Hades' eyes locked on her then, narrowed as he contemplated her.
"You cannot be the Winter princess with my magic," he said to her.
"That's not the whole story of why I'm here," she said, finally speaking and Hades flinched at her voice.
"What is it then?" he demanded.
"I…" she trailed off and looked at Daemon who was frowning uncertainly at the lord of the underworld.
He met her eyes and gave a 'might as well' shrug and she signed, jerking back as she realised Hades had moved way too close without anyone noticing.
"You?" he whispered, and she cringed, thoroughly creeped out.
"Thirty-eight generations ago you were with a woman named Minthe," she said, and his lips pulled back to reveal his teeth, canines long and sharp.
"Minthe is my distant grandmother and—"
Hades loomed over her, eyes flashing, and she shrank back as his hands curled around her face.
Forced to meet his eyes, her head had tilted almost entirely back as cold metal touched her face and he bowed his head over her.
"Minthe had no children, little lying creature," he breathed, and his breath was cold on her face.
"She did," Daemon said but Hades ignored him.
"Minthe had a daughter named Selbie, who had a daughter named Seloue and down and down until there was a man named Lutheral and then me," she said, wanting very much to run but he held her captive with his eyes alone.
He seemed to be boring into her mind with those eyes and she swallowed, unable to look away or even move.
He made a soft, thoughtful sound as he seemed to find something inside her, and he finally smiled a real smile. It wasn't a friendly smile, but it was an actual smile.
"So, you're a descendant of mine, are you?" he asked, and his question had a sudden pang of self-preservation shoot though her. She felt a sudden urge to be very careful then.
"Yes, and the Queen of Winter once I have my magic back."
His eyes narrowed as he contemplated her and she felt the metal shifting, melting away to expose his long fingers.
He was freezing cold, and she felt the coldness seeping through her skin and into her jaw to make it ache.
"You came here to beg me for my magic, because I am responsible for your existence?" he asked, his tone mean.
"I came here because when I was born, I stole the magic of the Creators and now they are returned to power and they are going to destroy the human world," she whispered, his face a mere six inches from hers and the coldness had spread, reaching tendrils for her brain.
"I see. So you think I should give you my magic to save the humans?"
She had forgotten the others existed, nothing but him, those black, bottomless eyes and the cold reaching into her.
"I think you should," she said in barely a breath, her mind feeling foggy and tired.
"You realise that if the humans are gone, I would not have to be here?" he asked and she gasped as the first lick of cold touched her mind, the wolf inside her howling and the dragon rearing with flames, trying to heat away the cold.
"Then what would you do? Sit around and wait for several more million years before more humans are born that you can watch?"
Her breath escaped her in a mist, her lips numb.
"I could find my wife," he countered, and she laughed softly, the sound making him frown.
"Yes, because her mother would let you near her if you were free."
His lips pulled back in a snarl and the ice stabbed at her brain.
Her knees gave out and she dropped down to them, the God moving with her to keep a constant contact with her jaw.
"Give me one good reason why I should," he demanded, her vision beginning to darken around the edges as her brain began to grow ice crystals.
"Because without the humans you are nothing. Not the God of the underworld, not a powerful being. Not even a husband, you will have no one and nothing."
The ice stabbed her again and she whimpered, his anger leaving her frozen and bleeding.
"Because the Queen of Winter will owe you a favour."
Again, it stabbed her and she felt herself fading fast.
"Because the descendant of the woman you loved is asking for your help," she barely whispered.
The coldness hesitated, lingering for a moment before it burrowed into her mind, and she felt him there.
She felt him looming over her and her soul and she stood with her arms stretched, protecting the tattered, bleeding blue form.
He studied her for a long moment, a huge looming black figure with horns coming out of his head.
"You aren't all you claim to be," he sneered, and she bared her teeth at him.
"Come on little girl, you can do better than that. You think some lich can contain you? The child of Gods? Do it. Be who you really are,"
She screamed at him, her body warping and changing. Wings burst out of her back and she grew taller, as tall as him. Her hand flung out and the scythe swirled into being, huge and lethal with a razor edge that seemed to sing as it moved through the air.
Red beat at her breast, her clothing becoming a tight leather and silk gown that flowed down around her, leaving one long leg open to view.
Her head felt heavy, weighed down by the headdress and she bared her teeth at him, at his shocked realisation of what she was.
"Impossible," he growled, and she advanced on him, her one goal to expel him from her soul.
"Be gone king of the Mortal Dead or you will soon join your treasured wards," she snarled, not understanding the form she had taken, not knowing how she had taken it but accepting that it would force him out.
"We shall see," he crooned, and he was suddenly gone, leaving her alone with the dragon, wolf and her soul.
Turning on them, she allowed herself to dissolve and her eyes snapped open.
Her entire body ached as Hades loomed over her, his nose a mere inch from hers, teeth bared, and she glared back at him, her body refusing to move and ice freezing her veins.
"The one whom is death shall rule the worlds and create more of her flesh," he growled, the ice tendrils drawing back from her, and she was finally able to breathe.
"Not if you do not help her," she murmured and he growled, his hand moving around behind her head and his lips came down on hers in a hard, disturbingly passionate kiss.
She didn't know how to react as his mouth moved against hers and hers moved against his in response, a part of her she didn't know reaching out to touch a part of him, kindred spirits, one and the same.
His being called to hers and she called to his, but then he had broken the kiss, and she felt herself singing all on her own as his magic flooded her and she finally fell backwards onto the stone, the blissful silence of unconscious greeting her.