by Skyler Andra
“We should get on the road then,” I said, pleased that my voice was steady, if a little flat.
“Of course.” Hades led the way again, but the strength had been zapped from his usually powerful stride.
This soul had affected him for some unknown reason that he did not want to reveal. Strange for the Lord of the Dead, who must have been used to encountering thousands if not more souls on the daily. I tucked that thought away to ask about later when he seemed up to talking.
Me on the other hand, I was breathing a little easier knowing we were leaving.
“Hey,” I ventured, a pun coming to mind. “What did the flower say to cheer up his friend?”
Hades glanced back at me with a frown that told me not to say it.
“Thistle cheer you up.” I chuckled to myself as he shook his head.
Someone coded in the room we passed, and I froze for a moment. There’s this thing that happens at hospitals where one moment it appears to be as calm and tranquil as a library, but in the next, it turns into a war zone as an alarm goes off. Nurses in scrubs flooded the hallway, moving equipment, shouting numbers that I either recognized or almost did, making me feel as if the ground was simultaneously too far away and far, far too close.
With shaky legs, I managed to lurch away from the room where the nurses and support staff congregated, but not before I got a glimpse of a body on the bed. I stopped, unable to take my eyes off the man. He shook violently and tried to shout out before being surrounded by people who wanted more than anything in the world to save his life.
I had a moment where I was dead certain I was going to hit the floor, curl into a ball, and start bawling. But before it could happen, Hades’ arms were around me, holding me tightly, and all I could smell was the fabric of his suit and the slight hint of his earthy scent. I wanted to be tough, to push away and keep going like it was nothing, but I wasn’t actually that tough, was I?
Clinging to him as if he was the only real thing in the world, I buried my face in the side of his chest, concentrating on nothing but his presence, his arms around me, the way he almost squashed me between his body and the cement wall we paused at. His warmth helped chase away the cold of the wall until I finally got my breath back.
“What do you want?” he asked, his voice low and urgent.
I hung onto that, because it was similar to what he had used on me last night. Everything would be okay if I just listened to him. Everything would be fine. Just fine.
“Get me out of here,” I pleaded. I felt him nod and raise his hand away from my body before I heard him snap his fingers.
Chapter 18
Autumn
I staggered a little, groping for something to steady my spinning head. Hades found me, bracing me against his body once more. I sucked in gasps of air perfumed with fried foods, machine grease, and sweat. Confused by our location, I looked around wildly, prompting a few startled people to skitter back from me.
Throngs of people everywhere wearing smiles. Candle lanterns hung like pink and blue and green moons in the dark sky as a parade of women in traditional Asian dresses wove large fans in a dance. Men carrying umbrellas with tassels. I realized with a sense of shock that we were in the middle of a carnival.
“What… the hell?” I mumbled.
Hades stood next to me, looking as out of place as ever in his black suit, his hair ruffled even more than before, a hint of panic to his gaze that I had never seen before.
“You told me to get you out.”
People marched past hoisting a golden paper dragon on tall poles, each motion fluttering the scales. The man holding up the head swooped it in close to Hades, and he brushed it aside.
“I suppose I concentrated on that more than about where out meant,” he added.
Cute. I liked that he had taken me someplace else. Someplace livelier and without the gloom of the hospital. The explosion of colors, smells, and noises lifted my spirits somewhat.
“So where is this?” I gazed around, feeling a little out of place as we were among the few white people on the street. Everyone else was Asian, dressed absolutely to kill in bright colors and intent on having a good time.
“Vietnam, I think,” he said after a moment, uncertain. “Festival time, clearly, though I don’t know for what. I can send us back.”
He raised his hand, but I pulled it down. I still felt nauseas, my head whirling. I wanted to stay—explore a little. I’d never been out of the country before. Least of all with a god. The festival was expansive, and something about the motion made him freeze because he stared at me with his lips slightly parted.
Oh, I thought with the clarity of a bell. He’s falling for me. Or some part of me. That realization, coming on the heels of everything that had happened earlier, absolutely did not need reflection from me right this moment.
“Do you want to…?” He sounded lost for words.
“Come on.” I dragged us deeper into the street despite the lingering effects of the teleportation. “Doesn’t this look like fun?”
“I don’t–” he started, but I didn’t give him much of a choice.
He could drag me to a halt, let me go, or follow, yet after that strange revelation I’d had, I knew exactly which one he would do. I darted into the crowd, and expectantly, Hades rushed after me like some kind of tall black banner. Each step made my teleportation sickness sink to the back of my mind.
Being a florist with a high school education meant that I didn’t get a lot of opportunities for travel, though there was always a part of me that longed to see out-of-the-way places. I had a vacation fund, but it was regularly dismantled for things like emergency health issues and new tires.
I also always worried that I would be too nervous or too shy to have a good time, but just ten minutes in the street festival told me that I was surrounded by people who wanted to celebrate, and I could do that.
The humidity in the air indicated that the rain had recently come to an end. Heat blanketed heavily over me like honey, making me laugh appreciatively for what felt like the first time in ages. Vendors along the streets sold charred things on a stick, and I wanted to try all of them.
