Hades (The God Chronicles #3)

“Fear,” he said, inhaling deeply. “How I love
the smell of it. Especially now, as it mixes with your adrenaline,
fueling all of the darkest parts of your mind, urging you to flee
from me.”

I pressed myself into the trash bin even
harder, as if doing so would give me the space I so felt I needed
to put between us.

“Are you. . . The Devil?” I asked shakily,
watching the smoke around us swirl in patterns that seemed dictated
by nothing other than his soulless eyes.

“Oh no,” he laughed, the sound barking from his
throat. “I’m much older than that, my dear. The Devil wishes he was
me.”

Praise for
Hades

“
So damn awesome. You will never
read a more amazing, heartfelt book in your life. You will be
completely immersed in this story!”

~Julie Engle, Amazon
Customer

“
When Hades faces a Hurricane, the
Underworld will never be the same.”

~Raquel Auriemma, Roc N’
Read

Other Books by Kamery
Solomon

Forever

The God Chronicles

Zeus

Poseidon

Hades

Big Apple Dreams

Too Many Secrets
~Coming Soon!

The God Chronicles

Hades

By

Kamery Solomon

Happily Ever After Publishing - Arizona

Copyright © 2014 Kamery Solomon

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published by

Happily Ever After Publishing

Arizona

Smashwords Ebook Edition

Without limiting the rights under copyright
reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of
both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the
author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author
acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various
products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used
without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not
authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark
owners.

This book is available in print and ebook
format.

Dedication

For my beta readers~

You all put up with me and my crazy
schedule and I love you for it! Thank you for always being so
encouraging and helping me to not second guess myself. I love you
all!

Acknowledgments

Where do I even start?

This book has been so long in the
making. Even when I first thought of Zeus, Hades was always there
in the back of my mind, evolving from several different ideas. Out
of everything I’ve written, this is the book I’ve thought about the
longest. There are so many people who deserve to be thanked for
their hand in bringing it to light.

Jake-I know I thank you in the
acknowledgments of every book I write, but I sincerely mean it! You
are a wonderful husband and father and I wouldn’t be able to make
it through life without you. Whenever I’m down and need help, you
are always the first person I turn to. Thank you for being there
for me when I need it the most.

My family-All of your babysitting and
listening to me ramble on about every little detail has really
saved me, haha! Thank you for your continued support and
love.

Mom and Belinda-You both count as
family, of course, but you’ve listened to me gripe, wine, cheer,
and splurge about this book for over a year and still were always
supportive! Even right up to the end, as I write this, you’re still
encouraging me and helping to calm my nerves. I love you both so
much, you have no idea!

My beta readers-I just love you. You
have no idea how many times I’ve shared something and then sat
around biting my finger nails, waiting to hear what you thought
about it. I get so scared of writing sometimes, haha! All of your
input is greatly appreciated. If it weren’t for you, I would
probably never write anything again, for fear of it being bad. A
special thanks to my betas for Hades specifically as well, Raquel,
Julie, Kayla, and Lisa!

Love Always,

Kamery

Prologue

Hades

“
You’re leaving early this
year,” I said, watching her throw her clothes into the suitcase
vehemently, just as she did at the start of every
spring.

“
It’s warmed up earlier,”
she said simply, turning from her task to glare at me with her
cold, green eyes. “You know I wouldn’t even come back to this hole
in the ground if you hadn’t tricked me into staying.”

“
Here we go again,” I said,
rolling my eyes and shoving away from the wall I’d been leaning on.
“That was literally
millions
of lifetimes ago, Persephone. Let it go
already!”

“
What part exactly?” she
spat out, turning back to the dresser and ripping one of the
drawers out, turning it upside down over her bag. “The part where
you kidnapped me, raped me, or doomed me to return to the
underworld for three months of every year for the rest of
eternity?”

“
Raped,” I scoffed. “I did
no such thing. You started that rumor in the hopes that Zeus would
somehow revoke his ruling and let you leave
permanently.”

“
You might as well have,”
she said bitterly, dropping the drawer to the ground with a crack
and zipping up her belongings safely. “It’s not like you ever did
anything for my good.”

“
Hey,” I said in a warning
tone. “I have been a good husband. You have everything you could
ever want or need here.”

“
I want to leave here,” she
laughed humorlessly. “I want to be free to go where I want, when I
want.”

“
Sorry you’re suffering
here in your palace,” I said snidely, closing the distance between
us and grabbing her face, forcing her to look into my eyes. “It
must be so hard to be you.”

