Chapter 24
My stomach lurches and smoke fills my lungs. I can't tell which way we're moving. Up, down or sideways. I try to breath but it feels like when you go too fast on a roller coaster and your breath gets trapped in your throat. Am I screaming? I honestly don't know.
Me feet land on solid ground and my knees give out. Strong arms hold me up and take the brunt of the sudden stop in momentum. I breathe deeply then look up.
I can't stop my gasp in wonder as I look upon a twilight world with no true sun light.
The air is thick with silence, broken only by the sounds of flowing rivers.
The close landscape is barren with ashen trees and rocky plains.
Everything is faded grey in tone as if the colour and vitality have been drained from it.
There's no moon. No stars. Just the bluish tinge of twilight.
That is only a small area though. It's a circle of death that surrounds us.
Beyond that are more lands just a half mile away in a perfectly divided circle around the statue at my back.
“Welcome to the Underworld.” Alistair says with a smile as he slowly lowers his arms from my waist.
A short way in the distance ahead of us is a palace of Obsidian stone.
Cold and imposing. It's spires are the tallest thing in this realm.
The tips of its tallest towers almost touching the cloudy sky.
Blue and gold light shines from the windows and glitters on the surrounding stone.
It's the most terrifying and beautiful structure I've ever seen.
At my back is a huge statue of a women sitting cross legged.
Her stomach round with pregnancy and her hands upturned on her knees.
Blue and gold fire burns in her palms and within the fires I see constellations circulating through time and space.
Her head is tilted back, her eyes closed in serenity.
Her face is astonishingly beautiful. I instantly know her as Gaia.
The mother of all creation. I gaze upon her in wonder.
She's magnificent. Her hair streams down her back in waves as she sits completely naked.
Her entire body glowing with life. Vines wrap around her body with flowers dotted around her.
Tears fill my eyes as I gaze upon her. She looks how every women should see herself. The most powerful, beautiful goddess to live, who has found her place and purpose and no matter what that may be she is at peace.
In segments around the statue of Gaia are the realms of The Underworld. They narrow to their closest point to the statue at the edge of the barren circle we stand in. They fan out the further into the distance they go. In a perfect circle they're equally divided realms.
To the left of the castle a river flows, hidden amongst the rocky terrain, to a faraway woodland where the only sunlight in this realm streams from above.
It's warm and glorious. Great buildings of white, shining stone stand proud amongst the trees.
It's happiness and wonder. It's what I always imagined the perfect afterlife to look like. Triumphant and glorious.
Next to it is a pale field of what look like flowers getting the edge of the sunlight from the woodland next to it.
I see faded, pearlescent figures walking amidst the flowers.
As if in a daydream. They look content. Relaxed.
At peace. Like they have found somewhere to just be.
Without stress, or pain. Just that simple comfort of stopping to smell the flowers and enjoy the warm, gentle rays of sunshine.
My attention is broken when terror filled screams echo faintly from the next area. I walk around the statue of Gaia and see a land of ice and storm-lashed cliffs. Thunder and lightning rain down from above. It's angry and punishing.
Then between that and the palace is the deepest dark I have ever witnessed. It's cold, terrifying and gated by a wall of carved bronze.
Together these realms make up the levels of the underworld. Alistair points first to the glorious sun-dappled woodland.
“Elysium, the paradise for the virtuous and heroic.”
He turns to the field of flowers.
“Asphodel Meadows, we're the ordinary souls dwell unless they decide to drink from the river of Lethe. The river of forgetfulness to be reborn.”
He gestures to the frosted, stormy wasteland.
“The fields of punishment for those who committed crimes and are not remorseful.”
He turns to the bronze gates with the all-consuming darkness behind them.
“Tartarus. The dark pit reserved for souls who have committed the most wicked of crimes and are deserving of divine punishment by the titans of Night, Chaos and Time.”
I focus on my breathing as I take in the immense weight of where I am standing.
The centre of the Underworld. Power like nothing I have ever felt thrums through my veins and channels straight to the man standing before me.
This is his home. His fathers realm that he is heir to.
His eyes shine brighter than I have ever seen them.
Stormy grey with starlight sparkling in their depths.
“You're safe Psychi Mou.” He whispers to my mind.
“What does that mean? Psychi Mou?” I ask as I straighten myself.
He looks deep into my eyes as if he can see straight to the very depths of who I am. See the good, the bad and what I am yet to be and isn't afraid.
“It means My Soul.”
My world seems to still. My breath, my heart as if frozen in time. He called me that before we knew we were Moira bonded. I watch him swallow as if he has just come to that same realisation. I can't get swept up in him no matter how much I want to.
“Where's my Mum.” I ask sternly.
He holds out his hand and I take it instinctively. Darkness swirls again.
One second the palace is a mile away and the next we are at its steps. My mum runs down them and wraps me in a hug so tight I can hardly breathe.
“Sweetheart! Are you OK?” She cries as she steps back, brushing back my hair and examining me from head to toe.
“I'm fine Mum.” I reply with a teary smile.
I breathe deeply trying to calm my racing heart. Then a figure that instantly has me on edge walks down the steps.
