by Melody Rose
On the second night, Hades took me to a country called Australia. Here, we enjoyed a stroll along a breathtaking beach before the two of us had ended up lying in the water, kissing each other breathless. The cool water had been a welcome relief as Hades and I worked each other up into a boiling frenzy of lustful hormones. Still, we managed to pull apart long enough to explore the local nightlife. Hades had even been cruel enough to trick me into eating a rather unpleasant piece of bread smothered in something he called Vegemite. I was furious for hours until he had pinned me against the railing along a pier and kissed me senseless.
For our third date, Hades took me for the most incredible walk through the Elysium Fields with Cerberus. I thought that Hades’ garden had been the most incredible garden I had ever laid my eyes upon until that day. A warm orange sun hung low over a sensational garden, painting the sky a gorgeous blend of orange, pink, and purple. The flowers, the trees, the animals, and the scenery itself had been so overwhelmingly beautiful that I ended up teary-eyed like a fool. Instead of making fun of me for crying, however, Hades had planted the softest kiss on each cheek to kiss the tears away. The gesture had been so sweet that I cried even harder. It was probably the single most embarrassing moment of my life, but Hades didn’t care.
Last night was probably one of my most favorite nights. Hades and I traveled to Italy. Under the dazzling light of the First Quarter Moon, Hades took us on a romantic gondola ride through the Canal Grande in Venice. It would have been a perfect ride… if the man who was maneuvering the gondola hadn’t been the ferryman of the underworld. The man’s lifeless eyes bore into mine almost the entire time he expertly steered us through the winding canal. It was probably the single most terrifying hour of my life. After the gondola ride, we bid the ferryman a farewell, then Hades and I had traveled through the exquisite Italian countryside for a private evening tour of the largest vineyard in Italy. The lovely older gentleman who gave us the tour even allowed us to try some of the grapes. They were positively divine!
My mind raced as I wondered what new adventures Hades and I would have that evening. I curled my toes into the sea of grass around me and threw my hands over my head. Things had been going so splendidly that I could hardly believe it.
My mother, the morning after my first date with Hades, had come to my bedroom with large swollen eyes. She sobbed hysterically as she apologized for her actions at Aphrodite’s party. I sat and stared at my mother in stunned silence as she spoke through her tears and explained her reasoning for the entire kerfuffle. Speechless, I allowed my mother to fall into my arms in a teary embrace as she told me she would allow me to join her in the garden if I swore to never leave the temple grounds again.
I forced a smile and lied through my teeth. Of course, I had no intention of obeying my mother in the slightest, but I had to be as convincing as possible. Being back in the garden also allowed for easier communication with Hades. Every afternoon, just as the sun climbed the highest peak in the sky, Hades would send a Limenitis arthemis butterfly to visit me under my secluded spot under the largest weeping willow in the garden. The butterfly’s black and blue wings beat silently as it drifted across the ocean of flowers and grass until it would land on my shoulder.
The butterfly was a personal messenger straight from Tartarus. She would whisper Hades’ messages to me and carry another back while my mother had been none-the-wiser. Considering the abundance of butterflies that drifted lazily along the breeze in my mother’s garden, it was easy for them to blend in inconspicuously. And with my mother’s warding also taken down, Hades had been able to send a large bundle of narcissus flowers to my bedroom without causing alarm every single day.
Except for today, I thought with a frown. My bottom lip jutted out in a pout as I sat up on my shoulders and sighed irritably. Almost half the day had already gone by, and I still hadn’t heard a peep. There hadn’t been flowers or a butterfly sighting all day.
I’m sure he’s just busy, I reassured myself. He is the ruler of the underworld, after all.
Still, that didn’t stop my nerves from boarding a train and speeding straight into Anxietyville at full speed.
Across the garden, I saw my mother and her handmaids laughing and chattering away like hens as they picked baskets of fresh carrots, heads of lettuce, and bushels of apples. From here, it was hard to tell that my mother was an overbearing woman by the way she interacted with the three handmaids. I envied them that. They would never truly know just how manipulative and cold my mother could truly be.
