“Good grief. Why is everyone so afraid of you?”
“I’m fuckingDeath, Cyrie.”
“Yeah, and I’mfuckingDeath,” I retorted. “What’s your point? They’re already in the Underworld. What more would you even do to them?”
Thanatos laughed. “Nothing. But to most, I am an ill omen in that realm just as I am here,” he explained. “It is not as if the souls there have forgotten me—they forget much, but never dying, it seems. Even to many of the immortals I am but a brooding shadow, and I do not mind being seen that way. I like to keep to myself.”
“You don’t want them to know you? To see beyond your image?”
“No. For that, you are enough.” He kissed my skin lazily, and I smiled.
“I’m lucky,” I yawned.
“Sleepy, you mean?”
“No! I’m not sleepy.” Maybe a little, but he didn’t need to know that.
I felt him grin against my chest. “Sounds like you are.”
“Come on, what wouldyouknow about it?” I protested. “Don’t leave me all alone because you think I need to sleep.”
“You speak of my twin, you know,” Thanatos reminded. “I am not ignorant of sleep, once I’ve recalled that you need it. ButI will not leave you unless you wish me to.” I made a satisfied noise, and he propped himself up to smile at me, fluttering his wings. “However,” he continued, “Idoneed to return to the Underworld, as every night. But I will come back and lie with you in your room, if you like. I can tell you stories while you go to sleep.”
That sounded nice, and I supposed it was the best deal I was going to get. “Okay,” I agreed. I didn’t want to leave his side, but he was right, of course. Ishouldbe a responsible mortal, even if I’d much rather forget the consequences and adore him all night. So we pulled our clothes back on.
“Lie down for a while, okay?” he said. “And don’t say anything when I show up! You’ll wake your sisters.”
“I know. See you in a little, then.”
Thanatos flickered me back to the temple, kissed my forehead, and vanished into the night. When I entered my room, it was already dark. Sophie stirred at the squeak of the door, but rolled over sleepily when she saw it was me. Alex and Zoe were out cold.
I let down my curtains for privacy and climbed into bed to wait. I lay awake, listening to the sounds of my sisters’ breathing and the calls of birds in the night. The air was crisp and cool, still a pleasant temperature this time of year. I should savor it while it lasted, as the days ahead would only get hotter.
It was a while before Thanatos returned to me, but I still remembered not to react when I heard him flutter into the room. I smiled lazily as he lay beside me, on top of my covers, and slipped his arm around my waist. I snuggled up against him.
“Close your eyes now,” he said. “So you fall asleep when you should.” I made a snarky face, but complied after one last look. For just a moment, I felt the slightest brush of his lips on mine. Then he spoke to me softly, his voice a tantalizing whisper.
“The Underworld,” murmured Thanatos, “is a vast realm of rivers and fields and cliffs. When I return there each night, I fall into the air above them, and as I descend I can see the dark waters twisting like serpents below.
“There is no sun to brighten Hades’ domain, and no rain or sky. How could there be, in such a place? Instead the air shimmers dimly all on its own, bathing the land in soft light, and high above lies only empty darkness, nary a star. The waters of the earth seep down from your realm, sinking further and further into the dark, until at last they emerge as the great rivers below. Upon these sacred waters the gods swear unbreakable oaths.
“It is the river Acheron, followed by the Styx, that souls must cross to be judged at the city of Hades. Charon, the ferryman, awaits me on the riverbank. There, on that beach, the stillness of death is ended and the souls I carry reemerge into their afterlife. They reform in new bodies, with minds and memories as static imprints of what they once were. Themselves, but also mere shades. When they wake from my wings, they discover whether they have been buried with the fare required to cross. Whether they have been remembered.”
Thanatos stroked my forehead softly, and I knew he was smiling without opening my eyes. “Then I fly away,” he said. “I fly over the lands until I reach Elysium and the city of Hades, locked behind a diamond gate.”
He paused and let out a nervous chuckle. “This is an unfamiliar experience. I do not often speak this much.” I smiled at his adorable hesitance and broke the rules to quickly press my lips against his. Before he had time to chastise me, I had closed my eyes again, back in sleeping position.
“Stop cheating!” he ordered halfheartedly, laughter in his voice. “Be still and listen, stubborn mortal.” I obeyed, but I knewhe could see my unrepentant grin. He squeezed me once in answer to my defiance, then continued with his story.
“On the other side of the city, the groves of Persephone stretch out across the landscape until they disappear between twin crags in the distance. In that great expanse, life sprouts in defiance of infertile soil, painting a strip of green across an otherwise barren horizon. The plants there grow eagerly in response to the Queen’s magic, yet nothing in those woods is quite akin to the vegetation coveringyourrealm. Every leaf in that sacred place thrums with the power of the joining of life and death. Both beauty and horror are to be found in the depths of Persephone’s garden.
“That covers most of the aesthetics, I think; or at least all that come to mind now. Of the Underworld, however, there is much more I can describe. Let me tell you of the powers that flow within each of the rivers…”
Thanatos spoke softly to me of fires and forgetfulness and the curses of woe, his voice like music in the hush of the night. I listened happily until I was claimed by mortal sleep.
* * *
Flying on borrowed wings, I could see it all sprawling beneath me, just as he said: the rivers and gardens and glowing fogs of the Underworld. Dark waters surged and swelled below, carving through the land, stretching into the distance where the black city loomed. I was captured by its presence, drawn toward its towering spires by some invisible force. With impossible speed I hurtled into the shadow of that city, darting through the still air until my feet found purchase in front of the great diamond gate. From beyond it came the horrifying sounds of somebody’s ceaseless screaming.
