Chapter 25
Go with your instincts, Persephone. The pretty young woman didn't match something broken, surely. But the rude, abrasive woman I could definitely see as broken somehow.
With a massive breath, I opened my eyes and held out the broken bowl piece to big-boobs. The scowl on her face as she took it made me sag in relief. If she was scowling then I'd got it right. I turned and passed the last piece to the other lady and she grinned.
“Correct! Eris, goddess of discord, and Hebe, goddess of youth!”
Each of the gods held out their piece in turn, and I watched as they glowed a faint purple, then left their owners outstretched hands and floated towards the center of the table.
With a little burst of light they rejoined, but this time the golden orb had the three rings carved around it.
I stood up and reached forward, plucking the key from where it was hovering, and hurried towards the hourglass.
The sand had reached the woman's shoulders and was only inches from her chin.
I dropped into a crouch as soon as I reached the hourglass, looking for the hole to put the key in, expecting more inscriptions. But there were none. I screwed my face up, searching for the place to put the orb.
“Where do I put the key?” I asked aloud, panic starting to flood me as I stood up, scanning the frame of the hourglass desperately. There were no holes, no inscriptions, nothing.
Silence met my question and my eyes darted to the woman's face. The sand was moving past her chin, and would cover her mouth in seconds.
“Where does it go?” I shouted, my stomach tensing so hard it hurt as I started to run my hand over the metal.
As my fingertips reached across the top of the hourglass they felt hot and I paused my frantic movements, feeling more carefully.
I could only just reach the top, and there was no way I could see what was up there, but I was sure I could feel a channel carved along the edge of the metal.
With a last look at the woman's face as the sand covered her bottom lip, I reached up and pushed the key onto the top of the hourglass.
I held my breath as I heard the sound of metal on metal, sure it was the sound of the ball rolling.
Then there was a clunking sound, and the sand in the timer began to rush upwards all at once.
For a second I thought the woman would suffocate from all the sand moving in the opposite direction, but before I could do anything, the bottom half of the hourglass was clear.
My heart felt like it was stuck in my throat as I watched her chest, relief making my knees feel weak as I finally saw it move. She was breathing.
A smattering of applause filled the room, and I heard Hecate give a loud whoop. What the fuck was wrong with these people? I clenched my fists at my sides, trying to rein in my emotions.
A person just nearly died and they were clapping like they were watching tennis or something? Even Hecate, my only friend here, didn't seem to grasp how messed up this was. You're in another world now. Just get on with it, and get home.
I turned, knowing the smile I'd fixed on my face must look more like a grimace, but unable to conjure up anything better.
“This is bullshit,” I said through gritted teeth, hardly moving my smiling lips but needing to say the words out loud. I felt a bit better.
“I know it is. But you're doing a good job,” said a voice in my head, and my smile slipped.
“Hades?” I projected the thought at him, using the image of his smoky form to send the word.
“Yes.”
“Where are you?” People were tucking into huge bowls of frozen yogurt, and none of them were looking at me anymore.
“Watching.”
“Are you coming back?”
“Yes.”
“You... you helped me with the other Trials.”
“Yes. Eat your dessert.”
I let out a long breath, and walked slowly back to the table.
“Nice job, Persephone,” beamed Eros.
“Thank you,” I said absently.
“Oooh, someone isn't happy with this set up,” said Eris, her eyes flashing behind her mask. “What's wrong, perfect Persephone?”
“Seriously Eris, give it rest,” said Hecate, rolling her eyes as she spooned yogurt into her mouth. “Persy, this stuff is awesome, I can see why you miss American food.”
“It is very delicious,” said the woman I now knew to be Hebe. I turned to her, deliberately ignoring the goddess of discord.
“I wonder if you could tell me, Hebe, how does the fountain represent you?” I asked her, politely.
“Oh, it's the fountain of youth,” she said cheerfully. “A little obscure perhaps, but I'm glad you worked it out.”
