Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Reid
I don’t know how I managed to fall asleep while I was working at my laptop, but I know I did because a familiar setting surrounds me.
That of Hell. This place is different in so many ways than the legend, but maybe it’s only because I’m only seeing a part of it.
The part Hel wants me to see. The earth is blackened and burned.
A huge cliff stands before me, and I can hear the lapping of water far below.
But the sky above… There is no sky, there’s just a darkness that seems to loom over us all.
And yet, I can see perfectly in this place.
I am the ruler of the underworld, after all.
Hel is seated on a silver throne of bones. She looks out over the cliff, and I know she means for me to join her. I can’t help it, I do as she asks. And when I approach her, I can see the oily black waters rolling in and out on a shore of bones below.
Feeling uneasy, I sit beside her. She turns, and I can see both the half of her that looks almost inhumanely beautiful and the half of her where I can see bones and muscles beneath her skin.
“We need to talk.”
That’s never good. “About what?”
“All of Hell can feel you on the surface, and through you, me. Soon you will need to leave the surface world and return to Hell to rule it as we were intended to do. If you don’t, Hell will swell to the surface of your world, and you won’t like what happens when the souls of the damned are set free. ”
“What?” I stare at her in shock. “That can’t really happen.”
She looks solemn. Sad even. “I can’t imagine you being happy here, away from the people you love, in the darkness and gloom, but it will happen, Reid.
Because you won’t let the world suffer for your own happiness.
” She turns away and stares out at the black waters.
“You know the tale of Persephone? It was actually based on my love, Proserpina, and I never stole her away. She was the product of a monstrous god and a mortal woman. Even though many saw her as monstrous herself, her mother protected her only daughter. Until the mortals came for her. They burned down their home and chased them into the woods. I happened to be on the surface, and I saved them both. But Proserpina fell in love with me, and I with her, and yet I couldn’t force her to remain with me in the darkness forever.
And so, she returned to the surface for part of the year and then returned to me the rest of the year. ”
I don’t know what to say. “I guess…at least you had someone, but it doesn’t mean I have to stay down here.”
“Izzy and the others can visit you here, Reid. That’s what I was trying to say. You don’t need to lose them entirely, but soon you will need to lose the surface world. Except on rare occasions, this is where you belong. Staying here will protect the world from the creatures who would follow you.”
“But I’ve been safe this long…”
“Yes, because I’ve spent your dream hours with my soul here, calming my creatures, but I grow weaker inside of you. I can no longer keep making this journey. I am becoming just a shadow of the goddess I once was. And while it’s a relief for me, it changes things for you.”
My stomach churns, and my gaze moves to the bones on the shore. “I have to go here… I have to stay in this place? I’ll lose Aiden, Wilder, and Van? I’ll lose…Izzy?”
“Yes.” The word holds the same blow as shackles falling around my wrists.
And as much as it kills something inside of me, I believe her.
“How much longer do I have?”
She reaches over and takes my hand in her thin one. “I can give you until you deal with your enemies, I think.”
I let her hold my hand. It feels almost like a grandmother offering me reassurance as I die. “I don’t want the others to know. They’ll try and fight it.”
She’s quiet for a moment. “You and I are a good match. When they marked you, when I awakened inside of you, I wasn’t sure if you had the strength to be the god of Hell, but I’m sure now.”
Suddenly, my eyes flash open, and I realize I’m lying on my bed. My laptop is still open from where I was researching the gods and how to destroy them, and my phone is ringing. With hands that shake, I answer it.
It’s Van. “Izzy and Thea were attacked. Izzy is fine, but you might want to come down here.”
“Thanks,” I say, then hang up the phone.
Looking at the ceiling, I wrap my arms around myself.
The day I became a god, I lost the future I had planned, my family, my freedom, and even my safety.
But somehow, I’d grown to accept it, because I had Izzy now.
And because our future plans would have sent all of us to different places, and this way, we were still together.
But now? Now I was going to lose Izzy and the guys forever. Because even though Hel said they could visit, I could never make them go to a place like that. If I didn’t want to be in Hell, they certainly wouldn’t want to either.
When the bad gods were dealt with, I would have to leave them all and say goodbye forever. There wasn’t another choice.