"No!" I scream, the syllables drawn out so long it feels as if it splits the earth in two.
Theia covers her ears, momentary lapse so I'm able to roll to my discarded scythe, grab hold with my good hand and throw. It lands in her side, and I pull it back all the way across. Her guts spill out and she clutches at the wound, stares at me with wide, gem eyes before she falls and her trumpet blares within the next few seconds.
Hades is holding onto his own wound, coughing up blood. I stand an try to rush to him, but an explosion goes off in the distance and I fall to the ground. And my body hurts, and I am desperate, can't see through my own tears as I crawl to him, grab at him and try to move his hands away from the wound.
"It's okay," I say. "It's gonna be okay."
"Kore," he says.
"I'll get the medicine from Artemis," I say, glance at her lifeless body and feel like I'm going to be sick.
I try and stand, but Hades grabs my hands. "Kore," he says. "It's no use. Please. Just stay with me."
How can I say no to that?
A broken sob escapes me and I hug him tight, sob into his matted, bloody hair. "Don't die," I whisper. "Please don't leave me."
"It's okay," he says again, and then there's a stabbing pain right below my ribs, right below my heart. I gasp, fall back from him and touch the blood, the crimson leaking out and marring my fingers.
He's stabbed me; tried to reach my heart but he was too weak.
We aren't competitors until the moment it matters most...
It matters now.
"It's what you wanted," he says, tears in his own eyes. He's clutching a knife I didn't know he had. "From Artemis," he says. "She gave me it, before we left, for..."
For you. He doesn't have to say the words to make me understand.
We never heard a trumpet for Hestia.
"It's okay," I whisper again, draw a shallow breath.
"I'm so sorry," he says, blood dribbling down his chin; his tears and the rain mix in and turn it pink. "I'm so, so sorry. But I knew you couldn't and I- and Hestia, and, and-"
"I wanted to die with you," I say to calm him, touch the sides of his face and kiss him hard, ignore the vile taste of Thanatos lingering on his lips and kiss him again. "I love you."
"I love you too," he whispers, trembling and panting and I know this is it. This is how I'll lose him.
"Please don't go," I say, staring at the grey of his eyes, the scar on his chin, the only safe haven I've ever really known
"We'll be together...soon," he says, voice weak, limbs numb. "I'll finally get to meet Plutus."
Another sob rips from my throat, snot bubbling over and mixing with blood. My wound is literally killing me and I don't care, clutch him tight despite the pain.
"Please don't leave me," I say again, desperately.
He smiles, a smile he's only ever given me. "Never," he says, and draws his last breath.
A trumpet goes off.
For a while I just sit there with his body, trying to bring him back, singing softly to him and saying it's okay. It's okay it's okay it's okay. I start screaming eventually, broken words and agony. It hurts and my throat is raw by the end of it.
And eventually Hades starts getting cold, and I'm losing feeling in the area he stabbed me, my heart beating too fast and making the blood-loss come quicker. And I can't do this, I can't go out and not have said something.
I won't go silent.
That's when I stand on shaky legs, collapse and get back up.
I tip my head to the heavens, know they're watching me. "Are you entertained now?! Are you in control!?" I scream, hope the Capital shoots me down to make this go quicker."All of this death for what?! For nothing! It's a lie! You are all a lie! You act like Gods, sit on your thrones and wait for sacrifice! But you are the weak ones! You are the cowards! When will your blood be spilt instead of ours? For what do you evoke this senseless violence? For what?!" I drop to my knees, gather dirt, gather the earth in my hands and whisper, "For what?"
Hestia finds me like that. She creeps up covered in soot, takes one look at Hades' dead body and falls to her knees beside me, shallow sobs. I hold her, because it's all I have left in me to do. I'm dying, I know I am.
I'm surprised it's taking so long, my body still refusing to give in even though it has nothing left.
"I'm sorry," I say to her softly. "I couldn't save him."
She sniffles, touches my wound and I don't even feel her fingers slipping in. "You're bleeding."
"And you're covered in soot," I say softly, want to laugh at the funny image.
"The beasts..." she whispers. "I lost the fox and they came after me... I made them go boom." Like back in her Gamesmakers' session, when she scored a twelve. I'm starting to think everyone has underestimated this little girl, that she's a lot more dangerous than we all knew.
And I smile, because she's going to make it and the Capital won't rule her; I know they won't.
The Goddess of fire, of winning despite the odds.
"I want you to have this," I say then, un-clip the pin from my chest and fall back to sit on the ground, limbs too weak to crouch. "It's from your Republic anyways."
She takes the narcissus, stained with blood and death. "Okay," she whispers before curling it into her palm. "I'll never lose it, I promise."
"Good," I say to her softly, tuck her hair behind her ear like I would to Despoina after a hot day in the fields. "Good."
"I don't want you to die," she says then, and I laugh, cough up blood onto her chest and fall over. "Kore!"
"It's okay, little firestarter," I say softly, touch her face before my hand goes limp and falls to my side. "It's okay..."
"Kore," she whispers then, but I'm so surrounded by blackness it sounds like Persephone; it sounds like coming home.
Starjars chirp in the distance; the rain has stopped. Sun peaks through the clouds, and all of this madness is over. It's done.
And yet, as I lay dying, all I can think about is how I never caught that stupid fox, and the blackness takes me under.
A trumpet goes off.
There's the sound of air whizzing, of metal touching rock.
I feel arms around me, someone whispering, "Stay with me, Kore. Stay with me!"
"Daddy?" I whisper.
A soft bed, smell of sterile needles; I reach across the distance, find Hades' limp hand and grab hold before the blackness pulls me back under.
Plutus is there, bright lights. My father stands at his side, and they reach out to me. I try to take their hands, but I can't find Hades anywhere, and suddenly I shrink back. There's a shock in my chest and it hurts.
"I can't go with you," I say, and my father and Plutus nods. "Not yet."
I wake with a gasp, cold, white room and bright surgical lights.
"She's alive!" Someone says. "She's alive! We need to stabilize her."
I blink blearily up at a set of golden eyes, taste cigarette smoke in my mouth as someone kisses me. "Welcome back."
"I want my momma," I say to them, blinded by sudden, overwhelming pain. "Whe-where's...Hades...?"
"It's okay," the person says. "You'll figure it out soon. Until then, rest."
A pinprick in my arm. Darkness. But this time Plutus and my father aren't there. I call out to them, but they don't listen, and I know I'll never be able to go home again; the madness isn't over yet.
A/N: Attention: NOT THE LAST CHAPTER!