“Alessa . . .”
At the sound of her name, she was instantly calm. She’d known someone else had entered the room, and her even her body was in tune to his presence, but she hadn’t been sure until now. Opening her eyes, she stared into the depths of his deep cerulean eyes that matched her own and she was reunited with the man she’d met not too long ago on her balcony. “Hades?”
He smiled. He liked his name when she spoke it and had waited for over a decade to finally hear it. Her voice sounded so much lighter and different now that she weren’t so crazed with sadness. She looked vastly different from how she looked in the human realm where grief and bad fortune had stuck to her like a parasite.
Hades frowned. He was partially to blame for it. “Yes, it’s me.”
“Where am I?” She asked, even though she was already told before. Somehow she still hoped that she was in Evyon.
“The Underworld—my home.”
“No . . .” She closed her eyes and began to rock again. If she pretended he wasn’t here and this was all a nightmare then maybe she’d wake up.
“Alessa,” Hades reached for her.
“No!” She hissed. “I want to go home!”
That place was never your home, Hades started to say, but he refrained. She didn’t need anymore anguish weighing her down. “If you come with me then I will explain everything that’s happened to you.”
Alessandra stopped moving to look at him. “You will?”
“Yes.”
Swallowing, Alessandra nodded.
Hades wasted no time. He took Alessandra’s hand in his and before she could question his sudden action, they were transported into another room. It was so quick and when it was over Alessandra was left gasping for air on the floor. There was no warning as the room shifted and morphed into a new room.
It was a study far bigger than the bedroom she’d occupied. It was very spacious with leather furniture and a grand desk as the centerfold. It was black and sleek and shiny from polish. A fireplace nearly took up one whole side of a wall while there was a built in bookshelf adorning another wall. A sitting area was decorated not too far from the fireplace with a cozy velvet covered single chair.
Once again, she was left confused. Alessandra didn’t know how she ended up in a new place even when she witnessed it. Slowly, she crept away from Hades. He’d done the same thing that Hypnos did. “How did you do that?”
Hades wanted to move as she did, but he didn’t want to alarm her anymore than she already was. “It’s one of my gifts, all of us can do it.”
“All of you? What are you?”
“I am a God,” He cleared his throat, “well one of them, I am the God of the Underworld.”
Alessandra scoffed. She’d put as much distance between them that she was comfortable with. “God? There is only one God and you are not Him.”
Hades gave her a look that said that she couldn’t be serious. He knew of the different religious views from different cultures, but that didn’t mean he accepted them. “Is that what your one-sided Priests have taught you?”
She gasped, insulted by the remark. “What you speak of is paganism and I do not believe you.”
“Not after everything you’ve seen? Take a good look around you,” Hades swept his arm around the room, “it’s real.”
“My mother, she said she made a deal with you. Explain that to me.” She should’ve read the books that her mother left for her.
He knew this was coming, and yet he was reluctant. If she knew then what would she say? Would she accept him? “Please, sit.” Hades offered her the single chair, his favorite chair, and waited for her to take a seat. She took her time, of course. “Can I get you something to drink, Alessa?”
“Alessa? Why do you keep calling me that?” She perked at the alternate name. She tired not to let it show that it made her heart flutter inside of her chest.
“It’s your name.”
“But you’re the only person that calls me that.”
Hades chuckled. “Do you not want me to call you that?”
The question was a challenge, but it’d thrown off Alessandra. He watched as she pondered the question. “I . . . I don’t know.”
That wasn’t exactly the answer he hoped for. “I don’t want you to be frightened while you’re here so any way that I can make you comfortable, you have to tell me.”
She sighed. “I’d like for you to tell me about the deal you made with my mother.”
He took a deep breath. There was no time to tell her the true story about why he needed her. He wasn’t ready to reminiscence about memories he’d suppressed a long time ago. “From the moment you were born, I was drawn to you. I can’t explain it, but I needed to help you and in return, you’d be mine. I made the deal with your mother to make sure you were protected so that one day I could talk to you face-to-face and tell you that I need you to become Queen to rule the Underworld at my side.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t cheat death for your mother, it was inevitable and I knew it was only a matter of time before I would come to collect her soul.”
“You took her soul?”
He nodded. “When she died, I was there.”
“Will you take mine?”
“No.”
“Where did you take her soul? Heaven?”
“There is no heaven, it is simply called Elysium or the Sanctuary. Both are well terms. Hell, however, is what the mind creates as a nightmare, one that the soul must bear daily. Your mother was blessed, while your father had much behind him that was not good."
Her father, she’d forgotten about him. “Can I see them?”
“No, once they cross over, it’s impossible to get them back.” He wasn’t entirely telling the truth. He had absolute control over the souls that were in his Underworld. He could choose what to do with them and where they would go, but he figured that it’d be good not to tell her that bit of information just yet.
“Oh.”
“Your mother is well taken care of, I can assure you of that.” He saw how the possibility of never seeing her mother again had visibly upset her.
“What about Greer? I touched her.” If time had passed then she knew that Greer was dead now and that her absence in Evyon had surely been noticed by now.
