Page 17 of Hades and Persephone: Crown of Souls

A chill rises in the warm air as though plucked by the shadows of his story in which horrors spill. Goosebumps rise on my skin, and I bite down on my lip as a shuddering breath catches in my throat.

“What happened?” I manage around a dry swallow.

“The great battle between God and Titan began.” His eyes fall closed, scores of ancient pain line his face. “It was a brutal time. A time of darkness and terror.” His eyes open, flames dancing in the dark depths. “I could go into great detail of the battle, but I won’t. All you need to know is that it was long and ruthless, and from it great pains spread.”

“You fought with Zeus?”

His jaw pops as his teeth clench. “Alongside all my brothers and sisters, yes. We fought for hundreds of years, warring to contain the Titans and their ruthless rule. Stirrings of discontent had already begun between the Gods and Titans, when Cronus was castrated and forced to expel the Gods he’d consumed in his quest to ensure his offspring never became more powerful. We slid easily into war. By the time we contained the Titans in Tartarus, which at this point I’d bound to the Underworld,we were a ruthless species not all that different from our predecessors whom we’d fought to save the earth from.”

As his pause stretches into the sounds of celebration in Asphodel City, my mind whirs with new questions.

“What happened after?”

“The Gods assembled. We were assigned, by luck of a draw if you believe it, the realms we would rule. Zeus took Olympus, Poseidon took the Seas, the Ocean.”

“And you took the Underworld.”

“I did.” He dips his chin into his chest. “At first, it was simply my duty, but as the years passed, I fell deeper and deeper into the pits of despair. Resentment was the only taste on my tongue, and it was vile.”

“What happened to the giants? The species of humans Prometheus created?”

“Zeus found them lacking.” Hades smirks. His hand travels from where it rested this entire time on my belly to curl gently around my jaw so that he can capture my eyes with his own. “Tell me, Persephone, in all your studies into themythologyof Greece.” His eyes dance with an amusement that has nerves twisting in my belly. “Did you happen across the great Deucalion flood?”

“No.” I shake my head, brows furrowed even as he grins down at me.

“It is one of the more buried stories of our past, but there if you seek it.” There is a wariness building within me. I don’t know why…until he speaks again. “With the goal to purify the land from that which had come before his creation, Zeus opened the sky to a torrential rain that flooded the land. For months, the waters of Olympus merged with the waters of the seas, claiming all life that existed before. Humans of his choosing, however, had been warned. They had built an ark, much like…”

“Don’t say it.”

Hades laughs. “They were the only surviving humans from the time before. It is with their accounts; history was first written. Why Zeus didn’t end them all to begin anew, I do not know. But I do know he quickly began creating more humans to populate the barren lands.”

“And you?”

“I was sequestered to the Underworld, unwelcome in the Earthly realm.” Tension lines his face, darkening his eyes. “I became the God of Death, a being so feared by the humans I’d grown to care so deeply for, that they refused even to speak my name. When they did, it was in hushed tones of terror that I might hear. That I might reap their souls.”

“Hades…”

“I spent centuries alone and feared, my sacred temples barren. I knew only darkness and despair—only the cries of sorrow that spilled from the souls who found themselves lost to a realm of death. I think—I think I became a mad God, in a sense.”

My heart is aching. Every throb is a pulse of pain for the man who clearly still aches for the history he holds. “Why would you not be welcome in the Earthly realm?”

“Zeus did not wish to share the power. Even Poseidon was sequestered to the seas, isolated.” Under his breath, he mutters, “I assume it is why he took Atlantis as he did.”

“Atlantis?” I perk up at the mention of the lost city.

Hades smiles gently at me. “A story for another time.”

I want to press, but something about the look of stark pain on his face has me staying my tongue.

Hades caresses me gently. “Please understand that I was terribly alone. When a soul—any soul—is isolated as I was, for as long as I was, there is an inevitable madness that forms.” His eyes search my own, begging me to understand. “I longed for more, you understand, Persephone?”

I nod, even though I am not sure I do. I’ve never felt a loneliness such as the kind he describes. I can’t even imagine. Can’t begin to comprehend.

And therefore, I cannot judge.

Lifting my hand to the one that still holds my jaw, I give him a gentle squeeze. “I’m listening, Hades.”

“It was the first time I’d risen from the Underworld in centuries. The light was so bright. The scent of the earth so sweet. But nothing was so bright or so sweet as the girl in the garden. She’d been surrounded by other girls, but I could barely see them beyond her. She took every ounce of my focus. She possessed every thought and desire I could form. She felt like life when all I’d had for centuries had been death. I’d had to have her, the girl in the garden. The little goddess.” His eyes bore deep into mine. I feel stripped impossibly raw. I don’t even think I am breathing. He is peering so deep into me, even the soul I harbour deep within feels ravaged. “I had to have you.”

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