Hades (The God Chronicles #3) (7 page)

It felt like I walked through those tunnels for
hours. Sometimes, the next turn would come quickly. Others, it felt
like I would continue walking straight until the end of time when,
finally, the rock around me would crack open and I’d be greeted by
merciful sunlight who would chase the voices and faces
away.

If I concentrated on what the spirits said,
nothing made any sense. The words sounded like garbled static
coming through a broken radio. It was only when I paid attention to
the path or something else that phrases jumped out at me. Sometimes
it sounded like a small plea for help. Others were terrifying words
of revenge and hatred. Thankfully, I never caught entire sentences.
I didn’t want to know what suffering they were experiencing here,
in the dark.

As I walked through one tunnel, I started to
notice the sounds fading away, the faces not looking around things
at me anymore. The knot in my stomach clenched tightly, recognizing
the warning of someone coming. I quickened my pace, trying to stay
calm despite the frantic beating of my heart and the quickening of
my breath.

Faster and faster I walked, until I realized I
was running, my breath coming in loud gasps. The voices had fallen
silent behind me, leaving me to discover the end of the path on my
own.

A large stone wall sat in front of me, a few
other passageways spanning off to the side. I fumbled with my paper
again, having crushed it in my fist, looking to see where I was
going next.

There were no more directions.

The silence pulled at my ears worse than the
undead had, driving me nearly insane with fear and worry as I
waited for whoever was coming to find me. Desperate, I looked
around for a place to hide, but only saw the remaining tunnels,
leading on to more mysteries and forgotten places, I was
sure.

A sob stuck in my throat, I shoved the paper
back into my pocket and ran my hands into my hair, stepping over to
the rock wall and leaning against it to wait for my fate to catch
up with me.

As I stood there, wondering what was about to
happen to me, a strange feeling came over my entire body. Looking
down at my ring, I noticed the smoke moving inside again, seeping
out and wrapping around me. My hand changed as the mist moved, my
fingers lengthening slightly and skin color turning to more of a
white than sun tanned.

The change the ring was supposed to put on me
to hide me while in the Underworld was happening. But hadn’t Erebos
said that it would only work once I was there?

I straightened and moved away from the wall,
trying not be mesmerized by the change in my figure. If the ring
was working, then I was where I was supposed to be,
somehow.

Looking around, I searched for some type of
opening again, coming up with nothing. I was almost positive that
the only thing standing between me and my destination though was
the wall in front of me.

Hesitantly, I held my new hands up and placed
them on the rocks, pushing slightly to see what would happen. Just
as I’d hoped, they started to fall through the stone, much like I
had when I’d entered the maze.

Smiling to myself, I looked over my body the
best I could, trying to see if my transformation was complete. The
smoke had returned to the ring, turning solid again and making the
stone a hard black. As far as I could tell, I didn’t look like
Katrina any more, but Persephone.

“This is it,” I mumbled, pushing down my
uncertain feelings. “No turning back.”

Before I could really think it through, keeping
the face of my father happily holding my mother again in his arms
in my mind, I took a deep breath and pushed through the
wall.

It was if I’d passed through air. Not a single
thing would have tipped me off to the fact that I was walking
through stone if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The further I
pushed through, the more it opened up to me, until finally, I was
through the gates and in the Underworld.

A massive wall of heat hit me as soon as I was
completely through, the stench of something burning attacking my
nostrils. I was standing on a sandy beach, a wide, dark watered
river stretching out in front of me, the other side almost
indiscernible. Other than that, there was nothing. No people, no
houses, just a never ending view of the shore and the water running
by it.

Tentatively, I walked towards the water,
wondering where the boat was I’d been told would be waiting. What
if there was some special, god like thing I was supposed to do to
get it to come to me? Did Erebos really know everything I’d needed
to know, or had he sent me in blind anyway?

I licked my lips in nervous anticipation, half
expecting a giant stream of fire to shoot from nowhere and
incinerate me for trying to fool Hades.

As I reached the water’s edge, I looked around
again, trying to see if maybe there was a boat further down that
I’d missed. My searching was quickly stopped though as I jumped
back in shock, watching a little, one person boat rise up out of
the water.

The inside drained out easily, drying quickly
in the extreme heat, and then just sat there. I stared at it, not
quite knowing how to process such an arrival and if I was to be
waiting for someone else to join me. After a few minutes of nothing
though, I tentatively, reached out to grab the side, finding it
surprisingly steady in the water.

It took another breath of courage to climb
inside and sit down, confusion at how I was to move forward still
rattling around inside my head. However, that was taken care of for
me as well. As soon as I was seated, the boat began floating
forward, the current taking it further away from shore and pushing
it quickly downstream.

As I sat, going to a destination that the boat
clearly knew, I looked around, trying to see what the Underworld
looked like. Unfortunately, it still looked much like the maze, a
bunch of rocks in a dark cave. After some time though, I saw a
building in the distance and what looked like more rivers
converging in on the one I currently rode on. One river looked just
the same, feeding in from another place, but the other was
astonishing to me.

It was a river of fire, probably the source of
the heat I felt. It flowed in towards the building I’d now come to
recognize as a grand, black, stone palace, and then wrapped around
somewhere else, disappearing into the darkness. As soon as I could
see the detail on the castle though, all thoughts of the strange
river left my mind.

It looked like something you would see in an
old horror movie, the lair of an evil scientist or something. At
the same time though, it was heart-breakingly beautiful, a
masterpiece like none other. I almost wanted to cry that no one had
ever seen it until they had passed on from their mortal
life.

