Chapter 10

The stench of death hung strongly in the air, I nearly choked from the sickening fumes. I opened my eyes abruptly and felt that my wrists were tightly tied to the bars of the high backed chair that I sat on.

I cast my eyes around the darkened cell, seeing nothing but blackness. I could see no furniture, nothing. Where was I?

"Ah…. You're awake, Persephone. Welcome to my lair!" It was the same voice that had been whispering my name and calling me in my mind. A knot twisted in my stomach…. Something was wrong! Very wrong.

I swallowed hard with fear. "W-who are you? W-what do you want with me?" My terror was vividly clear and all I tried to think about was Hades….. He'd find me wouldn't he?

"I've already told you who I am… My name is Andor! I am the King of The Gods now and you have something I want….." The air turned cold as he stepped from the darkness. A small amount of light came into the room... Just enough to see with.

Andor, a bony corpse covered with a thin and weak layer of decaying flesh…. Barely even a man…. Not at all a God. A crown of bones rested upon his cracked skull.

"Zeus is the King of The Gods!" I spat coldly glaring at Andor with hate and terror in my eyes. He was merely centimeters from me staring at me with his malevolent grey eyes. "I've locked him up…. I've locked all The Gods up!" Hades! Had he been captured as well? My heart pounded as my cheeks slowly lost their colour.

"I want that child inside of you!" No! My body and instinct screamed out in protest. He would not touch my baby!

"There is a Prophecy at Mount Olympus that has gone undiscovered, I have discovered it… It says that the child inside you will be a God and that he will one day rule both Mortals and Gods… But Persephone, you understand that I am now King after imprisoning all Gods? So, your child is my threat and my foe…. He must be killed."

I shook my head profusely at him. "Zeus... As long as he is living, you will never truly be King of The Gods will you?" I had to take his mind off of my child... He could not murder my innocent baby for power and a pathetic prophecy.

Andor paused, pondering I presumed. I watched as his long thin fingers scraped along his decaying flesh. "That's why I'll kill him after I have slain your child." He smirked heinously at me,revealing his black and rotting teeth.

I glared at him in his revolting ugliness. He was certainly not a God... He didn't bare the beauty that all of the other Gods had... They all had a power... Clearly he had not... He could not say that he was The God of Death because I knew all to well Hades was the master of that. What was he? Because he was clearly no mortal either!

"You were not born a God were you, Andor? How did you become a God? And why do you dare to call yourself the King of us all?" I dared to ask him the questions I craved to know. He seemed intrigued by my interest. My plan was working...

"You're a smart little Goddess aren't you?" He muttered bitterly placing one of his bony fingers to his thin lips. "I was born away from both Gods and Mortals, in a deserted and hidden place of the Upper World ,but you see my mother was a Mortal and my father fully God... My father is Hades... God of The Underworld, the father of that damn child inside of you!"

A sudden wave of horror swept over me. Was he lying? I prayed to the Gods that he was! "Hades is your father?" Andor nodded and I saw hate begin to burn in his eyes at the mention of Hades' name. "He never told you do he?" There was clear delight in Andor's tone. It only made me hate him more! No, Hades had never told me!

"Anyway, if you'll listen once more, Persephone... Hades rejected my mother and I... He'd fallen in love with a certain Goddess, much fairer than my mother, much more powerful, much more Queenly... Shall we say? She was everything to him, he had to have her... And many years later he had to kidnap her... He had to have you, Persephone!" I swallowed hard. Impossible...

I turned my eyes to the ground, I didn't want to hear anymore. "I am a Demi-God and I don't dare to call myself King of The Gods! I've been lying to you, Persephone! The Gods are all at Mount Olympus, clueless that I have got you. I still want that child inside of you dead, though... I want revenge on my father and you!"

Fear rose inside of me... "Why did you feel the need to lie then? Why couldn't you say your life story before and how you want revenge! The Prophecy there is none is there?" I hollered. My child would not be King of The Mortals or Gods... Andor was a liar transfixed upon the very idea of revenge.

My child, my innocent little baby would die for a Demi-God's revenge! Heat surged through my veins... I'd kill him! Because Demi-Gods are not immortal! They are not immune from suffering and pain... I would make Andor drown in agony for lying to me! For threatening the life of my unborn child!... For being Hades's daring and heinous son!

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