28. Hades
Hades
M y blood must have activated something in their magical construction that let them know I was their creator.
I reached out to the skeleton with my mark and touched its clavicle.
They parted and instantly cleared a path for me. As I made my way to Hermes, they followed, still protecting me.
“What did you do?” Hermes asked with a hint of panic.
I drew my most wicked of smiles and stared him down.
“I told you. I made them.”
Perhaps this was going to be easier than I had anticipated. Maybe I didn’t even need Tao.
Hermes sat up on the throne and his face tightened.
“What took you so long? You’re getting rusty, cousin.”
I shrugged.
“I wanted to show you I’m still stronger than you, even without my powers.”
I took a step forward, but the skeletons didn’t.
I took another. It had no effect on my creations.
“Maybe they won’t hurt you because you created them, but they won’t hurt me either because I’m their king. Or did you think it would be that easy?”
I huffed.
“I don’t need them to take you down.”
I continued trying to make my way to him and held my Sais tighter.
“Go on then. Take me down.”
Hermes looked up just as I reached for him and then flew above me toward the sky.
Unholy Mother ? —
I couldn’t let him get away.
I pulled back a dagger and aimed for his sandals, but before I could even throw it, they dropped from above.
There was no ceiling in the throne room, just the night sky, but spirits had been hiding in the cover of the walls.
Forsaken Chaos! I should have known.
“What? Did you think I wouldn’t make provisions? I know how stupid and desperate you are. I thought, ‘No, he wouldn’t try something so monumentally stupid.’ And yet, here you are. Proving me both right and wrong. This is going to be fun to watch.”
The damn souls came for me. Dropping from shadows like bugs, worthless but still dangerous bugs.
I should have anticipated he would use the souls of Tartarus. I didn’t know how he’d acclimated to the Underworld so well so fast, but I only hoped he hadn’t discovered more of its secrets.
They attacked me. One after another, soul after soul, each uglier than the last, attacked me. With fire in their eyes and hatred in their hearts, they gave it their all, even though they weren’t solid enough to cause damage. And who could blame them? I’d been the one to cast them into Tartarus. They had it out for me.
I fought them off as well as I could.
It was easy at first, but they just. Kept. Coming.
That fucker. Did he empty all of Tartarus to keep me away from him?
I cast them away with my weapons as much as I could, but it wasn’t long before they captured me. One spirit possessing me couldn’t do shit, but all of them combined inside me created a barrier solid enough to keep me restrained, and without my powers, I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t cast them back to where they came from. I couldn’t punish them.
“Bring him here.” Hermes floated back down to the throne and beckoned me closer.
The angry spirits pushed me toward their new king and somehow kicked me in the hocks, bringing me to my knees in front of the fraud who’d taken everything from me.
“You’re not very smart at all, are you, cousin? And to think I spent centuries thinking you’re the most skilled of our kind. You’re just faking it like the rest of us.” He laughed out loud and stretched out his hand.
My blue flames appeared from his fingertips, and he fired at me.
“Goodbye, cousin.”
The fires erupted from him and blasted my entire body, covering me in seconds, but they didn’t burn me. I was their architect.
At least that I had anticipated.
And Hermes already knew that too. But that wasn’t what he was trying to do. He wasn’t trying to burn me to a crisp.
“How?” he screamed.
I smirked.
“Having trouble?”
Thanks to the pomegranate seeds, I was bound to Hades, just like Persephone when she’d eaten the fruits from the very same tree, all those millennia ago. Because that was what Hermes was trying to do.
To cast me out of my own realm.
The only way I could leave was by choice.
Not even the fake king of the dead could change that.
“Clever trick. But you’re forgetting something.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Oh yeah? What is that?”
Hermes stood, and a long golden staff with a spherical mace at the top appeared in his hand. He swung back, and I closed my eyes.
My ears rang on impact, and I felt my eyes rolling back. I would have collapsed if I wasn’t being held by all the spirits.
I made an attempt to look at Hermes, and I’d barely opened my eyes when his mace came down on me again.
“I’ve got power…I can kill you if I…when I do, I won’t even wait for the…to come get you. I’ll take…them myself.”
It took effort to hear him. It took effort not to scream. It took effort to not give up hope.
He could kill me if he wanted to. He’d made himself more powerful than me. And I bet he’d dreamt of it a hundred times over the years. Maybe I knew this realm better than him, maybe I’d bound myself here, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t kill me.
I was an embarrassment of a king. I’d failed Sandro. I’d failed my kingdom. I’d failed myself.
Maybe it was best if he got rid of me now so I didn’t have to put up with all my wrongs.
“What the—” Hermes stopped, and I struggled to inhale so I could get enough strength to open my eyes.
“Did someone order a bunch of heroes?” The voice was familiar, and when I finally managed to open my eyes and look to the side, I recognized Tao’s ethereal form.
“How?” Hermes shouted as the spirits standing behind Tao launched ahead.
