by Linsey Hall
We walked for a while—how long, I couldn’t tell—until finally, we crested a hill. In the distance, I spotted a massive temple. Unlike most Greek temples, it was painted entirely black. The tall columns were enormous, supporting a roof that had to be a hundred yards across. Behind the building, lightning struck.
The shadowy guards continued down the hill, heading toward the fortress.
I swallowed hard, and followed.
“We’ll be judged there,” I whispered to Maximus, remembering what Nix had said.
“Let the tricky part begin.”
He was right. It would be tricky. From what I knew of Hades, we would stand before three judges—Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus. They would determine which region of Hades we would end up in, and from there, we could sneak away and find Hecate. If we were lucky, we’d end up in the same region and be able to start our hunt in secret. If we didn’t, we’d have to escape the guards while being transported to our region and start to hunt for Hecate. Problem with that plan was that they might sound an alarm for escaped souls.
I crossed my fingers that I’d end up in the same place as Maximus.
It was unlikely that we’d go to Tartarus. Neither of us was a complete bastard. And since neither of us—to my knowledge—was suffering from a deep and unrequited love, we wouldn’t end up in the Mourning Fields, either. Which was good, because it sounded almost worse than Tartarus. Elysium was unlikely, at least for me. That was reserved for true heroes. So odds were best that I’d go to the Asphodel Meadows, where most souls went after death. The people there were just normal people—kinda good and kinda bad. No super jerks or superheroes. I had money on Maximus going to Elysium, and if that were the case, we’d deal with it when the time came.
I shook away thoughts of what was to come and focused on the lay of the land as we approached the temple. It was flat all around, with nothing to see in the distance besides the massive temple ahead of us. The air smelled vaguely stale, as if we were in an old closet. But then, we were the first souls in hundreds of years, according to Charon.
We reached the massive temple and began to ascend the stairs. There were thirteen of them, and I counted each to keep my mind under control. I hated this place—hated that it was the home of Hades, the one who had given me the death power I found to be so dreadfully useful. Hated that I felt comfortable here, despite the terror that surrounded me.
Two massive black wooden doors swung open as we neared, and the guards stepped back, gesturing for us to walk through.
I did, keeping my eyes straight ahead and my spine stiff. Maximus was beside me, which frankly, made most things better.
We entered a massive room where the ceiling soared fifty feet high. The marble floor was shiny and smooth beneath my feet, the black stone glinting in the light of a hundred glass lamps. The air sparked with energy, and I shivered.
Life seemed to fill the air here, despite its emptiness. It was almost as if I could feel the souls of those who had passed through on their way to judgement.
The doors slammed shut behind us, and I turned. They were shut tight, all hope of escape long gone. I looked at Maximus.
“Not very welcoming, is it?” he asked.
“Nope.” I started toward the doors on the far side of the hall. I had no idea where we were supposed to go, but I didn’t want to wait around. Not just because we were tight on time, but because standing here made my skin crawl.
Maximus joined me, and we strode forward, our steps matched. As we neared the second set of doors, they swung open. Maximus stopped abruptly, and instinct made me follow suit. The air within the chamber was repellent.
Decisions were made in that room. Big ones. The kind that determined where you’d spend eternity, which was about the biggest decision I could imagine. I waited, heart pounding, for what felt like a decade. The air fizzed with the energy of departed souls, making me shift uncomfortably on my feet.
“Enter.” The voice boomed through the door, and I barely resisted jumping.
I glanced at Maximus. He hiked a shoulder and nodded.
I sucked in a deep breath and followed him through the doors.
The room within was smaller, but not by much. There was a long table in front of us. Three men sat at it, each looking like one of those big white statues of old bearded men wearing robes.
Quintessential ancient Greek Smart Guy. No question.
They were so similar that it was hard to tell them apart.
“You are here to be judged,” said the one in the middle. His voice echoed through the room, and his long beard quivered as he spoke. “I am Rhadamanthus.”
The one to his left inclined his head. “I am Minos.”
The one to his right copied the gesture. “I am Aeacus.”
“We are the three judges,” Rhadamanthus said. “And we will determine the destination of your soul.”
I stayed quiet, and Maximus did the same. Since I didn’t know what was proper protocol here, better to play it silent and afraid. That seemed like a normal attitude for the dead.
“Step forward, Maximus Valerius,” Rhadamanthus intoned.
I twitched, startled that they knew his name. Did that mean they would recognize me as the Greek Dragon God? Or would they not care? Were they even gods? There were so many small ones I couldn’t remember them all. If they weren’t gods, they’d have no reason to know about the Greek Dragon Gods.
Maximus stepped forward, and I watched him, my eyes glued to his broad shoulders. The three judges leaned forward, staring hard at him. Their eyes burned with an eerie yellow fire, magic sparking within their depths.
Seconds ticked by, and I barely resisted shifting uncomfortably as I waited. When Rhadamanthus finally nodded, my shoulders tightened.
“You have accomplished great deeds on earth,” he said. “Heroic deeds.”
