Gods Save the Princess (Grace of Gods Book 2)

by Kyleigh Castronaro

  Remembering the small package Aisa had given me I fished it out of my bra, looking down at the soft linen in my hand. Licking my lips I carefully undid it, pulling out another golden thread from inside. I frowned, dropping the bag as I straightened the thread out and stared at it. Was it mine? A part of me wanted to know and another part of me didn’t want to ,if it was.

  I glanced at the Erinyes but they weren’t looking at me, they were conversing with themselves, deciding on the judgment of Hades’ crimes. I hoped it was enough to get them to agree to take me to him; it might be my only way out of the Underworld.

  I gripped the other end of the thread in my free hand and twisted it, watching the images appeared as they had last time. I frowned in confusion, seeing the images of Griffin reappear in front of me, but they started from him on the street – the first time I had ever seen him in Atlas’ globe.

  He approached a woman who brushed him off and he turned away, curling into himself and slipping to the ground. His shaking hands pulled a needle out of its container and he filled it with heroin before injecting himself. The images showed me how scarred and damaged the skin of his arm was from the injections he had given himself. Then for a moment he relaxed, falling back against the wall and letting his eyes close.

  His body started to convulse suddenly, trembling out of control like he was having a seizure. His body slumped to the side and he puked. I didn’t understand what was happening or why this was important, or what it had to do with the thread. Atlas appeared then, lifting him up and disappearing with him in his arms. It jumped again to the hallway where I saw Atlas first bring him to Olympus, myself spying from the threshold of my apartment and the first time I had felt that longing to save him and help him.

  “Oh.” I said softly, understanding now what this was. Griffin’s thread was short because he wasn’t Griffin anymore. He had died and his life restarted when he came to Olympus... He had overdosed but Hades had saved him. Here I had been thinking of Griffin and Hades as separate entities but all along, unlike the rest of us, they were one in the same already.

  That’s why his struggle against his God was so much harder. Hades was already united with him; he had no choice but to give into the whims of his God. He wasn’t weak against Hades, he simply had no will left in the matter anymore.

  I frowned, my fingers slowing down and I let the thread come to a rest in a pool in the middle of my palm. If that was true then, Griffin had to - in some way - have wanted the things Hades did. He had liked Savannah but Hades had taken it too far, and again... with me. But had Griffin’s feelings for me simply been a forced reflection of what Hades felt for Persephone? I’m sure Hades would be capable of projecting those feelings onto Griffin.

  My feelings were muddled, I didn’t know what to think but I knew what both Persephone and I were struggling with. We both wanted to believe that there was still some good inside of them and although they both made bad decisions, they weren’t completely bad men. The Erinyes had to be wrong. He would’ve never done this. It had to be a ruse, the more I thought it the more I hoped it was true. I wanted it to be a ruse, and I would only know if I could get to Hades myself and figure out once and for all what was happening.

  I looked up again at the Erinyes who had finally stopped talking and were staring at me.

  “You are right, it is unjust for another God to impose his will on another. Especially one such as yourself who has not completed ascension and would have no way of defending yourself. We will cast judgment on Hades and-“

  “No, I want to serve judgment myself. He is, after all, my husband. It is my choice. Just send me to where he is and I will deal with it from there.”

  They looked unconvinced for a moment before finally nodding, “very well but after this we will not interfere with the events that are to unfold.” They gave me a long look as if trying to convince me to change my mind. But whatever they knew didn't matter, nothing mattered more to me than the fate of my friends.

  I nodded, “I understand.” I bent down and picked up the small bag, slipping the thread back inside before securing it in my bra once more.

  “Then, when you’re ready, that door will take you through and you will find your husband on the other side.” The one hag pointed to the wall to our right and a door appeared. Last time I’d gone through a door I’d ended up on a gigantic trampoline and shot back right to where I had come from. But these women had been far more helpful than the judges had been and they had said the Titans had corrupted the judges.

