by Bella Klaus
“Why would someone pine for people who rejected him?” I asked.
The elevator launched itself to the sky, and Hades continued through the meadow with his arm wrapped around my shoulders. This would have been so romantic if the sky was blue instead of its usual red.
Fire mountains burned in the distance, and plumes of smoke rose from the adjacent volcanos. It was no wonder Hades had created an artificial view from his palace. Who wanted the constant reminder they were in Hell?
“Lucifer’s situation is more complicated than the average fallen angel,” Hades murmured. “First, he was an arch-angel, and second—”
“Your Majesty?” said a voice from the direction of the river.
I turned to find Captain Caria standing in the middle of the field, holding what looked like the dossier Samael had given me on Lucifer. I must have dropped it when I teleported into the war room.
Memories assaulted me at once, falling through my mind like moving playing cards. One of them was of me standing in front of a mirror holding my swollen belly, with a bearded Hades wrapping his arms around mine. Another was of a bald-headed baby, screaming with rage.
My heart somersaulted as more and more of these images pushed themselves forward. The baby’s first steps. The baby growing ringlets as bright as mine. The baby’s first blast of magic, where she killed a man who had infiltrated the Underworld to attack Hades.
Macaria.
Goddess of the blessed death.
My daughter.
I clutched at my chest, my heart aching as the images continued to assault my mind.
“Kora?” Hades’ arm around my shoulder was the only thing keeping me from falling to my knees.
“Your Majesty?” the captain said.
I stared up into her green eyes. “Why do you—” Pain exploded in my head like a crack of thunder. “Bloody Hell.”
Hades scooped me into his arms, and our surroundings disappeared. We were now in a darkened room of stone walls, illuminated by flaming sconces.
“Your Majesty?” Healer Iaso’s voice filled my mind. “What’s wrong with the queen?”
“A sudden attack of pain. Can you see if she’s been cursed?”
The healer hovered her hand above my head. As soon as her fingers grazed my skin, she snatched it away. “Memories are cascading through Her Majesty’s mind faster than she can handle them.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as a kaleidoscope of images played out in my mind’s eye. Macaria growing up, riding Cerberus, the three-headed dog, traveling through the River Acheron with the ferryman. Lightning flashed across my vision, making me groan.
“Is there any way to slow them?” Hades shouted over the pounding in my skull.
“No,” I rasped. “They’re showing me our daughter. Where is she?”
An instant later, footsteps echoed through the room, accompanied by the scent of narcissus flowers. I cracked open an eye and found Captain Caria at my bedside, staring down at me with a frown.
“Your Majesty?” she said.
“Stop calling me that,” I rasped. “What on earth happened to you these two thousand years, Macaria? You act like Hades is a stranger instead of your father.”
Her gaze darted to Hades, who nodded, seeming to communicate something to her through their mental link. I guessed he confirmed that my memories were returning.
“We’re colleagues now,” she said, her words faltering.
“What?” I whispered, trying to shake off my confusion.
“I run the Demon Division of the Enforcers, and I don’t want my subordinates thinking I got the job because…” Captain Caria’s eyes bulged. “You remember me?”
Nodding, I stretched out my hand, beckoning for her to approach. “They’re all flooding through my mind. Thousands of years of you and me together.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes. “You’re really back?”
I shook my head. “My memories are returning, but I’m not the same woman I was.”
She reached down and wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. I hugged back, my heart filled to bursting.
I finally had my family back, but there was only one thing standing in the way of our happiness.
Mother, Samael, and their plot to take over Hell.
The sooner we formulated a plan to deal with them, the better.
Chapter Seventeen
Blinding headaches plagued me for a week, and I remained under Healer Iaso’s care the entire time. I suffered panic attacks throughout this time—not out of fear for myself. Weeks ago, I was a twenty-year-old with no ties, but now I had so much to lose. A husband, a daughter, beloved friends, and an entire faction of supernatural souls that we needed to keep in their place.
But the biggest worry of all was that I wasn’t making progress. If Azriel called that emergency meeting, I would be completely useless and a burden to Hades.
I lay in the darkened room with Hades and our daughter taking turns to keep me company. It was strange to think of her as Captain Caria, the woman who had arrested me for the trumped-up charge of espousal abandonment. Every time I saw her, I kept thinking of the little girl who had grown up to be an independent goddess who wanted to work for a living instead of becoming a princess.
The healer taught me to separate my mind into two compartments. One for the memories I had of being Kora, and the other for those Hades had unravelled.
It turned out that Mother had treated each new body with water from the River Lethe, which could make a mortal forget about their previous lives. The effect it had on goddesses was only temporary. Perhaps she had planned on dosing my food to keep me in permanent ignorance of my past life.
A gentle knock sounded on the door, and Healer Iaso stepped into the darkened room. “How are you feeling today, Your Majesty?”
I raised myself up to sitting, blinking away the last vestiges of sleep. “My head no longer hurts.”
The older woman smiled. “And your memories?”
My eyes fluttered closed, and I sucked in a deep breath. “Settled. I’m not sure if more of them will unravel, but at least I’ve discovered how to retrieve them without exploding with agony.”
