Chapter 28
He dropped me with a gurgled shout, and I slammed to my knees with a hard crack that I barely registered. I fell forward onto my hands as my stomach began to heave.
I didn't know if I was sick from the pain, or from the fact that I'd just stabbed a man, my head was spinning so fast. I tried to gulp down air between retching, the pain subsiding but my vision still blurry.
Murderer. He had called me a murderer.
I couldn't be and yet... I'd just tried to kill him.
He was going to kill you! The rational voice in my head tried to drown out the guilt and fear, but it couldn't. I couldn't live with myself, I couldn't draw breath every day, knowing I was the reason somebody else wasn't.
Please, please don't let him be dead, I prayed, turning my head towards him slowly. He was on his back, dark red blood pooling under one side of him. I crawled towards him, tears filling my eyes.
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” The words tumbled from my mouth, tasting like the acid that filled it. He groaned and I paused.
Then he moved, rolling onto his uninjured side. He was alive. Thank the gods, he was alive.
I sat back on my heels, letting the tears come. “What did I do?” I croaked. “Tell me, who did I take from you?”
“My wife,” he said, his voice hoarse. “You killed my wife.”
A light flashed so bright that pain seared through my head again, and for a moment I was sure I was going to pass out. I had reached my limit.
“No!” A female voice shouted, and I blinked furiously, trying to clear the tears and blurriness from my eyes. Slowly, the room came back into focus.
Athena was standing before us, in front of smoke Hades and Hecate. Purple energy still rolled off Hecate, and Hades was three times his normal size and his smoke seemed to be vibrating.
“You must be judged, Persephone. The Trial is over,” Athena said, her voice like a balm to my pain, calming my mind. The three judges shimmered gently into existence before me.
“But what about him? You have to help him!” I pointed desperately at the man bleeding on the marble. Hades' smoke flickered and Athena smiled at me and waved her hand towards the man. “His judgment will come too, but for the moment he is safe.”
“Wait, what does that mean?” I asked her, but the commentator's voice boomed across the room.
“Well we really have been treated tonight folks, who would have thought it?” As if in response the phoenix beat its wings, moving higher above everyone. Treated? This shit-show was viewed as a treat? “Now let's see what the judges think of Persephone's controversial actions tonight. Radamanthus?”
“Two tokens,” the chubby judge smiled at me.
“Aeacus?”
'Zero tokens,” Aeacus said, his blue skin reflecting the soft torchlight in the room.
“Minos?” The piercing look the wise man gave me was totally lost on me. I just gaped back at him, doing my best to contain the roiling emotion tearing my insides apart.
“You broke the rules, Persephone. You saved your friend.”
“That's not his fault, please don't punish him,” I whispered.
“We will not. You have shown loyalty. And that is valued higher than hospitality.” He gazed at me a second longer, then spoke.
“Two tokens.”
A box appeared in front of me, the lid open. It was the seed box, and inside were another two pomegranate seeds. I stared down at them, then back up at the judges.
How could they not see that these didn't matter? I'd just stabbed a man who had accused me of murdering his wife, and these maniacs were handing out fucking pomegranate seeds?
“Give me my memories back,” I said, my voice louder and clearer than I expected.
Minos gave me a small smile, and the three judges faded away.
“There you have it folks! It's the end of Round One of the Hades Trials and Persephone is not only still alive, but she has more tokens than the current leader did at the end of her first round.
Who would have guessed! We'll be visiting a new realm for Round Two, and I know you're going to love it!” The commentator vanished and Athena stepped forward.
“Hades, you may deal with your intruder.”
“Wait—” I started to say, but suddenly the temperature plummeted and I was skidding across the room on my knees, along with everything else in Hades' path.
Pure terror gripped me as swirling smoke moved towards the injured man. Screaming started in the back of mind and the now familiar smell of blood filled my nostrils, churning my already empty stomach.
“Stop!” I tried to cry the word but nothing came out. I was pinned against the wall of the ballroom, and tears spilled from my eyes as Hades reached the bleeding man.
