Chapter 8

Persephone

I became aware of my surroundings bit by bit. There was something soft under my cheek, and I nuzzled against it. Silk. I woke up a bit more and realized that something was wrong. I couldn't remember falling asleep on anything satin, and my bed back home was linen. In fact, I couldn't remember falling asleep. My half conscious mind struggled to wake up. I became increasingly frustrated and confused as my efforts to wake up entirely were proving futile. I felt as if I were drowning, and I couldn't even lift my arms to save myself.

Eventually, I was able to wrench myself out of my suffocating slumber. I was in an unfamiliar room, though I wasn't very surprised. My subconscious had known that something was wrong for some time. I stared at the room with wide eyes. In the dim lighting, all I could make out was dark grey stone walls that, strangely enough, glistened. Tapestries hung around the room, some depicting scenes that made me shudder. Where in Zeus's Name was I?

In a daze, I noticed a carved ebony vanity with crystal vials and a silver mirror, comb, and brush. A jewelry box sat on the vanity. It was brimming to the top with gold and silver necklaces, rings, bracelets, and earrings. All were embellished by large diamonds, pearls, rubies, emeralds, and all the other precious stones imaginable. A wardrobe that matched the vanity stood in the corner. It was opened and dresses spilled out. They all looked about my size and were all rich shades of the colors that looked best on me. I noticed these details despite my panic, and fear gripped my heart. Someone had planned for me.

The fear woke me up completely. I became aware for the first time of the weight around my middle. I could hear soft snoring behind me, almost in my ear. A part of me wondered why I hadn't noticed it before. The rest of me was focused on the arm and who might be attached to it. Slowly, I lifted it off of me and moved away from whoever it was. There, in the bed with me, slept an unfamiliar man. Panic began to well up inside of me again at the sight of him. It didn't lessen when I realized who it was.

His pale cheeks were hollow, and there were dark rings around his eyes. Despite the burden the face carried, there was a certain power about him. I had noticed the first time we had met the fire in his eyes and the might in his frame. Even in sleep, his body gave off the impression of strength.

"Hades?" My voice was barely more than a breath.

His eyes snapped open and looked directly at me. I stared back at him in horror. We sat like this for several heartbeats. He slowly sat up as well and warily reached out his hand towards me. I flinched back from his touch. He withdrew his hand with a confused look, and we continued to watch one another. Every muscle in my body was tense like a wild animal, ready to flee at the slightest movement.

I could stand it no more. I finally found my voice.

"What happened?" I demanded in a hoarse whisper. "Where am I? Why am I here?"

Hades kept staring at me intensely with his shadowed eyes. The force of his gaze unnerved me.

"Did something happen to me?" I tried again. Surely that was the reason? I refused to consider any other thought.

Silence.

"Will you stop staring at me and tell me what's going on?" Fear made my voice high and screechy.

"You're in the Underworld," Hades finally said. His voice, though deep and controlled, hinted at a torrent of emotions that could break out at any time.

"The Under-" My breath seemed to stick in my throat. The room twisted and spun around me. I couldn't breathe.

Hades stood and moved so he was standing in front of the cold fireplace. "Yes," he spoke without looking at me. "And you will be here for - a very long time."

"How long?" I refused to consider what the statement might mean.

He inspected his fingernails longer than any man had the right to before he answered me,

"Forever."

It was such an inadequate reply - such a brief word for so large of a concept.

"Forever," I gave a shaky laugh, trying to show confidence. On the inside I was so nervous that my stomach ached. "Why would you say that? There's nothing to stop me from walking away right now."

"Actually, there is. It is against the law of the Underworld for any to leave."

That was right. Cyrus had told me as much before.

"And besides," he took a deep breath and tentatively looked me in the eyes, as if waiting for my reaction. I knew that I didn't want to hear what he was going to say next, but I couldn't stop myself. "We're married now. Zeus performed the marriage himself."

Marriage. It was the ultimate form of commitment for a woman, and for it to be done by the Head god was to have no way out except for Zeus releasing me himself. Or by death. Since I was immortal, it seemed that only intervention from this nightmare would have to come from the very god that had placed me in it. And nightmare it was. Yes, I had wanted to see Hades again, but Zeus Almighty, that didn't mean I wanted to marry him. I had done nothing that I could recall that ever gave Hades the impression that I would welcome him abducting me.

