by Melody Rose
I’m coming, baby.
Hanging at the end of the obnoxiously golden hall was a set of thick red velvet curtains with a gold fringe that matched the paint on the walls. Upon reaching them, I grabbed hold of the fabric and all but dashed into the next room. I paused at the sight that met me there.
Unlike the rest of the club, this room was made entirely of the same white and gold marble that Zeus used for his temple in Olympus. Dancing on the three golden pedestals around the room, spinning on glistening crystal poles, were three lovely wood nymphs. Their dazzling golden skin glittered under the stage lights as they swayed seductively for the man sitting on the white leather armchair in the center of the room.
Ares smiled at me from behind his dark beard as I stood frozen in place before the curtains. He scratched lightly at his chin as he sat up straight in his chair, sizing me up for a fight with his dark crimson eyes. Well, this wasn’t exactly the outcome I was expecting. I thought that the energy that I sensed in this room had been Zeus’s, but I supposed I wasn’t quite far off considering this was his child. Oh, well, I thought with a shrug. I was more than happy to kill my brother’s, but if I had to destroy my entire family just to get Persephone back, then I damn sure would.
“Hades,” Ares spat, resting his elbows on the knees of his dark denim jeans.
“Is this not the bathroom? I must have taken a wrong turn.” I asked with a grin.
“Do I look stupid to you?” he scoffed.
“Do you really want me to answer that?” I retorted.
For being my nephew, Ares was quite impressive in both height and bulk. Even at my own height, Ares still towered over me by a complete foot. And as the God of War, Ares was by far the third most likely to pose a threat in comparison to both of my brothers. His caramel-colored skin was taut over his muscles, and his veins were as thick as ropes.
Shit. I still hadn’t even fully healed from my fight with Poseidon. The wounds on my back were still quite tender.
With a snap of his fingers, Ares had sent the nymphs scurrying out of the room like terrified little mice. I narrowed my eyes, watching as he cracked one wrist and then the other. As Ares came to stand, a wicked silver sword manifested into his grasp.
“Is there any possibility of you just telling me where Zeus is so we can avoid this? I really don’t want to have to kill you too,” I said as I held my hands up in feigned surrender. Ares smiled dangerously and fell into a crouch. “I guess not.”
My nephew lunged and swung his sword in a great arc towards me, his aim meant to kill. I side-stepped quickly, watching as Ares stumbled past me. I snapped my fingers, summoning my own blade to my hands while Ares spun on his heel to face me again. With murder burning in his eyes, Ares swung again.
Our blades clanged together like the drums of war, sending sparks from the impact raining down around us. Using as much strength as I could muster, I pushed Ares back and snapped my fingers once more. The floor beneath Ares vanished, and the god went tumbling feet first into the void. But before he could be swept into the nothing, Ares caught himself on the edge of the hole. I narrowed my eyes, summoning the spirits of the underworld to get a hold of him and pull him down into the abyss.
While I was distracted, Ares commanded the sword to launch itself towards me. The sword pierced my stomach, propelling me back down the hall and out the golden doors. Psyche cried shrilly as I hit the ground, my black shirt already soaked in blood. Ares finally climbed back up out of the hole and smiled, then slowly made his way towards me like a lion stalking its meek prey.
“Do you recognize this weapon, Uncle?” Ares said as he paused a few feet away, reveling in the amount of pain I was in. “You commissioned Hephaestus to craft this sword from the very chains that had kept him prisoner for so long. You gave it to me on my fifth birthday with him. Such a shame that I have to kill you with it.”
As the mortals around us began to awaken and quickly make their way towards the nearest exit, I pulled the blade from my stomach. I stifled a scream, then tossed it aside. Ares watched as I struggled to get to my feet, my hands pressed tightly against my stomach to staunch the bleeding.
“Here, let me help you,” Ares said as he took a firm grasp of my throat. He pulled me towards him and slammed me into the ground, destroying the flooring beneath me.
