“How are you feeling?”
Alessandra had been too quiet since the first body that she collected. Hades had to collect the next souls because Alessandra chose to watch. That was okay; he didn’t want to push anymore than he already did. He knew this wasn’t an easy task to bestow on her, but he didn’t expect her to be this silent. Finding and collecting souls was never easy, only those that were bad were easy to take and give them the proper punishment for committing atrocious acts from when they were alive. Maybe he should’ve taken her to someone that was bad so that way she felt more at ease with collecting that person.
Just then an idea popped into his mind.
“I can’t stop thinking about her.” Alessandra admitted. She couldn’t find any enthusiasm for collecting more souls after the first one. She watched Hades and learned a little more, but with Camille on her mind, she wondered about how many more like her was unfairly killed in their lifetime. “She was so young.”
“I know, but she is in a better place.” It was all he could say to reassure her even though they were words that were commonly repeated. They were also true. Elysium was a true home to live in for those that have lived the purest life. He’d seen it plenty of times and sometimes wished to walk on the warm grass and absorb the sun’s rays.
“How do you know that?” Alessandra countered.
“Sometimes when they pass I am there. I help them cross over. I’ve seen Elysium, it is beautiful.” He responded truthfully. Sometimes he wanted to walk there and never come back, essentially in the years that he roamed the Underworld alone without his companion. That void in his heart was slowly healing now and the person responsible was standing beside him.
“Can I see it as well?”
“All in due time, but I want to take you to one last place before then.” He held out his hand for hers with the Underworld already pictured in his mind. Upon first contact they were transported in the blink of an eye.
Cerberus shuffled to Hades as soon as he appeared, shaking the ground with his thick and meaty body. Alessandra almost lost her balance, but she was delighted to see Cerberus. The last time they saw each other he was pulling her from the Sea of Souls along with Gemma.
He coddled Alessandra next, repeatedly sniffing her face, hair, and body as if he was searching for any signs that she might be injured. Alessandra patted his wet nose, smiling when his tongue licked her palm. “Hello, Cerberus,”
“He likes you.” Hades commented.
“I like him, too.”
Hades smiled at that. “Come, I want to show you something else.”
Alessandra followed him down the corridor and into the place where the Sea of Souls was located. It looked exactly the same on the outside, but Alessandra was haunted by what occurred not too long ago. She tried not to look, but it was impossible with the sounds of souls softly wailing around them. The sea had to have stretched for miles and it possibly grew bigger with all the new additions to it.
“Why are we here?” Why was she in the place that she’d come to fear? She could still taste the vile waters as it rushed down her throat and seemed to pull her deeper into the sea. She saw the faces of each ghost as if they were right in front of her.
And her father . . .
Thinking about him nearly brought her to her knees because she felt that at any moment he would appear again. She hadn’t heard anything from him since. She half expected him to appear in front of her again and throw her in, but that’s when she remembered Hades and calmed. With him right beside her nothing could go wrong. She was safe.
“I have another task.” Hades didn’t want to be here when the memory of Alessandra’s incident was so fresh and recent. Her safety meant more to him, but this was necessary. “I need you to judge Virgil’s soul.”
“Who is Virgil?”
“Camille’s father.”
Gasping, she turned to the sea. “I thought you said you put him in there?”
“For temporary holding. I can control whether they come or go. The sea isn’t a permanent solution.” It was a place that held bad people, sure. People that were thieves or adulterers or common criminals for measly crimes, and those were given minor punishments until Hades deemed them ready to pass over. Only the ones that murdered, raped, or had been the cause of someone else’s death were truly judged and sentenced to eternity way down below.
“Where else can bad souls go?”
“Hell.”
It was a place that wasn’t friendly. Even Hades couldn’t visit it, but he knew once souls went in that they weren’t going to come out.
“You mean . . .”
“Yes, flames and darkness and pain, a lot of pain for the rest of eternity. The sea is only a glimpse of what’s to come. It is harmless almost in comparison, but still just as fearful.”
Alessandra processed that for a moment thinking about what could be worse than living a false reality over and over again. She decided that she didn’t want to ever find out. “How do you take him out the water?”
Hades didn’t speak as he hovered his hand over the sea. He closed his eyes, pictured the person that he wanted, and spoke his name. The water levitated until a figure had emerged and formed into the man that lied slain next to Camille. He wore the same clothes as before with the blade still in his neck. His flesh still remained which led to her belief that only sufferers that’d been under water for an extensive amount of time start to dissolve.
Confusion marred his expression as he accessed his surroundings. “Where am I?”
“You’re dead,” Hades answered, “and so is your daughter.”
“Impossible.” Virgil replied. “I was just in my home with my daughter. We were talking and—”
“And you killed her.” Alessandra interjected with malice. Before she knew it she was walking on the bridge, forgetting her fear, and marching closer to Virgil. “You killed your daughter, you vile, despicable man! You killed her because she was pregnant, didn’t you?”
“Bitch!” Virgil lifted his hand, but Hades was fast to stop him. The God of the Underworld willed his power to seize him. Instantly, Virgil was frozen. “What is this sorcery?”
“Virgil, you do not want to raise your hand to a woman. That is greatly rude.” Hades teased, anger prickling his skin, but he had to reel it in because Alessandra was near. However, he wanted to teach this soul a lesson. “Apologize.”
