Guardian Angel

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

I was numb when we arrived back home.

Though, much to my despair, home was not home.

Home was Hades's palace in Hacian, and not my room upstairs in the family wing, but one of the hospital rooms downstairs that was reserved for members of the royal family.

I could have cried if I hadn't cried the whole way back to the surface in the elevator, where we proceeded to teleport.

Instead, I was simply too exhausted to say or do anything as Rowan led me to one of the hospital beds. He kept my hands in his hands the whole time, which was nice. It felt so good to feel his hands in mine again. They were warm, and I was a bit amused at the fact that once upon a time, I had held our hands together and compared how tiny mine were.

Now our hands were the same size.

The door to the room opened abruptly and I looked up past Rowan.

As soon as my eyes landed on Hades, I was immediately reminded of everything that had happened. I was reminded of all the times he lied directly to my face. All the times he asked his stupid, immature questions about being the bottom. All the times he climbed up my ass, dragged me to the doctor, put me through tests I didn't ask questions about, because I was supposed to trust him.

A surge of rage was renewed inside me.

Enough to have me shoving myself to my feet, pushing past Rowan and heading right for Hades, who stiffened at my approach. It took a second to realize he was bracing himself for the slap I delivered across his face the moment I got close enough.

"Ryk—"

"You fucking lied to me," I managed, silencing Rowan's protest, and I swung around to glare at Rowan and Yiuwa, who both tensed at my rage, "You all fucking lied to me!" Hades blinked a couple times, looking a little surprised by the blow to the face before what I said seemed to sink in and his blue eyes flashed.

"Nobody lied about anything, except maybe Rowan—"

"That's absolutely not fair," Yiuwa protested, making Hades look at him drolly, "In case you're forgetting, Rowan is the one who wanted to keep Ryk in the loop. You were the one who wanted to keep it silent. You insisted it was safer to keep things quiet until we could come to a decision."

"What decision?" I demanded, turning back to Hades, who looked at me.

"Getting rid of it," Hades said, making me blink, "Not the curse. You're stuck with that for the rest of eternity, unfortunately, but we can fix the reproductive issue permanently no problem—"

"The fuck you are," I said, and Hades turned those angry glowing blue eyes on me, "I do not give you any consent to touch me. Ever again." Hades froze at that. He stared at me, and I knew I had hurt him. He didn't show it, but I could feel it, and I hated that I got a rift of satisfaction from it. Satisfaction that he finally hurt as much as I did, but pain because I hated hurting someone...

No, I hated hurting Hades.

Hades was my brother.

It didn't matter how either of us were created, that we shared genetics, a creator.

Hades was my brother. He practically raised me. He taught me everything I knew. I had so many cherished memories of Hades and I together doing the most basic of things, from having lunch to studying to the times I'd fallen asleep on him as a child.

Growing up, Hades was my protector, my teacher, my guardian. I trusted him implicitly. When the world got too scary and too dark, I ran to Hades to remind me that not everything was evil and scary and mean.