Page 2 of Love and Death
“And just where do you think you are going, petal?”
Disgust rises to knot my stomach at his new pet name for me, adding insult to injury, as if Persephone were not grieved enough by me.
“Please,” I gasp, my voice twisted with pain. “Please, let me go to him. Let me say goodbye.”
Hades snorts at this, a cruel sneer pulling at his features, somehow sharpening them further, as he looks down at me and slowly shakes his head.
“Why? There is nothing left for you to bid farewell to,” he says dismissively, his icy gaze keeping me rooted in place. “Cerberus, summon the guards! Death’scarcassis to be removed at once.”
“At once, my king.”
I glance toward the hellhound, my eyes pleading with him not to obey, but he refuses to meet my gaze. I watch him disappear into the shadows before turning back to Hades.
“What do you intend to do with him?” I ask.
“Who?”
He says this in such a cavalier manner—as if I could be speaking of anyone else—that I have to force myself to remain composed.
“Death.”
Hades’ mouth twitches as he weighs whether or not to answer me for an uncomfortably long moment before saying, “He is to be dismembered.”
“No!”
My stomach twists sickeningly at the thought, and I can’t help but stumble forward in an attempt to get to Death before Cerberus and the guards return.
“Stop. One step further, my petal,” Hades says, his voice low and measured, “and I will see to it that his body is dismembered before your very eyes.”
“I do not doubt you already intend to do so.”
“True, but I had not planned to do so right here. Right now. That, of course, can be arranged if you would prefer not to wait.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Then test me.”
I glare up at him, my jaw aching as I bite back a reply but do not move.
Movement behind Hades draws my attention, and I watch as three armed men materialize from the surrounding darkness, Cerberus following just a few steps behind.
“Take Death’s corpse back to the palace,” Hades orders.
The three guards hurry to obey, shoving my father roughly aside in the process, and I watch in horror as he is sent sprawling across the dirt. My gaze flickers angrily back to Hades, but before I can utter so much as a word of protest, one of the guards lets out a strangled cry and then collapses to the arena floor …
Dead.
Hades whirls on them, blue flames licking up around the edge of his head and shoulders as his face distorts with rage.
“Careful, youfools,” he snaps, his eyes flashing dangerously. “Death may have relinquished his presence, but that does not mean his body has forgotten its power. Do not touch your skin to his again if you wish to keep what remains of your pitiful existence. Send for another guard!”
I frown, unable to keep my heart from skipping abeat, as I glance from Hades to Death and, finally, to the now lifeless man lain out before us.
Would not Death’s powers also cease to exist if he weretrulygone?
Of course, I cannot claim to understand the ways of the gods or the workings of this realm … but even here, Death’s powers remaining intact without him still existing in some way seems like an impossibility.
Besides, did not Death himself suggest as much when I first inquired into the nature of his being? Did he not say that he was neither living nor dead, but that he simplywas.