Virgil struggled for breath. “N-n-never.”
Hades smiled and it was the most frightening thing that Virgil had ever seen. Virgil had a thing about submission. He liked to be the one to be feared. It was how he controlled his daughter all of her life, but she had to go ruin everything by getting pregnant. Virgil remembered the anger that immediately took root in his chest as he unflinchingly swiped the blade across her abdomen.
And yet he didn’t feel any remorse what with the alcohol clouding his judgment. But Camille fought back and she drove the knife into his neck before she fell. Virgil hated that he let someone who was so young overthrow him all because he couldn’t keep his balance.
The air became thicker, heavier and harder to inhale. Alessandra could feel the sudden change and knew whom it came from. Hades had become different in the matter of seconds, shifting from a ruler to something more sinister. His eyes became obsidian, the veins in his muscles protruding, and his skin took on a different tinge. She started to approach him, but her body wouldn’t move, the hairs on her neck begun to rise.
“Hades?”
“Apologize.” Hades hissed; the timber in his voice was high-pitched and otherworldly.
She gasped. That was not his voice. “Hades?” He still didn’t respond, but she saw him flinch and look over his shoulder. Their eyes met for a fraction, but it was enough for her to catch his beady eyes meet her gaze. “Everything is fine. We are here for a reason. Remember?”
Virgil looked like a gapping fish out of water, trying to get some air into his lungs desperately. It was amazing that he still needed air to breathe being that he was already dead.
All of his pent up frustration and anger was being released all because of a single human. Hades had to remind himself that it wasn’t worth it and it was unnecessary for to call upon his dark gifts to handle this worthless soul. He breathed in deeply, and with a slow exhale, he composed himself. “Forgive me.”
“It’s okay. Let me judge him so that we can move on.” Alessandra just wanted to be away from all of this and go back to her bedchamber and finally see Winnie. But first she had to make sure that Hades was all right. “Come back to me.”
Hearing those words alleviated the rest of his anger. It gave him hope and excited him to know that she cared in such a way. He released Virgil and the soul collapsed on his knees.
“That harlot did not know what she was getting herself into. I did her a favor by riding her of that child!” Virgil spat. “She was trouble from the moment she was born and when she started courting that boy I knew she was going to bring even more trouble. She tarnished the family and my farming business by whoring herself!”
That did it.
Alessandra didn’t need Hades to help her with what happened next. She felt the power coursing through her veins, prompting her to walk towards Virgil. He stood his ground; firm in his beliefs that his misdeed was justified, but Alessandra knew where he was going would be suited for him.
“Virgil Clementine,” She began, “for your crimes committed in the world of the living, I sentence your soul to an eternity of darkness. You will suffer as your daughter had suffered after years of living in your custody. You will be envious that while she is finallyhappy and in a place where she no longer has to worry about you, you will be alone. Always and forever.”
“Hold out your hand.” Hades said. “Then will him into Hell.”
She did as she was told, holding her hand out and in front of Virgil. She used all of her might to send this soul to the place where he belonged. In a flash Virgil was gone. Alessandra felt exhilarated. Being able to have jurisdiction over someone’s fate was a gift she wanted to hold on to.
It pleased her to know that she could do this to those that deserved it. That helped her find inner peace with Camille. She couldn’t help the young girl as much as she’d liked, but at least she could give her this small justice to correct all that was wronged to her.
She never thought of herself in the position of power before, not when she lived in Evyon. It wasn’t spoken of for a Queen to rule, but now she wasn’t opposed to helping Hades make amends all the wrongdoing. She looked over her shoulder at him, and relaxed. He looked normal now and his eyes were back to their regular shade.
“Thank you,” she said. Not enough words could convey how she felt. “How did this help me uncover my destiny?”
In that moment, Hades wanted to tell her everything, but one piece of the truth couldn’t be revealed just yet. “I want you at my side, Alessandra—to rule as my Queen. If you shall agree to this then you will have free obligation to do what I do so you will have my abilities as you already have a piece of my essence within you. If you accept, you will also be given an elixir that will seal the deal and make you a demi-god. What happened to you in here with the ghost of your father will never happen again. That I promise. You will be feared, respected, and worshipped by your subordinates, but most of all me.”
Hades didn’t care how long it would take or what he had to do to make her feel wanted and appreciated because she deserved it all and then some.
“Alessandra, this is what I’ve wanted from the moment you were born. Yes, there was another before you and I do call out for her because in my heart I will always love her. That is something I can not remove. But I am ready to love again with you if you will accept me and all of my flaws.”
“Hades . . .” There was still so much more that they needed to discuss, so much that she needed to learn and know, but for now she would celebrate this small victory with him. “Yes.”
“Yes?” Hades repeated because he wasn’t sure he’d heard her right. Or maybe he just wanted to hear her say it again. He somewhat expected her to argue or deny him, but she was actually hearing him.
“Yes.”
She couldn’t revoke the thrill that she felt with all of that power he’d given her. Although it was leaving her system, by his word it would be everlasting if she took the elixir. Again, that was something think about tomorrow, but right now she had this moment with him—Hades.
And for the first time in her lifetime, she would finally claim her birthright as the royal blood flowing through her veins proved it. She would become his Queen.