The thrill of excitement shot through me again as I stood up, brushing myself off. This time it was mingled with potent fear though, the idea that I stood on the brink between the land of the living and of the dead lodged in the front of my conciseness. Life after death could be filled with anything—no story, horrific or otherwise, that I’d ever heard before was off limits as a possibility in this place.
I cocked my head to the side in the dim light, having thought I heard someone whispering beside me. As soon as I tried to listen though, it disappeared, a figment of my over excited and active imagination.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, a face peered at me from around one of the many corners, grim and menacing. Turning quickly, I raised my fists, the only defense I had, and waited to see who had discovered me. Again, nothing was there.
An uneasy knot began to form in the pit of my stomach, Erebos’s warning of being caught ringing in my ears as more whispers floated towards me from unknown origins. I needed to get moving and fast.
Fingers trembling slightly, I pulled the directions from my pocket and looked at the first word.
Right.
There were three tunnels branching off to my right, two to the left, one behind me, and a solid wall in front of me. Panic gripped at my chest and I felt like fainting as I looked to my right, wondering which passage I was supposed to take.
“Take a deep breath and clam down, Hurricane,” I coached myself, closing my eyes and resisting the urge to cover my ears as the voices grew around me. “It’s going to be simple. You fell in here and now you’re going to go . . .”
My eyes snapped open and I looked at the wall in front of me. I’d fallen in here . . . backwards. Turning, I put the wall at my back, looking in the direction I was really supposed to go this time. I hadn’t noticed before, but one of the two tunnels bent more forward facing, though the opening was more to the side as I’d originally seen. That left just one tunnel that fit the direction I was supposed to go.
“See, simple,” I muttered again, feeling a chill come over me as another face appeared and vanished in my peripheral vision.
Apparently, the Underworld wasn’t the only place spirits roamed around here. I guess that made sense, since there were ghost stories and such. If they had been gods, wouldn’t they have come to get me by now anyway? Erebos had said something about voices, I was just going to have to trust this was what he meant.
Taking a deep breath, I decided it was time to move on. I didn’t like being stared at any more than the next person and there was always a chance I would get caught if I stayed longer. Did someone, or something, patrol the maze looking for intruders like me?
As an extra measure and last minute thought, I picked up on of the smaller, loose rocks next to the wall and scratched a medium sized “x” on the wall I’d somehow come through. It was my security feature, something to look for if I did end up lost in here.
Dropping the stone as soon as I’d finished, I moved down the tunnel my instructions said without another look back. The whispers and incoherent voices followed after me, growing in number and volume the further I walked. It was enough to make me feel crazy, to want to turn around and shout at them to be quiet. Everywhere I didn’t look directly, eyes devoured me, slipping back into the shadows if I tried to match their gazes. Finally, I came to another break, several tunnels to choose from. With a quick check of my paper, I moved to the right again, resisting the urge to run from the sounds bearing down on me.
It felt like I walked through those tunnels for hours. Sometimes, the next turn would come quickly. Others, it felt like I would continue walking straight until the end of time when, finally, the rock around me would crack open and I’d be greeted by merciful sunlight who would chase the voices and faces away.
If I concentrated on what the spirits said, nothing made any sense. The words sounded like garbled static coming through a broken radio. It was only when I paid attention to the path or something else that phrases jumped out at me. Sometimes it sounded like a small plea for help. Others were terrifying words of revenge and hatred. Thankfully, I never caught entire sentences. I didn’t want to know what suffering they were experiencing here, in the dark.
As I walked through one tunnel, I started to notice the sounds fading away, the faces not looking around things at me anymore. The knot in my stomach clenched tightly, recognizing the warning of someone coming. I quickened my pace, trying to stay calm despite the frantic beating of my heart and the quickening of my breath.
Faster and faster I walked, until I realized I was running, my breath coming in loud gasps. The voices had fallen silent behind me, leaving me to discover the end of the path on my own.
A large stone wall sat in front of me, a few other passageways spanning off to the side. I fumbled with my paper again, having crushed it in my fist, looking to see where I was going next.
There were no more directions.
The silence pulled at my ears worse than the undead had, driving me nearly insane with fear and worry as I waited for whoever was coming to find me. Desperate, I looked around for a place to hide, but only saw the remaining tunnels, leading on to more mysteries and forgotten places, I was sure.
A sob stuck in my throat, I shoved the paper back into my pocket and ran my hands into my hair, stepping over to the rock wall and leaning against it to wait for my fate to catch up with me.
As I stood there, wondering what was about to happen to me, a strange feeling came over my entire body. Looking down at my ring, I noticed the smoke moving inside again, seeping out and wrapping around me. My hand changed as the mist moved, my fingers lengthening slightly and skin color turning to more of a white than sun tanned.
The change the ring was supposed to put on me to hide me while in the Underworld was happening. But hadn’t Erebos said that it would only work once I was there?
I straightened and moved away from the wall, trying not be mesmerized by the change in my figure. If the ring was working, then I was where I was supposed to be, somehow.
