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My eyes are squeezed shut and my body is frozen in an overwhelming rush of fear. Once I feel the environment becoming steady again, I finally open them. The residual nausea combined with the shock of what greets my vision, prompt me to retch all over the black stone beneath me. I pant and heave as my hands clasp over my aching stomach. My gaze remains fixated on my bare feet resting against the cool, now tainted floor.

"Pitiful" spits Hades, having finally released his hold over my body and mind. Though my vision has done a much better job at adjusting to the newfound dark-lit surroundings, the foyer still spins. I refuse to believe where I am. I simply refuse. Hades had been banished to the Underworld long-ago. A place I had promised myself never to end up. A place I now find myself standing in with no idea how I was to escape. Leaving the Underworld wasn't as simple as leaving Olympus. Once you were in the realm of lost souls, you needed express permission from its ruler, to leave. Something even Hades had been prohibited from granting himself when his father died.

I sob defeated, as the cooling sensation of the hard stone sends tingles into the bottoms of my feet and all the way up my spine. He takes a step closer, and plants his feet together right in front of me. My lips quiver as I try to process how it is that we were standing here. He should not have been able to step foot on Olympus. One can't simply teleport from the Underworld. That was impossible. Even of a god. That kind of power was only afforded to the Lord of the Sky.

My mind is rushing a thousand miles per hour as I take in the large, concave slabs of stone surrounding us. Every crook in sight is doused in a somber midnight hue, save for the glowing red torches adorning the dark-crystal walls. The grandiose, tinted windows give view to a large, steel gate which completely surrounds the entire building.

The underworld was nothing like Olympus. Nothing. Its hollowing corridors and arching pillars make me wish I were back in the cerulean cage I had so dreaded. Back in Valentine's castle. Though lively, black clouds hover above, contrasting against an ashen sky. No green trees sprouted from large grass fields here. All forms of plant life in the Underworld bore the same dark-grey layer of permanent soot.

Knights upon knights march about in unison, all wearing the same dark armor Hades had worn when he'd abducted me. No semi-friendly sentinels with differing glares like in the sky palace. No distinguishable faces, for they were all hooded and masked to the brim with near-obsidian grade metal. The sight makes me want to cry some more, but I must concentrate. I needed find a way out of here, or there was no way I was going to survive. Plus, I couldn't let him use me to destroy Valentine. I needed to think.

I turn a pleading glance over to Hades, his hands resting in his pockets. His armor had been exchanged for black slacks and a black dress-shirt, which remained unbuttoned at the collar. His muscular frame stood tall and firm, and a faint white aurora outlined his body- just like all the other lords. Just like Valentine. The thought of him brings more tears to the brim of my eyes, and I have to fight down the urge to break down again. I need to be strong. Not just for my sake, but for his. If Hades were to get his hands on the crown...

"You underestimate me, my queen" he mocks interrupting my nebulous cloud of thoughts. As he lets out a deep breath, his silvery gaze turns distant and serious. "Do you know, Lillith, what it feels like to be stripped of your dignity and honor?" He takes another very slow step towards me, his hands still stuffed in his pockets. "To be shunned and exiled? To be locked away?" he continues motioning around him, my gaze following along the haunting paintings adorning the dark walls. All portraits. Sad portraits made in nothing but greyscale to complement the midnight-black stone they wistfully hung from.

He continues pacing around me and stops next to a wooden slab of dark oak, a table situated just a few feet behind. Freezing for a moment, my shoulders jolt as his pale fist slams onto the hard surface, cracking it in half. "Cursed to an eternity!" he roars, his face hooded in resentment.

"Tradition states" he begins again after a long moment, "That the inheritance of the throne, shall fall upon the first born" he continues. "Not that your wedded shows any regards to tradition, anyways" he provokes, eyeing me.

"Instead, with the help of our pitiful father, he stole my throne right, and banished me to hell." he adds, agony enveloping his tone. "For this, I will never forgive him." he whispers solemnly, his voice cracking as his pained eyes cast downward in deep thought.

After a moment of prolonged contemplation, he continues. "That night has stayed with me forever." His translucent eyes twinkle in resentment. "I was supposed to rule Lillith. Me." The sad, distant look on his face doesn't fool me. Though Valentine never spoke of it, there was a reason Hades hadn't been allowed to rule. A prophecy about a destructive darkness that burned so bright within him. And as I stood here, roiling in fear- I could see exactly what they had meant. I wouldn't trust him with a crown either.

