Hades
Her words slammed against my chest, stealing the breath from my lungs. The suffocating silence stretched between us, and for the first time, I was stripped of control—vulnerable and exposed. My carefully crafted facade must have shifted because her eyes widened, as if the realization that she was onto something sank in.
"You received a message?" My words came out slowly, dragged down by something foreign—hesitation. I never hesitated; it was against everything I was taught.
"Strike sure and true." My father's voice slithered into my head so vivid that I could almost feel his shadow looming behind me.
But today, I was left unguarded by a single sentence.
"Tell me the truth, Hades."
"Hades?" She pulled me back from the depths of my shock. "It is true?" But it was not a question; it was a statement. The clarity in her cadence made the anvil in my gut heavier.
