Page 132 of Hell On Earth
“Don’t worry,” Megan said. “You’re back to barely a blip.”
“How?” I asked.
Hades kissed the back of my head. “You said you lived a thousand mortal lives. If my daughter no longer feels the weight of your misdeeds, it means all you endured in those lives tipped the scales in your favor.
“As you said, you are no longer Persephone or Ashlyn but a combination of both.”
I tipped my head back to look at him. “And that’s how I was finally able to call you, wasn’t it? Being not just Ashlyn anymore freed me from the spell?”
Hades nodded.
“We’re still trying to figure out why any of it was even necessary,” Megan said, casting a dark look at Thanatos and Adira. “Maybe you can help convince them to talk, Father.”
“They don’t need to,” I said. “I remember everything.”
Thanatos gave a relieved smile, and I felt a swell of pity for him.
“She lied to you,” I said, meeting his gaze.
“She?” he asked.
“Persephone.”
“You mean, you.”
I shook my head.
“You said you remembered.”
“I do. But I’m not Persephone anymore. She’s a part of me, but she isn’t me. My mortal lives—this life—changed who I am. I understand compassion, humility, real suffering. And I understand love better than Persephone ever did.” I looked at Thanatos with sympathy. “She never loved you. She used you as a means to make Hades suffer. And I am so sorry for that.”
Thanatos stared at me for a long moment; then his gaze dropped.
I looked at Adira and everyone else in the room.
“Where do I even start?” I asked, thinking back on what I knew. “After the gods locked away the titans, they experienced peace under Zeus’ influence. It was short-lived, though, as the gods and goddesses began to realize their powers were unequal. Some began to conspire, seeking the high seat for themselves.
“Hades wasn’t interested in any of that. He was content to guard Tartarus and support Zeus. However, Zeus needed a way to ensure he would stay content. That’s where Persephone came in. Zeus saw Hades’ interest in her and made an offer to Hades he couldn’t refuse.”
Hades’ hands twitched around me, and I caressed his arm in comfort.
“Persephone didn’t know Zeus gave Hades his blessing to take Persephone to Hell to be his forever. The first time they met, she thought Hades was handsome and liked spending time with him. They’d only met a few more times before she was taken to Hell and loved by a god who didn’t quite understand how to love. She became…twisted through many mistakes and misunderstandings. She hurt a lot of people, and in the end, she was so desperate for a way out.
“When Demeter told her she was helping Zeus strip the other gods and goddesses of their immortality and power in exchange for Persephone’s freedom from Hell, Persephone was happy for half a second. Until she found out that Hades was being spared.
“Of all the gods and goddesses, Zeus felt that Hades had done nothing deserving of the punishment of being thrown into the mortal pool manipulated by the fates. Persephone was livid.”
I glanced at Thanatos. “That’s when she started pursuing you. She only wanted your help to ensure that Hades would suffer while she died. She promised you that she would be yours in the next life while praying you would never find her.”
Thanatos looked so devastated, and I truly felt bad for him.
“Zeus and Demeter sacrificed their power to change the terms of immortality. Rather than living one infinite life, the gods and goddesses would be infinitely reborn as mortals to experience lives filled with the misery they bestowed upon mortals as gods.”
I looked at Eliana. “You aren’t made in the image of Aphrodite. YouareAphrodite reborn as the very thing she used to torment mankind. But what you were in a past life isn’t who you are now, Eliana. Each life, we are free to choose how we respond to our suffering. That’s what Zeus wanted all the gods and goddesses to understand and why he was so fascinated with humans. We have the resilience to rise above vast suffering if we choose.”
My gaze met Zayn’s.
“So I’m Zeus?” he asked, his expression a mix of humorous disbelief and shame.
