by Melody Rose
Instead, we began to drift apart. It was because of that separation that my bond with Zeus had solidified. Together, the two of us had grown stronger and devised a plan to kill our father and to seal away the Titans. We were hesitant at first to include Hades in our plan for fear that he would have worked with our father instead of us, but I had managed to convince Hades to join us, and the three of us enacted our plan.
When the defeat of the Titans came, the three of us had come together to split the domains equally. However, the unsettling emptiness in Hades’ eyes was still a matter that troubled Zeus and me. As the oldest of us, Hades had staked his claim on Olympus. That left the territory beneath the sea for me and Tartarus for Zeus. But Zeus was unhappy with this decision.
Instead of accepting this territory, he had decided to commit the greatest sin of all the Gods: hubris. He told Hades that only a god of his magnitude was fit to rule the fiery pit of the underworld and restore order to the chaos wrought by the Titans before him. It would bring him more fame, love, and respect than ruling Olympus would. Everything on Olympus was so easy! Surely such an environment would have bored Hades would have, right? The very moment that Hades had agreed, the decision was irreversible.
Zeus went on to take in the love of millions, create the human race, and spend the rest of his days living like a king. I had ruled the ocean, beloved by millions, and even partnering with the city of Atlantis to rule in aquatic harmony before its demise. But Hades…. He resented the two of us for lying to him.
He had locked himself away in the underworld, furious over the betrayal. He lived a life of solitude, anger, and death. Of course, I felt terrible about it, but it wasn’t like we killed the man. Besides, my father had already done that. Hades was just a miserable shadow of his former self. Shouldn’t someone - who was as empty as my older brother was - be more fit to rule in such a place as Tartarus than Zeus or myself?
Killing him would do him a favor. I would free his broken soul once and for all! It would also ensure Persephone’s safety. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a terrible idea. With a heavy sigh, I threw my head back and called out, “Ares!”
Within moments, my nephew had manifested by my side. Ares was a tall young man with rippling muscles and a scar that ran down from the top of his left eyebrow down to his nostril. He had slicked back his thick black away from his face, and his crimson eyes glittered in the light of the sconces around us.
“Uncle Poseidon,” Ares said, bowing his head respectfully.
“Hey, Ares. I have a task for you,” I replied.
Ares raised a brow eagerly as he crossed his arms over his broad chest. “What do you need?”
“I need you to head to Eros’s club and find your father. When you do, I need you to post up there and guard him in case anyone tries to cause a scene,” I explained.
“Cause a scene?” Ares’s tone was dripping with amusement at this. “Are we gonna fuck someone up?”
I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. “That’s still unclear. We’re having a bit of sibling drama, and I just need you to be down there and ready just in case shit hits the fan.”
“I’m on it.” Ares smiled before he vanished, leaving me in the room alone again.
I didn’t waste any more time lingering in the temple and flashed myself back home. Once in my golden palace, safely protected by a large ward designed to keep the water out, I made my way towards my throne. As I walked, the heavy burden of my task seemed to weigh heavier on my shoulders with every step. I wasn’t happy with what I was about to do, but it was something I had to do.
Hades would find a way to forgive me one day. This was for something far greater than any of us. When I reached my throne, I set myself down in the seat gingerly and crossed one long leg over the other. I reached to my left and took my trident firmly into my grasp as I watched the entrance of my temple like a hawk. All I had to do now was wait for my big brother’s arrival and finish this once and for all.
29
Hades
After two grueling hours of Cerberus and the Erinyes’ tugging at the lightning bolt on my chest, it finally lost its power and faded into nothingness. I sat up with a pained groan, the burn on my chest from the bolt throbbing with every beat of my heart.
Megaera held a hand out to me with a deep frown as Cerberus positioned himself behind my back. Together, the three of us were able to get me back onto my feet. Tisiphone crossed her arms over her chest, her vibrant pink skin flush with rage.
