by Melody Rose
“Hm, yes, I’m sure you would,” Clarissa said through pursed lips.
Soon, she and the rest of the Officials left the room, leaving just the six of us like we had been at the start.
“Well, thanks to Phaethusa for saving the day!” Benji said, trying to keep his tone light.
“Yeah, no shit,” Esme said as she rubbed her hand over her forehead. “I can’t thank you all enough. I mean, that was more than I ever deserved.”
“Don’t thank us yet,” Darren said dubiously. “You aren’t off the hook yet.”
“But we’ll get you off, don’t worry,” I said, trying to counter Darren’s realism with a little optimism.
Before I could say anything else, the necklace grew hot against my chest, a clear sign that Erich wanted out. I obliged and opened the locket. Erich’s blue flame form floated out and circled the room twice, like a dog before it settled into a sunny spot for a nap.
My half-brother formed in front of us, the widest smile on his face. However, there was something different about the way he appeared. Instead of being different shades of blue, Erich was full of color. He wasn’t transparent, but solid looking with distinguished features. It was the realist he had ever appeared and the happiest.
Erich wore a grin from ear to ear, his eyes alight with joy. The sight unnerved me.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked, skeptical of Erich’s enthusiasm.
“You did it!” he shouted his excitement. “You did it, which means I did it!”
“Did what?” I wondered, looking at my friends for help, but none of them offered an explanation. “What are you talking about?”
“You redeemed Esme’s soul from an unjust death and defended her in life,” Erich said, his voice sounding far away and strange. “And you didn’t do it alone.”
“Yeah…” Ansel said wearily. “That’s what happened. Where have you been for the last twenty minutes?”
“That’s what I was supposed to help you with,” Erich explained, waving his newly defined hands about wildly. “That was the whole thing, and now I get to die in peace.”
“Wait,” I said, approaching the son of Hephaestus. “You’re leaving?”
“Yeah,” Erich said eagerly. “Isn’t it exciting?”
“But, you just got here,” I said, my voice wavering. “You can’t go already.”
“I did what I was supposed to do,” Erich said with a shrug. “Now, it’s time for me to go.”
“I…” I started, but then something shifted in my thinking. I thought back to Ruby, and how happy she had been, how well she seemed. Maybe now that he has helped me, Erich would get to feel the same way. It was selfish of me to rob him of that.
“Well, congratulations?” Violet said, her voice rising into a question.
“Thanks!” Erich said, unphased by her hesitation.
“Yeah, Erich, congratulations,” Ansel said with a cheerful smile. “We wish you the best of luck in the afterlife, don’t we, Cheyenne?” My boyfriend wrapped an arm around me, giving me confidence and encouragement.
“Yeah, we do,” I said, my voice hitching. “I’m really glad I got to meet you.”
“Same here,” Erich agreed. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m so ready to die now.”
I couldn’t help myself. A laugh escaped my lips, and as Erich spoke the words, his form dissolved. He looked at me the whole time, with reassuring eyes that he was going to be fine. All would be well. And I believed him.
Once again, the room returned to being just the six of us. I leaned into Ansel for comfort, and he held me gingerly.
“I’m going to miss him,” I said into Ansel’s shirt.
“I know,” Ansel said as he kissed the top of my head. “But he’s in a better place now. So is Ruby. You did the right thing.”
“Thanks, babe.” I stood up on my tiptoes so I could plant a large kiss on his lips. He welcomed it, and I melted back down to the ground.
Esme coughed awkwardly, thus interrupting our kiss. Ansel and I pulled away and looked at our friend.
“So, you guys are a thing?” Esme asked cautiously as if this were a forbidden subject.
“Are they a thing?” Benji barked out a laugh that Violet joined him in.
“Oh yeah, they are an Item with a capital I,” Violet said, her voice full of teasing.
“They can get very obnoxious and annoying,” Darren said, his voice matter-of-fact.
