by Melody Rose
The cyclops was a handsome young lad. His eye was the same shade of blue as his father’s, but his hair was as black as a raven’s wing. His skin was a light cream color, and he stood at just under six feet tall. I smiled at my nephew, then frowned.
“Hey kid,” I called as he neared. “What the hell’s gotten into you? Did something happen in the maze?”
Polyphemus stopped before me and doubled over to catch his breath. He looked no older than twenty-one and, if he had both eyes, he would be the spitting image of his father with black hair. If I had to be honest with myself, one of the reasons that I took my nephew in had been because he reminded me so much of his father when we were younger… before he became as big of an asshole as Zeus, anyway.
Wanting to try to relive my shattered past with my brother, I had accepted Polyphemus with open arms. Aside from Cerberus, Hephaestus, and now Persephone, he was the only family that treated me with respect. And I had to admit, I kind of loved the kid. He was great at his job, and he was fearless.
“Uncle Hades,” Polyphemus said between gasps of air. “You’re not going to believe this. I was just at Eros’s club in L.A. and…”
As he paused for a moment to catch his breath, I stared at him impatiently. If there was one thing I couldn’t stand for people to do, it was to start a sentence and not finish it. “Kid, spit it out.”
“Persephone!” he blurted. Without even so much as an inkling of a thought, I waved my hand towards the line of souls and shoved all of them into the Hydra pit.
“What about her!?” I snarled. Polyphemus jumped away from me and held his hands up before him defensively.
“I saw her in the club dancing with other men. She looked really out of it. She was grinding on and getting her neck kissed by a satyr up there. I came down here as fast as I could.”
“She did what?!” I bellowed.
I wasted no time waiting for an answer before I changed my clothes and zapped myself directly into Eros’s club. The club was quite a popular scene amongst many of the souls that drifted into the underworld, so finding it was no big feat.
I pushed open the double doors with a loud crack as they slammed into the walls inside. Eros, who was standing at the bar when I made my rather grand entrance, made a quick beeline towards me with his eyes as wide as saucers.
“Uncle Hades!” he cooed as he neared me. “What a surprise! Would you like to join me for a little drink?”
Without bothering to look down at my hideous little nephew, I gripped the front of his plaid button-down shirt and brought him closer so I could whisper in his ear, “Where is Persephone?”
Eros blubbered and chuckled nervously as he manifested an apple martini into his hand. As he held it towards me, I could see his hand shaking from my peripheral vision.
“Persephone?” he asked, his voice shaking heavily. “She’s not here. I haven’t seen her tonight!”
I finally glared down at the little bastard, my eyes glowing with raging embers that promised a slow death. Eros yelped and dropped the drink onto the floor.
“Where. Is. She?” I asked again, making sure to enunciate each word individually.
Eros pointed a shaky finger towards the dancefloor. “O-over there somewhere!”
“Thanks,” I replied before I shoved Eros onto the ground and made my way towards the dance floor. There was a loud gasp from the patrons of the club as Eros slammed onto the floor, but I didn’t care. I strode through the crowd like a tiger hunting a fawn, my predatory gait veering many people out of my path as I hunted down Persephone.
It wasn’t long before I could smell her sweet violet perfume. Somewhere towards the DJ’s booth, I could see Persephone’s long ponytail swaying with her every movement. Standing behind her, with his hands digging deep into her hips, was a satyr with a buzzcut and poorly drawn tattoos.
I paused as I watched them dance.
A part of me, and I wasn’t sure how strong this part of me was, wanted to tear that satyr to itty bitty pieces while everyone watched in horror. But instead, I watched them dance with a murderous smile on my lips. My vision slowly turned red as the satyr dipped his lips down to Persephone’s neck, and she threw her head back into his shoulder with a low moan.
Keep your shit together, I warned myself. If you make too big of a scene, someone is bound to tell Demeter, and you don’t want her here. You might just kill her right along with the satyr.
As calmly as I could manage despite my rising fury, I shoved my way through the crowd. Once I reached them, I grabbed hold of Persephone’s elbow and whirled her around to face me. Her black-rimmed eyes were glossed over and bloodshot as she stared up at me with fear. The satyr, who nearly shit himself at the sight of me, recoiled away as I slowly gave him an unimpressed once-over.
“Who’s this?” I asked coolly, never once taking my eyes off of the man.
Persephone scoffed and yanked her elbow free from my grasp, masking her fear behind a drunken bravado. “He’s a friend.”
I scoffed and ran my tongue along my lower lip before I said, “A friend?”
“Listen, man,” the satyr said as he held his hands up defensively, “I didn’t do anything. She came onto me and--”
The satyr didn’t finish the sentence before I used my powers to slam him into the floor. Persephone cried out in fear before jumping away from me, her eyes glued to the screaming man on the ground beside us. I leveled my gaze with hers, willing her to look me in the eye until she finally did so. When our eyes met, she swallowed at the terror that had consumed her.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she screeched.
“Me?” I snarled incredulously. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Persephone? Why are you here? Better yet, why the hell are you dancing on this fuck-face like that? What have you been drinking?”
