23. Hades
Hades
I stilled my body, waiting for a kiss, a touch, a bite, anything. None came.
“Sandro? Are you still here? Sandro?” I was too scared shouting might make me miss a hint of his presence, so I resolved to whisper, which made me feel even more pathetic.
And to add to that, I couldn’t sense him. I couldn’t feel him.
Had his act been a goodbye? Had it been a farewell after everything we’d been together?
Or maybe the Wraiths had come for him. I wouldn’t even know anymore. Only gods linked to death could see them, and I was no longer one.
He could have been taken from me, and I wouldn’t even know.
“Sandro?” I asked again with a touch more persuasion.
Nothing.
“Sandro, you better give me a clue you’re still here or…”
Or what? I’ll kill him? He was already dead. And even if he wasn’t, how could I ever hurt my one true soulmate?
“Sandro!” The scream erupted out of me like lava out of a volcano, but without my crown, no flames came out. It didn’t cause any damage. It didn’t burn anything. It was just a human scream that bounced off the walls and intensified my loneliness.
Because that was what I was.
Alone.
“Sandro!” I shouted again, yet I only hurt myself as something sharp and strong pinched my heart, making me fold into myself.
“I’m alone then. And…I’m going to die alone,” I muttered under my breath as the sting overtook my eyes again and tears started falling.
I’d opened the bag of Aeolus, and it had manifested into the endless stream of tears pouring from my eyes.
Some god I was.
Well, I guess now I’m not much of a god at all.
“San—” I whimpered like a pathetic, meek man when I felt something on my wrist. A little shiver of a touch. “Sandro?”
I waited for him to move his touch or kiss me, but he persisted with my hand, pushing, nudging…licking.
“Pluto?”
The spirit of Sandro’s dog licked me again, and the more he did, the more certain I was it was him.
“If you’re here, where is your master? Where is my Sandro?”
It was pointless asking him, of course. It wasn’t as if he could answer me, but what else could I do.
“Oh, Pluto. We’ve lost him, haven’t we?”
Images of the horrible, shadowy figures pulling Sandro into oblivion filled my mind, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t shake the images.
Was it quick? Had he put up a fight?
“Pfft, what am I saying. Of course he put up a fight. He’s my better half.”
At least that was what I tried to convince myself, to make me feel better about losing him, if anyone could feel better about losing their heart.
“It won’t be long before I perish too, you know. And then you’ll be all alone. I’m sorry, Pluto.”
The dog pushed against my chest as if to tell me I was being stupid, but I knew I wasn’t. I was just telling the truth.
A melody rang across the room, and the floor shook.
I looked around me for any intruders before I remembered Sandro’s alarm spells.
“It better not be a tattoo client!” I hissed under my breath and approached the intercom only to find something much, much worse.
I’d let them down. And they were going to kill me.
Maybe it was best it happened this way.
It was what I deserved.
I opened the door and took the stairs down to the parlor. I pulled the shutters up and let Sandro’s moms inside.
“Ivy, Mila,” I greeted them and felt Pluto’s nose against my palm.
“Is Sandro here? Have you brought him back to life?”
My head sunk even lower, and I tried to swallow the knot in my throat, but it was impossible.
“I’m afraid I let you both down.” It was a struggle to get the words out, but it was necessary. “I’ve lost him. I’ve lost everything.”
“What?” both women snapped.
“What do you mean you lost him?” Ivy said.
“How could you lose him? You’re the god of death,” Mila added.
I took deep breaths and glanced at them.
“We were played. My subjects turned against me,” I told them.
“Your subjects? What happened?” Mila asked, and Ivy crossed her arms.
“Hermes happened. And Thanatos. And Hypnos.” I told them everything. Everything as I understood it anyway. The betrayal of those who were supposed to serve me. What their betrayal had cost me.
“And now you can’t see or feel him?” Mila asked.
“I don’t know what’s happened to him. I stopped feeling him a few minutes ago.”
Ivy brought her hand to her mouth and her eyes widened. Mila squeezed her wife’s shoulder for support.
“So what are you going to do about it?” Ivy raised her voice.
“Ther-there’s nothing I can do. Nothing other than…”
I produced my Sais and handed them one each, barely able to complete the task before I collapsed on my knees.
“What is this? What are you doing?” Ivy asked.
Pluto licked his tongue across my face, and I felt the shivers to my core, but they only made the tears fall. Again.
“The only thing left to do. I’d rather it’s you than tolerate any more of this torture,” I told them, unable to look at them.
I closed my eyes and waited for the coolness of the steel, the pain, the blood, anything.
“Are you joking me?” Mila asked.
“I wish I was,” I answered without moving.
