Chapter Sixteen

Warm sunlight spread across my back, shining across my face before I turned it to bury it into a soft cotton pillow. The bed was warm and pressing right up against the front of me was a small body. Folded velvet bat-like wings against my chest, a head of snow white hair tickling my stubbled chin, a long black feathered tail lay draped over my waist, porcelain skin glistening in the sunlight.

Dorean lay just under my arm, his arms drawing mine to his chest as he slept with the softest of purrs. A sound that drew me deep into slumber the night before, and many nights before that, and all the nights after. He was completely naked, so there was skin against skin contact that brought my cock to life so it was pressed hard against his backside.

A very faint smile came across his lips, eyes still closed. A wave of foreign tenderness swept through me and I kissed his ear. He laughed and buried his face against the pillow. I smirked and leaned in to kiss him again. He purred and his tail ran along my back, making me shiver.

"Good morning." I murmured against his soft hair as I buried my face into it. He shuddered with pleasure before tilting his head back until he was rolled on his back and looking up at me with hooded silver eyes that glittered beautifully. My heart hammered in my chest as he tilted his head up to kiss me on the lips before sinking back down against the pillows.

"Morning," He murmured, then yawned to show off his little fangs before smiling up at me, "Breakfast?"

"Hmm," I hummed thoughtfully, scooting upto sit against the headboard, pulling him up with me so he was against my chest and he purred at that, tilting his head back against my chest and reaching up to feel my face, "I like the sound of pancakes... Apple pancakes."

"Apple cinnamon pancakes." Dorean chirped. I groaned.

"That sounds heavenly."

"Shower, then breakfast."

"Sounds like a plan." I agreed. Dorean made a sound of delight and hopped from the bed, dragging me across it to stand beside him before we made our way to the shower. A routine that had become daily, and so soothing that I had forgotten what life had been like before. I savored the feel of foamy sugar cookie shampoo as I massaged it into Dorean's hair, listening to him hum and purr contently while he used washed my body. A few kisses here and there, shower sex that was completely unintentional. It was Dorean's fault for washing my crotch. Listening to him cry out and moan in pleasure, letting him teach me all the places on his body that made him melt like chocolate in my hands.

We went from the shower to the bedroom, played around a little more, before we got dressed and went to the kitchen. And just like we promised, we cooked breakfast together and sat down in front of the television together.

"You work today?" Dorean asked me as he slathered his pancakes with syrup. I nodded, sucking on my fork before jamming it into another pancake, crossing my feet at the ankles to rest on the glass coffee table. Dorean made a face at that, but he didn't yell at me. It didn't matter how many times he told me not to put my feet on the table, I did it anyway out of habit. He seemed to finally realize that.

"What about you?" I asked, taking a gulp of coffee. Dorean nodded, licking syrup off his fork.

"I go in... about an hour. Bella say she want me to work the register today! I get to push all the buttons and talk to all the people! I am excited. She also gave me some new books to read. I like vampires. They super nice!" He added excitedly. I smiled at that.

Dorean, after Hades formally renounced his slavery, had taken a job offering at Bella and Kristoff's Goth shop in Styx while Bella was out on maternity leave. And while she did stand around to make sure no one bothered Dorean, she didn't need to. People flooded in and loved talking to Dorean. I was almost jealous, but none of them got to see him as much as I did. Bella, Dorean, and I had discussed his working schedule and made it match up with my work schedule.

My official job being Ambrosius's personal bodyguard. I still had the curse on me to be summoned, but I had made it far more difficult to get a hold of my coin. Since I'd been named Ambrosius's official bodyguard, I had only had two calls and they had been during my jobs and Ambrosius's training periods with Hades.

Because no matter how much people snarled at Hades to stop training Ambrosius at such a young age, he completely ignored them. He even ignored Persephone's pleas. To be honest, though, I didn't bother with it anymore. The better Ambrosius could protect himself, the better my job would be. Would Ambrosius come to hate Hades someday? Who knows? Maybe he'd come to thank his father... before he learned his father was just setting him up on a throne of corpses and death.

But I suppose we'd come to that eventually.

For now, things were calm.

The Titans no longer fought to escape. Their attempts and run-ins with Hades's sons had put them in their place and while they screamed and ranted about the Seven Sons of Hades, they could do nothing about it.