Persephone crossed her arms over her chest defiantly as the music emanating from the DJ’s booth came to a screeching halt. The room fell silent as Persephone and I glared at one another. So much for not causing a scene.
“What do you care?” Persephone hissed between clenched teeth. “Why don’t you just go hide back down in the underworld and mind your own damn business?”
I felt my jaw go slack. “What the hell has gotten into you? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”
“Why am I acting like this?” Persephone snapped her head as if I had just slapped her before she took a step towards me and painfully shoved her index finger into my chest. “You should know, Hades. I’ve heard all about what you’ve been going around telling people about me. You think I’m just some little slut here for your entertainment, huh? Well, fuck that and fuck you!”
I scoffed and stifled a laugh. What in the ever-loving hell was this woman going on about? I had never said anything about her to anyone, let alone anything negative. As she let out an aggravated sigh, I caught the familiar smell of poppies on her breath. Poppies were the only thing that could give a god the same sensation that a human could get when they were high. To someone like us, poppy seeds were the equivalent of acid or ecstasy.
My nostrils flared as I struggled to keep myself composed. From the floor, the satyr gasped in pain and cried, “Please! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
I shot him a glare before using my powers to push him deeper into the flooring until it cracked under his weight and the pressure I was using. Persephone scoffed as the satyr howled in pain.
“Look at you, being the brute that everyone says you are,” Persephone snarled with disgust. “Go home, Hades. I plan on getting shit-faced, and there’s nothing you or my mother can do to stop me today. I’m sick of everyone treating me like a child.”
Persephone turned to leave, but I grabbed her elbow much more forcefully this time. Before I could stop her, Persephone whirled around and slapped me with all her strength. The crowd gasped around us. I tasted the familiar copper tang of blood in my mouth and reached up to stroke my bottom lip. Blood oozed freely from the wound at the right corner
of my lips, staining my teeth.
“Let me go, Hades. I don’t want you to touch me ever again.” Her voice was laced with venom as she struggled to pull her arm out of my grasp.
My heart ached at the sound of those nine little words. Though I knew that Persephone was in a drug-laced haze, it didn’t ease the pain of the sting. Still, I tightened my grip and shook my head.
“No,” I whispered. “You’re coming with me. You need to sleep this off.”
“Let her go, you son of a bitch!” I turned to see Artemis snaking her way quickly towards us through the crowd. With a sneer, I quickly formed a barrier around Persephone and myself. As Artemis reached us, she slammed full-on into the ward and was catapulted away from us and into a large group of demons. Artemis was here the entire time, and she let Persephone do this to herself? What the hell kind of a best friend just allowed someone to get high out of their mind like this? Anything could have happened to Persephone while she was under her care. Or lack thereof, I corrected myself.
“You,” I bellowed. “You should have been taking better care of Persephone. Where the fuck were you hiding? Why didn’t you stop her from getting like this?”
Artemis shoved herself away from the demons she’d landed on and came to the edge of the warding with a lethal glare. “Persephone isn’t your property, Hades. Let her go, or I’ll kill you.”
I snorted through my nose. If I so wished it, this club and everyone inside of it would be nothing more than a stain on the earth. Artemis was lucky that I didn’t want to enforce the idea that Persephone had of me being a monster right now. It took twelve hundred pounds of pressure just to break a human neck. It would take me less than one thought to snap hers if I truly wanted to.
“You are just as weak and pathetic as your daddy,” I growled. “You don’t deserve the right to protect Persephone after this. If you go near her again, I’ll kill you. And your daddy won’t be able to bring you back from where I send you.”
Before Artemis or Persephone could retort, I zapped us out of the club, leaving everyone staring in stunned silence in our wake. Knowing I couldn’t trust Persephone to be home alone while doped up this way, I made the hasty decision to take her to Tartarus. The entire time we made our descent, she was screaming.
21
Artemis
As I stood over the sink, my hands braced on either side of the porcelain to keep myself steady, I took a deep breath. Normally when I drank one of Dionysus’s Dreamweavers, they didn’t hit me this hard, but tonight I had decided to have two. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. What the hell was I thinking? The room spun every time I opened my eyes, and I was sweating as though I’d run a marathon.
Idiot, I chastised myself. Once again, I was the queen of overdoing things.
Without opening my eyes, I turned the cold water on full blast. After one final exhale, I placed both hands under the water and proceeded to splash cool water onto my face, neck, shoulders, and chest. As the water dripped down my back, I could have sworn that I heard my skin sizzle.
I was supposed to be making sure that Persephone had a good time, but here I was - stoned out of my mind. I sighed, feeling irritated at myself. At least when I had left Persephone dancing with that satyr, her eyes were no longer full of pain and heartbreak. Seeing her hurt killed me inside. Persephone, despite being a prisoner in her own home, rarely looked so empty and broken. So, when I had seen the look of complete hopelessness in her eyes this afternoon, I felt like I was dying.
I opened my eyes slowly and looked at my reflection. My hair was slightly disheveled, and my mascara had run a little with the water I had splashed on my face. I could look worse, I thought with a shrug. On the plus side, however, the saturation of the colors around me had returned to normal, and the room wasn’t spinning as fast as it had when I was still dancing with Persephone.
