Page 86 of Love and Death
“We have to get to the gate.”
“What gate?”
“Thegate. My gate,” the hellhound clarifies.
“What about Hypnos? I thought we had—”
“Yes,” he cuts me off before I can panic that we’ve gone the wrong way. “We need to get to the gatebecauseHypnos lives on the other side of the Styx. He believes dreams have no purpose here, only nightmares, and I think I am starting to agree.”
“Isn’t it quite far from here?”
“Normally, but not for me. It is my gate, and when I call, it responds,” Cerberus responds, a low hum of pleasure in his voice. “I cannot shift, but it should not take us more than an hour to walk there from here. Are you ready?”
A horn sounds within the city, its call deep and resonating as it rattles your very bones.
“Either Hades has awoken, or they have just discovered Eris’ body.”
“Then I suppose we have no choice but to be ready.”
He gives me a wry smile pulled from the depths of exhaustion.
“Then run with me, little lamb. Run.”
The massive, ornate gates rise up before me far sooner than I’d expected.
When Cerberus told me to grab hold of him justbefore we stepped foot in the forest outside Aglaia, I thought it was simply to keep me from getting lost, but almost no sooner did we step into the tree line than we were spit right back out … and as close to the gates as possible.
“That is more like it,” the hellhound practically howls with excitement. “Finally, a bit of good luck.”
Only, his excitement fades as we draw closer, the sea of souls beyond the gate far greater than I remember, and then I realize my own mistake as my eyes catch on something.
A red ribbon, strewn on the ground, still half-tied around a rung.
“Cerberus,” I cry, dread pooling within me and weighing my steps down, “my father’s soul. I forgot him back in Aglaia. He’s still there somewhere!”
“We cannot go back.”
“I-I know, but—”
“As far as we know, he is still safe. You have to move forward. This may be your …ouronly chance.”
I swallow back the ache in my heart and nod.
“You’re right, I have to keep going. We have to save Death.”
My heart races as we move to stand before the imposing twisted metal of the gates, and then I freeze.
“What is wrong?”
“It’s still locked, Cerberus. We came all this way without remembering to find the key!”
“I am the Guardian of the Gates,” he says with a small chuckle, “you do not seriously think I would forget something as important as the key now, do you?”
Placing Death down on the ground, he slips a hand into his shirt and pulls out the silver key I’d seen around Hades’ neck, grinning widely at me.
“When did you …” I trail off, hardly daring to believe my eyes.
“You would have known if you had watched me get dressed. Now, you might want to stand back, these souls are ready to go home.”
