by C. R. Jane
“I’m kind of confused about the timing of that whole thing,” I told him as a servant opened the door we’d just come through holding an array of dishes.
No one had asked what we wanted today. They were probably too much in shock by Hades deviating away from the usual. I was getting the sense that the man was a creature of habit.
The “god” was a creature of habit.
I mulled the word around in my head but couldn’t hold in my snort at how ridiculous it sounded, garnering questioning looks from Hades and the servant that I just ignored.
Unfortunately today there was none of the delicious french toast. Everything was quite a bit different. There were recognizable things like grapefruit, apple slices, and oranges, but there were also things like hard-boiled eggs and other dishes that I didn’t usually eat for breakfast.
“Would you like some eggs?” the servant asked, holding out the plate of hard-boiled eggs. “The chef does something to them that makes them better than any eggs that I’ve ever tasted,” he said with a smile. Moving to put one on my plate. I shook my head. “I’m allergic to hard-boiled eggs,” I said.
Hades’ eyes seemed to spark at my comment.
“How interesting. Are you allergic to all eggs?” he asked in a way that was supposed to sound nonchalant, but failed miserably.
“No. It’s a strange thing. It’s just hard-boiled eggs. And no one else in my family is allergic. I eat scrambled eggs almost every day,” I said with a laugh. I noticed that his hand was trembling. “Is everything all right? Are you sensitive about egg consumption?” I asked, laughing at the thought.
He recovered from whatever he had been thinking, and I watched as he schooled his face until it was perfectly devoid of any expression.
“Just curious,” he said. “But that does seem strange. What other allergies do you have?” he asked.
“I believe I’m allergic to pomegranate,” I said in jest.
He laughed, and we continued eating. He didn’t ask any more follow up questions, and the earlier tension disappeared.
“So timing, I don’t think I answered that question,” Hades remarked. “What were you wondering about.”
I nodded my head. “Well although this place could use some updates, it’s still highly modern considering you’re claiming you’ve lived here for a long time.”
“Thousands of years,” Hades supplied helpfully.
I gulped at that, unable to comprehend a thousand years. “Are you able to predict home trends or something?” I asked with a nervous laugh.
Hades chuckled and then snapped his fingers. Abruptly the room changed into something resembling a Greek temple. He snapped his fingers again and we were surrounded by what resembled the inside of a French chateau. Hades snapped again and we were in a log cabin.
My eyes got wider with every change until he finally took pity on my feeble human mind and brought the surroundings back to the state I was used to.
“Well, that’s certainly useful,” I choked out. I’d just seen magic. I mean what happened to my mother had certainly been magic as well, but my brain had been desperately trying to convince itself it was something else.
But what had just happened...I didn’t think I could deny that.
I’d become Dorothy, swept away by a man in an old tuxedo instead of a tornado, but one thing was for sure.
I was not in Virginia anymore.
“Everything here exists because I say it does. It’s an extension of me. All energy that I can manipulate at will.”
He flicked his hand and the food in front of us transformed. The grape I’d stabbed with my fork before he’d begun the magic show was transformed into a piece of chocolate. A servant entering the room was suddenly wearing a neon pink jumpsuit instead of the formal black and white shirt and slacks he’d been wearing before.
“I kind of feel like a cannibal then if this is just a part of you,” I tried to joke.
I’d never been funny though.
In all honesty, it did feel a little weird to be eating this food after his little revelation. But I soldiered on. The food was really freaking good.
He snorted, his mask dipping to showcase a smile brought on by my ridiculousness.
I found myself entranced again by just that little slip of a grin. It was again unsettling to feel that overwhelming desire to get another glimpse.
The servant cleared his throat then, interrupting me from my lust filled moment, and I realized he was still wearing the pink outfit that I was pretty sure I’d seen in a Britney Spears video. Maybe Hades was a secret Britney fan. I bet he could help out a lot with the #FreeBritney movement.
“Apologies, Agnes,” he murmured and in the next breath the servant was in his original clothes, scurrying from the room I’m sure in fear of what Hades would do next.
“This is a lot,” I murmured, unable to eat anything else, especially knowing Hades could now just change my food at any moment.
“It’s much easier to show than to tell, isn’t it?” Hades said sympathetically.
I nodded and took a breath, not believing what I was about to say. “So is this like...the Underworld?” I asked hesitantly, not sure I wanted to know the answer.
“A part of it,” he murmured distractedly, his gaze far off as he answered. I knew he wasn’t there with me in that moment. He was in a memory.
Was he with her?
My heart clenched at the thought.
“It’s time to go. The window for our trip today is a small one.” I blinked and we were both standing on the other side of the table.
And then I was falling to the ground.
“What the hell was that?” I all but screeched as I fell, feeling like I was going to throw up. His arms locked around me right before I hit the ground.
“Too much?” he asked, but it was hard to respond. Between the queasiness in my stomach to how close he was to me...I was all out of sorts.
“Just trust me,” he murmured, his gaze locked on mine.
