‘By stealing my wife away?’
‘You stole her first.’
‘Stop,’ I say. ‘Both of you. Let’s talk about this. I could spend half the week on the surface or half the year even –’
‘This is not up for discussion!’ my father snarls.
‘Hell won’t stand for –’ Hades starts.
‘Without crops there won’t be any people to die. Your realm will fade and stagnate and die too,’ Zeus says. ‘You might not acknowledge that but there are many in your court who will.’
‘Is that a risk you are willing to take?’ Hades asks but I can hear his confidence wavering.
‘I will give you six months,’ I say. ‘Half a year on the surface and half a year in the Underworld.’
‘Give, take, as you choose it,’ Zeus says. ‘You either agree and live freely within the confines of Earth or you disagree and I will bind you here. Freedom or chains is your choice, not what time you give me.’
He turns to me with such vitriol in his eyes that I realize this isn’t about the supposed slight of my marriage. Tearing Hades from the Underworld was never really on the table – just a bonus suggestion to remind us all of the things he can do.
This is about me. It always has been from the moment my ambition enveloped his. Better to shut a girl down than let her grow into a woman who might pose a threat. As powerful as I am, I am not a person to be bargained with – I am a thing to be crushed underfoot.
‘Do you think that’s how it works?’ I hiss, so angry I can barely spit the words out. ‘That you can just chain me to a spot and the life will flow out? It’s conscious, Father. I have control over this.’ It’s a bluff – I am still discovering my power – but why shouldn’t it be true? Why shouldn’t he believe it is? ‘Bind me to the Earth and nothing will live again, I promise you.’
Zeus narrows his eyes. His knuckles whiten on the lightning bolt he holds. ‘Chaining you will be better than nothing.’
Mother glances at me, fearful now. She sees the temper in me she tried so hard to reign in. Little does she know it’s hardly a fraction of it.
I stare them down. ‘Would you care to risk that?’
‘I shall take this as a refusal to meet my demands,’ he says. He turns to the door and yells for his guards.
Hades tries to block my body with his, shouting about the things Hell will do in retaliation. I reach for my sickle before remembering I have not worn it for weeks and did not bring it for fear of escalation.
Well, there’s no escalation from being chained to the surface of Earth.
Hecate said I delighted in this game and she was right.
But I can’t stand losing.
And what else did she say? ‘Power like yours ripples through the very fabric of the magic coating the world.’
What good is that power now?
And then a thought:I could kill him.
Could I? In the seconds before his guards reach me and their hundred hands hold me firm, before they drag me to Earth and bind me to a mountain somewhere, can I reach into my power, feel the beating glow of life in my father’s chest and extinguish it? Can I, goddess of life and queen of the dead, continue the cycle and annihilate my father like he annihilated his before him?
Practically? Perhaps. I don’t know if that’s something I can do. I might vanquish every life in the room if I try.
Morally? I don’t know. Maybe. I’ve already killed hundreds of innocents, accidentally or not. Can I kill one decidedly not innocent man? I might not make it out of Olympus alive. The gods might riot, Oceanus might join them, I might cause another war. It might be worth it.
Or –
The guards burst into the hall.
‘Seize her.’
Instead of relying on the power I’ve discovered, I could rely on what I’ve always had. Before I had power I had nerve. I was resourceful. I prepared. And I grew things.
