'What the...' I murmured, holding my hand hesitantly up to one of them, and drawing it back quickly as I felt the fierce heat. Well, I thought, raising my eyebrows, impressed. Maybe my brain was capable of more imagination than I'd been giving it credit for. I wonder what else is down here?
I didn't have to go much further before the steps leveled out, turning into a long flat corridor lined with more torches. I walked faster once I was on safer ground, looking up at the tunnel roof periodically. I wasn't claustrophobic, but when underground it seemed sensible to check the earth above your head was stable once in a while. I walked for about a mile before I reached a closed wooden door, carved with what looked like ancient Greek letters, all glowing the same blue as the torches on the walls. I reached out for the iron ring in the middle and pulled hesitantly. The door didn't budge. I pulled harder, dreading the thought of having to go back up all those steps, back into the stormy meadow. The door didn't move even a millimeter, and I snarled as I dropped the ring in frustration. It thudded against the wood and then bounced twice, the knocks ringing out loudly in the narrow chamber. I froze, the noise unexpected and unnerving. A slow creak sounded, and I took a quick step back from the door. It was swinging open.
If I'd thought my imagination had done well with blue fire, then it deserved a freaking award for the woman stood in front of me.
She was pale-skinned and wearing skin-tight black leather from head to foot, showing a hell of a lot of cleavage. Jet black hair run through with hundreds of tiny tight silver plaits was pulled up in a high ponytail, which showed the intricate black pattern tattooed on the shaved bottom half of her skull. Silver jewelry covered her ears, wrists and hands, all of it sharp. Earrings like daggers hung down from her lobes, and she wore finger sheaths that ended in gleaming claw-like points. A shining tiara set with a single black stone was wrapped around her forehead, which drew attention to her most remarkable feature of all. She had no pupils. Her eyes were pure white.
'Welcome to hell,' she said, with a grin.
Four
As I watched, too stunned to do anything else, the white began to leak from her eyes, and her grin slipped as electric blue irises and dark pupils began to form.
'No. Fucking. Way,' she said slowly. I moved my mouth but no words came out. I just gaped at her, and she gaped back. 'He found you. He actually fucking found you. Oh gods, Hades is gonna... Oh shit. Oh shit, shit, shit!' She stamped her foot, her silky voice rising in pitch and her hands flexing into fists.
'Who found me?' I half-whispered. 'And... why is everyone talking about Hades?'
The woman chewed on her bottom lip as her black brows drew together. She shook her head.
'Zeus. Zeus found you. I don't believe it.'
I let out a barked laugh and she leaned one hand on her hip, unsmiling.
'It's not funny, it's a fucking disaster.'
'What are you talking about? And who are you?' I said, my confidence growing at her words. I'd been obsessed with Greek mythology since I was a kid. This was definitely something my stupid-ass brain would make up.
'I'm Hecate. And you're Persephone. And you're not supposed to be here, that's what I'm talking about.'
'Hecate? As in the goddess of magic?'
'Amongst other things, yeah,' she said, regarding me. 'So... you remember some stuff then?'
'From classical studies? Yeah, I remember loads,' I said, frowning. 'I carried on studying Greeks and Romans after school.'
'Classical studies. Right,' Hecate said, nodding slowly. 'You remember nothing from...' she trailed off, raising one perfect eyebrow at me. I raised both of mine back at her.
'What are you talking about?' I said eventually, when she didn't speak. She blew out a sigh.
'Hades is going to lose it when he sees you. But I guess that's what you get for pissing off the Lord of the Gods. Fucking idiot.'
'Hades is a fucking idiot?'
'Yeah. But for the sake of the gods, don't say that in front of him. Or tell him I said it.'
'I had no idea I was this imaginative,' I breathed.
'What?'
'This isn't happening,' I told her. 'I've invented you.'
A lopsided smile took over her face, and her blue eyes twinkled.
'Is that right?'
'Must be,' I said. 'Zeus and Hades and Greek gods don't exist. I'm sure we'd have noticed by now if they did.' Even as I spoke the words, doubt and panic were warring with them. Something was wrong, Very, very wrong. That'll be the fact that you're probably gravely injured or dying somewhere in the real world, I reminded myself.
'You've been in the mortal realm a long time, Persephone,' said Hecate, quietly.
'New York,' I told her. 'And I've been there twenty-six years. My whole life.' I stressed the last sentence.
'Sure you have,' she said, in a voice that said I was totally deluded. 'What the fuck am I supposed to do with you now?'
'Well, you were obviously expecting someone,' I said, thinking back to her white eyes. 'You welcomed me to hell.'
'Yeah, I was expecting the last contestant for the Hades Trials. I just didn't expect it to be you.'
'The Hades Trials?'
'You know, for someone who's made all this up in their head, you have very little clue about what's going on,' Hecate said. She had a point. My stomach lurched uneasily again.
'So why don't you tell me?' I put my hands on my hips in an attempt to regain some sort of semblance of control, but the woman in front of me was clearly a hundred times more fierce than I could ever be.
'OK. Zeus has decided that Hades needs a wife. Women have been trying to earn the position of Queen of the Underworld by completing a series of Trials. I was supposed to meet the last contestant here today.'
'Can Hades not just choose someone he likes?' I asked, frowning at my own question. This was absolutely mad.
'No. He swore after his first wife that he would never remarry, but he upset Zeus in a pretty big way recently. And the big man's punishments cut deep.'
'Hades is being forced to marry as a punishment?'
'Yep.'
'So... what's this all got to do with me? And how do you know who I am?'
A worried look crossed her beautiful face, then she let out a big sigh and closed her eyes.
'What a fucking mess,' she breathed, and opened her eyes again, fixing them on mine. 'I could refuse to tell you, but I guess you'll find out sooner or later.'
'Find what out?'
'You're Hades' first wife.'
My head swam for a moment as I gaped at her. Then a laugh, bordering on hysterical, bubbled from my lips, getting louder and louder as the words repeated themselves in my head.
'How the hell am I coming up with this?' I gasped through laughs. 'I've made myself the wife of the king of the dead? What the actual fuck?' Fresh laughter welled out of me, my ribs starting to ache as I leaned over, pressing my hands on my knees. 'I mean, there's being into bad boys, but Hades? Lord of the Underworld? Talk about extreme!'
'This is so not how I saw today going,' sighed Hecate. She let me laugh a while longer, tears streaming from my eyes as adrenaline-fueled instability took over my senses. 'Are you done?' she asked, when the laughter began to ebb away, and I dabbed at my wet cheeks. I nodded.