“I will inform His Majesty of the good news. Are you ready to return to your quarters?”
When I nodded, the healer teleported me to a bright and airy lounge illuminated by huge windows on the entire right side that drenched the space with daylight. Oatmeal-colored sofas took up the space, with low tables etched in gold. A gilded portrait of Persephone hung on the wall beside one of Hades in his current youthful appearance.
I glanced from side to side, my lips parting with a gasp. The only thing that indicated we were still in Hell was the view of Mount Olympus. This room was a cross between something palatial and the penthouse I’d shared with Dami.
Healer Iaso got me settled on the sofa, and a white-haired water nymph brought a tray containing one of my favorite meals—red mullet served with a salad of feta cheese, tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, and red onions.
After a hearty meal, I retired to a comfortable chaise, only for the brass elevator to descend from the ceiling. I sat up and frowned.
“Hades?” I asked through our connection.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Fine, but who’s coming to see me?”
He chuckled. “Someone who’s been making a nuisance of herself for days. Whatever you do, don’t let her lead you astray.”
“Are you talking about Queen Mera?” I asked.
“Worse.”
The doors hissed open, and I stared into an empty elevator, wondering if this visitor of mine was wearing his Helm of Invisibility. I opened up my connection to Hades. “There’s no one there.”
“Look down.”
I lowered my gaze to find two cats walking toward me. One broke out into a trot, while the other wore a small backpack emblazoned with the shop sign from Dirty Den’s.
Dami leaped onto the sofa and climbed on my lap. I ran my hands through her si
lken fur. “Are you feeling better?”
She raised her head and gave me an enthusiastic nod.
“Have you shifted yet?”
She shook her head.
The water nymph unclipped Macavity’s backpack and laid it on the floor. It unfolded to reveal a large bowl of fish with an attached bell. My brows rose. How on earth had they ordered food by themselves with Dami unable to shift? I shook off that thought. She probably did it via some kind of app.
As she pushed her head into my belly, I rubbed the space between her ears and asked, “Did the enchanted sleep use up that much of your power?”
She nodded.
Fury heated my skin, and I clenched my jaw. This was all because of Mother and her wretched machinations. “Dami?” I asked. “Macavity?”
The two cats raised their heads to meet my gaze. Curiosity shone in their green eyes, making my heart ache. After everything they’d suffered, they still considered me a friend—even though Mother had targeted them because of me.
“I swear to you both that she won’t get away with hurting you,” I said from between clenched teeth. “Every minute of unnecessary sleep you suffered, every whisker she pulled, and every injury she laid upon you will be repaid tenfold.”
“Meow.” Macavity gave me a firm nod and continued eating.
Dami lowered her head with a purr of contentment.
I relaxed back on the chaise and continued stroking her fur. The Fifth Faction was secure. Hades had even returned to the pagoda to complete an extra round of maintenance, but I couldn’t fully relax.
Now that the headaches had gone and my memories had settled, I itched to do something other than sitting around, waiting for Azriel to summon us to this emergency meeting.
“Meow?” Dami flicked her head toward the elevator, which remained in the room.
“I wish I could go out with you, but I need to lie low until the time is right to move against Mother and her new husband.” I pressed a kiss on the tip of her nose. “By the way, I remember you.”
She tilted her head to the side, her ears twitching. “Meow meow?”
“I had a little brother called Dion,” I murmured. “Short for Dionysus. Mother kept him locked up in a house in the Human World, and only I was allowed to visit him.”
Her eyes flashed with recognition. “I made a contract with you to keep him company, and I was supposed to take you to him, when I left Hell over a silly argument.”
Dami made a mournful sound in the back of her throat. She knew the rest of the story. I had never returned to give her the assignment because the Great Divide had torn my body apart. I hugged her to my chest.
“Sorry I wasn’t there for you,” I murmured.
She released a long meow that sounded like she wanted to say it wasn’t my fault, but I made a note to apologize again when she’d built up enough magic to be able to shift.
Hades teleported into the room, clutching a scroll of parchment. “It’s time.”
My heart jumped into the back of my throat. Dami seemed to get the hint that I would soon leave, and she jumped off my lap to join Macavity in the never-ending bowl of fish.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Hades wrinkled his nose. “The overwhelming stench of ozone could only come from one source.”
I scrambled to my feet, changing my silk pajamas into armor similar to the one I wore when we met Belphegor. Hades had commissioned it the moment Healer Iaso had assured him that my mind was intact. It protected against angel weapons as well as those wielded by demons and gods. Best of all, it contained a refined set of metallic claws that were invisible to the naked eye.
“Ready.” I pulled my shoulders back.
“Not yet.” Hades materialized his bident and held it out.
“Thanks.” I took the proffered weapon and grimaced. “Can’t believe I would forget something as important as that.”
“All right.” He turned and gave me a stern glare. “As discussed, you’re going to follow my lead.”
“Unless there’s an opening I can exploit,” I said.
Hades glared down at me through narrowed eyes. “I told you—”
The scroll in his hand glowed, filling the room with incandescent light. Dami and Macavity left their shared bowl to gallop beneath the sofa and yowl.
I turned to Hades, my mouth agape. “What’s happening?”
