by S. E. Babin
My heart began to pound in my chest. “Even if he’s your son.”
“Especially if he’s my son. So my visits to him over the millennia weren’t exactly...familial. When I failed to understand how his magic worked or how his angelic magic embraced the Olympian part of him, I slowly began to dose his tea.”
I blinked slowly, like an owl, but a really angry one. “The Earl Grey. He got it from you, didn’t he?” My hand crept to my neck. I had occasionally drank the same tea to make Hades happy.
God nodded. “So you see, Hades is mine in everything but soul now. The spell in the tea had to be slowly doled out over the years to keep him from sensing it.” He leaned over and inhaled deeply. “Imagine my surprise when you drank it too. Can you feel it?” he asked me. “The faint butterfly wings of a power not your own? That, my dear, is my spark. The one twisted inside of your body that I can use to make you dance like a puppet or snap my fingers and turn you into a pile of dust. Since he is my son, we are bound together. I can kill him, but thanks to the tea, he can no longer kill me without suffering the same fate.”
Horror beat inside of my veins. I swore to myself if I ever made it out of this alive, I would never, ever drink a mug of tea again. No matter how much Hades wanted me to. “Does he know?” I asked.
God nodded. “Of course he does. Why do you think he hasn’t made it back to you yet? Why do you think I allowed Zeus in here to help him send messages? They both think I don’t know about it. I’ll take care of Zeus later, but I have to tell you how much I enjoyed Hades’ heartfelt pleas for you to stay away from here. And I love even more how much they backfired.” He clasped his hands together in typical villain manner and said, “So, what’ll it be?”
I sat back in my chair, my mind spinning with the possibilities. “What does it matter if I die?” I pondered.
“It doesn’t,” he snapped, but his reaction told me it mattered very much if I died. Which means I had to bank on him not killing me at first. He might have had Hades under his command, but I don’t think he realized that both of us would rather die than be someone’s puppet. I was going ahead with my plan. Even if it killed us both.
I knew Clotho would take care of Draco. Hermes had his farm. Well...sort of. He’d have to rebuild the house. Artie had her shop. Clotho had hers as well. My friends would be okay and they would make sure Draco was okay as well. Of course I meant for all of my friends to be with me when I enacted said plan, but I couldn’t win them all.
“Why do you want Draco?”
He cringed. “Did you really name him that? Really. What is wrong with you?”
“It’s a nickname. It stuck. I like it.”
“It’s terrible.”
“It means Dragon in Latin.”
“I know what it means. It’s still a stupid name.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“As far as I can see, I’m the one in a position of power here. I don’t have to answer anything.” From the corner of my eye, I noticed movement. Someone wearing a green t-shirt and light wash blue jeans. I kept my expression as neutral as possible, but I recognized the gait of the person creeping behind God, and all I could hope was that he was here to help and not hinder.
A whisper of power hit the hands I had clasped under the table. I dared not look down, but I could feel a small bottle and something tied around it. I kept my breathing steady and my gaze bored. God could not see that I was completely freaking out, man.
I fingered the bottle trying to figure out what it was, but I had to do it subtly. So subtly. God was no fool. Evidenced by the magical poison he’d been feeding Hades since he fell from Heaven.
I couldn’t wait to wipe the smug look off his face. I just hoped I lived long enough to do it. The first hint that shit was going down was when I saw emerald magic flying right at us. I dove out of the chair seconds before it hit, taking great care to not break the bottle I’d been given.
A quick glance down and I read all I needed to know.
Drink Me.
I sent a prayer up, cursed Lewis Carroll, popped the cork and downed the contents in a single swallow. God wasn’t the one who tossed me the bottle, and all I could do was pray that the one who gave it to me didn’t mean me any harm.
Zeus usually didn’t. Sort of.
God’s muffled shout came as Zeus’ magic slammed into the table, destroying the tea set and everything in its path. Too bad it seemed like God didn’t have a single scratch on him. That seemed pretty unfair considering I’d probably be sporting some bruises due to my ungraceful dive out of the chair.
While his attention was on my former ally, I scrambled up from the ground, cloaked myself, and went to search for Hades. I hoped to find my friends in the process, but I wasn’t counting on that much good luck.
The place looked different, and I wasn’t talking about our destruction. He’d done something to it. I couldn’t make head nor tails of where I was going, so after a few minutes of fruitless searching, I leaned against a too big tree, cleared my thoughts and sent my senses out to search for my husband.
There.
He was close.
I rushed around the tree, took a right, ran as fast as I could only to abruptly run into a wall. I took a deep breath as I remembered things weren’t exactly as they seemed here. I reached forward and my hand slipped through the wall only to encounter a massively powerful ward. Of course there was a barrier. Every damn thing I needed was behind a barrier.
I touched it, pleased to see the ward wasn’t knocking me back on my ass. It felt familiar, and I could only think it was angelic magic because I’d seen Hades perform it before. I sent a tentative whisper of magic out to it. The only thing that happened was the ward absorbed it. That wasn’t ideal, but it did give me a thought.
I cannot hold him for long, Abby. You must get him out of here. Zeus words rang in my head. It was weird hearing that again.
