by Melody Rose
22
Demeter
Every part of my body froze with absolute terror as my mind processed what Artemis had just said. I couldn’t believe this. My daughter was just down the hall in her room. There was no way she would have disobeyed me a second time, was there? I looked up at Artemis, her green eyes wide with panic as she waited for me to respond.
“No,” I replied, completely in denial. “No. There’s no way that’s true. Persephone is asleep in her bed.”
I turned and briskly walked towards Persephone’s room to see this for myself. There was no way she would have disobeyed me. She swore to me. She told me she wouldn’t do this! When I reached the doors to her room, I pushed them open quickly and marched inside. The pool and small garden were empty; there were no recent signs of the water nymphs that normally spent time there. I turned my head to the large bed covered in flowers in which my precious child slept.
I took a deep breath of relief as I noticed her crown of dark hair poking out from beneath her blankets. I tip-toed towards her, making sure to keep my steps silent so as not to disturb her. But as I grew close to the sleeping form on the bed, I started to realize it wasn’t her at all. When I reached the foot of the bed, I grabbed the covers and yanked them off quickly to reveal one of my handmaids fast asleep. As I moved closer, I could see that the woman had been enchanted to sleep, and her skin was glowing a faint gold from the power that had been imbued into her in order for her to pass as Persephone.
No, I thought to myself. No! It couldn’t be!
“I’m so sorry, Demeter,” Artemis said from somewhere behind me. “She’s not… she’s not here. I - I took her out with me. I put up this spell to make you think she was home, but she’s gone! I’m so sorry! Please forgive me, Demeter. I was just trying to make her feel better! I - I know I shouldn’t have taken her, but you should have heard the things Hades has been saying about her! She was a wreck after I told her!”
My fear was suddenly replaced with rage at this. I whirled about to face her, my eyes snapping fire. “What has Hades said about her? He barely knows her!”
I could see Artemis was hesitating now as she worried her bottom lip with her teeth. She lowered her gaze to the ground and shrugged lightly. “He was calling her a slut to my brother. Apollo also said that Hades was telling everyone that he deflowered her.”
“He did what!?” I stomped towards Artemis and wrapped my fingers around her long, thin neck. Artemis blinked wildly and struggled to breathe as I leaned in close. “My daughter has been here every single night except for tonight when you came and asked to visit again. You are spewing lies.”
“I’m not!” Artemis gasped as she dug her nails into my hand. “H-Hades and Persephone have b-been sneaking out of here for d-days! She sp-spends her n-nights with Hades!”
I dropped my hands from Artemis’s throat and recoiled away from her as though she had backhanded me. Artemis collapsed to the ground on her knees and coughed past the pain in her sore neck. “Liar! There’s no way he could have been able to do that!”
“D-Demeter, you don’t… you don’t understand,” Artemis said as she took heaving breaths. “Hades is ridiculously powerful! I-I’ve never felt that level of power before.”
I turned away from Artemis and tucked my shaking hands into my sides to keep them from shaking any harder. My poor, sweet little girl! That stupid, naïve child. I warned her that Hades was going to poison her, didn’t I? But did she listen to me? Of course, she didn’t! If she managed to come out of this unscathed, I was going to kill the girl.
I would no longer be offering such a disobedient child the luxuries that I had given her. I wasn’t going to let her be destroyed just because she wanted to have a bit of fun with that… that… monster. So what if he was strong? Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned, right?
But what could I do? What could Artemis and I do? After all, she had placed my daughter right onto the path of that runaway train. Had Artemis minded her own business, my daughter would still be asleep in her bed. I whirled to face Artemis.
Artemis flinched, then relaxed for a moment as I said, “We need to go get her. We don’t know what he’s willing to do to her.”
“We can’t,” Artemis protested. “Unless he invites you down there or you live there, the gates are sealed shut. He also has a guard dog guarding the gates. Cerberus would kill us before we even cross the doorway.”
