Dionysus (Hades Series #1.5)

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Dionysus

I sigh, shaking my head at her. "Have you really stooped so low that you're going to threaten a kid Chloe? What's happened to you?"

"Nothing has happened to me! Why are you focusing on the stupid fucking kid instead of me?" She snaps. "I am the same person I've always been; a loving and loyal worshipper of yours Dionysus. Why can't you see that?"

"Chloe, you aren't one of my Bacchae. My Bacchae don't have homicidal tendencies, trust me." I take a step forward. "Let Jasmine go Chloe, or I won't be able to control what happens to you."

She looks a little frightened for a second, before her resolve strengthens again and she shakes her head. "No. I'm sorry but you have to understand, I'm doing this for you Dionysus. You need to get over your sick obsession with that pathetic human, and if it means killing a little girl then I guess that's a burden I will have to bear."

She lifts Jasmine up by her tiny little blonde ponytail, and any remaining sentiment I have for her vanishes in that instance. If Jasmine had still been conscious, I might've gone easier on Chloe. But unluckily for Chloe, Kenzie's daughter is still under whatever slumber they put her in, so I don't hold back.

I smash my thrysus down on the grass with all my might, and the impact it makes echoes through the whole island with a loud clap. The vines that had previously just been winding through the grass leap up and whip through the air like huge green snakes. They torpedo towards Chloe like well trained missiles and wrap across her body, squeezing her like big boa constrictors. Chloe screams and drops Jasmine so she can frantically start yanking at the vines encircling her body.

I point my thrysus at Jasmine and several vines twine underneath her to create a small hammock before she hits the ground. Only once I've laid her gently back down on the grass do I turn back to Chloe, narrowing my eyes at her.

Chloe struggles hysterically, her face going as red as her hair. "My-my lord please, I beg of you-"

I snap my fingers, and a thick vine snakes across her mouth to cut off her strangled pleading. I smile at her viciously, and mockingly repeat what she said to me earlier. "I'm sorry but you have to understand, I'm doing this for you Chloe. You need to get over your sick obsession with me."

"I'm an important tree nymph, you can't just kill me!" She chokes out.

"Did you give Kenzie a second chance? If she had begged for her life like you are right now, would you have listened to her?" I snap. Her silence is damning.

"You seriously wouldn't kill one of your own Bacchae, just like that?" She tries another tactic. "We have a bond! Not even you are that remorseless!"

"Sweetheart, I'm the fucking god of wild untamed nature." I growl. "Of course I can be that remorseless. Think about that next time before you snap my girlfriend's neck."

Then I point my thrysus at her and send her shooting up in the air like a rocket. Her strangled screams pierce the air as she struggles desperately against the vines, but I only tighten them in response. When she's risen so high she's barely a speck in the middle of the blue sky, I sweep my thrysus to the left and send her plummeting back down towards the ground. I wordlessly watch as she drops through the air like a stone, and just as she's about to crash into the ground I open up a hole and let the earth swallow her up. Her screams are cut short as soon as the dirt closes up above her, and suddenly the clearing descends into unnatural silence. Even the birds have stopped singing; the only sound I can hear is my own ragged breathing and Jasmine's much softer sighs.

A sense of finality tingles through me. It's over. It's finally over.

"Spencer." A quiet voice breaks the silence. For a few seconds I don't even recognise who it is, and it isn't until I turn around that I see Persephone looking at me with an expression riddled with sympathy. She glances down at the mound of upturned soil in front of me. "Are you sure she's... dead?"