Page 21 of Hades

She struggles for a moment before pulling back to look at me. “Hades.” Her small delicate hands cup my face as she smiles at me.

This bliss will only last for a few minutes.

“Hi, baby.”

“Where?” She looks around franticly as memories flood her mind. “I don’t understand.” I can hear the panic in her voice, and I want to tell her everything will be all right, but I don’t want to lie to her. “Hades.” Tears begin to stream down her face. “I love you, please help me,” she begs.

As the first rays of a new dawn begin to kiss her face, her memory of us begins to fade. I’ve stood here holding her so many times that I’ve lost count. In a moment, she won’t know who I am.

Pulling back, I lift her and place her back on her feet. Grabbing the blanket from the ground, I wrap her in it, just as I had found her. “Remember me, remember us,” I plead. “I love you,” I remind her one final time before I turn her around to face the ocean.

As I take a tentative step back, she glances over her shoulder at me. “Who are you?” she screams.

“Fuck.” I startle myself awake.

It takes me a moment to acclimate to my surroundings and remember where the fuck I am. Alastor is nowhere to be seen, so I take the opportunity to shake the dream from my head. I have no idea how long I’ve been out. Long enough for my body to stiffen from sleeping in a chair for so long, but that’s not saying much.

Standing, I stretch and rub the sleep from my eyes. The dream of Aradia is still vivid in my head. I should be used to them by now, the lucid dreams that force me to relive our last moments together. I’ve often wondered if it wasn’t part of Themis’ plan. To torture me with memories while I’m awake and nightmares disguised as dreams while I sleep.

Heading out of Alastor’s office, I round the corner and spot him sitting at a well-worn table, talking with the Valkyrie from the bar. Despite my best effort to leave unnoticed, I don’t make it far before he spots me.

“Hey!” he yells, and for a moment, I debate acknowledging him. But he stands and yells my name when I don’t immediately head in his direction. “Hades!” he howls, and instantly any anonymity I had, is gone.

“Fuck,” I grumble out loud. Yes, there are two planes of existence that I am aware of. And for some unknown reason, some people reside in both and cannot cross between the two worlds. Unlike me, there is and will always only be one Hades, and I’m him. Lucky me.

Every head in the establishment is turned, looking at me as if I’ve just returned from the dead. They expect fire and brimstone, most confusing me with Satan or Lucifer, an annoyance I’ve dealt with for eons.

“Yes, yes… I’m back. Now go on about your fucking business,” I snarl before joining Alastor and the Valkyrie. “Really, you couldn’t have just posted a sign on the front door letting everyone know I was here?”

“Don’t be so dramatic. Sit and have some breakfast. Val makes a mean omelet,” he adds.

“Breakfast. Shit. How long was I out?”

“A few hours. But, in that time, I came up with a plan,” he states, and I give him a raised eyebrow.

“A plan…for what?” I ask because I have had thousands of plans where Aradia is concerned, and none of them have ever come to fruition or been remotely successful.

“To help Aradia remember.”

Taking a seat, I let out a deep sigh and run my hands through my hair in frustration. He has no idea what he’s talking about. “Look, I get that you think you can help her. But you can’t. Nothing ever works. I’ve told you, I’ve tried it all. Unless you can somehow talk sense into your mother, it’s a lost cause.”

“I can’t believe you’re willing to give up on her so easily.”

His statement is like a slap across the face. Standing, I slam my hands down on the table, which quakes under the blow. “You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about. I’m out of here.”

At the gate, I debate returning to Vegas, grabbing Aradia, and doing something drastic. The dream has me ready to steal her away, curse be damned. “At least we’d have a few hours together,” I lament before stepping through the gate.

ARADIA

Stepping back from myhotel room door, I feel lonely for the first time in my life. I don’t know the two men who just left, not really. But I had listened to their conversation while they thought I was asleep. My entire life, dreams have plagued me, showing me snippets of what could only be past lives.

Listening to their conversation, I realize Alastor knows who I am and has memories of us. Combine that with him calling me Arie, and I know my dreams aren’t just dreams. No one in this life has ever called me Arie. But even more puzzling than that was Hades calling Kat a shifter.

“Looks like it’s just you and me,” I say to Argos, who is still sitting on the couch. I kneel in front of him and scratch his head. “Nice to meet you, Argos.” If I didn’t know better, I would say he smiles at me. “Are you really a Hellhound?” I ask him as he follows me back to bed.

I’m awake when the first rays of light come through my window. Argos is sitting, looking outside, and I know he must need to go out. Luckily, this hotel being pet friendly, has a dog park area, so I don’t have to worry about his paws on the hot pavement. But in retrospect, if he’s a Hellhound, perhaps his paws are used to the searing heat as he walks. I shake the absurd thought out of my head. One psychosis at a time, I remind myself.

My sleep was restless, and I kept replaying Hades and Alastor’s conversation in my head, trying to figure it out. I hoped it would make sense once I rested, but that is not the case. Instead, I have more questions.

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