And what about Mother? What would she do when she found me missing? I was her entire existence, as she liked to tell me often. Would I ever be able to see them again? Cyrus had claimed that no one was allowed to leave the Underworld once there. If she was right, then Hades was more cruel than I had thought anyone was capable of being. I felt a surge of anger.

I rose to my feet, shaking in wrath and in fear.

"How dare you?" I asked in a low, intense voice advancing slowly on Hades. "What makes you think that you have the right to steal me from my home?"

To his credit, he did not back down or cower at my fury, but stood his ground calmly. However, he did seem...surprised, as if he didn't expect my reaction. I received a shock as well when I caught a glimpse of hurt in his eyes.

"Well?" I asked, softening ever so slightly.

Perhaps this can be worked out, I tried to reason fairly. It could, after all, be a misunderstanding.

He narrowed his eyes in what I presumed to be confusion. "After what you said last night, I thought that you would welcome this. You can be your own person here, without your Mother telling you what to do."

So he had abducted me then. My anger boiled over.

"This isn't the way to achieve that!" I shouted. "As far as I'm concerned, I've gone from being her prisoner to yours."

Hades flushed a dark red. "I'm not keeping you prisoner here. I was just trying to help you!"

"Can I leave then?" I shot at him.

Hades looked down and said, grudgingly, "No. I already told you that."

"Then how am I not a prisoner?"

"Alright, I confess, you may be a prisoner in body, but not in mind. Your mother was going to force you to marry Apollo without even telling you."

"So you decided to kidnap me and marry me without asking me, or even my mother, for permission?"

"At least I'm not going to tell you what to do or what to love!"

"Except you want me to love you," I said scathingly. "Well, I'm not going to do it, Hades. I can't help being your wife in name, but I will not let it go any further. I don't want you to so much as touch me."

I was within arm's reach of him now, too close to get away when he grabbed me, as quick as a snake, and kissed me. Hatred rose up like bile in my throat and I shoved against his strong shoulders, but he still held me.

All my uncertainty, confusion, fear, and anger burst out of me in the form of thick, thorny vines that twisted themselves around Hades. They pinned his arms to his side and pushed him away from me.

For a moment, I stared in shock at my hands. I hadn't known that I could call forth such vicious life so quickly. I had, of course, used my god-powers before, but never like this. I had never produced life from nothing; I had only encouraged existing plants to grow.

I suddenly recalled with sharp clarity the power I had felt in my dream from what seemed a lifetime ago. This power was of the same kind as that. I was almost frightened at my own display of might. But I was more frightened at the moment of Hades.

He was struggling against the strong vines, trying to rip them away with his bare hands, but that made them only grow back stronger. Soon they were winding themselves around his neck and creeping over his face. For a moment, he stared at me wildly. Then his eyes narrowed and closed. I could feel god-power surrounding him, far stronger than my own.

My pulse quickened as I panicked again. I didn't know what would happen, but I knew it didn't bode well for me. I fled towards the door in the hope that I could escape before whatever was going to happen, did. I could feel the room get darker around me and then -

It felt as though my spine had been torn from my back, or like my breath was suddenly gone and refused to come back. I collapsed to the floor, just a step away from the door.

Even with my eyes shut, I could feel Hades's menacing presence looming over me

"You would be wise not to try me." Though he said it in a near whisper, there was again that barely controlled emotion under the surface of his hard voice. "I won't touch you, if that's what you want, but remember that in the Underworld, I am the master. I will not be attacked, not even by a weak woman like yourself."

"What did you do?" I asked. Though I tried to sneer as I said it, it came out as a whimper. Why was I so weak all of a sudden?

"I wish that you hadn't forced me to use my powers like that," he said as though whatever had just happened were only a slight irritation to him. "I dislike that particular method of dealing with problems, but you gave me few choices."

I lifted my head up, that now felt so heavy, and saw my vines laying on the ground, black as ash.

"You killed them."

"Yes." He sounded so...blasé about it. Did he know what he had done to me, or was he as ignorant about the full effects of his god-powers as I was of mine? Whichever it was, that didn't change the painful hollowness I felt inside of me.

I closed my eyes again against the overwhelming exhaustion that I felt. Mother had been more right than I had ever dreamed she would be. It had been foolish for me to think I knew better than her and to continue talking to Hades against her wishes.

That monster left the room now, without another word.

With what strength I still had, I stumbled to the bed and laid back on it. Tears trickled down my face, and even the little strength I had had just moments before faded into oblivion.