Euryale moved in her dark, murky cell. Her scales glistened for the time is nigh. A few more breaths, a few more reconciliations with ghosts of her past and then Death will come claim her. As promised.
When the cold chill swept across the corners she closed her eyes and sighed. "You took long enough."
The shadow sat by the jutting dent of cobblestones. His cold grey stare sending chills down her already frozen veins.
"The protection here is massive," Hades responded, "Getting passed doesn't come easy."
"Nothing comes easy, you know that."
"Of course."
Euryale turned to him before an awkward silence greets. Hades met her gaze and saw it in her, an undulating sadness.
"So how will you do it?" she inquired and Hades flinched. He was, after all still unused to taking lives despite having been known with anything tentative to death.
"You need not know…" Hades sighed. "But Hera. How did you do it?"
"Venom. A bite on the pulse."
"Did she suffer?"
"I hoped not. She said I was here for that purpose."
Hades sniffed after a click of tongue. "She told you everything?"
Euryale nodded.
"Did she tell you that secret comes with a price?"
Again she nodded, the sadness in her eyes being pushed aside by a hopeful smile. "And a prize."
Hades pursed his lips, nodding in agreement
. "You willed to know the cursed knowledge for an exchange of what, what did you ask from Hera?"
"That Stheno lives, wherever she is. I've failed Medusa, I won't fail another sister. I loved Poseidon and it wasn't a secret. But he desired her instead and when he came for her I… I didn't save her, despite her cries for help I turned a blind eye." She sighed, deep and long. "I have one more sister I could atone my error with."
Hades looked away, at the faint illumination of a torch. The shadows played along dank walls as the small fire danced on its tip.
"I haven't thanked you yet, for telling them," he spoke, barely above whisper.
"Telling them wh – ? Oh. The battle in Crete. I heard it hadn't gone well."
"I am unsure. First I thought I failed… and yet I feel something was just about right."
"With a great price, Hades…" the snake's eyes glimmered with warning, "Fate has chosen the lesser evil. I hope you know what you're doing."
The god of Underworld threw a dubious look before Euryale spoke again. "You could do me a favor in return, though."
Hades listened on.
"I want it painless…"
He inhaled deeply. However he willed not to go on, it was a how things worked, what kept loyalty to promises alive. He forced a nod before facing her brave eyes. "Sleep." He whispered softly, kissed the serpent in the brow and waited till her last breath was lulled to a dreamless chasm.
The King inhaled sharply, his face sour as the cold wine in hand, contemplating on how things had gone southward within a blink. His chamber was a mess of shards of glass and maimed furniture, rubbles of porcelain and dented iron. His fists were a pallet of purple and red.
He turned to the door, at Hermes the messenger gawking over a leftover feast of rage.
"What?"
Hermes felt his skin jump. Standing there he was a dartboard for fiery spears. He cleared his throat. "The Romans have accepted your inquest for audience. But… instead of your travel to them, they are willing to come over. Although it was mentioned only a few may arrive."
Ares chewed on the wall of his mouth in the slow sinking of matters on his head. How he hated the way silver eyes cloud his view whenever wine does its magic! He sighed. "In how many days?"
"A couple or so," Hermes replied, still doting over the ruins within Ares' den. He had always admired the marble fountain statue which was now an eyesore of wreck.
Ares barely nodded, and Hermes took this a signal to leave. In exchange of his presence, another came by, one he both dreaded and longed to converse with. Waiting for her made minutes agonizing.
Eilithyia entered, her face taut and acrid. Seeing her, Ares felt a momentary faze – she almost looked like their mother. "Ely," he muttered. Both knew the fear in his eyes wasn't of her presence, but the news she bears for him.
"Ares," the goddess of childbirth acknowledged her brother. She looked around. "I see you're… redecorating."
"How…" Ares gulped. "How is she…?"
A nudge of anxiety coursed across him at the way her hazel eyes turned glassy. She faced him finally unable to divert any more the issue, shaking her head. "She lost it."
It need not take seconds for color to drain from Ares' face. He could not make of it… he handled tragic losses in battle better than this, carried bitter wounds lighter than this. Rotten meat and fresh piss would have tasted sweeter. When his chest ached for air he realized he had stopped breathing and that life had temporarily been sucked out of him. His knees turned brittle, making him clutch towards the pillar for support.
