Chapter 12 Hades
Hades
“Good day, Olympus!” boomed the commentator.
I tore my eyes from Persephone, her tense anger after her encounter with Minthe rolling through the bond and firing inside me.
And despite hating her feeling anything other than happy, I couldn't deny how good it felt knowing how much she resented Minthe.
I was hers, and everything about her body and mind projected it and I liked it. In fact I loved it. The idea of being wed to that shallow mountain nymph was too unpleasant to consider.
“It's time to announce the penultimate Trial!” sang the commentator.
My stomach tensed in anticipation, magnified by my awareness of Persephone's nerves.
“First thing tomorrow, Persephone will face one of the most exciting and unpleasant demons of the Underworld. One with an appetite for death and destruction.”
My pulse quickened. I had known that this Trial would involve one of the nastier demons that inhabited my realm, but there were a few I prayed she would not have to face.
A few that I really did not want to have to give up control over for the duration of the Trial, so that Zeus could play his twisted games.
It was impossible for me to guess what demon had been chosen. The depths of Virgo were home to some of the most dangerous creatures ever born, including some the other Olympians didn't even know existed.
Many were too dangerous for me to give up control of at all, like the Furies, and some were too strong and willful to be drawn into these games, like Nyx. But Zeus still had a choice of many who would shred a person apart with relish, their power coming from the dead.
The commentator spoke again. “She will enter the lair of Eurynomos!”
An excited buzz rippled through the crowd as Persephone's eyes snapped to mine, her face paling as my own stomach sank.
Eurynomos was the embodied spirit of rotting corpses and one of the worst demons in the Underworld.
Before I could send a word of comfort to Persephone, Zeus stood up.
“See you all tomorrow,” he said, and waved his hand. The room emptied with a flash, and rage seared hot through my veins.
“I have asked you to stop doing that in my realm,” I hissed.
“And I did not agree. You are forbidden from communicating with Persephone before her Trial.”
“What?” I was on my feet, my muscles expanding instinctively. I would not be kept apart from her. Ever again.
“Eurynomos has been under your control for centuries. You will be able to give her an unfair advantage by telling her what you know about him.”
“I will tell her nothing,” I ground out.
“I know. Because you will not be able to.”
“Zeus,” I started, a roaring sound building in my ears and darkness spreading through my core. He would not keep me from her.
“Hades, it is for one night, and you can't deny that your information would help her. It is what is fair,” said Athena, standing up. “She will be told, and kept safe.”
“Nobody can keep her safe except me.”
“Untrue,” said Zeus, but Athena cut him off.
“She's not going anywhere, you can guard her bedroom door if you wish. You just can't speak to her.”
The rational part of me warred with the shadowed fury. If they were all in agreement I couldn't do anything about it. This was a battle I couldn't win. But perhaps I could get something from it.
“I will agree on one condition,” I spat.
“You don't have a choice,” drawled Zeus, but Athena cocked her head at me.
“And what is that?”
“Leave her brother out of the Trials. He is to remain untouched.” Zeus rolled his eyes but Athena spoke.
“And you will not try to talk to her if we agree?”
“Yes.”
“Fine.”
“You spoil him, daughter,” Zeus said to Athena, then disappeared with a screech of purple lightning. She looked at me, her face soft.
“You are lucky that I'm his favorite,” she said with a small smile, then vanished too. As the other gods began to leave, their thrones vanished as well, the dais reforming with just my huge skull throne in the middle. I strode towards it, still hulking and angry.
Zeus would pay for what he done to her. To us. I wasn't sure how yet, but he would.
“A word, if I may, Hades?” Poseidon strode up to my throne, and I nodded, surprise knocking my anger back a little.
“What do you want?”
“Brother, I am worried. Someone sent Persephone to Tartarus deliberately, and very few know the true consequences of that.”
“If you are going to ask me to send her back again, I won't.”
“On the contrary. I have decided she is safer where we can see and control her.”
“Control her?” Alarm bells rang in my mind, a need to protect her flaring inside me.
“You know what I mean,” he said dismissively. “I believe that the culprit is closer to home than we originally thought.”
“You think it is an Olympian,” I said sharply. It wasn't a question.
“Yes. And since you are clearly still in love with her, you are the only one I can rule out. Hence this conversation.”
“Who do you suspect?” If the sea god was in the mood to talk, then I should get what I could out of him, and revisit the statement about controlling Persephone later.
“Ares has not had a war in a while, Hera has wrath more lethal than any of us, Aphrodite’s boredom knows no bounds, Athena makes wild plans beyond any of our understanding and Dionysus has been acting strange for weeks.”
“And Zeus?”
“He has the most to lose.”
“Or the most to prove,” I countered. “And the most hatred for me.”
“He does not hate you, brother.”
“Really? So forcing me to marry against my will and exposing my realm to the world is an act of love?” My voice dripped with sarcasm.
“When Olympus discovers that it was you who created a new realm against Zeus' will, and that the Lord of the Gods can't undo it, they will lose respect for him. You know he can not tolerate that. You have brought this upon yourself.”
I hissed out a breath, unable to argue. A thought flashed into my mind.
“Oceanus may have a score to settle,” I said. Poseidon scowled.
“Oceanus is your friend and my mentor. I do not believe this would be in his interest.”
“You are right,” I said, feeling guilty for suggesting it.
Oceanus was a Titan, and easily powerful enough to be the culprit, but he had never been malevolent.
And I knew better than most not to judge Titans by their few monstrous ancestors.
“If Zeus has the most to lose, then could it be someone with a vendetta against him, rather than Persephone?” I said.
“That moves Hera to the top of the list,” Poseidon muttered. “I'll never know why she married him.”
“He's as charming as he is fickle. How do I know it is not you, and this is not an elaborate scheme to dissuade me of your guilt?” I said, glaring into Poseidon's ocean-blue eyes. He chuckled softly.
“Brother, I certainly mean you no harm. It is true I fear what your lover could do to Olympus, but I am not so governed by pride that I will let my initial reaction stand. I want to help her win, for something in return.”
“What?”
“If she survives and she wins the Trials and gets her power back, let her live elsewhere.”
Anger trickled through my veins like ice.
“No,” I said immediately. Poseidon's face darkened, waves crashing in his irises.
“Hades, she can not stay so close to Tartarus and you know it. The more her soul deteriorates, the less control you or anyone else will have over her.”
“I do not seek to control her!”
“Do you mean to let the most powerful and evil being Olympus has ever seen go free?”
“Of course not but—” He cut me off before I could finish.
“Then make the right choice, Hades. She would be happier anywhere but here.”
The sick feeling in my gut spread, the knowledge that he was right worse than the anger roiling inside me.
“She can survive the Trials without your help,” I spat eventually.
“You are making a mistake.”
“This conversation is over.”
He gave me a long look, then the salty smell of ocean washed over me as he gave a bark of frustration and vanished.
I closed my eyes, searching inside me for the remnants of Persephone's light, the barrier she had helped reinforce with her golden vines. I filled my head and my heart with her, and slowly the monster receded, sinking back into its toxic depths.
She had beaten many Trials already that should have killed her. There were only two left now, and then this nightmare would be over, one way or another.
But no matter how I spun it in my mind, I couldn't see a happy ending. If she died...
The thought of losing her was unbearable, and I cast it out before the beast could rise again. If she survived but lost the Trials, I could not marry that nymph. And if she triumphed...
Could I really let her give up her soul to live with me in the dark?