Page 81 of Dead End

“The circumstances are irrelevant, Your Majesty,” Minos said.

“Not to me. Had he been unfairly fired from his job and desperate for money to save his sick child?”

“With all due respect, that doesn’t excuse the crime, Your Majesty,” Rhad said.

“Maybe not, but it doesn’t necessarily deserve a lifetime of torture in Tartarus either.”

“I’m sure you’ll find the punishment fits the crime,” Minos said. “The underworld is a well-oiled machine at this point.”

“Even so, I’d like to see Tartarus for myself.”

Murmurs and handwringing followed my command.

“The thing is, we don’t actually step foot inside Tartarus,” Minos said, somewhat apologetically.

“But you send souls there to punish them.”

“That’s correct, but once I send them in, I don’t know what becomes of them. That’s up to Tartarus itself.”

“Don’t you ever check, just to see what’s happening there?”

“No, Your Majesty. I’m much too busy with the usual tasks.”

“No one is permitted in Tartarus except the guilty,” Rhad said. “We wouldn’t want one of us accidentally crushed by a rolling boulder now, would we?”

“Depends on who it is,” I said.

Their eyes bulged slightly.

“I don’t recall any of this from when I lived here.”

“Your parents tried to shield you from the uglier side of the underworld,” Minos said. “We have a full schedule of souls today, Your Majesty. Will there be anything else?”

“No, thank you. That will be all for now.” I needed to think. Rome wasn’t built in a day; Libitina could tell them all about that.

Once the judges exited the throne room, I rose to my feet and stretched, grateful for the respite. I found it hard to believe that the judges simply smacked their gavel and sent the souls on their merry way, especially knowing that not all afterlifes were created equal. A memory simmered in mymind; an image of the brutality inflicted upon Kane in hell. I didn’t want that in my realm, not for any reason. Eternal torment left no room for contrition or forgiveness.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon reacquainting myself with my former home. The inner sanctum was relatively quiet as I walked from room to room. There were familiar sights here and there, with memories sprinkled throughout, but none that really stood out. Not the kind of memories I’d created in Fairhaven with Kane and my friends.

No surprise that I found Hestia in the coziest room in the entire underworld. A fire blazed in the hearth. My aunt sat in a comfy wingback chair with a blanket across her lap and a book cradled in her hands.

She glanced up when I entered. “I thought it might be you. How are you settling in?”

“Fine, although I wish all my memories would come back. It might make this whole thing easier.”

She set the book facedown. “All in good time, dear. I’m sure the longer you’re here, the more you’ll remember.”

“Have I ever been to Tartarus?”

Hestia did a double take. “Certainly not.”

“I’d like to see it.”

“Why in the underworld would you want to go there?”

“You took me to the other lands. Why not Tartarus?”

“The other lands aren’t dangerous.” She shifted her weight in the chair. “I don’t understand why you deem it necessary.”

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