No… Ares' head ached and his vision became numb. He ran both hands across his head, teeth grinding in angst and complexity.
As Ely watched on, the deeper her cynicism bit. How dare he act this way just now. "Why?" she asked devoid of empathy, "She's just the Queen. She's just your wife. That was just another child. You seem bothered brother."
The pain in Ares' face made her frown. He stared at her, absorbing her ruthless words as they ran a blade deep in his thoughts. Of course he was bothered… of course he was angry, he was tormented, he was a riot of emotions burning inside waiting to explode. He had so many answers but none on how or why her questions were swallowing his sanity.
"Don't you give me that look Ares," Ely scoffed, "Your Queen and wife had been bleeding for two nights and the palace was at chaos to save the child. Not even your shadow made a pass at her chamber. Don't act so suddenly like you care."
Disgusted, the goddess turned back to leave until Ares finally managed a small voice. "I couldn't… I couldn't bear it… I still hear her screaming in my head and I couldn't make it stop, I don't know how… to heal her. It keeps coming like waves in the shore… echoing…"
"Shut up and go see her," Ely commanded, "You're a savage, not an idiot. You're a monster in love and that's a terrible thought. Go see her. And when you do," her eyes softened, "Wipe those tears. She doesn't need to see another depressing fool."
As golden hour doused the palace, rays of fading sunlight beamed through crisscross shutters and bead curtains. Light reflected among diamonds studded within the pillars, making the Queenschamber seem a sea of fireflies.
Ares stood by the small opening of the door he had so many times crashed in, the last time he did had suddenly changed everything.
Through the narrow crack he saw his Queen, pallid and broken as she lay on the bed. Dark rings drew around her eyes; her hair was a coarse nest of despair. Her pale sunken cheeks were throttled with tears. The sheets her hips laid on was doused with blood, its iron stench clinging into the damp air.
Artemis huddled beside her, holding her white hand and kissing her brow reassuringly. Once more he was filled with shame hot and heavy like molten rock. What was he supposed to say? He withdrew, cape scratching the floor at once sight of Apollo standing by his twin sister – arms crossed and already glaring at him.
Ares clicked his tongue at the unpleasant wave of resentment at the Sun god's deep cobalt eyes. Something in them was setting a fire he believed could be unquenchable. The King turned back at the thought he could come by later, when, faster than lightning Apollo had suddenly appeared with an arresting grip on the King's arm.
They stood facing opposite directions and Ares could not help the wonder how in a snap of a finger Apollo was carried off from within the room to his side. He looked back at the space he'd last seen him, and now the closest creature for no more than a feet away.
"You really like doing this, don't you?" Apollo muttered, "Drinking on terror, feasting on pain…"
Ares could not deny the astonishment at a sudden swift of mood. Apollo used to be a happy fellow, bright, radiant… anything but sinister, which he had surprisingly sounded like.
The Sun god inched his face closer so their jaws almost met. "I'm sorry I haven't accepted your challenge back at the mouth of that cave. It was really disrespectful of me… but know this, Ares…"
The King met Apollo's glare equally, desiring to look him in the eye at the reception of threat.
"The next time you lay a hand, much less a finger, at Athena… I won't only fight you," Apollo seethed and Ares felt it, genuine ire. The grip on his arm wound tighter like a snake to its victim –
"I will kill you…"
Ares' eyes narrowed, his jaw becoming tensing with a sneer. "Good. Then I'll make you wish so bad you'd come back to life again."
"No." Apollo loosened his fist. "But I wish unborn children could."
As the Sun god left so did a searing pain on Ares' skin increased. He saw the spot where the grip once was, its surface red and black from faintly burnt flesh – a mark of fire and promise.
He returned when the skies were dark and torches were lit, when the palace had fallen into a deepening slumber. Ares closed his eyes summoning strength to push himself through her doors. When the hinges creaked and his feet stepped forth he knew he should not turn back.
The chamber was quiet as a crypt. A single glass lantern hung in the corner, the odor of burning incense drove away the stench of blood. He found her curled on the still hammock, facing the dark sky made starless by wisps of grey cloud. The way she turned her head to the side assured she knew someone had entered her seclusion.
