by Gina Carra
Demeter’s sleeping in a chair on the other side of the room. Persephone glances around before waking him. Her room looks the same, but there’s one striking difference. All the flowers she laid around are brown and dead.
She knows she was gone for a month, but she also knows just her being around these flowers gives them life. That’s why she had plucked them and left them in her room in the first place.
As she glances around, something falls in front of her. She sees a flower in her lap, the only one alive.
She wonders briefly why before she recognizes that ghostly glow. It’s a blue hyacinth. It’s from Hades.
“She stuck it in your hair while you guys were making out.”
Persephone startles as she finds Demeter watching her.
Demeter stares at the flower. “Am I rusty, or does that mean what I think it means?”
Persephone mumbles, half to Demeter, half to herself. “Blue hyacinth, constancy of love.”
Demeter sighs. “Kind of an ironic choice.”
Persephone shakes her head. “No, it was the perfect choice.” She thinks back to the purple hyacinth that Hades had first used to express her regret to Persephone. She holds the flower carefully. It’s her only proof of what Hades felt for her.
Persephone takes a breath, looking back at Demeter. “Why are all the others dead?”
Demeter frowns and Persephone worries at his expression. “We were kind of hoping you could tell us that.”
Persephone opens her mouth to retort that she doesn’t know, but then she remembers. “Oh.”
Demeter pushes her. “Oh?”
Persephone stares at the dead flowers around the room. “Autumn.”
✽✽✽
“The fact that she can feel love doesn’t mean she deserves it.”
Hebe pinches the bridge of her nose as she tries to discuss the situation with her wife. “Who are you to say she doesn’t deserve it?”
Hercules scoffs. “What kind of question is that?! I’m exactly the person who should say if she deserves it.”
“She was empty, Herc. The lead arrow left her empty.”
Hercules is massaging her temples. “Why are we even talking about this? Of all things to disagree on, I thought everyone could agree to hate Hades.”
Hebe throws her arms out. “That’s exactly my point! How could it even be possible for everyone in all of existence to hate her? How could one entity be so terrible?”
Hercules shrugs. “She’s a higher god. It’s not really up to us to question—”
“She’s in love. Higher god or human, she’s in love.” Hebe hesitates before adding. “In love with my best friend. And if they make each other happy, I’m on board.”
Hercules chews her lip. “She’s really that different?”
Hebe nods. She disagrees with her wife a lot, but at her core, Hercules isn’t a terrible person. She’s spent most of her short lifetime saving humans from the wrath of gods. Hebe admires her, but she just can’t get her to listen sometimes. “I know you didn’t see her, but you wouldn’t have recognized her. I found her rolling around in a field of flowers with the sappiest grin on her face while she looked at Persephone like she is everything she could ever need in the world. And…I think she is. I think Persephone is the key to saving the world from this curse Hades seems to be under.”
Hercules watches Hebe carefully, but Hebe can already see the wheels in her mind turning.
Hebe smirks as she walks toward her playfully. “I said ‘save the world’, didn’t you hear me? Isn’t that your favorite thing to do?”
Hercules can’t help but smile for a moment as Hebe teases her. “Fine.” She stands up, raking her hand through her short hair. “One chance. If this doesn’t work on the first try, I’m out.”
Hebe smiles victoriously. “That’s all I ask.”
Hebe wraps her arms around Hercules’ neck and Hercules rolls her eyes, pecking her wife’s lips briefly. “I’m gonna get Megara. We have to talk to some people about this but…I have an idea.” Hebe raises her eyebrows. Hercules shrugs. “You said they’re fated right? There are three people who are kind of in charge of that fate thing.”
✽✽✽
Demeter tries to stop Persephone from walking outside, but she pushes past him.
Persephone can already feel it, but she has to know. She steps out onto the grass and it immediately dies around her. She glances over and sees a path of dead grass.
Demeter stands beside her, a hand on her shoulder.
