12. Hades
Hades
T his wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be.
When I was looking forward to reuniting with my godmate, our biggest concern was supposed to be making up for lost time, not losing her even more. Not losing her for good.
This couldn’t be our fate. To be apart for thousands of years only to find each other and for her to promptly perish forever.
“H, are…are you okay?”
I raised my head, removed my hands from my eyes, and turned to my lover’s spirit.
I didn’t know why, but when he called me H…it did things to my insides. Things I hadn’t felt in a very long time. They felt almost alien if not for the comforting sensation that was like a hug.
“Of course not. You’re dead.”
He put a hand on my shoulder, and its ethereal force made the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I closed my eyes to revel in the feeling.
It wasn’t the same. It wasn’t solid or assured, and it didn’t warm my cold, dead insides like my nickname from his lips, but it was something. Together, they made an almost full person. A person I would lose if I didn’t do something, but what could I possibly do?
My job was to welcome the dead to the afterlife and punish those who needed it. It wasn’t bringing them back to life. That wasn’t my domain. It was no one’s domain anymore except for cheeky witches who thought they could cheat Thanatos and all the other death gods who prowled this realm.
“You said I shouldn’t give up. Have you?”
There was no hurt in his voice. Just a question. An innocent, hopeful question that broke my dead heart.
“N-no. Of…of course not.”
Right.
Even I didn’t believe me.
“So? What’s next?” he asked with a gentle smile that made my gut plummet.
He was so much like his old self he was even using the same methods to make me feel better. Because I could see it in his face. The way he glanced at his dead body and cuddled his dog said he had given up himself.
He didn’t even believe he was my godmate, but he didn’t want me to surrender yet.
“I…” I started when a light flashed in the corner of the room.
It was bright and red, and it buzzed, making the floor underneath me shake.
“That’s my phone,” he said. “Someone’s calling me.”
I approached the source of the light, but I only found a piece of flashing bulbous glass that had somehow escaped my wrath earlier.
“It’s downstairs. I’ve got these lights all over the house in case I’m not wearing my aids. The buzzing is a spell that augments the phone’s vibration.”
I nodded.
I could detect some hesitation in his voice, as if he didn’t like sharing this information or was embarrassed, but I didn’t know what there was, if anything, to be embarrassed about.
We were all different. Gods and humans. We didn’t share the same attributes, characteristics, or abilities. That was what made the world so wonderful. Although, granted, it was much less desirable without him in it. His absence all this time had made everything feel drab and macabre. And it would remain as such if I didn’t find a way to bring him back.
I opened the door and descended the stairs until I reached the living room. There were two phones next to each other. One was the one Tao was trapped in. The other was flashing and vibrating in circles.
Sandro followed me and leaned over his device, shaking his head with a sigh.
“It’s my moms. They…they probably want to find out if it worked.”
Right. The women I had given my word to that I’d protect and save their son, no matter what.
It hadn’t taken long for me to break my promise. It usually took far, far longer.
I stared at the phone, and my insides grew thorns. Thorns that could have pierced my heart and killed me if I let them.
“Are you gonna?—”
“No,” I said.
Why would I answer it only to tell them their son was dead and I had no idea how to fix him?
How could I tell them that after I’d given them all so much hope?
“What? You have to, H. They need to know.”
“I can’t.”
Sandro shook his head.
“You have to. For me.”
I stepped back.
I still remembered what happened the last time I’d pissed off my lover’s mother. She’d separated us for millennia.
I didn’t know what would happen this time and if there was a fate worse than that. If there was even anything worse for me now that my beautiful love was dead.
“No. Not until I find a way to bring you back.”
“What? No. Hades, please. That might never happen. And they’re my family. They need to know. If you really love me, you’ll pick up the phone and tell them what happened.”
If you really love me.
I couldn’t blame him for doubting me after what had just happened.
I may be a lot of things, but… “I would never lie to you, my love. Of course I love you.”
“Then tell them.”
I nodded and reached for the device. I rejected the call.
“What did you do? Why?—”
“I’m not going to tell them their son is dead over the phone, my love. That would be cruel and cowardly of me.”
A smile broke through the sadness on his face, giving me a sliver of hope, although not big enough to have all the answers.
“Let’s go then.”
I raised my hands, yet before I could call forth my eternal flames, Sandro stopped me.
“You might want to put some clothes on first.”
I looked down at my naked body and agreed. With everything that had taken place, I’d completely forgotten about decency.
“I’m afraid I burned my clothes earlier.”
Sandro pointed to the sofa behind him.
“Good thing I’m a slob then.”
I couldn’t deny the standards in his house were not to my liking, but for the past month, if not longer, he had been focusing on finding a way to live. He was allowed to be a slob.
I found a pair of soft black trousers Sandro described as sweatpants and a vest—or tank top. With those on and the shoes we’d taken off before going upstairs, I raised my hands and called forth my flames.
They covered me entirely, and when they receded, I was in the middle of Ivy and Mila’s living room.
There was a flat screen to my side playing a pop song I was familiar with. So many souls had died with an aspiration to be singers or looking up to artists. One of their favorite pastimes in the afterlife was recreating their hobbies and earthly aspirations. Which was why I knew everything about music from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Abba to Lady Gaga to the latest obsession: K-Pop star, Sailen.
Even though I’d never heard the original songs, I was pretty confident this was a Sailen song.
The blinds were open, allowing the sun to stream through.
The phone in my hand beeped.
Tao
Ever heard of knocking, dude?
Before I could respond to him, Mila walked in with a plate.
“Shit!” she screamed and dropped it to the floor.
The rug took the brunt of the impact, but the contents of her meal splattered all over the brightly colored surface.
“What happened, honey—” Ivy entered too, but unlike her partner, she didn’t drop her plate when she saw me. “Hades. Is everything okay?”
