Forever Yours

Chapter Eight

"C'mon," Hades said. They ran back to the still running car, climbing inside. Hades didn't even have his seat belt on before Penelope threw the car into drive and raced down the road. The tires squealed as she took the upcoming corner too hard, the car going up on two wheels. Hades just grabbed the dashboard, hanging on for dear life as he sneaked a peek at the woman next to him.

She hadn't aged a day, not since the day she left him and didn't come back the following autumn equinox. Her hair was shorter, but still long enough to be able to be pulled back into one of her wild buns; fly-away strands softly touching her neck and cheeks. Her grey eyes held back a storm, lightning flashing in her irises. She was the good and hope of a summer day, a bright contrast to his dark life.

Hades knew that she was wanting something more than what her mother had dictated for her the day they met. He had hid in the shadows that summer day, watching as the nymphs had left her alone to gather flowers. She was younger than him, much younger; but when you're immortal, age holds no meaning. He had just meant to watch her, but he lost his footing in the bushes and fell. She heard him, and rather than being afraid, she was curious and went to investigate.

She found him, sitting on his butt with leaves and branches in his dark hair behind the trees of where he'd been spying on her. Anger had whipped through her at the thought of him listening to her private conversation, the one she was having with the flowers; before a calm had settled over her at his hapless sight. She knew instantly who he was, and to see him looking so helpless instead of the evil king her mother painted him to be; Penelope knew that she was lost. It was love at first sight, for both of them.

Smiling softly at his wife, Hades held his breath as she took another turn too quick. "Love, slow down," he said as she yanked the steering wheel to a hard left. They quickly took the turn into a overgrown driveway, two figures standing off in the distance. "There!"

Slowing down, Penelope maneuvered the vehicle until it was behind Ian's truck. She threw the car into park, and not even bothering to shut it off, she was out and heading towards Makaria. She dimly heard Hades calling after her, but she paid no mind to him. She needed to calm the powers raging war within their daughter, otherwise everything that was dead would be upon them in a matter of minutes. Penelope could already smell the decay of death that was coming.

Makaria stood in a bright circle, a funnel of wind blowing around her while green grass and small red poppies bloomed around her feet. She didn't see or hear her mother or the man that was with her call her name. All she could feel was the anger and sadness at the story Ian had just told her. Her mind was in turmoil, trying to figure out if what he spoke of was true. It had to be, didn't it? He'd shown her something she didn't think could ever be true, but yet it was. Her parents were the King and Queen of the Underworld? Which meant she was a princess, right? However, more importantly, her parents were gods. Which made her a goddess.

I'm a goddess? She thought as the poppies exploded in a cloud of red, their dust moving throughout the night air to poison the healthy and kill the sick. Her powers, the same ones her mother had blocked from her, were manifesting with the news Ian had told her. She could feel her soul as it brighten, the light within her marking it to become immortal.

Only Makaria didn't know that. She felt as if her heart was going to burst out of her chest, she could hear the pumping in her ears as it rushed through her veins. Makaria couldn't catch her breath, lungs starving for air as she tried to take huge gulps of it. The light around her intensify, blinding before she felt a hand wrap around her wrist, pulling her into the night air.

Makaria fell limply into her mother's arms, hanging on for dear life as Penelope held her. She took huge, gaping breaths of air, the night stealing into her lungs. Closing her eyes, the world stopped spinning as she tried to get her bearings. She looked up, her arms wrapped around her mothers, and couldn't see her nor anything else. She couldn't hear the words Penelope whispered, either.