“Sephie!” I heard Artemis call. I turned my head to see Artemis marching towards me with purpose, her face twisted into a disgusted scowl. I sat up completely, feeling both confused and worried by her fierce expression. This was the first time I had been able to see my best friend since the incident with my mother. How could she have known that I was out here? Perhaps she had asked my mother for permission to visit before she showed up without me noticing. Perhaps she was in the kind of mood where she wouldn’t have cared what my mother said.
By the look on her face, I could only assume it was the latter.
“Artie?” I called. “What are you doing here? Are you ok? You look a little…”
Artemis drew up short and held up a hand to silence me. I obeyed and blinked at her in surprise. “Sephie, I have been debating with myself for the last four days whether or not I should come to talk to you, but I can’t keep this shit to myself anymore.”
I jumped to my feet, my brows drawn together so tightly that it hurt the delicate skin on my forehead. “What’s going on?”
“Sephie…” Artemis took a breath and raked her fingers through her hair in a visible effort to control herself before she continued. “Sephie, have you been sneaking out with Hades?”
“What?” My heart instantly dropped to my stomach. I could see that Artemis’s piercing green gaze was searching my eyes for the truth, and I couldn’t hide it. She scoffed and shook her head in disgust before she stepped closer to me, her nose nearly touching mine.
“Sephie, I need you to stop seeing him immediately. He’s not good for you,” she hissed venomously.
This time it was my turn to scoff. “You’re starting to sound just like my mother,” I snapped back with equal venom.
“Well, I’m starting to think your mother was right for keeping you locked in here. How low are you going to sink with someone you don’t even know, Sephie?” Artemis accused in a hushed and hurried whisper. I recoiled from her with a sharp glare.
“What the hell are you talking about, Artemis?!” I whispered back as I kept a cautious eye on my mother so she wouldn’t overhear us.
“I’ve heard the rumors, Sephie,” Artemis growled. “You’re already fucking Hades? Did you know that that man wanted to kill our entire family and a whole city of humans just so he wouldn’t be stuck in the underworld anymore?”
“Your family, Artemis. Your dad never cared to claim me. Besides, I know exactly what it was your father and uncle did to him. Everything you know is a lie, Artie. You need to get to know him for yourself and stop judging him based on the bullshit stories your dad tells everyone just to make himself look good. He’s a fraud. And, for your information, we haven’t had sex. I’m just as virgin as the last time I saw you.” I couldn’t help but snap at Artemis. How dare she conform just all the others had? I had hoped that out of everyone in Olympus, she would have sided with me on all things, but she was just like everyone else.
Artemis stared at me, slack-jawed. “I don’t even know who you are right now. Sephie, that asshole is going around telling everyone that you two have already fucked and that you weren’t as good as he’d hoped. He’s been telling my brother that he’s never felt a virgin who was looser than you were. Stop defending that dick-bag and just listen to what I’m telling you.”
As Artemis spoke, I felt myself dissociating. No. Hades would never do that to me, would he? Would he be so cruel as to lie about me this way? Sure, our bodies had been entangled when we ki
ssed, and our hands had roamed beneath each other’s clothing, but we’d never even undressed in front of one another. Hades had made it clear that he wanted to wait for fear of taking the relationship too fast.
But, then again, Artemis would never lie to me. And she knew that I saw Hades when no one else did.
I struggled to breathe and collapsed onto the ground. My head hung loosely before my chest as I began to hyperventilate. If I didn’t try to control my breathing, I was sure to burst into tears and alert my mother. I had to keep it together, even as I felt as though I were breaking.
It makes total sense, I thought to myself. I hadn’t heard from him all day. For all I knew, he was out there right now, gussying it up with Apollo and trading more lies about sexual encounters we hadn’t even had. Artemis knelt down beside me, her beautiful silver himation settling around her like a protective bubble.
“Sephie?” she whispered.
