Chapter 19 Persephone
Persephone
It looked exactly how I would expect a chariot belonging to Minthe to look. Where the wood of mine was a rich and natural hue, hers was painted a dark, angry red.
Instead of square Greek spirals, hers was decorated with a fierce looking eagle, the wings of the bird stretching intimidatingly around each side of the chariot. There were big pointed spikes jutting out of each side like mine, but where I had flails she had ropes with red sacks tied to the end.
I frowned at them, then scanned the rest of the temple as I stepped off the wood and onto the marble. I could see row upon row of stepped benches, set up like bleachers along the right side of the space, and the dais with the twelve thrones was on the other side.
In front of the dais was the grand table that the three judges were always sitting at when they appeared. I couldn't see any other people.
“Where is everyone?” I asked as Morpheus followed me out of the chariot.
“I'm not sure. I'll go look,” he said, and strode towards the dais. Hecate followed him.
“They're waiting for you,” Minthe's voice rang out, and she stepped out from behind one of the pillars.
She was wearing an outfit similar to mine, but the leather was a rich burgundy color and her hair was loose around her shoulders.
“They can't start without their precious human underdog,” she said, her voice dripping with menace.
“Seriously, you're still going to be this shitty to me? After I saved your damned life?”
“I've wanted immortality longer than I've been indebted to you,” she spat. “If your pathetic conscious didn't allow you to kill me in order to win outright, then I deserve every chance I've got at winning the prize.”
“The prize is a man,” I said angrily. “With a heart and soul and feelings and—”
She cut me off with a hiss.
“Save it, Persephone. You may not be capable of killing me, but I don't believe you're so sweet and innocent that you think the King of the Dead is capable of love.” Fury swept hot through me and I felt my lips curl back from my teeth.
“You don't deserve him,” I hissed.
“Not true. Whoever wins the Trials deserves the prize.”
“Stop calling him a fucking prize!” I shouted, and my vines burst from my palms toward her. Chunks of dark rock flew between the columns, knocking my vines away before they reached her and I whipped them back with a snarl.
“My powers belong down here,” she said, and the rocks flew back past her, out of the temple. “Yours do not.”
I felt my vines falter at her words. They were true. I was out of my depth. I didn't belong here.
She could make the very rock of the Underworld fly about with her mountain magic, and all I had was freaking plants.
Plants that heal the soul of the man you love. The man who loves you.
I clung to the inner voice, and my vines flicked taut again.
“I won't be bullied, Minthe. Not by you or Zeus, or anyone else.”
“I'm not a bully. I'm a competitor, just like you.”
She was right, this was a competition. And she was goading me, I realized. Trying to damage my confidence, trying to throw me off before we started.
Two could play at that game. I pulled my vines back, straightening my shoulders.
“Good luck, then,” I said, as sincerely as I could manage. She frowned at me. “You're not going to win, but I hope you survive, so that dealing with that demon wasn't a complete waste of time.” Minthe cocked her head at me.
“I owe you nothing, Persephone,” she said quietly. But I could hear in her voice that she knew the words weren't true.
“May the best woman win, Minthe,” I said, and strode after my friends.
Morpheus and Hecate couldn't find anyone to ask what we were supposed to do next, so I sent a tentative thought to Hades.
“Where are you?” I asked him.
“We will arrive in ten minutes,” he answered immediately. “My egotistical brother wants the gods to make an entrance.” The strain was clear in his mental voice.
“OK. See you soon.” I bit my bottom lip, and added quickly, “I love you.” There was a slight pause, and then he answered, the tension in his tone gone completely.
“I love you too, my Queen.”
Biting back my grin, I told the others we had to wait and we made our way back to the chariot. Only a few moments later, spectators began appearing in the bleachers.
Within five minutes, the space was full. Creatures and humans of every size, shape and color crammed in together, and the chatter was at fever pitch.
“Fucking tourists,” grumbled Hecate. “There's a reason Hades keeps this place secret.” I raised my eyebrows at her and she leaned back on the side of the chariot. “If you glamorize the Underworld, who the fuck is going to be scared of ending up here? Damned idiots.”
I could tell Hecate was more nervous than she was letting on, not least because of the amount of times she was saying the work fuck in a sentence. I was pretty sure we shared the habit of swearing profusely when nervous or angry.
“Is that a cyclops?” I asked, pointing at a giant woman in the bleachers with one large amber eye and sharp spikes sticking out through her hair, covering her head.
“Yeah. Don't see 'em often, they're usually in Hephaestus' forges, and his realm is forbidden.” She scowled. “As this realm is supposed to be.”
There was a bright flash of white light, and we both turned to the dais. Eleven of the twelve gods were there, all looking exceptionally grand.
They were all in togas, even Dionysus, and they all wore large crowns. Hera's was the most eye catching, adorned with peacock feathers, and Athena's was the most plain, just a gold band.
“Good day, Olympus!” boomed the commentator, his voice seemingly amplified by the rock around us. I spotted him next to the judges’ table, and started as I realized the three judges were now there, eyes intent on Minthe and I. “Please welcome your host for these incredible Trials one last time!”
Black smoke suddenly billowed through the area, and the crowd gasped as it began to gather in front of the dais, a small tornado forming.
