Page 82 of Dead End

“I want to better understand the process, how we treat the souls that go there. The judges said they never set foot inside.”

“And why would they?”

“To check on the souls they send there.”

“For what purpose? The souls are punished for eternity.What is there to check?” She gave me an appraising look. “Is this your human side?”

“I don’t know.” Truth be told, I didn’t much care. “You don’t have to come with me. Just tell me how to navigate it.”

“I honestly couldn’t tell you. Tartarus runs itself.”

“Well, when was the last time you were there?”

She flinched. “You thinkIwould visit Tartarus?”

“You’ve been the ruler of the underworld. How could you not visit?”

“Because it’s awful.” She shuddered. “I’m the goddess of hearth and home. Can you picture me wandering through a wasteland like that?”

“We torture souls there, Hestia. What if one ended up there that didn’t belong?”

“There are systems in place to prevent that sort of thing. It wouldn’t happen.”

“Wouldn’t or couldn’t?”

Hestia sighed. “If you want to go, I won’t stop you, but I advise against it. Your parents ran the underworld like a Swiss clock. They wouldn’t let any single part get out of sync. I’ve kept things ticking along exactly as they did.” She picked up the book and resumed reading, effectively ending the conversation.

I left the room and found Cerberus waiting for me. All three heads turned in the same direction.

“You want to show me something, buddy?”

The hellhound padded toward a dark tunnel, one of the narrower offshoots I’d yet to explore.

I laughed. “You won’t fit in there.”

The head on the left nudged me forward. He wanted me to enter. Alone.

I looked at him. “Is this a route to Tartarus?”

Six sets of knowing eyes stared at me.

“Got it.” I kissed the nearest head. “Thanks, bud. You’rethe best.” I ventured into the tunnel, which only grew narrower the deeper I walked. No wonder Cerberus stayed behind. Even if the hellhound managed to squeeze in at the beginning, he wouldn’t have made it very far.

I sensed I was on a downward slope. This had to be a back route to Tartarus. Based on what I remembered from my lessons, Cerberus guarded the border and kept souls from escaping. The hellhound must’ve had his own path to get there.

The air was dry and acrid. I felt two drops of liquid land on my arm and realized my nose was bleeding. I patted my pocket for a tissue but came up empty. Terrific.

The path twisted and sloped. I was descending to the bowels of the earth and felt every step of it. My thighs would complain later.

The tunnel expanded slightly, and I realized I’d reached the end. There was no light to greet me. Only a gate made out of a substance I didn’t recognize. The gate wasn’t as large as I would’ve expected for a place like Tartarus, which gave credence to my suspicion that I’d taken a lesser traveled path to a back entrance.

I tested the handle. The gate opened without resistance. I wasn’t sure whether it had been left unlocked or responded to my goddess of the underworld genes. My guess was the latter.

I stepped inside and took a moment to get the lay of the land. Steaming pits. Screams of despair. The skin on my arms broke out in goosebumps. This section was nothing like the area I recalled from my dream with Aite. No sign of a hillock, or even a small mountain. That part of Tartarus had been desolate but quiet.

This Tartarus was a literal hellhole.

I contemplated which way to go. No direction lookedparticularly inviting, as one would expect of a place of eternal punishment.

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