Asphodel (The Underworld Trilogy)

by Lauren Hammond

  “Master had duties to attend to,” he replies with a raspy drawl.

  Figures. His duties come first. That’s how it will always be and I don’t know if I can handle that. I don’t know if I’ll be able to play second fiddle to his realm. I know it sounds selfish, but I want someone who has the time to spend with me. Someone who will lie with me underneath the stars and talk with me about anything and everything. I want us to be able to spend eternity devoted to each other.

  And that’s something Hades and I will never be able to do.

  A tear trickles down my cheek and I feel part of my love for Hades slide down my cheek with the tear. Then I begin sobbing, sobbing so hard an ache ripples through my ribcage and I have to stop and catch my breath. If loving someone else makes you feel like this all the time I’m not sure if it’s something I want. I’ve never felt more confused or hopeless in my entire life. Is this what my future has in store for me? Am I destined to spend eternity with a cold God who covets me, but doesn’t love me back? My sobbing escalates and I’m crying so hard I have to lean over the side of the ferry. There’s nothing in my stomach, but I throw up anyway, yellow bile and a clear liquid that tastes like sulfur.

  “Are you okay, miss?” Charon shouts.

  My voice trembles and I swallow the acidy after-taste. “Fine.”

  Right now, the only person I want or need is my mom. She’d know exactly what to say to make feel better. But she’s not here and who knows where she is.

  Demeter

  Demeter strolled along a sandy beach, kicking up sand and reminiscing about the summers she’d take Persephone to this very spot as a child. The memory of Persephone as a cherub-cheeked toddler, waddling through crystal blue waves panged her heart and she had to clutch her chest to keep the pain at bay.

  “Come back!”

  Demeter perked up at the sound of a female voice and glanced down as a child hobbled toward her, legs chubby, steps wobbly.

  The mother ran after the child who was heading toward the ocean and Demeter intervened, sweeping the child up in her arms before he could make it to the water. “And where did you think you were going?” Demeter cooed as the child let out an infantile giggle.

  The mother reached them, winded and held her hands out, reaching for her son. “Thank you so much,” she said in between breaths. “I only turned my back for a second.

  Demeter handed the child over with a smile, but as soon as she did, she felt her sadness return. Not only was she the Goddess of the Harvest, but she was the Goddess of Fertility as well, so she had a soft spot for mothers and their children. “No problem.” The mother patted her child’s back and kissed his cheeks. “All it takes is a second, though.” That comment reminded her of the day her daughter was taken. She’d only dropped her guard for a second and she was gone.

  “I know,” said the woman. “What’s your name? I’d like to thank you properly.”

  “Demi.” That’s the name Demeter gave to the mortals on most occasions.

  The mother extended her hand. “Metaneira. Mettie for short.” Demeter took her hand and shook it. “Thank you Demeter,” said Mettie. “From the bottom of my heart.”

  “Anytime,” Demeter replied and watched Mettie and the child as they walked farther down the beach.

  Later on, Demeter sat on a jagged rock, watching as the crystalline aqua waves of the Aegean crashed into the dusky sand. She closed her eyes and exhaled, swearing she could hear Persephone’s laugh echoing on the wind. It was an illusion of course, but Demeter swore that even though she and her child were apart that there would always be a little piece of Persephone with her at all times.

  A whooshing sound pulled Demeter from her thoughts and she opened her eyes abruptly. Just in time to notice an eagle, magnificent and majestic soaring through the pale blue sky. The eagle nose-dived and curled up before slowly fluttering its wings and landing at her feet.

  A smile tugged at her lips. “Hello, Zeus,” she said to the eagle.

  A nano-second later the eagle transformed and Zeus stood before Demeter with his hands on his hips. “How did you know it was me?” he boomed with a smirk.

  Demeter laughed. “Did you actually think I’d forget that an eagle is your transformation animal of choice?”

  “No,” Zeus said with a chuckle and sat down next to Demeter. He placed his hand on her back and gently rubbed her shoulder blades. “How are you doing?”

  Demeter turned a cheek in each direction. She was being cautious. Hera had been known to follow Zeus to catch him in scandalous situations. When she realized they were in the clear Demeter sighed and said, “As good as I can be I guess. I’m just really nervous and worried.”

  “What for?”

  She looked Zeus in the eye and swore she could see the waves of the Aegean crashing in his navy blue eyes. “What if Hermes fails? What if Hades puts up a fight? I just have this bad feeling that something is going to go wrong.”

  “What could possibly go wrong?”

  “I don’t know. I think we both know that when it comes to Hades realm anything and everything is possible.

  Zeus wrapped a massive arm around Demeter’s shoulder and hugged her close. “You need to trust me. I told you we’d get her back and we will.” Demeter placed her head on Zeus’s shoulder. “Hermes has been in and out of the underworld millions of times through the centuries. He will retrieve her.”

  “I know that,” Demeter said with a sigh.

  “Then what are you so worried about?”

