Hades wrapped his wings around me tighter, pieces of ash fluttering against my eyelashes. “We both have our roles. I’ve never marveled in the cards I’ve been dealt, but we do what we must because it’s our responsibility.”
“Says the man with near the power of Zeus.” Thanatos snarled.
“Says the man who can never remain on the surface. I’m not going to discuss whose existence is more pitiful over the others. You are a god! Act like one!” The embers on the top of his wings glowed brighter.
The sound of a sword blade sliding against stone reverberated in my chest. “I will not go back. Even if it means killing you in the process, my lord.”
His wings shifted, spreading wide, but his hand still held me behind him. “Don’t be foolish. You know you can’t win.”
“Has anyone ever tried?”
Thanatos launched forward. The ground beneath me disappeared, replaced by a hole glowing orange and billowing smoke. I started to fall, but Hades wrapped one arm around me, suspending us in the air with his wings. As soon as Thanatos floated through the hole, it sealed up, and my throat tightened. Dark water flowed below us. The surrounding torches reflected flames on the surface, illuminating the wailing ghosts who swam within it.
The animated fog Hades used to show me the Underworld in the spa paled compared to its real appearance.
Thanatos raised a large sword above his head, its blade the length of his body. He propelled forward. Hades growled, diving us toward the water. I pinched my eyes shut, and my back collided with wood.
I expected to feel cold and wet in the river, but instead, I was nestled within a boat, floating on its own toward a cave entrance. Thanatos and Hades fought in the air. Thanatos swung his sword while Hades used his smoke power as a guiding force against him.
A pair of ghostly hands gripped onto the edge of the boat, a gangly head following. The only hair it had was a few strands sprouting from the top of its head, darkened cavities in its skull where eyes used to be. When it wailed, holes formed in its cheek, showing teeth. I gasped, scooting back to the other side of the boat. Would it have been disrespectful to stomp its hands away with my feet? As it pulled itself out of the water, I didn’t care and stomped my feet at it until it fell away, re-joining the other lost souls.
The river Styx. I was in the Underworld. Panic tugged at my insides, but there wasn’t time for it. I needed to focus.
As the cave entrance grew closer and closer, panic tugged at my spine. According to Hades’ explanation, the river was about to end in his throne room. Above me, Thanatos reached for Hades’ wings, but only managed to grab bits of feather and embers. Hades grabbed him, plunging him into the water. The souls crawled over Thanatos, crying in agony, but he shrugged them away, floating back into the air.
Darkness flooded over the boat as it made its way through the tunnel. I gripped onto the edge of the vessel. Just ahead, an enormous throne stood, made of burnt bone. Pillars surrounded the throne with a moat of fire. Sconces hung from the ceilings by chains, blue flames flickering within them.
The boat stopped when it beached itself on a sanded shoreline, black sand. I hoisted myself onto the bank, gripping my arm. I backed away from the water, watching as the souls climbed into the abandoned boat, crying when they found no one inside. All these poor people stuck in limbo with no direction on where to spend their eternal lives.
I walked toward the throne, a chill traveling down my back, trying to imagine what Hades looked like seated on it. All imposing and merciless when he needed to be. Hades came crashing through the cave entrance, his arm clipping the edge of a stone pillar. Rocks flew into the surrounding walls and plunged into the water. I pressed my back against the side of his throne.
“We could do this until the end of time, Hades. Why can you not simply let me be?” Thanatos roared. The sound of his sword slicing echoed through the cavern.
“I need someone on the surface. I can’t do both,” Hades snarled. “And you call Zeus selfish.”
“Very well. You leave me no choice but to persuade you.”
Thanatos appeared in front of me. Red fog eked over my hands, working its way up to my face. When I looked up, the hood of his cloak draped over his head, and his face was nothing but a hollow shadow.
Hades made a shrill whistle. A canine growl followed by several snapping jaws sounded. Three pairs of glowing red eyes emerged from a darkened corner of the throne room. A massive creature with three heads loomed over Thanatos, drool dripping down its jaws. Cerberus.
Hades pointed at his guard dog. “Watch her.”
Cerberus slid in front of me, his claws scraping across the stone floor. In the fog scape Hades showed me, Cerberus was as big as my forearm. In reality, he was as tall as a skyscraper. There was something oddly comforting about having such a large creature defending you. It didn’t keep my knees from shaking at the sight of him, however.
“You think your pet can stop me?” Thanatos asked, the fog under his feet carrying him backward.
Hades glared, still suspended in the air. His flapping wings sounded like a flickering flame. “His bite is far worse than my bark. Do you want to continue with this charade?”
“Like all the other gods, here you are underestimating me,” Thanatos growled. He slammed the blade of his sword into a nearby pillar, sending rocks into one of Cerberus’ heads.
The other two heads snapped at Thanatos, but Cerberus kept his ground in front of me as his master ordered. The head the rocks pummeled blinked one of its eyes, and snarled, claws digging into the ground.
Hades flew down like Superman and collided into Thanatos’s chest. The impact sent both gods in a violent tumble of fog and smoke.
Cerberus’ feet twitched. Hades threw punch after punch at Thanatos’ face before being tossed away, slamming into the side of his throne. Cerberus slid forward but stopped again.
I gulped, reaching a hand out to touch the fur on the canine’s leg. The nearest head dipped down, eyeing my fingers. It sniffed me and let out a huff, sending my hair flying backward. Suppose I should’ve been glad there wasn’t snot to accompany it. “I think it makes more sense for you to help him defeat Thanatos rather than be stuck in this corner by me, wouldn’t you say?”
His head shook before he snorted and nudged me with his forehead. I stumbled, my heart racing. Cerberus charged forward, capturing Thanatos in one of his massive jaws, tossing him back and forth like a rag doll.
Thanatos cackled. “Does this ignorant canine think it can snap me like a twig?”
“He’s distracting you,” Hades boomed, his eyes bursting with white, wings glowing a furious orange. He threw his hands forward, arms shaking, as a blue swirl eked from Thanatos’ chest.
My stomach growled. The kind of hunger pains that make you feel nauseated. How could I be thinking about food at a time like this? It was so excruciating it made me grip my stomach in agony.
“What have you done?” Thanatos cried.
The blue swirls wrapped around Hades’ forearms. “I’ve removed your essence. What gives you your power. If you leave the Underworld without it, you will become nothing but mist in the air.”
Thanatos growled, trying to reach for him, but Cerberus kept his hold. “You’re as cruel as they say, Hades.”
A pain formed in my chest hearing Hades be called cruel. It had been almost distracting enough until my stomach twisted harder.