Hades

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

I hike up my big skirts and run over to the twins, cursing Zola in every language I know. The moment I skid within metres of them, I'm attacked by two pairs of arms and lifted up into the air. I burst out laughing and grin down at them.

"You guys! Put me down!"

Selene smiles and holds her hands up, letting go immediately. Axel continues shaking me, a mischievous smirk on his lips.

"What if I don't want to?"

"Axel! Let me go."

"I would if I could, Evie." He replies, the smirk suddenly dropping off his face. "But it's not that easy."

"'It's not that easy?'" I stare at him, taken aback by the serious edge in his voice. "What do you mean?"

Selene touches his arm, shaking her head with a pointed look. Axel sighs and abruptly drops me. I drop to the ground in a pile of flailing limbs.

"Hey! Axel!"

Axel doesn't respond, picking up his bow and letting an arrow fly instead. I frown, shocked into silence by his sour attitude.

"How are you, Evie?" Selene distracts me with a smile. She sticks her bow into the grass and leans on it. "Are you coping alright down here? Is Hades treating you well?"

Axel grumbles incoherently and shoots another arrow. Someone off in the distance screams.

"Axel." Selene smacks his arm. He glowers at her.

"What? There's a reason those souls are wandering the Halls of Hades, and it clearly starts with torture."

"You know that's not the reason we are here. Besides which, don't you think it's unsettling for Evie to find out that there are tortured and damned souls wandering around, right outside the palace's garden?"

"She was bound to find out at some point, wasn't she?"

Selene narrows her eyes at her twin. "My arrow is bound to find you if you continue to act like an ass."

Axel stares her dead in the eye as he pulls the drawstring taught. The arrow leaps forward in the air.

"Uh, guys?" I stare at them, unsettled by their behaviour. "You do realise that I'm right here, right?"

"Of course." Selene shoots Axel a look so withering that it almost has me shaking in my boots. She turns back to me with a juxtaposing smile. "But you never answered my question! I'm dying to know — how have the last few months been?"

"Alright, I guess." I reply slowly, my gaze flickering between the bitter-faced Axel and the calm-faced Selene. I pause and chew on the inside of my cheek, uncertain as to what to say. I speak hesitantly. "If I'm completely honest, I'm enjoying myself a lot more than I thought I would."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know what to tell you, Sel." I find myself unable to meet her gaze, busying myself with fiddling with the folds of my skirt instead. Selene quirks an eyebrow at me and gestures for me to continue. "I guess I just... I feel more at ease here in the Underworld than I ever did in England. Than I ever have for most of my life." Selene opens her mouth to say something, and I hold my hand up. "Please don't ask me why. There's only one answer that comes to mind, and I don't think you'll like it."

Selene's face drops. Axel abruptly stops shooting and turns to me. The look on his face quite honestly scares me a little.

"Evie, we are so, so sorry." Selene says softly, her face sorrowful. "The last thing we wanted to do was hurt you."