Chapter 26 Persephone
Persephone
The scene flashed again, and mercifully I wasn't taken down to the domes. I was back on the banks of the river Lethe, Morpheus towering over my crouched figure.
“Three of the domes above the surface were destroyed, and two below were cracked and flooded when the volcano rose from the sea bed,” said Morpheus, his voice gentle.
A strangled sound escaped my throat and more burning tears blurred my vision. Bile was burning my throat.
“I killed them. That's why Poseidon hates me.”
“You are not responsible for their deaths. Zeus is. He sent you down there, hoping you would die.”
I blinked up at Morpheus. “Why?”
“He hated to see Hades happy. Zeus' ego is over-inflated to the point of mania. You were making Hades strong, and he couldn't handle it.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Cronos. He saw it in you when you connected with him.”
“You've been letting him talk to me. In my dreams,” I said, clinging to the words, forcing out the terrible, terrible knowledge I now had. That I couldn't face.
“Yes. I can't free him myself, but I can give him some access to humans, via their dreams.”
“The Atlas garden. You created it.”
“No. Cronos did. He is not who the world makes him out to be. He is strong and beautiful and a far, far better ruler than Zeus. This is why you needed to know the truth.”
“But to free him, you need me to die,” I said, struggling to my feet.
“Yes. But now you understand why. Zeus will destroy Olympus, and everything good in it, to prove his power to the world.”
“I don't understand.” Urgent thoughts were beginning to batter through my grief and revulsion, and I clawed at them mentally, using them to stabilize my spinning emotions.
“Where is Hades?” He should be here. He would be able to feel my pain through the bond, he should be here.
“And how did you send me to Tartarus before? Only Hades can do that. He thought an Olympian was involved.”
“And he was right. I may be powerful, and a resident of Virgo, but even I can only talk to Cronos via my dreams. I can't enter Tartarus, much less send someone else there. But the most powerful god in Olympus can, once Hades relinquished some control to him.”
“What? But that makes no sense, why would—” Morpheus cut me off with a vicious laugh.
“Persephone, Zeus is a dangerous lunatic!
His hatred for Titans is no longer shared, and the citizens of Olympus are starting to accept them.
How better to remind the world of their evil than to let Cronos out?
Zeus thinks he can step in and save the day, and the world will remember why they worship him.
But he is mistaken. Cronos is far, far stronger than him.
He has forgotten the war too quickly, his inflated opinion of himself now so deluded that reality and fantasy have merged.
He approached me not long after you were banished, when I was worried about Hades.
My king was a shadow of himself. Zeus asked me to keep an extra eye on Cronos, should Hades neglect to, and I agreed, hoping to support my king.
And I discovered that Cronos was not who I thought he was.
He was fair and wise and everything Zeus was not.
So when Zeus asked me to help him with this new plan, I agreed, but because I want Cronos in Zeus' place. I told Cronos what Zeus has planned, and even now Zeus still believes I am working for him. His ego will not allow him to believe otherwise.”
Fear and disbelief were overriding everything else in my head as Morpheus spoke. Zeus was behind this. The only god more powerful than Hades.
“Where is Hades?”
“He's tied up with a friend at the moment. But don't worry, Cronos has a proposition for you.”
“Why are you doing this? What's in it for you?”
“Love for Olympus, Persephone. Zeus needs to be removed, for the good of the world. Hades may not have told you, but the Underworld is seeing crueler people every year, and they are a result of his twisted society. Cronos will make the world a better place. And you're about to meet him.”
Protesting was useless as Morpheus watched me climb back on the chariot. With Sam, Hecate and Skop at his mercy, he knew I would do as he asked.
But the rational part of my brain knew they would die anyway if Cronos got his power into me and I went off like a bomb.
I had to do something, but no matter how desperately I scrabbled around for a solution, nothing came.
If Zeus had the other gods distracted, or convinced nothing was wrong, and Hades was trapped somewhere, then nobody was coming for me. I was on my own.
I barely saw the Underworld flash by below us, my mind was so focused on trying to come up with a plan that didn't involve everyone I loved dying. But as the flaming river came into view, my pulse raced even faster, my stomach lurching as we began to descend.
“Ah. There's Hades,” said Morpheus, from the head of the chariot, and my insides seared hot as the bond fired and I leaned over the chariot.
A little way off from the cavern that led to Tartarus, on a barren, uneven piece of rock, was a flaming ring twenty feet across. And at its center, on his knees, was Hades. His face snapped up to mine and I almost lost my grip on the chariot, his emotion rocketed through me so hard.
He was scared. And furious.
I reached for him desperately in my mind, but I couldn't hear him, couldn't get to him. There was no blue light around him, and his black trident lay useless nearby.
Something had stripped his power, I realized.
As the chariot soared over him, Ankhiale stepped out of the fire. She tilted her head and gave me a little finger wave, and a roar of frustration escaped me.
He's immortal. They can trap him, but they can't kill him. I clung to the thought, repeating the words over and over as we descended, and Hades and the fire witch disappeared from view. Pain surged through my gut again, my emotions mingling with Hades’ as we lost sight of each other.
