by Bella Klaus
The woman rushed in front of the captain, her brown eyes wide enough to reveal flecks of amber. “Your Majesty?”
I stepped back, raising my free palm. “That’s not me.”
Her gaze darted to the bident and back to my face, her brows drawing into a frown. “They said you had lost your memories and been put in a different body.”
I turned to Captain Caria, who shrugged. Apparently, our trip to see Madame Lorraine hadn’t counted for anything.
My throat dried. Either the captain didn’t care that I wasn’t Persephone or she was thinking along the same lines as Queen Mera and waiting for the Demon King to get what he wanted out of me and lose interest.
“Where’s Hades?” I asked.
“He ordered me to take you out for breakfast,” said the captain. “Would you like to get changed?”
“That depends on where we’re going,” I replied.
Captain Caria opened a door that led to a less ornate external office. “Unfortunately, you can’t leave the building because Demeter has enchanted the trees to recapture you.”
My mind conjured up an image of the time Mother had enchanted an oak tree with a gaping maw that had gobbled up a squirrel, and I shuddered. “Are they attacking people?”
“Only those with Greek blood,” the captain replied with a scowl.
I shook my head. Since the captain was also a goddess, the trees had probably tried to abduct her. As much as I wanted answers from Mother, I wasn’t sure I could face her with the power surging through my veins. She made me so furious, I was more likely to electrocute her if she so much as tried to manhandle me.
“If you could point me somewhere I can get washed up?” I said.
The woman in the blue dress stepped forward, her features lit up with a broad smile. “My name is Namara Carin, and I’ve worked with His Majesty since the beginning of the Fifth Faction. If you’d like to follow me, I will escort you to one of his bathrooms.”
Captain Caria strode to the leather sofa. “I’ll wait for you here.”
I followed Namara to the wooden staircase on the right and watched her sashay up the steps with a swishing walk. Her figure was as curvaceous as mine would look if Mother had allowed me to wear such form-fitting clothes, and I wondered if Hades had a type.
“What do you do for Hades?”
She glanced at me over her shoulder and smiled. “I handle his diary, run his errands, and take care of his personal correspondence.”
“What does that mean?”
“Are you asking if His Majesty was faithful during your two-thousand-year absence?”
Heat flared across my cheeks. She was making me sound jealous. “Why would I care about something like that when I’m not even his wife?”
“Perhaps there was no ceremony, but I read the notes of your trial. According to ancient decree, you and His Majesty are legally wed.”
Namara stopped at a mezzanine level made of the same mahogany with a back wall lined with an elaborate tapestry of the Greek gods. Mother stood behind the throne of a man with curly white hair and a trim beard.
All thoughts of whether I was or wasn’t Persephone evaporated, and I rushed up to the huge image, my mouth dropping open.
“Who’s that?” I pointed at the man.
“Zeus,” Namara replied. “Do you not recognize your parents?”
I turned to her and frowned. “Which one is Persephone?”
“Demeter kept her hidden from all around the time this tapestry was woven.”
“Were you there?”
“Me?” She placed a hand on her chest. “I didn’t leave Hell until I was assigned to the Fifth after the Great Divide.”
Yesterday or the day before, I might have flinched and wondered what she looked like beneath her glamor, but I’d learned enough about demons to realize that some of them were just supernatural prison officers.
I turned back to the tapestry and studied the two men at Zeus’s left. The one closest to him was also white-haired but with a beard that flowed like water. In his hand was a trident.
Standing next to him was a scowling man with bushy black curls and a tight beard. He looked the same age as Zeus but was holding Hades’ bident. “Wait a minute.” I pointed at him. “Who’s that?”
Namara sighed. “His Majesty didn’t tell you?”
I turned to meet her eyes. “Tell me what?”
“He hasn’t shared the full details of what happened with me, but it involved the Vampire King, the Fire Queen, and the former Mage King.” She rubbed her temples. “Hades went missing for a few days and returned to us looking younger.”
My gaze darted to the scowling man. “With a younger glamor, you mean?”
She shook her head, her lips turning down. “The handsome young man is him.”
“What’s so bad about being better looking?”
Namara lowered her lashes and bit down on her bottom lip. “I’ve already said enough.”
I placed a hand on her arm. “Hades told me what’s going on in the Fifth Faction. If he’s in trouble—”
“Please don’t ask me to betray his confidence.” Her voice shook.
My breath hitched, and my cheeks burned with a mix of guilt and shame. I couldn’t use my status to force her to reveal her boss’s secrets.
It didn’t matter if Namara thought I was Persephone or not. In her mind and according to the Supernatural Council’s ruling, I was Hades’ wife and the Demon King’s consort.
“I’ll tell her,” Captain Caria said from behind us. “But over breakfast.”
After cleansing myself of blood and gore, I walked with Captain Caria through the palace’s red-carpeted hallway. Bright sunlight streamed in through gold-framed windows that overlooked the park and the lake that housed Duck Island.
Office workers and enforcers slowed their steps to dip into bows and curtseys, wishing Her Majesty a good morning. Most of them wore glamors but those who didn’t appeared human enough but with minor demonic features such as horns, and slitted pupils.
