So I walked the woods, and I watched the battles that raged, from a distance. Zeus really enjoyed his lightning. Buildings in the Nether smoked. Fires were an almost constant thing, accompanied by the screams and shouts of the demons and other creatures caught up in the gods’ war.
I wandered. Not lost. I was learning about the Nether. Where I could hide, where I could find food. The best vantage points to watch Hades’ home. I watched the gods in battle, taking note of their battle styles, their weaknesses. That was one of the many things I’d learned from Brennan, back when he’d trained me to fight: everyone, no matter how strong, has a weakness. Learn what it is, and you can beat anyone. I had mine, without a doubt. And the gods had theirs, too. Zeus was cocky to a fault, used to being the biggest one, intimidating with the lightning. Sure, lightning would hurt. Couldn’t be any worse than being caught in a bomb blast and losing your skin and a few limbs. I wasn’t afraid of that. Apollo charged, sometimes with a lance, sometimes with a huge battle ax. So many opportunities for someone smaller and faster than him to get inside that huge reach and stick him through the gut.
Not that I planned on doing that. Of course.
So I watched, and I thought, and I planned. And in the midst of it, I had a moment of clarity. There was a loose end out there that needed to be tied up, now. Hermes and Enyo had not been in on the little secret of my lineage. Not at first. Where would they have gotten the idea, years ago, to go after me? The Nether at large didn’t know about me until the day I'd walked through the gateway and confronted a bunch of demons.
I thought back to the that last day, the day I’d closed the gate. Persephone had sprung it on me, that I was not Cithaeron's daughter, but Hades’. And I’d confronted Hades with that knowledge.
"Hades," I said. "Please forgive my tardiness. I apologize." Dad, I thought at him.
He barely reacted, though I did note a tiny grimace. My wife talks too much. You and I will speak later, he thought at me. "Not a problem, my dear. Hermes here was early."
Who else knows? I need to know. Now.
I settled my gaze on Hermes. I would heed Persephone’s warning. I didn’t like her, but she was shrewd, and if she saw fit to warn me against him…
Me, my wife, your mother, Cithaeron, and you. That’s it.
Cithaeron knows?
Your mother had some explaining to do. As did I with Persephone.
A short list. Enyo, and, later, Hermes, had learned about me from someone. That list was a pretty good place to start. Considering that my mother’s sisters hadn’t even been told about me (not by her, at least) I didn’t think Tisiphone had blabbed to anyone. Hades knew that my existence and what it meant made everything more complicated. If nothing else, my father was practical and calculating. He would not have talked about me, choosing to play things close to the chest until he had use of me.
Cithaeron was a mountain god. Trapped in the mortal realm, now. He was even less interested in political bullshit than Artemis, from what I’d heard.
Which left Persephone. Who had never, ever liked me. Who was outwardly respectful and affectionate toward Hades, but harbored a simmering anger toward him.
She’d known. And she’d made sure I knew about Hades, and steered my attention toward Hermes.
How could I have been so stupid? I’d believed the "oh, I’m worried about Hades" shtick she’d fed me. She wanted me to focus on Hermes. She wanted him gone. Before he did what Hermes did, and made a deal. Before I learned where it had all started.
I ran through it all in my mind, looking for flaws in my reasoning. Cithaeron was still a possibility. I didn’t know him. But I knew Persephone, and she was a calculating, angry woman who hated my guts. She did love my father; I could sense that. It was what kept her at my father’s side, despite the way they’d gotten together, despite the fact that my father had slept with Tisiphone, and made me. She’d known it, and whispered it to the right goddess, Enyo, who wanted power and respect, and Enyo had brought Hermes in, because he could get to my realm easier, where he could use his pet demon, Astaroth, to track me down and capture me so they could use me. And when Astaroth failed, they knew I’d find my way there somehow. And I had.
It just hadn’t worked out quite the way they’d hoped.
What did Persephone get out of it? My death, of course. That would have been welcome. Revenge on Hades and Tisiphone.
Why did I have to die before I finally started thinking?
Okay. So I knew. Now what? How far did her rage go? Was Hades in danger now? There was a war going on. Lots of confusion, craziness. The perfect time to make a move against Hades. They couldn’t really kill him, obviously. Not without me wielding the blade. But they could weaken him. Capture him. Not that I cared, really, all that much. I didn’t know my father. Between the two of them, though, I’d much rather have Hades in charge of the Nether than Persephone. Hades could be reasoned with.
Maybe.
Shit. Time to go visit my stepmom.
Chapter Three
I made my way to Hades’ palace. It wasn’t hard. The streets, usually bustling, were mostly empty as sane beings tried to stay out of the chaos of battle and everyone else partook in the bloodlust happening on the battlefields. They fought in the sky, on the ground. It was loud, and chaotic, and freaking terrifying. But it made it easy to sneak up to the front door of Hades’ palace. I turned the knob. Locked. Well. There went my element of surprise.
I lifted my hand and knocked once, lightly. A demon answered the door, and his eyes widened in surprise when he recognized me. I held a finger up to my lips.
"Who do you serve?" I asked him quietly, meeting his gaze.
"You, my Lady. Of course."