“I say we all go up to Olympus and kill the fucker. I happily volunteer to rip his smug smile right off his hideous little face and eat it on toast,” she said with a hiss.
“Not if I get to him first,” Alecto snarled. “I’ll rip his dick off and feed it to Cerberus while he watches. Ain’t that right, baby?”
All three of Cerberus’s heads barked in agreement as he trotted towards Alecto to receive a loving scratch behind all six ears. Megaera came close and examined the wound on my chest with a scowl. “Just say the word, my Lord. My sisters and I will lay waste to all of Olympus in your name. That asshole deserves to be flayed for what he’s done to you.”
“No,” I said with a wince. “I need to find Persephone. Zeus had sent Hermes down here to get her. If you ladies go up there now and burn Olympus to the ground, you might risk hurting her. She could be anywhere up there.”
I glanced down at my chest to see that my skin was slowly stitching itself together, the charred black skin evaporating into healthy skin. Meg sighed before she nodded in agreement.
“You’re right, my Lord. Forgive me. I didn’t even consider that.”
Tisiphone sucked her teeth. “Well, that’s just horse shit. I was really looking forward to finding out what a pompous Olympian tastes like.”
Alecto chuckled beside her sister as I took a deep breath to steady myself. I felt slightly weakened from the pain, but it was nothing that I couldn’t work past in a pinch. I had suffered worse, after all. With a snap of my fingers, I dressed in a pair of dark jeans, black biker boots, and a loose navy-blue sweater. Megaera, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Cerberus fell into line as I brushed my hair away from my face.
“I need you three to stay here and protect the underworld. Alecto, make sure to stay here and watch for the ferryman,” I began.
“Yes, Lord Hades,” Alecto said with a salute.
“Tisiphone,” I continued. “I need you to go to Mount Tartarus and help Polyphemus. I’m not sure if what happens up above will have any effect down here, but I don’t want to take the chance.”
“You’ve got it, boss,” Tisiphone replied, placing a fist over her heart in a salute.
“Cerberus, I need you to keep a close eye on the gate. If you see my brothers or anyone else from upstairs who isn’t Persephone, rip their throats out. Meg, I need you to go to the temple of the Fates and make sure to secure them and the gate to the Fields,” I finished.
Megaera offered a salute, and Cerberus growled in understanding. With an appreciative nod, I dismissed our little team of ragtag misfits. Now that I was alone, it was time for me to find my woman. With a single thought, I teleported myself directly to the golden gates of Olympus. I frowned as I glared around at my surroundings. It was eerily quiet around here.
No matter. It probably wouldn’t be very quiet around here for long once I was through with all of these assholes, anyway.
The first temple I decided to check through was Artemis’s. The glimmering white and gold marble temple sat peacefully beside a slim silver stream with a cypress tree growing just by the entrance. I dashed inside and tore through each and every room, reaching out with my senses to see if I could find the familiar fragrance of violets. But the temple was completely empty, save for Artemis’s albino doe and sleepy grizzly bear in the garden. There were absolutely no priests and no handmaids in sight.
I couldn’t even sense my niece here. Where did you go?
The next temple I stormed through was Apollo’s. I already kne
w the little fucker was obsessed with Persephone, so perhaps he had helped his father kidnap her in an effort to get her for himself. Apollo’s temple, like his sisters, was made from white and gold marble. The only difference between the two was that Apollo’s self-centered personality truly shone in his décor choices. Throughout the main hall and even in his chambers, Apollo had golden statues of himself, gold plated lyres, and vintage guitars hanging on every available wall space.
Jesus, I thought to myself with repugnance, this kid loves himself more than Narcissus admires his own reflection.
As I made my way towards Demeter’s temple at the base of Mount Olympus, I paused. A silent breeze whispered down from the peak of the mountain, carrying with it a combined scent of violets and, wait… was that… fish? Without hesitation, I flashed myself into the main hall of Zeus’s temple. Inside, the sconces were still lit, but it was quieter than the dead.
