Chapter 6
The world around me lurched, white light flashing bright around me. I squeezed my eyes closed and gripped Hecate's hand harder, then I heard the muttering of a crowd, which died away almost instantly. I opened my eyes.
“Oh my god,” I whispered.
I was in a white marble room, facing tiered rows of seated people.
And the word 'people' was a loose description.
Although over half of them looked human, a lot didn't. There was a woman with a severely misshapen face and leathery wings protruding from her back, and a beautiful lady whose skin looked like it was made from wood.
There was a man who must have been ten feet tall if he had been stood up, his skin a shining gold color, and a creature that had furry legs that looked like a cat's and a beak for a nose.
Standing at the back, just in front of the white marble wall were three minotaurs, a centaur and an incredibly curvy woman with a wooden leg and hair that seemed to be moving of its own accord.
I took a deep breath. OK. Ten—no, make that a hundred—points, to my imagination.
“I did warn you,” muttered Hecate, still gripping my hand.
As I turned to look at her I realized that the sides of the room were missing, grand Greek columns lining the edges at intervals instead, and beyond them were flames.
And not just any flames. Flames larger than sky-scrapers that leaped and danced and weren't only red.
Purples and blues and oranges flickered amongst the crimson and I was vaguely aware of my jaw slowly dropping.
“It's so beautiful,” I breathed.
“Welcome to the Underworld,” boomed a voice.
I turned to the last wall and my knees instantly felt weak again.
I was in a throne room, I now realized. There was a raised dais at the end of the room, and eleven people were seated on large chairs along the platform.
These weren't people though, I knew, as my eyes flicked across them all, trying to take it in.
These were gods.
Power emanated from them, almost tangible in the air, as they each eyed me.
“It's really not Zeus's place to welcome you here,” said the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, sitting forward in her chair.
“That honor should go to Hades, but he is... indisposed just now.” She had skin the color of coffee, and her hair was pastel pink and wrapped around her body like a dress, leaving her midriff and long legs totally exposed.
Her pale lips matched her hair and her eyes were almost black. “I'm Aphrodite,” she said.
I gazed at her, all the liquid leaving my mouth completely. Hecate squeezed my hand.
“Bow,” she said out of the corner of her mouth. I dipped my head low, taking another breath.
Get a grip, get a grip.
“I'm—” I started to say as I straightened, but a man stood up, cutting me off.
“You're Persephone,” he said, his eyes gleaming and purple energy crackling around him.
“You!” I said, anger springing to life inside me. He was Zeus! With his stupid purple lightning, and asshole laughing eyes.
“Me!” he beamed, his dark beard and hair morphing into that of the gorgeous blonde from the coffee shop.
“I'm ever so pleased you could join us,” he said.
“Some quick introductions? It would be rude for you to remain ignorant.” I glared at him, but kept my lips pressed firmly together.
This was not the place to pick a fight, even I could tell that.
“This is my brother, Poseidon,” he said, gesturing to a bored-looking man with insanely blue eyes in the seat next to him.
“And this is my lovely wife, Hera.” The grand looking lady on the other side of him inclined her head at me and I returned the nod.
She had inky dark skin and turquoise blue hair in a complicated looking plait that ringed her head like a crown.
She had a real crown too, glittering with the reflections of the flames on either side of us.
“These are the twins, Artemis and Apollo,” he said, pointing at two slight, golden-haired figures, both sporting broad smiles.
Artemis looked no older than fifteen, her brother maybe only a few years older.
“This is Dionysus.” Zeus gestured at a man dressed in clothes from my world, tight leather trousers and a Hawaiian shirt open to his navel.
Dionysus gave me a lazy grin from under a flop of dark hair.
“Nice to see you again, Persy,” he drawled. I blinked thickly at him.
“This is Hermes,” Zeus said, and a red-headed man with a neat beard beamed at me.
I couldn't help the small smile that leaped to my lips in return.
There was something about him that slightly eased my racing pulse.
“You've just met Aphrodite, this is her husband, Hephaestus.” A man with a hunched shoulder and lopsided face was sat next to Aphrodite, his form swamped by a massive leather tabard. He didn't look at me.
“And this is Ares and Athena,” Zeus finished.
An enormous man in full Greek armor glared at me through the eye-slit in his red-plumed helmet, and a beautiful blonde-haired woman in a white toga with an owl on her shoulder gave me a small smile.
Athena had always been my favorite growing up.
She was portrayed in my books as the goddess who was the most fair and most intelligent, but still fierce, and I'd tried to channel that every time Ted Hammond had got too close to me.
Not that I'd ever been able to stand up to him, I thought bitterly.
Even sat next to Ares' hulking form, Athena radiated power greater than his, and a respectful jealousy surged through me.
I bowed my head.
“It's nice to meet you all. I must confess though, I'm a little confused,” I said, as formally as I could, my lips slightly numb. “Apparently you all know me from a life I can't remember.”
Athena stood up from her chair and my skin prickled with something, magic or power or anticipation, I wasn't sure.
“Persephone, you have been made to forget your past with good reason. It is highly inappropriate that you are here now, but there's nothing we can do about it. The Lord of the Gods has made sure of that.” She shot a sideways glare at Zeus, who flopped back into his throne with a lazy shrug.
“Oops,” he said.
“I know this may be hard for you, but you need to act as though this is your first time here in Olympus.”
“Erm, that's not going to be hard for me,” I said. “I've never seen this place or any of you before in my life.”