I nodded to no one. If the wards could absorb my magic, could I overload them? I would probably have to use a crap load of magic to do it, but it was the only thing I could think of on such short notice. I gathered my power and slowly started to feed the wards.
They were hungry. Very hungry. Eager to suck my magic down, they drained me. I was starting to think nothing was happening, until I felt the slightest strain in the ward. I took a deep breath, concentrated and focused down into the deep pool of my magic and poured everything I had into it.
What felt like an eternity later, it shattered with the sound of bells. I staggered through the wall that wasn’t a wall and saw Hades. His head was bowed and his arms strained against his bonds. His teeth were gritted together and his face showed tremendous strain.
My fingers lifted to my mouth, horror struck at how much pain he was in. I rushed over to him.
“Abby?” he croaked, his voice hoarse from screaming.
“Shhh. I’m going to get you out,” I said as I examined the bonds holding him.
“Why did you come here?” His voice was like a sob. “I told you not to.”
“Shut up,” I said, even though all I wanted to do was kiss him senseless.
“We are both going to die today.”
“I didn’t know you to be so maudlin,” I chirped as I tested magic out on the bonds only to get shocked.
“Where is my son?”
“Safe,” I said. Now wasn’t the time to tell him about the weirdness that was Draco.
“You can’t break the bonds. They’re tied to my magic.”
“What happens if I tried?”
“I’ll die.”
He said it so matter of fact that I wanted to smack him. But something wasn’t adding up. “Your father said he’s been poisoning you for years. Is it true?”
Hades nodded.
“He wants to control you.”
Hades nodded again.
“So...do you ever wonder if your dad is lying to you?”
He huffed a pained breath. “He lies to me all the time.”
“He needs you.
He wants Olympus and the Underworld, and yet he can’t have them without you. Or me. So why would he purposely set you up to die?”
“Because he’s an asshole?” Hades said.
“Or maybe because he doesn’t want you to try to escape. Can you feel the poison?”
He nodded. “He definitely poisoned me.”
As he spoke I began to hone magic in the shape of a beam of light.
“Okay. So that’s bad. But do you think he really tied your magic to these bonds?”
He snorted. “Abby, for the gods sake, stop talking.”
The bonds snapped as my magic hit it and the spell fizzled out. “There. All better,” I said, sounding like Mary Poppins more than the woman who took a massive chance she wouldn’t kill her husband.
“Abby!” Hades fell forward onto his face. “You could have killed me,” he said, as he struggled to get up.
“My favorite thing to say during situations like this is but did you die?”
He glared at me and it was like seeing the sun shine again. I brushed back a lock of hair from his face and was about to kiss him when I suddenly had a horrible thought.
It had been way too easy to get through the warding and to break his bonds.
“Shit!” I shouted, scrambling to my feet. “He didn’t want us at all. He wanted Draco!”
I helped him up, but as he continued to stumble, I had to let him go. I could come back for him, but I couldn’t risk my son getting caught by his maniacal grandfather. Hades yelled at me to stop.
I kept going.
One thought kept playing on repeat in my head. It can’t end like this. It can’t end like this. It can’t end like this.
I was so close to getting my family back.
I skidded to a stop only to see Zeus lying injured on the ground and God leading Draco away by the hand. Before I could scream his name, a portal of bright white light opened and they stepped through.
They blinked out of existence and my heart shattered like a supernova.
29
Four Weeks Later
Everyone was whispering around me. They thought I was too far gone to tell. They thought I couldn’t hear them say words like “doctor” or “spells to help” or “magic dampening”. I could hear them. I just didn’t care.
The depths of my grief knew no bounds. I wouldn’t even let Hades back into my heart right now. From what I gathered the few times I’d deigned to listen, Clotho had destroyed the Hades golem, sending the missing piece of him back to where it belonged. Hades would need some time to fully recover from the emotional aspects of it, but physically, my husband appeared to be fine.
The vial Zeus had given me had flushed all of the poison out of my system. For his sacrifice, Hades had made a similar deal with Zeus that he made with my mother. So Zeus was now a permanent fixture down here and he’d replicated the remedy he’d given me, so Hades was now spell-free. No thanks to God. I wish I’d had the energy to get pissed about that too, but it didn’t matter that Zeus was here. Not when a piece of my heart was gone. Was it my fault this had happened? Was my desire to get my husband back so strong that I ruined any chance I had to live happily with Draco?
It seemed so.
God never wanted us. Not really. It had always been Draco. We knew he wanted our child, but we thought he wanted us more. We controlled Olympus and the Underworld. Those were the things he wanted, right?
We were so naive and stupid to assume.
My anger, the big ball of glowing red light sitting right in the middle of my soul, belonged to one man. I was going to make him pay. It didn’t matter anymore whether I lived or died. As long as Draco was returned to us, I’d make that sacrifice a thousand times over.
My mother had come in several times to visit me and I’d turned her away every time until today. She stood at the entrance to my doorway wearing her crone face and carrying two steaming mugs of fresh coffee.
“I’d like to speak with you,” she said.
I didn’t have the energy to argue. She stepped in, closed the door behind her, and handed me one of the mugs.