It was a strange thing how much I wanted to trust the beautiful stranger holding me right now. And I knew, somehow right then and there, that whatever this thing was, would break me. Beautiful boys always did the most damage. And the creature holding me, he would have no other choice.
I perversely wanted to answer “always”, but somehow I managed to just say “okay.”
And maybe that was when the start of my downfall actually began.
8
Elena
Cerberus strode through the door just then and whatever was happening was promptly broken. Hades let go of me like I was a snake, and I almost fell over again. I grabbed onto the table at the last second.
Jerk.
I tried to straighten up with some sort of dignity, realizing happily that my stomach had miraculously returned to its normal state. Whatever flash travel Mr. Greek God had just done...I didn’t want to do that again.
I smiled at Cerberus and gave him an anxious wave, perversely glad to see him. At least I wouldn’t be alone with Hades anymore. The morning had just started and it already felt like a million things had already happened.
He nodded respectfully to me and then turned his attention to Hades who was back to pretending that I didn’t exist.
“Everything is ready, Master,” he said in that beautiful accent of his. I would need to ask him someday if the whole British accent thing was something he’d developed over the years or he was somehow really from there. It made more sense to me that it would have been a Greek accent.
Or maybe Cerberus wasn’t even real. Maybe he was just Hades manifesting that crazy energy magic and Hades happened to like British accents.
I was afraid to ask.
“Ready,” Hades answered Cerberus.
My stomach was in knots again, and this time it wasn’t because I’d been magically flashed somewhere. What was he going to show me? Was this where he showed that he was actually a crazy psycho and I ended up in a dark hole with him wearing my face?
&n
bsp; I mean it could happen!
Hades looked back at me to see if I was coming. Fear must have been written all over my face because his features softened for a half a second. He extended his hand and I hesitantly grabbed it, needing something to hold onto as I continued to face the unknown. I knew my hand was trembling in his grip.
“Relax,” he said softly. “Everything is going to be alright.”
Even as he said the words though, I knew it was a lie.
We walked down so many new hallways that I had no idea where we were or how to get back. My tour with Cerberus had obviously been very limited because this place seemed to have no end.
We finally stopped at a nondescript door at the end of another long hallway. Hades took an ancient-looking key out of his pocket and inserted it into the lock on the door. Cerberus stood quietly behind us.
“Never try to get in here without me present,” Hades ordered, his voice the most serious I’d heard it sound. I nodded, my anticipation and fear growing as I wondered what was going to be beyond the door.
He opened the door, and I gasped in amazement. The inside of the room...was a freaking cave. A cave that stretched on and on so far that I couldn’t see where it ended. Pulling me beside him, we took a step inside. The temperature immediately dropped...just as it would in a cave.
Despite the fact that I’d seen Hades use his power firsthand and despite the fact that I’d seen him manipulate his surroundings with just a twitch of his finger...my mind struggled to try and understand how this could be. The human part of me wanted to believe this was some kind of elaborate decoration. That he must’ve had some Hollywood set designer come and recreate a cave he had seen.
But even as I had that thought, I couldn’t help but notice how the room even felt like a cave. The air was damp and earthy smelling. The ground underneath my feet felt like stone and dirt. This was....
Surely it couldn’t be real?
I looked backwards, the urge to return back to the relative safety of the familiar riding at me. Cerberus was standing there at the door watching us, and then he slammed the door, ensconcing us in the darkness of the cave. There was no sign that the door even existed.
I shivered in fear. Hades must have mistaken it as me being cold though because he pulled a thick cloak out of nowhere and pulled it over me.
I might have swooned...just a little.
Or at least I would have swooned if this were a victorian romance, which it is definitely not.
“Don’t let go,” I whispered, fear leaking from my voice.
“Never,” he swore, and I hated that the promise felt like a lie.
As we walked deeper into the cave, it grew darker, the lights embedded in the walls of the cave initially, disappearing. Hades seemed to have no problem with the darkness however, he walked steadfastly forward like he had freaking night vision.
Along with the darkness came the very real feeling that we were being watched. At one point rocks clacked against each other from somewhere to our left, like they’d been kicked. I looked over and let out a small scream when a pair of glowing yellow eyes peered back at me.
“It’s just a nightmare,” Hades said smoothly, like that should be reassurance or something.
“A nightmare?” I gasped, gripping Hades hand even harder until I was sure that I was crushing it. I wasn’t going to take the risk of somehow getting separated from him and just being left here.
“They like the dark. They lie in wait here until they’re called to the surface when someone decides to let them in.”
“Let them in?”
“Whenever you have a nightmare, you’re letting that nightmare in. They can’t get in by themselves. If you think about it, nightmares always come from a fear you’ve had at some point that day or week. The fear expands in your subconscious and creates cracks that allow the nightmares in.”
Hades was decidedly a little too nonchalant about this.
“Are they part of your kingdom, your Underworld?” I asked as I somehow saw through the darkness a shadowed figure of a man cross the path in front of us just a few feet away. It paused for a second, it’s blood red gaze seeming to see all the way through me before it disappeared into the abyss.