“You misunderstand me. You will want to find out what happened in your past. But this would be folly. You must trust that the twelve Olympians made the correct decision in removing those memories from you, and leave it at that. Start again. From today.”
I frowned, confusion and anger battling against the compulsion I felt to worship this beautiful, wise woman.
I knew hazily that her powers were at work.
I mean, she was a goddess, she could make me do whatever she wanted.
But was it right that they could remove my memories?
Tell me I was married, then not allow me to know any more?
Married! The thought was laughable.
I'd never even had a boyfriend for more than six months, what the hell would I want with a husband? None of this is real, you idiot. Who gives a shit? The voice trickled through my racing thoughts. Sam is going to wake you up soon, in a hospital bed somewhere.
I smiled at Athena.
“Fine,” I said. She cocked her head at me slowly.
“You do not believe this is real?”
I said nothing and the goddess let out a long breath.
“Father, you can be cruel,” she said quietly, then sat back down on her throne.
“If Hades didn't behave like a disobedient child then I wouldn't have to be,” Zeus barked.
“And her? Do you believe she deserved this?” said Hera, speaking for the first time and gesturing at me. Zeus shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“You forget, brother, she has the potential to be dangerous. Your games should not go this far,” said Poseidon, his piercing blue eyes not leaving me as he spoke.
“Dangerous?” I echoed.
“Dangerous,” he repeated, something in his expression making me want to be someplace else, and fast.
“I will be her companion during the Trials, she will not be a danger to anyone,” said Hecate, stepping forward beside me. Relief and gratitude washed through me as I remembered I wasn't completely alone. Hecate had been my friend once, apparently.
“Hmmm. To be sure, I wish to assign her a guard. Of my choosing,” said Poseidon, finally taking his eyes from mine and looking at Zeus.
“I would like to choose a guard for her too,” said Athena quickly.
“As I'm sure would Hades, were he here,” added Hera.
Zeus rolled his eyes and sighed, and I looked at Hecate.
“Why the fuck do I need a guard?” I hissed at her.
“Her powers haven't been unlocked,” said Hecate loudly to the assembled gods, ignoring me. “She does not need a guard.”
“Powers?” I gaped at her, feeling the hysteria fringing my mind again. Of course I'd give myself powers in this mad fucking fantasy. Why wouldn't I?
“Let me guess,” I said, feeling an unhinged smile take over my face. If I could have any power in the world what would it be? That was easy. “I can make plants grow?”
Hecate looked at me, her brows drawing together.
“How'd you know that?”
“Because Hades left her love of nature when he sent her to the mortal world,” said Hera, so quietly I barely heard her.
A silence fell over the room and my head spun as the colored flames danced on each side of us.
“I suggest Persephone choose her own guard. We will present our options this evening, after the first Trial,” said Athena, authoritatively.
“Agreed,” said Zeus, sitting forward. “Now, I do not believe Hades will be joining us now—”
“And why is that, brother?” boomed a voice. Gooseflesh shot up on my skin as the temperature in the room dropped sharply. Fear crawled through me, though I didn't know what I was suddenly so scared of. I felt Hecate stiffen by my side and Zeus's eyes flashed as he slouched back into his throne.
“Hades! I'm so glad you could make it after all! I have a surprise for you.”
Black smoke began to gather in the center of the dais, swirling fast into a humanoid form.
“Another contestant for your foolish competition, no doubt,” hissed the angry, slithery voice, and I felt a strong compulsion to step backwards, and keep going.
“Indeed,” said Zeus, a smile spreading over his face. The smoke was nearly solid now, but not quite, the form before me translucent and fluid and featureless.
Until it turned to me.
For a split second the world disappeared completely.
The first thing I saw were his eyes, the rest of the swirling smoke flashing into human form so briefly I almost missed it.
But I registered the massive shoulders, the dark trousers and shirt, the gleaming onyx in the center of a belt around his waist, before my eyes met his again.
They were silver. Not white or grey or pale blue but shining silver, and they were filled with shock.
Emotions I didn't recognize began to hammer through me, and suddenly something inside me was beating against my mind, desperate to be free. The sensation made me feel dizzy and sick.
I knew this man.
All notion of this being a crazy dream, all ideas that I was hallucinating, all the rational thoughts and truths that I'd been clinging to disintegrated as I stared into those desperate pools of silver. I knew this man. This was real.
Anger suddenly erupted in those haunted eyes and before I could look at the rest of his face his solid form was gone. A blast of power pulsed through the room and I cried out as pure terror gripped my mind.
Images that were usually relegated to my worst nightmares, blood and death and gore and fire, filled my head and blinded me to everything else.
I could smell the tang of the blood, hear the fire roaring, feel the screams reverberating around me as people died everywhere I looked. I was drowning in blood. I choked for breath as my legs crumpled beneath me, too far gone to feel the crack of my knees as they hit the marble.
“What is the meaning of this?” bellowed Hades, so loudly I threw my hands over my ears, squeezing my eyes shut. It didn't help. All I could see were bodies, torn apart, flames licking over them. I clawed at my throat desperately, unable to get enough air. I was drowning in fear and blood.
“Hades!” I distantly heard Hecate's voice. “She doesn't have her power, you're going to kill her!”
Instantly the terror melted away, a soothing calm flooding through me. I gulped down air, pressing my shaking hands to my wet face as Hecate crouched down beside me.
“It's OK,” she said quietly. “You'll be OK.”
“Everybody, leave,” the slithery voice said. Although he spoke quietly, the words were as clear as day. “Except you, brother. You and I need to talk.”