Chapter 14 Persephone
Persephone
“Ihonestly don't know why it's taken you this long,” said Hecate, staring at the pomegranate seed in my hand. When she had knocked on my door the following morning, I had asked her to stay with me while I ate the next seed. Just in case.
“I told you, I didn't want to overwhelm myself,” I told her.
She rolled her eyes at me.
“Fine, whatever. Just eat the seed.”
“And you'll stop my power doing anything crazy? If I lose control?” I asked her, peering seriously into her face.
“Yes, yes, I already told you, I will make sure you don't do anything crazy.”
“Good.”
I took a deep breath, and looked at the little seed. The vines had helped me on Aquarius, without them I probably would have died. And the feeling when they had turned green in the conservatory...
If I could be taught how to use my powers properly, and safely, then they might be what I needed to survive the next five Trials. And find the river Lethe and get my memories back.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I popped the seed into my mouth. Last time, I'd been too out of it, too desperate and in pain to notice the taste, but this time... It was sharp and sweet and completely delicious.
“Mmmm,” I mumbled.
“Feel any different? Like you wanna blow some shit up?” Hecate's eyes were alive with excitement.
I swallowed.
“No.”
Apart from a very slight tingle, I felt nothing. Hecate's face fell.
“Oh. How disappointing.”
“I worry about you,” I told her.
“Probably wise.”
I sighed and looked around my bedroom, restless and nervous. I hadn't really expected a burst of power on eating the second seed, but I now felt relieved and frustrated in equal parts.
“I'm sick of this room, can we go somewhere else? How about a tour of the Underworld?”
“No-can-do, I'm afraid.”
“Why not? If I'm competing to live here, I should probably know more about it.”
“I agree, but you're not allowed out until Round Three.”
I scowled.
“Of course I'm not. In that case I'm going to the conservatory.”
“OK. But don't forget the next Trial is being announced this evening.”
“How the hell am I going to forget that?” I said, opening my bedroom door and frowning at her, but she was looking down at my feet. I followed her gaze.
Ice cold dread slid down my spine as I stared at a child's doll on the floor, just outside my door. It was charred and burned, and a note was pinned to its front, the word written on it clear as day. “Murderer.”
Hecate was next to me in a flash, her eyes turning white as she looked at the doll. I felt my heart begin to pound, fear and revulsion crawling up my throat.
“It's not magic, or dangerous,” she said as Skop appeared on my other side.
“It's... It's a message,” I whispered.
“It's fucked up,” said Skop, his usually playful voice hard.
“Did I kill a child?” I looked up at Hecate, unable to keep the hot tears from burning the back of my eyes. “Please, please tell me I didn't kill a child.”
The thought was utterly unbearable, my head spinning as I formed the plea.
“Of course you didn't. Someone is trying to scare you, that's all,” Hecate answered, her face more angry than I'd ever seen it.
“Who?”
“I don't know. But Hades needs to know about this. Stay in your room,” she said, and reached down for the doll. Images flashed into my mind as I stared at it. Images from dreams I'd had all my life. Bodies burning around me, men, women and children alike.
“Skop, guard this door,” Hecate said, then slammed the door shut and vanished, taking the awful burned doll with her.
“What if I deserve this? What if I am a murderer?”
“Persy, I haven't known you very long, but I seriously doubt that,” said Skop.
“You don't remember me from before though. When I was married to a god who rips people apart, and spent time with twisted lunatics who torture and play with folk for fun. They tried to drown you in fucking sand, for entertainment! And I used to be one of them!”
Tears were streaming down my face as my voice rose, and Skop finally looked from the closed door to me.
“Olympus is dangerous. Anyone born here accepts that. If you play with fire, you'll get burned. I knew the risk I was taking when I accepted the job of guarding you. And you need to accept that who you used to be isn't who you are now. Move on.”
“How can I move on when it's on my fucking doorstep?” A black vine burst from my palm, smashing into the aforementioned door with the power of a freight train. The wood splintered as I screamed, and Skop bounded out of the way as the vine whipped back towards us.
A wall of black smoke shot up in front of me, the vine slowing abruptly, like it was moving through treacle.
“Send the vine away, Persephone,” rang out Hades’ voice. The anger and fear inside me had built up too much momentum now though, and I was no longer thinking clearly.
“Don't tell me what to do!” I roared, and pulled on the vine. The smoke held it, and a bolt of rage made me yank harder. “Stop fucking toying with me! All of you!”
Hades stepped through the smoke, and locked his eyes on mine. The rage inside me stuttered and he closed his hand slowly around my trapped vine.
Black lines instantly began to spread from the vine across his skin, snaking around his fingers, then the rest of his hand. I watched, open-mouthed, as they flowered in front of me, tiny black leaves forming like tattoos, now disappearing under the cuff of his shirt.
A new energy began to hum through me, dark and strong and deliciously powerful.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, the feeling exquisite, but some part of me knowing it was wrong.
“I'm doing nothing. You are doing this.” With his other hand he reached up and deftly unbuttoned his shirt. It fell open, revealing the black vines now spreading across his chest, coiling around his hard muscles. “When they reach my heart, they'll try to take my power.”
I recoiled at his words, and the vine vanished from my palm instantly. The blissful, powerful feeling ebbed away fast, the tattoo snaking across Hades' body fading to nothing just as quickly.
“Take your power?” My breathing was shallow, and I was already dizzy.
“Yes. You would never be able to; I am too strong and my power is too well guarded.”
“Is that what that feeling was? Your power?”
“My defensive power, yes. You've exerted yourself again, you need to sit.”
I wanted to argue, but my legs felt weak. I'd passed out from using my powers twice before, and I wasn't stupid enough to deny his words.
I stumbled backward until I felt my bed behind me, and sat. Hades flicked his hand without his gaze leaving my face, and a new door appeared behind him, in place of the shattered one.
“Why did my vine try to steal your power?”
“All gods have weapons, Persephone. That is yours.” He approached me slowly, then waved his wrist again, a goblet appearing in his hand. He offered it to me and I took it with shaking hands. Without even looking inside it, I gulped it down, the sluggishness slowly receding as I tasted wine.
Hades sat down on the bed beside me. “We all have different types of power. Your black vines are aggressive. But you have other powers too. Like the green vines, that give life to things that grow.”
I stared at him, tangled emotions still bubbling inside me.
“The blue light around you when you killed that man. The one that turned into corpses...” He nodded.
“That is my aggressive power. I draw it from the dead.”
I shuddered. It sounded like something from a horror film.
“Who left that doll on my doorstep?”
“I don't know yet. But I will find out.” His jaw was tense and his eyes glittered with ferocity.
“Is the note on it true? Was I a murderer?”
“No, Persephone.”
“But I stabbed that man.”
“He was choking the life from you. Anyone in this world would have reacted as you did, and anyone in your world too.”
“Not if they deserved to die.”
Heat seared around me, Hades’ eyes turning from silver to electric blue.
“Don't you dare say that, Persephone. That piece of shit who tried to kill you, and his friends, are enemies of mine, not yours. Once again, you are being targeted as a result of my misdeeds. I am sorry.”
Hope blossomed through me at his words. Could that be true? I drained the rest of the wine, trying to order my chaotic thoughts and slow my racing pulse.
Hades would find whoever had left the doll. And the voice in the garden had given me a somewhat vague plan, but a plan nonetheless, to get my memories back.
Right now, my most pressing issue was these damned vines.
“You said you would teach me to use my magic,” I said, handing him back the goblet. His eyes melted back to silver, the temperature dropping again.
“Yes. And I will teach you to fight. Starting now.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”