I lay motionless in the rubble, my heartbeat in my ears almost deafening. As I lay bleeding, I felt a sudden pang of defeat. No! I couldn’t give up yet. I was Hades. I was the God of the Underworld. I was death incarnate! I had to save Persephone. I had to get her back! I had come so far already. I couldn’t let her down.
“Don’t worry, Uncle Hades,” Ares said, his voice oozing malice, “I’ll make sure to tell your little bitch that you died by choking on your own blood. How the mighty have fallen, eh?”
I closed my eyes tightly. No, I thought to myself. No, no, no!
Get up, Hades.
I froze at the sound of Persephone’s voice in my head. I felt like I was losing my mind. Is this what happened to gods when they were on the brink of death? Did the others start hearing things before they died, too? A cool breeze caressed my cheek, and Persephone’s light violet perfume tickled my nose.
Get up, Hades. Get up!
I opened my eyes and slammed my palms onto the floor, allowing the full extent of my powers to flow freely and allowing my body to transform. My skin changed from a light tan to pitch black. Fangs replaced my perfect row of teeth, and my once blue eyes shone silver. My hands curled into claws, and my body doubled in mass.
Ares stood with his mouth agape; shock painted over his deadly features. My family had spent most of my life calling me a monster and treating me as such. If that was how they truly saw me, then I would give them a real reason to fear me. I would become that which they saw me as in order to save my queen. Ares was no longer staring at his uncle, but at a large bipedal beast covered in blood and black fur. I had transformed myself into a Behemoth.
Get ready, bitch.
I lunged at that moment, catching my nephew off guard. He was more prepared than I was, however, and he punched me hard enough to go sailing into the bar. I slammed into the wall of bottles and growled in annoyance as several of them came crashing down upon my head. I lunged again, this time aiming for his neck. Ares phased out of my path and reappeared behind me, slamming his big steel-toed boot into my already injured stomach. In this form, I was thankful that I didn’t feel as much pain as I normally would.
Amused and enraged, I waited for Ares to phase behind me again before spinning to face him and taking his arm between my teeth. He let out a piercing cry of pain as I shook my head violently in my attempt to rip his arm clean from its socket. Ares called his sword to his hand and raised it up over our heads. Before he could bring it down upon us, I released the grip on his arm and snapped my fangs up at the blade. With one mighty bite, I shattered the blade to pieces.
I locked eyes with Ares and smiled at the fear I saw there. It was over now. As the pieces of the sword clattered to the floor, I clamped my teeth around Ares’s head and pulled it clean from his shoulders.
His body instantly became limp in my arms. I dropped his corpse to the ground and changed back into my more natural form, then took a great breath before I hobbled back towards the back of the club. I only had one more to go, I thought weakly. Once Zeus was dead, this would be over. And not a moment too soon, I thought with a light chuckle.
I had barely managed to escape death twice within a very short time frame. If I kept things going at this rate, I was sure to beat a world record. Once I was back in the marble room, I cautiously stepped over the rubble and headed down a small flight of stairs that were dimly lit by torches. At the base of the stairs, there was a long hall with three doors on either side. Sitting on a chair before a door, shaking nervously at the bloodied sight of me, was Eros.
I stalked towards him, limping heavily from the pain as my eyes burned with fury. “Where’s Zeus?”
“Wait!” E
ros exclaimed as he jumped to his feet and skittered away in fear. “Don’t hurt me. I was just supposed to sit here and keep up the ward. I didn’t want to be involved in this. I’m innocent here!”
I rolled my eyes and paused at the door, gesturing towards it with my head as I maintained my glare with my hideous little nephew. “Take. It. Down.”
“Yes, sir,” Eros replied. I bit back an amused grin at the sight of him quivering before me. The last time he cowered before me like this was when I had first laid eyes on Persephone. To see him nearly pissing his pants now after everything I had been through within the last day was a welcome relief to the pain.
Eros raised his hands above his head and drew a large rectangle in the air as he traced the doorframe. As he did this, he muttered a spell in our native tongue and clapped his hands when it was over. With a wary gaze in my direction, he gestured towards the door with his hands.