"The Romans are coming," Ares spilled, almost breathless and unconfident, "…as you wished."
Athena slowly returned her stare at the empty space before her. The King could feel cold bullets splayed on his scalp, melting at his personal urges to say anything at all. He inhaled at the feel of thickening tongue. "I… hoped you'd join me… to meet them soon."
Gods damn you, woman. Talk to me.
Ares ran a hand across his moist hair, nodding to himself at the defeat of silence. He faced the exit and began to walk off when a jolt of willpower pulled him back. "Do you need anything? Just… anything at all…"
A few more rapid breaths and he heard the Queen respond weakly, much to his relief.
"I think I do…"
Ares exhaled, releasing the agony near to bursting at the back of his head. He went nearer, aching so bad to hear more, to see more – the anguish in her eyes, the way she makes anger beautiful, to revel in her laughter and curse it just the same… He stood an arm's length behind her, quickly withdrawing his hand from running through her hair. How strange it was to feel a peculiar want to fix her, protect her, far apart from the carnal excitements he used to cradle.
"Stupid, right…?" Athena murmured, drained of all strength she used to pride. "Our father. To have believed we could pull this circus off." Her small laughter was an ironic fun.
"If anyone was a fool, it would be him, who knew better we were meant to eternally loathe each other and yet… here we are, Ares… our marriage a comedy for trolls.
"And of all I inherited from him, it was this stupidity. I did never want to give you up, give us up. I don't know why there were these snippets of hope it will work." Athena sniffled behind a woeful smile. "One day one of us would kill the other. But before that happens…
"Tonight can we pretend we're good?"
Ares stepped back in numbing stance.
"Can we pretend we're happy…?" Athena sighed. A lone tear made way, chasing back the pain that crushed her the day she lost a life and until then she had but enough dances with the vulture which left her crippled and crestfallen. She wanted to rant about his ill vices, about the child she lost to his violence, about everything adept to misdemeanors in their hands. But it wouldn't budge anything no matter. When the sun rises the wheel will turn and they will be back to who they were. The Queen's voice hollowed until it broke.
"I'm just so… so tired… Ares."
The King stared at the floor, at spellings of guilt sprawled over which only he could read. How wretched theirs has turned out… so bad his wife had to beg for pretensions of kindness.
"You win. You win and you can now do as you please; just… just let me sleep with the memory of the night I felt you gentle. And then I'll be forever grateful."
Ares closed his eyes, letting him drown in self contempt at the ghosts of his past. He walked affront her; lowering himself he took her cold hand and pressed it against his lips. Athena absorbed a reassuring touch, the feel of callused hand, of warm skin and stubble, and she took it greedily as the next morrows will not let it happen again. When he squeezed his arm behind below her neck and the other behind the knees, she inhaled his scent – the concocted musk of divinity and sick perversion that formed him.
He lifted her, light as a sword to his surprise and she basked in his strength, her strength, her husband and her god. The seconds she clung to him equaled the most fragile seconds of her life. It was the first she would have depended on someone's mercy, had he known, cut short by the time he laid her safe on the cool sheets of her bed.
Athena lay grim to her side, feeling his weight pull down the space behind her. He muttered something in her ear, a sort of apology or whatever it was she did not catch it lounging on the sultry way he encircled his arm around her small waist and pressed her gently against him. Ares waited for her repose. Burying his face on her hair he felt her shudder. He could not have imagined how sublime she – a small frail thing, could fit on his chest. This is wrong, he insisted, they were oil and water, ice and fire… so wrong and sacrilegious yet perfect.
And she stayed still, the last tear slipping her eye as she closed them into a tranquil sleep, her last season wishes this could last forever.
A/N : I now blame the god of angst and cheesiness whoever you are lol. Been listening to Lord Huron's "The Night we Met" (Ooooh oooohooooh... xD) and Lana Del Rey's "Shades of Cool" (I can't fix him, can't make him better... I can do nothing about his strange weather...) as I typed away now I can't get the songs out!
Your responses to the last chapter were mind blowing! Can't thank you enough. Hope to read yours again. And most of all, stay safe!