Persephone

Chapter XVI

I gasped as I was pulled through the river of fire and into Tartarus. I didn’t get burned, but I felt frozen inside. I stumbled, shocked, and landed on the icy red sand. It was so cold it burned. I was stunned at the sudden change from idyllic scenery to elemental horror. The sky was black, with neon green and bright blue flashes of lightning lancing through the sky, revealing frightening shapes and deformed creatures crawling over the sand.
Someone stood beside me, his hand still gripping my wrist. My mind screamed at me to stop looking at the scenery and face this new threat, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the terrible sight. My chest heaved as I struggled to catch my breath. I couldn’t seem to breathe here. My skirt dripped tiny flames. The burning cold sapped away my strength. I tore my gaze from the landscape and struggled to turn my head to the side.
“Pirithous!” Adrenaline filled my veins, giving me the strength to scurry away from him with a half shriek that came out sounding more like a terrified squeak.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself like Charon taught me. My heart thundered in my chest and every instinct told me to get up and run. I struggled to my feet, eyes widening when I took in Pirithous’ changed appearance.
He stepped forward, face gaunt. He looked like a walking skeleton, with cracked and dried skin hanging off his bones. He didn’t have an ounce of fat or muscle left on his body. I recoiled when I saw that his eyes were yellow and his hair was falling out in patches.
“What happened?” The question was ridiculous. I shouldn’t care what happened to him; I should be running. But the change was so drastic, so far beyond my comprehension, that the question just slipped out. I took a small step backward toward the river, hoping Pirithous wouldn’t notice.
“I followed a tip on where to find you, and met a woman named Doso. Turns out she was your mother in disguise. She cursed me with eternal hunger.” He laughed bitterly. “I eat all day, and it doesn’t matter. I’m starving!”
I couldn’t reconcile the image of my loving mother causing a person—any person—enough suffering to look as bad as Pirithous did right now. “My mom made you starve to death?” I asked, taking another small step. My foot brushed against the water, the freezing heat searing my toes.
“Oh, she won’t let me die that easily. Luckily, someone else took an interest in me. He showed me this entrance to the Underworld. Didn’t know I’d be walking through Hell, but the people here didn’t bother me. I guess when you look like this—” Pirithous held up his arm, and I shuddered when I realized I could see the skin between his bones touching. Every vein strained against the gaunt flesh, a landscape of blue bumps. The bones protruded from his paper-thin skin. “—they figure you belong in Hell.”
“You came here for me?” I needed to keep him talking. If he got distracted enough I could make it across the river. I’d be free as soon as I got onto the shore. I just needed to find the strength to run.
“I couldn’t cross the river.” His bony fingers dug into my arm. “So I watched and waited. You came.” He grinned, the action stretching his skin even tighter across his face. “I knew you would.”
I yanked my arm free, rubbing it in disgust. “Haven’t you learned your lesson yet? My mother didn’t put this curse on you because you asked me out for coffee. This kidnapping thing is never going to end well for you.”
“Oh, I don’t want you anymore.”
Something was draining my energy, but it had to be affecting Pirithous too. I thought fast. I was weaker than usual but that didn’t mean I was at a disadvantage.
“Then what? Revenge? You can’t kill a goddess,” I said, with more bravado than I felt. Every word I spoke left my lips reluctantly. All I wanted to do was curl up in the sand and go to sleep. Only fear kept me on my feet.
“I found another god interested in your whereabouts. He approached me after your mother cursed me. Said if I could bring you back, he’d fix me.”
“Boreas,” I guessed, the name sending a fresh flow of terror through my veins. I fought to keep it from showing on my face. I took another microscopic step into the water.
Pirithous’ hand shot out to grab me, but I shook him off easily. Rage danced through his eyes. He obviously knew Tartarus made us both too weak to put up much of a struggle. However, I was mere feet away from freedom, whereas he had an entire dimension of hell to drag me through before reaching the surface.
“What was your plan here?” I demanded. “Drag me through Hell kicking and screaming? You think you have the strength for that?”
“I’m starving,” Pirithous snapped. “I’ll—”
“Are you going for the sympathy vote here? I couldn’t care less whether you live or die. You ruined my life. As far as I’m concerned, you brought this on yourself.”
I reached out and shoved his emaciated shoulders, knocking him to the ground. I turned and splashed through the flames.
Pirithous dove for me, dragging me back onto shore with surprising strength. I pushed against him, pulling him through the fire. The fire froze my insides, sending me gasping in shock.
“I’ll just have to ask for help!” Pirithous hissed. He turned and yelled at the top of his lungs. “Hey fellas, I’ve got a live one!”
In a rush of strength, he heaved me onto the shore. I hit the sand and rolled out from under him, springing to my feet. Someone cackled. I turned and saw strange hunched creatures approaching us. They were small, twisted, and bent over to the height of a five-year-old child. Their hairless bodies shuffled toward us, dark eyes glittering with malice. Their skin was bleached, and their noses had collapsed in on their faces. Horror washed over me as I remembered these creatures had once been human.
