The King Of Death | Hades + Fae

Chapter Six

Hades

Peace is coming. Peace is coming. Peace is coming.

If I could throttle the Fates I would, especially now as I sit on my knees with bound hands before an empty throne. The whispers grow to shouts when my eyes lock with the strange woman in the courtyard. I see her before she's seen me. Moving with grace, like a warrior who will never go down. She slashes at a winged male who slashes back at her with just as much ferocity.

Pink hair. I know Fae have strange attributes compared to humans, but that pale pink hair is unique all on it's own. 

Even now, as I look around the room lined with guards in silver armour I can only see bright blinding colours. Bright green, blue, yellow and purple.

Peace is coming.

It is a scream this time, and Atropos' voice makes my body curl within itself just as the doors to the large room slam open. Peace? Is peace the king? 

No.

I knew my mistake the moment her scent hits me in the face like a train. In a world smothered with lavender, she is something else entirely. Freshly baked cinnamon buns, pulled from the oven and left on the counter to cool and smothered in vanilla icing. Cinnamon and vanilla. It assaults my senses with every step she takes into the room, the closer she gets the heavier the fog over my mind falls.

Within a few seconds, the woman from the courtyard steps up to the throne with a man on her arm. Only now she isn't wearing sweat lathered training clothes, nor did she wear the leather armour. Instead, with each moment of her dress catching in the sun, I can see the outline of toned legs, the curve of supple hips. 

As she turns, her breastplate catches the light and almost blinds me. Silver, protective but also a statement that she is not to be fucked with. Something in my vacant chest stings, painful and yet welcoming as I watch the woman turn towards me and lower herself upon the lone throne.

The men hadn't spoken clearly of the king, because there wasn't one.

They have a queen. A queen with golden skin and piercing amethyst eyes that bore into me so deeply I worry she might see straight through my facade. 

Peace is here.

Soft, so soft that I barely even hear the Fate's whisper on the unnatural breeze. 

"Your Grace." Before I can blink, the two men who brought me to the castle drop down to their knees and pull me from my trance. One touches his forehead to the ground, but the other, the one who joined us after warning the palace of my arrival, simply bows his head and tucks his chin to his chest. I swear the Queen smiles, if only ever so slightly.

"Thank you, sons of Valdor for making the journey to us today." Holy fuck. Her low and mellow tone sounds like the first pure thing to ever grace this sinful world. It slides through the room like honey and melts around me. I never knew a voice could match beauty as well as her voice matches her own. 

"Many thanks, Your Grace. The ride was easy and quick." The man to my right speaks as he pushes himself to his feet. His friend glances up from the floor with wide eyes, shocked by his companion's lack of decorum in front of royalty, but the Queen only smiles. 

"Please rise, I prefer you to be comfortable in here." A shiver trembles my body before I can stop it and her sharp eyes land on me once more. They are like stones, unyielding and impossible to read. The man to my left doesn't need to be told a second time and he scrambles to his feet, his hands nervously behind his back. 

"This is the male who claims to be fae?" The queen asks, and I suddenly become aware of the man still hovering over her, his hand on her shoulder. Is he the king? No, he would be the one speaking if so. Who is he? And why is his hand on her bare shoulder like it belongs there?

"Yes, Your Grace." One of the men hums, but I'm too distracted with that fucking hand to know which one. The sudden urge to break every single bone in his fingers hits me like a ton of bricks. What is wrong with me?

She shifts in her seat, but the hand stays planted to her like an extension of her own body. 

"I am Queen Tallulah of the Ulanda kingdom. Who, may I ask, are you?" 

"Hades." Fuck. I was meant to give her a fae-ish name, one that would solidify my claim to be one of them, but something inside me wants to hear my given name roll on her sweet tongue and slip past her plump lips. Maybe she is a siren, I know so little of the fae.

The Queen rolls her shoulders back and the man besides her bristles. Her amethyst gaze shifts to the hand on her shoulder and then up to her companion, her once relaxed brow now pulled together into a frown. The whole throne room remains silent but they speak words through their looks until the man finally shrugs and the queen turns back to me. Her stony eyes are no longer hard to read as they swirl with so many emotions that I can barely stay upright. 

"Hades..." I was right, her honey like voice saying my name - it feels like she is touching me with every letter, caressing my cold skin and breathing lovers' nonsense in my ear. Is this the Fate's doing? 

I've never been in love, I'm not entirely sure God's are capable of it despite my brother's claim that he loves Hera. Even lust was foregone to me, losing its appeal thousands of years ago. So why now? Why did her every movement, the curve of her hips, the bend in her knee, why did it all make me want to murder any man who ever laid eyes on her before I did? My large fists clench involuntarily in the weak binds, one wrong movement and they would break - a threat I was not ready to put forth yet.

"You claim to be fae, Hades. However these men have informed me of your rounded ears." I can hear her unspoken words, even as her tone drops and her eyes narrow. You do not look like a fae, but you also do not look human. Maybe it was a mistake for us gods to sit and rule in silence, because the world we built is now clueless to us in our time of peril, though I know none of my family would be bold enough to cross into the fae lands. 

"Can I show you, Your Grace?" No fear enters her eyes, they stay unwavering like I hadn't just asked if I could demonstrate my unknown power. The fear is still there though, I can smell it from the men in golden armour and leathered wings as they move to stand in front of her, four of them all almost identical making a fae shield. I hide my smirk.

One nod is all it takes from the breathtaking queen for the ropes around my wrists to disintegrate into a black mist. Soft murmurs erupt around me, I had been too busy to notice a group of noble looking fae enter behind Tallulah, nor did I care that they huddled closely together in the far back corner afraid to be seen by me. 

My eyes stay locked on hers.