“Thank you,” I said, and dipped my spoon un-enthusiastically into my own yogurt.
My appetite had vanished. “I didn't, really.
I just knew you weren't the broken one.” There was a collective intake of breath, and I looked up, directly at Eris.
Her expression was dark, her lips twisting in a snarl and venom in her glare.
A week ago a look like that would have terrified me. A week ago I would have been groveling and apologizing for what I'd said. Hell, a week ago, I wouldn't have fucking said it.
But I was done.
I was angry and scared and sick of being used as a twisted puppet for the entertainment of others, and the only person I could take it out on right now was the bully across the table. So I was going to.
“You're right, I am broken,” Eris said, her voice almost a purr. “You've no idea how broken I am. And how much I enjoy breaking others.”
“I do have an idea,” I told her. “I've met plenty of people like you. Hell, I've met quite a few since coming here.”
“Oh naive little Persy. I'm afraid you're wrong. You haven't met anybody as fucked up as me yet. With one exception that is, but you're competing to marry him. So what does that make you?”
Defensiveness sparked in me out of nowhere. Hades wasn't a bully. He may be pretty scary, but he wasn't like her, or Minthe, or Erebus, or Zeus. I knew he wasn't.
I opened my mouth to respond, but common sense kicked in just in time.
I was the hostess of the ball. And Eris was smart as she seemed cruel. I knew what she was trying to do, and I wasn't going to let her bait me into making a scene at my own party. I wasn't going to let her win.
“That makes me a fucking mystery,” I smiled at her, and stood up, pushing my chair back. The whole room turned to me and I raised my glass before Eris could say another word.
“Time for dancing!” I announced loudly, and this time I got an actual cheer, instead of the pathetic applause when I'd saved two people's lives. I needed air, but this stupid underground place had nowhere to go, nowhere to breathe.
Claustrophobia began to press in on me, and the rules made clear at the beginning of the evening echoed in my head. “You may not leave the ball.”
I was stuck here, with all these freaking lunatics. My heart began to skitter in my chest, my breathing too shallow. Stay calm, don't freak out, I instructed myself, my eyes darting around the room.
There must be a quiet corner I could hide in somewhere. I walked towards the far wall, the one opposite the hourglasses, smiling at everyone I passed as sweat began to trickle down my spine, my anxiety ratcheting higher.
I only stopped when I found an area where the columns seemed closer together, and for a merciful moment, I couldn't see anybody.
I leaned gratefully against the cool marble of the nearest column, taking a long, slow breath.
I probably only had minutes before somebody showed up, but I would take whatever I could get.
I just needed a couple minutes to get my shit together, that was all.
If I didn't think too much about the fact that I was trapped underground with a load of well-dressed murderers, then I was OK. But as soon as the knowledge that I couldn't leave worked its way through any positive thoughts I tried to fill my head with, the room seemed to close in around me again.
If I was at home and my surroundings got overwhelming I would do what anyone would do - go outside. Get some air. Air. Just a few breaths of cold air to clear my head. But even something that simple was unattainable.
“Stupid, stupid place,” I hissed aloud. “How the fuck does anywhere not have an outside?”
“I told you, there is an outside. You've been out in it.”
Hades’ voice made me jump, and for a split second I thought it was in my head, but then dark smoke rippled in front of me.
“Yeah, on a fucking invisible bridge! What kind of asshole invents one of those? And it's shitty outside, there isn't anything growing, or even a breeze!” I barked the words before he could materialize fully, feeling braver when I couldn't properly see him.
“We don't need a breeze,” Hades replied eventually, a touch of defensiveness to his tone as the smoke stopped rippling, his humanoid form complete. There was no slithering sound to his voice.
“Well I do,” I muttered, casting my eyes down and staring angrily at the floor. A pulsing beat had begun, the melodic orchestra replaced by music far more reminiscent of my home world.
“You are upset?” Hades asked me eventually.
“Yeah. Yeah, I'm upset.”