With a hiss, he threw his smoky arms in the air, and the man flew up, blood spraying from his wound. My skin was so cold I could hardly feel it, and I was vaguely aware that everyone else in the room was shrinking away, melting into the walls as best they could. Everyone except Hecate.
“Hades—” she called, but the King of the Underworld roared, and the man screamed.
“You dare enter my realm, and try to kill her?” His voice carried so much power, so much terror, so much danger, that my limbs collapsed.
“You dare to try to take her from me?” The man whimpered as he hovered in the air, and black spots danced in front of my eyes as the screaming in my head grew louder, and flames began to obscure my vision.
“Please,” I said, but the word didn't make a sound.
There was a cracking noise, and the world swam as the man shrieked in pain.
His arms and legs went completely taut, then began to pull away from his torso.
Nausea rolled through me, followed swiftly by dizziness so intense my head lolled to one side.
“Hades, stop!” It was Hecate's voice, but I couldn't see her any more. I could only see the man I'd almost killed, and fire.
“She deserves to die,” croaked the man's hoarse voice, and black erupted through the room.
In slow motion, I watched as the man's body exploded, his head and limbs flying through the air, blood spraying the very solid form of Hades.
But it wasn't the Hades I'd thrown myself at that evening.
This... this was something that would haunt my nightmares as long as I lived.
Massive and hulking, the monster before me had onyx, soulless eyes, and as I stared, blue waves of light rolled off his enormous armor-covered body, solidifying on the ground as corpses.
Corpses that were burning. Corpses that were screaming.
I couldn't breathe. I didn't deserve to breathe. Fear like I'd never, ever known was crushing me to death, and I deserved it. I had to die.
“Well, I'd hoped to see you here.”
I blinked as I looked around the garden, the Atlas fountain trickling pleasantly before me, and birdsong warming my cold skin.
“I thought I only came here when I was asleep?” I asked mildly. It was impossible to be anything but mild in this place.
“Unconscious counts as well, my dear.” I tilted my head, then dropped to my knees and ran my fingers around a budding young crocus. “You do not have long before Hades' rage kills you, Persephone. There is only one way you may survive.”
“Did I kill that man's wife?,” I asked the voice.
“Eat the seeds, Persephone.”
A jolt like lightning shot through my body and I opened my eyes with a jerk. I was back in the ballroom, surrounded by blood and fire and bodies. Screaming so loud it drowned out my own thoughts swamped my mind, and all I could see through my stinging eyes was death.
“Persephone!” shouted a voice. “Hades, you're going to kill her!”
I forced my eyes closed, so I didn't have to look at the bodies around me. Was I a murderer? I couldn't organize the thoughts, couldn't make sense of anything through my paralyzed fear.
Eat the seeds.
Would eating the seeds make this stop? I opened my streaming eyes a crack, and fumbled at the floor, recoiling as I knocked the little wooden box skidding through slick blood.
Eat the seeds.
I snatched at the box, my fingers numb and shaking as the screaming got so loud I thought my head would explode. Tipping the lid open with a snap, I scooped up a pomegranate seed, and clumsily forced my hand to my lips.
Eat the seeds.
The sharpness made me gag, but I closed my eyes and took a breath through my nose, the metallic scent of blood almost making me retch again. With an effort, I swallowed the tiny seed.
The fear receded instantly, my body going completely limp as I collapsed to the cold floor. The screaming faded away, replaced by Hecate's voice, loud and shrill.
“Hades, you've fucking killed her, stop! You have to stop.”
An unbelievably peaceful calm spread through me, and I felt all of my exhausted muscles relax. This was it. This was the end. And it was surprisingly more comfortable than I thought it would be.
Something fluttered in my stomach. Then it fluttered up to my chest. I felt my body jerk as my heart responded to it. Once. Twice. A third time.
Then light, green and vibrant filled my vision and something incredible flooded through my veins, sending pulsing energy to every part of my failing body. Something rich and strong and fierce. Something alien and familiar all at once.
It was power. I had my power back.
To be continued