the balcony and turns to me, holding his hand out palm upward. His fingers curl in, beckoning me. I’m powerless to resist, and my legs carry me forward until I’m there next to him looking down on a desert full of men killing each other.
“Do you know what your presence on Earth has done for battle, beautiful Persephone?”
I try not to watch, but I can’t take my eyes off the horror below. These are not dead souls as I’m used to seeing in Hell. These are the dying. Life is seeping out of them one heartbeat at a time. They’re in a place between the living and the dead. A place of pain and suffering—like a Tartarus on Earth.
“What?” I say before I can stop myself.
Reese laughs and takes the hand not hidden behind my back. Shivers run up my arms, down my stomach. And I know I need to fight them. But they just feel so good.
“Men fight over anything these days. Battles can last year round. They kill each other over the simplest things. Like water. And shelter.” He smiles and waves outward with his other hand. “And I get to watch it all. Help make it bloodier. Gorier. I get to feed off their miseries.”
I look at him then, and want disgust to show on my face, but I have the horrible feeling the only thing showing there now is desire. For the battle. For Reese. For his smell. His drug which I must fight.
He lifts his hand, taking my chin in his fingers, and holds it like a delicate flower. “We’ll be happy together, Piper. I promise you.”
No! I want to scream it at him. At myself. But my voice won’t work.
His hand traces away from my chin to my neck, down my chest, to my tense stomach. I want to pull away and run. To leave. Go somewhere. And I want to be with him and feel him always.
“My domain will be yours. I’ll keep you safe. Protect you.” His hand moves lower, slipping into the front of my shorts.
I shift against the screaming thoughts in my brain and give him room. I have to stop. This is so wrong I want to cry. But he’s rubbing me, and for every scream my brain is giving, my body is giving double. His mouth comes for mine, and I meet it, letting the gasp I’ve been holding behind my clenched teeth escape. His hand moves down. I want it to go on forever. And I want it to stop right now.
“No.” I manage the words, forcing them out from inside our kiss. And I swing the hidden statue from behind my back directly at his head.
In a flash, Reese catches my hand midair. He grabs my wrist and twists it, and I cry out. The statue slips from my hand and falls to the floor.
His mouth is back on mine just as fast, pushing my cry of pain away, and he pushes me to the floor. He’s heavy on top of me, and the air flies from my body, and I’m kissing him again, trying to remember why I want to say no. My brain is screaming at me to stop, but my body has a mind of its own, and it’s refusing to listen.
“We were meant to be together, Piper. We should have always been together.” His mouth moves to my neck.
“Yes.” My body is in control, and my brain is trapped behind steel bars with no hope of escape.
“So much time has been wasted.” His hand roams up my shirt. Down the inside of my legs. “So much time we need to make up for.”
So much time. Why hadn’t I been with Reese forever? I want to be with him now. Haven’t I always? Nothing will ever keep me from him. No one. Nothing.
What kept me from him in the past? Who could possibly do that?
And then my brain pushes through the instincts of my body, and it comes to me. I remember Shayne. He’s there in my mind. Unable to reach me here in Reese’s domain. It’s Shayne I want to be with and not Reese.
“No.”
Reese doesn’t stop. He kisses my stomach, sending shivers everywhere.
“Stop now!” Firmer this time. “I don’t want this.”
Reese lifts his head, his fingers and hands still moving. “Yes, you do.”
And in his eyes, I see I do. But Shayne’s in my mind, and I know Reese’s love is nothing but a horrible deception.
“I want you to stop now.”
Reese shakes his head. “I’ll never stop. You are everything to me.” His hands are moving fast now, trying to pull off my shorts, trying to lift my shirt. They’re everywhere, but instead of making me feel good, they are like monsters. Monsters that need to be destroyed.
I’m fighting against him, twisting like a viper, but his body is so strong, I may as well be doing nothing, and I realize he’s not going to stop. Not now. Not ever. I need to stop him, or I’ll forever be sorry. His head is down, kissing, trying to draw me back to him, and when he looks up and his eyes meet mine, I remember I am a goddess. I know what I need to do. I don’t need to wait for Shayne.
I look at him hard then, and drawing upon the powers of Hell which I know are mine, I ignite him into a mass of flames on top of me.
Chapter 45
Descent
Reese leaps off me, covered in fire. His face is burning. His hair is burning. The harsh odor of his burning flesh hits me, and I suck it in, happy to be free of his drugging aroma. I only watch him for a second; he’s moving backward, knocking into a chair, falling to the ground. And then I start running. But when I come in from the balcony, I realize there are no doors and no windows and nowhere to go. The door I came through has vanished into the stone wall. I bolt through the doors back out onto the balcony, and leap over the side. Escaping the boundaries of Reese’s world. I fall.
I hit the hard-packed sand, but I keep falling, moving through the ground and the river of sentient silver. It embraces me on my way to the safety of the Underworld.
Shayne is there waiting for me, and I rush into his arms, and I don’t need to say anything. He holds me until I’m not shaking anymore, and then we turn to the boat, and Charon helps us onboard.
“Reese said you and Chloe—” I begin. I try to find the words, but I don’t want to voice them.
Shayne pulls me close on the boat. “Reese is a liar.”
I turn so I’m facing him, looking into his dark eyes, and I watch the red flashes. “But Chloe—” The god-awful image of Chloe telling me she’d been sleeping with Shayne won’t go away. I know it’s not true, but I have to ask.