Out of Patience Aphrodite

by S. E. Babin

  “I didn't. My father did. It was to be used only in the most dire of emergencies. The door has stood that way for millennia. At least it did until he decided to seal it with the understanding that if it were ever used it could destroy the Underworld. Behind the door are the worst of the worst, the souls who have committed the most heinous acts on Earth and other planes. The souls that I host directly in the Underworld are somewhere between making it to Heaven and Purgatory. None of them are as evil as the ones behind that door. There's something like a vacuum lock. I guess that's the best way to explain it. You have the Underworld, the door, the souls, and then after the souls is the entrance to heaven. So you can't make it to heaven without going through the souls. And releasing those particular souls has the potential to do catastrophic damage both to the Underworld and to the Earth.”

  I let out a scream of bloody murder. Just when I thought I was getting ahead, I get thrown a wrench like this.

  When I had calmed down, I looked back at my husband.

  “Tell me every single thing you know about the door, the lock, and those souls.”

  He sighed. “You might want to make some coffee.”

  25

  “What kind of catastrophic effects are we talking about?” I looked at my mother for help.

  She proceeded to tell me that she wasn't sure whether or not the Underworld would actually be destroyed or whether God was pulling Hades’ leg over it. But from what I knew about the God who had taken my husband, he didn't have a very good sense of humor. So we might need to err on the side of caution. “So what happens if the Underworld doesn't have any more souls?” I asked.

  Hades stared at me like I was insane. “The purpose of the Underworld was always to house the souls. Here is where they sit waiting for the chance to either get into Heaven or to go into Purgatory. Without this place the souls would be in limbo. Now, don't get me wrong. Not having to deal with all of this would be amazing. But I also feel like I would be derelict in my duty if I didn't caution you against this course of action. The Underworld could be destroyed. My kingdom could be gone. With it my power base, and I'm not sure what effect it would have on my magic. My magic is tied to certain places in this Kingdom.”

  “What if we could move the souls?”

  He looked intrigued. “Where?”

  I looked over at Rafe. “What if we could move them to Heaven?”

  Hades chuckled. His eyes were bright with amusement, but the mirth slowly faded when he realized that I was serious. He sat up straighter, put his hands palm down on the table, and gave me an incredulous stare. “This is insanity,” he whispered. “We cannot be contemplating this.”

  I turned to Hecate. “Is it possible?”

  My mother blew out a long, low breath. “You so crazy. But yes. It is feasible.”

  Hades stared at all of us. “You're like a team of immortal wrecking balls.”

  “Yep,” I agreed. I looked up at the wall and saw the ancient clock ticking. “We need to go. Hef won’t be gone forever, so we need to pick up the pace.”

  “Where’s Persephone?” I asked Hades.

  “Returned from her trip. Tanned. Lots of new designer clothing.” He looked away. “Now detained.”

  I nodded. “Good. Ready to screw some shit up?” I asked.

  “Heaven help us all,” Hades murmured.

  Rafe was slowly shaking his head back and forth, whispering, “Madness, total madness,” over and over again.

  “Oh, by the way, Hades, I need some ichor. Care to share?”

  He rolled his eyes as he held the door for us. “I will when we get there. No use opening a vein right now.”

  I waved at them to go. “I have to do one more thing. I’ll meet you guys at the bottom of the stairs in a few minutes.”

  One of Hades’ eyebrows rose as he gave me a curious look. “Dare I ask?”

  I shook my head. “I wouldn’t.”

  “How did I not have a nervous breakdown being married to you?” he asked in wonder.

  “I’m a charm you eventually get used to,” I said as I took the door from his hands.

  Once they were gone and the kitchen was silent, I sent out my thoughts to my favorite Fate. Within seconds, she appeared before me. While her rock and roll appearance had faded some, she still wasn’t back to her broom skirts and tank tops. She wore a ripped pair of jeans and a white tank. On her feet were a pair of black plastic flip flops and a toe ring.

