Chapter 31
Persephone
Ishouldn't be here. This wasn't part of the test, it couldn't be.
Something somewhere had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
I stayed where I was crouched, my eyes fixed on the grim burning wheel above me, my mind racing as fast as my out-of-control heart. I needed to get out of here.
I was trapped in an endless pit of torture, and I needed to get the fuck out of here.
But there were no exits, no pathways, no freaking light. I was so far out of my depth I was drowning.
“Hades,” I whispered, his name coming to my lips unbidden. This was his realm, he was in charge. Surely he would find me here.
“Oh come now, don't be sad. We'll find plenty of people for you to play with down here, fledgling goddess,” a rich female voice echoed from the darkness.
“Who's there?” I called, unable to keep the wobble of fear from my voice.
“My name is Campe, and I guard Tartarus,” she answered, and the man on the flaming wheel soared backwards as a creature I could never have even come close to imagining slithered into the space in front of me.
At least five times my size, she had the body and head of the most beautiful woman, full round breasts and a heart-shaped face housing deep brown eyes and voluptuous lips.
But from the waist down she was made of snake. Her enormous lower half was that of a coiled serpent, and as the end of her tail flicked up I saw that it was itself made up of what looked like a hundred smaller snakes.
As I dragged my eyes back to her body my gaze was drawn to what was around her neck. It was the most hideous necklace I'd ever seen, each charm lining the golden rope the head of a creature.
“You are admiring my jewelry? It is made of the heads of the fifty most dangerous creatures in Olympus,” she purred. I blinked as I took in the heads, a lion, a bear, a dragon, and many other things I'd never ever seen, and hoped I never would.
“Why am I here?” I choked out.
“That's not my business,” she said, staring down at me. “But we rarely get such fresh blood down here these days. You will be a delight to the residents.”
“Residents?”
“Oh yes. You've already met Ixion up here,” she gestured to the man on the flaming wheel, “and poor Tantalus, who fed his son to the gods. But the Titans rule Tartarus. They are deep enough in the pit that they have not yet sensed you, but they will soon enough.”
The fear inside me was so strong that it had forced my tears and panic away entirely. I had reached the point bang in the middle of the crippling terror Hades caused that made me pass out, and the indecisive panic that burgeoning fear instilled.
This was fight or flight, and there was nowhere to run.
I forced myself to my feet.
“I am a member of the Underworld palace,” I lied, with as much authority as my shaking body could muster. “I demand you let me out. Now.”
Campe chuckled softly, the flames of the river dancing in time to the sound.
“A member of the palace? Those vines of yours certainly carry darkness, but you are not royalty.”
“I was,” I said, fiercely. “And Hades will be pissed if you don't let me go.”
“Hades doesn't visit with us anymore,” she said, touching one hand to her cheek in a kind of mock sadness. “Such a shame. I would be delighted if your presence brought him to us once more.”
So would I. In fact, I was banking on it.
“Why not?” I asked, deciding that keeping her talking was the best thing to do. It would buy time for Hades to find me. Please, please let him be coming to find me.
“He found himself a wife,” Campe said, bending at her huge waist and moving her beautiful face closer to me. The bloody head of a horned lizard bounced against her sternum. “She became more appealing to him than torture.”
“I can't think why,” I whispered, staring at her morbid necklace.
“What is your name, baby goddess? It is uncommon to come into your powers so old, and you are clearly untrained.”
I scowled up at her. Would she recognize my name? Would it help me if she did?
“Persephone.”
A long hiss erupted from her, her genial expression morphing into a glare. Her tail lifted, the splayed end rippling as the snakes writhed.
“You are Persephone?”
“Yes, I told you, I was once royalty. Now let me go.”
“Ohhh, how I've waited for this day,” she seethed, her eyes flashing with anger. “I don't think I will wait for the Titans to wake after all.”
I had about a second’s notice, granted purely by intuition, to get out of the way as her tail curled around her body and came smashing down towards me.
I tried to roll away from the river of fire, but I stumbled on the rocky ground and found myself shaken to my hands and knees as the ground rumbled with the impact of her tail smacking the rock.
I launched myself back to my feet, my vines helping push me up, then began to run blindly as a low, maniacal cackle rose up behind me.
“I wondered where you were all these years, and now you just stumble into my domain. What a delightful twist of fate,” Campe purred around her laughter.
It was too dark, and I couldn't see anything as I got further from the river, Ixion's wheel high above me providing the only slivers of light left.
A piercing scream from my right almost made me fall in shock, and a row of men seated on golden chairs flashed into view.
Their faces were masks of agony, twisted and contorted with pain.
I changed course, but felt something cold and hard smack into me from behind, then I cried out as I was lifted from my feet by an invisible force.
I twirled in the air as I rose, my black vines now flailing around me, seeking the unseen enemy. I floated through the stifling air, coming to a stop before Campe, level now with her gleeful face.
I was being held up by nothing at all, just like Ixion’s wheel. My heart was thudding in my chest as I desperately tried to think of a way out, but she had been right when she'd said this was her domain. Her magic far outstripped mine.
“You took him from me, you little whore,” she snarled, and confusion bit through my fear.
“Took who?” I gasped, as I floated helpless before her.
“The king. He was turning. He was becoming what he was destined to be, and the glorious beast inside him was almost free. Then you took him.”
