by Rosanna Leo
Hades-Sean just looked at her with an “Aw, shucks” sort of smile. And held out a hand to her. “I've changed, gorgeous. Stay with me here. You'll like me here."
Dionysus readied himself to defend her. But then she got mad. Furious, in fact, at all the game playing in this hellhole. She wouldn't be brainwashed again, certainly not by the little shit who'd devastated her soul in high school. Yes, he'd played tricks with her mind and used her, making her afraid to trust men. But Dionysus had helped her trust again, and she wouldn't let Sean, or Hades, defeat her.
She put a hand on Dionysus's arm. “It's okay.” And then she turned to the wraith of her former boyfriend and said what she'd never been able to say as an impressionable seventeen-year-old girl. “Fuck you, Sean."
She began walking away with a beaming Dionysus, but then turned back. “And by the way, you have a miniscule dick."
The wraith howled in agony, as if she'd kicked him in the balls. Before her, the form that had seemed so substantial began to languish. Pieces of Sean simply wore away, chunk by chunk, eroding into nothingness, until all that was left was a fine mist that disappeared down the hall.
She turned away, feeling like a total badass. Maybe the tortured soul had gone off to torment someone else, but it wouldn't be her.
As soon as they were a few feet away, Dionysus leaned over and whispered, “That was awesome. I'm so proud of you.” He held her and wiped the last tear from her eye. And then he kissed her eyelids, as if to seal out any future tears. “I'm sorry for what he did to you."
She drowned in his eyes, feeling nothing but sweet warmth and love there. As well as the understanding that could only come from someone who'd lost a child. She'd been so young. So stupid. So determined since then not to make the same mistakes. But the beautiful man in front of her had taught her that some mistakes didn't need to be repeated. “Don't worry. It's ancient history."
They walked on and on. It seemed they scoured the interminable waiting room for hours, Josie ducking away from any spirit who dared to approach her. But they hadn't found Eurydice. Even Dionysus seemed discouraged. His shoulders had slumped, and he seemed lost in the place he'd known for so long.
What if they didn't find her? What then? Would Orpheus return and set the bakery ablaze with her inside? Would he condemn her to an eternity with Sean “Tiny Dick” Davison?
And what would happen to her relationship with Dionysus?
For the first time on this deranged quest, Josie felt truly worried.
That was when the second door appeared. Dionysus just stared at it for a moment and pulled her to his side.
"I'm guessing by your less-than-enthusiastic reaction,” she said, “that door isn't supposed to be there?"
He gave his head a solemn, grave shake from side to side. “But I think it's for us."
"Okay,” she said, suddenly feeling the urge to cry again. “Then let's finish what we started."
Just as abruptly as the door's appearance, Dionysus grabbed her and held her. Only after a couple of minutes did he release her and gaze into her eyes. And then he kissed her. Her mouth opened to him, automatically, hungrily, and his tongue partnered with hers. Dancing to a rhythm underscored by their undying love. A love that would continue to feed them, no matter what they encountered behind that door. Lips smashing against each other. Hearts palpitating against each other's chest. Hands roving, needing to remember everything Hades had tried to make them forget.
They pulled apart, and it struck Josie that Dionysus had never looked so tired. Almost gaunt. There were lines in his face she'd never seen before. As if hell was feeding off him and his powers. An illusion, no doubt, like everything in this godforsaken place, but unsettling still.
She tried to inject one last shred of levity into the proceedings. “Okay, Monty. I'll take door number two."
With a sad smile, Dionysus put his hand out and opened it.
They stepped through the portal, and it occurred to Dionysus that Josie was finally witnessing some fire and brimstone. Hell, at its legendary best.
He wasn't familiar with this particular level, hadn't realized it existed. Of course, he wouldn't put it past his uncle to keep innovating, like the head of any company worth its salt.
They were in what appeared to be an underground cavern with stony walls that seemed to glow from within, as if someone were stoking fires behind them. It was rank, the stench reminding him all too much of decaying corpses. In strategic places on the walls were metal cuffs, the type one might see in a medieval castle's torture chamber.
