Epilogue
NYX
“Ididn’t expect to find you here, brother,” Nyx said as she entered the old, empty throne room of Hades and Persephone. “I thought you would have left my realms by now.”
The male rolled his shoulders back, the leather of his jacket making little sound as he stared at the two, giant empty thrones before him. “She’s not here.”
“No.” Nyx stopped beside him, admiring the old stone, the ancient room a distant memory. She remembered a time where she could walk it freely, where she was not more than just a ghost wandering aimlessly between the realms. “I believe she is hiding.”
A growl, dark and tumultuous, left his lips. “Why would she hide?”
“Because you made a mistake.” Nyx turned on him, eyes taking the mortal form he’d created for himself; piercing blue eyes, crawling tattoos, a youthfulness that made him appear both unassuming and dangerous. “The great and powerful Hades, no better than a mortal male. There is a reason—”
He cut her off with a hand that was meant to go around her throat. Instead, Hades stumbled, landing on the stone steps that once led to his throne. “Nyx,” he gasped, breathing hard, desperation burning in his eyes. “I need her.”
“Persephone does not need you.” Nyx reappeared behind him with a sigh. “She is not your mate.”
“She is.” He turned, taking in the exposed bone of his sister’s face without flinching. “I know she is. This is it.”
“She is not real.” Nyx took a threatening step towards him, stilling at the look in his eyes. For a moment, the immortal blue flame of her brother, the last of his deadly magic, flickered to life. “Hades…”
The male, now a mage with death magic and not the terrifying king of hell he once was, rose. “I felt it. I felt her. She is real. She is my Persephone.”
“You look pathetic,” Nyx replied, pulling her hood over her face. “And I didn’t allow her rebirth.”
“You might not have,” he said, “but someone did.”
Nyx paused, a chill rolling through her. There were no other Gods left to do such a thing. Other than her and Hades, there should not have been another one walking the realms. And only an Old God had the power to allow rebirth.
“Only those chosen by me have been reborn,” Nyx said slowly, turning to her brother. “My sacrifice and her mates. That is it. Persephone is not here.”
Hades took a threatening step towards her, the tattoos that coiled around his throat shifting. “She is,” he hissed, blue eyes darkening. “And I will prove it. I will find her. If she is not here in your realms, then she is in the human one. My Persephone has returned, and I will find her again.”
Nyx’s brother stalked out of the throne room, a chill settling over the long-forgotten hall as he left. Nyx remained at the foot of the two thrones, her eyes running over the two God-sized chairs like they might reveal the secrets she’d been so determined to find answers to.
Like how a weak little boy with power over the mind could ever find her skull.
“You know,” Sable said, leaning back on the stairs, her ghostly form flickering in and out. “You could be nicer to him. He spent a few years trapped in a cell by Dante. That would send anyone mad.”
The Goddess tore her eyes off the twin thrones and looked around the room no longer in use, hidden deep in the trenches of the ocean splitting the Underworld, protected by the monster above.
“If he is not careful, he will spend an eternity trapped with our siblings,” Nyx warned, barely looking at the dead Seer. “Why are you here?”
Sable appeared beside her, slowly taking Nyx’s hand. “You think I’d leave you? Like this?”
Nyx couldn’t help the small smile that crossed her lips. “There is peace beyond death.”
“I promised my boy he could summon me,” Sable replied sadly. “And anyway. Our work isn’t done yet.”
“No, it is not,” Nyx murmured.
There were three new Queens to rise in the wake of her Daughter’s work. A rebirth of greatness to witness.
And an enemy yet to be flushed out.
THE END