Daughter of the Earth and Sky (25 page)

“That was supposed to be him. He would have gotten hit and fought for his life for
hours
in excruciating agony. Got it? Now step away from his body.”

I swallowed hard and moved away as Hades dropped another shield between us and the fallen man. “But…but…You killed him. Why?”

“Thanatos has to respond to divine deaths.”

“Speak of the devil.” Thanatos grabbed me from behind. “Don’t move, Hades.”

Pain ripped through me, but what else was new? I gritted my teeth and slammed my foot down on his with a satisfying crunch, then twisted and plowed my elbow into his gut. His grip loosened, and I sprang free. Hades pulled me behind him, grabbed Thanatos by the throat, and slammed him into a brick wall.

“Charm him.” Hades blindly groped for my hand.

I grabbed it and felt power surge through me. I looked at Thanatos, and his pupils widened.

Hades met my eyes. “Don’t kill him yet. The power will just go to Zeus, and he could gain access to the Underworld. Ask him to swear fealty to you.”

“Why not you?”

“I’m not in Zeus’ bloodline; it won’t work.”

Thanatos stared at me with mute adoration. “I swear,” he managed in a strangled gasp.

Hades eased up on his grip fractionally. “Good. Now give her your powers. All of them.” Thanatos hesitated, and Hades tightened his grip. “Persephone, tell him.”

I looked at Thanatos, remembering the hell he’d put me through the last few months. The pain and misery, the fear. I took a deep breath, steeling myself to give the order. Unbidden, other images rushed through my head. Thanatos teasing Cassandra, joking with Charon, laughing with Hypnos, moving his hands around while he explained something to me. The whole group sitting around the table at dinner. It might have all been an act, but it was a convincing one. He’d been my friend. I gave Hades a helpless look. “Isn’t fealty enough?”

“Thanatos, when you attacked her while she slept—” his grip seemed to tighten more with each word. “—when you beat her on the beach, tried to kill her and leave her for Poseidon—”

“Hades stop it, he’s charmed. He can’t fight back.” I reached out to touch Hades’ arm, but something in his eyes stopped me.

“Whose idea was that?” Hades let go of Thanatos so suddenly that he fell to the ground with a thud.

“Mine.”

“Did Zeus even know about it?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

Hades gave me a look. I closed my eyes and nodded my head. I understood. Fealty didn’t mean absolute loyalty and devotion. It wasn’t charm. When the charm wore off, Thanatos would still be tied to me through fealty, but he would hate me even worse. He’d never stop looking for a way to get rid of me so he could be free.

“But he’ll die.”

“Just like Boreas.”

I stepped farther away, trembling like a leaf. “I didn’t know that would happen when I charmed Boreas. I was just talking. I didn’t know—I can’t do this. Don’t ask me to do this. Please!”

Hades closed his eyes. “Fine, tell him to give you most of his powers, but keep enough so he won’t die.”

I nodded at Thanatos. His power rushed through me, dark and strange. Hades’ hand around mine was a lifeline, preventing the new powers from overwhelming me. It felt like something slick and wrong and incompatible had entered my blood stream. Like oil on water. Foreign yet inseparable.

When it finished, I smiled at Hades. “He’s mortal now, I can feel it. No powers, no threat at all really.” I breathed a sigh of relief, glad to have found a way around the unspeakable.

Hades channeled enough of Thanatos’ powers away to allow me to let go of his hand. “Go back to my chambers in the Underworld. Don’t talk to anyone. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

“What? Why?”

The look he gave me sent shivers down my spine.

“But he’s not a threat,” I protested. “Hades, you don’t have to do this.”

“He knows everything about us. Go, Persephone.”

“No.” I swallowed hard. “This…this isn’t you. You can’t. People can’t do—”

“We are not people.”

His voice. It was so hard, so cold that I scarcely recognized it. “Please.”

Hades turned back to Thanatos. “Fine, stay and watch if you’d rather.”

Horrified, I left.

Once I made it back to Hades’ room, I burst into tears. I sank to the floor, pulled my knees to my chest, and covered my ears as though curling safely into a ball would stop what was happening on the surface.

The worst part was that part of me, a big part of me, agreed with Hades. If Thanatos was allowed to live, I’d always be afraid of him. I’d always wonder what else he would try. Hades was right. He was a threat.

