Page 2 of Taming Winter

I glanced at my watch. There were only a few hours before I would succumb to the drain of my life force from the wraiths surrounding me. Fortunately, the garish silhouette of gnarled spires appeared against the plum-colored sky. I quickened my pace towards the Castle of Hades.

The castle was a sprawling feat of architecture. Its four obsidian spires disappeared into the clouds above. Carvings of writhing beasts and macabre scenes scarred the obsidian walls. The tapered pillars cascaded from the front like gnarled tree trunks with vast serpents embracing their curves.

I wasted no more time in stalking toward the front doors, hidden under a massive statue of Hades. Amethyst eyes as large as my outstretched palm burned into my skull as I entered.

A wave of sticky, oppressive heat blasted over me, a contrast to the soul-sucking chill outside. I wiped my brow and gave myself thirty seconds to take in my surroundings. The interior was a maze of pillars, as tall as skyscrapers, that stretched to an arched ceiling carved with murals of monsters. Two massive spiraling staircases disappeared into the ceiling at the other end of the foyer. There were no guards or servants, which was strange. The suffocating silence made my skin crawl. I had been prepared for further fights, but I trotted on featherlight feet with no one to stop me.

There was a subtle heat drop between the left and right sides of the building, growing more noticeable as I approached the stairs. Call it intuition, or perhaps years of experience, but I followed the heat. There had to be a reason painters depicted Hades against a wall of flames.

I took the right staircase two at a time, desperate to stay on schedule. There was only half an hour planned to dispatch this bitch, and no room for error. The staircase spilled onto a grand floor trimmed with curving pillars. Again, I was met with a sickening silence. This beautifully kept castle felt abandoned. My skin prickled with the warnings of an ambush. I scanned the walls for trick doors or hiding places and found none.

Another set of stairs took up the end of the hall. These were smaller and roughly cut, as if unused. Obsidian statues trimmed each side of the vanquished monster, Cerberus. The sculptures were humble compared to the rest of the estate, but their mouths opened to reveal pits of roiling fire spilling around their fangs.

She was intelligent, at least. Those with wealth or power usually trimmed their sleeping chambers with massive double doors and ornate artistry, making assassination an easy feat. Narrow staircases caused the smallest misstep to echo and required enemies to traverse them one at a time. The minimalist entrance would trick some assassins into continuing their search, but I knew better. Hades’s bedchambers were at the top of those stairs.

I tackled the steps with cold, silent calculation. Younger assassins talked of the burst of adrenaline when they neared their target, but I no longer had such twisted butterflies in my stomach. My mind settled, and I went through my checklist. I had it on good authority that a silver blade to the brain would kill an immortal, so I pulled the spearpoint from my bandolier and went through the locations where other such knives were hidden on my person. I also carried my gun, poisons, and tools of torture in case silver didn't work. My belt was also solid silver, which I could use as a restraint if needed. Best to have a backup plan.

I stepped into a large, minimally decorated room filled with pillars like the rest of the house. A small tea table and a massive bed were the only furnishings. A circular stained-glass window on the far wall bathed the room in shades of purple. I did a quick once-over to mark exits and hiding points, and potential weapons, but there were none. With that, I moved toward the still form lying within the black silk sheets.

My soul lurched at the sight of the immortal of the dead, drawn to her as though it knew she held its fate in her palms. She slept on her back, her auburn hair splayed across her black pillows like flames burning through the night. Tattoos covered her neck and disappeared under the blanket encasing her. She was beautiful, I supposed. Unfortunate that she wouldn't be alive much longer.

I had never been the sentimental type. I didn't say a prayer to gods I knew didn't give a shit about me, and I couldn’t be bothered with a moment of silence. Such things were a dangerous frivolity. I simply lifted my blade, and with one quick movement I buried it into her left eye.

Golden blood poured from her eye socket and spilled onto the bedsheets below. The pure, liquid gold shade perturbed me. It glowed as though it held its own light and was unaffected by the purplish cast. This creature wasn't human in the slightest, despite being human-shaped.