Persephone swallows. “Is…that’s where you carried me?”
“Yeah.”
“It didn’t grow back?”
“Not yet.”
Persephone’s breaths come in fast. “But this should be just like the flowers, right? Autumn did this. I should be able to turn it off.”
Demeter’s quiet and Persephone turns to him suspicious. Demeter’s eyes are looking away from her. “Persephone, Autumn couldn’t turn it off.”
Persephone scoffs. “You didn’t know her.”
Demeter glares. “She got in my way a lot. I heard of her.” Persephone’s quiet. Demeter never talked about this before. “You revived everything she touched. She never had to turn it off.”
Persephone’s shaking her head in denial. She falls to her knees on the floor, muttering to herself. “Hades said I have both. I have to have both.”
Persephone tries to look inside herself for her connection to the flowers, but she can’t find it.
Demeter brushes his fingers through Persephone’s hair. “Persephone.”
Persephone takes a deep breath. “I can fix this.”
“Persephone.” His voice is more assertive the second time.
“Just let me try for a second!”
Demeter turns and walks back inside. He starts making tea for both of them while Persephone kneels in the grass. She stays like that for hours, but the brown, dead grass never brightens.
✽✽✽
Hades returns to the Underworld and immediately deconstructs Persephone’s room. It’s a waste of space.
She walks into her old bedroom and hesitates. It’s like when you walk into a room but forget what you were doing. There’s something important about this room, but she can’t quite put her finger on it.
She lies on the bed in case it will help her remember whatever task she’s forgotten, but she doesn’t plan to sleep. Sleep is a waste of time. When her head lands on the pillow, she hears a paper crinkle. She frowns as she tugs it out. She doesn’t remember putting it there.
To the asshole who didn’t fucking listen to me,
Hades raises her eyebrows and keeps reading.
I’m not going to bother yelling at you ‘cause I know that won’t mean shit to you after the arrow. So I’m just going to list some facts.
Two heads are better than one. Make up excuses all you want, but I know I could help you if I were down there with you.
You love the earth. So when you come back,
Hades crumples up the paper without reading the rest and tosses it into the corner. She leaves the room without a second glance and moves along the riverbanks to attend to her responsibilities.
✽✽✽
It’s two weeks later when Hebe and Hercules show up at Persephone and Demeter’s door. Demeter opens the door and he’s disheveled from stress and worry but it’s nothing compared to Persephone.
Persephone’s so pale her skin looks translucent. Hebe nearly trips she’s so shocked. She looks to Demeter, “How long has she been like this?”
Demeter swallows. “Few days. She hasn’t been eating.”
Persephone mumbles. “I can fucking hear you.”
Demeter tsks. “Am I fucking lying?”
Persephone’s quiet and Demeter huffs.
Hebe puts a hand on Demeter’s shoulder. Hercules is standing right beside them, so that’s as far as they go but it’s a steadying touch and Demeter feels a little restored just from the subtle show of affection.
/>
Hercules frowns at Persephone. “You’re still in love with her?”
Persephone turns to look at Hercules curiously. She knows a little more about her now from when she shared thoughts with Hades and…it’s a little difficult to see her through Hades’s eyes. Persephone doesn’t hesitate with her answer though. “I am.”
“Even after the arrow?”
“Arrows never hit me.”
Hercules snorts and Hebe glares at her. “So what, you think you just fell for her because of free will?” The sarcasm is obvious.
Persephone closes her eyes with a sigh. “We all know free will is bullshit.”
Hebe butts in. “You seem pretty willing to starve yourself.”
Persephone opens her eyes to pout. “It’s really not my choice.”
Hebe glances at Demeter curiously. This seems to be Demeter’s key point of anxiety. “She can’t stomach anything. As soon as food hits her tongue, she spits it out.”
Persephone wrinkles her nose. “Tastes like ash.”
