Chapter 17 Persephone
Persephone
It was a good thing, really, that Hades had left before anything had happened, I thought, sending a little green vine from my palm into the soil of the flower bed.
A delicious energy hummed through me, making my skin tingle. An image of Hades, eyes dark and deep with lust as he looked up at me from between my legs, flashed into my mind.
I felt a surge of power from the vine and gaped as a shoot leaped up in front of me. I pulled the vine back and the pale green shoot slowed to a stop.
“I'm gonna guess that was a result of you thinking about loverboy,” said Skop. I turned to him, too surprised to argue. He shook his little dog head, and resumed digging in the dirt. For a dog that wasn't really a dog, he sure loved to dig.
“Knock knock,” sang Hecate's voice from the doorway of the conservatory. I stood up quickly.
“Hi,” I called, and turned to see her sauntering between the flowerbeds towards me.
“It doesn't look much more green in here yet,” she said as she looked about herself.
“Well, I think I just found out how to make things grow quicker,” I said, gesturing to the shoot.
“Ooh, what is it?”
“A sweet pea.”
“Nice. The Trial announcement is going to be made over the flame dishes tonight, so no showy ceremonies or dicking around.” I tried to stop my face from falling, but must have failed because Hecate frowned at me. “I thought you'd be pleased? You always say you hate all that shit.”
But now I wouldn't be able to see him again tonight.
“Oh, yeah, I just...” I scrabbled for something to say, but Hecate looked sharply at Skop, then back at me, a slow smile spreading across her face.
“You were hoping to see Hades tonight,” she said, glee in her voice.
“Skop! You snitch!”
“I told her nothing,” he said, without looking at me.
“Bullshit.”
“Well, she's practically his best friend. She'll know soon anyway that you two are hooking up.”
“We're not hooking up!”
“Then why does he hide you or me in smoke literally every time he's with you?”
“Privacy from perverted gnomes,” I said, my face burning.
“Cos you're banging.”
“We are not banging!” My protest was so enthusiastic that I said the words out loud by accident and Hecate gave a bark of laughter.
“You and I, dear Persy, need to have a catch up. With wine. How about we watch the trial announcement at my place tonight, and have a few drinks? A girls’ night.”
“That sounds awesome,” I said, surprised by how much I meant it. That really did sound like exactly what I needed. An evening with Hecate, and no Hades anywhere. A chance to clear my head.
***
Hecate's rooms were significantly nicer than mine, though not to my taste.
She had to flash me there, because I wasn't allowed anywhere other than the conservatory and the training room, and we arrived in a large sitting room.
Rocky walls and the high ceiling glowing with dusky daylight provided illumination, but the room had a dark, elegant feel to it.
The floor was covered in deep plush carpet in a dark grey and two black gothic style couches with ornate detailing over the curved wooden frames dominated the room.
The wall on my right was made up of a giant black bookcase, full to the brim with leather-bound volumes.
The opposite wall had a long counter running along it, made of a dark wood and similarly gothic in style, and abstract geometric art in hundreds of shades of blue hung on the wall above it.
The counter was covered in exotic looking objects, and I was half way to picking up a glowing skull before Hecate stopped me.
“Do not touch that,” she said sharply, and I froze.
“OK. Why not?”
“You'll wake up Kako. And I am not dealing with his shit tonight.”
“Kako?”
“The evil spirit that lives in that skull.”
“Riiiight,” I said, staring at the skull. “Of course there's an evil spirit living in your sitting room.”
“Well, I am the goddess of ghosts,” she shrugged, and bent to open one of the many cupboards under the counter.
“Is there anything else I shouldn't touch?” I asked, looking along the row of shiny, glowing items.
There was a vial that had something neon orange in it, a curved blade with tiny swirls etched all over it, a large pearl that shimmered in the low light coming from the wall behind it, and many other things besides. I wanted to touch it all.
“Everything. Leave it all alone.”
I pulled a face but backed away from the counter.
The back wall of the room was missing, a large archway in its place, and I could see a massive four poster bed draped with black sheer material in the room beyond.
A memory of the bed I'd seen Hades and I in popped into my head and I turned away quickly, sitting down on one of the couches.
“So, where's your flame dish?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah,” she said, straightening and setting two glasses on the counter. Her eyes turned white as she glowed blue, then a massive iron dish on a short stand appeared in front of the couch. A gentle orange flame flickered to life in the center. I peered at it.
“So these are like TVs? Do they always have something showing?”
“You can use them to talk to each other, like your video phones, or the gods can broadcast on them. That's it.”
“And people in Olympus have been watching me in the Trials so far in these?”
“Yup.”
“Mental,” I breathed.
“So are your video phones. Athena is so proud of your current civilization. You've got pretty far pretty quickly.”
“Huh,” I said. I couldn't think about my world as an experiment of a bored god. It made my head hurt too much, so I changed the subject.
“What are we drinking?”
“My specialty cocktail,” she said. “But I'm missing something. Wait here. And don't touch anything!”
Hecate flashed out of the room and Skop immediately jumped onto the couch with me.
“Touch the skull! Please, please touch the skull!” His tail was wagging at a million miles an hour as he looked pleadingly at me.
“No! Not a chance,” I told him, avoiding looking at it. I wanted to touch it very much.
“You're so boring,” he humphed, and sat down.
“You know, Skop, of the many words I could use to describe myself right now, boring isn't one of them. I have magic sex power for fuck’s sake.”
“What?”
“Yeah.”
“I want magic sex power,” he said.
“I thought you were already a god in bed.”
His tail wagged.
“I sure am.”