His perfectly tailored suit is rimmed in silver metal and at his waist is the key to the underworld, dangling by his hip, suspended by a black chain.
His eyes shine like silver nitrate. Though they lack that cold, madness that has always glinted there.
Instead they look... kind, concerned and sad.
That unhinged grin is gone and instead his expression is soft and tired.
Like the weight of the world rests on his shoulders.
There is an air of grief about him that weighs him down.
A wholly different man stands before me but I know in my gut that he's still Hades.
Still the man who slaughtered my Father.
Rage like nothing I have ever felt floods my bones as Hades approaches with a warm, welcoming smile on his murdering face.
“Relax Krista. You're safe here. I trust you had a safe travel?” He asks. His voice flows with lilting softness.
Alistair steps forward and dips his chin slightly in a nod.
“All went as we had planned but I think we need to watch the Skinwalkers. Three are travelling together at Yellowstone.”
Hades taps his finger against the key at his waist as he asses this news. His strange change in personality confuses me to no end but my Dads body flying through the air into Caleb's jaws flashes in my mind and rage boils through me. I let myself drown in the need for vengeance.
I reach for the power pulsing through my feet.
It's raw with unmatched power and it rattles my bones as I draw it through myself in a torrent ready to be unleashed.
Just as I push my will into it, it dissipates.
It just flows from me and back into the rocky earth.
My eyes widen as I pull back on it but to no avail.
I look up at Hades. He tilts his head slightly. So similar to his sons mannerisms.
“This is my realm Krista. I control every pulse within its heart beat.” He smiles but I see a slight tightening in the corner of his eye. He's straining to keep the power in check against my pull on it.
Mum takes my hand. I turn to her but keep Hades in my periphery.
“Why are we here?” She whispers to me.
“Umm...” I turn to Alistair and then to Hades.
I don't know what to say to her. Even I don't fully understand why we're here.
I blindly trusted Alistair and Gaia to help get us away from Lukas but now we're in the Underworld at the mercy of the most powerful monster to exist. Did I just play straight into Hades hands?
Dread fills me and I feel panic rush up my spine.
“All will be explained.” Hades states as he turns with his arm outstretched gesturing to the entrance to the palace. “The Fates await you both.”
We hesitate and I feel Alistair gently press his hand to the small of my back. Did he say the Fates? The three women who decide the length of everyone's existence and cut the thread of our life when they see fit.
“Trust me Krista. We'll explain everything.” His voice is low and earnest.
I grit my teeth and push down my rage. I nod to him and we walk into the Palace.
We climb the wide black stairs lined with torches of blue fire and come to towering bronze gates etched in an intricate, elegant design.
They stand open and through them is the entry hall.
Solid silver statues of rearing horses stand either side.
Their manes billowing behind them as they glitter in the firelight.
A smaller set of bronze doors open to a huge long room bathed in cool blue light.
A roaring fire blazes in an enormous, ornate fireplace.
Dominating the centre of the room is a long dark oak table ringed with 20 chairs.
10 down either side. Hades sits in another at the head of the table.
Three women sit to his right in flowing white robes.
Alistair sits in the seat on his Fathers left and Hades throws him a black t-shirt which he promptly puts on. I take the seat next to him and Mum settles next to me. Her back straight and her gaze watchful but patient. I dare to look at the three women sitting across from me. The Fates.
They're older women but I couldn't say exactly how old.
All three have eyes of the deepest black.
Their skin is pale but not waxen and each holds the same calm, unreadable expression.
I can't help but feel in awe of them. They encompass the inescapable nature of fate and everyone's existence.
Even the Gods. Their names if I remember correctly are Clotho, the Spinner.
Lachesis, the Measurer and Atropos, the Cutter.
They watch me with cool indifference and I find myself unable to maintain eye contact.
Hades clears his throat.
“Thank you for being here ladies.” His eyes dart to each of us in turn. “Gwen, Krista, I know this is an extremely hard time for you both but now you are safe. I want to finally explain the entirety of events that have brought you here.”
The air is thick with tension and I watch him incredulously.
“A plan has been in motion for millennia since Zeus, with the help of the other Olympians, captured and imprisoned Gaia.”
Mum gasps and covers her mouth with her hand.
“I have searched endlessly for her. She is my Moira bonded mate. My everything.” He says his voice thick with pain.
“A prophesy was foretold of a Nymph with incredible power who would be the Heir of Deaths equal in every way and together they would be Earths salvation.
To keep this prophesy a secret from Zeus it was spun into the tale you may know of Persephone and myself.
I played the role of villain to keep my brother from discovering my true intentions.
He believed the story we spun and decided that the loss of my Mate had driven me to insanity.
Persephone bears some resemblance to Gaia and that was to be the cause of my actions.
My rage and violence caused by my weak-mindedness and grief.
Thus I was no longer a threat but a necessary inconvenience as my brother has no intention of being burdened with the ruling of the underworld.
It's beneath him now that he commands all of earths existence.
Zeus grew so obsessed with power and being the strongest of us all that he turned on his brothers, sisters and even his own children. They left, never to return. Forsaking earth and abandoning it to its fate under Zeus's tyranny.”
His fingers clench on the table and I see the abandonment etched in his face.