While he was away from the Underworld, he’d gone to the human realm to collect Greer’s soul. She’d died horrifically in her father’s arms, which was a fate she shouldn’t have succumbed to. Her death did surprise him. But he made sure she was reunited with her mother and aunt in Elysium.
“I killed them.” Alessandra’s broken voice pulled Hades’ attention.
“No.” He said adamantly, startling her. He took quick strides until he was standing in front of her. “You did not kill them.”
“I am cursed. At least I think I am. I touched Winnie, but she said she wouldn’t die. I don’t know what’s going on.”
Hades flinched at the word. Cursed, there was no other way to call it, he didn’t blame her, but still, he didn’t mean to make her life miserable. “I marked you when you were born and a piece of my soul is connected to yours. When I did that you became untouchable, but I allowed you and your mother to keep contact so that she could properly look after you. When you’re in the human realm, you bare the touch of the death.”
“You did this to me?”
“Yes, but—”
“Let me die. I want to see my mother and Greer. I don’t want to be here.” She argued.
He hated to hear her say that. If only she saw what he saw in her. “I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
Hades bit his lip. “I’ve waited a long time for you, Alessa. I need you.”
The look in his eyes had drove Alessandra wild. She was intimidated by the intensity of his gaze. He looked at her with so many emotions in his eyes that she couldn’t properly place them. She didn’t know why he felt that way towards her, and yet she couldn’t complain.
She’d felt this way before with Prince Daniel and he turned out to be exactly what he wasn’t. He was a fraud and an evil man. She hated to think that Hades was the same way.
It was hard for him to be more empathetic towards her. For so long he kept his feelings under check and now when he needed to, he couldn’t express the right words to make her understand his reasons for keeping her in the Underworld. “You’re curious, tell me what’s on your mind.”
“I have so many questions. I don’t even know where to start. This is just too much all at once.”
“Ask me." He urged. “We can take this one question at a time.”
"How many of you are there?"
"There are quite a few Gods and Goddesses, it’s hard to give you an exact number.” He hadn’t bothered keeping up with the others besides his brothers and the rest of the Gods that lived in Olympus. He made an exception for Hypnos.
“Are they all like you?”
“You mean, do they rule the Underworld?”
She nodded.
“No, each of us is different.”
“Do they live here?”
“No. I don’t like guests.”
Alessandra remembered Winnie mentioning that. She curled her hand around her neck, seeking the pendant that’d normally be there, but it was missing. She’d accidentally dropped it when she stood on the balcony. “You gave me that necklace, why?”
"I had to be close to you. I knew I couldn’t stay on your realm for long, but I wanted you to know that I was always with you even though I wasn’t going to allow myself to physically know you until it was time.” He remembered leaving it on her vanity the day before her birthday, but he never got the chance to see her reaction. He hated missing so much of her life, but he made an effort by checking in every so often.
“I want to go to my bedchambers, please.” Alessandra needed time to process everything. She needed the only person she trusted in these walls, but alas, she was alone.
"Of course.” He moved to give Alessandra space to stand as she rose from the chair. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. She was so beautiful. Even though she was standing directly in front of him, she felt so far away. “Alessa . . .”
Hades lifted his hand for hers, and she flinched. Touching someone was still foreign to her, but he was patient and his hands were cautious as they gently took her hands in between his. “I’m scared.”
“I know, but you don’t have to be.” He said. "You can't hurt me, or Winnie, or anyone here." His words were soft and reassuring.
Hades didn’t seem like a bad man. There was innocence to him that she didn’t understand and that he wanted to keep hidden. He seemed witty, but still holds himself with such a confidence that it was attractive. Still he was a soul collector, someone who wasn’t supposed to know love. He was supposed to be a man held in his position by the fear of people.
“I just need some time.”
“Before you go,” He unclasped their hands. “I want to give you something.”
“What?”
Hades didn’t say anything. He reached out and touched her cheek with the tips of his fingers and waited. He began to call back the magic that’d altered her appearance. He wanted her to have some semblance of normalcy. He wanted her to reclaim her life.
“What did you do to me?”
“Before you leave, look in the mirror.”
He turned her around to the mirror hanging above the liquor cabinet tucked away in one of the corners of his study. Alessandra was taken aback. The darkness of the brown contrasted with the patches of white that were beginning to fill in. Her skin was no longer pale like a corpse but instead she was more olive toned. Tanned with a sun-kissed glow she never had before. The blue dress she wore was a bit darker on her skin tone, and she was excited. Her eyes remained the same blue, and her hair nearly faded just in the time she ogled. Though one strip of her hair remained white, it left a streak visibly surrounded by the mass of dark tendrils.
“I . . . I . . . I look like . . .” Her mother. The sight nearly brought her to tears. She’d never seen her hair so dark before and it looked so natural. “This is me.”
“Being down here would’ve eventually reverted you back to your original features. I just sped up the process.”
“Thank you.” She said.
And she really meant it. She turned to see Hades smiling at her with content. It wasn’t a lot, but it was a piece of a life that she wanted back and this was only the beginning.