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Chapter 25
Hades
Elyse was like an apparition, like those paintings of angels who were heaven sent. No, she was better. Not only was she real, existing in the flesh, but she looked like a vision.
And why not? She was a goddess in the best possible way.
I was completely fucking overwhelmed. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life. She’d been stunning before, with her long, dark hair and her large eyes, her curvy body and muscular physique. But this person who stood before me was everything she’d been and more. It was as if her hair had grown even longer, and dressed in the traditional divine armor, she left me breathless.
The intensity of her power caught me off-guard, flowing out of her like a river, wrapping itself around all of us and spreading through the city. It pricked on my skin as she searched in every corner and crevice, trying to find the people she had to protect. She cared about them, even loved them, and her new title was fitting. As much as I hated to admit it, maybe Zeus had gotten something right for a change.
Elyse had always cared about others, about protecting them when they couldn’t save themselves. To be the Goddess of Sanctuary was the most beautiful thing I could imagine her becoming.
I couldn’t believe it took me this long to open my damn eyes. I couldn’t believe I rejected my feelings for her this long.
Everyone tried to warn me, but I’d been a stubborn son of a bitch.
Thank Zeus, it hadn’t been too late, that I came to my senses before X took over the world. If he’d managed to destroy Chicago completely, it would only have been a matter of time before he rampaged through the rest of the cities, growing exponentially as he conquered them.
I’d let it to get to the point where he’d grown so powerful, even me finally accepting how I felt for Elyse didn’t change X or send him back into the Underworld where belonged. I’d royally screwed up, and Elyse had been the one to save the day. For that, I’d always be in debt to her.
I should have accepted how I felt about Elyse a long time ago. Persephone had been right, too. I had to remember to thank her for looking out for me, even though I’d treated her just as badly as I had Elyse.
I definitely had to work on my people skills; that was one thing I knew for a fact. But I also had to work on how I treated Elyse because she wasn’t just a distraction when I needed to get away from my thoughts. Elyse was the center of the universe and everyone would focus on her.
Including me.
She’d made such quick work of X, we hadn’t even been needed. I’d stood ready to fight at her side, to protect her and keep her safe—I thought when I confessed to her how I felt that I’d always have her back.
But she didn’t need anyone at her back. Not anymore. The only way I could be there for her was to stand by her side, tall and proud, to be ready when she needed me and support her when she didn’t.
When Elyse finally put X away and he bled into the ground as if he never existed, she turned toward us. She made eye contact with each of us one by one for a while before looking to the next.
When her gaze fell on me, she smiled. I knew what that smile said—we’d done it, together. But that wasn’t completely true. Elyse had done it all.
Suddenly, the Earth trembled and the world around us shook. A few of the crumbling buildings crashed down to the ground, and the earth beneath my feet rocked back and forth.
“Did you feel that?” Heracles asked.
“No shit. Feel what?” Ares said sarcastically.
“It’s X,” I said, and they all looked at me. “He’s just fallen back into hell and I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure he’ll never get out again.”
“What does that mean for you?” Elyse asked, heading toward us. I was almost not sure how to be with her, how to reach her when she looked this way. But she held her hand out to me and the moment I touched her, she set me at ease. She felt exactly the same as always. Her hand was warm, and her magic was familiar.
“It means I’m free.” I hadn’t realized what it would mean to defeat X. I’d turned my back on him getting out so no one would think it was my fault. And when they had, I’d been furious with them. I never considered that having someone put X back into the Underworld for good would set me free from him as well.
“We’re not finished, though,” Elyse said.
I shook my head. There was still one more thing that needed to be done. “You’re the only one that can do that,” I said.
“Do what?” Poseidon asked.
Heracles answered him. “Elyse is going to set the souls free.”
She nodded. She knew exactly what it was that she had to do, and she seemed to know how to do it. I’d only ever been a god, so I didn’t know what it felt like to step from one authority to the next. But it was as if she’d been programmed with a manual immediately, able to tune into exactly what needed to happen without asking any advice.
She closed her eyes and tipped her head to the heavens, as if basking in the sun.