Looking around, I searched for some type of opening again, coming up with nothing. I was almost positive that the only thing standing between me and my destination though was the wall in front of me.
Hesitantly, I held my new hands up and placed them on the rocks, pushing slightly to see what would happen. Just as I’d hoped, they started to fall through the stone, much like I had when I’d entered the maze.
Smiling to myself, I looked over my body the best I could, trying to see if my transformation was complete. The smoke had returned to the ring, turning solid again and making the stone a hard black. As far as I could tell, I didn’t look like Katrina any more, but Persephone.
“This is it,” I mumbled, pushing down my uncertain feelings. “No turning back.”
Before I could really think it through, keeping the face of my father happily holding my mother again in his arms in my mind, I took a deep breath and pushed through the wall.
It was if I’d passed through air. Not a single thing would have tipped me off to the fact that I was walking through stone if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The further I pushed through, the more it opened up to me, until finally, I was through the gates and in the Underworld.
A massive wall of heat hit me as soon as I was completely through, the stench of something burning attacking my nostrils. I was standing on a sandy beach, a wide, dark watered river stretching out in front of me, the other side almost indiscernible. Other than that, there was nothing. No people, no houses, just a never ending view of the shore and the water running by it.
Tentatively, I walked towards the water, wondering where the boat was I’d been told would be waiting. What if there was some special, god like thing I was supposed to do to get it to come to me? Did Erebos really know everything I’d needed to know, or had he sent me in blind anyway?
I licked my lips in nervous anticipation, half expecting a giant stream of fire to shoot from nowhere and incinerate me for trying to fool Hades
.
As I reached the water’s edge, I looked around again, trying to see if maybe there was a boat further down that I’d missed. My searching was quickly stopped though as I jumped back in shock, watching a little, one person boat rise up out of the water.
The inside drained out easily, drying quickly in the extreme heat, and then just sat there. I stared at it, not quite knowing how to process such an arrival and if I was to be waiting for someone else to join me. After a few minutes of nothing though, I tentatively, reached out to grab the side, finding it surprisingly steady in the water.
It took another breath of courage to climb inside and sit down, confusion at how I was to move forward still rattling around inside my head. However, that was taken care of for me as well. As soon as I was seated, the boat began floating forward, the current taking it further away from shore and pushing it quickly downstream.
As I sat, going to a destination that the boat clearly knew, I looked around, trying to see what the Underworld looked like. Unfortunately, it still looked much like the maze, a bunch of rocks in a dark cave. After some time though, I saw a building in the distance and what looked like more rivers converging in on the one I currently rode on. One river looked just the same, feeding in from another place, but the other was astonishing to me.
It was a river of fire, probably the source of the heat I felt. It flowed in towards the building I’d now come to recognize as a grand, black, stone palace, and then wrapped around somewhere else, disappearing into the darkness. As soon as I could see the detail on the castle though, all thoughts of the strange river left my mind.
It looked like something you would see in an old horror movie, the lair of an evil scientist or something. At the same time though, it was heart-breakingly beautiful, a masterpiece like none other. I almost wanted to cry that no one had ever seen it until they had passed on from their mortal life.
We neared the castle and a gate began lifting out of the water, letting us enter in easily. A scared lump formed in my throat as I saw guards standing by, but none of them even looked at me as I passed, some even turning around completely. Eventually, the boat stopped next to a staircase that extended out into the water and I knew it was time for me to move again.
Gingerly, I stepped out onto the smooth stairs and ascended up them, making sure to avoid eye contact with anyone nearby. They continued to ignore me though, either not caring for my presence or too afraid to meet my own eye.
It was then that I remembered what little I’d read about Persephone. She was strong and menacing, a force of her own to be reckoned with. It could very well be that they didn’t look at me out of fear of her. This thought in mind, I straightened to my full height and walked a little more proudly, trying to put on a show of, what I hoped, was normalcy for them.
I followed the red carpeted path from the stairs into the building, not sure where I was supposed to be going, but banking on the thought that I was the queen and could do what I wanted. So far, it appeared my disguise was working perfectly.
Finally, the path ended at a doorway and I entered slowly, hoping for some solitude to calm my frayed nerves that were begging to be released in a sobbing mess of safety I wouldn’t find here.
I wasn’t so lucky.
“Persephone, what a surprise. I thought for sure you would have stayed a few more days just to spite me.”
The room was shrouded in darkness, a high backed chair set in front of a roaring fire place. I didn’t even know how anyone stood the heat. Next to the chair was a small table, a bottle of wine set on it. All I could see of the person speaking was their arm resting on the chair, a wine glass held loosely between their fingers.
It was time to see if my shroud would fool Hades.
Chapter Seven
“Would you like me to leave?” I asked hesitantly, not knowing exactly how the relationship between us was. Should I be afraid of him? Should I boss him around? For myself, I wanted to flee the room and hide somewhere until the end of winter, but what would Persephone do?
