Daughter of the Earth and Sky

by Musa Publishing

“Persephone—”

  “Don’t come one step closer! This might not be much land, but it’s still earth, and you are not welcome here. This is my realm. Get out!”

  I doubled over, clutching my stomach. It hurt. I hurt so badly. Poseidon stepped closer, and the ground rose up beneath him, shoving him back into the water. “Get back!”

  “Look,” he kept his voice patient and calm, as if he was talking to a wild animal, “I’m not going to hurt you. I’ve got a son about your age, actually, he—”

  “Stay away from me,” I warned when his foot crept toward the sand.

  He ran his fingers through his bleach-blond hair, just like Hades did when he was frustrated. “It isn’t your realm, you know. It’s your mother’s.”

  “You don’t get to talk about my mother. I know what you did.”

  Poseidon drew back like I’d struck him. “That was a long time ago—”

  “You’re scum! You’re worse than scum. And I am never ever going to put her in the position of owing you anything. Least of all my life. Now step back!”

  He raised his hands in surrender. “Can you teleport to Hades?”

  I gritted my teeth against the wave of agony that washed over me. I went through a mental list of all the entrances of the Underworld. Not the park, Thanatos would probably be waiting there. Or maybe he was waiting at the one in my backyard. Damn it! I didn’t have time to be wrong.

  Italy! Orpheus had mentioned one in Italy.

  It doesn’t matter, I realized. Why would Thanatos camp at one entrance when they all led to the same place?

  “He’ll just be waiting for me in Tartarus. I’ll never make it.”

  Poseidon stepped onto the beach. My gaze flew to him. “If you come any closer, I’ll let Hades think you did this to me.”

  He paled and stepped back into the water. “If I don’t help you, you are going to die.”

  No kidding.

  “Why not skip Tartarus?”

  I shook my head. “I can’t teleport between realms.”

  “So make an entrance.”

  Could I do that? I’d never tried before, but it was just as much my realm as it was Hades’. I pictured Hades’ chambers and poured all my energy into that image. The ground beneath my feet shuddered and split open. The Underworld yawned beneath me in an open chasm. My feet hit Underworld soil, and I teleported straight to Hades’ room.

  Hades saw me and went sheet white. He dropped the book he’d been reading and bolted to me, catching me before I crumpled to the floor. He swore when he felt the power rushing through me. “Okay, okay, it’s going to be—” The lie caught in his throat. His hands shook. I latched onto his wrist, staring at him wide-eyed with fear. It was too late. I’d taken too long. I was going to die.

  “No.” His lips found mine, and he channeled the energy away from me. The images flashed through my brain as he searched for the explanation. I saw Eurydice and Orpheus, the news reporters, Joel, Thanatos—

  I wasn’t in control of my thoughts. I couldn’t shield them. My mind screamed in protest, and my back arched in pain. I couldn’t gain control of my thoughts fast enough to stop the flow of information. The promise ripped through me in a flash of white-hot agony.

  Hades saw everything.

  Thanatos in the clearing, charmed into taking Boreas’ soul. Thanatos asking me not to tell anyone. The months of agony at hiding the truth from Hades. The Reapers tormenting me. Discovering I could charm the Reapers. Thanatos attacking me.

  Hades’ fingers dug into my shoulders, anger flaring through him. Tears coursed down my cheeks. He knew, he finally knew! He’d hate me forever for hiding this from him, but he knew!

  The pain was gone. Even my wrist had been mended. Hades released me, going very still.

  “I’m so sorry; I tried to tell you, I—”

  “Don’t apologize.” His voice was low and scary calm.

  I looked into his face and blanched. His eyes were cold and flat. His face, shrouded in shadow, seemed to be made of granite. I couldn’t feel anything from him like I normally could after channeling.

  “Come with me.”

  I swallowed hard and followed him up to the throne room.

  “Moirae. I need a name.”

  Moirae jumped in surprise and turned to Hades. She stepped back when she saw Hades’ face. “M-Mario Smith,” she stammered.

  “Where?”

  She closed her eyes, and Hades nodded. “Thank you.”

