Page 6 of His in the Dark

When the silence hangs between us, the guard allows an expression of worry onto his face. But he nods, and after a few more moments, he clears his throat. “Yes, my Lord.”

He turns and leaves. Minox and I listen to his footsteps as they get quieter, then fade to silence. It is a silence I do not entirely trust, though I know what it is supposed to mean. The breeze of my realms makes a quiet sound across the window. I wait, pushing down my irritation. I will not let it get the better of me, other than to send a terse reply to Zeus.

“My Lord.” Minox is far more careful now than he was before. Others may not be able to hear the minute differences in the way he speaks, but I can. We’ve spent long enough together for me to discern them. “Is it possible he’s privy to your night endeavors?”

“That the gates for the realms have been opened?” I assume. A deal was made and I took advantage. Finding her in a vulnerable position.

Minox nods.

I am fair and just, but I weigh how much truth I want to give him. If I wanted him to have all of it, my answer wouldbe simple. But there are some things that I cannot let others be privy to no matter how close they have been over the years.

There are some things that must belong only to me.

Like her.Persephone.

Even thinking of her name provides a pleasure to my tongue. The image of her, wanting and needing and all that I can do for her thrills me. Her gorgeous locks around my wrist as I fist her hair and wide eyes begging me for more. I need her on her knees bowing before me and agreeing to all that I desire. She is my one gift to free me of this torture.

Minox has not taken his eyes off me. I know I have not given him the information he wants through my expression. I am too skilled in controlling myself for that.

“Possibly,” I finally answer although I cannot know for sure.

He unfolds his hands, then refolds them. I would think it was a nervous gesture if I had not known him so long. Instead, I know it to be a gesture of consideration. He is weighing each of his words, more so than he would for any of the souls he has judged in the days that have come before.

“Is that not an act of war, my Lord?”

I allow the smirk to come to my face. “Also possibly.” A thrum of delight echoes in my blood. It has been so long since war has cast fear and shadows on all the realms and through an imbalance in the world. I reminisce on such freeing times.

More silence spreads between us. I watch Minox standing there with all the familiar shadows of my private rooms behind him.

“Zeus was there for you at the end,” Minox ventures. “He took you in when others would not.”

Emotion swells in me. It is dark and unwanted, and if I did not have such lengthy experience with it, I might react outwardly. But I do not react in any way that Minox can see, although I feel the memories as vividly as if they were stillhappening. I spent days in darkness in the pits where my father left me. All of the gods lived a life of blessings, but I was alone for years, nearly going mad.

Perhaps I did venture into madness… perhaps I still lay there in this hour.

That is how I know true torture. Of course there is pain. There is cold and hunger and even burning flesh. But all of those things can be survived. A soul can suffer those things for an eternity as long as they have the hope that it will end and they will have the comfort of other souls again.

I did not have that comfort, and that is why I reserve isolation for the most vile of souls who come before my judges. I know that pain so well that I cannot inflict it on anyone but the very worst. Those who deserve to fall into madness, hoping for a voice to answer them when none will ever come.

Minox is right. Zeus did come for me, in the end. And we triumphed together, along with Poisidon who rules the seas. Each of us given our own realms and the humans to wonder on Earth, merely play things to the Gods.

I feel it now, that hope of something more, swelling sharply in my chest and bringing a tightness to my throat that I cannot tolerate in myself. Not now, when I have enough power to keep all my realms ordered as they should be.

My gaze falls on Minox as if none of the memories had made any impression on me, as if his words had not stirred any feelings within me.

“Zeus would be a fool to wage war over what I am after. There are conversations and deals you are not privy to.”

“My Lord?—”

“You will do as I command, Minox. I will not go to Zeus tonight. Tell the guard to carry my message. I will scry when I am ready.”

Minox lets out a barely audible sigh and turns away, heading for the door. He leans out, talking quietly to the guard I knew would be waiting outside. “My lord,” Minox says from the door, and bows. He steps back into the hall to let Cerberus enter the room.

I feel lighter, looking at my companion. His paws pad across the floor to me, all three heads of the beast who is my dog, bow before me as he whines for my affection and I bend down to let him put one of his three heads in my hand. The door closes, and I lower down fully to my faithful companion.

“You were there, too, my sweet boy.”

I notice the tinge of blood on the muzzles of Cerberus’s heads. I wet a cloth and lower myself again to wipe it away. When I have cared for my dog I glance at the bed that dominates this side of my room. There are new chains attached to the wall nearby.

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