"Excellent. Then stay silent about me."
He nodded, saluted me by pressing his fist to his heart. He opened the door wider, and I walked past him. My status, as the daughter of the Lord of Death, still held some sway after all. The demons had pledged themselves to me, both because of my birth line and because I’d bonded to a demon. It didn’t seem to matter to them that I’d moved on. The fact that I’d done so at all was a big deal, and something they took as a sign that I was better than the gods they’d been serving.
I’d take it. Every bit of it.
As I walked through the halls, I greeted several demons, each who either saluted or dropped to a knee at the sight of me. I ordered each of them to keep quiet, asked where Persephone was.
"She is in the music room, my Lady," a female demon finally said.
"And my father?"
"Battlefield," she said.
I nodded, thanked her, and she saluted me and went on her way.
I made my way to the music room. The soft strains of piano music met my ears, something haunting and lonely, something full of sadness and loss. I tried to ignore the way it made my heart ache as I peeked into the room. Persephone sat at the piano, long, thin fingers rippling over the keys. Her head was bowed, and when I sensed for her, I felt a tornado of emotion: sadness, anger, loss, fear. She did not feel me, engrossed as she was in the music. All I could think about was how much I’d lost because of the creature sitting at the piano.
I walked across the stone floor, the soft treads of my boots soundless as I neared her. I held my hand out, and my flame sword appeared at my side. I reached her, grabbed her hair and put my sword blade to her throat in one smooth motion. She gasped in surprise, the music stopped, and I felt something beautiful from her in the sudden silence.
Fear.
It fed what I’d always considered my internal demon, the part of me I’d gotten from my parents, the part that lusted for fear, pain, anger. The part of me that liked to cause pain, that reveled in knowing I was feared. It was so easy to get lost in it, seductive. It was so much stronger in the Nether, so much harder to resist, already. So easy to let it take over, to submit to the whispers that if I just gave in, I’d be the most powerful being in existence. That the world was mine to take, and it all started here. I could ha
ve it all.
"Hello, Persephone. How is my favorite evil stepmother today?" I asked quietly, and I could hear the coldness in my own voice. "Did you miss me?"
"I thought you were trapped in your own realm," Persephone said, a slight tremor in her voice. Her fear still washed over me, along with her ever-present dislike of me. To her credit, she stayed still and calm.
"That would have been nice for you, wouldn’t it?" I asked, pulling the sword back, releasing her hair.
"That’s not what I said," she said, turning around on the bench and looking at me.
"So when exactly did you tell Enyo about me?" I watched her. Sensed for her. Anger. Guilt. Irritation.
"Years ago. Not long after you were born, probably," she said quietly.
"So she could come after me?"
She huffed out an irritated breath. "No. You won’t believe it, but no. I was angry. I was hurt. My husband, such as he is, created life with someone else when he couldn’t create it with me. I vented to someone who was a friend at the time."
"You were friends with Enyo?" I asked, still watching every move she made, refusing to be surprised.
"We gods have been around longer than you can imagine. Most of us have been friends and enemies with each other at one point or another. For a time, Enyo was one of my closest friends." She looked up at me. "I did not know she would do what she did with that knowledge. Believe me when I said I never wanted you to come here. I wanted you to stay hidden. I never wanted to know you, or have you become part of our lives."
"Gee, thanks."
"You’re welcome."
I watched her. Took a deep breath. "I really wanted to kill you when I came in here," I said. I could feel my power settling down, the hunger that her fear had awakened now abating a bit.
"I could tell," she said dryly. "You would be in the right if you did. It was ultimately my fault she found you."
"Do you want me to kill you?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at her.
"Not particularly, no. I just know that, should you decide to, I’ll be dead no matter how hard I tried to fight you." She paused, shot a dark look in my direction. "This is why they hate you so much. We can all feel it. When you walk into a room, it is as if Death itself walks there. How do mortals live with the constant knowledge that they are destined to die?" she asked, shaking her head.
"They tend not to think about it too much. They think about the day-to-day, the next lover, the next house, the next promotion." I shrugged. "They’re probably a lot smarter than the gods in that way. Or their lives actually have some meaning, other than simply trying not to die off."
"Touche'."
"Truth."
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "How did you end up here?"
I sat down on the sofa near the piano. "I’m not sure." I wanted to keep my resurrection close to my chest. I had a feeling knowing I’d come back from death when I was supposed to be mortal would only freak everybody out more. "But lucky for you I did, huh?" I asked.
She just glared at me, clamped her mouth down as if she’d decided saying what was on her mind was probably a bad idea.
I grinned at her. "At least you hate me for a good reason. I’m the living, breathing proof that Hades fucked around on you."
"Oh, thanks ever so much for that sensitive reminder of our relationship," Persephone said, crossing her arms.
"Sure. The love between us is mutual, believe me." She shook her head again and we sat in silence for a few minutes. "How is the war faring for our side?"
"These wars are so stupid. Both sides are pretty much equal in power, so it’s a constant stalemate."
"They’re just fighting to fight," I said.
"Of course. They know there won’t actually be a winner and loser. Zeus and Hades will go at it until they get bored, and then things will go back to the way they were," Persephone said.