I almost grinned, glad that the judges could see how good Maximus was.
“You will go to Elysium.”
My smile fell.
Shit.
The hero’s realm. No way I would qualify for that.
I’d kind of expected him to go there, but now we’d need to sort out a way to escape unnoticed while they were escorting us to our final destinations.
“Step aside,” Rhadamanthus said.
Maximus did as he was told, and the judges called me forward. I stepped up to them, my cheeks heating. Their gazes burned into me as I stood before them, and I swore I could feel them inside my chest. Everything within me was on fire, and it was as if they were looking into my organs. Into my heart and soul. What they’d see in there, I had no idea.
If I hadn’t been frozen solid, I’d have shifted nervously. As it was, I couldn’t move an inch.
“Hmmmm,” Rhadamanthus said. “You never completed your potential.”
Maybe because I’m not really dead yet.
But I kept my mouth shut.
My shoulders tightened as I waited. This was it. He was going to send me to the Asphodel Meadows, and we’d have to jumpstart our plan and break away before we found a quiet place to sneak off.
“However, the extent of your good deeds is great.” He nodded. “You will go to Elysium as well.”
My brows jumped, and I almost asked, “Really?”
Fortunately, my jaw was still frozen solid with nerves. They’d take a while to fade. I might be comfortable in Hades, but that didn’t mean I was comfortable with everyone in it. And I didn’t like these judges.
I just nodded and moved toward Maximus.
This was good. This was very good. Not the place I’d expected to end up, but we’d be together.
There was a small smile on Maximus’s face, as if he’d expected me to end up in the hero’s realm. He was alone in that expectation, but I appreciated it.
I could feel the eyes of the judges as I stopped next to Maximus. Four shadowy figures drifted out of the wall. More escorts.
We followed them from the room, and never once did the burn of the judges’
gazes disappear. The guards led us through a wide hallway, past an enormous room decorated in black marble and gold. Within the room, a man sat on a throne of ebony. He was twice the size of a normal person, with flowing black hair and blazing blue eyes. A tall golden scepter was clutched in his hand.
His eyes fell upon me briefly as I walked in front of his open door, and a shiver of awareness raced over me.
Hades.
It had to be Hades.
Had he recognized me? He should. I had his magic.
But I appeared to be dead.
My heart thundered in my ears as I waited for a shout to sound from behind us. He would call out and stop us. Of course he would. We were intruders.
But there was only silence.
Either he thought I was shit at my Dragon God job and had died, or he was going to let me try to complete my task here. The gods were famous for their fickle natures. They’d give their power one minute and ignore you the next.
Maybe he was just letting me get on with it.
I sure hoped that was the case.
The guards led us to a huge round room. Four wide doors exited the space—not including the one we’d entered from—and the guards turned to the one that was made of white marble. It was the only thing white that I’d seen in all of Hades, and it gleamed so brightly it almost blinded me. Another door was made of thick black iron, another of pale wood, and the last of pink quartz.
The white door disappeared as we neared, and the guards stepped to the side, gesturing for us to go through.
Maximus and I strode through without glancing back. As soon as we crossed the threshold, the air changed. It smelled fresher. Almost like spring grass.
The sun beat down brightly on a rolling green field. In the distance, a small city sat on a hill. White buildings filled the city, and there would be people there. Or souls, at least.
I turned back to the door to find it gone.
My shoulders relaxed for the first time since we’d arrived in hell.
“We made it,” I said.
“In Elysium, no less.”
“Apparently we’re heroes.”
“Because of what you’re doing,” Maximus said. “Trying to fight the Stryx.”
I warmed at his words. “Well, whatever the case, let’s find our way to Hecate.”
“As expected, we’re not being guarded. But we should find someone to ask.”
“Agreed.” I started toward the city, my steps quick. I had no idea how to find Hecate, but at least we now had freedom of movement and there were no angry gods peeved by the fact that we’d broken in. If Hades realized the truth, he was ignoring it.
The city was quiet as we approached, though the buildings looked lived in. Plants and vases sat in the windows of the houses, and smoke drifted up from chimneys. They were simple white structures, very classical Greece. The smell of food wafted on the air.
But there was no noise. It was so quiet that I’d have heard a bird sing. Except there were no birds either.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Some sources report that the Greek Underworld is full of shades. They’re people—and they look like they used to on earth—but they don’t live full lives like humans do. They sort of drift through, doing the things they did on earth, but they aren’t fully present.”
I’d read something like that and hated the sound of it. I shivered and stepped onto the road that led into town. Maximus and I walked quickly down the street between the white houses, searching for a sign of anyone.
Twice, I thought I saw figures drift past windows inside the houses, but they were gone quickly.
When we arrived at the town square, I finally saw a bunch of people. They were transparent, like Maximus and me, but otherwise, they looked normal. There were at least twenty of them, all gathered around various pursuits. There was a massive fountain in the middle of the square, and people stood next to it, staring at the water. Children played a game with a hoop and a stick, while two old men played a game with little dice. There were even two ghosts dancing, though they didn’t look particularly thrilled.