As many as there were, only one prisoner was shackled there. Eurydice.
She looked exactly as he remembered her. It was no wonder Orpheus could not forget her. She was a lovely girl. Long, dark curls. Round cheeks. Pink lips that trembled upon seeing him. And she was still robed in an ancient Greek peplos, the folds draping over her womanly body.
"Please,” she called in a voice possessed of a strange echo. “Help me."
At that moment, the chamber was filled with orange smoke, accompanied by the fragrance of hyacinths in spring. They all watched as the smoke cleared.
"Of course,” he muttered, clutching Josie's hand. “I should have guessed."
The last whorl of smoke dissipated, and a woman appeared. One he'd known since the day Zeus brought him to Olympus. A red-haired goddess in a dazzling white robe, one whose deceptively sweet smile was matched only by the shimmer of coldness in her flashing blue eyes.
Persephone. Reluctant wife to Uncle Hades and Queen of the Netherworld.
"Dionysus,” she welcomed him in a lilting voice. “It's been too long.” She didn't acknowledge Josie, didn't even look at her. Of course not. She was a mere human in Persephone's eyes. Expendable.
"You know why we're here, Persephone. Orpheus wants Eurydice back."
Persephone pouted. “Orpheus has been a very bad little boy. When I gave him the opportunity to search for his wife, I never dreamed he'd approach one of the gods. He hates us all so much.” She cocked her head and considered. “No. I'm sorry, but I can't allow it."
"What's it to you if he spends eternity with his wife?” he demanded, impatient with his aunt's flippant attitude. “You have a husband."
Her carmine lip curled even more. “He's boring. He never takes me anywhere. And Orpheus is so pretty. I want to keep him for myself."
With that, Persephone dipped her head in a graceful nod, and Orpheus appeared in a cloud of dust. For a moment, he was disoriented, his wild eyes looking back and forth. He finally spied his wife, attached to the beastly wall, and he cried out, trying to run to her. But Persephone had him under an invisible choke hold, as if he were chained to her, and he could not move.
"Let me go, you vile bitch!"
The goddess's eyes widened in anger, and her prisoner's body buckled, as if he'd been struck by a heavy implement. “I am your queen here, Orpheus,” she scolded. “You'd best not forget that!"
"Persephone,” Dionysus pleaded, ashamed by the whole display. Disheartened by Eurydice's whimpers. Embarrassed for Orpheus. Wishing he could just whisk Josie out of there. “At least let the girl go."
"I can't,” came her petulant reply. “When Orpheus told me he wanted to find his wife, I bound Eurydice to this wall myself, using an ancient, formidable spell. An unbreakable one. I wanted to ensure she could never be freed. And now, it cannot be reversed. The wall is greedy. It needs a mortal in its clutches.” She spared an icy glance for Eurydice. “The wall must be fed at all times."
As he'd been listening to her, so repulsed by her childlike avarice, he hadn't felt Josie's hand slip out of his. Hadn't noticed her take that small step toward Persephone's wall of torment. But now he saw the look on his lover's face. Saw her gaze in anguish upon Eurydice's lost soul.
Saw her run toward the wall.
"Josie!” he cried.
And before he could aim his thyrsus to stop her, before he could even process what was happening, she laid her hands on the metal cuffs
that bound Eurydice, and pulled.
"No!” he shouted.
It was already too late. In a moment whose magic Dionysus had not foreseen, Eurydice fell from the chains that bound her. And then the wall itself, as if sensing Josie's vitality and wanting it for itself, seized her. Its hot stones shifted and reached, seeming to swoop forward, gathering Josie in its unfeeling embrace. Before another second elapsed, she was chained in Eurydice's place. Josie writhed, her eyes bulging in terror, but she could not budge the shackles.
They stared at the captive, he and the others, and he didn't know who was more aghast.
When Persephone, sweet-looking Persephone, began to laugh, his awe was compounded. The titters of amazement filled the dark chamber, making his brain ache. “What a foolish girl!"
Eurydice ran to her husband, and before Persephone could stop cackling, the couple disappeared.