I glanced up at Artemis, fighting back at the tears that stung at my eyes. Her long fiery curls danced around her as a warm breeze whispered past us. Her emerald eyes were brimming over with tears as she placed her hands on my cheeks to comfort me.
“H-he…” I choked on a sob. “He wouldn’t do this, Artie…. He-he just wouldn’t.”
Artemis frowned deeply as she embraced me. “But he did, babe. You need to let him go. This is too much shit for you to have to deal with. He’s a piece of shit.”
As soon as Artemis finished her sentence, I buried my face into her curls and sobbed quietly. She rubbed my back and whispered a “shh, shh” as I allowed myself to grieve. How could Hades do this to me? Was he really the villain that everyone had portrayed him to be? Even though we hadn’t been dating that long, I still felt as though I had known him my entire life. I felt as though I could trust him.
I was so stupid. I had let my heart do the thinking for me instead of my head, and now I was going to pay the price. I so desperately wanted all of this to be a lie - I would give anything to know this was a lie.
But Hades isn’t here to tell you the truth, is he?
“I think you and I should sneak out tonight,” Artemis said as she pulled away from me. I looked up into her eyes and rubbed the tears away from mine.
“I don’t think now is the best time for that,” I replied solemnly. Artemis shook her head with a light smile as she reached up and brushed a rogue strand of hair out of my face.
“No way. This is the best time to do this. You need to distract yourself instead of wallowing over that douchebag. I know the perfect club to take you to where you’ll forget all of this shit. You just have to come with me.” Artemis dropped her hands from me. She quickly peered over her shoulder to see my mother was eyeing us suspiciously.
In order to put my mother’s mind at ease, Artemis smiled and waved at her. When my mother saw that I, too, was smiling at her from over Artemis’s shoulder, she resumed her harvesting. Artemis sighed with relief before she turned back to me and searched my face for an answer.
Maybe Artemis was right. Perhaps going out would be the distraction I needed. I didn’t want to think about any of this right now. And I certainly didn’t want to think of Hades either.
I took a breath before squaring my shoulders and gave Artemis a nod. “Let’s do it.”
It would be hours before I saw Artemis again. After our talk, Artemis had promised to pick me up close to midnight when my mother was sure to be asleep. I waited for her patiently until then, only speaking to my mother when I was spoken to in order to keep my thoughts focused on not crying.
Shortly after the sun had set on Olympus, Artemis arrived in my chambers. She wore a pair of black leather pants with knee-high stiletto boots and a golden top that left her entire back exposed. Her long red hair was pulled into a tight bun at the crown of her head, and her eyes were rimmed with kohl. With a snap of her fingers, Artemis had dressed me in a short black lace inserted mini dress with silver open-toed heels. She rimmed my eyes with the same black kohl and had tied my hair up into a long ponytail with large hooped earrings. When I gazed at my reflection in the pond, I hardly recognized myself. I looked like a dark queen, and I loved it.
Artemis teleported us to a large club called The Olympian, hidden deep within the heart of Los Angeles. From the outside, the club looked like little more than a dilapidated church with an overgrown lawn. But once you stepped through the red double doors, the interior betrayed its deceiving exterior. The walls were painted in glittering gold, and the bar was carved from a rich oak. The strobe lights pulsed in pink, white, and red in time to the beat of the music. At the far end of the club, there was a set of gilded doors. Beside them, a woman stood at a maître’s d stand with her head bent over a large book.
At the bar, the walls were filled with pleasant paintings of cherubs over a multitude of shelves lined with liquor. Manning the bar was a gorgeous specimen of a man with long curls that stopped at his jaw and deep brown eyes. He had delectably tan skin and a neatly trimmed goatee. Artemis took my hand and led me towards the bar and the impressive gentleman behind it. Once we reached the bar, Artemis slammed her hand on the bar top with feeling.
“Well, well, well, look what Ailuros dragged in,” the man said with a dazzling smile. Artemis bit her lip cutely and batted her eyes.
“Hey, Dionysus, I missed you. How have you been?” she purred.
