Chapter 11
“What would you like to know?”
Thanatos didn’t stir from where he’d collapsed on me, his head on my chest. It seemed he had no intention of moving—which was good, because I had no intention of releasing him from my snuggle anytime soon.
He’d relaxed his wings completely, and they sprawled out across the bed, a cloak of sleek, inky feathers.
“Hmm,” I considered. I massaged his scalp with the tips of my fingers. “Where do you live? What does it look like?”
“My home is in the palace of Hades,” he answered softly, “in the center of the realm. It is the grandest palace ever built, a towering black fortress adorned with gold and gemstones. Spectacular. Superior even to the ones they have on Olympus.”
“Incredible,” I whispered. The greatest beauty was hidden in the Underworld, for none to see until their deaths. I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised, as it was just the same with him. “Do you think Zeus could ever outdo his brother in extravagance?”
“Never,” Thanatos replied. “Hades rules over all that is beneath the earth, and thus the riches of the earth belong to him as well. The Underworld is filled with precious metals and stones in abundance. At least the nice parts of the Underworld.”
“And what of your home there? What is that like?”
“I rarely spend much time inside,” he answered.
“It is not as if I need many possessions or a place to sleep. But it is nice to have all the same, a place where I can relax undisturbed. I prefer to lounge on my balcony, high up the castle face. From there, I can watch most everything that happens in the court below.”
“So you can see the drama?”
“So I can pick up the most interesting stories.”
“That’s the same thing,” I said with a laugh.
“Fine,” he conceded. “Sometimes I sit up there to watch the drama. I am told that many in the court find my presence foreboding, and some even believe it an omen for a particularly harsh judgment of souls.”
“Good grief. Why is everyone so afraid of you?”
“I’m fucking Death, Cyrie.”
“Yeah, and I’m fucking Death,” I retorted. “What’s your point? They’re already in the Underworld. What more would you even do to them?”
Thanatos laughed. “Nothing. But to most, I am an ill omen in that realm just as I am here,” he explained.
“It is not as if the souls there have forgotten me—they forget much, but never dying, it seems. Even to many of the immortals I am but a brooding shadow, and I do not mind being seen that way. I like to keep to myself.”
“You don’t want them to know you? To see beyond your image?”
“No. For that, you are enough.” He kissed my skin lazily, and I smiled.
“I’m lucky,” I yawned.
“Sleepy, you mean?”
“No! I’m not sleepy.” Maybe a little, but he didn’t need to know that.
I felt him grin against my chest. “Sounds like you are.”
“Come on, what would you know about it?” I protested. “Don’t leave me all alone because you think I need to sleep.”
“You speak of my twin, you know,” Thanatos reminded.
“I am not ignorant of sleep, once I’ve recalled that you need it.
But I will not leave you unless you wish me to.
” I made a satisfied noise, and he propped himself up to smile at me, fluttering his wings.
“However,” he continued, “I do need to return to the Underworld, as every night. But I will come back and lie with you in your room, if you like. I can tell you stories while you go to sleep.”
That sounded nice, and I supposed it was the best deal I was going to get. “Okay,” I agreed. I didn’t want to leave his side, but he was right, of course. I should be a responsible mortal, even if I’d much rather forget the consequences and adore him all night. So we pulled our clothes back on.
“Lie down for a while, okay?” he said. “And don’t say anything when I show up! You’ll wake your sisters.”
“I know. See you in a little, then.”
Thanatos flickered me back to the temple, kissed my forehead, and vanished into the night. When I entered my room, it was already dark. Sophie stirred at the squeak of the door, but rolled over sleepily when she saw it was me. Alex and Zoe were out cold.
I let down my curtains for privacy and climbed into bed to wait.
I lay awake, listening to the sounds of my sisters’ breathing and the calls of birds in the night.
The air was crisp and cool, still a pleasant temperature this time of year.
I should savor it while it lasted, as the days ahead would only get hotter.
It was a while before Thanatos returned to me, but I still remembered not to react when I heard him flutter into the room. I smiled lazily as he lay beside me, on top of my covers, and slipped his arm around my waist. I snuggled up against him.