  “Look,” she started, “We both know Hades and what he’s willing to go to get what he wants. I just think he’ll try something drastic and our plan might backfire.”

  “And you think I didn’t know that?”

  Demeter lifted her head slightly meeting Zeus’s gaze. “You have a back-up plan?”

  “It’s more than a back-up plan,” Zeus said. “It’s a war.”

  Persephone

  After Charon dropped me off, I found my way back to the castle.

  Inside, I ram my back into the front door, sliding down until my butt touches the cold marble floor. The hard and icy marble sends a chill through me. I’m frozen inside, trapped in a block of ice. I’m pounding and pounding and pounding praying to shatter the slick walls with my fists. But I can’t get out and no matter how loud I scream there’s no one around to help me. I’m alone.

  For the second half of the ferry ride, my tears had dried up. I got distracted watching the choppy waters of the Styx swish back and forth. The waters reminded me of the ferry I was on. It rocked against the current, making me think of my relationship with Hades as a ferry ride. During that moment it was filling me with motion sickness.

  Now, I bury my head in my hands and wail, hugging myself. Alone. Alone. Alone. Even when I’m with him, I won’t really be with him. I’ll be here while he’s out doing what he does and the thought of that expands into a black abyss covering every organ inside of me. Pretty soon I’ll be nothing. Just a hollow shell of a Goddess that used to be.

  My chest vibrates as the sobs turn into howls and I squeeze myself tighter. I need to keep myself together. This is not me. And I can’t remember when I became this weak. Sniffling and using the heels of my hands, I wipe the tears from my eyes. Then using the door as a crutch, I stand. I don’t know where to go or what to do, but I know there’s an incessant pain inching its way toward my heart and the pain is seconds away from plunging deep into the core of my thumping organ.

  I need to sleep. It’s weird, but I feel like sleep with make me feel better. Sleep will clear my head and eliminate the fog that’s been filling up in my brain all day. And just as I push myself away from the door, I hear them. Voices. Two voices. And I know I’ll want to hear what they have to say. Placing my ear against the door, I realize I’m eavesdropping on a conversation between Hades and Charon.

  “So you returned her safely?” Hades asks.

  “Yes master,” Charon answers.

  “Many thanks, Charon. You are a
trusting and loyal servant.”

  Footsteps scuffle against the cement walkway and I back away from the door in case Hades or Charon opens it. It’s probably Hades though. Even though I haven’t been here that long, I know that Charon rarely comes into the palace. He spends all of his time on that stupid ferry.

  “What did you do to her, master?” Charon blurts out.

  The footsteps cut out and I hear a shuffle. “What do you mean what did I do to her?” Charon isn’t challenging Hades authority. He simply wants to know what Hades had done to offend me. “Well, go on,” Hades urges him.

  “I didn’t ask her what was wrong but, she mumbled your name a few times on the way back. And she was crying master, heavily crying.”

  “I don’t recall doing anything.” That’s because he didn’t do anything. He stood there like a moron and did absolutely nothing.

  “She was certainly upset about something.”

  “But she’s safe.”

  “Yes.”

  Well at least he cares about my safety.

  The doorknob jiggles and I back away from the door and Hades freezes at the same time touching me with his eyes. I can feel them all over me. I can feel them peeling away the layers of my clothes, the layers of my skin. He can see my muscles. He can see all of me. He closes the door without breaking his gaze. “Were you eavesdropping?”

  “No.” Of course I was.

  He purses his lips and narrows his eyes. “Tell me the truth.”

  “Okay maybe I was.”

  “Is what Charon said true then?”

  “About?”

  “Were you crying?”

  “No.” And I will never admit to him that I was. Even though there’s probably evidence on my face; tearstained cheeks. Red, puffy eyes. Still, I keep a hard look on my face. I do not want him to know that I was crying. Much less crying over him. There’s a vacant expression on his face, but his eyebrows are drawn together. A flicker of emotion sparks in his eyes and I can he wants to say something. But he says nothing and once again I feel like I’m being swallowed by a black cloud of nothingness. It’s expanding. The emptiness is spreading. I have to get away from him before emptiness swallows me and rips at me, eating me alive.

  I turn, but before I can spin all the way around Hades clutches my arm and whirls me around to face him. He pulls me close and I taste his sweet breath. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted this,” he murmurs.

  “What?”

  “This.” Suddenly he cups the back of my neck and smothers my mouth with his and for a second I don’t know what to do. The kiss is awkward and I feel like I’m doing everything wrong. Then almost instinctively my lips part and the kissing intensifies and everything becomes a blur. Colors whirl around me and whiz past me. Bright colors. Bold colors. Red’s, Orange’s. Even Hot pink’s. The room is spinning in circles and I think I might be floating. He gently caresses his tongue with mine and I go from floating to soaring. I’m a bird. I’m flying, flapping my wings as I sweep through miles of endless blue. I hope I never come down.

