Free Hades (The God Chronicles #3) by Kamery Solomon

obeyed, wiping away a tear that had
fallen onto her cheek as if it had burned her.
    “I don’t care how I’ve acted before,” I fumed.
“You are a person and deserve to be treated as such. I apologize
for any harsh treatment or wrong doing I’ve inflicted on
you.”
    Her mouth popped open in surprise, my statement
obviously unexpected.
    “I made this mess,” I continued, gesturing to
the room. “I will clean it up. As for breakfast and dressing . .
.”
    I looked over at the tray, a heaviness lifting
from me as I discovered I didn’t have to eat every meal with the
Lord of the Dead. I could handle that easily.
    “Please keep bringing me my breakfast,” I
chuckled. “And I imagine I can’t get into some of those dresses
alone, so please keep coming to help with that as well. I will be
waking much earlier than before from now on. You don’t need to
worry about waking me up. If I’m still asleep when you get here, I
should wake shortly.”
    When I was finished talking she gave me a short
little curtsy and hurried for the door. Before she made it through,
though, I thought of one more thing.
    “Wait,” I called.
    She turned, still obviously shaken by what had
happened or by what I’d said, I didn’t know.
    “What’s your name?” I inquired.
    “C-Cassandra,” she stuttered.
    “Cassandra,” I repeated with a smile. “Thank
you. Make sure you take care of that cut.”
    She nodded again, her eyes wide, and then
exited the room, the door clicking shut softly behind
her.
    A deep breath escaped me as I turned to look
around the room again. Acting like myself had been so reliving
after trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to be doing
the night before. If only it could be like that all the
time.
    I caught sight of my foreign reflection in one
of the closet mirrors and smiled to myself. Maybe it could be like
that all the time . . .
    The idea took root in my brain and grew like
wild fire, my grin growing wider and wider as I thought it over.
Before I could see if it would work, though, I had chores that
needed to be done. Thankfully, that was something I was used to as
well.
    Somewhat hopeful, I went into the closet to
look for pants, not relishing the idea of being stuck in a dress
all the time. Unfortunately, there weren’t any to be found. Biting
my lip in displeasure, I pulled a shorter, lighter dress off one of
the hangers and proceeded to change out of my night clothes.
Thankfully, it appeared that there were still some things I could
get on by myself. Persephone obviously had expensive taste. Or
Hades bought her clothes she couldn’t put on alone just to spite
her.
    After I finished changing, I grabbed the broom
and dust pan Cassandra had left in the corner and went to work on
cleaning up the mess in the bedroom, the disaster in the closet
having disappeared already. It didn’t take very long, the glass
being the majority of the work, and before I knew it I’d made the
bed and was examining the broken dresser drawer. If I had a hammer
and a few nails I could probably fix it.
    Making a mental note to ask for those things
the next time I saw someone, I set the cracked pieces next to the
dresser where I wouldn’t forget about them. Satisfied I’d cleaned
everything up nicely, I decided to go through the other drawers.
Much to my glee, there was what appeared to be a pair of board
shorts in one of them, along with several pieces of swim ware. I
quickly slid the pants on under my dress, a sigh of relief and
comfort escaping me as I finally felt covered up again.
    For a moment, I paused to wonder what had
happened to my clothes. They had been masked to look like a
queen’s, but what happened once I took them off and they weren’t
under the ring’s protection anymore? They hadn’t changed
immediately once I removed them in the bathroom. Perhaps they were
still hidden?
    I made another note to snoop around and see if
I could find some answers about that and went back into the