"Get her out of there, Persephone!” His voice boomed throughout the cavern. “Now, damn you!"
She appeared peeved at having lost track of Orpheus and his wife and not in the mood to deal with Dionysus. “I told you, the spell is irreversible. I can't do anything for her. Maybe your girlfriend shouldn't have been such a martyr."
Dionysus ignored her. He turned to Josie, who had stopped writhing in the clutches of the wall. Her face was etched in pain. He could see blood dripping from her wrists where the cuffs were chafing her. More than that. They were torturing her, clearly too tight for her wrists. Those sweet, soft wrists! The ones he'd kissed and held a hundred times.
He'd get her out if it was the last thing he did.
Dionysus pulled out all the stops, every godly power he possessed. He tried to smash the wall. Tried to yank the metal cuffs from her. Attempted to dissolve into the wall like a fine mist so he could destroy it from the inside. He aimed his thyrsus and tried to take the wall apart, stone by stone. He pounded it until the sweat was pouring from him and his arms were bloodied.
None of it worked. He'd never felt more helpless.
"It's no good,” Persephone told him. “Your magic won't undo this spell."
"Why not?” he asked, astounded. He was a god! How could his magic not work here?
"That wall,” she explained, “does not recognize you because it could care less about good or evil. It simply wants a human body in its clutches. A mortal, fragile body. I created it with Eurydice in mind, but it does not distinguish.” She sighed. “I'm sorry, Dionysus. Your friend will just have to stay."
"No,” he murmured, insane with fear for her. Out of his mind with a grief he couldn't bear to conceive. Absolutely unable to accept the outcome of this bizarre, hateful quest.
And the whole time, Josie was just gazing at him with love, as if she'd already accepted it.
Well, she might be too tired to fight, but he'd never give up.
Dionysus turned to Persephone, ready to beg. “Please, there must be a way. We can go to Hades. To Zeus!"
She put a hand on his shoulder, as if to comfort him. As if anything would ever comfort him again. “Now, now, Dionysus. You know as well as I that all our powers are unique. The spell was binding. Even Hades and Zeus cannot reverse it."
By all that was holy, he knew it. There was no way he could get her out. He loved her with everything in him, and he couldn't get her out. He'd promised to take her back home, and he'd failed.
"Come now,” Persephone cooed. “There are lots of humans where this one came from. Just find another one somewhere."
Her words reverberated in a deep place in his soul. Just find another one.
Josie screamed. The cuffs, they seemed tighter now. The blood was coursing down her arms in crimson ribbons, as if mocking him for the message he'd written on her palm. He was terrified the cuffs would sever her delicate veins, making her a slave to this hell forever, enchaining her spirit here.
He gazed upon the woman he loved. No. He would not allow this to be her fate.
She raised her exhausted head, taking him in through her tears, and smiled sadly at him. “It's okay. Just go."
"No, my love,” he replied, full of determination. “I said I had your back. I always will."
With her watching, with his goddess aunt watching, Dionysus began to chant words he'd always known, but had always feared. Words he'd once heard his cousin Eryx utter in a moment that transformed him forever. Words he'd never expected to say himself ... but that was before Josie came into his life. Making him better.
Making him truly loved.
From out of nowhere, a wind started up in the chamber, low and circling around his feet. Dionysus continued to utter the powerful words, knowing he had to intone the spell three times to make it effective. As binding as Persephone's spell. The wind cycloned around his body, whipping around his legs, his hips, his arms and shoulders. Lifting him off the ground. Levitating him and tossing him around the chamber.
"What are you doing?” Josie cried.
Persephone shouted. “Stop it this instant, Dionysus! You have no right to mistreat the powers you were given!"
He felt his head snap back. Felt a searing pain careen through his entire body. White-hot light that scalded him through and through, making mincemeat of his organs and bones. The worst torment he'd ever experienced.
And for Josie, he'd gladly do it over and over.
There was a flash, a wicked stabbing sensation near his heart and in his head. The gale ceased, and his body was pitched to the cold floor.
