Page 64 of The Ash Bride

Despite knowing he could not touch her, and had none of his power while imprisoned, she was certain he would see her love for mortals and their world if his eyes found hers. And use it to his advantage.

So she hid. And thanked Hades that Iapetos never sensed her presence.

It slowed her progress immensely, glancing at him from behind the rocks, concealed by darkness, waiting for him to turn so she could hurry on to the next hidden place. Since Persephone did not know what it was she was progressing toward, it did not really matter how long it took her to get there.

On one hand, she was confident that Hades had sent her here as her own punishment. Rather than deal with reopening Tartaros and chucking her inside, he would let her fester her own torture inside her head as she watched their misery and pain play out.

Yet, on the other, she could not shut out the quiet voice in her head telling her to keep going. To find it. Whatever Hades had sent her here to find, to do, to accomplish; because while Hades was the King of Terror, this was out of character.

Persephone thought about their wedding night, the end of her life, but also the beginning. The beginning of something new, she saw it in Hades’ eyes, full of something akin to friendship, if not love. Some small form of love the ancient god could feel for her. She could not imagine those eyes wanting her to be tortured down here, away from him, for eternity.

Hades may be the god of torture, and the worst god the Hellenes could ever have asked for, but he was able to love, to feel something positive when he looked at her.

Fondness of his wife would keep her alive. He had to keep her alive and in the Underworld to stave off the loneliness that came with his solitude. He married her for a reason, he wasn’t going to send her Tartaros forever after a week of marriage.

She was supposed to find her way out, and be tormented along the way.

A mountain rose in front of her, glowing a tarnished silver in the light of the fence. She stopped walking to stare up at it, bending backward to view the peak, but it disappeared beyond the light of the bronze prison.

Persephone groaned and slumped against a nearby rock. “How am I supposed to get around this?” she yelled up the mountain.

The bitter wind returned, an extension of Hades’ power still following her all this time, pushing her toward the mountain. She tried to resist, craving rest after enduring the unending torture of walking along the prison of the Titans. Tried to defy the icy wind by digging her heels into the ground, and clinging to the rock she leaned against, but it was stronger than her, relentlessly pressing her forward.

It led her to the base of the mountain, rocky and dirty, earth covering much of the ground surrounding it. A cloud of loose dirt billowed around her legs, reaching up to her nose and making her sneeze until her eyes watered. Dodging the rocks scattered around her was impossible with her watering eyes and clouds of dirt blocking her way, she stubbed her toes and sliced the bottoms of her feet often enough that they became numb to the pain.

There were no handholds in the mountainside, no possible way for her to climb it as the side was a smooth, silvery stone. The wind pressed into her back, pushing her until she was hugging the flat wall of the mountain. Then it shifted, prodding her to walk along the silver wall.

“Great,” she murmured to the now retreating breeze, lighting hugging her ankles in farewell. “I guess I have to walk around the damned thing.”

Persephone walked for a short time, maneuvering around large chunks of stone that had clearly fallen off the mountain, before stumbling upon stairs.

Uneven stairs carved into the side of the mountain, probably all the way to the peak, if she was fortunate. They were steep and narrow, and they had a layer of small rocks and sand covering them, making the climb that much more treacherous. She would have to be careful and brush off each stair before pushing off, or she would slip and fall.

She stepped onto the first one, but it was so thin that her heels hung off the end, forcing her to search for handholds, or to climb faster.

The faster she moved up the stairs, the faster she would get back to the palace, but with every increase to her speed her toes slipped off the stairs sooner than the last one. It felt like the stairs themselves were moving beneath her feet, which only drove her to climb faster.

Slowing down felt like suicide, but at the speed she was going she was going to fall back down the mountain and embed herself in the ground at its feet like the boulders she’d passed to get here.

“This will be fine,” she mumbled to herself, dragging her hands along the stairs above her head, latching onto anything that felt secure enough to support her weight. “Hades is only doing this to prove a point. A stupid point,” she said breathlessly. “Do not let him win,” she added, heaving herself up a step with every word.

Win what? She could hear him reply.

“Win anything. You are an entitled King who thrives on being more powerful than,” a shaky breath, “everyone.”

I am more powerful than everyone.

Persephone scoffed and rolled her eyes, but did not say anything as she realized she was having this conversation entirely with herself.

The fake chat with Hades proved a useful distraction, though. She pulled herself over the ledge, dragging her body onto a flat platform cut into the side of the mountain. The mountain still rose in front of her, but this platform was clean. No sand, not even dust, covered the flat expanse she stood on, or the stairs in front of her.

The stairs continued up the mountain a few steps ahead, cut into the flat wall before her. Both walls here were completely flat and smooth, as if Hades had taken a blade and sliced right into the rock, cutting this perfect piece from the mountain.

Somehow, these stairs looked even steeper than the previous set she had managed to climb up here on, and as she closed the space between herself and the wall, she groaned.

It was more like a ladder than a staircase.

Stepping onto the bottom rung, she reached her arms above her head to grab the edge of another one. She pulled herself up, one by one, pausing for a moment with each step to ensure the grip of her toes and hands were steady before continuing up.

---