“Hey!” I exclaimed, surprised by my friends’ comments.
“To answer your question, Esme,” Ansel said as he put a confident arm around my shoulder. “Yes, we are. That’s going to have to be okay with you.”
“It is, it is,” Esme said hurriedly. “I just… I’m happy for you guys.”
“And we’re happy that you’re here,” I replied as I pulled her in for her own individual hug. “Not dead, no possessed, but back at the Academy where you belong.”
“But I’m not back yet. Not officially,” Esme said, pulling away from me in a panic. “I don’t even know how I’m going to face them. This trial seems like it’s just stalling my inevitable banishment.”
“Don’t think like that,” Violet said, ever the optimist. “We’ll help you.”
“She’s right,” I said. “You won’t have to face them alone.”
32
Esme’s trial was set for after Christmas break, so we were given ample time to prepare. We all met nearly every day about it, going over our testimonies and trying to come up with the perfect phrasing to get our points across. It didn’t take long to integrate Esme into our group. It was easy because she and Ansel were already friends, and even though we were younger than the two trained soldiers, they could see we were loyal to them in every sense of the word.
Especially when the rest of campus found out about Esme’s return.
We became her personal bodyguards, then. We never left her alone, someone always at her side to ward off unwelcome attention. She stayed with Ansel in his apartment on the couch since he had the most space, and we all visited frequently. Eventually, we just avoided the mess hall altogether, and Violet brought food to make in Ansel’s small kitchen space.
We formed our own community during those last couple of weeks in the semester before Christmas break was supposed to start. It was our last day on campus before we all left that afternoon, Ansel set to take me on Apollo’s chariot back to my mom’s apartment. We all had plans that morning, something a little different from our normal trial planning sessions. So I got up early and dressed in the appropriate black.
I already knew it was going to be an abnormal day, but I didn’t know just how unusual until I walked out of my bedroom to find Hades sitting on my couch.
I nearly fell over from the shock of him just sitting there like he owned the place. He wore a well-fitted suit and sunk down into the cushions, with an arm casually draped over the back of the sofa. He looked over at me and offered a soft smile.
“Good morning, Cheyenne,” he said, as though we were meeting for coffee rather than him scaring the shit out of me in my dorm.
“Good morning?” I said, my uneasy voice turning the word into a question.
“Is it not one?” he asked with a chuckle at the back of his throat. “You don’t seem so sure.”
“I mean,” I gestured to my dark clothing. “I’m going to a funeral, so it’s not that great.”
“I would say I’m sorry for your loss, but I’m not,” Hades said with a glance at his fingernails. “Because your loss is my gain in this instance.”
“Okay,” I said, not knowing what else to say.
An awkward silence fell over us. I blinked a couple of times, trying to think of what to say. But I got the impression that the god of the dead was waiting for me to ask. He wasn’t just going to volunteer that information willingly.
“So, Hades,” I started but then found my throat was dry. I coughed to clear it and then continued. “What brings you to the mortal world? To my dorm, specif
ically?”
“You surprised me, Cheyenne,” Hades said, looking up from his nails.
“Is that a good thing?” I asked, my voice revealing my uncertainty.
“I’m not sure,” Hades confessed. He rubbed his hands on his pants before standing to his full height, which in the low ceiling dorm made him look massive. Damn near as tall as Arges. I did my best to stay tall and not shrink away from the god, but his presence caught me so off guard that I wasn’t sure how to act.
“Because on the one hand,” Hades said as he literally held out one of his hands as if to weigh the option. “I’m disappointed because I expected more from you but on the other,” Consequently, he held out his other hand. “I’m impressed that you strayed from the norm.”
“Not to be rude, Hades,” I said, “but I really have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You kept your word,” the god said as he lowered his hands and put them behind his back.
I didn’t say anything because I was sure that he could read my confusion all over my face.