“Close your eyes now,” he said. “So you fall asleep when you should.” I made a snarky face, but complied after one last look. For just a moment, I felt the slightest brush of his lips on mine. Then he spoke to me softly, his voice a tantalizing whisper.
“The Underworld,” murmured Thanatos, “is a vast realm of rivers and fields and cliffs. When I return there each night, I fall into the air above them, and as I descend I can see the dark waters twisting like serpents below.
“There is no sun to brighten Hades’ domain, and no rain or sky.
How could there be, in such a place? Instead the air shimmers dimly all on its own, bathing the land in soft light, and high above lies only empty darkness, nary a star.
The waters of the earth seep down from your realm, sinking further and further into the dark, until at last they emerge as the great rivers below.
Upon these sacred waters the gods swear unbreakable oaths.
“It is the river Acheron, followed by the Styx, that souls must cross to be judged at the city of Hades. Charon, the ferryman, awaits me on the riverbank. There, on that beach, the stillness of death is ended and the souls I carry reemerge into their afterlife. They reform in new bodies, with minds and memories as static imprints of what they once were. Themselves, but also mere shades. When they wake from my wings, they discover whether they have been buried with the fare required to cross. Whether they have been remembered.”
Thanatos stroked my forehead softly, and I knew he was smiling without opening my eyes. “Then I fly away,” he said. “I fly over the lands until I reach Elysium and the city of Hades, locked behind a diamond gate.”
He paused and let out a nervous chuckle. “This is an unfamiliar experience. I do not often speak this much.” I smiled at his adorable hesitance and broke the rules to quickly press my lips against his. Before he had time to chastise me, I had closed my eyes again, back in sleeping position.
“Stop cheating!” he ordered halfheartedly, laughter in his voice. “Be still and listen, stubborn mortal.” I obeyed, but I knew he could see my unrepentant grin. He squeezed me once in answer to my defiance, then continued with his story.
“On the other side of the city, the groves of Persephone stretch out across the landscape until they disappear between twin crags in the distance. In that great expanse, life sprouts in defiance of infertile soil, painting a strip of green across an otherwise barren horizon. The plants there grow eagerly in response to the Queen’s magic, yet nothing in those woods is quite akin to the vegetation covering your realm.
Every leaf in that sacred place thrums with the power of the joining of life and death.
Both beauty and horror are to be found in the depths of Persephone’s garden.
“That covers most of the aesthetics, I think; or at least all that come to mind now. Of the Underworld, however, there is much more I can describe. Let me tell you of the powers that flow within each of the rivers…”
Thanatos spoke softly to me of fires and forgetfulness and the curses of woe, his voice like music in the hush of the night. I listened happily until I was claimed by mortal sleep.
* * *
Flying on borrowed wings, I could see it all sprawling beneath me, just as he said: the rivers and gardens and glowing fogs of the Underworld.
Dark waters surged and swelled below, carving through the land, stretching into the distance where the black city loomed.
I was captured by its presence, drawn toward its towering spires by some invisible force.
With impossible speed I hurtled into the shadow of that city, darting through the still air until my feet found purchase in front of the great diamond gate.
From beyond it came the horrifying sounds of somebody’s ceaseless screaming.
* * *
I woke early to the soft light of sunrise, and my dreams faded away. Thanatos was gone, of course. I still stared at the empty space beside me for a moment too long before forcing myself out of bed and into the wash. I was met with Alex’s questioning eyes upon my return to our chamber.
“My night was spent in disturbing dreams,” she told me, her brow furrowed. “I’ve already told the others.” Apparently, Sophie and Zoe were already up and out.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I saw a flower wither as the dust surrounding it rose up to touch the sky. The sands swept around me, stealing my vision. And when the wind ceased and the dust fell…I saw the city gates crumbling before my eyes. A curl of golden hair rested at my feet.” Her eyes flashed with intrigue and a hint of fear. “What do you think?”