“It’s safe now. Can I leave?” he asked.
“Get out of my sight,” I hissed. Without a moment to waste, Eros had flashed out of the room. I sighed and fell against the wall beside the door as pain and exhaustion wracked my body. I had finally made it. Persephone was just beyond this door. I just needed to muster the strength to open it.
As I reached for the handle, I jumped back in surprise as the door flung open. Persephone dashed out of the room like a woman possessed, wielding a chair leg over her head as she bellowed an adorable battle cry. Once she was in the hall, she paused and turned to face me. I instantly melted when her lavender eyes met mine.
“Hades?” she whispered incredulously. I nodded weakly as I pushed myself away from the wall and stumbled onto my knees.
“I’m here, baby,” I replied. Persephone abandoned her makeshift weapon before she dropped down beside me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I hissed at the pain but still managed to reach up and hold her to my chest. She sobbed into my neck as we both held each other on the ground.
“I was so worried about you. Zeus said that Poseidon was going to kill you,” she pulled back lightly in my arms, then placed both of her warm hands on my cheeks to examine my blood-coated face. “Are you okay? Where’s Poseidon?”
“He’s dead,” I replied with a half-smile. “Where’s Zeus?”
“He’s dead, too,” she answered with a faint chuckle. “I killed him.”
A moment of silence passed between us before we both erupted into a fit of giggles. My beautiful queen was safe. And she had managed to take out one of the top three strongest gods on her own at that. I thought I was in love with her before, but this only reaffirmed what I felt.
I leaned towards Persephone and placed a deep kiss against her smooth lips, moaning at the taste of her on my tongue. In response, Persephone had flung herself into my chest and wrapped her arms around my neck tightly, almost as if afraid to let go.
Much to my disappointment, Persephone broke the kiss and dabbed away at the tears that had formed in her eyes. “Take me home, Hades. I just want to go home.”
Before I could respond, a bright light filled the hallway. In an effort to shield our eyes from the light, Persephone and I raised an arm up before our eyes. I heard Persephone mutter a curse under her breath as the light finally started to fade.
Oh, Gods, I thought to myself. Not again.
Standing before us was Demeter.
33
Persephone
I cursed at the sight of my mother as she appeared behind us with a venomous glare in her eyes. Oh no, you don’t, I thought to myself. I wasn’t going to be dealing with any more of this bullshit tonight. I had spent twenty-four hours of my life being kidnapped, taken prisoner, assaulted, and nearly killed for no other reason than my mother was an overbearing, overprotective, manic bitch. If my mother thought she was going to come here and play the part of the hero after all of this, then she had another thing coming to her.
I jumped to my feet, leaving Hades on the floor with a confused look on his face, as I marched towards my mother. While her eyes were still firmly focused on Hades, she reached out a hand to me and said, “Let’s go, Persephone. Clearly, if I want something done right, I have to do it myself.”
Without replying, I clenched my right hand into a fist and drove it into my mother’s face. She cried out in pain as she stumbled backward, clutching her nose as she moved out of my reach. I glared at her, allowing thousands of years’ worth of anger, resentment, and hatred to burn in my eyes. From behind me, I could hear Hades gasp in surprise.
“You can go straight to hell,” I hissed between clenched teeth. Demeter dropped her hand in surprise, allowing blood to flow freely from her nose as she stared at me in absolute shock.
“Persephone, what is wrong with you?!” she yelled.
“ME?!” I shouted, taking a step towards her. “You did this. You nearly got Hades killed, you nearly got me raped by Zeus, and you still showed up here to whisk me away like some sort of fucking prize? No, I don’t think so. I’m done with you, Mother. I wash my hands of you. I killed Zeus in there, and I’m not afraid to kill you, too, if you even so much as think about touching me.”