My grip on Hades got even tighter.
“Everything that belongs in the dark is part of my kingdom,” Hades answered, almost morosely. “The nightmares, the spirits, the things that go bump in the night. They’re all here under my command.”
“If they’re under your command, why do you let the nightmares out?” I all but screeched as another pair of red eyes blinked slowly at me from way too close.
“Even nightmares need love,” Hades said with a dark chuckle.
I wasn’t amused.
“The nightmares feed on fear. Who am I to starve them to death when the humans are the ones that voluntarily feed them?” he said more seriously.
I think we had a different idea of what “voluntarily” meant, but I didn’t feel like it was a good idea to pick a fight with someone you were completely dependent on at that moment.
“Tell me a story,” I whispered. “Anything,” I said in desperation. The eyes seemed to be everywhere and the darkness and the fact that I couldn’t see anything but their eyes had my mind conjuring all sorts of monsters. I felt right on the edge of losing my mind even though I was all but wrapped around Hades.
Hades cleared his throat, like my request had caught him off guard. Despite all the servants everywhere in Hades’ mansion, something told me he spent a great deal of time since Persephone disappeared...alone.
“I was never a child,” he began abruptly. “I just existed one day, a grown god for all intents and purposes...at least physically. Emotionally, I was naive, like a child. Everything around me was new. I didn’t understand interactions and motivations, I didn’t understand anything really.”
I jumped when another dark specter, this one with what looked like wings trailing behind it, passed in front of us.
Hades continued walking unperturbed. But seriously, would the darkness ever end?
“One day I realized that something was different about myself. While my brothers and sisters lived for the light, thrived in it actually, I lived for the dark. My friends were the monsters, the shadows, the ones that were never wanted. It also didn’t take me too long to realize that just like my friends, I was unwanted as well. The day my father was killed was the best day of my life...until I met Persephone.”
My steps stuttered at that last sentence. But I tried to act as calm as possible. It felt like Hades was trying to scare me, to push me away so that I would run away.
I wanted to run away. But I wasn’t going to.
I remembered the story now, about Zeus, his brother, killing their father Cronus after he ate everyone...or tried to eat everyone. I was a little fuzzy about all the details, that class had been a while ago. But beyond Hades being cast as a sort of villain in most of those stories, there weren’t very many details on his backstory.
I realized that Hades was waiting for something, whether it was for me to run away screaming or not, I wasn’t sure, but I figured I should say something. It took a second, but it came to me.
“Then I guess we’re more similar than I thought,” I told him. “I was unwanted by my father as well. The night before he left for good I overheard him telling my mother he’d never wanted me...that I’d ruined everything by being born.”
I forgot the darkness for a moment as I thought about that night, about hearing them screaming at each other.
My brother had been at a sleepover with some friends from his soccer team so it was just me...and them, in the house. I’d crept down the stairs, skipping the stair a fourth of the way down that always creaked. I’d walked down the hallway and listened right outside the entranceway of the kitchen. My father had thrown something against the wall, whatever it was shattering into pieces while my mother quietly sobbed a few feet away.
“You got pregnant on purpose, you conniving bitch,
” he’d growled at her. “You knew I was about to leave and you just couldn’t let me go.”
I curled up against the wall, holding the stuffed teddy bear that I’d brought down with me tightly to my body.
“I’m done,” he seethed.
“Don’t do that to her,” my mother had begged. “You may not have wanted her, but she’s yours. She needs you.”
“I don’t need either of you,” he’d answered before the back door had swung open and crashed closed.
That had been the last time I’d heard my father speak. I’d later learned that my brother was actually only my half brother and I had indeed been a mistake that my father had never wanted. At least my mother hadn’t felt that way.
“I’m sorry you went through that,” Hades said quietly and I startled back to the present.
“What?”
I felt him shrug next to me and I realized that we’d come to a stop in the darkness.
“You were projecting your thoughts. My power is stronger down here. I can pick up thoughts, wishes, desires...anything really. I was trying not to listen in but your thoughts were loud.”
I groaned and shivered at the same time, not liking this latest development. That memory was one of my lowest points, something I hadn’t even told my mother I’d ever heard. The last thing I wanted was Hades seeing my thoughts. I especially didn’t want him seeing how I was feeling about him.
He stiffened next to me and began pulling me forward briskly. “You’ll need to work on guarding your thoughts. Zeus and many of my brothers and sisters have that power and the last thing you want are those snakes seeing your thoughts and picking them apart. They’ll use what they find against you until they break you.”
Perfect. Another thing to look forward to. It had only been a few days, but I felt like I’d been on my guard for years, never getting a moment to relax. It didn’t look like that would be going away any time soon.
A light suddenly appeared in the distance, and I almost sobbed in relief at the sight. I wanted to run towards it, but I felt like that would be some kind of insult to Hades, who’d just admitted to me he preferred the darkness.