I raised my nose into the air and took in a deep breath, trying to find the source of the violets. But the scent was growing fainter by the second. I followed the remaining traces around the room until I finally stumbled on what I was hoping was a clue.
In almost the exact center of the circle of sconces, there was a dime-sized droplet of water. I crouched down to examine the droplet, lightly dipping my fingers into its cool surface. When I brought my fingers to my nose and took another deep breath, I sensed it. Persephone had been here. However, it looked as though they moved her, and the whole pantheon had gone along. I glanced down at my fingers, my rage building as the water on my hand began to singe the pads of my fingers.
“POSEIDON!” I bellowed.
I waited for a moment, waiting for my brother to answer my summon. When he didn’t appear, I thrust myself up onto my feet and roared with fury. Not only were Demeter and Zeus responsible for this, but now Poseidon had sided with them? I knew that he hated me, but I didn’t expect him to pull something like this. Every ounce of sympathy and love that I had left for my younger brother instantly transitioned into pure rage as I held my hands out at either side of me and unleashed my fiery rage on the temple.
Obsidian flames burst from the palms of my hands and spread throughout the temple like a wildfire. When I felt pleased with the destruction, watching as the black flames engulfed everything around me, I flashed myself to Poseidon’s domain.
Beneath the sea, under a large crystal dome that kept the water from drowning his people, sat Poseidon’s obnoxiously large golden temple. The land surrounding the temple was quite magnificent if I had to be honest with myself. The walkways, small guardrails, and even the torches that lit the path towards the temple were all carved from coral or whale bones. Small bioluminescent algae also speckled much of the walls of my brother’s underwater sanctum.
The only thing that I hated about this place, much like Olympus, was that my powers were growing weaker the longer that I was here. While my powers wouldn’t dissipate altogether, they would leave me at a disadvantage.
Before I could grow any weaker, I hurriedly made a beeline towards the temple, stomping my boots loudly on the path so that my brother could hear me coming. Unlike Olympus, there was one entity still within this domain whose energy I could sense, and it was his. Like Zeus, Poseidon’s level of power gave off a light hum. I imagine that that was how they could sense me as well, but I couldn’t be sure.
Once I passed through the entrance of the golden temple, I could see my brother sitting on his throne with a deep scowl on his face and his lethal silver trident clutched tightly in his hand. His deep blue eyes fixed on me from beneath a silver scaled helmet that matched the silver scaled breastplate and gauntlets he also wore. He was ready for a fight.
Slowly, I started my march towards him.
“I was starting to think you weren’t going to show up, big bro,” Poseidon said with a low growl.
My eyes snapped fire as I paused six feet from his throne. “Did you suddenly go deaf, or were you just ignoring my summons?”
Poseidon smiled dangerously before he said, “I wanted you to come to my turf instead. Figured it would be easier this way.”
“For which one of us?” I inquired.
Poseidon smiled broadly as he slammed his trident into the ground. “I guess we’ll have to see, won’t we?”
“Where’s Persephone, Poseidon? What did you and Zeus do to her?” I snapped.
Poseidon scoffed at me in disbelief as he leaned back into his throne. “Excuse me, Hades, but just who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? Maybe you’ve forgotten, or maybe you’re just really that stupid, but you’re in my domain. You don’t get to ask questions like you’re the fucking king around here.”
I chuckled darkly before snapping the fingers of my left hand, causing pitch-black flames to consume my entire arm. “I want my girlfriend, Poseidon. You think that because this is your fucking house that I won’t tear it down with you in it? I’m going to give you three seconds to tell me where Persephone is.”
“I don’t have to tell you a fucking thing,” Poseidon spat maliciously.
“Three,” I began.
“I’m warning you, Hades. Don’t start what you can’t finish,”
“Two,” I continued.