In fact, no one looked thrilled. Not miserable either. Just…existing.
It was a city full of ghosts.
“Which one should we speak to?” Maximus asked.
“How do we speak to them if they are so silent? No one is talking.”
“Odysseus sacrificed a lamb, and whichever shade drank the blood could then speak to him.”
“Damn. No lamb. And I don’t think I have the stomach for that anyway.” I looked at him. “But I’m glad you read The Odyssey.”
He shrugged, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “It’s how I learned to read. There was a smuggled copy going around the slave quarters. We didn’t have the whole thing—that would have been more than one scroll. But we had the part about the Underworld. It was literally more valuable than gold to us.”
It was a poignant image, and I was reminded anew of the hardships Maximus had faced.
“Think they’d drink my blood?” I asked.
Maximus nodded. “I think they’ll drink human blood. But they can have mine.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I have a lot more blood.”
“You need a lot more blood to run that big body of yours.”
He sighed and chuckled at the same time. “Consider this like a…chivalric gesture. I can’t open the car door or bring you flowers since we have no time for dates, so I’ll donate blood to the dead shades so they’ll tell us the secrets of the Underworld.”
I laughed low in my throat. “How romantic.”
“Hard to resist, isn’t it?”
I grinned widely. “Very.”
“Good. Glad you agree.”
“I’ll cut you a deal. You donate to the first shade, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll donate to the second.”
“Like going Dutch on the check?”
“Sure.”
“Fair enough.” He spun in a circle, then pointed. “That one looks promising.”
I turned to took, spotting an old man sitting under a tree. He looked peaceful and about as old as the sun, with a long beard and a severely wrinkled face. “He does look good.”
Old people always knew the most stuff.
We set off across the square, walking at a sedate pace. I didn’t know what the shades would do if we revealed ourselves to be not quite dead, but I didn’t want to find out.
We stopped in front of the old man, who blinked and looked up at us.
“Hi,” I said. “Can you speak to us?”
He frowned, clearly confused.
“Looks like a no.” Maximus’s magic swelled on the air, bringing with it the light scent of cedar. A small blade and bowl appeared in his hands, and he quickly made a cut on his forearm, letting the blood pour into the little bowl.
“If he doesn’t want the blood, he’s going to think you’re really freaking weird.”
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and he handed the bowl to the man. “A sacrifice.”
The man smiled, clearly understanding. Then he drank the blood.
Ew.
If he wasn’t a vampire, which he didn’t look to be, that was mega gross. But it was bad manners to comment on someone’s food, so I snapped my mouth shut.
The man smacked his mouth, his eyes brighter than before. “Thank you.”
Maximus nodded.
“I am Aklos. How can I help you?”
“We are looking for Hecate,” Maximus said.
“That miserable witch? You’d be better off playing fetch with Cerberus.”
I had a feeling that fetch with Cerberus wouldn’t end well for us, which meant that Hecate was a real piece of work.
“All the same,” Maximus said. “We seek her. Do you know how we can find her?”
The old man shrugged. “First, you need to get out of Elysium. You won’t find the likes of her in the hero’s realm.”
“No, I imagine not,”
Maximus said. “But where is she?”
“In her own realm, situated between Tartarus and the Asphodel Fields. There’s an entrance to that realm at the top of that mountain.” He pointed toward an extremely creepy-looking black mountain. Lightning flashed overhead, but it was so far away I couldn’t hear it. “But you’ll need the Keys to the Underworld to get through the gate.”
“Where would we get those?” Maximus asked.
The old man’s eyes twinkled. “You’re in luck. Aeacus holds the Keys to the Underworld, but be aware that there are guards at the gate. Only Aeacus wields the key.”
I frowned. “Only Aeacus , or someone who looks like Aeacus.”
The old man shrugged. “I’m not sure it matters. There is a guard at the gate who will expect him to be the one wielding it.”
“Where can we find Aeacus?” Maximus asked.
The man grinned. “He just so happens to dine several days a week with Rhadamanthus, who rules this realm.”
“The judge?” I asked.
The old man’s eyes flicked to me. “The very same.”
He’d chosen us for his realm. Somehow, that made me feel even better about ending up here.
“Where do they dine?” Maximus asked.
The old man pointed behind us. “Go that way. It won’t be long before you see the enormous house at the edge of town. That is Rhadamanthus’s accommodation. They will eat there, if they are indeed meeting tonight.”
Fingers crossed.
“Thank you,” Maximus said.
The man nodded. “Likewise. But be careful. If the judges catch you trying to steal, you will be sent to Tartarus.”
Yikes. I swallowed hard. That could be a problem.
Chapter Eight
We left Aklos relaxing under the tree and cut back across the square, heading toward the house that he’d mentioned. The sun was dipping down toward the horizon, so hopefully dinner would be soon.
The shades that played and sat within the square paid us no mind, and we hurried past them. We went down a wide street bordered on either side by large, judicial-looking buildings.