His mouth grew dry. “Are you saying—”
“Yes. When Talisa’s time comes—which won’t be for quite a while—and assuming you stay in the light, the choice to go with her to the Isles of the Blessed or remain in the human world will rest with you. Just as it does for all the gods.”
When her time comes…
She was alive. She wasn’t going to die anytime soon. And the only place he ever wanted to be was with her—in this life or the next.
Excitement shot through every nerve ending in his body, making his skin tingle and his pulse race. He stepped toward the Fate, knowing she was here to take him to Talisa, then faltered when he realized what this was going to cost his mother.
He turned back to face her. “Hades… ”
“I’ll deal with Hades. Don’t worry. And I’ll make sure he leaves you and your mate alone.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” He reached for her hand. “He’ll punish you for this. Why are you risking that for me?”
A sad smile tugged at her lips. “Because you are my son. I could never be the mother I wanted to be because Hades was always watching. I had to step back and let you rise or fall on your own. It gutted me every time you failed, but watching you these last few years, witnessing what you’ve overcome… It made me realize that anything is possible.”
She lifted her hand to his face and gently brushed his jaw. “You didn’t love her before. But I can see that the love you feel for her now is just as pure and honest and real as the obsessive, controlling, overwhelming love I have for Hades. Love is about sacrifice, yios. About what it takes and what it gives. And what you were willing to sacrifice proved to me that being in the Underworld was not where you were meant to spend eternity.”
Emotions choked his throat. Too many to name. When he reached for her, she closed her arms around his shoulders and held him. Something she hadn’t done since he was a child.
At his back, Lachesis said, “It’s time.”
Releasing her, he smiled down at her, thinking he’d been wrong about her. He’d been wrong about everything.
Persephone smiled and gently brushed her fingers over his cheek. “Do me a favor.”
“Anything.”
“Find your sister Maelea. She’s in Argolea. Tell her… Tell her I’m sorry for nearly ruining things between her and her mate.”
“Her mate?”
“He’s an Argonaut. One you’ve probably already met. I certainly wouldn’t have picked him for her, but then I wouldn’t have picked your female for you, either.”
He smirked, knowing she was trying to make this normal when they both knew it was anything but. “The Argonauts aren’t too fond of me.”
“Something tells me they don’t mind you so much anymore.”
His expression sobered when he looked back into her dark eyes. “Will you be all right?”
“Yes. I made my choice just as you did. I chose Hades and this life, and I would not change it even if I could. I love him. You might never understand that love, but then it’s not your place to understand it. All you need to know is that this is the life I was always destined for. It’s the one I want.”
He nodded, knowing she meant it. Knowing also that by choosing to stay with Hades, their relationship would likely be severed from here on out.
“Ziggy?” Lachesis called, using the nickname she and the other Fates had given him during those twenty-five years he’d spent in their realm. “Are you ready?”
Once upon a time, that nickname had infuriated him. Now it reminded him that anything was possible. Even a miracle.
Kissing his mother’s cheek, he squeezed her hands and whispered, “Thank you.”
He let go and stepped back. The grey fields began to fade around him, but his gaze stayed locked on his mother. And his last image of her wasn’t in the wheat. It was of her standing tall and proud on the dark rocky cliff across the field, with the hot wind ruffling her hair and long black dress beneath the swirling red sky.
Forever the formidable Queen of the Dead.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Brilliant color surrounded Zagreus as he opened his eyes. Color he recognized.
Turning a slow circle, he looked over the courtyard of the castle. The Ehrendian castle he’d never expected to see again.
Evening was just settling over the kingdom. Lights flicked on, shimmering across the cobblestones, the tables and chairs set up for some kind of party, in lanterns lining the village main street, and reflecting off the water in the lake down the hill. Flower garlands were strung all across the courtyard—spring flowers in bursts of pastel colors. And the air was warm and balmy, telling him he’d been trapped in the Underworld longer than he’d realized—at least six months.
Nymphs scurried around, preparing for some kind of feast, but they weren’t the nymphs he remembered. None wore their traditional short white gowns. Some were decked out in colorful dresses, others in stylish capris and skirts, and all of them—even the silens helping—looked relaxed and carefree in a way he could never have predicted.
Several of the nymphs even looked like they’d gotten fat. Which was weird because nymphs were otherworldly and blessed with perfect figures.
Too focused on getting to Talisa to wonder what was going on with the nymphs, he looked down at Lachesis floating above the stones at his side. “Why did you bring me here? I thought you were taking me to Talisa.”
“Oh, Ziggy.” Lachesis smirked. “You didn’t think a warrior as strong as Talisa would be content sitting in Argolea, twiddling her thumbs while someone else protected her people, did you?”
“Her people?”
Lachesis turned her glowing blue eyes his direction. “You are Dionysus, a prince of the light. The maenads are your devoted followers. And she is your mate, a princess of—”
“Of my life,” he finishes for the Fate, growing more excited by the second as he looked around and spotted Talisa’s father across the courtyard, speaking with—wow—Nick and two of the Argonauts.
“Is that why they’re here? To keep her protected from Hades?”
“No. Hades doesn’t know where she is. And the Argonauts are here because she agreed to let them use Ehrendia as a base in the human realm while they search for Maximus, Pandora’s box, and the last element.”
Of course she had. Because it was the right thing to do. She always knew the right thing to do.
He glanced down at Lachesis again, confusion drawing his brows together. “How does Hades not know? He was right outside the border of this kingdom. And after I left, the magick I used to protect the border—”
“Vanished with you. Yes, that’s true. But Nick and your mages resolidified the borders. Then Nick left and returned with therillium so the entire kingdom would be invisible to the outside eye from any viewpoint.”
Therillium. Hades’s invisibility ore. Ehrendia’s borders weren’t just camouflaged anymore. The entire kingdom was invisible.
“Nick returns every few months with a new supply,” Lachesis went on. “He also makes sure Talisa has everything she needs to keep your people safe.”