  Confused, I followed him to the surface. We emerged on a bustling city street. I looked around for a familiar land marker to get my bearings.

  “Wh-Where are we?” I asked. “What are we doing?”

  Hades didn’t answer. He stepped onto a crowded sidewalk, shoving his way through the crowd until he reached a man in a brown coat. I blinked, suddenly aware of the shield that kept the pedestrians from seeing or hearing us.

  “Look over there.” Hades pointed behind me.

  I turned around, searching the crowded street. “What is it?”

  I heard a crack and a thud and spun around to see the man in the brown coat fall motionless to the ground, neck twisted at a strange angle.

  Chapter XXVII

  “What did you do?”

  “Persephone—” Hades reached between me and the man.

  “Get away from me!” I shoved Hades away and fumbled for the man’s pulse even though I knew I’d find none. I focused my powers and tried to heal him. It wouldn’t work. Even I couldn’t bring people back from the dead.

  “Persephone—”

  “Someone should call 911.” I reached for my phone, but of course I didn’t have it on me. It was sitting on my nightstand, right where I’d left it an hour and a lifetime ago.

  “Persephone, listen to me!”

  I shook my head and struggled free from his grasp.

  Hades swore. “Persephone, look!” He pointed me toward the intersection as an old Buick sailed through a red light and into a crosswalk, followed by a police car with flashing lights, but no siren. Pedestrians scattered out of the way. I stood, scanning the road. No one had been hurt.

  “That was supposed to be him. He would have gotten hit and fought for his life for hours in excruciating agony. Got it? Now step away from his body.”

  I swallowed hard and moved away as Hades dropped another shield between us and the fallen man. “But…but…You killed him. Why?”

  “Thanatos has to respond to divine deaths.”

  “Speak of the devil.” Thanatos grabbed me from behind. “Don’t move, Hades.”

  Pain ripped through me, but what else was new? I gritted my teeth and slammed my foot down on his with a satisfying crunch, then twisted and plowed my elbow into his gut. His grip loosened, and I sprang free. Hades pulled me behind him, grabbed Thanatos by the throat, and slammed him into a brick wall.

  “Charm him.” Hades blindly groped for my hand.

  I grabbed it and felt power surge through me. I looked at Thanatos, and his pupils widened.

  Hades met my eyes. “Don’t kill him yet. The power will just go to Zeus, and he could gain access to the Underworld. Ask him to swear fealty to you.”

  “Why not you?”

  “I’m not in Zeus’ bloodline; it won’t work.”

  Thanatos stared at me with mute adoration. “I swear,” he managed in a strangled gasp.

  Hades eased up on his grip fractionally. “Good. Now give her your powers. All of them.” Thanatos hesitated, and Hades tightened his grip. “Persephone, tell him.”

  I looked at Thanatos, remembering the hell he’d put me through the last few months. The pain and misery, the fear. I took a deep breath, steeling myself to give the order. Unbidden, other images rushed through my head. Thanatos teasing Cassandra, joking with Charon, laughing with Hypnos, moving his hands around while he explained something to me. The whole group sitting around the table at dinner. It might have all been an act, but it was a convincing one. He’d been my friend. I gave Hades a helpless look. �
��Isn’t fealty enough?”

  “Thanatos, when you attacked her while she slept—” his grip seemed to tighten more with each word. “—when you beat her on the beach, tried to kill her and leave her for Poseidon—”

  “Hades stop it, he’s charmed. He can’t fight back.” I reached out to touch Hades’ arm, but something in his eyes stopped me.

  “Whose idea was that?” Hades let go of Thanatos so suddenly that he fell to the ground with a thud.

  “Mine.”

  “Did Zeus even know about it?”

  “Not to my knowledge.”

  Hades gave me a look. I closed my eyes and nodded my head. I understood. Fealty didn’t mean absolute loyalty and devotion. It wasn’t charm. When the charm wore off, Thanatos would still be tied to me through fealty, but he would hate me even worse. He’d never stop looking for a way to get rid of me so he could be free.

  “But he’ll die.”

  “Just like Boreas.”