Hades continued to follow behind me, his pace tense and cautious, but he kept up and paid for the food I wanted, occasionally pulling me back from getting run over by some granny on a scooter.
Attendees played games that I didn’t understand. Everywhere, people were having a good time. My eyes darted to all the crazy amounts of things to look at, from tinseled gold stars to golden dragons to the pretty girls in their traditional dresses and white trousers.
In a moment of pause, I clung to Hades in case we lost each other in the crowd, suddenly afraid of being stuck in Vietnam alone. We stopped every few feet to exclaim over this or that, and every time, he smiled and pulled me a little closer. I liked being in his arms, and thought to myself, this must be what it feels like to have a boyfriend. But I still wasn’t sure how we classified our relationship. Whether it was just for the time we worked together or for longer than that. For now, I had to be content with being with him for as long as it lasted.
I couldn’t stop watching him, marveling at the wonder in him as his gaze panned the sky, or the way his body eased in the crowd and the smiles that passed between us. He had gotten me out of that hospital in the best way possible. I couldn’t imagine a better place, so full of life, so bright, so cheery. Perfect and gorgeous.
Lights blinked on the Ferris wheel at the end of the street—the tallest structure in the area, calling to us. Hades sighed a little when I looked at him with wide and pleading eyes.
“I don’t know when they last serviced it,” he said uncertainly, critically examining the rusted bolts.
No wonder he was so stuffy. He didn’t seem to get out much to have fun.
“It’ll be fine until it isn’t.”
He narrowed his eyes at me and paid for two tickets anyway. “That’s not an appropriate way to assess risk.”
Despite his a
pprehension, we got on and the Ferris wheel and soon rose up with two bone-jarring jerks. I feared he might be right and clutched his arm. When we were level with the top of the nearby two-story building, it continued with an impressively slow ascent. Hades’ face paled as he looked over the edge. Oh! An Underworld god with a fear of heights. The irony!
“Why are you laughing?” Hades demanded.
I finally swallowed my giggles enough to respond. “Why aren’t you?”
He started to respond but must have thought better of it, sighing and pulling me close to him instead, throwing one arm over my shoulder.
“Laugh at me again and I may just demand another twenty-four hours,” he warned softly, sending a thrill dancing along my spine.
“I’d like that,” I whispered into his chest. I felt his smile through the movement of his jaw against my head.
We rose up through the sky once more, admiring the whole of the festival—a long street lit up with lights that ended at the deep darkness of the sea. I sat up higher, staring out over the beauty of it. When I felt Hades take my hand, I caught sight of the gold lantern lights reflecting in his dark eyes as he drank it up. His gaze spoke of the same wonder in his heart as mine.
“Hades,” I uttered.
Slowly, he turned to me as we hit the apex of the wheel’s arc. Leaning in, I kissed him, our hands clasped tightly. Although there had always been a hunger waiting in the wings, for the moment it seemed content to wait. Tonight, we shared something that neither of us had shared with someone before—the wonder of where we were, the heat, the color, the smells. The sweetness of the moment and dizzying height all came together to make the kiss one that seized my heart and wouldn’t let go.
Oh… I thought. I’m falling for him, too.
My whole world pivoted in an instant. I’d sworn to myself that I’d never love another after my dad left and my mother died. It had just been too painful. But I couldn’t deny the attraction, and that terrified a deeper part of me while warming another. Unable to think clearly in the stifling and humid heat, I dug my fingers into Hades’ jacket. In the space of a week, I let myself go somewhere I’d sworn off. I broke our kiss, needing to get out of there.
“What do you want?” he asked as the wheel started its descent. From his face, I read that I could have asked for the world, all of it, and he would kill himself to get it for me.
Answers tumbled through my mind. I wanted him. I needed sleep. I wanted to be home. To hug him and laugh. To kiss him more. For him to take me right there in the gondola. Talk about a pathetic mile-high club, but I’d still count it as one.
The request that came to my lips, however, was different. I also needed flowers, plants, nature, the sounds of crickets, a warm evening breeze on my skin, and the moonlight. “Take me to a garden.”
Hades hesitated, something flashing through his eyes that I didn’t understand. His lips parted as if he were a man who was processing what he wanted most in the world. He raised his hand, and I braced myself for more sickness as he snapped his fingers, sending us someplace else.
Chapter 19
Autumn
The quiet hit me like a hammer wrapped in velvet. Hades and I stood under a clear night sky studded with stars, the only source of light besides the lantern-like moon. Warmth permeated the air, softer than the oppressive heat of Vietnam. Hyacinth and the bitter scent of dill hit me, and I curiously glanced at Hades. My feet sunk into the soft earth as I exhaled sharply. The combination of it all cleared my mind of the building pressure and the teleportation sickness that had hit with a vengeance in Vietnam.
I almost couldn’t remember being shaky and scared at the hospital. That had been someone else. I might not have been entirely sure about who I was now, but that barely mattered to me. For now, I needed to address my feelings for him, but I wasn’t sure about how to approach it, having never done it before.
