My Lord Hades (25 page)

Demeter cupped the child’s face in her palms and Persephone cried out at the shivering

sensation wrapped around the child’s mind. The pressure started to build and Kora appeared, waving a hand at their mother, the force of power directed at Demeter sent her flying across the beach. Kora, wild-eyed and ready to defend Persephone and herself, glared at her mother.

“How…Why did you do that?” Demeter cried.

Kora flashed to Demeter’s side. “I’m sorry, Mother! I didn’t mean to hurt you. Persephone called me. I thought she was being attacked.”

Demeter rose unsteadily to her feet. “It was for her own good. There are things—horrible

things—out there in the world and I want to protect you both from.”

“We can protect ourselves,” young Persephone said, joining her sister. “We can use magic.”

Demeter shook her head with grave finality. “Magic will only complicate things for you.

They’ll come for you and try to hurt you. I’d never forgive myself if either of you ended up in Tartarus because of my mistakes. You’ll suffer if you displeased a Titan. It’s been done before, and with gods who have similar magic to yours. Why, if a warrior like Hades couldn’t stand up against them, what chance do you have?” Demeter clutched her children to her. “That’s why I keep you safe here. No one knows this place exists. If the Titans knew of this location, they’d come for you. They’d use you for your power. They’d destroy you.”

Kora bit her lip, a look of indecision crossing her face. “I don’t want to be in Tartarus.”

“Me either,” young Persephone murmured.

“Then you have to let me help you.”

Persephone felt the child’s resolve weaken, and she voiced her protest, “No! Mother, please!

Don’t do this!”

She fell to her knees before the three, wanting to stop what was about to happen, but

knowing she couldn’t. It had already happened. She watched her mother’s magic work through a web of magic, but not erasing her memories as Persephone worried she had.

However that wasn’t enough, Demeter added to the compulsions to remain with her mother,

the compulsion to stay away from men and strangers, and the compulsion to stay in the meadow and never again venture onto the beach. Her mother took away her basic need to explore the world around her and bound her to two-dimensional world of flowers.

The scene faded and the invisible force thrust her from one memory to the next. She relived discussions she had with her sister and the nymphs, and the occasions of defiance toward her mother. They were a blur of memories and forgotten truth.

The weight of the memories pressed in at her from all sides—a force that whirled around her like a constricting tornado of emotions. Happiness, laughter, pain, grief, delight, curiosity, anger, desire, longing, contentment, fear, security, love, hate. The swell of emotions grew until she couldn’t breathe. The images faded and the oppressive hand of magic squeezed her tighter.

Flashes of light sparked around her.

And then as sudden as it started, it stopped.

THE DARKNESS closed in on her, weighing her down. She lay in the dark, all the doubt and

fear and sense of wrongness swamping her senses. She couldn’t explain it, but she knew she didn’t want to be here.

Her skin crawled and her heart raced. She wanted to return to the world of her memories. She didn’t want to face whatever lay in the faint light ahead of her.

There was nothing good there.

How she knew that, she couldn’t say. But she knew it. Somehow she
knew
it.

She wanted to blame Eris for this, but it wasn’t all her fault. She was the one who’d jumped into the abyss to escape the pain swamping her senses.

This was her prison. This was her mind. And it wasn’t the first time she’d been here.

Every stressor brought her back to this moment, those forced on her by her mother. Her

memories hadn’t been erased; they were just locked away in the same place as her magic, deep within the recesses of her mind. And that was where she was reliving the pain of her mother’s betrayal. Reliving the moment Apollo arrived in her mother’s garden, intent on claiming her before the others, and Hades saved her. Reliving Hades proposal and her desire to be his wife and Queen, to rule at his side.

She’d forgotten it all because of her mother. She wanted to believe Demeter was incapable of it and that it was one of Eris’ tricks. She wanted nothing more than to believe the best about her mother, but the truth was there were too many unanswered questions, too many events that could never be explained.