  I stepped farther away, trembling like a leaf. “I didn’t know that would happen when I charmed Boreas. I was just talking. I didn’t know—I can’t do this. Don’t ask me to do this. Please!”

  Hades closed his eyes. “Fine, tell him to give you most of his powers, but keep enough so he won’t die.”

  I nodded at Thanatos. His power rushed through me, dark and strange. Hades’ hand around mine was a lifeline, preventing the new powers from overwhelming me. It felt like something slick and wrong and incompatible had entered my blood stream. Like oil on water. Foreign yet inseparable.

  When it finished, I smiled at Hades. “He’s mortal now, I can feel it. No powers, no threat at all really.” I breathed a sigh of relief, glad to have found a way around the unspeakable.

  Hades channeled enough of Thanatos’ powers away to allow me to let go of his hand. “Go back to my chambers in the Underworld. Don’t talk to anyone. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

  “What? Why?”

  The look he gave me sent shivers down my spine.

  “But he’s not a threat,” I protested. “Hades, you don’t have to do this.”

  “He knows everything about us. Go, Persephone.”

  “No.” I swallowed hard. “This…this isn’t you. You can’t. People can’t do—”

  “We are not people.”

  His voice. It was so hard, so cold that I scarcely recognized it. “Please.”

  Hades turned back to Thanatos. “Fine, stay and watch if you’d rather.”

  Horrified, I left.

  Chapter XXVIII

  Once I made it back to Hades’ room, I burst into tears. I sank to the floor, pulled my knees to my chest, and covered my ears as though curling safely into a ball would stop what was happening on the surface.

  The worst part was that part of me, a big part of me, agreed with Hades. If Thanatos was allowed to live, I’d always be afraid of him. I’d always wonder what else he would try. Hades was right. He was a threat.

  But knowing that and being a part of it were two very different things. I remembered watching superhero movies with Melissa. At the end of the film when the villain was safely behind bars, I’d complain that the hero should have just killed them. Everyone knew the bad guys always escape from jail.

  I’d made it sound so simple. So easy. So inconsequential. Just kill them. No big deal.

  My trembling hands wiped the tears from my face. I felt cold. Frozen. I climbed to my feet and looked around Hades’ room. I stared at the familiar items as though seeing them for the first time, trying to fit them back into my mental picture of Hades. His books on the shelf. The glass doors overlooking the library, filled to the brim with his eclectic collection. My hands found a worn psychology book, something about the seven stages of grief, and I smiled. He tried so hard to help the souls adjust to life in the Underworld.

  I flipped it open and found a note from Cassandra. Thought you’d like this one. Note: Please don’t talk to me about this book. No one wants to hear your psychobabble. ;) xoxo, The Prophet.

  I smiled and sat the book down on the dresser. A silver picture frame caught my eye. It was one of the pictures from the photo booth on St. Mary’s Island. I touched Hades’ face.

  The door opened. I set the picture down. “Hades?”

  “Yeah.” The single syllable was saturated with bitterness.

  “His soul?”

  “I destroyed it.”

  I blinked, too shocked to even process that.

  “We don’t have a lot of time. I need you to give me Thanatos’ power. It’s going to feel different from channeling—”

  “Are you okay?”

  He gave me a look that sliced through me like a knife. Anger was radiating off him in waves. “How could I have been so stupid!” He smashed his fist through the mirror. The mirror shattered, sending broken shards of Hades crashing to the floor. “It was bad enough having Zeus use you as a puppet.”

  What did he mean by that?

  Hades saw my questioning look, and his jaw clenched. “But Thanatos!” His eyes landed on the silver picture frame. He picked it up, preparing to hurl it to the floor.

  “Not that!” I grabbed his hand. It was a stupid thing to do, but this was Hades. It just wasn’t in me to be afraid of him. No matter how loud and angry he got. No matter what he did.

  He went as still as a stone. “Right.” He removed my hand from his very carefully and turned the frame over to reveal the picture of us. “Right.” He set it down and stared at the picture, seeming to grow angrier. I could feel his thoughts swirling around in a bitter void. “This whole time? This whole fucking time?”

