Asphodel (17 page)

“So you returned her safely?” Hades asks.

“Yes master,” Charon answers.

“Many thanks, Charon. You are a trusting and loyal servant.”

Footsteps scuffle against the cement walkway and I back away from the door in case Hades or Charon opens it. It’s probably Hades though. Even though I haven’t been here that long, I know that Charon rarely comes into the palace. He spends all of his time on that stupid ferry.

“What did you do to her, master?” Charon blurts out.

The footsteps cut out and I hear a shuffle. “What do you mean what did I do to her?” Charon isn’t challenging Hades authority. He simply wants to know what Hades had done to offend me. “Well, go on,” Hades urges him.

“I didn’t ask her what was wrong but, she mumbled your name a few times on the way back. And she was crying master, heavily crying.”

“I don’t recall doing anything.” That’s because he didn’t do anything. He stood there like a moron and did absolutely nothing.

“She was certainly upset about something.”

“But she’s safe.”

“Yes.”

Well at least he cares about my safety.

The doorknob jiggles and I back away from the door and Hades freezes at the same time touching me with his eyes. I can feel them all over me. I can feel them peeling away the layers of my clothes, the layers of my skin. He can see my muscles. He can see all of me. He closes the door without breaking his gaze. “Were you eavesdropping?”

“No.” Of course I was.

He purses his lips and narrows his eyes. “Tell me the truth.”

“Okay maybe I was.”

“Is what Charon said true then?”

“About?”

“Were you crying?”

“No.” And I will never admit to him that I was. Even though there’s probably evidence on my face; tearstained cheeks. Red, puffy eyes. Still, I keep a hard look on my face. I do not want him to know that I was crying. Much less crying over him. There’s a vacant expression on his face, but his eyebrows are drawn together. A flicker of emotion sparks in his eyes and I can he wants to say something. But he says nothing and once again I feel like I’m being swallowed by a black cloud of nothingness. It’s expanding. The emptiness is spreading. I have to get away from him before emptiness swallows me and rips at me, eating me alive.

I turn, but before I can spin all the way around Hades clutches my arm and whirls me around to face him. He pulls me close and I taste his sweet breath. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted this,” he murmurs.

“What?”

“This.” Suddenly he cups the back of my neck and smothers my mouth with his and for a second I don’t know what to do. The kiss is awkward and I feel like I’m doing everything wrong. Then almost instinctively my lips part and the kissing intensifies and everything becomes a blur. Colors whirl around me and whiz past me. Bright colors. Bold colors. Red’s, Orange’s. Even Hot pink’s. The room is spinning in circles and I think I might be floating. He gently caresses his tongue with mine and I go from floating to soaring. I’m a bird. I’m flying, flapping my wings as I sweep through miles of endless blue. I hope I never come down.

And I feel myself falling, crashing down to reality when he pulls out of the kiss. “Don’t stop,” I whisper. Never stop. Never ever stop. I’m sick. I think I have the flu and his kiss, his touch—he is my antibiotic. He will cure me. He will make me well again.

“Believe me, I didn’t want to.” He places his forehead against mine and sighs, “But there is someone at the door.

It’s still crazy to me how he can sense things. Or the way he knows things. It’s like his mind is a radio, picking up every wave-length on the planet. Less than a second later, Charon peaks his head through the front door with an urgent look in his eye. “Master, I need to speak with you.”

Hades keeps his forehead against mine. “It can wait.”

“No,” Charon insists. “It can’t.”

As Hades backs away from me I feel like he’s removing a part of my immortal soul. My arms are outstretched. My fingers are needy. I can’t think of anything, but his lips and how I want them on mine again. His touch and how with even the smallest brush from his fingertips I feel like he’s scorching my bare skin. And the way he looks at me, like he’s undressing me with his eyes. “I’ll be right back,” he tells me. And as walks out the door I wonder how many times I’ll have to hear “I’ll be right back” through the lengths of eternity.

Hades

“W
hat is it?” Hades growled as the ferry man. “What is so important that you had to drag me away from her?”

An annoyed knot tied itself in the pit of the mighty God’s stomach and if Charon didn’t start talking
ASAP
, that knot would change from annoyance to rage.

Charon was nervous; Hades could tell by the way he played with his fingers and the way he kept glancing warily over his shoulder. “Someone is trying to cross,” he finally said.

