The Underworld Crown (Series)

Chapter 21

"No," I shot back, but my voice trembled. Hades' noticed this too.

"I'm afraid I'm not giving you a choice in this matter, Serena," he responded curtly, coming to a stop a few metres from me. "This exercise will be a good way for me to assess how much you've learnt in your time here, since you'll no doubt have a physical assessment for one of the trials."

"I said no."

Ignoring me, Hades continued, "As a show of good faith, I'll even let you use one of my guard's swords. I'll attack you bare-handed. That should even the odds slightly."

It was all happening so fast, I didn't have time to get my thoughts in order. One second after Hades mentioned a weapon, a guard approached me and thrust a sword into my hands. I grappled with the hilt as they forced me to grab hold. Surprised by its weight, I almost lost my grip and let it fall to the floor.

I'd never held a sword in my hands before. Hell, Alek hadn't even let me anywhere near his, so the most I'd seen of sword fighting was from Alek's brief fights and the movies. Somehow, I didn't think sword fighting in the movies would be anywhere near an accurate experience. My breathing was shallow as I looked up at Hades, forcing myself to meet his challenging gaze.

"I'm not going to fight you, and you're going to let Kadyn go." My voice was soft, almost inaudible. I was barely holding it together.

Off on the side-lines, Kadyn was thrashing to escape the guards' grip.

"Let me take Serena's place," Kadyn argued. "This is my fight, not hers."

A small and cowardly part of me wanted to agree, knowing that Kadyn was far more experienced in the sword-fighting department than I was. But the bigger part of me knew that no matter what, neither of us would be able to defeat Hades.

Hades didn't even turn his gaze on Kadyn when he replied, "You will get your fight – once I am done with Serena."

For a moment, I truly thought I might pass out. I cast a quick glance around the Throne Room, my heart pounding in my chest. There was nothing in the room that I could use to my advantage. There was certainly no sign of plant life or anything that I could use with my powers. My healing powers weren't going to be effective during battle, either. I realised with horror that I was utterly trapped and with nowhere to go and nothing that I could properly use to defend Kadyn. Based off Hades' sinister smile, that was exactly why he'd asked me to come here. He really was wanting to use this time to test how far I'd progressed in my physical training – all powers aside.

The sword weighed in my hand heavily. From how I saw it, I had two options. Firstly, I could use the sword in the fight and pray to God that it didn't end up being used against me. Since I didn't have any experience with sword fighting, the possibility of that happening was high. But then again, if used correctly, it could hold Hades at bay. My second option was to throw the sword off to the side of the room so that the threat of it being used against me was entirely eliminated.

I had just tightened my grip on the sword, resolved to use it, when Hades' face darkened and he exploded. He launched forwards with his right fist slicing to strike to my face. Adrenaline pumping through me, I sidestepped his attack by ducking under his arm and bouncing back up again. He'd used enough force to generate a soft wind, which tugged at the stray hairs framing my face. That hit alone would have knocked me out flat.

I whirled into a defensive stance and held the sword up between us, forming a protective barrier. I quickly ran overe my training with Persephone, but we hadn't worked much on sparring. Persephone had been adamant that I build up my general fitness before we dived into that wormhole, and I was now regretting not having pushed her on the matter. Running on the treadmill and throwing weights around was no substitute for the high-risk, cut-throat, adrenaline-rushed breathlessness that was combat fighting.