“Well, we can’t just leave her there! He could kill her!” I ran my hands through my hair and took a breath to steady myself, but it didn’t work. If anything, it made me feel even worse.
Artemis crossed her arms over her chest. She brought a hand to her mouth and absent-mindedly began chewing on her nails as she started to pace. “There has to be someone stronger than Hades, right? I mean, it’s not like he’s the only senior god around here.”
“No,” I said, quickly dropping my hands as I suddenly had a thought. “He’s not. Artemis, your father and Poseidon are just as strong, if not stronger, than Hades. Those three have the ability to level planets if they so wanted to. We need to see your father. Besides, Persephone is…”
I couldn’t finish it. Knowing that I would have to beg Zeus for help to rescue his own flesh and blood stuck in my craw and left a nasty aftertaste, especially because he had denounced this poor girl so many years ago, but what other realistic choice did we– no, I have?
“Artemis, we need to see Zeus, and we need to see him now,” I said.
Artemis nodded slowly before she took my hand in hers. “Okay,” she replied. Within moments, the two of us were standing in Zeus’s courtyard. “Stay here.”
I nodded and watched as the fiery-haired goddess quickly made her way into the temple. Once she was out of my sight, my walls came crashing down around me, and I erupted into a loud sob.
My baby was gone. That monster had taken my only child! I couldn’t even begin to imagine how terrified she must be in the underworld. And she was trapped down there! This was horrible. Where did I go wrong as a mother? What had I done to cause my daughter to behave like this and disobey me? Had I not given her everything she ever wanted? My mind was racing with questions.
Now I was left to try to beg the father of my child for help. I had spent so many years avoiding even being near the man, and now I actually had to talk him into helping me. I closed my eyes tightly. Would Zeus even help me? He had said he would never acknowledge Persephone as his child, but did that mean that he also wouldn’t help her as a member of the pantheon?
“What is it, Artemis? What do you want? It’s late, kiddo.” I froze at the sound of Zeus’s voice.
I hastily wiped the tears from my eyes and straightened myself before Zeus came stumbling from the temple. He blinked back the sleep in his eyes as he saw me and suddenly scowled. Without saying anything to me, he turned to Artemis with irritation.
“What the hell is this, Artemis?” he snapped.
Artemis pushed her father closer to me before she said, “Dad, we need your help. Something really fucking bad just happened.”
“What do you mean?” Zeus, now suddenly alert, glanced at the two of us. “What happened?”
“Your brother,” I croaked. “Hades has Persephone, Zeus. He took our daughter!”
“Shh!” Zeus hissed as he took a step towards me, gesturing for me to lower my voice with his hands. “Keep your fucking voice down. She’s not my child, Demeter. She’s your child. And so what if Hades has her? I’m sure she went with him willingly.”
“Dad, I was there!” Artemis stressed. “She was telling him to leave her alone. He took her anyway. He said he’d kill me if I tried to go near her.”
Zeus scoffed as he glared at his young daughter. “And what the hell were you doing with Persephone, Artemis? You should be sleeping like the rest of us.”
“She’s my friend, Dad, and my sister. We have to get her back!” Artemis was yelling loud enough that a small candle flickered to life somewhere inside the temple.
That must be He
ra, I thought to myself with raging jealousy.
Zeus shook his head furiously. “No.”
“No?” I repeated. Zeus looked directly into my eyes before he nodded, his eyes devoid of emotion.
“No,” he said again.
I felt my mind whirling and reeling with a whirlwind of emotions as Artemis growled in frustration. “Dad, you’re the strongest of your brothers! Why won’t you help us?! All you would have to do is order for Hades to release Persephone into your custody, and then you can be done with this.”
Zeus threw his head back and laughed. My legs, feeling as though they suddenly had no bones at all, collapsed beneath me. Tears welled in my eyes, and I felt my chest growing tighter with fear and heartbreak. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t happening.
