Chapter 29 Kaira
KAIRA
My mind split in two as Hades closed his eyes.
His skin turned ashen until it started ripping apart, shattering right in front of my eyes.
Like the ashes left after a bonfire, his body disintegrated, leaving me with nothing but pain in my heart and violent cold spreading through my body.
The pain started intensifying, forcing me to close my eyes as a fresh wave slammed into the forefront of my mind.
My temples throbbed.
My heart crashed inside my chest as fragments of my soul separated, its shards stabbing into every part of me, forcing me to see the truth. Forcing me to remember.
Like a kaleidoscope, the pictures played behind my eyes, spreading the dread and the newfound knowledge through my bloodstream.
On the streets of Pompeii as the volcano erupted, swallowing me in its blazing fury.
On the meadow behind my house somewhere in the Balkans, collecting flowers for my mother's birthday.
Hidden in the shadows of the destroyed city during World War I.
On the streets of Prague as bombs fell all around.
Standing on the shores of Ras Al-Khaimah, waiting for my husband to come back from his fishing trip.
My children running after me on a sunny afternoon and their father sitting and watching us from the porch somewhere in Scotland.
My feet freezing as I begged on the streets of Paris, hoping someone would give me a coin.
Sitting in a room full of people, naked as they drew me in the middle of the Art Institute of New York City more than a hundred years ago.
Lifetime after a lifetime as my soul passed from one body to another, flashing in front of my eyes. Reminding me of who I was. Reminding me of what I'd lost.
And each time, each life, ended with me having twenty-nine years on this Earth.
Until now.
Until the accident.
Until Grimm found me and saved my soul from another reincarnation, forcing me to forget everything I was. Forcing me to pretend I was something I was not. And it all started with the vengeful Gods, too fucking greedy to be happy with what they had.
They wanted more. More than they were promised. More than they deserved.
And as I sat there, my eyes flew open, looking down at the ashes scattered on the ground, making me realize what I'd just lost. Like a power surge, my body lit up and the power, the darkness I was still fighting, pushed through, enveloping me in its dark embrace.
They forced me to kill him. They forced me to kill the second half of my soul.
I was no longer split between Kaira and Persephone and a thousand other lives I lived. They were all me, all one person, forced to live with my mind constantly reaching for something more. Eternally destined to wish for more, to fill the hole in my chest.
My hands fisted, feeling the sharpness of the ashes I was left behind, feeling the pain of a thousand souls, of a thousand lives, as the whispers from the Underworld echoed around me, reminding me who I truly was.
A Goddess of Death but also the queen of the damned.
The queen of the souls Hades was taking care of.
The queen of the place he was given to rule over, by the very brothers who once vowed they would never allow power to come between them.
The same two brothers that kept betraying him over and over again, until they destroyed the happiness he had found, terrified he'd somehow try to steal their power.
Until they fucking killed me on the cliffs of this same island.
"Well," the loud cackle came somewhere from behind me, "I expected there to be, well…" Her voice grated on my nerves. "More."
The pain she left me with still sat behind my eyes, but no more. No fucking more.
No more Gods.
No more power-hungry masters who thought they could simply take and take and take.
No more lies. No more prophecies. No more manipulations by a vengeful bitch who wanted more than she was destined to get.
"Is this it?" Zeus asked, and I knew they were both standing there with their little entourage, gloating over the death of the man my soul wept for.
Hades never tried to take the power from them.
He was happy with our lives, with our little piece of heaven, far away from the fucked-up world they lived in.
He never went after any of them. He never even said one bad word against the two brothers he had, even when they refused to invite him to anything.
Even when they spread lies about the God living in the darkest corners of our world, painting him as the true villain.
I turned around on my knees and stood up, seeing them for the first time.
Zeus stood right next to Hera, his white-and-gold suit painting him as the angelic figure of this island instead of a vile creature he truly was. The smile he carried didn't slip even when he saw me there. Even after he saw his brother's ashes.
