Page 38 of Dark Gods
“Do you knowwhyyour mother is so desperate to marry you off to Hades?” he pressed, folding his hands in his lap. “Did you ever stop to wonder why Cronus would want his son to marry the daughter of a goddess who hasn’t been seen in Olympus for the last hundred years?”
My mind was whirling and I shook my head, not because the question had never crossed my mind, but because I wanted him to stop. I wanted everything to just… stop. My hands were trembling around the nearly untouched glass in my hands and I was only holding on because I didn’t trust myself to set it down without dropping it. Everything was on the verge of shattering.
“You may not like it, but there is one thing you and Hades have in common, one thing that binds you and sets you apart from all the others,” he said coldly. “There’s only one place in all the worlds where the gods can hide their dirty little secrets. Your acceptance to the Academy, and Hades’ for that matter, was meant to give you both the opportunity to adjust. To go willingly. But make no mistake, whether you squander your limited time and freedom here or not, you will both be spending the remainder of your lives in the Underworld. That is a fact.”
My throat was bone dry and I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking. At this point, I wasn’t sure whether it was rage or some late reaction to Phrixus’ death. All I knew was the question on the tip of my tongue was one I shouldn’t ask--and wouldn’t, if I had any sense of self-preservation--but I also knew it was the one time I could actually count on an honest answer.
“Hades said something the night I came here. The night of the party,” I said in a voice that sounded much steadier than I felt. “About Poseidon and my mother. Is it true? Is he my real father?”
Odin didn’t seem surprised in the least by my question. He didn’t answer right away, either. He gave me just enough time to dread what was coming.
“It’s true that your mother was involved with both Poseidon and Zeus,” he finally answered, and my heart bottomed out at his confirmation. “However, I’m afraid the scandal of your birth is far more involved than that.”
I stared at him in confusion, my heart already raw and bleeding. “Then… who?”
“Come, child. Surely some part of you already knows the answer to that question,” he scoffed. “After all, you’ve sown nothing but discord ever since you stepped foot in this place.”
“No,” I said, leaping up from my chair. I shook my head and found myself backing toward the door. “You’re lying.”
“And yet, I haven’t said a word.” He shrugged, taking another sip. “Truth recognizes itself. You are Ares’ daughter. There’s no doubt of that.”
For the second time in my life--both of which had taken place within the Academy walls--I ran. I wasn’t even sure what I was running from. In any case, no one made any attempt to stop me as I fled the great wooden doors, but I made it no further than the garden before I collapsed with a strangled sob welling in my throat.
Ares.
It couldn’t be true. I didn’t want it to be true, even if it made sense of things I’d never been able to make sense of before. The fact that my mother, as concerned as she was with making a good impression on the other gods, led such a cloistered life away from them. My engagement to Hades.
Now it all made sense.
We really were a match made in Hell.
19
Fenrir
Iheard music in the air as I ran through the woods, a beast of silver fur and glowing black eyes. The woods surrounding the Academy provided adequate disguise from the fragile folk who populated Atlantis beyond the security of the Academy walls, which was a fortune, since I looked like the monster from Hell that I was.
I’d been given an all-occasion pass Freshman year that entitled me to miss class without any questions asked, since the administration was already less than eager to go over its demigod quota, let alone with a student whose divine parentage wasn’t even humanoid. Running and hunting were the only dependable methods of keeping my animal nature in check, and when I was constantly surrounded by prey, doing so was a necessity.
I hadn’t been created to learn, or socialize, or live any semblance of a proper existence, for that matter. I’d been created for one purpose and one alone: chaos. In the absence of a suitable reason to fulfill that purpose after my father’s death, I had been given a new one: protect Hades.
Not killing him and everyone else in sight just came with the job description, so I ran, but there was something different about this night. The music in the air was different. It wasn’t the collective song of birds or the rush of the wind. Both were silent.
This was a song I knew well. Death always favored a certain melody.
I followed it, my paws beating a thunderous rhythm against the earth as I picked up my speed.
Then, I found her. The source of the melody.
She was in the garden, her small body hunched over and surrounded by thick black vines coming out of the earth and shaped around her like a cocoon. I stopped short, trying to process the strange sight before me. There was little I hadn't seen on Asgard or Earth, but this was certainly a first.
The closer I drew, the more the melody rumbling through the earth sounded like a scream of torment. Kore seemed only half-conscious, her face marred with an expression of anguish as she huddled closer in on herself, as if she was trying to fight the crushing weight of the vines around her, even though she had to be in control of them.
Didn't she?
I hesitated, torn for the first time over what to do. Logic told me to run. My continued station at the Academy was contingent upon no one outside the administration ever seeing me in this form, especially not a student. Instinct told me to go to her. The same instinct that had drawn me to her from the moment she'd arrived on campus.
The very thing that would drive me apart from my only purpose in this world if he ever found out the truth.