  “Alright.” I smiled at them, “thank you for your help. I appreciate it. If there’s anything I can ever help you with, please find me.” I started toward the door, feeling Persephone’s power surge within me. Pushing it open, a ridiculously bright light filled the room making me squint and protect my eyes as I stumbled back in surprise. It took a few more blinks before my eyes adjusted and I stepped forward into it, hoping I was heading home.

  Chapter Twenty One

  The door led me into a room I was far more familiar with than any of the others had done in the Underworld. I looked around at the shambles left of the poor throne room, the room Atlas had put so much effort into. It was all destroyed now, at least the parts that had depicted the glory of the Gods.

  “Val?” I turned around to find Griffin staring at me, paler than usual and worry laced through his features.

  My muscles felt stiff with caution as I stared at him, trying to gauge for myself which side he was on. As my Godly husband I should've known how to read him but he was so unfamiliar now as he'd ever been. He stood there waiting for me to reply so I said the first thing I thought.

  “It worked!” I cried in relief. If he wasn't faking it I couldn't let him think I suspected it so I needed to act naturally. I moved to him swiftly and wrapped my arms around his neck tightly, burying my face in the crook. It took him a moment to recover, to lace his own arms around me tentatively like he was unsure whether it was a joke or not but as I pulled back and smiled in relief he tensed.

  “You shouldn’t be here. You need to go back to the Underworld.” His hands slid along my cheeks, cupping my face between them as he stared down at me.

  I shook my head, “I know; I know everything. Don’t worry.”

  “Val... It’s not safe, if they find you here they might kill you instead of casting you out. I don’t…- I can’t…-“ He swallowed and frowned, grabbing my arm and dragging me back to the door I had come from.

  “Griffin, stop. Wait.” I pushed him off me, glancing worriedly at the opposite door before looking back up at him. “I know that you completed your union with Hades after you almost died.”

  He paled, standing frozen in front of me, “Val, I’m sorry.“

  I shook my head and cut him off, “it’s fine. I understand that when he has urges you can’t control him. I also understand you kept me down there because of this, which means you both aren’t entirely bad." I was going out on a limb, believing my heart here. It could backfire and hurt both myself and my Goddess. But I was sure, so certain, he wasn't evil. King of the Dead, Prince of Hell, no matter what his epithets were, he wasn't evil. "You're just misguided, and that’s not your fault either. I forgive you Griffin. I’ll always forgive you but you need to forgive yourself.” Before he had the chance to say anything else to me I slid my hands up his chest, pushed up on my toes and kissed him gently.

  I still hadn’t fully forgiven Hades, that was up to Persephone, but I was glad Griffin was alive. I would even say I might love him, not that I was going to let Hades know. A kiss would have to do for now.

  Griffin’s hands slid along my waist gently, kissing me back before he suddenly remembered the situation.

  “Valentina.” He said firmly, pushing me away from him. “You need to leave. Please.”

  I shook my head, “no, because so long as Aidan thinks you’ve betrayed him he won’t let you help him. I’m the only option we have anymore to get Aidan out of here. He needs to get the key back and we st
ill need to find the other Gods that are dispersed on Earth...” I frowned. There was a lot to do and not many of us left to see it all done. There also wasn’t any guarantee that my planning would do the trick. “You just need to keep the Titans on your good side, you need to keep them believing you’re on their side and let me do what I need to do.”

  “It’s dangerous, I won’t-“

  “Stop arguing. You wouldn’t have set me free if you didn’t believe in some way that I can do this.”

  “He set you free because she got through to him. He’s trying to be better for both of you, but siding with the Titans...“ He took a deep breath and looked down at his feet shamefully.

  I held up my hand and shook my head, “If you’re going to tell me it really was self-preservation, just save it. Don’t tell me. I want to pretend you were doing the right thing.”

