He drained his glass once more and slammed it on the edge of his chair, gripping a large sliver and jamming it into the man’s thigh. He arched, but the movement only placed more strain on his impaled feet, which caused more pain.
“I am certain you are full of regret.”
The man’s chest heaved, and his head lolled about, an unnatural wheeze escaping his mouth.
The torture continued like that. Hades would take a drink, ask a question, and jab another sharp piece of glass into the man’s body. When he ran out of larger pieces, he summoned his own.
“I don’t…I don’t even like Apollo,” the man said in a breathy moan.
“So you are a sheep,” Hades said. “A follower who thought to rise to the rank of leader with your actions.”
The man groaned, though Hades did not know if he meant to agree or not.
“Let this be a lesson to think for yourself.”
Hades rose and used his magic to dislodge every shard of glass in the man’s body. It was a torture of its own, and as the pieces rose, they disintegrated. In the next second, he sent a surge of magic toward the man, and his wounds were healed.
“Th-thank you,” he said.
“Oh, it is not for your benefit,” Hades replied. “It is for mine. Perhaps I wish to begin anew.”
The man began to sob. The sound grated against Hades’s ears, and to stop it, he shoved the gag back into the man’s mouth. Then he sat back in his chair and finished off what remained of his whiskey.
Some time had passed when Hades rose, and the movement caused the mortal to flinch, but Hades had no intention of continuing the torture. He did, however, intend to threaten his entire afterlife if he spoke one word against Persephone or himself. After he was certain the man understood, he would have Ilias take him home.
Hades fixed his sleeves, secured his cuff links, and pulled on his jacket, but as he adjusted the collar and straightened the lapels, he felt the distinct roar of Persephone’s untamable power. He felt dread and tasted her distress. It was both cloying and bitter, a conflict of her magic.
He started for the doors when they burst open.
“Persephone.”
There was something devastating in the way she looked at him, an emotion within her eyes that communicated something unspeakable, but Hades knew this pain. His soul recognized it and called to it, familiar with the ache it would inspire within his chest.
“Hades! You have to help! Please—”
Her words dissolved into a choked cry, and all Hades could do was take her into his arms and hold her against him as she shook. He felt helpless, and he hated it because he only ever felt helpless with her. As quick as it had begun, she composed herself and lifted her head from his chest.
“Hades—” she started, and it was then he realized she had noticed his prisoner, though it was hard not to because he had begun to scream, albeit muffled.
“Ignore him,” he said, preparing to teleport the man to a holding cell when Persephone’s hand clamped down on his own.
“Is that—is that the mortal who threw the bottle at me today?”
When he didn’t respond, she turned her gaze on the man. Whatever she saw was answer enough. He was prepared to hear her demand to release him, but instead, she asked, “Why are you torturing him in your office and not in Tartarus?”
The mortal must have expected more of a compassionate response, because his cries grew louder.
“Because he’s not dead,” Hades said. He could only take souls to Tartarus if their thread had been cut. He gave the man a withering look as he added, “Yet.”
“Hades, you cannot kill him.”
“I won’t kill him.” It wasn’t his time to die, and he wasn’t willing to sacrifice another soul for this man. Besides, it was far more gratifying to have him live so that he could tell the tale of his torture at the hands of the God of the Dead. “But I will make him wish he were dead.”
“Hades. Let. Him. Go.”
And there it was. He had expected it sooner, but perhaps he should consider it a victory that she waited this long.
“Fine,” he said and sent the man to the holding rooms a level below, and blessedly, she did not demand to know where he’d gone. He led her to the couch with a hand on the small of her back, guiding her to sit on his lap. “What happened?”
She started to breathe heavier, and as he tilted her head back, her mouth quivered so badly, she couldn’t speak. Hades manifested a glass of wine and held it to her lips as she drank. When she was finished, he nodded.
“Start again,” Hades said. “What happened?”
“Lexa was hit by a car,” she said, and it was as if her breath had been knocked from her lungs.
Her words shocked him because he had not expected them. Despite many humans believing otherwise, Hades did not have a hand in orchestrating life-threatening injuries. Those were designed by the Fates, and while all were tragic, they often served a greater purpose, if not for the victim, for those in their lives.