“
Do you remember when
Orpheus came and pleaded for you to release his wife back to
him?”

I freed her, surprised by the sudden
turn in conversation.

“
Of course I
do.”

“
The song that he played
was so beautiful and sad that you agreed. I thought that, maybe,
you finally understood what it meant to love someone. But then you
dragged her back down here without another thought as soon as he
looked back to make sure she was following him.”

“
It’s not my fault he
couldn’t follow through on his end of the deal,” I hissed, leaning
in to her unflinching form.

“
No,” she spat out angrily.
“It’s his for trusting a god that can’t feel love.”

She turned her back on me, gathering
her things, and then walked to the door of the room, pausing only a
moment to say goodbye.

“
Till next winter, Hades,”
she said softly, her hatred for me ever present in her
voice.

Chapter One

Katrina

The buckshot exploded from the end of the
barrel, rocketing forward and embedding itself into the old, bullet
ridden washing machine.

“There’s the Hurricane I know and
love!”

My best friend, Stacy, smiled from beside me,
her own hand gun loaded and ready to shoot as soon as I stepped
back.

“You’re going to start using my nickname, too,
now, huh?” I laughed, lowering my shotgun and walking back to the
pickup.

Stacy fired off a few rounds as I laid my gun
in the bed and hopped onto the tailgate, pulling our bag of ammo
towards me.

“It fits you well,” she said, sliding her
sunglasses from her face and into her long, brown hair. “Barry knew
what he was doing when he gave it to you.”

“He intended it as a punishment for dropping
that order in the middle of the bar.”

“Yeah. But I’m assuming he didn’t guess you’d
love it so much,” she snickered. “Poor guy. He keeps trying to get
you reigned in and it just isn’t working.”

“What can I say?” I said with a shrug. “Daddy
taught me to be a tough girl.”

I found the rounds I was looking for and
grabbed a different piece from our lineup of firearms, loading it
up as I took the firing spot once more.

I let a steadying breath release as I aimed for
the old television on the other side of the meadow. A tiny thrill
of excitement shot through me as I hit the target spot on. I may
have not been out in a while, but I could still shoot better than
half the boys in town.

“How are you doing?” Stacy asked uncertainly as
I walked back towards her.

“I’ve been waiting for you to ask,” I said with
a grin.

“I didn’t know how to lead up to
it.”

I pursed my lips together, thinking about how
honest I wanted to be about everything with her.

“You know, it always seemed like only little
kids would be upset when their parents get divorced. They would cry
and think it was their fault or something. And here I am, eighteen
years old, and I still did the same thing when they told me. I
think that scared them more than anything—I haven’t cried since the
fourth grade.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, somewhat
uncomfortably.

Stacy had never really been good at talking
about feelings. But I knew she cared. It was moments like this that
I saw her really trying.

“It’s not a huge deal,” I sighed. “After a few
days I was done with it. I know it’s not my fault. Mom is a drunk
and Dad’s had some sudden spiritual awakening about everything. I
mean, he still shoots and runs the farm the same, but a couple of
the rules have changed.”

“Does he not drink at all any more
then?”

“Of course,” I laughed. “Mom is the one that
left, remember? He doesn’t have to worry that she’ll take it all
and go hide in her room anymore. We just pray before dinner now and
none of the hands work on Sunday like they used to.”

“That doesn’t sound so different,” she said
with grin.

“Josh didn’t agree,” I said gruffly, shoving my
hands into the pockets of my cut-off, jean shorts and looking away
from her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he threw a fit when Daddy told him he
couldn’t live out in the guest house any longer.”

“He got kicked out?” she said in
surprise.

“Yup. Daddy said he didn’t feel comfortable
with his girl’s boyfriend practically staying over every night. He
was worried something would happen, if it hadn’t
already.”

“Had it?”

“Not because Josh didn’t try hard enough,” I
said, my eyes returning to her as I closed the rest of the distance
to the truck and suddenly took a seat on the tailgate again. “It
was all he ever asked about.”

“And you never gave in?” she asked
suspiciously.

“No! I didn’t like how he was always trying to
get me to quit the job at the bar. When he wasn’t asking for sex,
we were fighting about that.”

“What’s so wrong about working at the
bar?”

“He doesn’t like the uniform,” I said with an
eye roll. “Like I don’t wear clothes like that all the
time.”

“Hey, if you can rock the Daisy Dukes, you
should,” she laughed.

“Exactly! But Josh took it upon himself to
explain to me how the male mind works and what my shorts and tied
up shirt do to all the old men at Barry’s.”

“Was he worried someone would hurt
you?”