My blood froze in my veins as I recognized all of the “Bobs” Charon had pulled from Tartarus for my self-defense class.
“Oh shit.” Their eyes glittered with hatred when they recognized me. This had to be a huge realm. How could they possibly all be here?
“Well, now, how did you end up on this side of the river?” Bob wheezed, black lips opening to reveal sharp nasty teeth.
I tried to back away, but Pirithous held me in place. I squirmed, trying to get free as more monsters surrounded me.
“This one’s got spirit,” another one taunted.
“Not for long,” one laughed, reaching out to touch my face. I shrieked, squirming away from his hand.
“Now, now,” he said. “That’s not the way a lady behaves.” He slapped me so hard I yelped in indignation.
“Make that noise again,” one hissed, salivating. “I liked it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as he stroked my shoulder. My heart was trying to beat right out of my chest. I shuddered at his touch, fear making me hypersensitive to the sensation. Oh gods, help me! I felt them move in closer around me.
Another soul touched me and I lashed out. I kicked Pirithous in the shins. The brittle bone snapped when I kicked it. I slammed my head back, smashing in his nose, and drove my elbow into Pirithous’ gut. He howled, falling to a heap behind me. The souls surged forward, knocking me to the ground.
“No!” I managed to free one of my hands and throw a punch but they quickly wrestled it back to the ground. I was pinned.
Pirithous smiled his creepy skeletal grin and leaned close to my face. “Not so confident now, are you?”
I lunged forward, teeth tearing at a chunk of his throat. He yelped. His fist drew back and smashed into my face. “You stupid bitch!” His hands closed around my throat.
“Hey, leave her conscious,” one of the souls protested. “It’s more fun when they struggle.” Its hand snaked up my thigh and I twisted, trying to squirm my way free. For a second all I could hear was the souls laughing. Then the wind picked up, whipping around with such intensity that Pirithous stumbled forward.
“Get your hands off my wife!” Hades thundered, appearing in our midst with his cloak flapping.
The dead scattered. Hades caught the squirming figure that had touched me by the throat. “I’m going to send you to a place so horrific you’ll think the fifty years you spent here were a vacation.” He snapped his fingers, and it vanished.
Hades pulled me close, casting a glare out over the landscape for any stragglers.
“Moirae can deal with the rest. Are you all right?” he asked, concern gathering in his eyes. He untied his black cape and set it gently on my wet shoulders. I pulled it around myself, shivering.
“Forgive me,” Pirithous begged, prostrating himself before Hades. “I am desperate, my lord. Grant me death, grant me anything, but make this hunger stop.”
Hades looked him up and down. “Demeter’s handiwork, I take it?”
I shrugged.
“Very well.” Hades snapped his fingers. The Underworld rushed past us in a nauseating whirl. When it stabilized around us I saw we were standing in the banquet room.
“Eat.” He motioned Pirithous toward the banquet table. “I’ll deal with you later.”
Pirithous ravenously shoveled food in his mouth. I stared at Hades in shock. I’d expected him to do a lot of things, but inviting Pirithous to dinner was not one of them.
Hades touched my arm and nodded to the door. “Would you like to get some rest, my dear?”
Dear? “No,” I said slowly. “What are you—”
“Cassandra?” Hades called when she peeked into the room. “Why don’t you take Persephone and—”
“No, thank you.” I clutched his hand. “Could I stay with you for a little while?”
Warring emotions danced in Hades’ eyes as Pirithous ate ravenously behind us. “You’re freezing.” He rubbed my hands between his.
“Please don’t make me leave.”
He made a motion with his hand, and I could no longer hear Pirithous in the background.
“What just happened?”
“They can’t hear us now.” Hades watched Pirithous eat. “Are you sure you’re okay?” He tilted my chin up, studying my face.
I nodded. “That was—” I took a shuddering breath. “Thank you so much.”
Hades nodded, looking distracted. His fingers traced my cheek where Pirithous’ punch had landed. A pulse of energy passed through me and every bump and bruise from the fight stopped hurting.
“No, seriously,” I continued. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t shown up.”
Hades stepped back, surveying me with a critical eye. His jaw tightened. “I know exactly what would have happened. Cassandra saw the whole thing.”
I shuddered at the thought.
Anger burned in Hades’ eyes. “What is the matter with you? You were alone for, what, ten minutes? Ten minutes, and you go to the one and only place in this entire realm where you could possibly come to harm!”
“I—” My mouth dropped open as I scrambled for some answer. Where had the man I’d seen a moment ago gone? I wanted the nice Hades back, the one with the look of concern, and possibly even fear, marring his otherwise perfect face.
“What were you thinking? First Orpheus and now this. Have you completely lost your mind? If you have some kind of death wish, I can send you to Boreas!”
“Hades!”
“Protecting you from him is easy, but how the hell am I supposed to protect you from yourself?”
“Hey!” I objected. “How was I supposed to know I could get pulled across the river?”
“I can’t always save you!”