  I shut my eyes, chewed my bottom lip, and prayed for the strength not to make fun of her, because I really, really needed her help this time.

  “Hey,” I said, choking on my urge not to say something to her about her upgraded 90’s grunge look.

  “Abby,” she said, but her mouth twitched so I knew she knew how hard I was trying.

  I mean, honestly, did she not know how hard it was when she looked like the love child of Kurt Cobain and Avril Lavigne? Never had I been more tempted.

  I blew out a long slow breath, cleared my throat, and said, “I need advice.”

  She grinned at me then and a moment later she was standing back in normal Clotho clothes.

  I groaned in relief. “Oh thank the gods,” I muttered.

  “I’ve never seen you show such restraint. You’ve matured.”

  “It’s a struggle to be me,” I admitted.

  “Tell me your plan,” she said. “I’ve spoken to your mother a couple of times.”

  Great. “Do you think it’s feasible to trap souls in Heaven?”

  A thoughtful look crossed her pretty face. “Well, that isn’t where they belong. And what is Heaven going to do with all the people who do belong there?”

  I had an answer for this. “Technically, Heaven isn’t just one place. It’s divided into parts. We can place those souls into the administrative area.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “And what about all the other angels?”

  My face darkened. “They can deal with it.”

  “Ah. I don’t disagree with the sentiment, but I think you may need better execution.”

  “Can we trap them there?”

  Her eyes went weird and silvery for a moment before she responded. “You can.”

  “But?”

  “But you’d be better off destroying them.”

  My mouth fell open. “Can they be destroyed?”

  She nodded. “Yes, but not easily.”

  “Who can destroy them?”

  “Not who,” she corrected. “What.”

  “Okay.” I bit. “What can destroy them?”

  “The power burning inside of your son right now.”

  My gaze narrowed. “Okay. That’s technically a who. I don’t think my son’s power should be separated from him. It isn’t a separate thing.” I stopped. “Is it?”

  Clotho’s face softened. “I’m not quite sure how to explain this. The answer is both yes and no.”

  “I’m not sure I have a lot of time for a moral or philosophical understanding of the rules of magic,” I said. “I’m exhausted. Treat it like a band-aid and let’s roll.”

  “When God kidnapped your husband and tortured him, some of his magic...leaked.”

  “Whose?”

  “Hades. Some of the magic was kept by his father. Some of it could not be contained and chose the closest, most similar vessel.”

  The truth hit me like a brick. “Draco.”

  She nodded. “So while he is possessed of true, raw power. Some of that power is not his.”

  “It’s his father’s. Wowza.” I slumped into one of the chairs. “Is it hurting him?”

  She shook her head. “Quite the opposite. I’d say Draco could take quite a bit of damage and feel no ill effects. The magic is...protecting him. But it desires to be used.” Her lips twitched. “Hades had a failsafe.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Clotho grinned. “A failsafe. In the event something like this ever happened, his firstborn would be given the power to defeat those who had forsaken him.”

  “Ho
w did that happen?”

  “It happened that day on the island. During the fire. His magic awoke when he was faced with something overwhelmingly scary.” She sat down beside me. “Your son has the power he needs to take down God and either trap the souls in Heaven for all eternity or destroy them.”

  “No pressure,” I whispered. “Does he know?”

  Clotho nodded. “There’s one more thing I need to talk to you about. When -” she paused and drew a breath. “If this gets taken care of, I’m not sure how the timelines will work themselves out. I would be prepared for weirdness.”

  I rolled my eyes. “This is me you’re talking to. I’m always prepared for weirdness.”

  She pressed her lips together. “Just be aware, is all I’m saying. There’s no telling when or how the timelines will jump back or even if they will. Whatever happens, is supposed to happen.” Her eyes glowed. “Do you understand?”

  “I understand, but you aren’t doing much to comfort me with your creepy, confusing talk. As long as no one looks like a dragon, I think we will be okay.”

  “There are no such things as dragons.”

