Page 7 of Hades

I haven’t used it in nearly half a century, so I have to shove all the tomes off the top I’ve piled nearly three feet high. Every day it’s an internal battle not to gaze into it and see Aradia. So many lifetimes I’ve watched her. I’d do nothing but gaze into the black waters and let it show me my greatest love and the woman who can destroy me.

As I shove the stone tablet off the top with Themis’ curse echoing in my brainyou’ll become nothing but a ghost to her, a figment of her imagination, a memory she wants to escape.You will choke on her happiness without you, lifetime after lifetime, until you can’t stand to watch it. Her smile and laughter will make you bitter.

The moment the stone cover crashes to the ground, I gaze into the basin of black water. I don’t want to, but I’m drawn to it, just like I’m drawn to her. The moment the murky water begins to churn, my heart palpitates and threatens to beat out of my chest in anticipation. It’s been fifty years since I’ve dared look into its black depths.

Fifty years since I’ve seen the only woman I’ve ever loved. I don’t know what it will show me… something that will inevitably rip my heart out, no doubt.

“Fuck it,” I slur, as I peer into the basin.

Time stops as the water begins to pull forth an image. I want to go to her when I see her driving down the long desert road, singing to a tune on the radio. She is as beautiful as she always has been. Her chestnut hair is blowing in the wind, and she has a dog sitting in the passenger seat.

Her smile transfixes me, and I don’t hear Reaver stumble over until he’s leaning in, looking at the image below. It takes everything in me to disrupt the depiction in the water with my hand, but the moment I do, I know I’m doomed. I’ve seen her, and I can already feel the pull inside me urging me to go to her.

“Who’s the girl?” Reaver asks as he leans against the edge of the basin.

“She’s no one,” I say, but the words are bitter on my tongue.

“What is this?” Reaver asks as he gazes into the murky water. I don’t even know if it will work for anyone but me. For an eternity, I’ve been the only one stupid enough to continue to get lost in its fairytales, or its nightmares, depending on which way you look at it.

“It’ll show you your greatest love or the element of your demise. Or some shit like that. I don’t fucking know,” I mumble as I stumble back. “It was here when I arrived. A gift from the Heavens, no doubt. Evil bunch of fuckwads if you ask me,” I continue, but he’s already lost in whatever vision the pool is showing him.

Stumbling back, I go over to a glass wall that overlooks the River Styx and flop down in one of the chairs. I have free rein of the Underworld. I can make it as I see fit. It could be a paradise, yet it would bring me no joy.

Looking out over the vast wasteland, I feel Aradia’s pull on me, and I know it’s useless to fight it. The water doesn’t always show the present, but the sign on the road she traveled read100 miles to Las Vegas.

So, it’s a starting point I wish I didn’t know.

The internal debate with myself is useless, but I do it anyway.

“Should I stay, or should I go now?”I sing.“If I stay, there will be trouble. If I go, there will be double.”

I haven’t seen her in more than a lifetime. But it wouldn’t matter, she’s always the same beautiful woman. A one in a million. The only woman to hold my heart and soul.

“Fuck it,” I say out loud despite no one listening. “I’m going to go have my heart ripped out,” I add as I pass by Reaver, who is transfixed by the image in the water. I take a moment to glance over his shoulder, and sure enough, there is his Kennedy sitting outside on a stone set of steps, reading a book. “Good luck, buddy,” I say, patting him on the back as I pass.

Continuing my internal debate as I stride through the bar, I don’t stop until I stand in front of the Dimmu gate. I know she’s not in this world, the one I escaped to when Gabriel destroyed the other, so I’m free to walk on this plane without the constant pull.

But there, the moment I step foot into her world, the inevitable cycle of my destruction will be set in motion.

This place has been my escape, my refuge. My life. A place where I wasn’t haunted. It’s the same escape to which Reaver fled, except I think his pull isn’t the same physical need I feel when I step back into her world. Or at least the world she was banished to.

Knowing that, I have no control when it comes to Aradia. I must ensure I have a refuge to bring her to, even if that means hiding her from myself. On this side, I don’t believe I will be able to find her. Before I damn myself to the inevitable, I need to head back to Timber Cove and call in a favor from Acheron, the Alpha of the TC pack. Acheron has been seeking information about a demon uprising in California. I’ll happily trade him the information he needs for his help. But before I do, I need to see her.

With nothing more than the thought of Aradia, I step through the gate and into the blazing desert sun of Las Vegas. I don’t recognize immediately where the gate has deposited me. It’s been half a century since I’ve dared venture into this world, but I can already feel Aradia’s presence drawing me to her.

“Who the hell are you?” a feminine voice asks from behind me. I turn around slowly with my hands visible, so she knows I’m not a threat, at least not to her.

“The name’s Hades. I’m just passing through, and the gate dropped me here.” I take a moment to look around. I’m on a rooftop that has a pool and cabanas. I squint my eyes to see better what is frolicking in a plastic child’s pool under one of the cabanas. “Are those…are those wolf cubs?” I ask, knowing very well that this world does not know of anyone being anything but human. At least they didn’t the last time I was here.

She glances back at the pool where the two pups are playing before ignoring the question entirely. “Your story sounds like a load of bullshit to me. Besides, this is a private gate. Anyone coming through would know that. And you should have used a little more of an original alias than Hades, god of the fucking Underworld.”

“I’m sorry, have we met?” I ask before taking a few steps forward. My actions earn me a fanged growl from the less than welcoming woman. At least now I know why. “I’m usually pretty good at remembering faces.” One of the pups jumps from the pool and patters over to her, its wet fur leaving a trail behind. “Are they your children?” I ask as she picks up the wet pup.

“You can wait right there while I call my husband,” she states, again ignoring my question as she sends a message to whoever the fuck her husband is.

“And that would be?” I question, but an old, familiar face bursts through the door behind her before she can answer.

Anger and a protective rage emanate from him as he stalks forward. It takes him a moment to recognize me, but the moment he does, he stops dead in his tracks. “Holy shit!” Cain exclaims as he stands next to the woman and scratches the ears of the pup she’s holding. “Kat, do you know who this is? I thought you were fucking long dead.”

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