A barking laugh came from the chair and the hand set the wine glass down on the table next to the bottle. In a second, Hades rose from his chair and turned to look at me, a smug smile on his face and fire in his eyes.
I tried not to gasp as I looked at him for the first time. As silly a thought as it seemed in my situation, I couldn’t help but notice how extremely attractive he was. In my mind, I’d pictured him as an older man, bearded and fierce, like the myths portrayed him. He was anything but now.
He didn’t look a day over thirty, with light green eyes that would have smoldered even without the flames in them. His skin was flawless as well, the lower half of his face sporting a small amount of stubble the same color as the short brown hair he quickly brushed back off his forehead.
“I see you didn’t bring anything back with you again,” he said, slowly making his way towards me, crossing his arms as he looked me over. “Not to worry though. I took the initiative and had clothes bought for you. There won’t be an extra, unscheduled trip to the surface again this year.”
I remained silent, which elicited an eye squinting look from him.
“What’s the matter with you?” he demanded. “Nothing to say to your husband? None of your usual, welcome home fighting?”
My brain was scrambling, trying to figure out what I was supposed to say to him. There was no way he was going to fall for this ruse, especially if I was too tongue tied to talk to him.
“I’m hungry,” I settled on lamely.
“Dinner’s in the dining hall, just like every time you take your sweet time coming back. But this year . . . Why are you here early? Surely, you didn’t miss your home here?”
He smiled meanly, obviously enjoying the goading he was giving me. For whatever reason, that gave me the courage to snap back at him like he so obviously expected.
“If you must know,” I said, letting a little heat sneak into my tone. “I felt it necessary to make sure no one had escaped on your watch.”
His grin turned to that of a sour frown and the fire in his eyes flashed even brighter, more dangerous. I’d struck a nerve without intending to, having reached for the only thing I could think of, based on the myths I’d read.
“You know as well as I do, princess,” he sneered, closing the space between us and grabbing my chin, forcing me to tilt my head back and look into his eyes. “Those Titans are under eternal guard. No one is escaping on my watch.”
It took all of my strength not to crumble under his touch. The thought that my disguise might not be enough wasn’t the only thing that bothered me though. This man was a rapist and he thought I was his prey. What was to stop him from trying again?
The memories of the drunk in the alley, the way his hands had crawled over me, mixed with the image of Hades in front of me. It was too much to handle, too much to let sink in as I tried to find my limits.
“Don’t touch me!” I hissed, jerking my face from his hand and slapping his fingers away from me.
He roared at me in anger, grabbing me by both arms and shaking me hard.
“Have you forgotten who I am? You do not get to treat me as dirt under your finger nail! I’m tired of it!”
“And I am . . . Your wife!” I yelled back, pulling away from him, his hands leaving red marks. “You do not get to treat me as something you use and are done with! If you demand respect from me, I demand the same from you.”
He looked at me in surprise and I cringed on the inside. Apparently, Persephone wasn’t one to fight back for equal treatment.
“Finally,” he said, stepping back and sliding his hands over the black t-shirt he was wearing, like a bird settling ruffled feathers. “I was worried we were going to have another year of ‘woe is me, I’m so tortured and misunderstood’ Persephone. It’s nice to see that at least your backbone made it back with you, even if you left everything else who knows where.”
He laughed again as my mouth popped open in surprise, walking back to his seat and gra
bbing up the wine glass. Taking a swig much like the one’s I’d seen my mom try to drown herself in, he gulped the liquid down quickly, picking up the bottle and refilling his cup before turning back to me again.
“Shall we?” he asked, holding an arm out to me in an odd offer as an escort.
I hesitated a moment, the marks on my arms smarting some from his strong grip, and he rolled his eyes at me.
“Oh good grief,” he said, striding towards me and grabbing my hand. “You could at least act a little happy to see me. I had all of your favorite foods brought down and they’re going to go cold if we don’t head to dinner now.”
“Brought down?” I asked, letting him lead me to the door and open it for me.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” he said, joining me in the hallway and taking my hand once again, swirling the liquid in the cup he apparently was bringing along.
I wanted to pull away, but it seemed like this was something he would normally do. He was married to Persephone, holding hands wasn’t that odd. Was it?
“I made sure all of your precious human food was here and ready, properly stored. You check every year when you return. Such paranoia!”
“I can’t eat food from Hades or I’ll be stuck here,” I said, mostly to myself as I remembered more of the myth involving him and the capture of his wife.
“Yeah, yeah. I still think that eating it now won’t do you any harm—you’re stuck with me, get over it—but if you want to make sure your sentence can’t be extended somehow by eating my food, fine. I will go out of my way to make you stop whining about it. But, I expect you to hold up your end of the deal and hold my hand on the way to every meal in return.”
I sighed in relief, thankfully going unnoticed by him as he took another sip of his drink. It hadn’t even occurred to me about the food. If I’d eaten some of it, who’s to say I wouldn’t have been trapped here like Persephone?
Hades (The God Chronicles #3) Page 5