“She’s in critical condition at Asclepius Community Hospital. She’s on a ventilator. She’s…broken.”
She spoke through tears and stumbled across words laced with pain and disbelief, and while he despaired over Lexa, he hated to see Persephone suffer. Though there was a dark part of him that rose, clawing at the fringes of his mind, bringing on a familiar dread that caused him to fear the direction this conversation might go.
“She doesn’t look like Lexa anymore, Hades.”
She wept harder, and she covered her mouth to contain her cries.
“I’m so sorry, my darling.”
They were the only words he had for her, because there was nothing he could do. Even now, he could feel along Lexa’s thread, which was not cut but rather bent—she was in a state of limbo.
In other words, her soul was undecided.
Persephone twisted to face him as much as she could.
“Hades, please.”
She didn’t need to explain; he knew what she asked. Her eyes were desperate, and because he could not see her like that, he averted his gaze, frustration making his jaw tight.
“Persephone, I can’t.”
He had had this conversation so many times, with mortals he had no personal connection with and gods he held in contempt. He had never faced it with a lover. Even if Hades could save Lexa, the consequences of such actions were dire, especially when the decision to live or die rested with the soul.
She scrambled off his lap, standing a few steps away. He did not try to reach for her.
“I won’t lose her.”
“You haven’t. Lexa still lives.” She was so afraid, it was like she already considered her dead. “You must give her soul time to decide.”
“Decide? What do you mean?”
He sighed, unable to contain the dread he felt at this oncoming conversation.
He answered as he pinched the bridge of his nose, an ache forming at the front of his head for the second time today. “Lexa’s in limbo.”
“Then you can bring her back,” she reasoned.
That was not how limbo worked.
“I can’t.”
“You did it before. You said when a soul is in limbo, you can bargain with the Fates to bring it back.”
“In exchange for the life of another. A soul for a soul, Persephone.”
“You can’t say you won’t save her, Hades.”
He was saying that, as hard as it was to admit. This was a situation of choice on Lexa’s behalf. To interfere, to bring her back when she was not ready, or worse, did not want to come, would mean a harrowing return to the world of the living. The consequences were endless.
“I’m not saying I don’t want to, Persephone. It is best that I do not interfere with this. Trust me. If you care for Lexa at all—if you care for me at all—you will drop this.”
“I’m doing this because I care!”
“That’s what all mortals think—but who are you really trying to save? Lexa or yourself?”
She wanted to escape the loss and the grief. She didn’t want to think of a life without Lexa, and while he could not blame her, it was never for the living to decide, though they tried often.
“I don’t need a philosophy lesson, Hades,” she sneered.
“No, but apparently you need a reality check.”
He rose to his feet and removed his jacket, and when his fingers moved to the buttons of his shirt, Persephone snapped.
“I’m not having sex with you right now.”
He scowled, frustration making his body feel tight and warm. He shrugged off his shirt and stood bare-chested before her, dropping the glamour he used to hide the black threads marring his body. The newest was a thick band that wrapped around his arm and went across his back. It was Briareus’s, and it had burned a track into his skin as he’d taken the giant’s soul. They were all painful when they were made, but some hurt worse than others, and this one still throbbed.
“What are they?”
She reached to touch him, but the thought of her tracing such a dark part of his life was alarming, so he captured her hand, halting her movement. Her eyes snapped to his.
“It’s the price I pay for every life I’ve taken by bargaining with the Fates. I carry them with me. These are their life threads, burned into my skin. Is this what you want on your conscience, Persephone?”
She wrested her hand from his hold, cradling it against her chest, though her eyes still trailed the fine lines on his skin.
“What good is being the God of the Dead if you can’t do anything?” She sounded very much defeated as she looked away and took a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
He gave a humorless laugh. “You meant it,” he said, one hand pressing against her cheek so she would look at him once more. “I know you don’t want to understand why I can’t help, and that’s okay.”
“I just…don’t know what to do,” she whispered.
“Lexa isn’t gone, yet you mourn her. She may recover.”
“Do you know that for certain? That she will recover?”
“No.”
He saw no reason to lie. The truth was, even Lexa did not know yet. He wished he could offer more comfort. He knew she wanted it, but in the face of death, there were no words that would ease her pain.
