22. Sandro
Sandro
H e couldn’t see me anymore.
That didn’t mean I was gone.
It hurt that he couldn’t look into my eyes or touch me, but hey, at least I was still…unalive.
For how long, I didn’t know.
When would the Wraiths come to get me?
That was a big unknown, and I didn’t want to tempt fate by thinking about it.
Maybe they wouldn’t come again. Maybe Hades, Thanatos, and Hypnos scared them enough that they’d never dare touch me again.
Shit. So much for not thinking about it.
I doubted it was true anyway. Hades had said it himself. They had no master. They couldn’t be stopped. They were inevitable.
“What are you doing to him?” I shouted.
Hypnos flinched and bit his lip as Hades collapsed in front of me.
“I…I just put him to sleep. It should help him heal somewhat. Although I’m afraid…” He stopped and looked at his brother.
“What? Afraid, what?” I asked, too impatient to think.
“You’re still dead,” Thanatos said. “Which means…”
“He will die soon too,” I whispered.
This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real. Not only had I died—because of those two assholes in front of me—but the god of the Underworld was going to die too because he trusted the word of a thief.
“Fuck!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
Pluto appeared beside me and nuzzled my hands, trying to offer me some comfort where there was none to be found.
“Wh-what can we do? To help?” Thanatos asked.
Now, he was sheepish? Now everything had gone to shit?
Agh! If I had the power to kill someone right now, I so would.
“Can you turn back time?” He shook his head and Hypnos stared at me. “Yeah, didn’t think so. Then, find a way to stop Hermes and reclaim Hades’ crown. That’ll be a start!”
“That’s impossible. It’s why we couldn’t take Hades’ crown ourselves. We had to weaken him to do so,” Hypnos said, and my insides throbbed with anger.
Well, insides, non-insides, you know what I mean.
“Are you trying to piss me off?” I shouted.
Hypnos lowered his head. “No, my lord. No. I’m…I’m just saying we’d have to do the same with Hermes. To take back the crown. It won’t be easy.”
My lord? They’d never addressed me like that before. No one had. No one but Hades, and he’d been head over heels for me from the moment he opened his eyes, so he didn’t exactly count.
I liked it.
It meant they saw me as superior to them, even if I was dead.
I glanced at the limp body of Hades. He was out like a light, sleeping, but he looked…he was pale, and his breathing was so slow it was almost nonexistent.
He looked dead.
“Well, you better cozy up to your old buddy and find a weakness. Or I swear to Hades, I’ll find a way to come back just to kill you.”
I held back a gasp, but damn, where had that come from?
Another glance at Hades, and I knew exactly where.
The only person who had believed in me, the only one who had tried to save me, was lying asleep before me. How long would it be before he died too? I’d rather not find out. This could not be his fate.
Fate.
“You, is there nothing you can do? You just stood there and let Hermes take control of you and steal Hades’ power, and you did nothing.”
Chloe was the first to rise as her sisters were still unconscious from being possessed. I knew I should’ve checked on Chloe and the others. Asked them if they were okay. That was what I would have done if I was still alive and had never met Hades. But now? After everything? I didn’t care if she lived or died.
“We don’t intervene in human or godly affairs, young man,” Chloe said.
“Bull. Shit. It was your not intervening that gave Hermes the ability to steal my life. Are you going to sit by and watch him steal Hades’?”
“We are letting fate take its course. There’s nothing we can do to stop it, Sandro.”
“Oh, fuck off. You’re the Fates. This is literally your job. And for the record, it’s my lord to you all.”
Yeah, fuck them. Fuck them all. If they were going to be useless, I would treat them like dirt too. Besides, hadn’t they “confirmed” I was the long-lost queen of the Underworld?
“My lord, it’s not that we don’t want to. It’s that we can’t. We physically can’t interfere,” Chloe said, kneeling beside her sisters, who stirred under her touch.
“Then you’re useless.” I turned to the twins and looked down at them with my best regal look. If Hades wasn’t here to bark out orders, then I’d do it for him. “Take us to my home. Now.”
Thanatos and Hypnos bowed to me and grabbed Hades’ body as Chloe’s words rang over and over in my head.
What kind of gods were they? Unable to control their own domain?
“Wait!” I said before they could perform any sort of magic to take us away. “You,” I looked at the Moirai. “Give me Hades’ thread.”
“We can’t do that,” Chloe answered. “My lord.”
“You can and you will. I don’t trust any of you. I don’t trust that you won’t lose it again. If you lost mine, what assurances can you give me that you won’t lose his too?”
Lacey grabbed Chloe’s shoulder and sat up, giving her sister a gentle nod.
Chloe hesitated for a moment that turned to two, but then she stood and walked out of the room, returning with a golden ball of yarn.
