Chapter 145: It looks like you The door clicked shut behind them, and the house seemed to exhale into silence.
Not the soft, comforting silence Alice usually associated with home. This one felt taut, like a wire pulled too tight.
Alice shifted her weight, suddenly very aware of the way the air tightened when Clarisse and Rowan both looked at her and Hades, then at each other, then at them again. It was the kind of back-and-forth glance that said something happened, but neither wanted to be the first to ask.
Clarisse was the one who finally broke the hush, her voice careful.
"Your guest is still sound asleep, Miss. I checked on her again a few minutes ago." she said gently, though her tone carried that precise crispness Clarisse never shed. "Best not to trouble her until morning."
A small, tight coil of anxiety in Alice’s chest loosened just a fraction. "Thank you, Clarisse."
Rowan, however, possessed neither Clarisse’s practiced diplomacy nor her patience for pretense. He had been a statue of contained energy since they entered, and now he moved, a study in controlled motion. He went straight to the large window that overlooked the sweeping driveway, pulling back the heavy velvet curtain just a sliver.
"Where’s Gavin?" He didn’t turn from the window. "Why didn’t you arrive with the car?"
The question hung there. She had expected Hades to answer but he just... brushed past, his expression unreadable as always.
He didn’t even spare Rowan a glance. He simply mounted the stairs, his long stride carrying him out of the conversation entirely.
His departure left Alice exposed. She forced a crooked smile, a weak imitation of nonchalance. "We... walked," she said, the words catching in her dry throat, coming out as half a croak.
Rowan’s head turned. His brow rose. Just one look, but enough to make her want to melt into the floorboards.
Why did she feel like she was doing something wrong?
"Good night," she added quickly, before anyone else could push further. Without waiting for their replies, she escaped up the stairs and into the safe familiarity of her room.
The door closed behind her with a click. She leaned against it, exhaling like she’d been holding her breath since stepping inside the house.
She sat on the bed, staring at nothing, letting the night replay itself in fragments. The sharp words. The silence between them. All the touch they shared tonight—
Alice groaned aloud and buried her face in her hands. "Stop it," she whispered, the words muffled by the down filling. But her heart, traitorous and wild, refused to obey, hammering out a rhythm that felt both terrified and thrilling.
A knock startled her upright.
She blinked at the door, wondering who it was.
Paula?
Her feet carried her to the door quickly. She pulled it open, only to freeze.
It was Hades.
With his hair down.
"Why do you look disappointed?" He eyed her, pushing the hair away from his face lazily with one hand.
"Oh... no. I’m just... I was just surprised." She rambled.
He had to he doing that thing with his hair on purpose. He was seducing her.
Shit.
He held out his hand to her.
In his hand was... Alice blinked... something random, absurdly so. He held it out without explanation.
It was utterly ridiculous—a tiny stuffed animal barely the size of her palm, with brown fur. It had googly-round eyes that seemed too large for its head, giving it a permanent look of bewildered surprise, and, to crown its overall absurdity, a smattering of freckles painted crookedly across its stitched-on cheeks.
She stared at it. Then at his impassive, deadly serious face. Then back at the toy again.
"...What is that?"
"It looks like you," he muttered, thrusting it at her as though it burned his fingers, as if he couldn’t wait to get rid of it.
She caught it automatically, her fingers closing around the surprisingly soft fabric. "Looks... like—"
She closed her eyes to control her temper.
This guy was not going to make her lose it right now.
But then, why did she feel like laughing?
"Why do you even have—" She cut herself off, staring at the toy bear, then back at the man who could probably command a room full of assassins with a single glance.
"Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to." His tone was sharp, final, though his gaze flicked once at the stuffed thing like it annoyed him too. "Just... go to bed early."
Alice clutched the absurd creature against her chest despite herself, her brain tripping over the contradiction of Hades... deadly, untouchable, terrifying Hades... standing outside her room handing her something that looked like it had been stolen from a child’s toy chest.
He was already turning, dismissing her and the entire bizarre interaction, his long legs carrying him down the shadowy corridor. His voice drifted back to her, dry, flat, and threatening in that way only he could master. "And if I wake up tomorrow to find you’ve cried yourself to sleep again and your eyes are all puffy... I’ll kill you myself."
And then, he was gone.
Her lips curled before she could stop them. A real, genuine smile touched her mouth, aimed at his retreating back. It was the most absurd threat she’d ever received, and somehow, it felt like a perverse kind of kindness.
Then she caught herself, the smile vanishing. She groaned, slamming the door shut and leaning against it once more, clutching the stuffed toy to her hammering heart as if it were evidence of a crime she didn’t understand.
"Shit," she muttered to the silent room. She held the toy out at arm’s length, examining its loopy grin and crooked freckles before dropping it onto the rumpled bedsheets as if it were radioactive. Why? Why was he like this? So infuriatingly... him one moment, and then... this?
Why the hell was he making things so hard for her?
. Seeking solace in routine, she gathered her things and retreated into the en-suite bathroom.