Mila went down on her knees in an attempt to clean up while Ivy rested her breakfast on a side table, unable to take her eyes off me.
“Where is Sandro?” she asked.
“I’m right here, Mom.” Sandro stepped forward.
Ivy didn’t respond. She couldn’t hear him. She couldn’t see him. She might never do either of those things ever again.
No. I need to snap out of it. I will find a way.
“I…” I choked.
What did I say? How could you tell someone their child had perished under your watch?
How did I do that without losing my head?
“Are you all right?” she asked.
Mila rose from the floor, and both women looked at each other.
The music kept on playing cheerfully, though I was anything but.
I knew things were bad when not even a Sailen song could brighten the somber tone inside me. I might not have delivered bad news to anyone ever before, but I already hated this, and no amount of music could make this any easier.
Whatever peace of mind I’d managed to offer them the night before with my reassurances was about to be fractured, and the truth was about to come to light.
“Come on, H. Tell them. Please.”
I couldn’t look at him. I knew he was slightly ahead and to the side of me, between his moms and me, but I couldn’t move my eyes from Ivy.
“Sandro…we…we performed the r-ritual,” I said, only because Sandro’s prompting managed to somehow untangle my tongue, but it didn’t feel like my voice coming out.
“Why don’t you sound happier? Was he really that bad in bed?” Mila smirked and raised her eyebrow, but I didn’t entertain her.
“Ma!” Sandro’s protest went ignored. “Rude.”
Ivy put a hand up protectively in front of her wife and frowned.
“Where is our son?” she asked.
I shook my head as my chin touched my chest and my eyes threatened to fill with tears.
What if this was it?
“He didn’t make it. He…he’s dea?—”
Before I could complete my sentence, I flew across the room. My back hit the wall and the perfect symmetrical arrangement of frames. Sharp pain shot through my body upon impact.
“Ma! No.”
Mila stood with her hand outstretched, palm pointing at me, while Ivy approached with arms on either side of her, fingers twirling. Cracks splintered the surface behind me. Vines of ivy wormed out of the crevices and wrapped around my neck, my hands, my legs, my entire body.
“Guys, stop it. Don’t do this,” Sandro shouted at both his moms, who stood before me as outraged as I felt with myself.
“What did you do to him?” Ivy shouted.
“I…I didn’t…he…I don’t know.” The pressure of the vines threatened to take control of my vital organs by squeezing them until they burst, but I couldn’t answer them. I couldn’t answer them because I didn’t know myself. How could I explain it to others?
“No, please, Mom! Stop it,” Sandro cried out.
The vine around my neck pressed against my carotid.
“They…can’t…hear you,” I croaked.
Ivy stopped twirling her fingers and looked around her.
“Who are you talk—is he here? Is Sandro still here?”
The vines loosened, and I managed to clear my throat and glance at Sandro’s spirit.
Both women turned to the empty spot, trying to touch it, but their hands went through him.
“Sandro? Are you here?” Ivy asked.
“The air feels…chilly,” Mila commented.
It was a common phenomenon. While humans couldn’t see or touch spirits, at least most of the time, they could feel something .
“I’m here, Ma. Please stop hurting H. It’s not his fault. He didn’t do this. This was my fate.”
“He’s here,” I said to them. “He’s saying this is his fate?—”
“Bullshit,” Mila shouted.
“It is,” I agreed. “His fate was to live with me until the end of time and rule the Underworld beside me. It wasn’t…this.”
“Then why did you let him die?” Ivy asked. “Aren’t you the god of death? Bring him back to life. Do something.”
I dropped my head again. The corner of a picture frame dug into the small of my back, but I didn’t flinch. If pain was what I needed to kick me into gear, then I’d take all the pain in the world.
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?” Mila asked.
“Bring him back. I can’t. That’s not my power.”
“Then find the one whose power it is!”
“It doesn’t work that way. No one has power over life,” I told her.
No one alive anyway.
Ivy crossed her arms as she approached me and looked up at me. “What about your promise? You said you were going to protect him!”
“I failed.”
Ivy growled. “No! You don’t get to fail when it suits you!”
The vines tightened again, and I had no choice but to stare back at her.
“You made a promise. Are you going to give up that easily? What kind of a god are you?”
“A terrible one, it turns out,” I admitted.
“No!” Mila shouted too.
“You don’t get to cry like a baby when you have powers beyond our imagination. You don’t get to tell us there’s nothing you can do after everything you said,” Ivy added.
“That’s right. Are you trying to tell us you waited for our son for thousands of years only to give up that easily when things don’t work out the way you thought they would?”
I attempted to shake my head but couldn’t.
“Moms!” Sandro screamed to no avail.
His mothers watched me with fire in their eyes and defiance in their words.
It was like seeing Demeter all over again the day she cursed us.
“No,” I managed to say.
The vines retreated back into the walls, and I fell to the floor.
“Good. Now, find a way to save our son,” Mila said.
“Or there will be hell to pay, mister god of the Underworld. And if you think you know what hell is like, then you have no idea what’s coming for you.”
I rubbed my neck and lowered my eyes in respect. “I will. I will save him.”
There had to be a way. There had to be something.
“We’d love to take your word for it—” Mila said.
“But we can’t, after what happened.”
Sandro stepped forward. “I’m so sorry, guys. I wish I’d said goodbye.”
I looked at him, overcome with grief, and it angered me. Whatever had caused this was messing with the wrong guy. It was about time I remembered that.
“I have to save him,” I said. “If I don’t, I’ll die too.”
“What?” Sandro’s jaw dropped, and I offered him a smile, sad as it may be.
“We mated before you died, my love. One cannot live without the other. If you perish…so will I.”