“You must forgive me, but I’m not used to mortals, demigods in particular,” Hades said with a sharp sniff, “to keep their word when it comes to bargains with me. They’re typically very bad at it.”
I thought about all of the stories where heroes and mortals tried to trick the gods. They often paid for it with some kind of eternal punishment, like Tiresias was punished by Hera to be a woman for seven years. Or when Sisyphus chained Hades to Tartarus instead of the other way around. That trick caused the former king to roll an infamous boulder up a mountain only to have it fall back down before he reached the top for the rest of eternity.
“Are you here to punish me?” I asked hesitantly.
Hades released a sharp laugh. He leaned back and closed his eyes. He even had a hand on his stomach as though what I said was an uproariously funny joke. I didn’t dare join in on his enthusiasm. When the god recovered, he wiped a nonexistent tear from the corner of his eye before he spoke.
“As much as I appreciate your humor, Cheyenne, that is the exact opposite reason as to why I’m here,” Hades explained. “I wanted to congratulate you.”
“Congratulate me?” I repeated, unsure I heard him correctly.
“Most demigods would have tried to take the helm back from me or sneak out an extra soul,” Hades continued with a casual wave of his hand. “I would have had to punish you accordingly, and while I had whipped up quite the punishment for defying me, I didn’t have to use it. And that was refreshing.”
“Refreshing?” I said, feeling like a parrot. But everything that Hades said was so astonishing that I felt like I was in a dream.
“Yes,” Hades said with a nod. “Refreshing, rather inspiring, actually.”
“If you were so impressed with me, then why did you tell the Olympic Officials that I went to the Underworld to get Esme?” I said, finding my own voice once more.
“A final test,” Hades said as though the answer were obvious. “I needed to test your loyalties. You stayed by Esme’s side like you said you would. All of that sentimental bullshit could have been the trick all along, to trick that poor soul who has been through enough, into coming back with you and facing the ultimate punishment.”
“I wouldn’t do that. Ever,” I said with a heavy step forward, emphasizing my sincerity.
“I know that now,” Hades said with an eye roll. “But who was to tell? It was a valid question. But I do have another one for you.”
I gritted my teeth, wishing that the god of the dead would just leave. As much as I appreciated him not punishing me, I still didn’t like having him so close to me. It felt wrong to see him outside of the Underworld, like there was a disturbance in the universe.
“Shoot,” I said, permitting him to continue.
“You see, I haven’t been able to figure out why you kept your word,” Hades ventured.
“Because I said I would,” I replied. “Isn’t that the point of giving your word?”
“But that’s what all mortals say, but that doesn’t stop them from breaking it,” Hades said with a simple shake of his head. He put a hand on his chin and looked at me as if from beneath a microscope. “What makes you different from all those other heroes?”
I paused, actually considering his question. Faster than I would have thought, an acceptable answer popped into my head. “Because all of them were men.”
That got another roar of laughter out of the god of the dead. “To your credit, Cheyenne, you’re not wrong,” Hades conceded.
“Thank you,” I said, taking the compliment confidently.
“I won’t forget this, daughter of Hephaestus,” Hades said with a sly glance in my direction as he crossed to the window. “And I hope you don’t either. Word of your honor will spread, I’ll be sure of it.”
“Great,” I said, drawing out the word to show my lack of enthusiasm for more gods knowing about me. “Look, you really don’t have to say anything. I’m not anyone special, okay?”
“On the contrary,” Hades said, spinning on his heel and holding up a finger. “Everything points to you being very special indeed. I would start believing it yourself if you ever plan to achieve all that is laid out for you.”
I scoffed, unable to help myself. “Like what? Building the Ultimate Weapon so someone else can wield it and destroy the immortal monsters? Cool, I’ll build it, but I don’t want to be the one holding it.”
“That is not the only thing written out in your lifelines,” Hades said. He clicked his tongue. “Finding your father, for instance?”
His words caught my attention. My mouth went instantly dry, and I licked my lips, trying to get some moisture back to them.