“That’s not his!” I said. “This one’s gold.”
Hades’ yarn had been blue. Were they trying to trick me?
“Your godmate gave up his kingdom. He’s like the rest of us now.” Chloe handed me the ball with a hardened expression. “Don’t lose it or?—”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I’m not the one who lost my life. You did.”
I snatched Hades’ life out of her hands, and it turned transparent like me before Lacey stepped forward and handed me another ball.
Mine.
“If you find your life, you’ll also need this. The life you’ve already lived.”
I completely forgot about my life. It didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, did it? Only…our lives were interlinked. One could not live without the other. Wasn’t that what got us into this whole mess? So maybe…maybe I wasn’t that insignificant. Maybe there was something about me, however small, that was worth something.
I mumbled a thanks, grabbed the rest of my life, and turned my back on them. The twins followed my every move, and when I gave them a nod, they lifted Hades’ body again and vanished in the blink of an eye.
I closed my eyes, took a big un-breath, and let the pull of Hades’ soul drag me back home.
The twins laid Hades on the sofa and sat beside him.
“Get out of my sight. Go find a way to beat that motherfucker,” I told them.
They couldn’t even look at me anymore.
Good. Maybe some guilt would help them understand who was their true boss and who called the shots.
It certainly wasn’t me by a long shot, but for now, I’d have to do.
“Hang on, how do I call you if I need you,” I asked them.
It was Thanatos who answered me.
“Just call our names, my lord.”
I waved them off. They disappeared, leaving me alone with Hades and Pluto.
“How the hell did we get into this mess, H?” I asked him, but he didn’t reply.
Of course he didn’t. He was fast asleep.
I wish I could do the same. To pass out for a while and forget how fucked we both were, but unfortunately, spirits didn’t sleep.
So all I could do was wait for him to wake up and rerun everything that had happened, from the moment Mother Red Cap had invoked Hades to Hermes stealing his powers and trying to make sense of it all.
It was the only time I’d had to catch up on everything. The only true time to catch my breath. Figuratively, of course. I still couldn’t breathe.
My only conclusion was how orchestrated everything had been. Everything had been in Hermes’ masterplan. Even down to approaching me and giving me a loan for my business four years ago. His way of keeping a close eye on me. I had no idea how he knew who I was or that I’d reach out to Mother Red Cap. After all, if everything I’d been told was to be believed, I’d lived countless lives without seeking Hades. How did he know this wouldn’t be one of those lives?
The more things were revealed, the more questions I seemed to have. It was impossible not to feel hopeless.
Hades stirred in his sleep, and I watched him. Was he having dreams? Nightmares? Was he even seeing anything at all? I had no idea what kind of sleep Hypnos had put him in.
I reached for his hair and pushed a strand away from his forehead.
Hades opened his eyes and…and looked straight through me. He inspected his surroundings and sat up. After a few moments, he buried his head in his hands and sighed.
“Stupid, stupid Hades!” he muttered.
I wanted to tell him he wasn’t stupid, that we’d both been played, that Hermes had thought everything through down to a tee, and we couldn’t have predicted any of this, but I couldn’t.
He didn’t have his powers anymore. He couldn’t communicate with me. And I couldn’t communicate with him.
I put my hand on his shoulder. Just because we couldn’t communicate didn’t mean I wouldn’t try. I closed my hand around him, hoping it would have an impact, but that was wishful thinking?—
He flinched away from my touch and cocked his head, glaring at the place I’d touched him.
His shoulders rose, and he inhaled deeply.
I touched him again. I ran my fingers down his arms and he followed the trace of sensations I left behind.
“S-Sandro?” he whispered.
He could feel me! He could still feel me. Despite everything.
“Yes. I’m here.”
Hades didn’t react. Of course he didn’t. He couldn’t hear me. But…
I placed my thumb on his lip and watched it buckle under my ethereal force.
“Sandro!” His voice became clearer now, just as clear as he could feel me. “You’re here.”
I didn’t know how to talk to him when he couldn’t hear me. So, I did the thing that couldn’t be denied.
I leaned in and kissed him.
He opened his mouth and closed his eyes, letting my lips do the work, and when I pulled away, he licked where I’d connected with him.
“You should just go. I’ve failed you. I’ve failed us both,” he said.
“Oh my sweet, sweet, H, I’m not going nowhere.”
I grabbed his hands and did the same thing he’d done to me when we first met. I kissed them.
Hades stilled, and I traveled back up his arms with my pecks. Everywhere I touched, his skin reacted, hairs rising on impact. It made my own…spirit feel all tingly.
I reached his neck. Hades swallowed a knot as I bit the skin behind his ear.
He hissed as if I’d used real teeth, and I felt it to the back of my neck. The effect I was having on him sparked something in me. A fire I couldn’t nor wanted to tame.
