by C. R. Jane
I stepped away from the mirror and practically ran to the closet to throw on whatever I saw first. I needed to talk to Hades...and Zeus.
I needed to get out of here.
I opened my door and let out a little scream when I saw someone sitting right outside my door.
It was Hades.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my heart threatening to come out of my chest.
He stumbled to his feet, the most ungraceful I’d seen him.
“I was keeping watch. I heard what happened last night,” he stammered, his cheeks blushing as his gaze dropped down my form.
I frowned and looked at what I was wearing, wondering if I’d picked something with a hole in it or something. Nope, just a little sundress.
His words sunk in. “You were keeping watch?”
He gave me an offended look like I should have expected that.
“Do you know where Zeus is?” I asked, looking down the hall like I expected the golden hottie to be standing there watching us like he had yesterday.
Hades frowned at my question. “He left last night after he...saved you.” His lips curl in distaste like he’d tasted something sour.
“I just wanted to thank him,” I whispered, suddenly feeling awkward.
Hades schooled his face. “He told me what happened, but I wanted to hear it from you.”
“There was a ghost. I think it was Persephone. She chased me and cornered me downstairs in one of the hallways. She started to suck in…” My voice trembled as I spoke. My gaze danced around the hallway, looking for any threats. “It was like she was draining my soul,” I finally finished.
Hades looked pained. He stepped forward, his hand outstretched, and then stopped like he didn’t know if I wanted him to touch me or not.
I needed comfort just then. Badly. I stepped forward and buried my face in his arms, my whole body shaking as I relived the night before. I was tempted to get back in bed and let whatever magic was working on it lull me into a false sense of security. Hades held onto me tightly like he knew I was a step away from falling into pieces.
He buried his face into my hair and we just stood there for several long moments that I kind of wanted to last forever. Suddenly he sniffed me.
I pulled back with a frown. “Did you just...smell me?” I asked.
He grinned, embarrassed. “You just smell so good.”
“Different than usual?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure.” Hades gently touched my face, like he was afraid that I was going to run from him screaming at any moment. I leaned into his touch, the feel of him soothing something inside of me.
“I’m getting the feeling that Persephone doesn’t like me,” I told him, trying to break up the intensity of the moment.
Hades didn’t get the memo that I was trying to joke around because he just frowned and stared at me even more intensely somehow.
“It’s not really her,” he said softly, catching me off guard. “I thought it was at first too all those years ago when she first started to appear. But it’s just an imprint of her worst self, somehow forever embedded in this place. A wraith basically.”
“She seemed pretty real last night,” I told him, my feelings irrationally hurt because he still seemed determined to defend his dead love no matter what the evidence showed.
“Wraiths are like that. And what you saw last night, what I see all the time, are definitely the darkest of Persephone’s traits. She could be jealous and callous...even cruel. But you and Zeus are both wrong about it really being her.”
I pulled away from him reluctantly and sighed. I didn’t know what was the truth but even if the spirit last night was just a memory of Persephone’s darkest traits...she was a far cry from how I’d pictured her. I’d thought she had to be some kind of perfect saint to have gotten that level of devotion from him. But maybe Hades was into the darker side of love.
I was totally screwed.
“Yesterday was my fault,” Hades said, holding onto my hand even when I tried to pull it away. “If I hadn’t pushed you away...it never would have happened. Can I make it up to you?”
“Does that include getting me out of this place?” I asked, shivering again as I looked at the walls, feeling like even now there were gazes upon us.
Hades didn’t seem to feel anything because he just smiled. “Do you trust me?”
I hated these types of questions. And I desperately didn’t want to trust him. I felt like we were still on some kind of precipice where he could break me at any moment.
“Maybe,” I finally answered, throwing him a challenging smirk.
A flick of fire seemed to burn in his gaze. “I can work with that.”
