Furious

Chapter Sixteen

I walked in on Jasper and a deck of cards back in the living room of my apartment. The image was somehow endearing and also unsettling all together, and it didn't help the foul mood I found myself in.

"Come, sit with me, oh furious one." Jasper called to me with all the enthusiasm of a toothache.

"You don't have to hang out in here, you know." I threw myself down on the cushions across the coffee table. It was not what I had intended to do.

"Sulking is unbecoming, Autumn. Your anger towards me in entirely unwarranted and uncalled for," Jasper said without looking up from his cards. He flipped one down on the table letting the corner snap against the wooden surface.

He was right, of course; I didn't like him much but it wasn't Jasper I was upset with. I eyed him suspiciously. "You're not mind controlling me right now, are you?"

Jasper placed the stack of cards on the table and, using both hands, wiggled his fingers at me. Then he rolled his eyes and went back to his Solitaire game. "It's not mind control to be right. I'm sure you'll be happy to know how severely reprimanded I was after last time and that Hades has ordered me under threat of eternal death not to try anything funny."

"I wish I could have heard him yell at you," I giggled, imagining Hector with a disappointed look on his face, one finger wagging, the other hand on his cocked hip. "Don't you try any funny business, young man."

Jasper did not laugh.

The look on his face quickly slid from mild annoyance into great fear.

"Hades has a reputation to uphold. You would do well to remember that he wants something from you and is willing to do almost anything to get it; if he didn't need you so badly, you would not have the freedoms you enjoy today."

Freedoms? "Oh please, tell me what 'freedoms' I enjoy, Jasper. I'm dying to know."

The lamia abandoned his cards. "The freedom to address him as Hector rather than Hades, or my Lord; the freedom of access to two of his best and most loyal fighters; the freedom of this library," he waved his arms out in recognition of the book filled room, "which you never considered as a viable tool; the freedom of release upon your survival on the battlefield. Do not confuse our Lord and Master with a puppy, eager for your love and affection. You are a tool, Autumn, and you are his."

I let that sink in. The first words Hector said to me were "You belong to me," but barring a few frightening looks, he hadn't seemed all that scary to me. But judging by the look on Jasper's face I didn't want to bring that up. We sat in awkward silence for a moment.

"Sometimes the way he talks makes him sound like he's a hundred years old," I said, a peace offering, a neutral topic.

Jasper took the bait, releasing the tension that had taken up residence in his jaw. "You mistake his appearance for age but remember that Hector took up the mantle of Hades and assumed the role—complete with the lifetime of memories. So he is many hundreds of years old."

I didn't know how to respond. The air between us still felt stale and I didn't want to upset Jasper further or he might make more colorful threats on all the ways he would like to eat me.

Had I pushed the subject, Jasper might have told me more of Hector's story but for the first time since arriving in the Underworld, I didn't have any questions to ask. The endless word-vomit finally ceased.

After a few minutes of watching Jasper lose to himself at cards, I took another energy bar into my room where I pulled out an outfit similar to Alex's trademark training duds and went to shower. The water was luxurious after the day—days—I had; with pruned fingers and damp hair I headed back to my room and fell asleep.