Was it weird that I was turned on when we’d seemingly lost everything?
Yes, yes, it was.
Did I care? No, I didn’t. If we were both going to die, we might as well die content.
As I continued exploring his neck, I used my fingers to get rid of the vest he was wearing. I didn’t think it would work since our contact was far less intense than before, but to my surprise, the vest lifted off his chiseled abs just fine, and I even managed to throw it across the room.
However shocked I was, though, I didn’t stop to wonder what that meant—if it meant anything. I simply dove to his exposed body and relished in making him squirm.
He groaned and whimpered, bit his lip and squeezed his eyes closed, whether I was kissing his pecs or flicking my tongue across his nipples. Finding the one thing that wouldn’t affect him was an intoxicating game, yet it seemed impossible.
Even though my own desire was bursting at the seams, I only cared about his and seeing him unravel under my control.
Something about the fact that he could not see or hear me made this even tastier. Witnessing the god of the Underworld gasping under me, searching for me, was the perfect cure for the blues, and boy, did we have stuff to be blue about.
“Sa…Sandro, don’t,” he breathed as I explored more of his body and my fingers wrapped around the waistband of his sweatpants.
His eyes were closed and his lips apart, so I knew he didn’t mean it, especially since the bulge between his legs was throbbing, calling my name.
I answered his plea by kissing his navel and gently pushed the fabric out of the way until he was completely naked in front of me, a sight for sore hungry eyes, for sure.
His cock pulsed against my ghostly touch and his thighs flexed when I took him in my mouth. The goosebumps on his skin were so rough and hard that I felt their texture against my fingertips. That only made me crave his release more, even if I couldn’t taste it, which was a damn good shame if you asked me.
Even if I’d wanted to stop, I couldn’t now. I was hooked on him, mind and soul, and the only way I could regain some of my remaining functions was to see this through.
I used my hands to stroke him and my tongue for more pressure to make up for the fact that this wasn’t fully tactile. I wanted him to feel every part of me I gave to him, for him, and I wanted him to know there was no regret or second-guessing.
I’d cost this man everything. The least I could do was make him come.
The thought alone drove me nuts. Thinking of myself as if I was in servitude to him, as if I was performing a duty—one I was proud of—but a duty nonetheless.
I’d never thought of myself as kinky, but this? This was so doing it for me. If only I’d found out about it sooner. Before I died, ideally.
But better late than never.
“Oh, Sandro,” he moaned. “What are you doing to me?”
His voice thrummed in my ears and drove me to take him deeper, faster, messier. Sure, yes, his dick went through me sometimes, and sometimes he slipped my touch— ghost sex wasn’t an exact science, you know —but I didn’t care, and from the whimpering, crying sounds he was making, I didn’t think H cared either.
“Sandro. Oh, Sandro. My king. My soulmate. My everything. Aghsanghdo!” he shouted, and I allowed myself some reprieve.
I used one hand to drive Hades over the edge and fucked my other hand with a rushed and strained fist, joining the chorus of moans and groans Hades couldn’t hear.
He let out a loud scream and shot his load over his own lap. Seeing him wet with his own jizz brought me closer to relief, but that didn’t mean I stopped sucking him or licking him until he was so sensitive to the touch it was painful.
I felt the pull at the pit of my un-stomach and let out a yelp as my spirit spunk painted the floor in front of me with a faint shade of blue and watched it disappear into…
Oblivion? Nothingness? Whatever place Wraiths took spirits to?
Was that place full of spirit spunk, or was I the only ghost to get my rocks off while dead?
“Oh, Sandro. I’m…I’m so sorry. I’m so…” Hades started muttering
Whatever effect I’d had on him by what I’d just done was already gone and replaced by remorse.
It killed me to see him suffer like that. To see him powerless and dejected.
I’d barely known him for two days, and I couldn’t stand not seeing him powerful, confident, and strong.
“Oh, H. I’m sorry. I’m responsible for everything. Me.”
If I hadn’t called him to me, he’d still be in the Underworld, and he’d have his powers. This whole mess had started with me.
And Hermes.
I sighed, planted several kisses on him to make sure he knew I didn’t blame him for one second, and called Pluto.
He appeared out of thin air and licked my cheek.
“Keep him company, Pluto. I’ve got a mess to clear out.”
I gave him a pat and an ear scratch and then took the stairs all the way up to my roof terrace.
“Thanatos! Hypnos!” I called out.
The twins appeared before me but barely looked at me.
“You called, my lord,” Thanatos said.
I nodded.
“Yes. I need something. And you’re gonna get it for me.”
“Wh-what is that?” Hypnos asked.
“Answers,” I said and offered my hands to both.