Page 48 of Where Crows Find Death
I'd always loved dogs. Always wanted to have one, but the opportunity never presented itself. Now, standing not too far from them, looking at these massive beings, instead of the fearI should probably feel, I felt nostalgia. I felt the need to go to them, to hug them, to bury my face in their soft fur.
"They're not going to hurt you," Hades said.
"I know," I said almost automatically, unable to take my eyes off of them. "That one." I pointed at the middle dog. "That one was there during the accident, wasn't he?" This time my eyes moved toward Hades, ignoring the way his shirt got plastered to his muscles, highlighting every single one of them unabashedly.
"Yeah." He looked back at them, nodding slowly at the dogs. They started approaching, never taking their eyes off of me, never once looking anywhere else.
"How?" I simply asked, letting my feet carry me closer to the God of the Dead and toward them. "How was he there?"
Hades's eyes flickered toward me before he crouched down as the three of them flanked him, rubbing their snouts against his legs. "Gods cannot leave the island, no matter what," he explained. "We are prisoners here." He wrapped his arm around the neck of the one with the red eyes. "Forever bound to this land until the end of time. But them." He looked at the dog. "They are not. At least not fully."
The red-eyed one stepped away from Hades and started advancing toward me, and I crouched down, letting him come to me. "Explain," I murmured, hoping Hades would give me some sort of an explanation. The red-eyed dog moved in front of me, crawling slowly until he closed the distance between us.
My ass dropped to the ground as my legs extended on either side of him, letting him crawl farther, until his snout rested on my left thigh, those crimson eyes looking straight up at me.
"Every year." Hades started speaking as I slowly lifted my hand, letting him sniff me, before dragging my fingers between his ears. "On October 31st, the veil around this island starts thinning," he added. "And every year, the creatures that are not bound to this land by the blood of the Ancients are allowedto step out and visit the mainland." I could see Hades moving closer from the periphery of my eyes, yet I didn't want to look away from the dog lying in my lap. "To visit the descendants of those they used to be close to. To visit the children carrying Ancient blood without really knowing about it. They are the protectors, the guardians, sticking to the shadows." The dog in my lap got even closer, setting his entire head on my thigh and closing his eyes.
"His name is Grimm," Hades said, making me look at him. The other two dogs were looking at us, whining as they stared at my hand on top of Grimm's head. They looked almost identical, with only one difference—the one on Hades's left had a scar right above his right eye, but other than that, I could've sworn they were twins. "You may know all three of them by a different name." Hades chuckled, standing up. "A slightly more sinister name."
"Cerberus," I whispered. Grimm suddenly stood up and sat right in front of me just as the other two ran toward me. "They are Cerberus."
"They are," Hades confirmed. "The three-headed monster guarding the gates of the Underworld."
"But…" I frowned, looking at the three dogs. "How? How are they?—"
"Separate?" He walked toward us, standing just behind the dogs.
I remembered it then, all the stories I had heard over the course of the years. My mother seldom spoke of Hades, unlike the other Gods, and I now wondered why. Why did she avoid the stories about him?
But the stories I heard and the drawings I saw could never capture the true essence of this man, this God, or the dogs that guarded his dominion.
"This is Nox." He placed his hand on top of the head of the one with the scar. "And this," he looked at the other one, "is Vesper."
"But only Grimm was there the night of the accident."
"Correct."
"How…" I started as I stood up. Grimm followed, standing with me. "How did he save me? I was…" I was half dead by the time he pulled me out. I was one hundred percent sure my body was shutting down. "I was dying."
A tic in Hades's cheek appeared this time, those dark green eyes dropping to the dogs. "I know, but he found you. He sensed you even before the accident." Grimm looked up at him and I could swear he was communicating with him.
"He fed me something, didn't he?"
"Yes," Hades confirmed. "He fed you the pomegranate from my garden." Those emerald green orbs connected with mine, freezing me to the spot. "He was the one that had awakened your immortality, Kaira."
I wanted to deny the truth of those words, but I could no longer lie to myself. I could no longer ignore the humming power coursing through my veins.
"You're not human anymore," Hades continued. "You're not a full God either. Not like me, not like Zeus or Poseidon, but you are immortal now. And because of your father, because of the power he wielded, you're almost as strong as all of us. But you're also more dangerous."
"Because I don't know my power," I stated.
"Yes and no," he said, making me frown. "It's because you don't know who you truly are."
Footsteps sounded somewhere behind us, and as if on cue, Grimm, Nox, and Vesper circled around us, baring their teeth at the newcomer. The hairs on the back of my neck rose asHades pushed me behind him, widening his legs much like how Lysander and I did during our fight.
Grimm walked farther to the front, the fur at his back rising up as his head lowered.
Just stay back with him. We got this, suddenly echoed in my head, making me stumble backwards.