Hebe kicks Persephone’s bed lightly. “Don’t care what it tastes like. Eat it anyway.”
Persephone pouts up at her. “Easier said than done. It’s repulsive.”
Hebe sits on the bed beside Persephone and grabs her hand. For once, Hercules isn’t jealous. She doesn’t even blink. She understands. They’ve spent the last two weeks together talking to people for information and they seemed to find some more common ground. “Seph, what’s wrong?”
It’s a dumb question. They all know it. It’s a question they all know the answer to, but it’s exactly the question Persephone needed someone to ask her. Hebe can see it in the way her expression crumples. “I really fucking miss her. I can’t breathe. I can’t sleep. I wasn’t even this bad after Autumn—”
“Yes, you were.” Demeter butts in. Everyone stares at him and he shrugs. “Not with the food, but with the sleep.”
Hebe mumbles. “Seph can never get to sleep.”
Persephone tugs her eyes away, feeling oddly exposed at how well her friends know her even though she always tried to contain her emotions. That’s what she did before she met Hades at least. “I could when she held me.” Persephone pinches the bridge of her nose. “I don’t get like this, Hebe. Never. I don’t—I don’t pine over people and cry. This isn’t normal. This isn’t me.”
“It’s fate.” Hercules seems serious, so they listen to her. “Your fated path was destroyed. We need to rebuild it.”
The room goes quiet. Persephone takes a deep breath. “Yeah, okay. Let me get on that. You got some yellow bricks I can lay on the floor and walk on top of?”
Hebe flicks Persephone in the side. “She’s serious. Don’t be an ass.”
Persephone pouts, trying to reestablish her calm, carefree persona after almost crying in front of all of them.
Hercules waits a moment to make sure they’re okay with her continuing. “You have to petition the Fates.”
The room is quiet again before Persephone snorts. “Funny.”
No one laughs.
Persephone would go pale if she could be any paler than she already is. “What the fuck, I can’t just waltz up and petition the Fates. I’m a lesser god. I’ll fucking die.”
No one says it but the thought hangs in the air: You’re already dying.
Hebe grips Persephone’s hand tighter. “Cue was like this, wasn’t he? In the Underworld? He was pulled off his path. The lead arrow put him back on it, but…”
“Well can’t we just use the golden arrow again?” Persephone feels her breathing start to quicken.
Hercules shrugs. “I mean, if Hades were here we could try, but she can’t be for another two weeks and even if she was, I don’t like our chances of keeping her attention long enough for Eros to get a shot off, even if it was you looking at her. You knew her while she was in love. I knew her after the emotions were torn out of her. There’s no winning with her.” No one points out that Hercules was a baby and really has no beneficial opinions to offer, but her point is valid enough to let it go.
Demeter gauges the way Persephone frowns slowly at hearing about Hades from Hercules’ perspective and quickly changes the topic. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but…aren’t the Fates kind of hard to reach?”
Hebe smiles but it’s facetious. “Yup! They’re in the Underworld.”
Persephone blinks at her and Hebe pats her hand. “So this is fucking useless information.”
Hercules shrugs. “We thought so too. That’s why it took so long to actually get any answers.”
Hebe smiles smugly. “She’s lucky I went with her. I’m a people person.”
Hercules glares at her. “You spent the whole time playing with people’s dogs and giving kids lollipops.”
Hebe tsks without even turning around. “And were the parents cooperative?”
Hercules doesn’t answer her. “There are entrances to the Underworld. From what I’ve heard, Hades doesn’t use them often. She usually puffs out with her smoke. I mean, who would walk if you could teleport?”
“Hades would.” Persephone cuts in and everyone turns to her as her voice goes quiet. “Hades rarely uses her power. She only uses it if she needs to.”
Hercules frowns slowly. “Think that’s true without her emotions?”
Persephone hesitates but nods. “Yeah. It wasn’t an emotional thing. It had to do with fairness and energy conservation. If anything, she’d be even less likely to use her power now unless she needs to.”
