CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
‘NO, NO, NOT AN OLYMPIAN.’ Dionysus raises his hands in surrender but steps forward to cover me. ‘Well, I suppose kind of, but I definitely do not have the authority to take the whole court to war.’
Hades doesn’t lower that staff. ‘So the news that reached us only this morning of your newfound position on the council is a lie?’
Dionysus swallows, his eyes darting about like he might find an appropriate answer. And I realize that there is something he has not yet told me.
‘It’s … pending.’
‘Meaning?’
Dionysus winces. ‘It was a conditional acceptance. And that condition is … this.’
Hades arches a brow. ‘So the Olympians know you’re here. Is that what my realm is now? Some test for your heroes and your council positions?’
‘No!’ Dionysus protests. He takes a breath, his eyes fluttering closed.
‘Zeus wanted me on the council and I refused. I have as little interest in joining them on Olympus as you do.’ At Hades’ pointed look he hurriedly corrects, ‘Alright, almost as little interest. Come on, Hades, put the weapon down. We can discuss this civilly – remember that unlimited wine cellar I had set up for you –’
‘Keep talking,’ Hades growls.
‘I told the Olympians I’d join them if they made my wife immortal too.’
‘What?’ I turn to him, which drags the attention of the King of the Underworld right to me.
‘This is her?’ he spits, levelling me with as much fury as he just fired at Dionysus.
‘The woman who broke free of the Acheron, swam across the Phlegethon and doused my prisoners in Lethe water?’ He steps closer, lowering his sceptre but only so he can narrow his eyes at me.
‘Do you have any idea how much paperwork you have caused me?’
‘I … sort of imagined that had all gone unnoticed.’
‘Unnoticed?’ he repeats, lip curling with disgust. ‘You think my realm so lax that anything here goes unnoticed? The gods of each one of those rivers reported you. Tartarus saw you near his territory. And Styx witnessed this little reunion. Though the less said about her account, the better, given she appears to be rooting for whatever it is going on here.’
‘I’m sorry, Lord Hades, this is all my fault. I just couldn’t bear eternity on those shores. Please don’t blame my husband, he –’
Dionysus grabs my hand and yanks me back behind him.
‘It was a trick!’ Dionysus says quickly. ‘One of Father’s specialities – yes, you can make her immortal but I won’t tell you how to get her back. The Olympians definitely don’t intend war because no one thought we would get this far.’
‘So someone told you the way.’ His eyes drop to the wings fluttering on Dionysus’s sandals.
‘I stole the shoes,’ Dionysus says quickly. ‘I swear on the Styx, Hermes knows nothing of this.’
‘Then who –’
‘You know I can’t tell you. It would put them in danger for disobeying Zeus.
Please just –’ he is clinging on to me tightly, like if he just holds on well enough this might work out – ‘let us go. If it’s within my power, it’s yours.
If it’s not within my power, I’ll find a way.
I’m not trying to mock the court of the Underworld – I’m just … desperate.’
Hades looks between us both, and finally his gaze softens.
‘If I make allowances like this, everyone will look for them. You aren’t the first god to love a mortal.’
‘Love as powerful as this? To compel such dangers? Please, Hades. Whatever you want. I’ll join your court instead. I’ll give you a century of servitude. I’ll –’
‘Enough,’ Hades says, the slightest of winces crossing his brow.
‘I don’t do this out of malice. And frankly the last thing I want is you here for even longer.
But souls must stay in the Underworld. It’s a law of the realm – unravel one thread and you could fray every mote of power. It’s too volatile to risk.’
‘Souls are reincarnated sometimes, aren’t they?’ I ask. Hades turns to me once more, without the rage this time, though it’s no less terrifying for it. ‘Heroes can choose to leave Elysium to be reincarnated and perhaps make it to paradise again until they finally reach the isles of the blessed.’
‘Yes, but that’s a new cycle. You couldn’t return to your old body – you’d be born anew.’
That tickles something in my mind – though it takes me a moment. And then it is Medea’s echoing words: Death and rebirth was a continuous refrain.
What if Hecate was telling us the way?
‘That’s already the plan,’ Dionysus says quickly. ‘Her old body isn’t really an option. Bit cold. Awfully hard-headed. Hephaestus is crafting a new one as we speak – moulding it from the same clay they supposedly made the first ever woman out of.’
For a moment, they blink – Dionysus and Hades alike, as though a memory they can’t quite grasp flits along the edges of their minds.
It is gone in an instant and Hades presses his lips close.
‘It could work. Half escape, half reincarnation – enough to skirt past the restrictions that would tie you here.’ He seems almost swayed – if nothing else, curious to see if it truly might work.
But then he remembers himself. ‘But you are still asking me to release a soul so she might join the Olympian court.’
‘This isn’t a passing whim for a mortal I’m partial to, Hades. This is everything to me.’ Dionysus takes my hand and together we face the King of the Underworld. ‘Name your price.’
There is a beat, a moment of tension strung so tight I’m certain he’s about to raise his sceptre and cast me into the pit of Tartarus.
Then he sighs. ‘If you make it, you’ll need to get her to a body quickly.
There is a reason Hermes leads the souls to the Underworld – untethered souls are at risk.
Too long unbound and anima can shift – become a volatile spirit or a haunting screech or scatter altogether.
So if you’d rather not take that risk, say now and we can surely come to a more suitable arrangement down here. ’
We say nothing to his offer, and finally Hades gives a curt nod.
‘Very well, then.’ He goes to walk away but hesitates before his first step, turning one last time to Dionysus.
‘And while we’re on the topic of wives we’d break sacred laws for: don’t tell Persephone I allowed this. She’ll never let me live it down.’