“It’s just a thought,” Hades said, throwing up his hands as if in surrender. “You have plenty of choices you can make. I would say keeping your word in our agreement was a good one to start with.”
I opened my mouth to ask a question, to say something because of the way he mentioned my father. That made me think that he knew more than he was saying. But of course, when it started to actually get interesting, the Lord of the Underworld offered me a cheeky wave with just the tips of his fingers.
With a puff of black smoke, the god of the dead disappeared.
I coughed and waved my hand in front of my face to dissipate some of Hades’s leftovers. Before I had a second to process what happened, there was a knock on the door.
“Hey Cheyenne,” Ansel said, popping his head in. “It’s time to go. You ready?”
I looked at the window where Hades had just been standing. Consequently, out of the dorm window lay the very hill we were set to meet everyone at. The sight brought me back to reality so I could address the matter at hand. Yet the god’s words stirred in the back of my mind, unable to dissolve with him.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” I replied, turned to face Ansel with a small smile plastered on my face.
When we got outside, I noticed that the sun shone brightly in the sky, without a cloud to cover it, a rare sight for a winter morning. The sky was a clear, ocean-like blue that showed off its brilliance without hesitation. It was the kind of day that Ruby’s funeral originally deserved.
I hoped that this was the type of celebration of life that Ruby would have preferred rather than the fuss of the funeral that the Academy gave her. It was just the people who cared about her, gathered around her grave. There was no ceremony, no pompous affair, just us with some simple flowers.
The flowers weren’t anything special, either. Carnations rather than roses. Wildflowers rather than lilies. We wanted her grave to be filled with happiness for as long as the winter weather would allow.
For Erich, however, Benji helped me procure some bright red roses, the gaudier, the better for my half-brother. I figured he would appreciate the gesture.
Since Erich’s grave never had a body attached to it, we didn’t feel bad about moving it next to Ruby’s. It broke the Academy’s chronological order to the cemetery, but I didn�
�t give a damn about procedure at this point. I wanted these two great heroes to be together like they were in my head.
I cringed at the thought of all the stories they were probably sharing about me if they were to meet up in the Elysian Fields. But I liked to dream about the pair of them and Alexandria there, finally free of their past burdens and happy. Both Ruby and Erich finally accomplished what they set out to do, and they should be rewarded for that, celebrated even because some mortals weren’t that lucky.
That was why I suggested that we all meet here. But that had been before Hades decided to make a surprise visit to my dorm and sent my thoughts into overdrive. I acknowledged everyone, but my movements were stiff and constrained. Luckily, everyone let me get away with the weird behavior, thinking it was a result of the sad proceedings.
Mac was the last one to lay down his bouquet of flowers, a group of violets. He looked around to the rest of us. Benji stood with Zach at his back, the Gi soldier wrapping his arms around his boyfriend. Violet stood next to Darren, her arm looped in his as she swiped away a tear. Ansel was beside me, close enough to let me know he was there, supporting me, but he didn’t reach out and touch me, knowing that I didn’t need that kind of comfort just then. Arges loomed over the rest of us. Despite his size, he still seemed like a natural addition to the group.
Esme joined us but stood a little outside of the group, her hands clasped together and head bowed slightly. The way her shoulders hunched forward revealed her discomfort.
Mac tipped his head towards me, indicating that it was my turn to lay down the gifts I had for Ruby. I was the only one who didn’t bring flowers for the blacksmith. I figured there was something else I could offer my late mentor.
I reached down and began to hammer into the stone. It wasn’t the easiest task, that much was certain. However, I used my upper body strength and managed to chip away at enough of the stone in order to hang what I needed to.
When I stepped away, everyone could see the horseshoe I hung on the grave. It was turned the correct direction so it could collect all of the luck. Sure, it wasn’t a home or a doorway, but given Ruby’s profession and what the upturned horseshoe meant to the both of us, I figured it was the best gift I could offer.