Once the seed of doubt was planted, the thought took root, and held her firmly in place. Her mother may have been trying to protect Persephone and Kora from the Titans; but she was also protecting the way of life she enjoyed. Demeter restricted their growth. She hampered their lives.

She prevented Persephone from experiencing the world around her and falling in love.

Persephone knew in her heart of hearts that Demeter wasn’t just capable of such crimes, she was guilty of them. Demeter knew she was doing wrong and did it anyway.

And now Persephone was trapped in the place where her mother’s magic was the strongest.

She was trapped in the place that held everything that threatened her mother and contained every forgotten memory.

A child knew magic from the cradle and her mother had stolen her birthright.

Persephone closed her eyes, collapsing to her knees. Nothing could be as hurtful as the

betrayal of her mother. Demeter had stolen her life, her happiness, and her magic. She’d bottled it up in place she couldn’t touch until Eris tore down the walls.

Until the maelstrom of magic, that Hades so easily kept at bay when they were planting the garden, rose up to engulf her and she’d run into the darkness to escape the pain.

She sank to her knees, weeping uncontrollably. Eris was right. She was weak. Weak and

useless and unworthy of her son.

That thought, more than anything, drove her to her feet. She would prove Eris wrong. The

goddess wasn’t going to win this fight.

A fresh wave of apprehension washed over her as she pressed forward heading toward the

faint light in the distance.
You don’t want to do this. Stay where you’re safe. You’re not trapped
here. You’re safe. Be at peace, be calm.

The voice wasn’t hers. She knew that now. It was her mother’s voice, and it froze her to the core of her being. She wanted nothing more than to flee, but there was only the darkness behind her or the faint light ahead.

She pushed forward through the anguish and hurt toward the light. Tendrils of power reached out for her, swirling around her, roaring its victory, consuming her body and soul.

“Hades!”

Strong arms embraced her, hauling her out of the light and against his hard chest. Her fingers fisted into his tunic. His voice, soft and smooth, whispered against her flesh, soothing her.

She clung to him, questioned her judgment in calling her abductor, although she knew the

reason now. She was attracted to him. She trusted him. She cared deeply for him. She might even love him.

Breathing deeply, she pushed him away and crossed the threshold of darkness and blinding

light into the unknown.

HADES GASPED, gulping in breaths of air. His lungs ached. He felt as if he hadn’t breathed in hours.

Penelope and Zana stood over him, their face worried. “Are you alright?”

He nodded. “Water,” he rasped.

What was going on?! One moment he was washing Persephone’s brow and the next he was

being sucked into the whirlwind of darkness and light. Then Persephone was in his arms,

clinging to him as if her life depended on their connection.

For one moment in time he held her in his arms, smelling her scent, telling her all the things in his heart. And the next he was being dragged away from her.

He gulped the water down, sloshing liquid over his hand, and looked over at her. Had she

called to him, drawing him into her nightmare? If so, he needed to go back. She needed him.

Rising from the chair, he lay on the bed beside her, drawing her to him. “She opened the

door. She needs my help.”

He feared they would question him, but they didn’t. They joined hands. Penelope rested her fingers against Hades temple and Zana did the same with Persephone, forming a circle. They glanced at each other and nodded.

“Do what you must to bring her back to us,” Penelope said. “The Underworld will still be

here when you return.”

Hades was about to ask what she meant by that when the combined power of the twins

washed over him and it was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. It was unadulterated power, subtle and stronger than anything he’d ever felt. He would’ve screamed as the overwhelming power burned through his body but he had no voice in the darkness.

THE BLINDING light faded and Persephone found herself standing before the mouth of a

cave with Demeter and a version of Persephone that was maybe a few years younger than she was.

This Persephone had a pack on her back and an unlit torch in her left hand. “I’ll be all right, Mother. The Titans will never think to find me here.”

Demeter hugged her daughter to her, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Are you sure about

this?”

“Yes.”