“It’s opening a portal whether we like it or not.”
“Azriel said something like that, but I thought it was an empty threat.”
Hades snorted. “Angels have a way of misdirecting while telling the god’s-honest truth.” He took my hand. “Come on. Let’s step inside under our own steam before we’re dragged by the might of Heaven.”
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“I want to kill that bastard so much, my cock is hard.”
“Oh.” I stepped into the white light. “Please don’t tell me you’re thinking of doing something to his defeated corpse.”
Hades roared with laughter. “I was thinking of how I would take you good and hard against the wall after he was dead.”
Anticipation rippled through my insides and settled in my core as I moved through a void of blinding white light. We were about to walk into what was potentially an ambush, yet all I could think about was victory sex. Warmth spread across my chest. Being with Hades when he wasn’t suffering under the effects of a poisonous plant made me feel invincible.
The light faded, and I blinked the glare out of my eyes. As my vision returned to normal, I found ourselves standing in the aisle of a modern church of fifty-foot-tall white walls and mahogany pews. The scent of freshly cooked spaghetti sauce hung in the air, making my mouth water.
Hades placed a hand on the small of my back, and we walked toward the marble altar. Right now, I couldn’t tell if we were in the living world, the world of the dead, or anywhere in between. Faint orchestra music sounded from a door on the far left which opened up into an outdoor walkway leading to a small, white outbuilding.
We stepped into a white landscape of what appeared to be long worms that squelched underfoot. In the distance stood a volcano that erupted brown foam.
“For fuck’s sake.” Hades hurried me toward the building’s wooden door.
My gaze darted toward the spurting mountain. Something spider-like with long tentacles climbed up its slope, only to slide down whenever it hit the foam. On first glance it looked like spaghetti and meatballs, but I dismissed that thought as stupid.
“Have you been here before?” I asked.
Hades shook his head. “But from the looks of things, it seems that we’re in the Pastafarian afterlife.”
My mind conjured up an image of a man with dreadlocks. “Don’t you mean Rastafarian?”
“No.” He pushed open the door and ushered me inside.
Before I could ask if he was talking about a religion based on spaghetti, a reaper in a hooded cloak shouted, “King and Queen Hades of the Fifth Faction.”
We stepped into a white windowless room with wooden tables for two arranged in a tight circle. Isis and Osiris sat together, both looking thoroughly annoyed at being forced to attend this meeting with less than a minute’s notice.
To their left sat a shirtless man with skin as dark as theirs, adorned with white faceprint. He had arrived late to the Devil’s Ball, but I’d been too preoccupied with Mother and Samael to ask Hades about him.
“Who’s that?” I whispered into our bond.
“Shango,” Hades replied. “King of the Ninth, which governs South America. He’s one of the most powerful among us because people worship him across continents.”
“How many worship the Greek gods?”
Hades huffed a laugh. “Not enough to do much more than light a candle, which means we have to rely on our own innate magic, or in our case, the extra power bestowed to us by our angel overlords.”
Isis turned to us, her brow furrowed. She wore a white low-cut dress with a large necklace, and it lo
oked like she’d been out on the town when she’d been summoned. Her gaze swept up and down my form. “Who’s that?”
Heat rose to my cheeks. “It’s Kora from the Devil’s Ball. This is my true body.”
She reared back, not saying anything for a while until her features smoothed again. “Do you know what this meeting is about?”
“No idea,” Hades lied. “What did they say to you?”
She turned to her husband and huffed. “A scroll appeared on the dining table. As soon as I opened it, we got dragged into a church.”
We sat at the table to the left of Isis and Osiris and waited for the others. Considering Hades must have had it for a moment before teleporting down to me, I expected us to be the last to arrive.
The door slammed open, and Hel stepped in, clad in a silk robe. “What a load of bullshit,” the rotted side of her face rasped. “I was in the middle of something important when the scroll dropped on my head.”
“Shagging your harem again?” Hades asked with a chuckle.
She half-sashayed, half-dragged herself to the seat next to us. “Some monarchs prefer to keep their options open,” she said with a sniff. “I happen to enjoy a selection of lovers, as is my prerogative.”
I turned to Hades and grinned. “Your smorgasbord of beauties has come to an end.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “I would exchange all the women in the world for a single night with my beloved wife.”
“Where is everyone?” Hel hissed.
“An excellent question,” Isis said, her voice tight.
I shot a glance toward the reaper at the door, who cringed. They had a point. Only four of the nine tables were occupied. And there was no sign of Lucifer.
“Do you think they’re resisting the scrolls?” I asked through our link.
Hades rubbed his chin. “Azriel might walk around with an HD pencil up his rectum, but he’s the type who would carry out his threats. If the magic hasn’t transported them, then Samael must be plotting something.”
“Or someone leaked the purpose of today’s meeting and Samael’s running scared,” I said.
Hades drummed his fingers on the table. “That’s a possibility.”
Another door behind us opened, and Azriel stepped out, already clad in his gold armor. He’d styled his blond hair in loose waves to frame his pretty face, making me wonder if this style was to make him seem less threatening. He always appeared decidedly more masculine whenever I’d seen him with Namara.