For a second, he couldn't move, he was in such pain. Then he realized the pain was good. It meant the spell had worked.
He was mortal.
With Persephone too stunned to react, Dionysus stumbled to his feet, his eyes always on Josie. He ran to the tortuous wall, touched the metal cuffs, and saw them release her. And in that moment, the wall of death sensed another mortal and swept him up in its foul clutches. Leaving Josie dazed, but free.
"What have you done?” she whispered to him, her face a mask of torment.
He gazed back into her hazel eyes. Oh, those eyes would haunt him for eternity! “I love you so much, Josie,” he breathed, smiling at her. “Go home now."
With that, the Fates sensed her quest was completed, and she vanished. Her disappearance was accompanied by the sound of her screaming, “No!” echoing in the room until the last, strangled cry faded into oblivion.
Dionysus felt his eyes, his weak mortal eyes, well up. Felt the cuffs cut into his skin. The skin that was once virtually impenetrable. No matter. He'd done right by her and would take pleasure in the pain, knowing it was no longer hurting her.
"You fool,” Persephone muttered.
"You said the wall wanted a mortal,” Dionysus growled back. “You didn't say which one."
The goddess walked up to him and slapped his face hard. Making it sting with a force his former godlike self would not have noticed. “You had to be the hero. Oh, God of Wine. God of nothing."
The same orange hyacinth-scented smoke that brought Persephone into the room now carried her away, back to her castle in hell. Leaving Dionysus alone, with only the sputtering, steaming wall for company.
He closed his eyes, thought of Josie, and embraced his own personal hell.
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Chapter 13
Josie landed with a thump. Not even understanding how she had fallen or where she'd fallen from. Quaking, she looked around and saw she was on the landing outside her apartment. And there was police tape across the door barring the way in.
The threshold she'd last crossed with Dionysus.
"Oh, God!” It all came flooding back. Him, chanting those strange words. Him, a mortal, suspended from that vile wall. Him. Gone.
Her pain forced its way through her throat, rushing upward with a disgusting force that pitched her body forward. She vomited all over the landing, her body shaking, not knowing whether to sob or hurl. It did both at the same time.
The noise couldn't help but attract Petter from next door. His door opened, and
Josie heard him mutter some choice words in Norwegian. She managed to hold her head up for a second and saw the concern in his pale eyes.
So unlike Dionysus's warm eyes.
She threw up again on the hem of his Energie jeans.
"Jesus Christ,” Petter swore. “Babe, what happened to you? Your brothers have been turning the city upside down looking for you. We all have. You've been on the news every night! Josie..."
And then he trailed off because he must have noticed how hard she was trembling. He leaned over and picked her up. She would always be grateful for that, considering she was covered in puke and smelled like a pig.
"I need to call your brothers. I need to get you to a hospital,” he said, seeing her bloodied arms. “I need to introduce you to a bathtub."
"Please,” she wailed, her chest still racked with sobs. She couldn't stop sobbing! “Not yet. Please don't call anyone yet."
"Okay,” he said quietly, obviously not sure what to do. “Look, I can't bring you into your flat. It's a crime scene. Do you mind coming into mine?"
She assented, thankful for any opportunity to hide from the world.
The wall had killed Dionysus! She was sure of it. He must be dead.
Her stomach pitched again, even before Petter could set her down on the couch, but it was a dry heave. She'd pretty much left the contents of her belly out on the landing, and hadn't eaten much lately anyway. Just the wonderful food Dionysus had conjured up for her...
"Dionysus,” she moaned, her eyes rolling back into her head.
Petter laid her gently on the sofa, clearly alarmed at her rambling. “Dionysus. That's your dark-haired friend, right?” His eyes widened in realization. “Fuck. He didn't do this to you, did he? Because if he did, I know some people. The Norwegian mafia is trying to get a foothold in Toronto..."
"No.” She held up a hand. “No. He didn't do this to me. He loves me."
"Oh.” Petter looked mildly put out, as if that knowledge squashed any hopes he might have had. “Then who did, babe? Look at your arms! I've never seen such blood."