We neared the castle and a gate began lifting
out of the water, letting us enter in easily. A scared lump formed
in my throat as I saw guards standing by, but none of them even
looked at me as I passed, some even turning around completely.
Eventually, the boat stopped next to a staircase that extended out
into the water and I knew it was time for me to move
again.

Gingerly, I stepped out onto the smooth stairs
and ascended up them, making sure to avoid eye contact with anyone
nearby. They continued to ignore me though, either not caring for
my presence or too afraid to meet my own eye.

It was then that I remembered what little I’d
read about Persephone. She was strong and menacing, a force of her
own to be reckoned with. It could very well be that they didn’t
look at me out of fear of her. This thought in mind, I straightened
to my full height and walked a little more proudly, trying to put
on a show of, what I hoped, was normalcy for them.

I followed the red carpeted path from the
stairs into the building, not sure where I was supposed to be
going, but banking on the thought that I was the queen and could do
what I wanted. So far, it appeared my disguise was working
perfectly.

Finally, the path ended at a doorway and I
entered slowly, hoping for some solitude to calm my frayed nerves
that were begging to be released in a sobbing mess of safety I
wouldn’t find here.

I wasn’t so lucky.

“Persephone, what a surprise. I thought for
sure you would have stayed a few more days just to spite
me.”

The room was shrouded in darkness, a high
backed chair set in front of a roaring fire place. I didn’t even
know how anyone stood the heat. Next to the chair was a small
table, a bottle of wine set on it. All I could see of the person
speaking was their arm resting on the chair, a wine glass held
loosely between their fingers.

It was time to see if my shroud would fool
Hades.

Chapter Seven

“Would you like me to leave?” I asked
hesitantly, not knowing exactly how the relationship between us
was. Should I be afraid of him? Should I boss him around? For
myself, I wanted to flee the room and hide somewhere until the end
of winter, but what would Persephone do?

A barking laugh came from the chair and the
hand set the wine glass down on the table next to the bottle. In a
second, Hades rose from his chair and turned to look at me, a smug
smile on his face and fire in his eyes.

I tried not to gasp as I looked at him for the
first time. As silly a thought as it seemed in my situation, I
couldn’t help but notice how extremely attractive he was. In my
mind, I’d pictured him as an older man, bearded and fierce, like
the myths portrayed him. He was anything but now.

He didn’t look a day over thirty, with light
green eyes that would have smoldered even without the flames in
them. His skin was flawless as well, the lower half of his face
sporting a small amount of stubble the same color as the short
brown hair he quickly brushed back off his forehead.

“I see you didn’t bring anything back with you
again,” he said, slowly making his way towards me, crossing his
arms as he looked me over. “Not to worry though. I took the
initiative and had clothes bought for you. There won’t be an extra,
unscheduled trip to the surface again this year.”

I remained silent, which elicited an eye
squinting look from him.

“What’s the matter with you?” he demanded.
“Nothing to say to your husband? None of your usual, welcome home
fighting?”

My brain was scrambling, trying to figure out
what I was supposed to say to him. There was no way he was going to
fall for this ruse, especially if I was too tongue tied to talk to
him.

“I’m hungry,” I settled on lamely.

“Dinner’s in the dining hall, just like every
time you take your sweet time coming back. But this year . . . Why
are you here early? Surely, you didn’t miss your home
here?”

He smiled meanly, obviously enjoying the
goading he was giving me. For whatever reason, that gave me the
courage to snap back at him like he so obviously
expected.

“If you must know,” I said, letting a little
heat sneak into my tone. “I felt it necessary to make sure no one
had escaped on your watch.”

His grin turned to that of a sour frown and the
fire in his eyes flashed even brighter, more dangerous. I’d struck
a nerve without intending to, having reached for the only thing I
could think of, based on the myths I’d read.

“You know as well as I do,
princess
,” he
sneered, closing the space between us and grabbing my chin, forcing
me to tilt my head back and look into his eyes. “Those Titans are
under eternal guard. No one is escaping on my watch.”

It took all of my strength not to crumble under
his touch. The thought that my disguise might not be enough wasn’t
the only thing that bothered me though. This man was a rapist and
he thought I was his prey. What was to stop him from trying
again?

The memories of the drunk in the alley, the way
his hands had crawled over me, mixed with the image of Hades in
front of me. It was too much to handle, too much to let sink in as
I tried to find my limits.

“Don’t touch me!” I hissed, jerking my face
from his hand and slapping his fingers away from me.

He roared at me in anger, grabbing me by both
arms and shaking me hard.

“Have you forgotten who I am? You do not get to
treat me as dirt under your finger nail! I’m tired of
it!”

“And I am . . . Your wife!” I yelled back,
pulling away from him, his hands leaving red marks. “You do not get
to treat me as something you use and are done with! If you demand
respect from me, I demand the same from you.”

He looked at me in surprise and I cringed on
the inside. Apparently, Persephone wasn’t one to fight back for
equal treatment.

“Finally,” he said, stepping back and sliding
his hands over the black t-shirt he was wearing, like a bird
settling ruffled feathers. “I was worried we were going to have
another year of ‘woe is me, I’m so tortured and misunderstood’
Persephone. It’s nice to see that at least your backbone made it
back with you, even if you left everything else who knows
where.”

He laughed again as my mouth popped open in
surprise, walking back to his seat and grabbing up the wine glass.
Taking a swig much like the one’s I’d seen my mom try to drown
herself in, he gulped the liquid down quickly, picking up the
bottle and refilling his cup before turning back to me
again.