He pulled me forward and we weren’t standing in that dreadful hallway any longer. We were in an open field with blades of golden wheat for as far as the eye can see. The sky was remarkable, and it took me a second, but I realized that it was the same perfect blue as Zeus’s eyes.
I wasn’t sure why I was thinking about that right now.
A soft neigh sounded behind me and I turned, stumbling backwards when a pair of freaking enormous white horses were just a foot away from me. I gasped when a pair of white, bird-like wings shot out of one of their backs. The one that had just unleashed the wings stepped towards me and I backed away, panicked.
“Is that…”
“Pegasus,” said Hades with a chuckle, holding out an apple to the one closest to him. “And his mate, Ocyrhoe.”
Ocyrhoe was slightly smaller than Pegasus. Taking a closer look I could see that she had a soft silver sheen to her while Pegasus was almost blindingly white. I repeated Ocyrhoe’s name softly to myself until I thought it sounded just like Hades had said it. She seemed to like that because she stopped munching the apple from Hades’s hand, and trotted over until she was standing right in front of me by her mate. They were at least a foot taller than me and I stared at them in awe.
The beautiful beasts both stuck their noses in my hair and sniffed, their breath sending my hair all over the place.
I giggled, my gaze flicking towards Hades. My laugh abruptly cut off because he was looking at me. And not just looking at me because I had two horses mauling at me. He was looking at me like I was everything.
I flushed under his gaze. It was so...intimate. I stroked Pegasus’s nose absentmindedly, my attention still focused on Hades.
He shook his head as if he’d been in a trance and came to stand behind me, stroking the two horses with his arms around me. “Want to go for a ride?” he purred into my ear.
Ocyrhoe’s wings popped out at Hades’s question.
“A ride...like on them?” I asked hesitantly, what felt like a million butterflies taking up flight in my stomach at the thought.
He pressed a kiss on my neck and I melted against him. “Okay,” I whispered remembering the vow I’d just made that morning to be braver.
I’d thought that our kiss yesterday had been intense. But today every touch seemed to be magnified. He was turning me into a liquid puddle just with a simple touch, and that was with me still being annoyed with him about how yesterday had turned out.
“Good girl,” he murmured, and for a second an image of him saying that in a far sexier situation popped into my head.
Who knew I would like something like that?
I walked over to the left side of Ocyrhoe. “Um..do I need a saddle? How do I stay on?” I asked timidly. She might have been smaller than Pegasus, but she was still far taller than me.
Proving she was way smarter than any horse back home, she kneeled down. Hades picked me up and gently placed me on her back, smoothing a hand down my spine as if to calm me. “You just hold on here,” he told me, gesturing to her silver mane.
“Won’t that hurt her?” I squeaked as Ocyrhoe stood up. I had no choice but to grab onto her beautiful locks or I would have fallen off. She didn’t even make a sound as I gripped her hair tightly, maybe trying to prove she wasn’t bothered by it.
; Hades smiled up at me...and his gaze almost seemed adoring. It was hard to protect the gates to my heart when he was staring at me like that, those midnight blue eyes of his trying to tell me something I wasn’t ready to believe quite yet.
He rubbed his hand soothingly on my leg once more before he walked away and smoothly hoisted himself on Pegasus’s back. Pegasus hadn’t even kneeled down at all. It was pretty hot to watch actually.
“Ready?” Hades called to me as he gripped Pegasus’s blindingly white mane.
Before I could even answer, Ocyrhoe took off. I let out a small scream as I gripped her mane so tight, I had no idea how she wasn’t bucking me off. She soared into the sky blue void above us. I heard Hades whoop in pure glee somewhere behind me but I was too scared to try and look for him. Ocyrhoe smoothly leveled out and I let out a small, hysterical sigh of relief that I no longer felt I was about to fall out of the sky.
Hades appeared next to me. Pegasus’s wings were barely moving as he kept pace with Ocyrhoe, knickering softly at her.