Hecate flashed back into the room holding a large metal jug before he could elaborate, thankfully.
“How come you couldn't just conjure whatever that is?”
“I can conjure wine, not this,” she said, a wicked edge to her voice. I raised my eyebrows as she poured something lime green from the jug into two glasses. I swear there was smoke coming from it.
“Are you sure you've made this before?” I asked tentatively.
“Yup. And now you have your power back, you can drink it.” She added more things, with her back to me so I couldn't see, then strode over to the couch and handed me the cocktail. It was still green, but it smelled like cherries.
“What's it called?”
“Spartan spirit.”
“Well, cheers,” I said, clinking my glass against hers then taking a sip. There was an explosion of fruit in my mouth, bitter cherry and sour blackberry and sweet strawberries all at once, tingling across my tongue. “This is amazing!”
“I know,” she said, taking a long sip of her own as she sat beside me. “Oooh, look!” I raised my eyes from my new favorite drink, to see the flames in the fire dish leaping high and burning white hot. They faded as a crystal clear image of the commentator appeared in the center of the dish.
“Good evening Olympus!”
“Urgh, I hate him,” I muttered.
“Yeah, he's fucking irritating,” agreed Hecate.
“I'm sure you're all dying to know what our little Persephone is going to be facing next!” Our little Persephone?
Gods, I wanted to smack him in the face.
“She has mostly faced tests of glory or hospitality so far.” Apprehension skittered through my belly.
The other two values were intelligence and loyalty.
“Well, the wait is over! Tomorrow afternoon she will be facing her first intelligence Trial!”
“Does that mean no nearly dying?” I asked, turning to Hecate. She screwed her face up apologetically.
“Probably not, no.”
“Here is your host to tell you more,” the commentator said, and faded from view.
My breath caught as the black smoke of Hades shimmered into existence, his throne room visible behind him.
It was strange now to see him made of smoke, translucent and rippling, when I knew what perfection lay underneath.
“As Queen of the Underworld, Persephone would be expected to abide in my realm,” he said and his voice was tight and cold.
A shiver rippled over me. “We must therefore test her ability to survive in dangerous environments. She will be trapped in a deadly part of Virgo and must escape.” He made a small hissing sound, then vanished.
I looked at Hecate, nerves crackling.
“Where will they trap me?”
“I don't know, but he sounded seriously pissed. There is no way this was his idea.” Hecate looked worried. “This is Zeus' doing, he's forcing Hades to expose more of his realm to the world. Gods that guy is a dick.”
I took a long swig of my drink and nodded.
“Yeah. He really is.”
Neither of us spoke for a long few minutes, then I cleared my throat.
“I probably shouldn't drink too much, if I have to compete tomorrow.”
Hecate snorted.
“You have healing power now, you won't get a hangover.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“No more hangovers? Ever?”
“Uhuh.”
“How the hell is everyone here not permanently drunk?”
“Some are, to be fair. Me included.” I laughed and had another big gulp of my spartan spirit, just because I could. “If they're going to trap you somewhere, we should probably try to work out what you might need to take with you. Are you claustrophobic?”
“No more than the next person,” I said, thinking. “Like if you trap me in a burning room, I'll panic.” I smiled, but Hecate didn't. “Oh. Are they going to trap me in a burning room?”
“I'm not going to lie to you, Persy, quite a lot of the Underworld is made up of burning rooms.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. Take Faesforos, and use your vines. If it's an intelligence test then you'll need to solve some sort of puzzle or answer a riddle to get out.”
I groaned.
“If it's like the ball and it's all gods and stuff, I won't be able to do it.”
“Honestly, it could be anything.”
“Should we go over some basic god stuff now, just in case?” I asked her.
She raised one eyebrow at me doubtfully.
“Persy, do you have any idea how long it takes to learn the history of the gods? There are literally whole schools here to teach that.”
“Oh.” I thought about that. Schools in Olympus must be pretty different to the hell-hole I'd attended. “What was your school like?” I asked her.
“I didn't go to school. I'm a Titan.”
I frowned.
“So?”
“So, up until recently, Zeus wouldn't let Titans be trained in the academies. Athena has since convinced him that us dangerous Titan offspring are safer under their supervision, but he still hates us. As do a lot of Olympus.”
“Why? I mean, I know about the war and stuff, but that was forever ago wasn't it?”
“Titans are strong. They are the original gods. So when they turn nasty, they're like, seriously nasty. And that scares people.”
“Aren't all the really bad ones in Tartarus though?”
“Yeah, and there hasn't been a genocidal Titan in thousands of years, but it doesn't stop stories being told to fuel the fear.” Her eyes were tight and frustrated, and I thought about what Hades had said. “Hecate is much stronger than she lets on.”
“Do you hide your power so that people don't fear you?” I asked hesitantly. Her eyes locked on mine, and it took her a while to answer.
“I used to, yes. But over the time I've lived here with Hades I've come to trust him. And I've built up a reputation in Virgo. People don't fuck with me anymore.”
Any more? Was Hecate bullied too? The way Eris had spoken to her at the ball, mocking her Titan heritage, flashed into my memory. How in the hell could Hades and Hecate, two of the most badass people I'd ever met have been victims of bullying?
Determination filled me, sending strength and courage coursing through my veins.
If they had overcome their past and their enemies, and become as powerful as they had, then so could I.
And I bet they had both put up with worse than Ted Hammond's groping hands and taunting jibes.
Have they not gone too far though? The doubt constantly present inside me forced the question to the surface, but I shoved it back down again.
“I'm starving. What are we eating?”