Malachi and Adrian were common visitors on the weekends. Sometimes Cain and Abel would join them and we'd have dinner out on the patio. Theo stopped by maybe once in a great while, looking all bashful and trying to act like a tough cookie, but I guess that was just Theo. He was an ass, but there was an awkwardness about him that made it difficult to hate him. Zelios and Noe dropped by on occasion and Zelios would send word to me on the prisoners, because according to Hades, I had to keep tabs on everyone and everything underworld-related to make sure Ambrosius was safe.

Cerberus and Blaine also visited. I waited for Blaine to have a nervous breakdown, to collapse in tears and give up, after what Hades had done to him. But I should have known better. There was a strength inside Blaine that outshown anyone's. He'd quickly recovered from Hades's cruelty, and thankfully, Hades was giving Blaine a one year break. So now Blaine could actually deliver a well-deserved punch to the stomach if someone pissed him off and he was back to swearing enough to make a sailor blush. Cerberus seemed relieved by Blaine's recovery and he savored every moment he had with the fae. He worshipped the ground Blaine walked on.

Charon and Alexion were also in constant contact, both for business and pleasure. They would stop by to visit Dorean, or we would invite them to enjoy the beach.

But if anyone enjoyed that beach, it was probably the twins and Theo.

Hannibal visited frequently as well, sometimes with Akin, sometimes on his own.

"We're cousins," Hannibal had informed me when I asked him out of curiosity one day, "I've never had family before. And aside from Callias, I'm pretty much the only one left. Just think of me as the psychotic cousin no one talks about at family reunions." Despite all his tragedies, he still maintained a dark sense of humor that entertained me to no end.

And then there was Callias.

I didn't visit him and he didn't visit me. Estranged brothers, Dorean called us. It wasn't so much a repulsive hatred anymore. Callias just didn't try to summon me anymore. His insistent calls ceased altogether and I didn't feel the need to see him anymore. There was no point in trying to mend something that was this tattered. Besides, there was something in me that told me Callias was done with me as well.

And I felt strangely okay with it. It was like letting go of a heavy weight on my shoulders.

I think the reason he didn't bother me anymore was because he knew I was relatively happy.

Yes, Hades pissed me off to no end. I'd prefer having my eyes gouged out with a rusty spoon than having to sit there and listen to him rant and rave.

Sure, guarding a prince god wasn't to my liking either. Ambrosius, though growing quickly, was still a child and he really liked getting into mischief, like setting his curtains on fire because he wanted to "do what daddy does when he's angry", or the time he climbed one of the trees in the throne room with the excuse of "I want to see the whole world".

But there were far more times that I found myself smiling, even when Ambrosius fell into my arms from the tree, laughing and looking up at me with bright blue eyes, that I slowly began to realize looked nothing like Hades's. Hades's eyes were a cold ice blue, reflecting the ice encasing a black heart. Ambrosius's were bright and alive, brimming with life yet to be lived to its fullest.

And there were times when Hades would make me laugh when he was disciplining his sons, or joking with his soldiers, or even when he was teasing Persephone about her obsessions.

But most of all, I lived for the moments when I woke up to golden sunlight spilling through beige curtains, across a dark bed, and illuminating snow white hair and glittering silver eyes.

The smell of warm breakfasts in the morning, cool lunches on the patio in the afternoon, and dinners spent lounging in the living room, laughing at television shows or stories of the past.

No more lonely nights spent curled in the dark, drunk off my ass and wishing it would all end.

No more pain and no more dark memories to haunt me through an empty day of misery.

Just a pair of bright, hopeful silver eyes.

The eyes of an imp that had finally gained freedom.

I could think of no better place.

FIN

A/N: Yup. That just happened. All of it. From book one, Inferi, to book eight, Aftermath. This here is the end of the Underworld Chronicles. The mystical and erotic tale of the Seven Sons of Hades and the lives they touched along the way. And tale that maybe... isn't quite finished. Because there's a spin-off series. WHOOP. The plot bunnies came and mauled my face one night. And from that vicious mauling came the birth of the spin-off series of the Underworld Chronicles, The Hell Chronicles... I said plot bunnies, not title bunnies. Those bastards seem to have lost the map to my brain. So we'll just stick with them plot bunnies for now. ANYWAY. After this book, go read the very first book to The Hell Chronicles, Redemption!

Thank you all so much for your reads, comments, votes, follows, everything! I hope you all enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed writing it! See you in the next series♥