Katerina Writes

Hades slid into the cool lagoon, the water washing over his body, soothing his soul. He stretched his arms out across the edge of the banks, the grass tickling his biceps, forearms, and palms. Throwing his head back, he looked up at the evening sky. The sun had crested under the earth, its yellow-orange light bathing the world one last time before darkness fell. 

A soft curl of ease threaded into his soul. At ease. At peace.

The snap of a twig and the thrash of the bushes had him sitting up straighter. His left hand reached for the hilt of his sword lying on the bank. 

Couldn’t a god just relax and be left alone?

Maybe it was just a rabbit or the nymph Mintha looking to scratch an itch. If that was the case, he wasn’t interested.

Keeping his fingers curved around the hilt, he waited. 

But it wasn’t a rabbit or Mintha, who emerged from the opening. 

It was a young maiden. Black hair, dark as the waters of his own world, spilled over her white shoulders, blending into the forest shadows. Her white dress glowed against her skin in the twilight, and her dress skimmed the silhouette of her body.

She froze as she saw him in the lagoon. 

Violet-blue eye, the color of the sky at sun set, met his black ones. 

His fingers relaxed slightly on the hilt.

They captured him. No mortal woman had eyes like that.  Even if everything else about her looked human. 

She had to be a nymph.  No human ever dared to come close to the Oracle of the Dead. 

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, his voice a gruff rumble that caused a low vibration at the ground beneath her feet. Hoping to scare her away.

But instead, she stepped closer. 

Bold. 

She stopped near the edge of the lagoon.  Watching him with those violet-blue eyes. Her eyes roaming over his naked torso, lingering too long before she met his. 

And instead of feeling cooled from the water, his body heated from her gaze. That curl of ease unthreaded and tangled inside him. Irritation. Annoyance and…attraction. 

Only a nymph could do this.

Two spots of red stained her white cheeks.

 But no nymph would blush.

 She was still bold but also embarrassed. 

And her embarrassment pleased me. 

Then she dropped her gaze, lowered her dark lashes, and a smile touched her pink lips.  

Damn all the gods, perhaps his brother was right, and he needed to take a mortal woman to bed.

He sank lower in the lagoon to cool himself off. 

The animals in the forest quieted.  

The slight breeze stilled. 

Pausing. 

Waiting. 

Watching.

Her boldness disturbed him. Stirring something inside him he did not like. She needed to leave. Now.

He rose to his full height, water reaching his waist and he stepped toward her.  “Young maidens should not be out alone in the evening. The forest is dangerous.” His voice came out husky, the gruffness gone. 

She did not turn around. 

She did not flee. 

She stepped closer. 

The tips of her toes touched the edge of the water, as if she were ready to dip into the lagoon to join him, and her gaze traveled along the length of his body. Her eyes lingered at his waist. 

She was only an arm’s length away. Didn’t she know the danger she was in?

He could reach out, band his arms around her waist, and drag her into the water with him and pull her up against his body. 

No one could stop him.  

No one would stop him. 

But he could stop himself.

And there was no hint of fear in her eyes as she said, “It’s you. Ruler of the Underworld.” Her voice was lyrical, soft like a caress on his soul. 

He was certain she was a nymph now because her voice wrapped around his mind and he knew he wouldn’t forget it.

Annoyed with himself, he said gruffly again, “You are disturbing my peace.” He eased back into the water, settling against the bank. Unease stirring inside him. She’d disturbed him in more ways than one. 

Her pink lips curved into a sly smile. “My apologies for disturbing your peace my high lord,” she said, and curtsied keeping her violet blue eyes on him. 

She’d curtsied. Was she mocking him or showing reverence? He did not know but her eyes tugged at his soul, leaving him speechless and blanking his mind.  Her eyes held innocence, flirtation but also something mysterious, as if she were hiding a secret pain. He knew the look because it was the same look that stared back at him when he saw his own reflection. It unnerved him.

She stepped back from the edge of the water and turned around, walking back to the edge of the trees, but before she disappeared into the shadows, she looked over her shoulder and smiled at him as the shadows claimed her. 

He sighed and dunked himself into the pool and stayed in the water long after the first stars appeared, wondering if she would appear again and would he learn about those shadows hiding behind her eyes. What unsettled him more. Why did he care?