But knowing that and being a part of it were two very different things. I remembered watching superhero movies with Melissa. At the end of the film when the villain was safely behind bars, I’d complain that the hero should have just killed them. Everyone knew the bad guys always escape from jail.

I’d made it sound so simple. So easy. So inconsequential. Just kill them. No big deal.

My trembling hands wiped the tears from my face. I felt cold. Frozen. I climbed to my feet and looked around Hades’ room. I stared at the familiar items as though seeing them for the first time, trying to fit them back into my mental picture of Hades. His books on the shelf. The glass doors overlooking the library, filled to the brim with his eclectic collection. My hands found a worn psychology book, something about the seven stages of grief, and I smiled. He tried so hard to help the souls adjust to life in the Underworld.

I flipped it open and found a note from Cassandra.
Thought you’d like this one. Note: Please don’t talk to me about this book. No one wants to hear your psychobabble. ;) xoxo, The Prophet.

I smiled and sat the book down on the dresser. A silver picture frame caught my eye. It was one of the pictures from the photo booth on St. Mary’s Island. I touched Hades’ face.

The door opened. I set the picture down. “Hades?”

“Yeah.” The single syllable was saturated with bitterness.

“His soul?”

“I destroyed it.”

I blinked, too shocked to even process that.

“We don’t have a lot of time. I need you to give me Thanatos’ power. It’s going to feel different from channeling—”

“Are you okay?”

He gave me a look that sliced through me like a knife. Anger was radiating off him in waves. “How could I have been so
stupid!”
He smashed his fist through the mirror. The mirror shattered, sending broken shards of Hades crashing to the floor. “It was bad enough having Zeus use you as a puppet.”

What did he mean by that?

Hades saw my questioning look, and his jaw clenched. “But Thanatos
!
” His eyes landed on the silver picture frame. He picked it up, preparing to hurl it to the floor.

“Not that!” I grabbed his hand. It was a stupid thing to do, but this was Hades. It just wasn’t in me to be afraid of him. No matter how loud and angry he got. No matter what he did.

He went as still as a stone. “Right.” He removed my hand from his very carefully and turned the frame over to reveal the picture of us. “Right.” He set it down and stared at the picture, seeming to grow angrier. I could feel his thoughts swirling around in a bitter void. “This whole time? This whole fucking time?”

I blinked back tears. “I know. I tried; you have to believe I tried. I’m so sorry—”

“Stop apologizing!” Hades slammed his fist into the dresser. “You weren’t responsible for this, he just used you like a fucking pawn, and I allowed it to happen. I trusted him! Worse, I trusted him with you.” The anger seemed to drain out of him, leaving him lifeless and hollow. He sagged against the bed. “I made him your guard. Gods, the Reapers. How could I have been so stupid? I let them hurt you.”

I stared at him in disbelief. All this time I’d been convinced he would blame me. That he would hate me. It had never even crossed my mind that he would blame himself. I sat next to him on the bed. “You didn’t
let
him do anything to me. You didn’t know! I never thought— I knew, I knew if I could just tell you, that you would fix this.”

Hades stared at me. “That’s even worse. This whole time you were waiting for me to see what was right in front of me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say to that. For the thousandth time I wished for a lie. Humans don’t appreciate the power of false platitudes. I couldn’t tell him that it was okay. I couldn’t say I didn’t blame him. I wasn’t mad at him, but when it had gotten bad, part of me did blame him for not getting it. For not hearing what I couldn’t say.

I couldn’t lie, but I could mislead. I remembered Hades glancing up to my room when my mom asked where I was. My actions could lie. I put my hand to my forehead with a wince.

Hades swore and cupped my face with his hands. “Right, Thanatos.” He closed his eyes. “This is going to be different than just channeling. It’s not so much lending as it is giving. I will give it back when you’re old enough to handle it. You have a right to this—”

“I don’t want it. It feels…wrong.”

Hades nodded. “It’s on the complete opposite end of the spectrum as your abilities. I imagine it feels strange.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “What I’m about to do…I—”

I put my finger on his lips. “It doesn’t matter. I trust you.”

“You really shouldn’t.”

