Bonds of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #2)(58)

Kharon straightened his dark cloak, determination on his face. “Well, then let’s get them.”

Crack.

White flurries fell furiously through freezing air and I exhaled an icy cloud—a white-covered concrete building towered before us with a tall barbed wire fence surrounding it.

The only human prison in the Northern Hemisphere.

Snow crunched beneath our boots as we walked up the path to the guarded entrance.

The human guards paled as we approached.

“We’re here on official Spartan business,” I announced. “We’re looking for a prisoner.”

They blinked up at me.

“My name is Augustus. I am the heir to the House of Ares. I suggest you open the door for me. Now.”

The gate rose.

Kharon’s cloak whipped behind him as he stalked forward, a jagged ruby crown gleaming on his head.

It was time to avenge our wife.

The next morning, I stomped up the steps leading out of the villa dungeon with Kharon trailing behind me.

Both of us were vibrating with fury.

“Her stepfather bragged about hurting her as a child,” Kharon said. “Fuck this shit—we need to kill him.”

I nodded in agreement.

He injured little Alexis. He needs to die.

We both turned and had made it down a few steps before I gathered my wits about me.

“No,” I said as I grabbed Kharon’s back, pulling him out of the dark stairs into the brighter hallway. “We agreed.” I shoved him against the wall. “We need to earn Alexis’s trust … We’ll leave him for her. She’s the one that’s been wronged—she can decide what she wants to do with her foster father.”

“She’s gonna forgive him or some fucking bullshit,” Kharon spat.

Seething, I nodded in agreement.

“We have to kill him.”

FUCK.

No.

I stopped both of us from leaving the hall.

The protective urges—the unholy madness—was making it hard to think. I was being torn to shreds.

Kharon placed a hand on my shoulder. “I … understand,” he said through gritted teeth. “What you’re saying.”

His support grounded me, allowed me to think, to focus. “We have to show Alexis that we respect her,” I said hoarsely. “That means we respect her wishes … whatever they are.”

Kharon nodded sharply, then his chest caved in like he’d been punched. He gasped as he hyperventilated. “I can’t do this—I need to kill someone. It’s too much. It’s—”

I wrapped my arms around him in a hug, holding him upright.

“Breathe,” I coached as we inhaled at the same time.

He relaxed against me.

Neither of us moved, silent understanding coursing between us. We were doing this together; we would be better men for Alexis, or we’d be nothing at all.

Footsteps sounded around the corner.

“No way,” Alexis’s voice echoed.

“Oh, come on,” Helen replied. “Just open it—it’s probably an expensive necklace or something pretty. Everyone knows that Kharon loves blue diamonds—rumor is the House of Artemis has an entire vault full of them. I’m jealous. The House of Aphrodite prefers pearls, which is so boring. My life is not fair.”

“You gotta just open it to see,” Drex said.

Kharon stiffened in my arms, and I released him.

Alexis and Helen are heading to breakfast.

They were going to pass us in the hall.

Standing up straight, I wiped my bloody knuckles on my black pants hastily.

Kharon adjusted his wrinkled shirt. He ran his hands through his hair, desperately trying to pat it down, but somehow looked messier after he touched it, strands sticking out in every direction.

Then, he relaxed his shoulders and smiled, like he was practicing looking approachable—his teeth were covered in blood.

I pointed at them, and he scrubbed them clean with his finger.

“What are you doing?” I whispered. Kharon had struck a dramatic pose, leaning against the wall, knee bent, arms crossed.

“Act casual,” he said out of the side of his mouth.

I put my hand on the wall and leaned toward him like we were talking.

Alexis, Helen, Drex, and Charlie stopped as soon as they turned the corner. A small horse (Fluffy Jr.?) and two hellhounds halted beside them.

They stared at us.

Helen froze mid-motion—she was holding out a black box to Alexis. It was the gift we’d left outside the door for her. The one I’d spent months working on. I’d gotten it commissioned the day after our marriage day, after Alexis leapt away.

Awkward silence stretched as the group cautiously moved forward down the hall, straight toward us.

Nothing to see here. Just two men hanging out by the entrance to a dungeon.

Alexis had purple smudges under her eyes.

Is she sleeping?

I swallowed down the urge to beg her to talk to me.

She crossed her arms over her stomach and purposefully looked away from us as she got closer.

It felt like I’d been slapped in the face.

“So, um,” Kharon said. “Augustus—how did you … sleep?”

“What?”

“How did you sleep?” Kharon repeated.