I raised my brows and stifled a chuckle. I had never seen Artemis try to flirt with anyone that hard before. It was quite entertaining. The man chuckled and reached beneath the bar for two glasses.
“I’m doing great. Who’s your friend?” Dionysus asked as he locked eyes with me. I flushed.
“This is Persephone. She’s presently going through a breakup, so I need you to hit us with the good stuff.” As soon as she finished speaking, Dionysus nodded and raked his eyes over me slowly.
“I see,” he murmured. “Well, I’m sorry to hear about your situation. You’re too beautiful to be suffering from a breakup.”
My cheeks burned as Dionysus spun around to the wall of bottles behind him with the two glasses he had grabbed from beneath the bar. Artemis turned to me with a dreamy smile and sighed wistfully.
“Dionysus is the best when it comes to mixing drinks, but he makes something especially yummy here,” Artemis explained. “It’s called a Dreamweaver. He mixes it with vodka, dragon fruit juice, a slice of lime, peach schnapps, and a generous helping of poppy seeds. It’s almost as powerful as ecstasy.”
“What’s ecstasy?” I replied, feeling tremendously confused.
“It’s going to make you feel the best you’ve ever felt in your life,” Dionysus replied for her as he spun back around with the two drinks. The glasses were filled to the brim with a milky liquid and a perfectly round slice of lemon floating on the surface. Along the rim of the glass were hundreds of poppy seeds.
He slid the drinks across the varnished bar top, one towards each of us respectfully. I eyed the drink warily for a moment before looking over to Artemis. Artemis licked the rim of her glass before taking a long chug of the Dreamweaver. When she finished, she threw her head back with a soft moan. Dionysus bit his lip at Artemis, then smiled at me.
“Don’t worry. It’ll take away the heartache. I promise.” I could hear the sincerity in his voice. Artemis grabbed my glass and held it to my lips with a smile, her eyes already glazed over and bloodshot. I felt my stomach tighten with nerves as I examined the glass once more.
“Come on, babe, let loose. Forget about Hades and have a little fun tonight,” she said as she brought it closer to my face.
I took a deep breath and nodded. She was right. I had to suck it up and forget the pain. Without a second thought, I took the drink from her hands, licked half the poppy seeds along the rim, and took a large swig. Almost immediately after, I felt my entire body go numb.
20
Hades
For the last twenty-four hours, I had been up to my ears in souls in the underworld. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going
on in the human world that day, but it couldn’t have been anything good. Out of the ten thousand and seventeen souls that had come through during this time, more than half of them were rapists, murderers, terrorists, or pedophiles. I took great pleasure in submitting the latter of the group to the most horrifying of tortures.
As I stood over the Hydra pit within my temple in Tartarus, I grabbed the nearest soul by his neck. The man had been an overweight and unsightly fellow. Truthfully, I had never seen anyone uglier than Eros, but this just took the cake. The man, a Transylvanian gypsy by the sound of it, pleaded for his life. He had slaughtered his whole family, the wife of his neighbor, and a police officer over the span of two days as a sacrifice to a demon. The demon in question had already met his fate at the jaws of Cerberus. Now it was his turn.
I glared down at the man, my eyes sprouting red and gold flames. As the man continued to plead for mercy, he gazed into my eyes. Within mere seconds, his pleas turned into screams as his eyes melted from the inside out. What was left of his eyes seeped out of his sockets and down his wrinkled cheeks. I smiled, feeling a little better about my predicament in the underworld as I tortured the bastard.
When I was satisfied with my work, I tossed the man into the Hydra pit like a sack of potatoes. I watched with more amusement than I intended as my gorgeous six-headed baby tore the soul to shreds before he even hit the ground.
“Lord Hades!”
I raised a brow and spun around, ignoring the line of wailing souls that still awaited their torture beside me. Bolting through the temple towards me was Polyphemus, my brother Poseidon’s cyclops son. Polyphemus had been cast aside by my brother, much as I had. Feeling quite sympathetic towards my demi-god nephew, I invited him to live here with me as an executioner in the maze at the base of Mount Tartarus.