I kissed him. I poured all my thoughts and feelings into that kiss to show him what I couldn’t vocalize, to show him what he was to me. I pushed Thanatos’ power to him, along with half of my own. He drew in a sharp breath, and I locked gazes with him. “I trust you. Absolutely. And there is nothing you could ever do to convince me that trust is misplaced.”

“Persephone—”

His eyes were so full of anguish that even if I hadn’t been able to feel his pain it would have broken my heart.

“Hades, do you know what the worst part of the last few months has been for me?”

He shook his head.

“Thinking that once you finally found out, I was going to lose you. I was sure you would hate me for being stupid enough to make that promise. I can’t lose you. I think it would kill some part of me, I just—”

Hades shushed me, brushing a tear from my cheek. “I couldn’t hate you. Do you know why?”

It was my turn to shake my head.

“After everything he did to you, you still couldn’t bring yourself to kill Thanatos.”

“So you had to kill one of your best friends? If I wasn’t so weak, I would have done it.”

“That’s not weak. That’s strong. Stronger than you know. It’s easy to give into vengeance. But you rise above it. I saw that in you from the very beginning. You’re so much better than us. And if he’d managed to take that from you…” Hades trailed off. “I almost lost you, and that would have destroyed me.” He looked at me and nodded his head. “I love you. These last few months of trying to give you space and wondering what was going to happen, they were terrible.” He shook his head. “Thanatos used me too. He knew all my hang-ups. He used that. Had I just trusted you…me…us, as completely as you do…this never would have happened. I love you, and I knew one day we would be here. I shouldn’t have waited. I should have just jumped.” He ran a finger along my jawline. “I trust you. Absolutely.” He kissed me.

My life wasn’t in danger or anything. His power flowed through my veins.

But won’t that—
The thought hadn’t even fully formed before he brushed it away.

I can filter it, keep it safe for you. You might be seeing more of me than before.

I smiled at that. Equilibrium. Our connection solidified with a snap. My mind cleared, and I saw everything that had happened since meeting Aphrodite. I saw myself charming Hades, running to the park, promising never to hurt him, and getting charmed. I broke off and stared at Hades wide-eyed.

“It really was her.” He shook his head. “I didn’t think she had enough power to charm you anymore. I’m sorry—”

I waved a hand, cutting him off. “You’ve been trying to tell me ever since you figured it out. Do you think she’s Zeus?”

Hades shrugged. “I think I would have known. But I haven’t seen her since that day on the beach. Maybe that’s not Aphrodite at all.”

I thought back to the day I’d met Aphrodite. How grateful she’d been that I’d come for her. She thought of me as a sister. How screwed up would it be if she’d been replaced and I hadn’t even noticed?

“We’ll deal with her,” Hades promised. “Later.”

I realized that I was still holding on to Hades. I flushed and dropped my hands from his arms, but I didn’t move away from him. I couldn’t. It was like fighting gravity. I gazed into his eyes and saw him struggling against the connection we shared.

“Persephone…”

My lips brushed against his. He kissed me back then wrapped one arm around me, crushing me to him, and propped his other arm on the bed behind me, stabilizing us. He drew back in a sudden jerk.

“This is you?” He searched my face, looking for any sign I was acting under charm like the last time.

“Yes,” I whispered. “Is this you?”

His mind flitted to the last time I’d charmed him, and he nodded. “But I don’t think—”

“Do you trust me?” I asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Then stop thinking.”

My lips found his, and we were kissing again. I knew it sounded stupid and trite to say we belonged together. How many times had I rolled my eyes when I’d heard others say those words? But we
did
belong together. Ever since that first kiss in the clearing. We’d given each other a part of ourselves, and that could never be undone.

I sank beneath him. His hand flew to the back of my head, blocking it from hitting the wooden headboard. He tangled his fingers in my hair. His other hand ran down my body. He hesitated, and I knew I could speak now and end this. He wouldn’t be mad and wouldn’t think less of me. I was completely in control here. Whatever happened next was my choice to make. I met his eyes, and he read the decision in them.

Just because Thanatos was dead didn’t mean that our troubles were anywhere near over. We still had Zeus or Aphrodite to contend with, but before we could even do that, we had to make sure there weren’t more traitors in our midst.