  Clotho and I both laughed as we began to hash out the details of what would happen next. My friends were going to be annoyed with me for taking so long, but you only got one chance to make a coup with Heaven go right, so I took my time.

  When we were finished, we hugged it out, and agreed on a time to bring Draco down. I was scared for my son, but Clotho assured me he had been diligent with his training. It was the main thing they wanted him there for. While they planned to go back and work with him again, all of their lessons had led him to this moment.

  He’d suspected the entire time what I was going to do. If that wasn’t creepily prophetic, I didn’t know what was. And, considering the Fates could see all the timelines, they knew he was right, and guided him the best they could to this moment.

  I was very close to bringing my husband home.

  When I made it to the bottom of the stairs, my friends were all sprawled out like I had been gone for hours. 45 minutes was more like it. Drama queens.

  When I stopped in front of them, Hades gave me an annoyed look, snapped his fingers and the next thing I knew were standing in front of the door that had the potential to kill all of us.

  Just a normal day’s work.

  Hades took my hand and I tried not to get all tingly and girly, and led me over to the door. I pulled out the vial of Gaia’s ichor and pretended not to notice the horrified expressions of my friends. I hadn’t yet told them what I’d done, but I planned on keeping them guessing for awhile. Hades pulled out a small dagger, walked over to the small locking mechanism, and made a small knick in his thumb. He held it over the lock and allowed a few drops to fall into the hole. I followed it with Gaia’s contribution, stepped back and waited.

  Nothing happened.

  The silences stretched on uncomfortably, and just when I was about to scream with rage at our failure, the sounds of the souls began to grow louder and louder. Hades and I took a step back. The door hadn’t budged, but something was going on. We just didn’t know what yet.

  26

  “Should we poke it?” whispered Hermes.

  “Don’t be a dolt,” hissed Artie.

  I heard Rafe’s dramatic sigh and his muttered, “How did I end up with such a bunch of fools?”

  “We should not poke it,” Hades said. “Maybe we should just stand here for a minute and see if anything happens.”

  Something had already happened. The souls were deadly silent. Not a scream, a yell, a whisper or sigh was heard from the other side. “Did they already escape?” Or were they waiting to trick us.

  “You would know it if they had. They’re waiting on the other side.”

  “I still think you should poke it,” Hermes said and let out a yelp as someone, presumably Artie pinched him.

  “You should definitely not poke it,” came another voice. Clotho popped in with my son. I rushed over to him, tried not to gush like a lunatic, and pulled him tight to me.

  “I heard you were doing all sorts of cool things lately.”

  He nodded and my heart lurched a little as he grinned up at me. From behind me, I heard Hades’ sharp intake of breath. It must have been so weird to keep looking at yourself as a youth. Draco was the spitting image of his father right down to the darkness of his hair and the silver of his eyes. Even his mannerisms were sometimes so much like him it took my breath away.

  But as much as I loved Draco, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something precious had been stolen from me. We’d missed his firsts. First steps. First solid foods. First time to sleep through the night.

  What stood before us now was a boy who had grown up far too fast. And there was nothing I could do about it.

  Clotho made her way over to the door, studying the surprisingly simple metal. It was large and hummed with magic, but there was nothing overly remarkable about it. But we all knew the damage we had the potential to release once we moved forward.

  She nodded to me and to Hades. “The door is unlocked but remains unopened. If you wish to retreat, now is the time. I have the power to relock it. If you proceed I cannot tell you what will happen. I see a thousand paths ahead of us.”

  “All of it good, right?” Hermes piped up from the back.

  “Few of them good,” Clotho snapped.

  “How many of them good?”

  “A few is more than two and less than five,” Artie said.

  “Those seem like terrible odds,” Rafe said. “We should go back and make pancakes.”

  “SHUT IT!” I yelled. I turned around and faced them. “Whether we knew it or not, all roads led to this one. You’re here because you want to be. While I admit, pancakes sounds way better than loosing serial killer souls upon the world, I think we should say a hell yeah that we got this far. We’re all still alive. We deposed a ruler. We’ve kicked ass and taken names. We’ve made friends -”

  “But far more enemies,” Clotho muttered under her breath.