"And they’ll cause a lot of destruction in the meantime," I murmured.
She nodded. "I would not want to be in your world right now. You see how bad it looks here? Last time they fought, one of the World Wars in the mortal realm was the result."
"Which one?" I asked.
"How should I know?" she said, annoyed again.
I took a breath. It would feel really, really good to punch her in her overly-gorgeous face. But I wouldn’t. "It needs to end."
"This one will probably last longer. They have you to fight over now. Hades and Tisiphone protecting their cherished little daughter, everyone else wishing you were dead. The quickest way to end it would be for you to die, really."
"I can totally see what my father sees in you, Persephone," I muttered, and she laughed.
"I’m not saying anything you don’t already know, abomination."
I tried not to show my annoyance at the word. It was true, as far as it went. "No. But I have no intention of dying."
"Pity."
I was about to answer when I felt Hades enter the house, and a few minutes later he was stalking into the music room.
He stared at me.
"What the Nether are you doing here?" he asked, voice raised, anger and fear rolling off of him in waves.
"Hi dad. Nice to see you, too," I said.
He growled. "This is the worst place for you to be. You are supposed to be in your realm, protecting the mortals. Why are you here?" he shouted.
"I don’t know. I closed the gateway and got trapped here. The war needs to end, now."
He laughed, a cold humorless laugh that I’d often heard from myself in times of stress. "Yeah? Try telling Zeus that. And even more so once he realizes you’re here. Damn it!"
"He won’t realize I’m here until I want him to," I said. "I’ve been here the whole time, and the only reason you realized I was here was because I came to pay mommy dearest a visit."
"Why?" Hades asked, finally sparing a look at his wife, avoiding my eyes.
"Did you ever stop to wonder who told Enyo about me, when there were only four of you who knew about me, and she wasn’t one of them?" I said quietly.
I watched Hades. Felt for him. And there was no surprise from him. Guilt. But not surprise.
"You knew," I said softly.
"I knew," he admitted. "I’m dealing with it."
"Meaning?" I asked him, glancing at Persephone.
"Meaning," she said, voice full of venom, "that I am a prisoner in this house, that my mind is completely tied to him so that I can’t even have a single thought without him knowing it. He knew you were here with me, because he’s in my mind."
Hades looked at me. "She can’t be trusted. I know this. I’m dealing with it."
"I could kill her. Or you could send her to my mother," I said.
Hades met my eyes. I love her. I’m a fool, but I love her. I’m dealing with it.
If she steps out of line again…
He gave a terse nod. Then you’ll do what needs to be done.
I looked away from my father after a minute. Everything in me told me to kill her now, no matter what Hades wanted. But I also knew I needed my father firmly in my corner if I wanted to end the war as quickly as possible and open the gateway.
"We need to end this so I can go home," I said after a few minutes. "You are probably ripping my world apart."
"Probably," he agreed. "I’ve never seen Zeus so bloodthirsty. I’d be more impressed if it wasn’t me he was so intent on bleeding."
"So you’re saying you don’t think he’ll just say ‘okay, I was done anyway’?"
He snorted. "Not likely, no." He watched me. "Just let it play out."
"Not acceptable. People in my world are probably dying because of you gods and your bullshit, and I’m trapped here and can’t protect them."
"What are you going to do? Kill everyone who doesn’t agree with you?" Hades asked, laughing.
I met his eyes.
He stopped laughing.
"If I have to. Yeah, I will."
He was shaken. My father was afraid. Of me. He tried to hid
e it, tried to appear calm. He took a deep breath.
"I’ll try to get Zeus to meet with me about a truce," he said, shaking his head.
"Do that. Do not tell him I’m here."
He nodded. I watched him. His fear made him untrustworthy.
"I want a piece of your mind, the way you have Persephone’s," I said.
"What?" he asked me, raising his voice, anger rising amid his fear.
I just watched him. "Should I take it, or will you give it to me?"
He watched me. "If you can figure out how to do it, then I won’t fight you." Smug bastard. He reminded me of Nain, just then.
I rolled my eyes. Concentrated and made my way into his mind. As soon as I got in, I really wished I hadn’t.
Shoving my way into Hades’ mind was like wading into a swirling abyss of death and agony. The second I entered, I was assaulted with his memories, his thoughts. And if I’d ever thought I was kind of dark, I looked like a freaking teddy bear next to what I saw in Hades’ mind. Death, judgment, retribution, dealt by him, or by the Furies, over and over and over again. Men and women in clothing from every era, from every nation and every culture on Earth, their worst deeds and punishments.
Hades remembered them all.
They were part of him, just as the punishments I’d dealt in my short time working as a Fury were part of me. The memories of those I’d punished were with me, every second of my life, sometimes floating to the forefront of my thoughts at the strangest times, surprising me with terror in the middle of peace.
Not that there had ever been much peace. But still.
It was enough – just those few seconds in Hades’ mind — to make me want to curl up in a corner and sob. I don’t have time for weakness anymore, I reminded myself. I steeled myself against the assault of his memories, tried focusing. I was here to get a hook into his mind, the same way he did into Persephone’s. Because he couldn’t trust her.
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