“What do you think?” Hades asked excitedly. He was taking my breath away right now. He looked young...and carefree. Like he’d left all of his problems and sorrow down on the ground behind us. It was like he could be whatever he wanted up here, like his pain was something that couldn’t exist in the sparkling sky.
I was still holding onto Ocyrhoe’s mane in a death grip, sure at any time she was going to get tired of having me on her back and buck me off. But even with the fear flicking at my chest, I had to admit...it was spectacular up here.
“I love it,” I called out to him, and his beautiful smile grew even wider. It was hard to tear my gaze away from him to look at our surroundings, he was that fantastic.
When I did manage to drag my eyes away from Hades, I had to admit, wherever Hades had brought me, I was in awe. The golden fields filled with what I assumed was wheat, stretched out as far as the eye could see. Even up here soaring above it. The contrast between the vivid blue sky and the gold wheat was entrancing...and peaceful. I couldn’t see another living being, or dead being for that matter since Hades was of course the God of Death.
“What is this place?” I called to him.
“Mine,” he answered, like that was supposed to explain a lot.
I pretended to be annoyed, and he chuckled, a sound that caressed my skin.
“It’s a place I created when I needed to relax and be away from everyone.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You mean get away from all the non-existent people in your fortress?”
Ocyrhoe neighed softly beneath me, almost like she was laughing at what I’d just said. I squeezed my legs around her a bit to let her know I’d heard her.
Hades grin dimmed a bit and I immediately cursed myself for saying something wrong. I wished there was a way to bottle up his good mood and make it last forever. It was a scary thing to feel like you could live or die in someone’s smile. And I was starting to feel that way about Hades.
“My duties are a bit delayed while you’re here,” he explained as he looked out into the distance with a thoughtful look on his face. “The Fates wish for me to actually have time to spend with you, so the dead kind of just wait around for the time being. Normally my home would be filled with souls all wanting things from me, day and night, with no end in sight.” He sighed and finally looked back at me. “So I slip away and come here when it’s too much.”
I felt way too touched about the fact that he’d brought me to what he considered his safe place.
“Let’s race,” I called out suddenly, wanting to make him smile again. I clicked my heels, feeling like an idiot while doing so, and Ocyrhoe luckily got the message and took off.
I heard Hades laugh behind me and then he and Pegasus were neck and neck with us. There wasn’t really a landmark for us to race to since everything was the same gently rolling hills of golden wheat, so we just flew. For hours and hours it seemed like, but I couldn’t remember having more fun.
Hades clicked his tongue eventually and both Pegasus and Ocyrhoe began to make their way to the ground. “They could keep on going for days I’m pretty sure, but I want to show you one more place,” Hades explained softly as we landed. I nodded and smiled, exhilarated from the day but slightly exhausted at the same time.
These mystical creatures certainly had stamina, I could only imagine what that meant in the bedroom.
My cheeks flushed at the thought and Hades gave me an inquiring glance. “Can’t read my mind here?” I asked cheekily.
He frowned, deep in thought. “I should be able to in this world since I created it. It should be just like when I took you to Mount Olympus. I haven’t been able to read you at all today.”
“Is that a bad thing?” I asked slowly, an image of Zeus’s lips on mine and my slightly altered appearance today suddenly seeming even more significant.
His eyes scanned over me and I knew he was cataloguing the slight changes to my face. He hummed non committedly. “I’m not sure what it means.”
“Seems like a good thing to me,” I told him, sticking out my tongue at him.
His grin blasted through my heart once again and he reached up and lifted me gently off Ocyrhoe, sliding me down his body as he set me on the ground.
I could feel my pulse going a million miles a minute just from the slow brush against his perfect body. We stared at each other, both grinning wildly I imagined, until Pegasus snorted loudly.
Hades laughed again and pulled two apples out of thin air. He handed me one for Ocyrhoe and then fed Pegasus the other one. “Thank you,” I whispered meaningfully to Ocyrhoe as I gently stroked her mane. She snorted softly and nuzzled against my face.