“Even if I could,” Zeus said, bringing my attention back to him, “Hades would never listen to anything I have to say. He’s been hard-headed since before the whole ‘me getting Olympus’ fiasco. Besides, every god is stronger in their own domain. I’m powerful as hell because this is my home. Do you realize how much weaker I would be if I tried to go down there and get her?”
Zeus shook a hand dismissively before he continued. “I can’t enter the underworld, anyway. Poseidon and I have a permanent ban on the place. Even if we die, we can’t get in, and Hades would never voluntarily invite any of us down there. He’s not as stupid as he looks. You two are shit out of luck on this one.”
Quiet as a mouse, Hera slipped into the courtyard with a sheer blanket draped around her delicate shoulders. “My love, what’s going on?”
As Zeus explained the situation to Hera, and Artemis interrupted to make her case, I slipped deeper into my depression. My daughter was in mortal danger, and there was absolutely nothing that I could do to help her. What must Hades be doing to her now? Was she suffering? Was she scared? Was she crying for me?
Oh, why did this have to happen to my poor, innocent baby? Was I going to be forced to live without my child as well as the love of my life? How could I have lost the two most important things this way? Without Persephone’s love and laughter to guide me, I wasn’t so sure that I would be able to survive.
Wait a minute…
“I’ll kill them all.”
Zeus, Hera, and Artemis all paused their talking to turn their full attention to me.
“What did you say?” Zeus asked, unsure if he’d heard me correctly. I turned to face him slowly, my eyes swollen over with tears.
“You rely on the mortals to remain powerful,” I explained quietly. “As long as the humans still praise and worship you, you live, we all live. Their love and prayers keep Olympus afloat, grant us our abilities, and grant us our immortality, don’t they?”
“Where are you going with this, Demeter?” Hera snapped as she narrowed her eyes at me, but the look in Zeus’s eyes told me he understood exactly where I was going with this. I felt a small smile of victory tugging at the corners of my lips as I wiped my tears and climbed to my feet.
“If you don’t help me get my daughter back from that monster you call a brother, I will destroy all of the crops that grow in the human realm. The longer my child is not by my side, the quicker the humans die, and we die along with them. Make the right choice,” I paused, raking Zeus with a cold once over before I sneered, “Lord Zeus.”
23
Hades
Once Persephone and I were safely in the underworld, I escorted her to my chambers. By escorting her, I mean that I had her hoisted over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry while she kicked and screamed like a child. I had done my absolute best to ignore her wailing, but now it was becoming a bit too much for me to handle. When we reached my room, I kicked open the doors and stormed inside.
Without giving Persephone a warning, I tossed her onto my bed in a heap. She growled at me and glared up from where she lay, brushing her long hair behind her and out of her face. The redness in her eyes had finally dissipated, and her pupils had shrunk to a somewhat normal size. The drugs must be wearing off, I thought to myself. This was pure rage she was displaying.
“Let me out of here, you fucking jerk! I don’t want to be here! I want to go home!” she screeched up at me, her lavender eyes filled to the brim with hatred.
I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. “Absolutely not. You need to sleep this shit off. And stop calling me names! I don’t even understand what the hell it is that you think I did.”
“I already told you!” Persephone crawled to the edge of the bed, her hands curled into talons as she bared her teeth at me like a feral cat. “You know what you did! Stop acting like you’re so fucking innocent, Hades!”
I scoffed at her. Back at the club, when she was ranting and raving about me calling her names behind her back, I thought maybe it was the drugs talking. Poppy seeds could make you see and hear some crazy shit, but now I was starting to think she really believed that I had done those things.
“Persephone, I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. I’ve already explained this!” I said, raising my voice just enough for her to get the point.
“LIAR!” Persephone shrieked. Before I knew what was happening, Persephone hopped off of the bed and began tugging off her high heels. She tossed the first one at me with deadly precision, but I waved it away with my hand and sent it scattering across the room. “YOU ARE SUCH A LIAR!”
