Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
ANASTASIA
“Listen, I’m not good with tears.” Ophelia guided me out of the portal and right into an empty bedroom.
I swiped at my cheeks, brushing away each one. “Sorry.”
“It happens. It’s just the one thing I’m not good at.” She shrugged. “You know we’ll figure this out. The Queens, we don’t like when things don’t go our way.”
I sniffled. “I’m hoping that’s true.”
“She’s on my list.” Ophelia walked over to the small bed in the room and pressed down on it, testing the mattress.
“What list?” I turned in a circle, taking in my new room. It was small with only a bed and a desk with a single window high up on the wall.
“My TBK list.”
“TBK? What’s that?”
“To be killed.” Ophelia chuckled. “Like a to-be-read list, but you know . . . better.”
I nodded absently. “Right.”
“Righttt, so I know you’re all sad right now. It’s gonna be all good though. I’ll figure out a way to kill her, and then boom, you’ll get your man back.” She hiked her thumb toward the door. “So, I’m gonna go figure out how to do that now.”
“Yeah.” I barely heard a word she was saying. I’d lost him. How could this happen? In all my many lives, Thanatos had been in total control, an unstoppable force. Phillis didn’t bring him down, he brought himself down . . . for me.
The door clicked shut behind her and I sat down on the bed, just staring at the wall.
How could it have come to this? I never wanted anything more than the ability just to see him, just to stay with him, yet I couldn’t just do the simplest thing and live a better life.
I always walked the line between good and bad, between right and wrong.
Why? I hung my head. I let him down just simply by being me.
A dull ache started in my chest and ran up my throat, forming a ball there.
Tears streamed down my face, and I swiped them away.
A soul glided through the wall and came to a stop right beside me. He was an older man with no hair and deep wrinkle lines around his face. I glanced up at him, and he gave me a sad smile. “It is time.”
“What?”
“I am the last one,” he spoke softly, his voice was hollow and echoing.
I turned to face him more fully. He hovered over the floor in his ghostly translucent form. “You’re the last one of what?”
“My family. They’re waiting for me.” He folded his hands. “And I have no way of getting to them. I’m lost.”
My stomach twisted for him. “You need him?”
He nodded. “We all do. Our families wait. Eternity waits. Death can be terrifying, and yet with him it is not. We are simply passing from this life unto the next. But now . . .”
“Now you’re lost,” I whispered.
Perhaps I was selfish all this time. I only thought about the love I wanted and the life I wanted, but what about the others who relied on Thanatos? There was a world full of souls who needed his guidance to find their own loved ones.
The soul hung his head. “I am lost. All I want to see is my dear Eugina. She left me five years ago, and I have been heartsick since.”
I knew what it was to be heartsick. After so many centuries of fighting to be with Thanatos, I was accustomed to being heartsick, but I didn’t want that for anyone else. Certainly not this poor soul.
He clutched his hands together and pleaded, “Please mistress, where is he?”
I swallowed. “I will make it right.”
“Do you truly mean that?” a deep voice flowed through the room a moment before Hades appeared out of thin air.
I sucked in a sharp breath. I’d only ever seen Hades from a distance, but he was everything the history books made him out to be. He was tall, dark, and imposing, with vivid violet eyes that seemed to glow in the dark of my room. I rose from the bed and swallowed. “I do.”
Hades waved the soul away. “Leave us.”
Slowly the ghost faded through the stone wall, leaving me alone with the God of the Underworld. He held himself so still, with one hand draped behind his back and the other at his side. He wore a long cloak that pooled on the floor around him. “It is nice that we finally meet.”
“Yes, I suppose it is.”
“Though I’ve known about you for quite some time.” He pursed his lips. “I can see why he won’t give you up so easily.”
“Should I take that as a compliment?”
“You should.” He turned from me and walked over to the window. Hues of purple and pink warmed the night sky. The night was giving way to the day, and that only meant I would start a new day without Thanatos in my life.
I took a deep breath. “Why are you here?”
Hades chuckled. “You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”
“I’d rather speak frankly, especially now.” I wrung my hands together. “Can you help him?”
Hades gave a deep sigh. “I can.”
I stepped toward him, feeling hope for the first time. “Please bring him back. Get him away from Phillis.”
“I can.” He shook his head. “But I won’t.”
My face fell. “But why not?”
“This cycle must end.” He motioned to me. “You don’t belong here, Anastasia. And if I were to free him, he would never let you go.”
“I know.”
He raised his eyebrows at me. “Do you?”
I took a step toward him. “I feel like I can help him.”
“I think you can.” He gave me a tight-lipped smile. “It is time for your soul to take the course it was destined for. Even if that is the fields of Asphodel.”
“I know. The world needs death. It is part of the cycle.” And I was stopping that cycle.
“You know it is a shame he had to take it this far when the solution was always just right here.” He motioned to me. “Regrettably, Anastasia, it is time for you to die.”
I nodded and tried to find my voice. “How . . . how should I do it?”
He offered me his hand. “It’s as simple as making a choice to come with me. You don’t need to go painfully. I appreciate my friend enough to give him the peace of knowing you went peacefully this time.”
Without hesitation I took his hand and stepped in closer.
My body went weightless in a way that was all too familiar.
My heart no longer beat. My lungs no longer breathed.
There was only . . . silence. When I glanced back where I’d just been standing, all I could see was my lifeless body sprawled out on the floor.
Hades tightened his grip on my hand. “This was the way it was always meant to be.”
I felt completely hollow inside. “I know.”