“I’m giving you one last warning to walk the fuck away, big brother,”
“One.” And with that, Poseidon lunged.
30
Hades
With a quick flick of my wrist, the flames that engulfed my arm had shot to the palm of my hand and formed my bident. With only a split second left to react, I parried my brother’s offensive attack, catching the three prongs of his trident directly between the two flaming prongs of my own staff, the middle prong of which nearly collided with my eye.
Using all of my strength, I shoved my brother back and whirled my spear expertly in my hands before swinging my bident in a huge arc towards his legs. Poseidon flashed out of range before my attack could land, and he reappeared above me, bellowing a mighty roar as he poised his trident above his head and came down at me with an aerial attack. I did a swift backflip out of reach in time to see that the trident had slammed onto the ground, destroying an eight-foot radius of flooring with its powerful impact.
Poseidon landed on one knee and glared up at me from the ground. He smiled smugly at me, then gestured for me to come towards him with his hand before he vanished out of sight again. But I wasn’t going to be so easily fooled this time. As Poseidon manifested behind me, I quickly dropped into a crouch and swiped my bident at him a second time, clipping the back of his calves. This time, my attack landed, and my brother went tumbling onto his back.
He hit the ground with a thundering crash as his armor cracked the marble beneath his weight. As he lay breathless beside me, I hopped to my feet and kicked his trident out of reach before I aimed my bident above his chest and roared, “Where’s Persephone?!”
“Fuck you!” Poseidon snarled as he struggled to get his bearings.
I bared my teeth in rage as I brought my bident down, burying the prongs directly into my brother’s chest. The silver plating of his armor sizzled as the flames on the bident came to life, melting everything from the inside out. I smiled victoriously as my brother’s eyes widened with terror, and his mouth dropped open. From between his lips, a faint gurgling sound emerged. My smile dropped.
The guttural gargling increased in depth as steam started to billow from Poseidon’s ears and nostrils. No fucking way! In the blink of an eye, the flesh and bone body beneath the armor began to transform into a large transparent figure made completely out of water.
“Gotcha,” Poseidon’s voice came from behind me. Without a moment to react, my brother, using his superior strength, kicked me directly in the spine. I found myself soaring through the air until I painfully collided with one of the gold-painted whalebone columns. I cried out in agony as a large crack echoed from the left side of my ribcage.
I ricocheted off the column and went tumbling to the ground, each movement bringing a new wa
ve of torment directly to my midsection. Poseidon threw his head back and guffawed as I groaned and coughed at the pain, blood staining my bottom lip and teeth.
“You know, I almost expected you to figure out that you were fighting a doppelganger sooner, but I guess you really are stupid,” he said with a self-congratulatory smile. I glared up at him and spat out blood as I slowly climbed to my feet with an incredible amount of effort.
Unlike his doppelganger, Poseidon dressed in a pine green jerkin with a pair of form-fitting black leather pants and knee-high black boots. Around each of his large biceps, he wore a studded leather cuff engraved with his trademark planetary trident symbol.
“Says the guy hiding behind a water clone,” I hissed. “Where’s Persephone, brother?”
Poseidon rolled his eyes and lazily spun his trident in his hands. “So, you’re still going to act like the Lord of the Three Kingdoms, huh?”
“If that’s what it takes for you to tell me where Persephone is, then yes.”
Poseidon’s trident paused mid-spin as he flashed me a broad toothy grin that eerily reminded me of a great white shark. He chuckled then said, “Well, allow me to give you a proper greeting, Lord Hades.”
Poseidon tightened his grip on the trident before leveling the lethal prongs at my chest and summoning a large tidal wave behind me, which sent me spiraling towards my brother. I quickly snapped my fingers and dissolved into a wisp of black smoke before he could impale me on his spear.
“Don’t run now!” Poseidon snarled as the wave vanished.
“Don’t worry,” I replied as I slipped between the shadows. “I’m not going anywhere.”
