Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
THANATOS
Pain had a way of dulling every other sense to the point where my only focus was on the agony.
The shackles glowed a bright golden color as they leeched the power from my body, which quaked with the need to break free.
Sweat ran over my skin, soaking my clothing and slicking my wrists under the shackles.
The early morning sun shone through the large floor-to-ceiling windows.
In the distance, mountains stretched out as far as the eye could see.
Clouds drifted over the snow-covered peaks, and sharp winds pelted the outside of the house.
The room she had me trapped in was extravagant, to say the least. A large four-poster bed was pushed up against the wall.
It blended in with the boring beige walls.
Any prisoner would find this life cushy, yet I could hardly move from my place on the floor.
If my destiny was to be trapped here, then I would hold myself on my knees and wait.
Perhaps this would allow for Anastasia to have a long full life, a life where she could earn her way into Elysium.
Doubt slipped into my mind, doubt that her destiny would be anything other than tragic.
“I don’t like this.”
“I don’t care what you like,” Phillis’s words were harsh and loud coming from just outside my door.
“You can’t just chain death here to wither,” a woman’s voice snapped back. “You don’t pay me enough for me to remain here.”
“I’ll double your fee,” Phillis said smoothly.
“To go up against the Queens . . . Ophelia? No.” The woman was firm with her words.
“Quadruple.” Phillis gave a light chuckle. “No one in their right mind turns down that amount of money.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my mother, it’s that there is a price for everything . . . and a limit. You’re on your own.” The door outside creaked open, then slammed shut.
“Misaki! You can’t leave like this!” Phillis bellowed.
Somehow, I managed to stay sitting up on my knees even while my body quaked and swayed.
Souls filled the room around me. Their ghostly forms gave it a soft white glow.
They whispered their pleas for my help. Their words flowed into a constant hum that filled my ears.
I wanted to help them, yet there was nothing I could do.
This wasn’t their fault, and I had failed them.
The door swung wide open and Phillis marched through. She glared at the souls lingering around me. “Make them go away.”
“I can’t,” I rattled the chains.
She paced in front of me. “You are bound. No one else is supposed to die from that moment forward.”
“How long was I fighting my way to Anastasia? How long were we in that cell?” I groaned and gave a slow blink, trying to clear the black dots swarming my vision.
I wish I could’ve forgotten this pain, but the moment the shackles went on, the memory of this agony came back like it was only yesterday that Sisyphus himself had tricked me into these.
“I don’t care.”
“You should. In that time, they all died, and now their souls are trapped. Earthbound.” Without me to guide them into the afterlife, they would linger.
“Nothing is ever easy!” she snapped. “Nevertheless, we move forward.”
More souls gathered on the grass surrounding the home and in the forest. I chuckled. “They will find me and follow me wherever I go.”
“I have stopped death. They should be grateful.” She made a huff of frustration in the back of her throat.
“The sick will not be grateful, nor will their loved ones.”
“A small price to pay for what I will accomplish.” She turned to face out the windows gazing at the mountains. “I, along with the other titans of industry, will change the world. Our rule will be constant.”
I rolled my eyes. “Said every dictator ever.”
“Politicians are nothing more than puppets for our agenda. It is much more advantageous to rule from the shadows.” She waved a dismissive hand in my direction.
“Oh, will you shut up!” I bellowed and she jumped. “I am your prisoner. Is that not enough? Now I need to listen to your incessant droning on and on. At least Sisyphus left me alone. You could do the same!”
She gave a dark chuckle and turned to meet my eye. “I will speak and you will listen.”
A rush of power filled my body and the black dots cleared from my vision.
I straightened my shoulders and sat back on my heels.
Something was off. My strength had returned and my power flowed through me.
When I looked up at Phillis, her lifeline went from the brightest gold to a dark crimson.
The shackles loosened around my wrist, and my heart stopped.
The right one popped open, then the left.
They clattered to the floor right in front of me and I sat there for a moment staring at them.
This could only mean one thing . . . Anastasia was dead.
Agony lashed through my chest, and I threw my head back, bellowing to the sky.
Blue and black sparks of my power fired over my body.
It flowed down my arms and into my fingertips.
Phillis took a step back, pressing herself up against the window. “Impossible.”
Rage flowed through my body, rage for the loss, rage for the time wasted, rage for what this meaningless human had put my Anastasia through.
I slowly rose to my feet and held my hand up, letting my power dance around my fingertips.
My body vibrated with power. It exploded out of me in a circle, knocking all the souls surrounding me straight to the Underworld.
I took a step toward Phillis. “You have wasted my precious time with Anastasia. and now she is dead.”
She shook her head. “No, she was alive.”
“The shackles on the floor say otherwise!” I bellowed in her direction.
I’ve lost her . . . for good. Devastation like I’d never known flowed through my body, cutting off the breath in my chest. I let my power wrap around Phillis’s body, lifting her off the ground.
She screamed and flailed against my hold, but there was nothing she could do.
I’d been too nice for too long, trying to be human just for a moment longer with Anastasia, and this was what it got me.
I was a god, and she would feel my wrath.
I reached forward with my power, shoving it into her chest. Phillis screamed and clawed at herself.
My black sparks covered one half of her body while the blue covered the other.
I threw my arms wide open, ripping Phillis’s soul right from her body.
Her corpse flew across the room and slammed into the wall headfirst. There was a loud crunching noise and her back cracked at a hard, awkward angle.
Phillis’s soul hung there in front of me.
She gazed down at her own broken body and ghostly tears poured down her face.