“Why do you even bother?” Tears sprang to my eyes. I shivered violently, clutching his cloak tighter around me. “You just think I’m in the way, and all I ever do is screw up. Why don’t you just send me to Boreas? It would save you a lot of trouble.”
“Why do I bother?” Hades asked, surprised. “You really haven’t figured that out?”
I met his eyes, searching for answers. “You were afraid,” I whispered, surprised.
“For you,” Hades clarified. The heat left his voice, leaving only weariness. “Yeah. You could have been really hurt, and I might not have made it in time.” He reached out and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Look, I’m sorry I yelled, but you have to stop throwing yourself into these situations. You could have been hurt.”
I nodded, gritting my teeth to stop from trembling. Hades seemed to notice my shaking for the first time and sighed. “I’m sorry I yelled. I just… That was terrifying.”
I nodded. “Yeah. It was.” My voice quavered.
He hesitated, then pulled me into a hug. I clung to him, taking shuddering breaths, fighting back tears. I was still shaking, still frightened by what had happened in Tartarus, but Hades had saved me.
My grip tightened. “Thank you.”
He pulled back, eyes going to the table where Pirithous was eating. “Why don’t you go with Cassandra while I take care of something.”
His voice was gentle, and there was something in the way he looked at me that made my knees go weak.
I didn’t think; I just acted. Quick as a thought I rose onto my tiptoes and kissed Hades full on the lips. He stiffened in surprise, then for a moment he relaxed and kissed me back, hand rising to touch my face.
He broke free of the kiss with a curse. “I can’t do this,” he swore and took a few steps backward.
“Why not?” I asked breathlessly.
“I’m not Zeus. I don’t just go around—” He ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated. “I have standards.”
I felt as if I’d been slapped. “I see.”
“No! Damn it, that’s not what I meant. You’re just a child—”
“How else would you see me?”
Hades narrowed his eyes when he recognized his line. “Is that what got you so upset?”
Screw it. I’d already humiliated myself by kissing him. What else did I have to lose?
“Could you just tell me how you feel about me? Do you hate me? Can you even stand me? Because every now and then I see something and I think that you might…that you might have feelings for me, but then you do or say something so frustrating and I don’t know. This back and forth thing is driving me crazy!”
He laughed. “I’m driving you crazy? You offer to bring people back from the dead and run off to Tartarus if I say the wrong thing! You’re driving me insane!”
My heart sank. “So you do hate me?”
“Hate you? No! I—” He broke off, running his fingers through his hair. “I’m in love with you. I’ve been in love with you since the moment I laid eyes on you in the clearing…” He trailed off, looking to the side as if he could see me there. My mind flashed back to the picture in his dream and my eyes widened. “You’re beautiful, and kind, and everything I could ever want, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re eons younger than me. However much I’d like it to. Pursuing this in any way would be taking advantage of you, and I’m not going to do that.”
My mind reeled. I hadn’t been expecting that. I didn’t know if I was in love with Hades, but I definitely had feelings for him. When I found my voice I said, “Who isn’t younger than you? People make too big of a deal over age. It’s just a number. I’m old enough to know what I want, and—”
“You’re not even old enough to know who you are,” Hades interrupted. “And you have no idea what I’m capable of. There’s no need to rush anything. One good thing about being immortal is that we’ve got unlimited time to figure things out.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but was cut off by a commotion behind Hades. Pirithous was thrashing around on the ground, clawing at his throat. Hades glanced at him and flashed me a dark smile.
“Now here we are.” He waved his hand through the air. “Persephone, go with Cassandra.”
“What’s happening?” I asked as Pirithous’ screams became audible.
“Get it out!” Pirithous roared. “Get it out of me!”
Hades shrugged. “I fed him.”
Pirithous retched blood and shrieked in agony.
“Would you like some more?” Hades asked as he strode across the wooden floor. Pirithous was lifted from the floor by an unseen force and forced onto one of the banquet chairs.
“No! No! Please, no!” Pirithous shrieked as his hand moved inexorably to his plate.
I watched wide-eyed as Pirithous crammed food into his mouth, sobbing in agony.
“Did you actually believe,” Hades asked, picking a pomegranate up from the table and cutting into it casually with a knife, “that you could enter my realm and abduct my wife?”
Hades cut the pomegranate into six even sections. I heard a strange crackling noise and Pirithous’ skin began to take on a gray hue.
“The meal you just enjoyed was the flesh of a dear friend of mine who was killed in my realm the last time someone like you entered without my permission.”
Pirithous whimpered as his skin hardened, fastening him into place.
“It is fitting that her final act is to put a man like you out of his misery. Indeed, if she hadn’t drunk from the Lethe, she would be quite pleased to hear it.”
Only Pirithous eyes remained flesh. His mouth opened in a ghastly scream.
Hades ate a pomegranate seed. “Of course you won’t really be out of your misery, will you? You’ll still be alive in there, still starving. I just won’t have to hear about it.” He tossed the uneaten sections onto the table. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some business to attend to.”
I stared in horror as a seal with a picture of a head covered in snakes etched its way above Pirithous’ clawed fingers.
Cassandra hurried across the room to grab my arm. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”