“Well, who is it?” Hades demanded. It was very rare that a mortal tried to cross into the realm of the dead while they were still, well, mortal. In fact, Hades knew the last time that happened was when Orpheus tried to retrieve Eurydice. And a wicked smirk curled on his lips when he thought about that moment. Orpheus failed…miserably.

“Hermes,” Charon hissed as panic etched across his crinkled up facial features.

“Hermes,” Hades repeated, robotically.

“Yes. Hermes.”

The pit of annoyance in Hades stomach turned to desperation. He knew that Hermes was sent by Zeus to retrieve his beloved. And he knew that even if he put up a fight the Messenger of the Gods was too quick and too nimble for Hades to catch. He was smarter than Hermes, but learning of his presence put his head in a fog. He couldn’t think straight which was very unlike him. And the fact that his cunning and quick witted nature had him stumped, frightened him. But it didn’t frighten him as much as the thought of losing her, Persephone.

Hades focused on the ground, a white asphodel blurred in his vision and in that moment Hades knew what he had to do. “Charon?” he said lifting his eyes to the ferry man’s.

“Yes, sire,” Charon said obediently.

“Can you stall Hermes a while longer?”

“I can try, sire.”

“I only need about twenty minutes.” Then in a cloud of black smoke Hades vanished, appearing in his dining hall. In the center of the table was one pomegranate and he knew that if he could get her to eat it, poor Hermes would have some explaining to do and also would have wasted a trip.

Hades shoved the plump fruit into a pocket of his cloak and appeared in front of Persephone’s door. He rested his ear against the heavy wood and heard her shuffling about inside. His time was limited. Extremely limited because he knew Charon and his greedy nature. And he also knew that Hermes always came prepared, toting a sandwich bag full of coins.

Persephone

I
still feel like I’m floating as I flop backwards onto my bed. My lips are raw and pink and I close my eyes, outlining them with my finger. I swear I can still feel his lips on mine. The illusion of it feels so real my mouth throbs with heat.

There’s knock at the door and Hades opens it slowly and my heart leaps almost plummeting through my skin. A burst of joy sweeps through me and I beam at him. He’s not all coldness and death. He’s not the devil or the commander of the dead. He’s someone beautiful and warm. Someone most girls wait their whole lives for, and in my case practically an eternity. He fills me up with light and happiness and love. And that’s something I’ll never be willing to give up.

He plops down on my bed and I scoot closer, noticing the pained look he’s wearing on his face. I lace my fingers through his and his touch sends a jolt throughout my entire body. He kisses my fingers then gazes deeply into my eyes. “Is something wrong?” I’m concerned and I wonder if I did something to make him so upset. Maybe it was the kiss. I thought it was amazing, but that’s because I’d never really kissed a guy before much less a God.

“You have to leave,” he says sullenly and looks away from me.

“What?” I gasp, gripping onto his fingers. “What are you talking about?”

“Hermes.” His voice is full of sadness and defeat. “He’s been sent here to retrieve you.”

“Oh no.” I look down at hands and feel the severity of the situation as it sets in. My mom and Zeus must have sent the mighty messenger, knowing that he’d be the only one who’d be able to get me back. Grief squeezes my heart when I think about going back now. I don’t want to go back. I made my mental decision after our kiss. There is no way I can leave. I belong here. I want to rot in hell eternally on a throne of shadows and death with Hades by my side. I want to be his queen. “There has to be something we can do,” I say. “Don’t you have a plan or something?”

Hades pushes me back on the bed, resting half on top of me. His eyes sweep over my face and he traces my jawline with a finger before brushing back a loose piece of my hair. “I have a plan,” he muses softly. “But that’s only if you want to participate in it.”

My face is burning and my lips tingle. My arms and legs are shaking so profusely with want for his lips on mine that I feel like every part of me is charred. My organs are shriveling up and turning to ash. They’ll blow away with one gentle gust of wind if he doesn’t give me what I want. But he does. He glides his lips over mine. Kissing me softly. Sensually.

The kiss doesn’t last very long and I’m greedy. I’m a masked bandit on a train, shoveling piles of cash into a pillow case. I want more. I need more. Just a little bit will never be enough. A tiny brush from his lips will never be enough. “Do it again,” I whisper, breathless.