She yanked off the second heel and tossed that one as well, but it met the same fate as its twin. I let out a breath as Persephone stomped towards me, matched her tippy toes against my boots, and tried to press her nose against mine.
“I heard what you’ve been telling Apollo, Hades,” she snapped, her tone laced with disgust. “You’re going around telling everyone that I’m your little whore and that you’ve fucked me. Oh, and not only did you fuck me, but apparently, my virginity is in question because I wasn’t tight enough for you. Was I just some sort of conquest to you? Was any of what you said and did for me real?”
I raised my eyebrows with shock as I processed this information. Apollo has said that, did he? Well, that was funny, considering I could hardly stand any of my fucking family as it is. And how dare Persephone believe anyone over me? She didn’t even bother to ask me if any of this was true before she just decided it was and dumped me without warning.
“Persephone,” I said, trying to remain as cool as a cucumber, “did it ever occur to you that Apollo was full of shit?”
Persephone opened her mouth, then closed it again. I could see her weighing the answers in her mind, but she said nothing. I shook my head, feeling more than a little disappointed in her.
“Do you believe him?” I asked.
Persephone looked up at me with large eyes that were still half-full of loathing. “Is it true?”
I turned away from Persephone and made my way over to my red velvet couch. When I reached it, I kicked it so hard that it slid noisily across the floor and slammed against the obsidian wall of my bedroom, crumbling the stone into dust. I glared at her over my shoulder.
“Are you fucking kidding me, Persephone?” I railed. “After everything I’ve told you about my family, you really think I would trust them with any of my secrets or feelings? I wouldn’t even tell my best friend about you, even if the rumors were true. That is our business – just the two of us.”
Persephone seemed to deflate at my words. “But Apollo knew about us. He knew that I had been here alone with you. How could he have known that unless you told him yourself?”
I raked a hand through my hair irritably as I pondered this. There could have been no possible way that Apollo could have known about Persephone being here, and Hephaestus would never blab to anyone about me in any way. In fact, Hephaestus was willing to gut anyone who even spoke ill about me. The only other person who knew about Persephone had been Clotho and…
I chuckled, but it was not a chuckle filled with mirth. Persephone frowned and crossed her arms over her chest as I continued to chuckle like a madman. “S
o now, this is funny to you?”
I whirled around to face her and held my arms out on either side of me. “It was one of the damned Fates! The only other person that knew you were here were Clotho and her sisters. Her youngest sister, Atropos, has been in love with me since we met. She’s been trying to crawl into my bed for centuries! The night I first saw you, I turned her down. She still won’t speak to me.”
“But how does she know about us? Did the Fate I meet tell her?” Persephone asked as the tension in her shoulders eased.
I shook my head. “The only reason that Atropos must have found out is that Clotho told them about the apples.”
“The apples?”
I nodded as I moved to sit on the edge of the bed beside her. Persephone slowly turned to face me as I took a deep breath and let both hands fall into my lap. I had wanted to keep this information to myself until the right moment, but it appeared that the moment had decided to arrive ahead of schedule. I had to tell Persephone the truth so she could understand that what Apollo had said was not to be believed.
“Persephone…” I began. “In the Fields, do you remember that trail of flowers by the entrance?”
Persephone thought back for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Yes, the silver flowers. Anemones, right?”
“Right.” I nodded. “Well, only gods can see those flowers. If you follow the trail, it leads you to a huge tree with these amazing golden leaves. Growing on the tree are some apples. Most of them are gold, and the rest are silver. They each correspond with the living soul of a god or demi-god. There’s only one apple on that entire tree that isn’t gold. In fact, it’s pitch-black.”
“Your apple...” Persephone said with a whisper.
I nodded again. “Yes. And recently, Clotho discovered an anomaly on my apple. This little red thread had started growing from the core. She showed it to me. If you followed the thread, you could see that it was connected to another apple, a gold one. The thread was growing from the core of that one too.”
