if I said I'm sorry, it'd be a lie.

^^Shame rolled across him, itching up his spine and lighting up every nerve he had. It was shame. Guilt. Nothing in him but the brutal reality of who he was. He couldn't even be saying or suggesting that it was all Minthe's fault, either. She pushed him, she goaded him into this, but it was his actions. At the core it was who he was and who he allowed himself to be.

He had taken the woman deep into the tunnels, avoiding the entrance to the area that he bedded down with Persephone entirely. He'd admit to her eventually what he'd done in taking her captive, but, for now, Minthe was his shameful secret. Despite the fact that he had resigned her life to being his mere prisoner, still, he made it clear that he was going to keep improving her health. He had brought a small turkey to her, dropping it unceremoniously at her feet.



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 The cave was swathed in shadow and perpetual cold. Illuminated by an electric blue that reminded her of home, the lights danced across the ceiling, an undulating constellation. 

 It was a beautiful prison.

 In truth, Minthe had not thought him capable, but as she was so adept at doing, she'd underestimated him. A dull ache pulsed along the side of her head, made more severe when she turned and bent. He'd taken her captive and hurt her in the process. 

 Smelling him before his dim outline came into view, the she-wolf backed herself against the slab of damp stone. She ignored the food. “You're a monster.”

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^^The barbs of her words didn't land. Not as she intended them. His eyes swept over her and she didn't seem to be particularly pained by her current state. “So I'm reminded.” Hades responded. It wasn't with the venom of anger, instead, the sort of voided gap in his emotions. He was business like then, sitting down with distance between the two of them. “I gave you options, Minthe, but let us not forget what I am capable of - no matter how little you may think of me.”

Maybe he should never have pretended to be the higher of his brothers - never thought himself any different from his father, either.

“You have seen me do worse.” Worse to those who wrong him, or his lands, worse to mortals who deemed themselves somehow above the God of the Dead. Still, his blue eyes flashed beneath the bright lights overhead. She would either see through his bravado - of trying to be completely emotionless given the situation - or she would be so angry anyways that it didn't matter.


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 “I've seen you do worse to others.” She clarified.

 Their relationship was a series of choreographed attacks, one parrying while the other tried to land a blow. But Hades had misstepped, making a dance all his own. 

 She came forward, still thin, though her coat had regained some of its luster. Her tail swayed, rising enough to brush across his face as she passed him. “Come on then, Hades. Play with your toy.”

 Minthe would call his bluff or force him to look at the darkest parts of himself, reacquainting him with the horror below the crown.

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^^“You always wanted to be special.” Was his quick retort, blue eyes narrowing as he watched her.

He was still wary of her - no matter any level of weak that Minthe was, she was more crafty and more feral than most people. He knew well that she would survive no matter the odds given to her, no matter what he gave to her. His nose snorted when she teased it, the King's head turning a bit as he snapped at the air - pointedly missing her body with his teeth no matter how much he enjoyed biting others.

“You're too thin for me.” He'd try and hit where it might hurt her, the same sort of way that she was trying to push him further. While they'd had some decently good times too often theirs were shared pains, rife with the wounds that others had inflicted on them. Dealing with the aftermath wasn't something that he was equipped to do - not for her, it would seem, and certainly not for himself. “You need to eat, Minthe.” She'd at least seemed to eat something of the kills that he'd brought, although she'd held out for awhile.

“You think you're going to win this game - but you got yourself into this mess, and you know the way to get out.”


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 His teeth clacked beside her, and Minthe shivered. She imagined bones cracking with that same, sharp sound, her limbs trapped between his teeth. 

 The nymph huffed. In her former body, she'd never felt thin. Her mirror reflected curves instead of angles, worth measured in shrinking numbers like a good round of golf. Hades had fed her then, too.

 She dipped and took the turkey. Crossing the small alcove that had been her prison, Minthe laid down with the kill. A quiet sloshed between them, uneasy as a turbulent sea.

 “You call this a game...” She starts, lifting her head from the pile of plumage to stare at him. “So what do you get if you win?”

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^^Hades hadn't considered a victory to be won. Not when Persephone had no real knowledge of Minthe, nor did his packmates, not when he himself felt the shame tickling at his heels. Not when Minthe couldn't win over him again, allowing the King to become a doormat once more. “My freedom.” Hades said after the silence grew between them ad he had finally settled on what he needed to say. Freedom from her bites and her wounds and the way that she poured salt into him.

He could think of the growth of spring and it's promises, and he could see what his life had always been.

He wanted to be better than he had been - he wanted to be free from who he was and what everyone assumed of him. He needed freedom in turn from the shackles that she had kept on him, although he'd given her the very key to throw away. How could he explain all of that to her and only give her more poison to use against him?


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 His freedom.

 Minthe shouldn't have been surprised. The Olympians were a vain, selfish lot. Their egos were genetic. And as much as he needed to make himself a pariah so he could keep on polishing his Martyr crown, he was just as self-serving.

 Minthe ate her meal and said nothing more, wondering if she would ever be free.

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