A few minutes later, Ocyrhoe and Pegasus disappeared into thin air...just like that. I looked at Hades questioningly, feeling a little heartbroken they were gone. I’d fallen in love with them today and I hoped that wouldn’t be the last time I got to see them.
Hades took my hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “Pegasus likes to pop in whenever I’m here. We’ve been friends for a long, long time. You’ll see them both soon enough.”
I was ridiculously happy about that, not just because I would see them again, but because Hades seemed to be planning a future where I would still be in it.
Of course I had to survive his psycho ex still. I didn’t want to bring that up right now though, not when everything was going so perfect.
“Ready?” he asked as he pulled me against him. I’d no sooner nodded than I found myself laying on my back on a sandy beach, a cushion supporting my head, and the night sky up above me. It took a second for my eyes to adjust because the field we’d spent the day in had been under a cloudless sunny sky. This sky was cloudless too, but instead of the sun, I saw a brilliant full moon above me and what seemed like a million twinkling stars.
Hades was lounging beside me, one arm behind his head as he gazed up at the moon, a pensive look on his face.
Out here, under the velvety night sky draped in diamond drops of starlight...this was where Hades belonged. As much as he had been carefree today out in the sun, he was made for the dark and the shadows. He belonged in the secrets you held close to your heart and never told another soul. He thrived in the places most people turned their back on. Hades was made for a place filled with quiet confessions, mournful sighs, and dark dreams.
His sadness called to me. And wasn’t it funny that the girl who had always craved the sunshine was suddenly desperate for the dark and everything he kept there.
“Is this one of the places you’ve created as well?” I asked.
He turned his head to look at me, his blue eyes almost black in the darkness. There were flecks of starlight in them, almost as if the night sky was reflected in their depths.
“This is a recreated memory,” he told me, his gaze dancing across my features. He tore his gaze away suddenly, as if he couldn’t stand to look at me. “When my brothers and I finally defeated my father we drew straws to see what of the world we would
rule. Zeus of course got the sky, Poseidon got the sea, and I got the underworld.”
I stared enraptured at him as the waves crashed against the sand just a few feet away, mist from the waves sprinkling over our legs every so often.
“I tried to figure out a way to kill myself after one day down there. Out of the three of us, I’d always thrived in the light. I’d always been considered the softest in the family. When I drew the underworld for my kingdom, my brothers actually cried for me,” he chuckled harshly. “Of course their worry for me didn’t extend to taking the job themselves.”
I softly touched his shoulder, his pain so tangible I felt like I could choke on it.
“I begged the Fates to end me. And instead of granting my request, they sent me here. I spent a week in the darkness, listening to the sounds, watching the stars, pacing in the shadows. And when I emerged I was changed. I had a new appreciation for the dark and everything it offers.”
“But your favorite place is still a golden field under a perfect, sunny sky,” I whispered as he finally looked at me again, vulnerability in his gaze as if he expected me to judge him for his confession.
“Sometimes I feel like I’ve become so accustomed to the darkness that I might just disappear. A day under the sun reminds me I’m still alive as much as I surround myself with the dead.”
He sighed and the heaviness in my breath warned me of what he was about to say.
“Persephone needed the sun. I would take her there whenever our kingdom became too much for her.”
I flinched like I’d been struck. Today I’d felt closer to him than any person I’d ever known. And all along he was picturing her, he was spending time with me in her favorite place.
It was always going to be Persephone.
I had no chance.
I stood up, ignoring the water that splashed against my legs as another wave broke onto the shore.
“How dare you,” I told him in a voice laced with hurt...and rage.
He stood up as well, reaching out to me. “Elena-” he began.
“Are you even willing to let anyone else in?” I seethed, channeling all the frustration I’d felt since this journey had first began. “Can the curse even be broken if you’re unable to stop mourning someone who’s been gone for centuries? We need to find a way for me to go home if that’s the case.”