“Persephone, I–”
I held a hand up, silencing my mother. Her eyes were wide as saucers as I turned my back to her and made my way back to Hades. I grabbed hold of his right arm and draped it over my shoulders, then helped him hoist himself up to his feet. He was beaming at me, and it brought a smile to my face. But I wasn’t finished with my mother yet. I dropped my smile and glared back over at my mother from over my shoulder.
Her face was twisted with pain as I held on to Hades tightly. “I don’t want you to ever try to harm either of us again, do you understand? I choose Hades now and forever, and I will never forgive you for what you’ve done. You don’t have to approve of us, and you don’t have to like us. This is our life, and you’ve done too much to destroy it.”
“I was only trying to protect you!” my mother cried.
I scoffed at her. She would never accept responsibility for her negative actions. My mother would always try to justify her horrors with good intentions. I truly hoped that one day she would see the errors of her ways. But until then, she needed to take some time to grow as a person without me. I turned back to Hades and took a deep breath as I gingerly placed a hand on his chest.
“I want you to do me a favor before we go home,” I whispered, gazing into his gorgeous sapphire eyes.
“Name it,” he said in a husky voice. I felt a delicious shiver run down my spine at the low grumble of his tone.
“Bring everyone we killed tonight back. They don’t deserve to be in our realm. Death is too quick for them, torture isn’t painful enough for them, and the Elysium Fields are too good for those assholes. I want them to live with what they’ve done and suffer for it.”
Hades smiled broadly before he leaned down and kissed me deeply. When he broke the kiss, he hovered his lips over mine and whispered, “That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say in my life.”
I chuckled against his lips as he raised his gaze to meet my mother’s and snapped the fingers of his left hand. A large pulse of energy burst around us as Hades summoned the souls of his brother’s back from the underworld. From within the room where I was being held prisoner, I could hear Zeus groaning in pain as he was resurrected.
“Persephone,” my mother whispered as she shuffled towards us. “Don’t do this. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t leave me alone. I was only trying to ensure your safety. I did it out of love.”
I rolled my eyes before I replied, “No, Mother. You did this out of cowardice. It’s over now.”
Zeus stumbled out of the room, his face twisted in horror as he shifted his gaze from my mother to Hades and me. Hades moved to take a step forward at the sight of his brother, but I held him back for fear of injuring himself further. Zeus had recoiled away from us and ducked behind my mother as I narrowed my eyes at both of them.
“Take us home, Hades,” I whispered.
&nb
sp; “Persephone, please!” My mother pleaded. But her pleas fell on deaf ears.
With a silent nod, Hades raised his hand. As he was about to snap his fingers, my mother darted towards us as she began to sob hysterically. There had once been a time when seeing her in such a state of despair would have shaken me to my core. But after everything that had happened to me, I felt nothing but emptiness and coldness towards her. There was no changing what my mother had done, but that didn’t mean that I had to dwell on it any longer. As I took one last look at my mother, Hades snapped his fingers, and we were plunged into darkness.
Epilogue
Persephone
A little over a month had gone by since Hades and I had had to fight for our lives against Poseidon, Ares, Zeus, and my mother. During that time, Hades and I had flourished as a couple. While he had been tending to his duties as the God of the Underworld, I had acquainted myself with all those who worked for him and had grown quite close to his second in command, Megaera.
With Megaera’s help and the help of her two sisters, I trained in several forms of combat and learned more about the human world. Thanks to them, I was also taught how to greet the ferryman when he arrived at the temple with a boat full of fresh souls. The work wasn’t easy by any means, but I wouldn’t trade a second of it for the world.
Still, there was a part of me that had grown a little empty while I was here. The reasoning behind this feeling had nothing to do with the underworld itself, or even Hades, for that matter. But because of my own heart. Despite what my mother had put us through, a part of me still longed for her company. With every new day and every new adventure that I had while I had been here, I had wanted to share it with her.
But I knew that my mother wouldn’t care about any of that. She wouldn’t recognize the woman who I had grown to be. I was now fiercely independent and willing to fight for myself and my lover. I was never going to be the meek little girl that I had once been. As I sat on the edge of the pool of the Soul Flowers, I sighed.
