Chapter 8
In what seemed like no time at all I was back in the throne room with Hecate, feeling slightly dizzy from the bright lurching motion of her transporting us. I managed to keep the contents of my stomach in place this time though, which I was taking as a small win.
I was wearing my white hair up in a high tail now, a silver band decorated with emerald gems keeping it back from my face.
“So as not to hinder your view of the demon”, Hecate had said.
My clothes too were made for “getting out of the way”, supple leather trousers that were black, and a slightly less supple leather corset that was supposed to be thick enough to repel claws.
Given that the garment barely came above my breasts I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do if any claws were aimed higher.
Just stay out of the way, I told myself, as Hecate had spent the last ten minutes doing so.
I was good at staying out of the way, and I was quick.
This wasn't exactly what I thought I'd been training my body for when I'd hauled my ass out running every other day for the last year but I was sure glad now that I had.
The throne room was mercifully empty, and I took the opportunity to move closer to the dais. Only two thrones were on it now, massive and imposing and breathtaking. One I assumed belonged to Hades, as it looked to be made entirely from bones.
I shuddered as I took in the skulls lining the arched back, the long limb bones making up the chair legs, the curved rib bones running down the raised arms. Something black that looked almost alive appeared to be holding the throne together under the bones, and I dragged my eyes from the unnerving thing to the other chair.
As fierce as the throne made from skulls was, the second throne was almost scarier.
The whole thing appeared to be made of something that looked like thick barbed wire in the form of rose vines.
Large metal roses with sharp, jagged edges made up the back and the seat of the chair, and I couldn't understand how anyone could ever sit on such a thing without slicing themselves to pieces.
Lethal looking thorns jutted out of the tightly wound vines along the legs and arms and I shook my head with a long breath out.
The two thrones were confusing and brutal to look at and they were making my nerves worse.
I turned instead to the enormous flames licking up around the sides of the throne room.
“What's below us?” I asked Hecate.
“More fire,” she shrugged.
“Is there any way into this room without the magic transporty thing you do?”
“Not that I know of.”
“No, there's no other way. But if you think this is nice, you should see my throne room.”
I turned slowly, already knowing who had spoken. The arrogance was unmistakable.
'Zeus,” I said through gritted teeth. Hecate was bowing her head low and throwing me a pointed glare. But I wasn't going to bow my head. This was my opportunity to ensure I wouldn't be bullied by this jerk.
“You are in the presence of the Lord of the Gods. I suggest you show some deference,” he smirked. He was in the form of the blonde boy from the coffee shop.
“You owe me,” I hissed. “You kidnapped me just to play stupid games with your brother. Until we're even you'll get no deference from me.”
I heard Hecate's intake of breath as Zeus's eyes flashed dark, and his surfer-guy build began to expand before me.
“I do believe that you need to be reminded of who I am, little mortal,” he said, his smile no longer reaching his eyes.
Purple lightning began to fire around him, sizzling into the marble, but I held my ground.
At this point, what did I have to lose? If I really did have to begin these Trials today, I wasn't going to start by being bullied.
I glared at him as the purple lightning flashed closer.
“Won't you be in trouble if you kill the girl you went to so much trouble to find?” I asked in a singsong voice.
“Trouble? Me? Nobody chastises Zeus!” He was three times my size now, approaching the high vaulted ceiling of the throne room, but I stayed put.
My stomach was flipping and flopping as lightning screeched into the stone inches from my leather boots, but I managed to keep the flinches from showing on my face.
“Harm a single hair on her body and we'll find out once and for all which king is strongest,” hissed a voice, at the same time as my skin felt like it was being covered in ice.
A smoky form shimmered into existence beside Zeus and tension literally crackled through the air. Then Zeus slowly began to shrink, the tension easing as his size decreased.
“I enjoy a woman who can stand up for herself,” Zeus said as he reached human size again. “This might end up even more interesting than I had anticipated,” he grinned, a new, and unnerving look gleaming in his eyes.
I ignored him, my gaze fixed on Hades. I wanted to see those eyes again, desperately. They had been the only thing I'd recognized here, the only thing that made some sort of sense since I'd arrived - even if I didn't know what they meant.
But all I could see were the suggestions of features, the hint of a mouth, or the tiniest flash of silver in the dark smoke. Nothing I could hold on to. He was staring back at me though, I could feel that much.
“We haven't been formally introduced,” I said, my mouth dry. “I'm Persephone.”
There they were. For less than a second, and I almost missed it, but those silver orbs definitely flashed into existence.
“You shouldn't be here,” he said, his voice making me think of snakes.
“Yeah. I've heard. But I am, so...”
“You are human, and mortal, so you are highly unlikely to win the Trials. When they are over, you will be returned to New York.”
Relief washed through me, so strong my knees almost buckled. Hades' plan was the same as mine.
“If she survives them,” added Zeus, who was sauntering over to the thrones on the dais. A little wave of heat cut through the cold as tendrils of smoke danced out from Hades form.
“So I was right? You can't kill me? Or hurt me?” I asked Zeus, willing my confidence to build as my palms began to sweat. Sweat was my body's default reaction to any stress. Stupid body.
Zeus looked into my eyes as he waved his hands, and eleven other thrones appeared on the dais, the rose throne vanishing. He sank slowly into his own seat.
“Not during the Trials, no. And anyway, I don't want to hurt you. There are many other things I'd rather do with you...”
