Page 24 of Love and Death
“Then, if not for the girl’s sake, try for that of your unborn child. I cannot protect you or the Underworld from a deal I, apparently, have not been told all the details of.”
“You do not have to answer him.”
“I know,” Lilia says before lifting her chin in defiance, “but Cerberus is right. He should know what is going on.” She pauses and takes a deep breath to steady herself. “We were told that the Fates placed two conditions on Hades’ deal. For it to come to be fulfilled, they required a mortal soul to be found. A soul pure in heart, undesiring of the king’s throne, and yet powerful enough to bring about the birth of new kingdoms or raze the very Underworld to the ground in its wake.”
“How can you speak the words?” Theo questions.
“I do not know,” she whispers, a mixture of relief and terror dancing across her features.
“A mortal soul required for what?”
“All I …weknow is that when such a soul arrived, of its own free will, it would be given a choice meant to shape the rest of eternity.”
“It?”
“Well, we did not know the mortal would be female.”
“What choice?”
“That is beyond my knowledge,” Lilia answers.
“Why was I not party to this knowledge? Am I not the keeper of mortal souls in the Underworld?”
“Perhaps that is why it was kept hidden from you,” Lilia murmurs, more to herself than me. “The second condition was that the soul had to enter Aglaia of its own free will, unguided by any knowledge of the deal. It could not be forced.”
I clench my jaw in anger.
All this time, I have acted on the king’s behalf without knowing the true extent of the deal he made. All this time, I believed it was just a deal meant to protect the gods from their own stupidity.
Now, I see it for what it really was, a lure.
A play for power.
What else could the Fates have meant by a mortal soul capable of birthing new kingdoms or razing the Underworld to the ground in its wake … other than to have Death himself chasing after it.
My brow furrows as I try to wrap my head around how they could possibly foresee Death ever falling for a mortal. Perhaps that is why they offered it.
An impossible price for an impossible deal.
“Who else knows of this?”
“I do not believe there is anyone else in Aglaia, save you, Death, and the mortal, who does not know.”
Just wait until I get my hands on Eros.
He knew all this time and still sent her into the very mouth of the lion’s den?
Rage turns my vision red, but I force myself not to show it as I ask, “How did you come to know this?”
“It was the queen who told us. She said it was part of the Fates’ deal that we must all know before our tongues could be bound to keep its secret.”
I shake my head slowly at this. Something is not adding up. If the queen knew … no, there must be more to this.
“Is that everything? Is thatallyou know?”
“Yes,” Theo insists.
“Wait, there is something else I must tell you,” Lilia’s lips part, and she has to swallow nervously before saying, “I believe Hades means to take Hazel as his wife.”