At my remark, he sneers at me like I'm some insignificant trash parading across the highway. I have to be more careful about my thoughts. I wouldn't want to give him anything that could help him with whatever he was planning.

Finally gathering the courage to speak, I allow my trembling voice to fill some of the space in the vast foyer. "How were you able to break exile? You shouldn't have been able to so much as set glance on Olympus, let alone jump between both realms.... How did you do it?"

This somehow prompts him to close the gap between us another inch. As he does so, his currents flood onto my regurgitation splattered over his floor and without so much as the blink of an eye, the mess evaporates away. Fidgeting, I force myself to look down, trembling under his new-found piercing gaze. With his finger, he redirects my chin up so that our regards are level.

"What does a man stripped of his throne, power, and dignity do?" he asks. I wait for a beat to see whether or not the question is rhetorical. When he simply waits, I stammer under his intense gaze: "I-I'm not- I don't know." He releases an airy chuckle in response to my uneasiness and answers for me. "He adapts. He...evolves." I try to wrap my head around this, but to no avail. "Evolve?" I question carefully. Smirking deviously, he abruptly spins and starts for the hallway.

Confusion washes over me as I remain dumbfoundedly frozen in place. I watch as he briefly glances over his shoulder. Then, on its own accord, my body suddenly lurches forward and begins to march, tailing right behind him. Irritation itches at my weariness and I withhold myself from saying anything I may regret.

We continue pacing through the huge, marble corridor, past a magnitude of doors. Faltering, I allow my mind to sweep along the details surrounding us as we continue to march to an unknown destination. Though this partially helps keep my panic at bay, my palms still sweat in unsettling anticipation.

I take in all the dark, tinted windows barred over with thick iron bars. The doors are delicately crafted of smooth steel with tiny specks of copper sparks adorning their hinges. Peering up at the woven balconies strung high above, I study on as they bustle- crowded with soldiers and guards marching in perfect unison and order, their unfaltering synchronization giving them an almost robotic appearance.

Even the chandeliers hanging from the grandiose, dark ceilings, were crafted of a heavy, black glass. A little color mightn't hurt... I manage to think to myself, even amidst my wreck of nerves. I regret the minute the words form in my mind as Hades' trudging form comes to a preemptive halt, my body doing so just a few inches behind.

Reaching a calloused hand out to the side, he opens his fist palm up, and I watch him bewildered, unsure of what he means by it. It's only as he shuts his palm and one of the guards starts yelling up above, that my stomach resumes its churning. The yelling knight is now clawing at his dark helmet with one hand and giving himself deadly blows to the head with the other. The others seem completely oblivious to his disturbed state and continue their perfectly synced, rhythmic marching around him.

He gives himself one last blow to the head before boosting his own body over the balcony ledge and landing right next to me on the floor with a loud clang, his head twisted away from his body. I want to cover my mouth, to scream, but my body refuses to do either. A pool of bright red blood seeps through from under his casque and forms a huge puddle on the dark floor.

Hades glances over his shoulder at me and returns his hands to their stationary post in his pockets. "Is that enough color?" he muses darkly, as I fight the urge to throw up again. After a satisfied moment, he continues down the hall as if nothing had happened, my body momentarily following suit. We continue walking for what feels like five lengthy minutes, until we finally reach a large, chained door at the end of the corridor.

He stops, commanding my body to do so as well, as he studies the large, chained door. Within seconds, the chains slide to the floor and the large slab creaks open, its springs groaning as a concave study is revealed.

My body then stumbles around Hades and into the room. It is nothing like the rest of the fortress. Deep-mahogany walls are lined with enlarged maps, and glistening gems. Scrolls litter the shelves, ranging from old and crumpled, to crisp and starchy. Ancient texts lay everywhere. Some even older than Olympus.

"You asked me how I was able to escape this realm and re-harness my powers..." comes Hades' calmed voice from behind me. "You wondered what it meant to...evolve?"

"What my new-found strength now allows me to do?" he continues as he paces forward until he is standing directly in front of me. Leaning in, he whispers into my ear. "It would do me no justice to simply tell you, so I am going to show you instead" he rasps peering down at my lips as the study-door slides shut behind me.

My heart races and my knees go limp. Were it not for his hold on me keeping me fastened in place, I'm sure I would've sunken to the floor by now. I don't know what he has planned, but the unnervingly calm look plastered over his shiny gaze tells me I'm not going to like it.

Not. One. Bit.