She opened the door to a private dining room with seating for eight and a view of a manicured rose garden. An imp appeared out of thin air, holding two large paper bags and placed their contents on the table.
“I didn’t think you would trust the food, so we ordered a few items from a human coffee shop.”
“Thanks.” I took a seat by the windows and stared at a cardboard carry tray of insulated cups, their contents labelled with black marker pen.
The captain placed a wooden box in front of me on the table. “I found this while investigating the fire in your room.”
“Queen Mera gave it to me.” I flipped open its lid, revealing the multicolored bonbons, and met the captain’s amber eyes. “How is Minthe doing? The last time I saw her, she was rolled up like an armadillo.”
“Regenerating.” She took the seat opposite me and grabbed a cup labelled ‘Black.’
Once the imp finished unloading the paper bag, she disappeared with a pop.
I grabbed coconut latte, which sounded exotic, and opened up a paper box containing a toasted cheese sandwich. It tasted of spiced tuna, pickles, red onions, and melted cheese, seasoned with parsley and black pepper.
“You were going to explain how Hades regained his youth?” I asked with a hopeful lilt to my voice.
The captain leaned back in her seat and stared at me with narrowed eyes. “How do you explain the presence of Persephone’s power in the room?”
I gulped down my mouthful and washed it down with a swig of latte. “Maybe whoever attacked me used the same plants.”
“No.”
“What do you mean?”
“She didn’t just employ the exact same strains of deadly ivy as Persephone. It was her magic, her aura, her scent.”
“This is all new to me.” I placed my toasted sandwich back in its box. “Until two days ago, I thought the Greek gods were people in Mount Olympus who may or may not have existed.”
When she didn’t reply,
I said, “The thorns tore into my skin and injected me with a poison. Hades had to fly me into Persephone’s garden for the antidote.”
Captain Caria stared at me for several moments, studying my features like they might hold some clues.
“What if Demeter sent you here to assassinate Hades?” she asked.
I swallowed. “That’s impossible. She never mentioned him once.”
“Yet she brought you up with a distrust of demons.”
My shoulders rose in a shrug. “Mother told me awful stories about monsters who did terrible things to women, and I was scared for a long time. Not anymore, though. I think that was more to stop me from wanting to leave the house.”
Her brows rose.
I pursed my lips, trying to be understanding. Captain Caria was worried about her father, and my sudden appearance after over two thousand years was awfully suspicious, especially in light of Madame Lorraine’s claims that I wasn’t much older than two centuries.
“Mother also told me I was dying.” I picked up my sandwich and took a bite. “Even though I’m a prisoner here, I’ve never felt so free.”
She held my stare for several moments longer before her posture relaxed. “Demeter hasn’t been right since losing Persephone in the Great Purge.”
My shoulders sagged with relief, and I exhaled a long breath. At least the captain acknowledged that I wasn’t her mother. “What happened?”
“It started as an earthquake in one of the Roman Provinces one night in 17AD that shook the Underworld.” She picked up a small paper bag and extracted an almond croissant. “Hades sent Hermes out to investigate, and when he didn’t return with news, he asked Hecate to search for him. When they didn’t return, we all went out in search of them.”
I leaned forward, my eyes wide. Hermes was the messenger of the gods and I was sure that Hecate was related to witchcraft. “What happened?”
“It was raining corpses, and the sea had overtaken the land.” She shook her head. “So many from Mount Olympus perished, their corpses floating to the surface among the survivors. We also found gods who belonged to different cultures, who spoke in languages we couldn’t understand.”
“Aren’t gods immortal?” I placed a hand over my mouth.
She paused, seeming to think about the question. “Only until someone uses the right method to separate their souls from their bodies, but they continue to live in Heaven or Hell.”
“Is that why Samael is so interested in the Fifth Faction?” I asked.
“Because it’s the only part of Hell that contains the power and souls of deceased gods?” Without waiting for my answer, she added, “That’s a huge part of the attraction.”
I sat back in my seat, taking in what she had told me and adding it to what I’d also learned from Hades. The deity who had caused the Great Divide had destroyed a bunch of innocent gods, including Persephone. His motive? To take control of the heavens, make his rivals obsolete, and to reduce the power of Samael, who had been his counterpart.
Now, it looked like Samael was trying to claw his way back to power, and he wanted to sink his teeth into Hades.
After finishing the grilled sandwich, I picked up one of the bags and pulled out an apple pastry. “Was Samael the reason why Hades looks so young?”
“Indirectly.”
I leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
She flicked her wrist, creating a bubble around me that made my ears pop. “This information must never leave this room.”
Curiosity stirred through my insides, and my throat turned so dry that even three sips of coconut latte couldn’t lubricate it. I cracked open a bottle and took a long gulp of cool fluid.
“I won’t betray his secrets,” I said.
Captain Caria nodded. “Samael helped a rogue god to escape from the pit. His name was Prometheus, but he rebranded himself as Kresnik. After obtaining a new body and stealing the magic of his children, Kresnik used the power of a phoenix to reduce His Majesty’s body to ash.”
My mouth dropped open. “How did that happen?”