As I went to splash more water onto my face, I heard a sudden crash outside. I froze and looked towards the door, straining to hear more. Boom, another crash. That’s when it suddenly dawned on me.
That’s weird. The music stopped.
“Let me go, Hades,” I heard Persephone snap over the silence. My stomach hit the floor.
Without a moment of hesitation, I bolted out of the bathroom. As I flung open the door, I paused. Every patron of the club was standing in a large circle around the dancefloor. Why was no one doing anything?! I ground my teeth in frustration and started shoving my way through the crowd.
As I pushed through the gawking onlookers, I heard Hades say, “No. You’re coming with me. You need to sleep this off.”
Up ahead, through a small gap between two people, I could see Persephone attempting to free herself from Hades’ firm grasp on her arm. My instincts kicked into full gear as I pushed everyone out of my path a little faster. How had that bastard tracked us down? As far as I knew, Hades had never been to this club. I know for a fact that I had masked her scent and trail back at the temple because, if I hadn’t, Demeter would be here in Hades’ place. So how was it that he had managed to find her?
“Let her go, you son of a bitch!” I cried as I finally broke free from the crowd. I made a mad dash for them, fully intent on gouging Hades’ eyes out when he turned to sneer at me over his shoulder. Before I knew it, I slammed face-first into a barrier that Hades had cast around Persephone and himself. I bit back a cry as I ricocheted off the warding and slammed back first into a group of four incubi. The five of us all crashed to the ground in a tangled heap.
Beneath me, I heard one of the incubi groaning from the impact. My own body screamed as pain coursed through me. What the hell was that? In all my years of training and wrestling with my twin brother, my father, and even my older brother Ares, I had never felt a power this strong before. I hissed as a white-hot pain burned through my ribs with every shallow breath I took.
“You,” Hades growled. “You should have been taking better care of Persephone. Where the fuck were you hiding? Why didn’t you stop her from getting like this?”
Using the demons that I had landed on, I pushed myself cautiously onto my feet and came to stand at the edge of the warding, narrowing my eyes. At his feet, the satyr that Persephone had been dancing with lay embedded in the floor, motionless. “Persephone isn’t your property, Hades. Let her go, or I’ll kill you.”
Hades snorted with amusement. How I wanted to slap that look right off his face. Yet the injuries that I had sustained from his warding had left me feeling weak and powerless. Still, I didn’t want to exude that in my posture and give myself away to him. If his warding was this strong, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he would do to me if he knew he’s hurt me. Instead, I held my chin up defiantly and held his venomous glare.
“You are just as weak and pathetic as your daddy,” Hades snarled between clenched teeth. “You don’t deserve the right to protect Persephone after this. If you go near her again, I’ll kill you. And your daddy won’t be able to bring you back from where I send you.”
Before I had a chance to respond, Hades and Persephone vanished into a flash of light and a wisp of black smoke. I stared at the empty spot where they once stood for a moment as my body grew cold with fear. He took her, I thought to myself. He really took her.
“Shit,” I whispered. What was I supposed to do now? As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t go after her. Only a soul, someone who made their home in the underworld, or someone personally invited by Hades, could go down there. And I was none of those things. Not to mention that I was not nearly strong enough to try to take him out on my own.
Fear nestled itself comfortably on my shoulders as I finally glanced around at the crowd. Everyone was watching me with a combination of awe, confusion, and terror. Eros shakingly ambled out of the crowd, his face pale and slick with sweat.
“What are we going to do?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper. I swallowed hard at the uncertainty that had begun constricting my throat.
As I hesitated, the tension in the room grew thicker
. I didn’t want to have to do this, but it seemed as though I had no other choice. The only thing left for me to do was to break the news to Demeter and hope she didn’t kill me.
Fuck me. Why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut? If I hadn’t said anything to Persephone, she wouldn’t have been here tonight, and she would still be safe.
Then again, if I hadn’t said anything, Hades would still be manipulating Persephone into doing whatever he told her to do while making her feel as though he loved her. But it was too late for that now, wasn’t it? I shuddered as I finally turned to Eros, quelling my nerves.
“Clean this up. Don’t let word of this leave this club. I have to go to Olympus,” I said.
I didn’t wait for Eros to reply. Instead, I used every last ounce left of my powers and flashed myself out of the club up to the entrance of Demeter’s temple. As I lifted my foot to cross the threshold of the temple, I froze. If I did this, there was a huge chance that Persephone would never speak to me again. But if I told Demeter now, there was also a bigger chance of getting her back safely. I had to think of Persephone. I had to keep her best interest in mind.
Do this for Persephone, my conscience agreed. With steely resolve, I bolted into the temple, scaring the handmaids who were busy working away inside.
“Demeter!” I called as I sprinted down the corridor. “Demeter!”
Demeter sleepily stumbled out of her chambers and groggily rubbed at her face. “Artemis? What are you doing here this late? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Persephone…” I said quietly, my voice suddenly hoarse with fear. “Hades took Persephone.”