It began to solidify as blue light flickered through the air, lighting up the smoke like a strobe light. An enormous two-pronged trident made of gleaming onyx emerged from the swirling smoke, then the smoky form of a man followed it, at least ten feet tall.
“This is the grand entrance you were talking about?” I said mentally to Hades as the crowd erupted into cheers.
“It was not my fucking idea,” he ground out.
“You look impressive,” I told him. The smoke figure raised the trident and blue light shot from the end like fireworks. The cheers got louder.
“Impressive? I'm supposed to be terrifying, not impressive. I could make every unwelcome person in this hall feel their worst fears right now,” he hissed.
“Instead, Zeus turns me into a jester with tricks and lights.” His words were laced with bitterness, and I understood his anger.
Zeus was turning the King of the Dead, Lord of the Underworld, into a spectacle, whilst showing the world the realm he had always striven to keep private.
“Maybe give them a little taste of what you can do,” I said, and saw his smoke form pause.
“Really?”
“Just a little. Don't make anyone actually mess themselves.” I heard a tiny chuckle, then cold rippled over me and the cheers died out abruptly. Tendrils of something pricked at my skin, and discomfort and fear started to seep into my mind, but my healing magic leaped up around me.
Within a second, the fear had been forced out, barred from me completely.
When the room was silent, Zeus stood. His expression was tight.
“Thank you, brother, for that welcome,” he said tersely. Hades flickered, and reappeared on his throne.
His smoke form looked languid and relaxed. I didn't know if he got pleasure from frightening people or what that said about him, but I did know he got pleasure from defying Zeus. And that was worth freaking out a few morbid spectators.
“Thank you, Zeus,” Hades said, his voice slithery and creepy.
It was so weird now to hear him speak like that, his rich, warm tones nowhere to be heard.
“The race is along the Styx, to the gates of Virgo. You will encounter all three hell-hounds on the way, ending with Cerberus. Each dog is guarding a gem. Green for Persephone, red for Minthe. Collect all the gems first and you will win.”
A massive swell of nerves rolled through me. His cold, impassive voice was so completely at odds with how I knew he felt, but he sounded for all the world like he didn’t give a shit which of us won. Doubt stabbed at my mind, until I heard his voice, his real voice, in my mind.
“Win for me, my Queen.”
“I will.”
“I have to leave now. A smoke dummy will be in my place so that the crowd don't know.”
Hecate and Morpheus were climbing onto the chariot and two people had joined Minthe. I couldn't look anywhere other than him though. I didn't want him to leave.
“OK,” I said, stumbling as I stepped onto my chariot. My eyes were locked on his smoke form, adrenaline now rushing through my body. “I love you.”
“I love you,” he replied. I felt him leave, the bond pulsing with a faint sense of loss inside me as he moved further from me.
“Shit,” muttered Hecate beside me, and I dragged my eyes from the fake smoke figure now on Hades’ throne.
“What's wrong?” I asked her.
“That,” she said, pointing to Minthe's chariot. “That's what's wrong. Fucking look at them!”
I took a deep breath, anxiety making me feel sick as I took in Minthe's team mates.
The woman at the front of the chariot was wearing a toga and looked about a hundred years old, but that wasn't what I noticed first.
She was see-through. Like actually transparent.
And the other woman on the chariot was at least six feet tall, wearing a wonder-woman type outfit made of gleaming armor, and holding a crossbow. Her blonde hair was in a knot on top of her head and the muscles cording her arms and shoulders put my brother's to shame.
“What are they?”
“The woman at the front is an Eidolon. That's a ghost in your world.”
“I thought you controlled ghosts?”
“The ones down here, I do. Not the ones that are free. Like her.”
“And the woman who looks like a body-builder?”
“Definitely an warrior. But they never leave their tribe in Ares' realm so she must be an outcast.” I raised my eyebrows at the fierce looking woman as she examined her weapon.
“ warriors? Is there anything Olympus doesn't have?”
“Not really. Most history from your world is based on Olympus. What Athena planted as Greek mythology.”
The woman noticed me staring at her before I could answer, and bared her teeth at me.
“Are you ready to face the sting of my bolts?” she called, lifting the crossbow threateningly toward me.
My old instinct would have been to flinch away or look to Hecate to help, but my power crackled and hummed in response to the threat and before I could stop myself I lifted my hands.
“Just try it,” I shouted, and black vines whipped from my palms, stopping just short of her and flicking back. The woman's eyes narrowed, but she kept her mouth shut and lowered the weapon.
“Save it for the race, Sanape,” said Minthe, tugging her elbow. Sanape glared at me, then turned away.
“I'm glad to see so much of the old Persephone survived the mortal world,” said Hecate quietly. “You can't get by in Olympus without a decent dose of courage.”
“You call it courage, the rest of us call it attitude,” said Morpheus with a grin. “Are you both ready?”
I nodded, and the chariot rose slowly into the air, my stomach lurching with it.
This was it. The final time I would have to fight for my life and the right to marry the man I loved. The man it turned out I had always loved. The man I had been waiting for my whole life, without even knowing it.
Hades' face filled my mind, and strength coursed through me, my power crackling under my skin.
I was going to win this, and become his Queen.