Persephone waited for her mother’s magic to coil around her consciousness and compel her

against whatever course of action this other Persephone seemed so determined to follow, but it never happened.

Demeter kissed Persephone on her forehead. “Remember what Eris taught you. Keep your

magic close. Hide it from the Titans at all costs.”

Eris? The memories surfaced, fragments of training, of learning to defend herself, and

drawing her magic so close it was almost undetectable. Eris had been a harsh, but fair teacher and Persephone had respected the woman by the end of their time together, although she would never call the goddess her friend.

“I’ll remember, Mother. No one will ever know.” Demeter’s hand tightened on her arm.

Persephone patted her arm. “It’s time I took my place among the gods. I can’t hide forever.”

“But…Why the Underworld?” Demeter asked, her eyes tearing up again. “Why not the

flowers or the fields like Kora? Why must it be the Titan’s prison?”

Young Persephone turned her head and Persephone followed her gaze. A short distance away, a group of people of all ages and dressed strangely, waited patiently. An older woman smiled nostalgically at the parting of mother and daughter. It took Persephone a moment to realize they were the souls of dead mortals.

“Because they need my help. The flowers already have Flora and the fields Kora.” She

squeezed Demeter’s hand. “The Underworld is ideal for my purposes. I can make their afterlives better and they’ll be safer away from people and gods. It’s the least I can do for them.”

“It’s not your fault! Coronus—”

“I created them, Mother.”

As the other Persephone said it, the memory of a child playing in the clay returned. She

couldn’t be older than a two. Demeter sat a few feet away, digging in the dirt. Kora lay sleeping under an apple tree. And the child Persephone sat in the dirt molded clay.

She placed a vaguely human shape next to the other three forms. She touched them and the

magic flowed through her into them. She’d given humans life!

“I wasn’t given their lives, but I was granted their souls. They are mine and I am their

goddess,” the other Persephone said.

Demeter nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I am so proud of you. Walk in peace.”

She kissed her mother’s cheek. “And you too.”

Using magic to light the torch, she motioned for the people to follow her, and entered the cave. The light barely penetrated the absolute darkness, but her other self didn’t hesitate and Persephone was forced to follow her into the darkness. It seemed to take forever to pick her way over the rock strewn ground to the bottom.

Persephone watched her other self pause before a large boulder and drop her pack. And that was when Persephone felt the difference in this version of herself. The web of magic that had been cast over the others was completely gone. This version was clean and pure, the goddess Persephone should have been, free of constraints and in control of her boundless power.

And now Persephone mirrored this goddess. Her limitless magic flowed unrestrained through her veins, uninhibited by compulsions and magical suppression. She was finally free.

The coldness of stone penetrated Persephone’s senses and she looked up. Her younger self

passed her hand and torch through an enormous boulder. Tendrils of magic slithered along the surface of the stone, glowing faintly. Light flickered inside, almost dying. It flared to life, growing brighter and brighter, until it illuminate the space around them.

The small group of dead souls drew closer to the light. The other Persephone stepped away, her brow furrowed. Her magic snaked out and encompassing stone. The glowing boulder rose, the light intensifying, and revealing hundreds of souls trapped in the dark with even more moving closer to the edges of the light, their faces hopeful.

Not all of them were human. Some were daemons. And among them she recognized the gods

and daemons of the Underworld.

It was only when the boulder stop high above their heads, and the sun-like light shining down on them, did Persephone glance around the dismal Underworld. The place was even more barren and uninviting then when Hades had brought her to the Underworld. This was not the world she knew.

The other Persephone turned to the crowd. “I am Persephone.” The people murmured. It was

obvious they knew her name. “There will be changes in
my
Kingdom.”

And there were.

Persephone relived every moment of her time in the Underworld. Five-hundred-years. She

saw the creation of the Elysian Fields and the beauty she was only beginning to see. She saw the Isle of Heroes formed and the misty limbo of the Asphodel Fields. She watched the Underworld grow and the residences of the Underworld make themselves at home.