“Why? You are doing well.” I looked up, searching the smoke for his eyes, as hot tears began to burn the back of mine. Frustration was causing them, and I cursed my body. Tears wouldn't help me, just make me look more weak.
“Who is she?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Who?”
I gaped at him.
“Who? Who the fuck do you think? The woman you all nearly killed for entertainment!”
He turned, looking towards the hourglass.
“I don't know,” he said eventually. My mouth fell open, my stomach roiling.
“You don't know? Would you have cared if she had died?”
“No. I do not know her.”
I shook my head, the last of any tolerance I had for this place fleeing me.
“What is wrong with you people? How can you be so self important, so callous, so.... murderous?”
The smoke flickered, and I saw a flash of silver. When he spoke, the iciness was back, and images of snakes poured into my head, my skin crawling.
“You are speaking to the King of the Underworld.
Lord of the dead. Ancient and all-powerful and witness to deeds you can't even imagine.” I shrank back against the column involuntarily as the smoky form grew.
“If you had lived through what I have, if you had seen the things my fellow gods have done to each other, have done to those around them... You would hold a different opinion.”
I stared at him. He was blaming the other gods?
“So you aren't as barbaric as them?” I whispered.
“Oh yes, Persephone. Yes I am. In fact, I'm worse than most of them.” Eris's words flicked into my head. “You haven't met anybody as fucked up as me yet. With one exception that is, but you're competing to marry him.”
“Why? Do you... enjoy death?” I barely got the words out. I knew I didn't want to hear the answer. Hades flashed solid so quickly my brain hardly registered it.
“I never asked for this role. But it is mine. And I will fulfill it.” What did that mean?
“That's not an answer.” There was a long pause, and I swear he must have been able to hear my pounding heart over the music.
“No,” he said eventually, his voice quiet and the anger lessened. “I do not enjoy death. But it is my world. It is who I have had to become. If I were as sensitive to it as you humans, I would be a very poor king indeed.”
I frowned, straightening against the column slightly.
“You humans...” I repeated. “But I wasn't human before.” The claustrophobia pressed in on me again, that feeling of being separated from a part of my own self building inside me. “I can't have been as indifferent to death as you are. I can't have been.”
I could hear the pleading tone to my voice, and I realized at that moment what I was so afraid of, what I feared even more than him and this world.
What if I was once like these people?
This is where I was from, this man was once my husband. Did I ever find entertainment in people's suffering? I felt sick as I stared into Hades' face, and a single hot tear leaked from my eye, sliding down my cheek.
Suddenly, the smoke leaped out from where he was standing, and the next thing I knew I was in a black, hazy bubble. I looked around myself quickly, aware that I could no longer hear the music, or anything else, nor could I see beyond the thick smoke barrier surrounding us.
“What—” I started but my words fell away as I laid eyes on Hades. It was him. The real him, under the smoke. My breath caught and desperation filled me as I stared at his face, into his swirling silver eyes. Home. He was home. He was mine.
I shook my head, trying to clear the words ricocheting around my brain.
“You were never cruel, Persephone. You were fair and kind and I...” he trailed off, hopeless sadness pouring from his beautiful face.
I stepped towards him before I could help myself, and he lifted his hand to my cheek. Ever so slowly, he brushed his thumb across my skin, wiping away my solitary tear. Electricity shot through my body at his touch.
His skin was warm, and for some reason I had expected him to be cold. Frustration welled inside me again. I knew so little, and I needed more.
“I hate this place,” I whispered and he flinched. “Please, please make me understand how this was once my home. Because I know it was. I know you were.”
“It wasn't always like this. It was before you came, and it was again after you left. But when you were here...” His eyes bore into mine.
“You brought light, and life, to a place where I thought none could exist.” He spoke hoarsely, and his words crashed through all the mental armor I'd built up since coming to Olympus.
He loved me. I could see it in his face, hear it in his broken voice, feel it in his electrifying touch. All this time, all those years alone in New York, and someone, somewhere, loved me this much. And I never knew.