“Do you mean Hades?” I kicked my legs in the air, trying to right myself, to stop the slow spinning.
“Of course I do,” she hissed, leaning her huge face close to me. She smelled like rotting flesh, the iron tang of blood laced through the scent.
A roar bellowed from beneath us and everything around me, including Campe, shook as it reverberated through the pit.
Her face morphed, fear actually flashing through her eyes as her cruel smile dropped.
“He is coming,” she hissed, then slithered backwards on her huge snake tail.
“Hades?” Hope soared inside me.
“No. Cronos.”
Cronos? Wasn't he the Titan who had eaten most of the Olympians? The worst of the lot?
“Shit, shit, shit,” I chanted as I willed my vines down towards the floor, searching desperately for anything to cling to, to pull myself down. But they couldn't get a purchase on the constantly changing surface, and it was too dark to see anything useful.
Another roar bellowed around me and a new, more primal terror began to creep through my veins.
“Release her at once!” The command made me gasp in surprise, and I wheeled in the air, trying to see who had spoken. It wasn't Hades, but I recognized the voice.
“Kerato, how good of you to join us,” hissed Campe, who was still slowly backing away. Her tail was obscured by darkness now, her face and grisly necklace still flickering in the light of Ixion's wheel. “Hades’ lap dog is always welcome here.”
“I said release her, immediately,” the minotaur shouted. I couldn't see him in the darkness below me, but hope surged through me. I was no longer alone.
“If you insist.” My stomach lurched as I dropped abruptly, my vines frantically trying to find something to slow my fall and disorientation completely swamping me.
Then a blast of neon blue light blinded me and I froze in mid-air for a split second, before gently tipping forward and floating down.
“You will explain yourself,” hissed another voice, and this time relief hit me hard. Hades. As my feet touched the ground I whirled, then stumbled as I saw him.
He was in full-on god mode. He was almost as big as Campe was, shirtless and solid, blue light streaming from his body, and morphing into crawling bodies at his boots. I watched in awestruck fear as the bodies climbed to their feet and began to line up in rows behind him. An army of the dead.
“Hades, you're just in time,” Campe purred. “Cronos is on his way.”
Fear and rage as real as I'd ever seen filled Hades’ bright blue eyes, the usual silver nowhere to be seen.
The temperature soared, and a jet of blinding blue light smashed into Campe.
She screamed as she was thrown backward, the necklace around her colossal neck splitting and animal heads flying everywhere.
“Get her out of here, now!” roared Hades, and I felt my arm being grabbed by a clawed hand. I turned, Kerato's horned face inches from mine.
“Sorry, my lady,” he grunted, but as white light began to glow around him, he bellowed and staggered backward, releasing his grip on me.
“Kerato!” I shouted, as Hades' light illuminated the red blood dripping down his shoulder around the tip of a protruding blade.
Then a cackling woman's face appeared behind the minotaur, her youthful, deranged eyes dancing with malice.
“Leave him alone!” I yelled, whipping my vines toward the new threat.
Another roar ripped through the space, and the fire in the river suddenly became an inferno, leaping a hundred feet into the air.
Red and blue light crashed together, and I tore my eyes from Kerato to Hades.
His face was strained, both hands held high as though he was holding back something I couldn't see.
“He's here. Kerato, get her out of Tartarus,” he said through gritted teeth. But the minotaur’s eyes were glassy and he was clutching his chest in silence as the human looking woman stepped around him. She was wearing a black toga and her bright red hair was piled high on her head.
“Yeah, he won't be taking you anywhere,” she said with a shrug, and poked Kerato's shoulder with her pointed finger. The minotaur crumpled to the ground. “The boss wants you for something special.”
“Who are you?” I stammered, eyes flicking between Kerato's body and her.
“Ankhiale, Titan goddess of heat,” she took a low bow as she spoke, and her black toga burst into flames. “I'm responsible for the interior decorating down here,” she grinned at me. She looked completely fucking mad.
“Ankhiale, if you lay a finger on her, I will make your life a million times more miserable than it already is!” roared Hades. She gave another cackling laugh.
“You think that's possible, oh Lord of the Dead? Give me a fucking break.” She was stalking closer to me, and I didn't know what to do.
Should I use my vines, try to take her power?
“You won't be able to hold King Cronos back much longer, Hades.
And you're breaking the rules, letting a pretty little thing like her down here. He won't obey you this time.”
Hades gave a wretched snarl, and I struck.
With the tiniest flick of my wrists, I sent both vines at the woman, screaming as they made contact with her and heat seared through me like acid. But I held on, and the vines coiled around her shoulders, black tattoos blossoming under her flaming skin.
“What—how—get off me!” she shrieked, and gripped my vines in her hands. More heat, as hot or hotter than the volcano from earlier, burned along my vines and into my body, and the pain was almost too much to bear.
“Get to me, now,” Hades’ desperate voice sounded in my mind.
I did as he told me without question, letting the vines disintegrate as I whirled around.
I let out a gasp of shock as I realized that the army of blue corpses were surrounding me, and as I pelted toward Hades, they followed, keeping their protective ring unbroken.
I felt a blast of heat burn at my back and ran faster, throwing out a green vine and wrapping it around Hades’ enormous leg and dragging myself towards him.
The second my fingers landed on his body, the world flashed white.