“No, not like this. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. ”
I crooked my finger and her soul floated closer to me. I wrapped my hand around her throat. “You think you can play with gods? You forgot yourself. I forgot myself. You wanted death at your call. I. Am. Here. Bitch.”
“Please, don’t—”
I shook her so hard her words cut off. “What you want no longer matters.”
My power swirled around us, and I yanked her with me as I traveled back to the Underworld, back to my home.
Hades’ castle came into sight, and I found no comfort in the familiar view.
It towered at the center of the Underworld.
The outside was made of dark onyx stone, with a large set of stairs leading up to the front door.
Souls floated around the top of the towers at the points of the castle.
Some even drifted in and out of the walls.
I jerked Phillis down to the line of souls traveling toward the judges. But I would not let her out of my sight. She would be judged, and she would be judged now. I would see her punished for her sins.
She cried out, “Oh God, please don’t.”
There was no sun or moon in the Underworld, which meant there was no such thing as time. “You now have an eternity all to yourself down here.”
Megaera soared overhead, then tucked her wings and landed just in front of me. “You’ve brought me a present.”
“She will be judged first.”
Meg cackled. “Her aura is definite . . . She is mine.”
Phillis gave a little whimper. “What is that?”
I didn’t answer. Instead I forced her under the large archway that sat just before the judges. They were larger than any men and closer to giants as they sat at their large stone altar. I yanked her past any waiting souls and shoved her to the ground.
She dropped to her knees sobbing. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
Minos, the judge in the middle, raised his eyebrows at me. “Thanatos, how unconventional.”
I pointed toward Phillis. “She requires your judgement now.”
“Indeed.” His white hair flowed down from his head and mixed with his white beard. He wore a thick burgundy robe draped around his shoulders. He would listen to arguments from the dead and would ultimately decide where a soul would go in the Underworld.
To his right sat Rhadamanthus, his brother. He dictated punishments or rewards for each soul. His looks were similar to Minos, yet he wore a dark-blue robe that was draped over one shoulder while exposing the other. “We will grant you this favor as you have served faithfully.”
On the other end of the table sat Aeacus, the judge who kept all records.
A large roll of parchment that matched his giant size sat before him while the rest of the paper rolled off the edge of the table and onto the ground around him.
He was surrounded by long, coiling parchment, but he didn’t look up.
A long white quill with a golden tip was firm in his grip as he scribbled down everything the others said.
“Speak clearly so I may take this all down.”
Minos held one hand up and swiped his hand in front of Phillis, holding his palm facing himself.
His eyes darted over his palm as though he were reading something.
“Phillis, ancestor of Sisyphus, your life has been fraught with misdeeds. You have lied, cheated, committed crimes against humanity,” he paused and his brow drew low over his face, “and the gods.”
Phillis coughed. “I didn’t know it would go this way.”
“You are ignorant and that makes a difference?” Minos groaned. “Stupidity is not an excuse for poor behavior.”
She glanced at the three different lines she could be sent to by them.
To the right was a line where the souls looked like they held all the sadness in the world.
They walked into a grey cloud of nothingness.
Straight ahead, the line went directly under the judges into an archway where golden light and delicate music sounded.
To the left, a line of souls went through two large pillars.
Phillis’s eyes widened at the sight of the furies and I smirked.
She would be with them for eternity being tortured by my friends.
They were beautiful but deadly with huge bat-like wings.
They sat on top of those pillars, screeching down at the souls bound for Tartarus, where her soul would be.
They cackled and flew around, swooping in and out of the line of dead, drawing terrified screams from the waiting souls.
Each scream drew a louder cackle. Phillis only cried harder.
Beyond the line was a wall of fire that the souls walked through and disappeared.
“Enough of this.” Minos waved his hand and a golden scale appeared in front of him. He held his hand over one side. “Your good deeds.” Golden grains of sand fell from his fingertips onto the plate. There were so few it hardly moved at all. Minos moved his hand to the other side. “Your misdeeds.”
More sand poured from him, dipping the scale down so low it nearly touched the table. All three judges called out at once. “Tartarus!”
“NO!” Phillis wailed, and I knew this would be the last bit of pleasure I’d ever feel again. A lifetime without Anastasia would be an eternity with no pleasure at all.
I took a step back as Megaera swooped down and landed right in front of her.
She ran her hand over the side of Phillis’s face.
Glistening pearly magic fell from her fingertips and drifted into Phillis’s eyes.
Phills’s soul went still and her eyes turned white.
Meg cackled, “You want to meet your ancestor . . . Allow me to introduce you.”
I grabbed Phillis’s upper arm and shoved her toward the pillars of Tartarus. When we got closer, she twisted in my grip to face me. “I’ll make it worth your while. I have millions to offer.”
“You took away the one thing that mattered to me. Now rot.” I threw her into the wall of flames and watched as it swallowed her up.
“I’ll make her punishment a good one,” Meg purred. “Just for you.”
“Appreciated.” I turned toward the castle and narrowed my eyes at it. “I have something to do.”
“Say no more.” She opened her bat-like wings and took off toward Tartarus.
I disappeared for only a moment and reappeared in Hades’ ballroom. “HADES!”
I knew he took Anastasia, and I would have her back even if it destroyed me.
A smooth voice came from the shadows. “He’s not here.”
“Where the hell is he, Liesin?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “He hasn’t been here for some time.”
“Find him. Now.” The pain of losing her was too much.
It cut through my chest and I could hardly find the will to move.
I needed her more than anything. I took a step toward him, about to grab a hold of Liesin, when power wrapped around my body, so much familiar power that began to pull me.
I groaned and tried to fight it. “Not again.”
But it was too late, and I was already disappearing into thin air . . .