The captain shook her head. “I’ve heard several accounts of the events of that night, and they’re all different. The one thing I know is that Kresnik divided His Majesty’s remains into several jars, with one mixed into clay for safekeeping.”
“I don’t get it.”
“It’s impossible to burn a Greek god to death,” she said. “They continue living, only in a different form. Kresnik did it so that if His Majesty ever resurrected himself, it would be with one piece missing.”
My brow furrowed. There wasn’t a single thing lacking about Hades’ perfect body. “Like a limb?”
“Like a percentage of his power,” the captain replied. “Gods age even slower than vampires, and they become stronger with each passing century.”
Dread pooled in my belly, making it sink to the floor. Hades was incredibly brave. Not only was he operating an entire division of Hell with half the allotted magic of the other monarchs, but he’d also lost a proportion of his power while dealing with an escaped soul.
The worst part of this was that part of him clung to the belief that I was Persephone. What on earth would he do if Mother ever recaptured me or when he finally allowed himself to see the truth?
“That’s why he looks so young?” I asked.
“Let me put it like this,” she said. “Without the power of Hell, His Majesty would be barely stronger than me.”
Paranoia crawled across my skin like poison ivy, and I glanced around the empty dining room, hoping the captain’s bubble was secure.
“Who knows this?” I asked.
“We’ve told no one, but it’s not difficult for Samael or another ambitious demon to suspect His Majesty’s vulnerability. That’s why we need you more than ever to collect Persephone’s power.”
I bowed my head. “Were you disappointed to discover I wasn’t her?”
She shook her head with a sad smile. “I gave up hope of ever being reunited with Persephone after the first century, but His Majesty continued to search for her until he found you.”
A knock sounded on the door, and a pair of huge enforcers stepped into the room. “Lady Demeter and four others have broken through the wards and insist on seeing her daughter.”
Captain Caria popped the bubble and rose off her seat. I grabbed the box of bonbons and a few of the larger bags, and scrambled up to follow her to the door.
“I’m going to suggest that you stay in Hell and train until after the Devil’s Ball,” the captain said to me over her shoulder. “Each time you resurface, Demeter and her coven wreak havoc on St. James’s Park.”
Captain Caria returned me to Persephone’s garden, and whistled for the dryads, who led us into a thicket of tall fig trees that grew thicker with twistier trunks until we reached two that formed an archway.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Some of the upheaval in the pit has carried through to the Asphodel Meadows and other parts of the faction. Hell is a bit tumultuous at the moment.” She stepped through the arch into a dim cavern that reminded me of the hollow root tunnels beneath the mansion.
“So, we’re hiding?” I followed after her, my nostrils filling with the damp scent of roots.
“We’re training,” she replied.
The taller nymphs walked ahead, their glowing green hair illuminating the tunnel’s dry, rugged walls as we descended. I wrapped my arms around my middle, hoping Hades’ vision had fully returned and wondering how he was coping with so many of his demons destroyed.
We stepped into a cavern the size of our mansion that looked like the roots of every plant within Persephone’s garden had excavated the space. The walls and floors and ceilings were a mass of twisting roots, dry vines, and vegetation so densely packed it was impossible to identify in the dim light.
“What is this place?” My voice echoed across the walls.
“Persephone loved to develop plants for combat,” the captain replied. “This is her da
rk nursery.”
My brows drew together. The place was completely empty. Where were the tables, the growing lights, the equipment? “It looks more like a subterranean lair.”
Captain Caria turned to me and chuckled, her eyes bright. “I used to call it her subterranean training room for villainous plants. It’s been millennia since I’ve seen this place.”
Something dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.
Turning, I found a six-foot-tall flowerhead lying twenty feet away. It was tulip shaped with brown petals but had a gaping maw of needle-sharp teeth surrounded by beady eyes.
My hand flew to my chest. “What on earth is that?”
“One of her monstrous plants,” the captain replied.
When it rolled over, panting like a dog, I stepped toward it with a hand over my mouth. “It looks half dead.”
“If I remember correctly, that particular one was bred for exsanguination.” The captain pointed at its thorny stem that snaked across the cavern. “It wraps around its victims like a constrictor and the thorns soak up their blood.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Why does that seem so familiar?”
“It’s the same species as the plants that attacked your bedroom,” the captain said, her voice full of accusation. “Nobody knows its younger versions resurfaced yesterday.”
The nymphs wrapped the thorny stem in vines and hauled it back against the wall, where the stem receded into the roots. As the roots swallowed up its head, it spewed out seeds the size of tennis balls, which bounced across the floor.
I stepped away from one, a shudder running down my spine. “Let me know if you ever find out.”
The captain’s uniform bulked out, and a helmet with a transparent visor appeared on her head.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Hades wants me to continue helping you to train.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Is he expecting more attacks?”
She produced a glowing baton. “Rebellions, skirmishes, and assassinations are part of everyday life in Hell. Strength is the only way to survive. On guard.”
My stomach dropped. I raised my palm to fend her off but summoned the bident. Snatching it out of the air, I positioned it in front of my body like a shield. “Hey, wait.”