Hercules sighs as she and Hebe lock eyes. “Which seems to confirm something we were hoping wasn’t true.”
Demeter cuts in again. “What do you mean?”
Hebe won’t look Persephone in the eye. “The entrances must have some sort of complication to them because Eros said Hades always teleports. We’ve heard lots of stories about earning passage. Mostly having to do with tests of character—”
“I can do it.”
Hebe frowns at Persephone’s impatience. “But others are trials similar to what Hercules went through. So unless you want to defeat a Hydra, it’s not really worth the risk.”
Persephone waits as that settles before she sighs loudly. “Fucking fine, I’ll be the one to say it. I’m dying anyway, aren’t I?” Demeter flinches at the bluntness of it. “What the fuck do I have to lose?”
✽✽✽
They head out the next day. They can’t go with Persephone, but they will surely go to see her off.
Finding the location of one of the entrances proved to be one of the most difficult tasks Hebe and Hercules had for the past two weeks. They were able to track down a general location, but no specifics. It was the only lead they had, so off they went.
Persephone refused to let Demeter carry her, so she was currently riding piggyback on Hebe who was frowning. “Doesn’t it make more sense for the warrior goddess to be carrying your heavy ass?”
Persephone answered bluntly. “I’m not heavy and I don’t trust her.”
Hercules shrugs. “Fair enough. Don’t trust you either, Devil’s Wife.”
Persephone frowns at the nickname. Hebe sighs and asks, “Are you guys never going to get along?”
Persephone shrugs. “We don’t get along, but we have a mutual respect for each other.”
Hercules grunts and Hebe supposes that’s the most she’s going to get from them.
Persephone turns her attention to the ground after a while. “Demeter, what was my radius before?”
Demeter blinks at her. “What?”
Persephone points at the dead grass that follows them every step Hebe takes.
Demeter follows her gaze to the dead grass and shrugs.
She knows the path she’d originally seen was about a yard radius of dead grass. This looks more like 10 yards.
No one answers her question. They don’t really have to. They know she knows. It’s been getting more and more out of her control.
They walk for a while, not really getting tired since they’re, you know, g
ods. But suddenly Hebe stops. “Okay, we’re here.”
They’re in the middle of a forest. Skepticism fills Persephone’s voice, “There’s an entrance here?”
Hebe and Hercules both shrug and Persephone reminds herself how well they get along on good days. Demeter frowns at it. Hebe spins to give Persephone a view of it. “If you can find it, yeah.”
Persephone stares out at the wildlife around them that slowly dies as she gets near it. “Put me down while you look.”
Hebe turns her head. “Huh?”
Persephone kicks her lightly with the back of her heel. “Just do it, I might have an idea what you’re looking for and I would quite literally kill your chances of finding it.” They turn toward her as Hebe lowers her to the ground carefully. Persephone leans back against a tree to support herself weakly and it breaks her heart to feel the tree rot as she touches it. “Look for lilacs.”
Demeter, Hebe, and Hercules all blink at her.
Demeter repeats him. “Lilacs?”
Persephone closes her eyes, falling asleep from the exhaustion of holding onto Hebe’s neck. “Just do it. Lilacs.”
They hesitate before fanning out to look. She hears Hercules mutter to Hebe. “What do lilacs look like?”
She listens to Hebe ramble off a too-long explanation.
She feels herself drift slowly—“WE FOUND IT. WE FOUND LILACS.”
Persephone’s not sure how long she was asleep, but she jerks awake at Hebe’s loud screech.
Hebe runs over to her, youthful energy never exhausted.
Demeter and Hercules meet Persephone back at the tree as well.
Hercules asks, “Lilacs?”
Persephone nods as she gets on Hebe’s back again. “They’re her favorite.”
Demeter eyes Persephone. “Joy of youth?”
Persephone shrugs with a smirk on her lips. “She’s a softie.”