Finally, she rested her head against his chest, and her body felt heavy against his, as if she were finally giving over this burden—at least for now. He took her into his arms and teleported to the Underworld, to his chamber, where he laid her to rest on his bed.
“Do not fill your thoughts with the possibilities of tomorrow,” he said and kissed her forehead, letting his magic send her into a deep, unbothered sleep, hoping she would actually rest, so he could slip away to the palace of the Fates.
He appeared in a flurry of shadows and smoke that peeled away and led him to the Library of Souls where he found the Fates at work. It appeared that Clotho was spinning gold threads, and they glimmered in the air, crisscrossing the breadth of the space. While she worked, Lachesis stood at the center, holding open a large book into which the thread was burrowing, while Atropos waited with her scissors.
Just as she began to cut, Lachesis spoke, “No, no, no, you mustn’t end it there!”
“You are the allotter of life. I am the manner of death,” Atropos said. “I will end this life where I want!”
“You are far too humane,” Lachesis said. “This man has lived an inhospitable life. He should die the same.”
“Trauma is hardly pleasant.”
“It is merciful. Much better to die by disease.”
“Why let him die at all?” Hades asked. “Perhaps the greater torture is continuing to live an unfavorable life?”
The three snapped their heads in his direction, though with Lachesis distracted, Atropos cut the thread. As she snipped, the end turned black and curled, disappearing into the book. Lachesis slammed the book closed and launched it at her sister. The Fate caught it and tossed it back, but before it could hit, Hades wrenched it from the air, and as it landed in his palm, the three glared.
“What do you want, Rich One?” Lachesis snapped.
“Why have you—?”
“Lexa Sideris,” Hades said, cutting Atropos off. “Is she the soul you chose to complete the bargain?”
The Fates had said that Briareus’s life would cost him dearly. Lexa’s death would have consequences that echoed far beyond Persephone’s relationship with the mortal. After tonight, it was clear it would also impact Persephone’s relationship with him.
“A mortal in exchange for an immortal?” asked Atropos.
“That is hardly fair, Lord of the Dead,” said Clotho.
“Completely unreasonable,” agreed Lachesis.
“No, dear king, the end of Briareus’s life must give life to another immortal. That is the bargain we’ve struck.”
There was a part of him that felt relief at hearing he was not responsible for Lexa’s accident and subsequent limbo, but a new anxiety filled him at the prospect of an immortal life being born or taken as a result of Briareus’s death, though he always knew it was a possibility.
As much as he wanted to ask them who—which immortal they had chosen—he knew the question was futile.
“Do not fret, Good Counselor,” said Clotho.
“Your bargain with Briareus,” said Lachesis.
“Will only ruin your life,” said Atropos.
Chapter XV
Fight Night
Hades returned to his chamber, where Persephone slept, and climbed into bed, though he did not sleep, his mind too active from the day’s events. He could not begin to understand what Persephone was going through. Even having experienced varying degrees of loss, there was no comparing grief.
Hearts did not break the same.
They did not heal the same.
They would not beat the same.
She stirred beside him, eyes peeling open with some difficulty before whispering, “Have you slept?”
“Not quite yet,” he said.
She did not respond, but she seemed more awake as she stared at him.
“Will you”—she paused, hesitating—“show me the threads again?”
He did not want to, not really, but it was a part of him he had shared, and it was not so surprising that she had more questions.
He dropped his glamour, and she lifted herself onto her elbow and reached a hand out, flattening her palm against his stomach. Her touch was gentle, her hand cold, but it still managed to make him feel warm and make the threads crisscrossing his skin burn.
“Why do you hide them?” she asked, her voice remained quiet.
“Very few warrant pride,” he replied.
“If you are so ashamed, why make so many bargains?”
“Because I am self-serving. There was a time when I cared nothing about the consequences of trading souls.”
Persephone’s hand curled on his stomach. “They cannot all be bad.”
He wasn’t sure if she said it because she was hopeful he might find a way to save Lexa if worse came to worse or because she wished to see the best in him in this moment.
“There are only those I regret more,” he said. “And those souls belong to children.”
He called up his glamour, and they spoke no more.
* * *