  I glared at her. “We’ve made friends, gained lovers, and allies, children and new magic. We’ve united kingdoms and at all times we’ve tried our best. God seeks to destroy us. He wants to use Olympus and the Underworld for his own gain. We cannot let him. Once we do, we lose our power. Once we allow him to get the upper hand, we have lost.”

  A cool wind blew my hair back and a man appeared, one knee down as if in prayer. When he looked up, I gasped in surprise.

  “Ares!”

  He gave me a knee-wilting smile. “Got your letter. You didn’t have to write that much. All you had to do was say ‘war’ and I was in.”

  Hermes let out a loud groan. “Really, Abby?”

  I reached down and took both of his hands. We’d had our differences, but he was here now and that was all that mattered.

  Seconds later, Hera appeared beside him. She didn’t look as friendly. “What the HELL is Hephaestus doing down in the cells?” she demanded. “He’s making enough racket to wake the damned dead!”

  I pressed my lips and shuffled my feet. “He was sort of in the way.”

  “YOU COULD HAVE WARNED ME!” she shouted. She shut her eyes for a moment and pinched the skin between her brows. It was a gesture I was very used to. “He’s a detestable, odious man. And he smells! For the gods sake, does Hades not have showers here?”

  The man in question threw his hands up. “I know for a fact I did not key the Underworld to allow all of you entrance!”

  My mother popped in then. “Sorry. Mother-in-law privileges. I took it upon myself to key the door to every single one of Abby’s allies, just in case they wanted to support her.”

  “You. Are. NOT. My. Mother. In. Law.” Hades took a deep breath. If steam could literally come out someone’s ears, Hades would be a tank engine.

  Hecate grinned. “Well, technically I am. You just aren’t on the right page of the story yet.”

  “And how did you learn how to key other pe
ople in?”

  “You and I had a deal. I was very glad to see it still worked.” As she spoke, she began to fade in and out.

  The matter had just gotten even more urgent.

  A bolt of lightning struck the floor next, sending us screeching and scurrying for cover. Once my vision came back, I noticed a big bear of a man carrying a massive bottle of Russian vodka and a six pack of beer. When he saw Draco he blinked. “You, son, cannot have any of this. But as far as the rest of you, who needs a shot before we go in and fuck some shit up?!”

  “Me,” Artie said wearily and shuffled over to allow Dionysus to pour her a drink. “Also, you shouldn’t say fuck around kids.”

  “Duly fucking noted,” said Dionysus.

  “Nice entrance,” Hades said. “Doesn’t Zeus have a copyright on that?”

  “Zeus is dead,” Dionysus said as he kicked back two shots in a row. “Which means his copyright on lightning magic is dead. All is good. Now stop giving me shit. I’m here. I’m ready to help not justify my cool new lightning trick.”

  I had a feeling Dionysus had been drinking way before he showed up here, but he had the strength of about a hundred bulls on meth, so as long as he used it while assisting us, he could guzzle all the vodka he wanted.

  I had just opened my mouth to start telling everyone our plan when the room shook again. When I saw who was standing there, the blood drained from my face.

  “Typhon,” I said and hoped it didn’t come out as choked as I was feeling.

  He gave me a warm grin. Too warm. “Abby. I heard you were having a party and didn’t invite me.”

  I tilted my head. “You knew what I was doing.”

  He picked at imaginary lint on his sweat-wicking t-shirt. Seriously who showed up to kill God wearing board shorts and an athletic shirt? “Yes, darling, but you didn’t give me a time or a date.”

  “So how did you find out?”

  Hermes grinned at me from behind.

  Jerk. I was going to kill both of them right after I killed Hades’ dad.

  I stared up at the ceiling. “Anyone else?” I yelled.

  Dionysus shoved a shot in my face. “Buck up and feel proud you’re loved this much. The only reason we ever showed up for Zeus is because we didn’t want to die.”