I had no idea what I thought. “Sounds ominous,” I offered, frowning. “Probably something to write up for the elders.”
“That’s what I thought,” she grumbled. “There goes my lunch break, along with my sense of security. I hope Apollo gives us more.”
“I do too,” I replied, staring off into the distance. I reached out with my will and felt for the divine, begging for a prophetic connection to reveal the meaning of her words. Nothing came to me. Not that I was expecting it to.
“What about your vision? Could that be connected in some way?”
“What? I…oh, right. That one.” The one I’d made up to cover my first sighting of Thanatos. I probably should have remembered that.
“You haven’t even thought about it, have you?
” she groaned. “Dear fucking gods, Cyrie.” Alex scoffed and crossed her arms to chastise me.
“Okay, look, I realize you’ve got your own thing going on over here, and we’re all fine with that.
But could you maybe give a little more effort to your actual job? ”
“Right, yeah,” I mumbled. “Sorry.” The uncomfortable silence stretched on. Bad. Oracle.
I looked down, my cheeks hot with embarrassment.
Yes, it was true that I didn’t try very hard to ‘see’ things these days.
Perhaps I’d indeed been distracted, noncommittal…
but what was the use of me anyway? Even if I’d tried, I thought, I doubted that anything valuable would ever pass my lips.
It was not as if I could gain insight on a whim, the way it sometimes seemed they all could!
Weren’t three functioning oracles enough for a city?
Anger and shame welled in my gut, but I said nothing more. I didn’t want to fight with her. Instead, I shut my mouth and continued to admire the admittedly impressive stonework of the floor beneath my feet.
Alex sighed and moved on. “So what was it the guy said to you, then, in your vision?”
Right, back to the ‘vision.’ I closed my eyes and cast my mind back to that very first night. “He said…‘it is not your time.’ And then he said he’d be back for me.”
“That was all?” she pressed.
“That was all,” I repeated, and it was. Mostly.
Alex took a moment to process that. “Well, that’s…unhelpful,” she finally muttered. “Alright, get dressed. Let’s just get to the courtyard.”
When I’d pulled my clothes on, she started down the stairs, and I trailed behind her, mentally erasing my persona in preparation for the day. By the time we saw sun I would be a good little priestess once again. That, at least, I could do.
It didn’t stop me from complaining at night, though. Thanatos listened to me while I told the story, stroking my bare skin idly. I lay in a cozy snuggle with my head on his chest, his eternal heartbeat thumping softly in my ear.
“Why do I have to be so useless?” I groaned once I’d relayed the tales of my failure.
“I could never see like they can, and I’m sure I never will.
Why can’t they understand that? I’m just a one-off with a pretty face, and sometimes that really hurts.
” My eyes watered, but I forced the tears away, focusing on his steady heartbeat. I needed to practice containing myself.
“You need not have the strongest gifts to live the fullest life,” he said gently. “Besides, you can see better than they can. Perhaps not the same things, or in the same way, but that is no matter. And I would hope you consider me to be worth the trade-off.”
“Of course I do!” I gave him a squeeze. “Ah, you’re right. I suppose I can’t ask for everything, can I?” It was a bittersweet truth, but one I needed to remember.
His fingers drifted softly over my shoulders, sending a shiver down my spine. “Can I make you feel better?” he asked. Such an innocent voice, but I knew better. Oh, insatiable Thanatos.
“Well, you can certainly try.”
He made me feel better that night, and all the nights that followed.
At the fading of every sunset we would run away together and make love until the cycle of death could be postponed no longer.
Even then, when the flight of souls was complete, he would often return from the depths to lie with me in the seers’ tower.
He’d cuddle me and whisper sweet nothings, and lull me to sleep with tales heard by no mortal ear. His warmth was always a welcome gift.
This was the happiest time of my life, this wonderful summer.
But the seasons must always change, and with them, the favor of the Fates shifts as well.
Those arbiters of life, who command the hour of every beginning and every end, care nothing for the wishes of mortals or gods.
For all things there must be an end, they demand.
Our end was set in motion on the night the temple finally caught me.