A brother that once sacrificed a piece of his own soul so that he could live, so that he could win against their father.
Hera's influence still breathed in the back of my mind, quieter than it was before. The control was slipping through her fingers, because now I fully understood what I could do. I remembered every. Single. Thing.
She knew who I was, just like I knew what she was doing.
Just like I heard her say it a million times during the dinners where only the wives attended.
She despised Zeus, always did and always will.
She hated fate for attaching her to him, to this fucked-up God who thought he was better than anyone else.
Hera always loved another, the man standing on Zeus's left side.
His general, his confidant, his best friend—Ares.
Slithering through my mind, her grip tried taking control of me once again, but she had no power over me anymore.
None of them did. The sharp claws of my mind sliced through the tether she kept between me and her, separating her from my mind immediately.
Hera took a step backward, her eyes widening as the realization of what would happen slowly echoed in her mind.
My soul no longer bowed to her, but hers… hers stayed open.
Hera was always a silly little girl, thinking she held more power than the rest of us, when in reality the rest of us just didn't flaunt it.
We didn't need to, not like her. We didn't need to bully others just to feel better about ourselves.
We didn't need to kill the women our husband slept with, or curse them, because our mates—our husbands—never strayed.
Hers, on another hand, did. It didn't matter that there was no love, but her ego could never take it. Her fucked-up mind couldn't allow it.
"P-Per—" she stammered as I stood up and took a step forward, the skies darkening above us. Zeus looked at her, finally realizing that something was terribly wrong.
They would all pay. They had to fucking pay.
"You forced me to kill him," I said calmly as I walked toward them, the dagger they gifted me still in my hand.
Still coated with the blood that never should've been spilled.
"You manipulated my mind," I gritted out.
"You manipulated everything over the years.
" Each word, each truth, carried through thunder splitting the air.
The Gods could fuck themselves.
They all needed to die. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.
Ares stepped in front of them, his legs spread, ready to attack, when all hell broke loose.
The ground started shaking vehemently while the sound of something being cracked echoed around us, making me press my hands against my ears.
The high-pitched buzzing started increasing until the crack erupted over the field, splitting it in two.
My eyes zeroed in on the uneven line coming from the dark forest looming around us, through the field and into the other side of the forest.
Zeus, Hera, and Ares observed the same, their expressions perfectly blank.
Perfectly composed, but I could feel their fear now.
I could taste it on my lips, on my skin, and I could see this wasn't what they expected.
The roar came somewhere from a distance, the cold fury it carried with itself slipping behind the shields of my own mind, promising retribution and eternal suffering.
My feet pushed forward, running toward the group huddled not too far from me, my vision zeroing in on the poison they carried in their hearts.
My father's power, my power, coursed through my veins with vengeance, connecting with the dagger in my hand, illuminating the handle with the rot and decay flowing from me.
I wasn't a woman burdened with grief anymore. I was more, so much fucking more, and they were not prepared for the ending I would bestow upon them. They were not prepared for the suffering that would come their way.
The crack I jumped over split, shattering the ground into two, letting the ear-piercing shriek into the air. Hera dropped down to her knees, followed by Zeus who couldn't stop himself from screaming. But I knew those shrieks. I knew their pain like I knew my own.
They thought destroying the God of the Dead would simply unlock the veil. They fucking thought that the dead would stay where they were without an anchor to that place?
The souls erupted from the ground, where the blazing fury of fire slammed against the dirt, setting them all free.
"What is happening?" Zeus wailed as he knelt on the ground, looking frantically at the dark shapes emerging from the earth, slamming into us and flying into the world.
Ares wrapped his hand around his bicep and pulled him up. "The veil is broken," he said. "Just like you wanted."
Yeah, just like he wanted. Just like they planned.
"But none of you are leaving." I laughed, looking at the pathetic trio. "None of you are getting out of here alive."