“What?” he smirks. “This?” He crushes his lips into mine and this time the kiss is deeper, passionate, and exhilarating. Before I realize what I’m doing my hands are in his hair and he’s sliding his fingers up my shirt. I can feel his heart pounding against my chest. Two hearts beating in sync. We’re breathless and tangled in lustful embrace, neither one of us wants to be pried away from each other.

He hovers above me breathless and a pang of want circles my heart. “Why did you stop?”

“We’re out of time,” he says.

“No.” We can’t be. Even if Hermes is here it will still take him time to pay Charon and cross the Styx.

I try to draw him closer, but he pulls away from me, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Hermes got here before I came to your room. He’ll be blasting through that door any minute.”

“He knows where my room is?”

“He knows where every room in the palace is. He’s been here millions of times. He has the layout memorized.”

“What about your plan?” I ask perking up. “You said you had one. What is it?”

Hades shakes his head and stares off. “Forget it,” he mutters as he runs one of his hands through his midnight locks.

“Tell me,” I demand.

He reaches into the pocket of his cloak and pulls out a red, round pomegranate. He spins the fruit around and stares at it intensely. “You haven’t eaten since you’ve been here.” He palms the fruit and shoves it back into his pocket. “Before I came in here I thought about tricking you into eating somehow,” he admits. “But I can’t.” He places his hand against my cheek then lets out a soft tortured laugh. “You mean too much to me and now I know that I can’t make you eat it. Especially if you don’t want to.”

“I mean too much to you,” I repeat softly as an explosion of delight thunders in my chest. “I—I.” I can’t find words to describe the way hearing him say that makes me feel.

“You mean everything to me,” he announces. “I love you. I have loved you for centruries and centuries. Why do you think I’ve chased you for all this time?”

In one swift motion, I reach across his chest and snatch the pomegranate from his pocket. “I love you too.” I bite into the fruit and chew slowly savoring the sweet juice and bitter skin. “And I can’t imagine an eternity without you.”

He lunges for my mouth and trails his tongue along my lips licking up some of the dripping pomegranate juice. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to hear that?” he asks with a smile.

I laugh and take another bit of the fruit. “Practically forever,” I say with a mouthful.

More juice drips down my chin and Hades wipes it away with one finger before putting his finger in his mouth. “It’s sweet. Like you.”

I laugh again and swallow the chewed up fruit in my mouth then take another huge bite. After swallowing what I’ve got in my mouth the door flies open and Hermes stands in the open doorway. He’s all limbs, long arms and legs and his syrup colored eyes are filled with panic. He stares at the half-eaten pomegranate in my hand and at my juice stained lips. “No,” he gasps, inching closer. “No.”

Hades and I both stand and Hades shoves me behind him. His spine tenses and he lets out a protective growl. “Back off Hermes. You can’t take her!”

“I can and I will,” the messenger boasts. “Hand her over, now.”

Fury builds inside of Hades and I watch his fists as they turn red and start shaking. “No!” he booms the lowers his voice. “She’s eaten the fruit of the dead, Hermes. She’s not going anywhere.”

Hermes peers around Hades and narrows his eyes as I take another huge bite. He starts toward me, pushes Hades out of the way, grabs my face, squeezing firmly as the pomegranate drops from my hands and rolls on the floor. “How much have you eaten?” Hermes shrieks. I try to swallow the mouthful of fruit, but Hermes grip on my jaw tightens. “Spit it out!”

Hades plows into Hermes, knocking him to the side and the might messenger stumbles, but smiles devilishly when he notices the pomegranate on the floor. “She’s coming with me,” he says confidently.

“No she’s not,” Hades snarls. “I already told you Hermes—.”

Hermes cuts him off, “You sure did, but you left out one tiny part.”

“What?” Hades barks.

“She’s only eaten half.” Hades eyes shift to the floor; the half-eaten piece of fruit fills his gaze and with that tiny distraction, Hermes charges forward encircling my waist with an arm, reaches into his back pocket, and pulls out a vile of some kind of elixir. I clamp my mouth shut, but Hermes is stronger than me and manages to pry it open, spilling the elixir onto my tongue. I try to spit it out, but it’s too late and some sneaks down the back of my throat.