Forsaken—
He’d done it. He’d rallied the heroes of Elysium and brought them to the fight.
They all came for the damned, punching, kicking, fighting, and the damned let go of me, one by one, trying to defend themselves.
This wasn’t how the afterlife was supposed to go. They weren’t supposed to be mixed up in human affairs anymore or godly ones, for that matter. But these were extenuating circumstances. Even then, I wasn’t sure they’d come to my aid.
But somehow, Tao had done it.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said as he approached me and grimaced when he looked at my face.
“What? You don’t like your face?” I asked him.
He rolled his eyes.
“My face, I like. What you’ve done to it? Not so much,” he answered.
I looked at Hermes a few feet away from me and spat blood at his feet.
“His fault.”
Tao crossed his arms, and I straightened as all the souls let go of me. I had control of my own body again while, at the same time, the room was cleared of souls, both heroic and damned.
“Ready for round two?” I asked Hermes.
Tao pumped his fist. “Go on, Hades. Show him who’s boss,” Tao said.
Hermes glowered and bit his lip.
“Charming. But I can barely stand one of him, let alone two.” He raised his free hand and shot fire at Tao.
I was so weak that I didn’t have a chance to react or step in front of him. All I could do was watch as he burned in my eternal flames and disappeared, probably sent back to Gaia to await Wraiths or somewhere worse.
I’d let him down. Like I’d let Sandro down. Like I’d let Ivy and Mila down. I couldn’t get anything right. No wonder I was in my current predicament. If I could, I would have seen Hermes’ unhappiness sooner. I would have realized that their lives were no better than mine. Or they were even worse, actually.
But I was the god of let-downs, so why would I have seen the signs? Why would I be able to protect the people around me? The people I loved.
And sure, I didn’t love Tao. Not the way I loved Sandro, but it was his body I was inhabiting. It was his life I’d stolen, in a way. And yet, despite the intrusion, he had helped me. He hadn’t hesitated a moment.
And now he’s gone. Because of me.
“What a shame. You didn’t share your ‘trick’ with your friend.”
I growled and pushed myself off the floor, stumbling toward Hermes. He swung his mace at my head again, sending me flying across the room.
This plan was going all wrong, and unless I did something drastic, I would suffer a fate worse than Tao.
I rubbed my fingers on the side of my head. The blood smeared my fingers and dripped onto the floor directly in front of my old throne. I watched it paint the grayed texture and blinked the blurriness in my vision away.
My blood.
“Give it up already, old man. There’s a new king in town.” Hermes charged at me.
I rolled away from the throne and fell onto the mosaic. Immediately, a skeleton formed around me and absorbed the impact of Hermes’ attack, sending him flying back.
More guards rose from the floor, creating a protective bridge between him and me. They may not be able to harm him, but they could still protect me.
Somehow, I managed to scramble back to my feet and run. I ran so fast I could barely feel the floor under me.
“Come on, cousin. Don’t be a coward,” Hermes shouted, but I was so close. So close to escape.
There was only one step separating me from the darkened pathway I’d come in from.
Something heavy hit the back of my head. I lost my footing and rolled forward, going through the pathway and the tree trunk, and found myself back in the solace of the sacred tree.
Everything was so blurry I knew my time was up unless I managed to get another fruit. But in order to get another fruit, I had to be able to stand with enough power to crack the fruit, and I just didn’t know if I had any more fight left in me.
“Hades!” someone said, making my insides turn with a heaviness that seared through my insides like a blade.
Someone crouched beside me, and even though they towered over me, I could see the stars through them. Yet, despite that, I felt a warmth in my cold, dying heart that seemed almost foreign.
“Sa-Sandro?”
He smiled. Or maybe he didn’t. I couldn’t exactly tell, but it appeared that he did.
“What—”
“Fruit!” I said before anything else.
“Did you just call me a?—”
I attempted to point at the tree, but my hand collapsed before I could complete the move.
“Fruit,” I repeated.
“Oh. Right.” He left my side, but only for a moment, and when he returned, he held a pomegranate in his hands. “Shit. I can’t crack it.”
And neither could I in my condition.
But maybe if we joined forces…
“Inside me. Get…inside me.”
I could tell Sandro was frowning, but if he had any questions or concerns, he didn’t express them.
Instead, he phased through me.
“On three,” he said, his voice ringing into my very core, giving me that much more strength as he counted down.
He helped me bring my hand to the ground and break the pomegranate.
Relief washed over me when the blue seeds glowed before my very eyes, and I wasted no time.
And then Hermes stepped out of the tree trunk.
“Well, isn’t that handy,” he said with a smirk, tapping the bloodied mace in his palm.
I didn’t respond to him. Feeling stronger, I turned and ran.
By some miracle, I had made it out alive. But unless I implemented the second part of my plan, I wouldn’t be for long.
Come on, motherfucker. Follow me. Follow me, and I’ll show you who the true king of this Underworld is.