“Are you telling us our son is gone, and you haven’t kept your promise?” It was Ivy’s turn to speak.
I looked at them through slitted eyes and nodded.
Ivy grimaced and raised the Sai, ready to strike me.
Before she could, Mila wrapped her hand around her wife’s wrist and stopped her.
“Let me kill him. Let me murder this bastard. He let our child die, Mila. He let our baby die. He wants to die, and I want to kill him!” Ivy screamed at her wife.
“No, Ivy. No,” Mila said.
“What do you mean no? He’s got to die!”
“And you want to give him the easy way out?” She turned to me. “Because that’s what you want, isn’t it? For us to take you out, so you don’t have to do any of the work. You made us a promise, and the minute an inkling of trouble comes along, you want us to kill you before you’ve fulfilled your promise? Well, tough shit, little god. I ain’t giving you an easy way out.”
Ivy seemingly battled with herself but seemed to reach the same conclusion because she pulled back and away from me, cursing me under her breath.
“You don’t understand. I’m powerless. I’ve lost my kingdom. I’ve lost my soulmate, and I’m losing my life. There’s nothing else I can do.”
“Suck it up, buttercup,” Mila shouted. “You’re still a god. Act like it!”
Act like it.
Weren’t those the exact same words I’d used on Hermes before I gave him everything he ever wanted?
Mila’s phone rang, and she answered with gritted teeth.
“What?” she said.
A voice that sounded familiar yet at the same time not echoed across the parlor, making Mila wince away from her device.
“What she said, dickface,” he said.
“What? Who…?” I started.
“You’re acting as if you’re already dead. You’re not. You’re a god. Use that!”
“T-Tao? You’re still here?”
Sandro’s moms winced in confusion.
“What? You thought you could get rid of me that easily?” Tao replied.
I clambered back to my feet, and Mila handed me her phone.
Her screen was glowing blue.
“How is this possible?” I asked.
I’d thought everything I’d done when I had my powers would be undone after losing them.
Pluto nudged my elbow.
He was still here. I didn’t know why I thought Tao wouldn’t be.
“I wish you’d told me I could make phone calls to other people and actually…you know…speak! I can’t believe you two left me on mute through all this shit. You’ve fucked up. You’ve fucked up royally, mister.”
“You don’t need to tell me.” I sighed.
“Who is that?” Ivy asked.
“Long story,” I said.
“I’m the owner of the body he’s in,” Tao answered her.
Maybe it wasn’t that long of a story.
“Huh?” Ivy looked confused, and I couldn’t blame her.
Not everyone knew the mechanics of godly possession.
“What do you want, Tao? To rub it in? You want your body back? I wish I could give it back to you, but I couldn’t bring Sandro back to life. What makes you?—”
“Oh, shut up. I know I’m done-zo, idiot. It doesn’t mean Sandro has to be,” he shouted.
“He’s gone, Tao!”
“No, he’s not. He just decided to take care of business while you’re sitting around moping.”
He had? How? What could he do as a spirit? What could I do?
“What else can I do?”
“Um…I don’t know. Help him, maybe? Is the god of the dead really that stupid?”
“Apparently,” Mila answered with a raised eyebrow.
“How can I help? I’ve lost everything ,” I told her.
“You haven’t lost everything. You’re still the Lord of the Underworld,” Tao said.
I bit my lip and huffed. “Not anymore.”
Tao took a long, deep breath I didn’t know was possible and huffed back.
“Just because you handed the title and your powers over doesn’t mean you’re not. You’ve been in Hades for millennia. You know the Underworld like the back of your hand—well, your original hand, not mine. Anyway, my point is you know that place better than anyone. Doesn’t Hermes only go as far as the front door?”
“There is no front door in Hades!” I said.
“Semantics. You know what I mean. He only ever ferried souls from this world to yours, right?”
He had a point. The fucker had a point.
“Hey! Who are you calling fucker?”
I ignored the clear violation of my thoughts and walked deeper into the parlor, running through what he’d just said in my head.
Hermes was a psychopomp. He had ferried many souls from Gaia to Hades, bringing them before me to judge. He’d never been anywhere past Styx, the river connecting Gaia and Hades, except to visit me in my throne room.
“I hate to admit it, Tao, but you’re right. He doesn’t know the Underworld. He doesn’t know it at all.”
“What’s happening?” Ivy asked.
I waved my hand dismissively. “I’m starting to get a plan. But…I’ll need someone’s help.”
“We’ll help,” Mila said.
“Yeah!” Tao added.
“You can’t help me,” I told Mila and Ivy, then looked at the phone. “And you are a ghost trapped in a phone. You can’t help me. No. I need someone else.”