Chapter 28 Persephone
Persephone
Cronos could free Hades. Free him of his eternal obligation and let him live as he truly wanted to. If I was going to die anyway, surely this was a deal worth making?
What if you can stop him though! Don't give in! The fighter inside me screamed. But my heart ached as I thought about Hades consumed by the darkness, the idea of him living trapped in Tartarus as a mindless machine of violence unbearable.
I barely felt the vines snake from my palms. As though on magnets, they burst toward Cronos.
“Wait!” I shouted, but it was too late, it was as though I no longer had control of them. A slow smile spread across Cronos' face as they reached him, and the storm of light around him shimmered a dark orange.
“It appears you have made your choice, Persephone.”
“No! No I hadn't decided yet!”
“Your power responded to your heart, little goddess. You would do anything for him.”
My vines coiled around his arms, and I sent every ounce of power I had in my body into them to keep them green. As soon as they turned black, they would take his power. Sweat rolled down my back as I concentrated.
“But the thing is, I lied.” My eyes snapped to his.
“Hades has been my keeper for a very, very long time. Do you really think I would not repay him for his actions? After you have destroyed it, I will rebuild Tartarus, and it will be much, much worse than this. The Olympians have little imagination when it comes to torture. And Hades will spend at least as long as I have in the darkness.”
Fury raged through me, my passion and my instinct to protect him too great to suppress.
“It's Zeus you're angry with, not Hades!” I could feel my power reacting, the image of Hades' face fueling my strength, as it always did. I couldn't let him live that life. I had to do something. And my vines agreed. With a ripple, they turned black.
“No!”
Cronos let out a long breath and closed his eyes as black tattoos began to spread across his shoulders.
“No!” I screamed again, desperately trying to disintegrate the vines. But it was as though they were glued to him, he was too strong. And then the power flowing down them from him hit me, and everything stopped.
Time itself stood still as power consumed me, so vast I could make no sense of it. Within seconds it was overwhelming me, I was drowning in the infinite; swirling through a mass of light and shadow that never ended.
“Persephone!”
That voice... I knew that voice. That voice was the most important thing in the world to me. More important than anything else. I clung to it, the dizzying vortex around me slowing.
It was Hades.
As I came back to reality I saw Hades, hulking and furious, a canon of blue light beating uselessly at my vines.
Legions of blue bodies were climbing up Cronos' expanding form, but Cronos wasn't reacting, his arms open wide, black vine tattoos spreading further across his body.
“Persephone, stop the vines! I can't flash you out while you're connected to him!” Hades roared, but I couldn't speak. Tidal waves of power were rolling through me, leaving me utterly breathless, images of worlds beyond my wildest imaginings flashing before me.
“Persy! Persy, tell me how to help you!”
Skop. I could hear Skop's voice.
“Worship me.” I was vaguely aware that the words were coming from my own lips, and Hades' eyes locked on mine, filled with dread as more blue light powered from him, into Cronos. “Olympus will know true fear. True power. True death,” my voice thundered.
Stop! My mind railed against the words I was saying, but the little voice in my head, the one that really belonged to me, was too small, too quiet, too weak.
Cronos was taking over. His power was filling me, burning away everything else.
Pain, that had been indistinguishable from the torrent of emotion and power at first, was growing. Burning agony exploded suddenly in my head, and I cried out.
Desperation took over Hades' face, before blackness filled his silver eyes in a rush. The monster was taking over.
“You're too late, Hades!” said Cronos, his calm, soothing tone gone. “I am becoming weak. Which means she has most of my power already.”
My head swam, a storm raging inside me.
“Never!” bellowed Hades, and raised his gleaming black trident. I could only just see them both, my eyes streaming as another pulse of agony ripped through me, the flood of images pouring through my mind blurring with reality. I could hardly breathe.
I started to fall to my knees as Hades brought his trident down on my vines with a roar.
I felt the reaction from Cronos before it occurred. The full wrath of Hades was enough to loosen his control. It was enough.
The second I felt the magnetic pull weaken, I willed the vines to disintegrate with everything I had. I tumbled forward as they disappeared, but instead of falling onto the rocky ground, I fell into Hades’ arms and the world flashed white as Cronos screamed.