Morpheus set the chariot down at the mouth of the cave that led to Tartarus, and turned to me.
“Off you go, my Queen. Cronos is expecting you.”
“Only Hades, and apparently now Zeus, can enter or leave Tartarus,” I said, refusing to move my feet.
“I think you'll find that the winner of the Hades Trials, and Hades’ Queen-to-be, also has that privilege,” he smiled at me.
Shit. What the hell was I going to do?
Adrenaline was racing through my body, focusing my mind and building my power inside me. Which was exactly what I didn't want.
My power couldn't help me here. In fact, it would be what killed me and everyone else in Virgo. And if Cronos was as bad as history and Hades said he was, possibly the whole of Olympus.
“I shouldn't have eaten those fucking seeds!” I yelled, and Morpheus blinked at my outburst.
“It's too late for regrets, Persephone. You will be a martyr. The little goddess who saved the world from a maniac.”
“You're the fucking maniac.”
“Ah, I see now that the shock is wearing off, the attitude is surfacing,” he said. “I recommend being more polite to King Cronos.”
“Hades is your king, you filthy traitor,” I snarled.
“Not for much longer. Now go.”
I stared at him, desperation and fury boiling over inside me, with no outlet. With a hiss, I shot my arm out, and slapped him as hard as I could across the face.
“You're a fucking disgrace to the Underworld,” I spat, then stamped off the chariot, onto the rock. I didn't turn back as I marched towards the cavern. I couldn't face seeing if he would punish my brother or friends for my behavior, but I hadn't been able to help myself.
The orange flames of the river cast flickering shadows over the walls of the cave, and I walked fast. The last time I had been here, Hades had succumbed to the monster, and was about to set foot in Tartarus and take out his fury on the worst of the Underworld.
Perhaps I should have let him.
Perhaps he would have killed Cronos.
I knew in my gut that that wasn't possible though. Hades had described Cronos as primordial in strength. He was truly immortal, unable to be destroyed.
Memories of when I was last in Tartarus swept through me, the utter darkness, the screaming tortured souls, the endless fear. Panic threatened to engulf me, blackness swimming across my vision, but I bared my teeth as I pulled the thought of Hades into my mind.
I had to be strong. I had to work out a way to escape this.
At the mouth of Tartarus, I paused, squeezing my eyes closed and praying. Please don't let me through, please don't let me through. But disappointment melted through me as my foot entered the darkness without a hitch. I took a shuddering breath, and stepped through completely.
The darkness was as terrifying as I remembered it, but this time power surged hard through me, blocking the fear and the smells.
I couldn't block the sounds of screaming though, as I walked carefully forward, alongside the flaming river.
With a screech and a flash, Ixion appeared above me, shrieking.
I gulped back my trepidation and took another stride forward. All I had now was myself, and I was not going to cower in fear. Cronos would meet the goddess I knew was inside me, not a naive girl or a terrified woman.
He would meet the goddamned Queen of the Underworld.
“Cronos!” I bellowed, summoning every ounce of courage within me. The flames in the river roared up, and a deep rumbling shook the ground. Illuminated on my right suddenly was a row of grand chairs, and a man sitting on one of them cried out when he saw me.
“Help me, please,” he screamed, and I recoiled as I saw the remnants of flesh and blood stuck to the vacant chairs. The man and the chairs melted back into the darkness before I could say a word.
“Cronos, I'm here!” I yelled again. The rumbling grew louder, then the mass of light I'd seen in the memory from the river appeared before me. Shadows intertwined with the white light, spinning and turning in a mesmerizing dance.
“Little goddess,” Cronos said, and a man stepped out of the light.
He was so beautiful I gasped, my lungs not working properly for a heartbeat. His eyes and his hair and his eyebrows were made of what looked like pure daylight, and instead of being creepy, it was stunning. He held his hands out and light shone from them too.
“I will not free you,” I choked out, my eyes streaming in his brightness.
“I wish, so very much, that you did not have to die. I would have liked for you to rule beside me.” The calm, soothing voice I had come to trust in the Atlas garden washed over me, and I clung to my anger, refusing to let him addle my brain.
“I will not free you,” I repeated. “You can't make me use my vines.”
“It really is such a great shame to lose one as beautiful as you. But needs must. And the world’s needs are greater than our own.”
“You were imprisoned here for a reason, and you will stay here,” I said, wishing desperately that I could grow, like Hades and the others did.
Standing before Cronos, I felt tiny, despite his physical body being barely larger than mine.
His presence was immense, as though he was light itself, more element than being.
“Little goddess, I have an offer for you to consider. I have become fond of you, and I would rather do this with you willing. It will hurt less.” My hands shook as I stared at him. He wasn't scared of me. My words had no effect on him at all. What the fuck was I going to do?
“You can't make me use my vines,” I said again. “If I have to fucking stand in front of you like this forever, I will.”
“If you cooperate with me, I will allow Hades to live, free of his obligation to the Underworld,” Cronos said. I froze. “I will free his soul of this place, and he will finally live the life he has always craved.”