Hecate snorted. 'Absolutely not.'
'What did Hades do to upset Zeus?' I asked the question casually, although I was burning to know the answer.
'He broke one of their very few sacred rules. He created new life in Olympus.'
'Life? But he's all about the dead.' I frowned at Hecate, and she cocked her head at me.
'Hades isn't like the other Olympians, Persy. There's far more to him than people see.'
I thought about those silver eyes, so full of emotion. But then the fire, the taste of blood, the smell of burning filled my head and I sighed.
'People only see smoke,' I said.
'He wasn't always like that,' she answered quietly. Something in my stomach tightened.
'What happened?' I asked, but deep in my gut, I already knew the answer.
'You.'
Fourteen
It seemed like no time at all until I was standing in front of the gods again, lined up on their thrones, building-sized flames dancing on either side of the floating throne room. I found my eyes fixed on Hades' smoky form, framed by the intimidating skulls making up the back of his huge seat. My palms began to sweat.
'Good day, Olympus!' the commentator's voice rang out suddenly, and I whirled to see him stood behind me.
'Gods, he's irritating,' said Skop's voice in my head, and I glanced down at him, sat by my feet.
'Agreed,' I told him silently.
'So today we have an unannounced Trial! As our little Persephone is human, and as such the only contender with no powers, she will be granted an additional reward if she completes this test.'
I pictured a room with windows, the idea of not being underground hardening my resolve. Even if the view was of a barren wasteland.
'He wasn't always like this.' Hecate's words replayed in my head. She had refused to say anymore, and my frustration at the tidbits of my past she was dropping was getting harder to suppress. Had I caused that wasteland outside too? What had I done?
'The Trial will be one of Glory,' beamed the commentator, and my pulse quickened. Please not fighting, please no demons, I prayed. 'Today we get to see Persephone face some of her fears,' he sang, and I felt my stomach lurch. My fears? How would they know what my fears were? If there was a single fucking spider involved, the room with windows would have to go, I thought, as anxiety ratcheted my temperature up. 'We will not be performing the Trial in the throne room though, so let us away to the chasm!'
'What?' I started to say, but that damn white light flashed again and everything was gone.
When the light cleared from my eyes, I swear my heart stopped beating for a moment. I was standing on the edge of a sheer drop. I stumbled backwards, my heart in my throat, as my knees began to wobble. I instinctively crouched down, to lower my center of gravity and to stop myself falling if my legs did actually give out. My head swam as vertigo began to swamp my working senses, nausea building as I stared over the edge of the drop. Whoever had spoken to me during the last trial had known I was too scared to move when I was flung to the edge of the hole in the fighting pit. They'd known I was terrified of heights. Was this their doing?
Get a grip. Get a grip. You're nowhere near the edge. You don't even know what you have to do yet. I forced myself to look around, taking deep breaths. I would be better once the adrenaline kicked in, and surged me past the initial fear.
I was outside. Actually outside, after days of wanting to be. There was nothing but dull beige sky above me, and the cliff edge I was crouching on was gouged out of the dry, dusty ground. There was another cliff opposite me, forming the other side of what I assumed the commentator had been referring to as the 'chasm' and all of the gods were there, lined up on their thrones, their faces too distant for me to make out expressions. I took more deep breaths, trying to feel a breeze or take comfort from the fact that I was no longer underground, but it felt no different. The air didn't move, the temperature was neither cool nor warm, there were no scents filling my nostrils. It didn't feel like any outside I was used to.
'Hecate? Skop?' I called hopefully.
'I'm on the other side,' said Skop in my head, and I was surprised by how much comfort I drew from hearing his voice.
'I'm scared of heights,' I said too quickly, as thought expressing my fear might expel it. It didn't.
There was a long pause.
'Shit,' he said eventually.
'So here we are at the chasm! As you all know from previous contestant's Trials, this is a particularly nasty part of the underworld,' rang out the commentator's voice. 'Fall down there and you'll fall forever.' Bile rose in my throat. Fall forever? Being burned up by magic flames was one thing, but to fall forever? Goosebumps rose on my skin. I genuinely couldn't think of many things more terrifying. 'All Persephone needs to do to complete the Trial is get to the other side. Good luck!'
'What?' I exclaimed aloud. How the fuck was I supposed to get to the other side? There were no bridges, and the chasm was at least twenty meters across so jumping wasn't an option. Not that I'd have been able to jump over a freaking one meter gap, if it was over an endless void. 'How?' I yelled. I stared over at the gods, small in the distance. Nothing. I turned on the spot, staying crouched to stop my legs from shaking. The three judges were a few meters behind me, sitting on their grand seats and surrounded by empty, cracked land. 'Oh!' I said in surprise. None of them responded, their gazes boring into mine. I couldn't see anything else, so I turned back to the chasm. Maybe there was a bridge further down. But to find out, I would have to move closer to the edge.
I sat down, my insides shaking. For years and years I hadn't even been able to climb a step-ladder. It didn't matter how resolute or rational I was in my thoughts, my body betrayed my mind every time I was in a position where I could potentially fall. My legs and hands would shake, my breathing would become too shallow, and my vision would start to blur as dizziness took over.
You know what's coming, I told myself. So you can deal with it. You can do this.
I shuffled forwards on my butt, closer to the edge. I was only a foot away, so I didn't have to move far before my feet reached the precipice. I drew my knees up, and shuffled farther forward, forcing myself to take deep, slow breaths. I could see the chasm clearly now, and I looked left to right, trying to spot a bridge. There was nothing.
'It's invisible,' said Skop's voice in my head.
'What?'
'You're sort of at a disadvantage here, as you're not from Olympus and have no power, so I feel it's only fair I tell you. The bridge is invisible.'
'Then how the fuck am I supposed to cross it?' I hissed back in my mind.
'You have to feel for it. Then hope you walk straight. Or go across on your butt. That works too.'
'Feel for it? Are you fucking psychotic?' If my heart beat any faster I was sure I'd throw up. Or have a heart attack and drop down dead. Although I'd rather that than cross an invisible bridge over an endless fall. 'There is no fucking way I'm doing this.'
'Try.'
I started at the voice, my breath catching. It wasn't Skop's. It was the same one I'd heard in the last Trial.