  And I feel myself falling, crashing down to reality when he pulls out of the kiss. “Don’t stop,” I whisper. Never stop. Never ever stop. I’m sick. I think I have the flu and his kiss, his touch—he is my antibiotic. He will cure me. He will make me well again.

  “Believe me, I didn’t want to.” He places his forehead against mine and sighs, “But there is someone at the door.

  It’s still crazy to me how he can sense things. Or the way he knows things. It’s like his mind is a radio, picking up every wave-length on the planet. Less than a second later, Charon peaks his head through the front door with an urgent look in his eye. “Master, I need to speak with you.”

  Hades keeps his forehead against mine. “It can wait.”

  “No,” Charon insists. “It can’t.”

  As Hades backs away from me I feel like he’s removing a part of my immortal soul. My arms are outstretched. My fingers are needy. I can’t think of anything, but his lips and how I want them on mine again. His touch and how with even the smallest brush from his fingertips I feel like he’s scorching my bare skin. And the way he looks at me, like he’s undressing me with his eyes. “I’ll be right back,” he tells me. And as walks out the door I wonder how many times I’ll have to hear “I’ll be right back” through the lengths of eternity.

  Hades

  “What is it?” Hades growled as the ferry man. “What is so important that you had to drag me away from her?”

  An annoyed knot tied itself in the pit of the mighty God’s stomach and if Charon didn’t start talking ASAP, that knot would change from annoyance to rage.

  Charon was nervous; Hades could tell by the way he played with his fingers and the way he kept glancing warily over his shoulder. “Someone is trying to cross,” he finally said.

  “Well, who is it?” Hades demanded. It was very rare that a mortal tried to cross into the realm of the dead while they were still, well, mortal. In fact, Hades knew the last time that happened was when Orpheus tried to retrieve Eurydice. And a wicked smirk curled on his lips when he thought about that moment. Orpheus failed…miserably.

  “Hermes,” Charon hissed as panic etched across his crinkled up facial features.

  “Hermes,” Hades repeated, robotically.

  “Yes. Hermes.”

  The pit of annoyance in Hades stomach turned to desperation. He knew that Hermes was sent by Zeus to retrieve his beloved. And he knew that even if he put up a fight the Messenger of the Gods was too quick and too nimble for Hades to catch. He was smarter than Hermes, but learning of his presence put his head in a fog. He couldn’t think straight which was very unlike him. And the fact that his cunning and quick witted nature had him stumped, frightened him. But it didn’t frighten him as much as the thought of losing her, Persephone.

  Hades focused on the ground, a white asphodel blurred in his vision and in that moment Hades knew what he had to do. “Charon?” he said lifting his eyes to the ferry man’s.

  “Yes, sire,” Charon said obediently.

  “Can you stall Hermes a while longer?”

  “I can try, sire.”

  “I only need about twenty minutes.” Then in a cloud of black smoke Hades vanished, appearing in his dining hall. In the center of the table was one pomegranate and he knew that if he could get her to eat it, poor Hermes would have some explaining to do and also would have wasted a trip.

  Hades shoved the plump fruit into a pocket of his cloak and appeared in front of Persephone’s door. He rested his ear against the heavy wood and heard her shuffling about inside. His time was limited. Extremely limited because he knew Charon and his greedy nature. And he also knew that Hermes always came prepared, toting a sandwich bag full of coins.

  Persephone

  I still feel like I’m floating as I flop backwards onto my bed. My lips are raw and pink and I close my eyes, outlining them with my finger. I swear I can still feel his lips on mine. The illusion of it feels so real my mouth throbs with heat.

  There’s knock at the door and Hades opens it slowly and my heart leaps almost plummeting through my skin. A burst of joy sweeps through me and I beam at him. He’s not all coldness and death. He’s not the devil or the commander of the dead. He’s someone beautiful and warm. Someone most girls wait their whole lives for, and in my case practically an eternity. He fills me up with light and happiness and love. And that’s something I’ll never be willing to give up.

  He plops down on my bed and I scoot closer, noticing the pained look he’s wearing on his face. I lace my fingers through his and his touch sends a jolt throughout my entire body. He kisses my fingers then gazes deeply into my eyes. “Is something wrong?” I’m concerned and I wonder if I did something to make him so upset. Maybe it was the kiss. I thought it was amazing, but that’s because I’d never really kissed a guy before much less a God.

  “You have to leave,” he says sullenly and looks away from me.

  “What?” I gasp, gri
pping onto his fingers. “What are you talking about?”

  “Hermes.” His voice is full of sadness and defeat. “He’s been sent here to retrieve you.”

  “Oh no.” I look down at hands and feel the severity of the situation as it sets in. My mom and Zeus must have sent the mighty messenger, knowing that he’d be the only one who’d be able to get me back. Grief squeezes my heart when I think about going back now. I don’t want to go back. I made my mental decision after our kiss. There is no way I can leave. I belong here. I want to rot in hell eternally on a throne of shadows and death with Hades by my side. I want to be his queen. “There has to be something we can do,” I say. “Don’t you have a plan or something?”