  I blinked back tears. “I know. I tried; you have to believe I tried. I’m so sorry—”

  “Stop apologizing!” Hades slammed his fist into the dresser. “You weren’t responsible for this, he just used you like a fucking pawn, and I allowed it to happen. I trusted him! Worse, I trusted him with you.” The anger seemed to drain out of him, leaving him lifeless and hollow. He sagged against the bed. “I made him your guard. Gods, the Reapers. How could I have been so stupid? I let them hurt you.”

  I stared at him in disbelief. All this time I’d been convinced he would blame me. That he would hate me. It had never even crossed my mind that he would blame himself. I sat next to him on the bed. “You didn’t let him do anything to me. You didn’t know! I never thought— I knew, I knew if I could just tell you, that you would fix this.”

  Hades stared at me. “That’s even worse. This whole time you were waiting for me to see what was right in front of me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  I couldn’t think of anything to say to that. For the thousandth time I wished for a lie. Humans don’t appreciate the power of false platitudes. I couldn’t tell him that it was okay. I couldn’t say I didn’t blame him. I wasn’t mad at him, but when it had gotten bad, part of me did blame him for not getting it. For not hearing what I couldn’t say.

  I couldn’t lie, but I could mislead. I remembered Hades glancing up to my room when my mom asked where I was. My actions could lie. I put my hand to my forehead with a wince.

  Hades swore and cupped my face with his hands. “Right, Thanatos.” He closed his eyes. “This is going to be different than just channeling. It’s not so much lending as it is giving. I will give it back when you’re old enough to handle it. You have a right to this—”

  “I don’t want it. It feels…wrong.”

  Hades nodded. “It’s on the complete opposite end of the spectrum as your abilities. I imagine it feels strange.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “What I’m about to do…I—”

  I put my finger on his lips. “It doesn’t matter. I trust you.”

  “You really shouldn’t.”

  I kissed him. I poured all my thoughts and feelings into that kiss to show him what I couldn’t vocalize, to show him what he was to me. I pushed Thanatos’ power to him, along with half of my own. He drew in a sharp breath, and I locked gazes with him. “I trust you. Absolutely. And there is
nothing you could ever do to convince me that trust is misplaced.”

  “Persephone—”

  His eyes were so full of anguish that even if I hadn’t been able to feel his pain it would have broken my heart.

  “Hades, do you know what the worst part of the last few months has been for me?”

  He shook his head.

  “Thinking that once you finally found out, I was going to lose you. I was sure you would hate me for being stupid enough to make that promise. I can’t lose you. I think it would kill some part of me, I just—”

  Hades shushed me, brushing a tear from my cheek. “I couldn’t hate you. Do you know why?”

  It was my turn to shake my head.

  “After everything he did to you, you still couldn’t bring yourself to kill Thanatos.”

  “So you had to kill one of your best friends? If I wasn’t so weak, I would have done it.”

  “That’s not weak. That’s strong. Stronger than you know. It’s easy to give into vengeance. But you rise above it. I saw that in you from the very beginning. You’re so much better than us. And if he’d managed to take that from you…” Hades trailed off. “I almost lost you, and that would have destroyed me.” He looked at me and nodded his head. “I love you. These last few months of trying to give you space and wondering what was going to happen, they were terrible.” He shook his head. “Thanatos used me too. He knew all my hang-ups. He used that. Had I just trusted you…me…us, as completely as you do…this never would have happened. I love you, and I knew one day we would be here. I shouldn’t have waited. I should have just jumped.” He ran a finger along my jawline. “I trust you. Absolutely.” He kissed me.

  My life wasn’t in danger or anything. His power flowed through my veins.

  But won’t that—The thought hadn’t even fully formed before he brushed it away.

  I can filter it, keep it safe for you. You might be seeing more of me than before.

  I smiled at that. Equilibrium. Our connection solidified with a snap. My mind cleared, and I saw everything that had happened since meeting Aphrodite. I saw myself charming Hades, running to the park, promising never to hurt him, and getting charmed. I broke off and stared at Hades wide-eyed.