A stronger wave of heat blew over me, and I thought I saw Hades' chest solidify under the smoke for a second.
“Right,” I said, flexing my fingers. “Well, in that case, I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that you are a colossal prick.”
Hecate made a slightly strangled coughing sound and I let my smile spread fully across my face. Something fierce leaped in Zeus's eyes, but I wasn't sure it was anger.
“Oh, brother Hades. I see why you liked this one. And I can see why it was so hard to let her go.”
“Enough!” Hades shouted, and the temperature ratcheted up even higher.
“Where are the others?” he hissed, and stalked towards the thrones, his smoky legs seeming to carry more weight than should be possible.
I took a few long, controlled breaths. I'd done it.
I'd stood up for myself. But I wasn't sure I'd made Zeus back off.
In fact I had a horrible feeling I'd just made him more interested in me.
“Oh, I haven't summoned them yet,” smiled the Lord of the Gods, and snapped his fingers.
The room began to morph around me, the ground rumbling and bright flashes of white light disorientating me.
I was moving lower, I was sure, the ground dropping so that I was in a circular pit, stopping when I was about ten feet below the rest of the room.
The dais now wrapped around the edge of the pit, the gods appearing one by one on their thrones and peering down at me.
I turned slowly, seeing three new faces on the opposite side of the pit, and a man in a white toga stood next to a huge iron dish. Hecate was still standing next to me in the pit and I looked at her.
“Those are the judges,” she said, without me having to ask. “And he's the commentator. That's a flame dish, and we use them to send pictures to the rest of Olympus - like your TVs in the mortal world.”
As she spoke, gently flickering orange flames in the iron dish above us roared up, gleaming white hot, then vanished, replaced with an image of Hades' smoky form.
I glanced at where the god really sat, in the throne made from skulls.
A shiver took hold of me. He was staring featurelessly back at me.
“As you all now know, this is the last entrant in the Hades Trials,” he said, and I realized with a jolt that the image in the dish was speaking the same words.
It was just like a camera was on him. “There will be three rounds, each made up of three Trials. The current leader, Minthe, won five tokens. In order to beat her, Persephone,” his slithery voice stumbled slightly at my name and goosebumps covered my skin again, “will need to get at least six to win. Defeat the Spartae skeleton.” He fell silent, then the commentator leaped to life, making me jump.
“Good day, Olympus! So there you have it, from the Lord of the Underworld himself.
Can this last contestant beat the beloved Minthe to a spot on the Rose Throne?
She's starting with an easy test, a Spartae skeleton. As you all know, the Hades Trials test the future queen in the four values that our divine gods hold most dear; Glory, Intelligence, Loyalty and Hospitality. All things the queen of the dead will need in abundance!”
He sounded like a TV presenter from my world, and I listened intently to his over-enthusiastic words. So this was a test of glory?
“Well, I have to say, this newcomer sure looks the part, but who is she? So far we know nothing about her history or powers, but no doubt more will be revealed as we watch her fight!”
I frowned.
“If I was already married to Hades, how come they don't know who I am?” I asked Hecate quietly.
“The gods wiped you from Olympian history. Only they, and a handful of lower gods from the underworld, like me, know you ever existed.”
“Right.” Wiped from history? Didn't that seem a little extreme? What the hell had happened? Curiosity burned deep inside me as I tried to imagine a life in this place, but I gave myself a mental shake. I was moving on, like Athena said. All that mattered was the future.
“I have to go now. Good luck,” Hecate said, a sincere look on her beautiful, angular face.
“Thanks,” I answered her.
Her eyes turned milky white as the air around her rippled, then she was gone. A suffocating sense of how alone I was washed over me immediately.
A rumbling snapped my attention to the walls of the sunken pit I was in, and I watched as patterns began to push their way out of the marble, as though they were being carved before my eyes.
The patterns were of vines, covered in grapes and leaves and twisting together as they spread across the wall until they met the place they'd started.
Something about them was wrong though, and I moved closer to the stone to look. Some of the vines didn't match up properly, like two pieces of a jigsaw that didn't go together.
I reached out to touch one of the areas where the vines cut off bluntly and heard a clattering sound behind me.
“Persephone will have no crowd to cheer her on today, as is the rules for the first Trial. But this is where she will win or lose supporters,” sang the commentator, excitement in his young voice.
“Will she make short work of her first demon? Or will she meet an untimely end and hand Minthe the throne today?”
I glared up at him, until the clattering got louder and dust started to gather in a large ball on the other side of the pit. My stomach tightened, my muscles tensing as the dust swirled faster, hardening into something.
I shifted my weight from foot to foot, my heart beginning to hammer hard in my chest. Movement caught my eye, and I realized more carvings were appearing on the walls, but deeper, and not the same color as the stone.
Weapons. They were weapons.
Twenty feet to my left was a huge sword, held up securely in the marble vines as though birthed from the wall itself.
I couldn't make out what was behind the still swirling mass of dust, but there was an axe on my right, blade gleaming.
I turned quickly, and saw a flail behind me in the white vines.
It had a short wooden handle with a chain coming out of the end, topped with a gleaming silver ball covered in four-inch sharp spikes.
I reached for it, the stone vines crumbling as soon as I touched the weapon, then reforming behind it.
It wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be, but my hands still shook as I hefted it experimentally.
I swung it gently as I turned back to the dust, my relief that I could use it with just one hand vanishing when I took in what was before me.