That shit would probably sell for a fortune to the right buyer. It would be the cherry on top of an already lucrative transaction, and I would keep my hide safe for a while longer. I pulled my flask from my pants pocket and poured the whiskey onto the polished floor to make room for the immortal's blood, then leaned over her.

Except her right eye was open, and she was smiling.

"Well, well, well. Shouldn't you buy a woman a drink before you bury yourself in her?" She purred, sitting up. Her voice was that of a siren, soothing, sexy, and oh so deadly.

I retreated a small step, keeping my face impassive. My job didn’t shake me often, but this bitch had a knife in her eye, and she was climbing out of bed like she was just called for fucking breakfast.

Perhaps I hadn't hit her brain. I pulled a curved butcher knife from my waist and charged her. She stepped in to block me, but I sidestepped her and swung at the back of her head.

My blade should have impaled her skull. My movement had been correct; I had shifted her off-balance as I always did to redirect a target. Yet, her fist somehow gripped the razor-sharp edges. She was facing me now, smiling despite the knife sticking out of her eye. Golden blood dripped onto the floor, but she held on despite my attempts to pry my weapon away from her.

With a snarl, I released the butcher knife and jerked away to give myself time to pull another. I readied to attack but was frozen in a state of awestruck horror as this woman pulled the blade from her eye and the wound stitched itself together in a patchwork of shimmering gold.

"You are a coldhearted little devil, aren't you? You didn't even hesitate." Hades snickered. Her crazed green eyes locked on mine, and a feral grin warped her lips. "Sorry to disappoint, handsome, but you will be the one dying tonight.”

There was no chance to respond before she pounced. She parried me with my own weapons, two against my one, not giving me a chance to gain the upper hand. She struck with the speed and accuracy of a viper, each blow just as jaw-jarring and unrelenting as the last. Fuck. I was being outclassed, and regardless of the hit to my pride, it also spelled my downfall if I couldn't figure something out quickly.

I dropped to my knees and slid forward, swiping at her with my dagger. Hades danced out of the blade’s reach, allowing me to jump to my feet and pull my Beretta from my waist. I didn't give a fuck if it could kill her or not, I just needed it to slow her down. Bang! I hit her in the left tit. Bang! I followed with a bullet above the first. Though the impact sent her stumbling backward, she didn't wince or slow down as I buried bullet after bullet into her body.

When I unloaded my clip, she smiled. It was a savage thing, gilded with her blood and tainted with her hatred. "Is that all you've got, handsome?"

"Not in the slightest," I grunted before sprinting at her. She was ready for my assault, but I leaped to the left at the last second. I planted a foot against the gnarled rails of her bedframe and used the momentum to launch myself at her. It was a last-ditch effort intended to shock and confuse, and it worked. One arm enclosed her throat, and the other slammed my knife into the top of her skull with enough force to crack bone. She sagged beneath me, and I sprang backward.

My aim had been perfect. Silver had buried itself into the meat of her brain. I let out a breath of relief that it was done—the monster was vanquished. That was, until her body burst into flames.

Twenty years as an assassin taught me a lot of things. I was agile and strong, and I could read my opponents so I could stay a step ahead. Yet, all my experience turned to ash in seconds. She straightened and rotated to me as purple fire engulfed her entire form. Silver trickled over her face and from her bullet holes in metallic rivulets that pooled on the floor.

She fisted my shirt, and as fingers touched the fabric, a white-hot pain lanced through my chest. Her inferno devoured my shirt in seconds. Left hunting for scraps, they feasted on my flesh next. A scream of agony tore from my lips. I crumpled into a ball of fire on her heated stone floor. Though I thrashed desperately to snuff the flames, they clung to me and ate through my skin like acid. The rancid smell of burning flesh and hair filled my nostrils until those too were gone. The last fleeting moments of my existence were snuffed out as the frozen depths of death consumed me.

A deep, sultry chuckle echoed through the inferno’s rustle. "Oh, what fun I will have with you. Welcome to the Underworld, handsome."

CHAPTER 3