Page 83 of Hades

He looked at the brambles as they shook and frowned as two males clambered over the wall, landing on their feet on the other side. Morpheus manoeuvred Persephone behind him and attacked. Hades looked down into the darkness, at the seething mass of daemons and demigods that moved like a tide up the staircase. There were far more escapees than he had thought. He needed to get them back into cells as soon as possible. There were too many of them to fight, even with a legion of his men here.

Thanatos landed behind him with Calindria, blood splattered across his bare chest. Relief flashed in his ethereal blue eyes as they lit on Morpheus and he stepped past Persephone to help his nephew, dealing great blows with his long silver sword. Hades joined them as another wave of daemons scrambled over the wall Persephone had created. When she didn’t move to join him, he glanced back at her.

She exchanged a look with Calindria and without a word, they crouched and pressed their hands to the stone steps. Muffled grunts sounded below Hades, followed by bellows and roars of rage, and he looked into the depths. Domes of sharp brambles formed over pockets of the escapees, tendrils snapping around those who would have been left outside them to pull them into the centres with the others before the brambles closed.

Forming cages.

Persephone and Calindria worked in perfect harmony, gathering whole groups of daemons and demigods, giving his side the chance it needed to restore order to Tartarus.

“Thanatos,” Hades said and the towering god of death looked past his black feathered wings to him, and then up the wide spiral staircase.

Thanatos’s glowing blue eyes widened slightly and then fell to Calindria, the pride the male felt clearly shining in them. Hades looked there too and saw Calindria and Persephone weren’t only forming cages below them. Several had already appeared on the stairs above too, allowing Keras and Enyo, and Ares and Valen to close in on and contain the prisoners.

“We will take the ones below.” Hades motioned to Keras, capturing his attention.

His son beckoned one of the commanders of the legion and said something to him as he pointed towards Hades. The male nodded and waved his hand, gathering men to him. They hurried down the stairs to Hades.

“Come with me,” he growled and strode forwards with purpose, his shadows seething with a hunger to tear into flesh. If any prisoners dared to escape the bramble cages, Hades would deal with them personally. He slanted a look at Morpheus. “You too.”

Morpheus was quick to fall into step beside him as the wall of brambles Persephone had created retreated, the tangled tendrils unwinding to clear Hades’s path. He glanced back at her to check she was all right, satisfied when he saw several soldiers had remained to watch over her and Calindria, and then set to work.

The escapees grew more frantic as he approached the first of the cages, one of the larger men even managing to break through part of the steel-like brambles. In response, it slid a vine around the arm he punched through it and tightened like a vice, ripping a bellow from him as it punctured his flesh with long thorns that had blood spilling over his skin.

He was the first Hades pulled from the makeshift cell as it opened for him. He thrust the male into the nearest open cell and Thanatos tossed two more in with him. Morpheus slammed the heavy door in their faces, sealing them in. The commander of the legions gathered the rest of the group with the help of his men, pushing them into another of the cells and closing the door.

Together, they worked their way down into the bowels of the prison, and Hades couldn’t stop counting the dead or the number of fiends he put back into their cells. Too many had escaped. By the time he reached the lowest depths and the end of the spiral staircase, he had only filled half the cells that had been fully occupied before.

Mnemosyne had made off with some of the more dangerous of his prisoners too.

He looked at the path ahead of him, barely lit by a single torch that flickered weakly, keeping the area shrouded in darkness, and felt the weight of Thanatos’s steady gaze on his back.

“Return to the others. I want each prisoner checked against the records, and a report on who is missing as soon as possible. Summon three more legions and dispatch them to hunt down any escapees. Ensure Persephone is safely returned to the palace.” Hades peered into the darkness, uneasiness slithering through him. “I need to check something.”

“As you wish, my god-king,” Thanatos rumbled and then turned to the others, barking orders at the soldiers that Hades paid no heed to as he continued to stare into the deep dark.

He stalked forwards, his eyes adjusting to the low light. The air cooled as he moved deeper into the shadows, his senses sharpening as power brushed his skin. His crimson gaze swung left and right, penetrating the thick cloak of darkness that hung in each of the large cells. Their sole occupants stirred as his gaze swept over them, some baring teeth at him while others snarled harsh guttural words in the old language. He had forgotten it himself a long time ago, but he knew they were cursing him, spitting foul things in his direction.

The same things they had called him from the moment he had locked them away in this grim dungeon no light touched.

The titans.

None of them approached the thick, twisted bars of their cells. They lurked in the shadows like wraiths, watching him with curious, shrewd eyes.

Hades kept moving forwards, checking each cell to ensure none of them had escaped, following the winding path down into the earth. It grew narrower and more treacherous, crossing great ravines that cut so deep he couldn’t see the bottom. Part of the path had fallen away in the recent upheaval he had caused, leaving only a foot-wide strip of rock between him and a fall into the abyss.

He didn’t turn back.

He pressed onwards, leaving behind the cells and the light, navigating rough walls that jutted out into the path to hinder him.

The narrow route opened up at last, into an enormous cavern with sharp black fangs of rock that pierced the air, almost touching the ground in places. Hades brushed his fingers over carved stones, feeling the chisel marks beneath them as he drifted forwards.

Water dripped, filling the tense warm air with the steady sound, and light shone through the cracks in the ground, glowing amber. A river of lava encircled the open heart of the cavern and he teleported to the other side of it, crossing wards he had made long ago and reinforced each year, tension mounting in him as he strained to hear whether the one he held here, far from everyone else, had been released.

He stopped above a small grate in the ground and peered down past the toes of his boots into the darkness.

Power swept around him and Hades jolted as a clawed hand shot up to grip one of the thick bars.

Black-stained fingers loosened and then eased back into the darkness, disappearing from view.

---