“You’re lucky you’re immortal. A body is not meant to run on java alone.”
“How do I kill him?” I asked.
My mother sighed. “The time for civility is through. I’m here because no one else will send you on this course. As your mother, I shouldn’t either. But as your mother, I know your rage, your grief, and your heartache, and so I tell you this. You destroy the world he built. It is tied to his magic, his soul. If you destroy Heaven, you will destroy God.”
“And Draco?”
“You have to get him first. But -” My mother took a deep breath. “He might be forever changed. You cannot bank on him being the same child you remember.”
“How do I get him first?”
“I’ve stretched the terms of my deal with your husband. If he finds out, I will no longer be welcome. Your child sits with God. Since the destruction of Hades’ prison and thus, one of the parts of Heaven, God was forced to move. You will have to destroy Paradise.”
I swallowed hard at that, but I still couldn’t find it in my heart to care too much.
“Are you prepared to do that?”
“Is there somewhere the souls can go?” I asked.
Hecate shook her head.
I sighed, but she took my hand. “Let me tell you something. One thing I do know is death. Our deaths are different than human deaths. A good human soul when it passes on is not like ours. It’s merely light, Aphrodite. It can feel sensations sometimes. But this?” She swept a hand out to indicate the Underworld. “This is trickery of the finest kind. The most slippery magic. An elaborate ruse.”
I shook my head. “I’m not following.”
“Abby, we have no domain over humans. Who created them? Was it Zeus? Was it God? Was it Cronos? Do any of us truly know? Or are we content to bask in elaborate lies, our minds closed to the sheer magnitude of the possibility life contains? We pretend we have the authority to judge. But are we so qualified to judge the sins of mortals when we are guilty of having taken so many lives a mere mortal’s mind cannot comprehend? Do we sit upon our thrones of sin and cast judgment upon those whose lives are to us a mere blink of the eye? A leaf in the wind? Humans are like…” she paused and stared at the ceiling. “A dandelion head. The stalk represents the father and all of those seeds are children leaving their homes, cast away by the winds and scattered across the world. That is both the curse and the blessing. To live such a short life cycle, but also to know that there are others who live on through you. We have not had that blessing for so many years. We are bound by the pool of immortality. To await the death of someone who can’t die so we can bring more children into this world. Do you see? If it is your destiny to raise a king, Aphrodite, then you must go and claim him. You are his mother. You must be the one to bring him home. We are warriors. Not meek. Never meek. And we never, ever, play by the rules, no matter what the rulebook says. We are immortals, Abby. Powerful, omniscient beings and when have we ever bowed to someone else’s will?”
She clutched my hand tightly. Tears shimmered in her eyes. “My greatest achievement was giving birth to you. But my greatest blessing was getting to love you.” She pushed a curl back from my face. “It is time. The descendants of the goddess of death wait for no man.”
“Destroy the Heavens?” i swallowed. “Are you sure?”
“The souls are merely there to give the humans something to look forward to. It’s all an illusion. Free them from their bonds and send them to their final resting place.”
She leaned forward and clasped a necklace around my neck. “It isn’t much compared to what you’re going up against, but this will allow you to draw on my power.” The pendant fell heavily between my breasts and rested there, the cool magic beating against my skin. She then pressed something into my hand and closed my palm. “For an emergency. When there is no hope.”
My mother disappeared from the room.
In my pa
lm lay a small blue pill.
A way out.
Rachel was not expecting to see me again. To tell you the truth, I never expected to see her either. The last time I gave her a choice. This time she would do my bidding or she would pay with her life. The destiny of the world depended upon it.
Paradise would not be as easy to get into as the other place was. This would require some serious firepower.
Rachel was not the only stop on my list. Rafe, grim though he was about it, wrote the names of all of the nephilim he knew and their last locations, and handed it to me. “This is everything. I hope this eases your conscience.”
“Nothing will ease me until my son is home,” I had told him while I pocketed the note.
He gave me a hug, whispered a blessing in my ear and left. He’d stayed in the Underworld with us, though I could tell he was itching to get back to the surface. We were practically dwarves living down here amongst the stone and gloom. Now, after all the souls were destroyed it was quiet as a tomb. Collateral damage from Draco’s magic resulted in every single soul in the Underworld being completely obliterated. Except for the one that got away.
Hades’ magic still seeped through the walls, but I wondered if he had a purpose now. Was the Underworld still necessary? I wondered. My mother had never told me that much about death or the afterlife or lack of before. In fact, that was the most she’d ever said about anything.
She knew how devastated I was. She knew how much I needed him home.
And she had done the one thing I had never been able to do until now.
She let go.
I left Hades sitting in his study drinking coffee. Yep. Every bit of tea we had was merrily burned in a fragrant pile of ash now. When the fire had started, I could smell it from my bedroom and hear Hermes yelling in alarm as the blaze got out of control.
Hades hated coffee.
But I couldn’t imagine he’d ever pick up a glass of tea again.
Like I told him before. It was an acquired taste. He’d get used to it.
If not he’d just get addicted. Wasn’t it kind of the same thing?