“Thank you,” I said, letting him go and glancing around. “Where are we now?”
“Elusis,” he said. “North of Athens.”
I gave him a playful look. “And where is that? I’m not exactly well traveled.”
“Ancient Greece,” he replied, studying me while standing still like the headless statue behind us.
“Back in the home country?” I teased, unconvincingly trying to push away the nerves bunching in my stomach. He smiled and shrugged.
Somewhere in the distance, a lonely dog yipped above the call of an owl. Enjoying the tranquility, I traced the nearby pillar, its broken edges reaching up to the sky. Vines as thick as my wrist had dismantled them year after year. I paced the broken marble walk, guarded on one side by garden plots filled with flowers and greenery. By the look of it, the plants that bloomed weren’t what had been planted there previously.
“It’s been left to grow wild,” I noted more to myself to break the wall of silence that had sprung up between us. “No care. No love.”
“Do they need love?” Hades asked me as I stooped down.
“No, only water and sun,” I said, picking a small bouquet of white flowers before coming back up. Tiny blooms, things we could only use for filler at the shop, gave off a thick and heady perfume that only intensified after I plucked them.
I held them up for Hades to smell, and he bent his head obediently, keeping his eyes on me.
“They’re beautiful, though, aren’t they?” I was startled by how wistfully my observation came out.
A strange sense of vertigo overcame me again, as if some memory in me was trying to unearth itself after all this time. It was muted, though, by the sweetness of his eyes and the way he reached out to touch my face.
“You’re more beautiful than any flower,” he said quietly, and I smiled.
“Flatterer,” I replied, loving it. “But I’m not a flower. It’s not a contest.”
“You’re the most beautiful thing in the world to me.” It should have sounded like a lie, but somehow, somehow, I believed it. Truth clung to his words, and there was no one else in the world for him but me.
“Hey,” I said, another pun coming on that I couldn’t resist. “What did the flower say to his date?”
Hades pressed a firm finger to my lips, but I muttered past it anyway. “I think you’re dandy and I’m not a lion.”
The way he looked at me like he was cross, but also wanted to laugh, made my heart melt and palpitate at the same time.
Words bubbled from my throat—specifically those three words. They hung on my lips, trembling, ready to spill out. But then he kissed me, kissed them away, and the words became much less important than what he showed me in a more ancient language. This action had come before words, before almost anything else, and despite having only spoken it for a short while, I found myself entirely fluent. His kiss was filled with love, and underneath that a passion, a need, and an understanding that I’d been craving all my life. Along with it, I understood him too. This was us, and in the end, that was all that mattered to me.
Acting on some kind of instinct that I could barely grasp myself, I reached up to cup either side of his face. I held him still as I kissed him in return. Soft and biting nips at first, there and gone before he could make them longer until finally, I kissed him deeply, pressing my whole body against his and falling into the wonder of what it all was. It was like falling into the sea, but I knew that I would not drown because there would only be him, waiting for me at the bottom, arms open and with that longing look in his black eyes.
“Don’t,” he protested the moment I pulled back.
For a moment, I feared I’d done something wrong, and drew back in fright. Before I stepped back, he wrapped one hand around my wrist and stopped me, making sure that I was looking straight into his face. Longing wrapped with a wild kind of grief stared back at me, his expression both profoundly powerful and intense that overwhelmed us both. In that moment, it felt as if my view split. On one hand I saw the power of something existing for thousands of years, yet at the same time, a kind of desperation that could
only belong to a man.
“Don’t kiss me like that if you don’t mean it,” he said, his voice hoarse. “If you can’t stay.”
His words made me picture a velvety white rose opening in my heart. My whole life, the bud had been tightly furled and closed off, beautiful but more for its promise than for itself. His words, his need, acted on me like water and sun, and I opened my other arm toward him. When I twisted my arm in his grasp, I didn’t break our hold. Rather, I wrapped my hand around his wrist so I could drag him closer to me as I thought how much I would never, ever let him go.
Apparently, it takes less than a week to remember you’re in love, said a joyful voice in me, and that’s a little strange, isn’t it?
Remember was a word that rang in my head, but it was so much less important than how good it felt to be in his arms.
We might as well have been ancient Greek statues, lovers in each other’s arms as the world slowly fell away around us, leaving behind a world or ruin over time. A romantic thought. And Hades, with his classical sensibilities, might have liked it, but I was a human and made out of much more mortal stuff.
“Come on.” I beckoned by giving his arm a gentle tug. “This way.”
I led him through the ruins of what I perceived to have been a temple once. Weren’t there thousands of temples across all of Greece dedicated to the gods who once had been great and were now only footnotes in a historians’ papers? As we walked along the old stones of halls long gone, I imagined how dim it would have been then, with only torches and stone dish lamps to light our way. We ended up in a space enclosed on three sides by stone walls. The ground had returned to earth, a lush bed of grass that was soft, thick, and gorgeous in the center. I lay down on my back, sighing as the cool of the earth diffused into my warm skin, literally grounding me. From there I got an incredible view of the stars, and I wondered where the rest of the gods might have resided.