  His face screwed up slightly and he nodded, “fine.” I had to admit though, I was a little curious to know what his reasons were for the things he and Hades had done. In my head, and my heart, I wanted to believe it was for wholly good reasons. But that was because I couldn’t fathom how I’d feel if it were for purely bad reasons and I was eternally an optimist.

  I knew I had to keep believing Griffin was a good guy until he believed it of himself. Otherwise he would give in and lose faith just like I had seen him do all his life. He needed someone in his corner, acting like a cheerleader and helping him through. That was exactly what I intended to do.

  I pulled away from him completely, mentally preparing myself for my mission. However much I wanted to talk to Griffin, now that I knew it was Griffin and Hades there, now wasn't the time. Our pasts and our futures would have to wait until another time when it would be okay to be selfish.

  “Alright, where are they keeping Aidan?”

  Griffin reached out and tenderly moved a piece of hair from my face to behind my ear before speaking, “Well, they were talking about a chair that Lincoln used-”

  “Savannah broke it when Aidan rescued her.”

  “Yeah, they mentioned that and then one of them came up with a back up plan – something about a rock and an eagle.”

  I frowned, trying to think of what they could mean. Biting down on my lip I walked away from Griffin, recalling everything I had ever read about the Gods and Goddesses. I might’ve come from a strict Catholic background but the last month of researching and trying to learn everything I could about Greek mythology had to come in handy now, even if it had failed me in the Underworld.

  “Prometheus.” I finally said, turning around to look at him. “Zeus tied Prometheus to a rock and punished him by having an eagle fly to him during the day, tear his liver out and then at night it would grow back.”

  Griffin looked sick at the idea before shaking his head, “sounds about right. They seem to be all for punishing the Olympians for the wrongs committed against the Titans.”

  “What about Atlas, he’s a Titan.”

  Griffin frowned sadly, “Val, I don’t think they...” He didn’t finish his sentence, he didn’t need to.

  My heart flipped and sunk but I refused to believe it. “No. He told me himself it’s nearly impossible to kill him unless someone really wants him dead. I can’t imagine they would’ve bothered to put that much thought into him. They must have him somewhere like they do Aidan.”

  “I can look for you. As for Aidan, how are you going to find the rock?”

  “The same way I find everything else around here, I’m going to summon it to me.”

  “I don’t think it’s that easy.”

  “It wouldn’t be if I asked the mountain to take me to Zeus, but instead I’m going to ask it to take me to Prometheus.”

  “How is that going to help? He’s probably here in Olympus.”

  “No, not the person. In the library there are thousands of tomes that hold the histories of the Gods and Titans. If I ask to see Prometheus’s, the tome should be able to tell me where the rock was located.”

  “And what if it doesn’t?” Griffin, understandably, was a little skeptical. I shrugged; I hadn’t really thought about it that far and frankly I was just hoping that this plan would work. “Val.”

  Apparently I needed to have a plan B in order to make him happy.

  I shrugged, “I don’t know, I never really thought about it. Why wouldn’t the tomes hold geographical information? I mean, they’ve told me everything else I need to know.” Griffin definitely wasn’t convinced.

  “Alright, well if your tomes can’t give you the information you need then-“

  “The computers!” I said with a bright grin, “I don’t even need to go to the library. I’ll just go back to my apartment and use the Internet. Atlas said everything I’d ever need would be on there, so why wouldn’t this? I have to change anyways...” I said with a frown, looking down at the dirtied and tattered dress lamely hanging off me.

  “I wasn’t watching you, you know.”

  “Huh?”

  “In the apartment, if you had changed we weren’t watching. We were preserving your dignity in that way.”

  “How very thoughtful of you.”

  “I know.” He grimaced, it was still a touchy subject then. I laughed to ease the tension, reaching out and touching his arm gently to reassure him. We would talk about it later, but for now I wouldn’t let myself focus on anything that didn’t have to do with saving the Olympians.

  “And if I can’t find it on the computer I’ll go to the library.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then I go and find Aidan, and we’ll go back down to Earth.”

  “What about the key?”

  “The Erinyes told me that the key changes form, it might take me forever to find out what the key actually is and we don’t have that kind of time. You do reconnaissance and see what you can find. Then you can meet me on Earth.”

  “Where?”

  He was from England, London presumably from anything his history had told me. I was from the middle of nowhere Ireland; I’d never even left my county. Chewing down on my bottom lip I tried to think of somewhere I could meet him. Buckingham Palace, being the only thing I could think of, was not appropriate.

  “Stonehenge.” Persephone spoke for me, knowingly choosing such an ancient, magical location.

  “Really?”

  “Yes.” I grinned, unable to hide my excitement that my Goddess and I were working together. It was a welcome aid.

  “Okay, Stonehenge. I’ll meet you there.” I nodded, leaning in to hug him again quickly before pulling away and starting for the door.

  “Val.” He said my name softly, a hint of vulnerability lacing his tone. I turned back around slowly just as Griffin moved toward me, pulling me against him and kissing me again. It was far different from the other chaste kisses we had exchanged. I felt my cheeks burn with desire and embarrassment before I finally, gently, nudged him away. “Be safe. Please.” He whispered, his lips brushing against mine with every syllable while his eyes remained firmly shut. I nodded my head, licked my lips and pulled back reluctantly.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “I mean it.”

  “So do I.” I kissed him again quickly before turning away, still feeling flushed from the sensation of his lips against mine, as I hurried for the door. I could sense Persephone’s disapproval inside of me and I understood where she was coming from, but resisting her husband all this time hadn’t worked either. So, it was time she try my tactics. And so far they were working, Hades hadn’t tried to overpower Griffin yet.

  I crossed the destroyed throne room and pushed the door open, thinking hard about my apartment. It wasn’t hard to channel myself to get there, I had been longing for it in the two weeks I had been trapped in the Underworld.

  Crossing through the threshold I came out on the other side, breathing a sigh of relief as I saw my apartment door exactly how I had left it. I hurried over to it and the door opened in greeting, an exuberant Cerberus on the other side jumping at th
e thrill of seeing me.

  “Hey buddy!” I ran my hand through his fur and kissed the top of his head, “how did you get back?” I wondered out loud before straightening up and turning to quickly shut the door behind me. I didn’t want any of the Titans to know I was here, even if I hadn’t seen any of them yet. Whatever they were up to, it was giving me enough time to move around freely.

  Hurrying into my bedroom I opened my closet imagining the simplest outfit I could: jeans, t-shirt and running shoes. On second thought I conjured a jacket just in case it was raining when I got to Stonehenge.

  As I sat down at my computer I suddenly remembered I didn’t exactly have a plan in place to figure out where everyone was on Earth. I suspected that the Titans weren’t stupid enough to just place them all down in the same place; that was just asking for trouble.

  With the early formation of a plan rolling around in my head I logged onto the browser and pulled up a search engine. I was quite proud of how efficient I was getting with the Internet. Typing in Prometheus’ rock into the bar I hit search. I wasn’t entirely sure if those were the keywords I needed to use but it was as close to the point as I was going to get in a world that otherwise believed all these stories were fake. Scrolling through meta descriptions I found it: “Caucasus Mountains”. I managed to copy the name into a map generator and watched it pull up a large range of mountains between Georgia and Russia. I frowned to myself, so they had cast Zeus out of Olympus.

  Standing up I grabbed a piece of paper and quickly copied down the name in case I would need it before sticking it in my jacket pocket. Staring at the map on the screen I remembered the map that Atlas had on his desk that he’d used to track all the Gods down. It had shown him all the various Olympians and where they were in the world so he could watch them. If I could get back to Atlas’ office I could use that map to find the others.

  I turned to Cerberus who was a lot smarter than the average dog, “Can you take me to Atlas’ office?” Having a three-headed dog as your guard dog would be my safest bet against any Titans I might run into.