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The heavens split and a ray of sunlight fell directly onto Elyse, illuminating her body and making her look, yet again, like an apparition. She held her hands to the side, and the electric magic poured out of her. It washed through the city like a giant wave, splashing against the buildings, tinting everything gold. It wasn’t real gold, it wasn’t golden water, but it could have fooled me. I understood what magic felt like, but this kind of power was something I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Elyse was practicing her magic as if she were a goddess of old, as if she’d lived at Mount Olympus since the beginning of time. The woman who stood in front of me was something I hadn’t seen before. Gone was the little girl who wasn’t sure who she was, and in her place a strong woman stood on her own two feet. I remembered the first time she’d confronted me near the police academy. Her spunk, her fierceness, her sexiness—even if filled with doubt and uncertainty—had drawn me to her, and unbeknownst to me back then, our fates were already been entwined.
“What is she doing?” Ares asked me.
I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to. The moment Elyse moved, her magic enveloping the city, I sensed all the souls like thousands of voices in my head. I didn’t know where they’d gone when she’d split X down the middle, but every soul he’d devoured now escaped from the blackness that had seemed to drain through the ground where X disappeared.
Elyse still had her eyes closed, but she saved every single one of the souls, allowing them to enter the Underworld, where they belonged, to gain the peaceful afterlife they deserved.
“Can she not bring them back to life?” Poseidon asked.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. No one comes back to life, not unless they’re divine in some way. The souls killed before their time won’t be able to return, but at least they’ll find peace. It’s the least we can do for them, to offer them the death they deserve.”
It was a pity Elyse couldn’t resurrect any of the people. But as soon as their life threads had been cut, as soon as they died, they’d been stuck in limbo until they were released to whichever row of the Underworld they belonged in.
When X devoured them, they’d merely been squashed into a limbo inside him, where he’d drawn from their life forces and would have continued to do so for eternity.
But that would all change now.
It felt like forever that Elyse stood there, her eyes closed and magic pouring out of her. And one soul after the other headed toward the Underworld to be taken across the River Styx. The ferryman would do what needed to be done. He wouldn’t fuss about money, not today. Every single soul would end up where they belonged, and they’d have their resting places.
As if the last of the souls shuddered as they passed through, the Earth trembled yet again then order was restored. The people had been saved in a way, the souls sent to the Underworld, Elyse was still alive, and peace settled over my heart.
I strolled over to Elyse and the others let me, not trying to push in and say or do anything first.
“That was spectacular.” I collected both her hands in mine and pressed her fingers against my lips. “I always knew you were perfect, but I never expected something like this.”
The others stepped forward and surrounded Elyse.
“How do you feel?” Heracles asked.
“Never better,” Elyse replied with a smile.
It wasn’t childlike beaming, like she’d just come into some kind of power she wanted to figure out later. She looked calm and collected, in charge of who she was, and in command of over her own ability. She didn’t look scared and worried, not like when she started out. The little girl was gone, and in her place was a woman, strong and secure in who she was, and hell if I didn’t adore everything about her more than I’d ever thought possible.
And damned if that didn’t make me even more attracted to her, falling for her so deeply in that moment, my hands buzzed with the urgency to swoop her into my arms. To kiss her like she deserved. To whisper words that made her smile. To remind her she was mine and I’d be by her side no matter what.
She looked over her shoulder at the city.
“It’s a pity I can’t do something about this, too,” she said. “I’d love to be able to rebuild the place, make it so this never happened. That’s not possible, is it?”
We all shook our heads. On Earth, it wasn’t possible to restore things to the way they were before something happened. It just wasn’t realistic. If the humans wanted to pick themselves up again, they had to rebuild from scratch.
But humans were quite resourceful, and it wouldn’t take them long before they started cleaning up the city. Buildings would be either restored or knocked down, and new ones would be built in their places. The streets would be fixed. Vegetation would be added onto, and humanity would think it was a natural disaster.
In time, it would be as if nothing like this ever happened. The survivors were the few humans who’d put it down to an earthquake, not believing their eyes, but they’d be scattered across the Earth and would rarely speak of it again—with a bit of influence from Zeus.
“Let’s go home,” Elyse finally said, wearing a grin. “I’m starving.”
We all laughed. After she’d just become a goddess, the first thing Elyse thought about was food. She’d just saved the world, but she wanted something to eat.
“Where is home?” I asked. As far as I knew, everyone had their own apartments.
Elyse took my hand and squeezed it, intertwining her other hand with Apollo’s.
“Home is wherever we are,” she said. “So, let’s go and be together and never let go again.”
We all nodded, very on board with that plan. It was time for us to sit back and relax, to enjoy life for what it was, to put all this nasty business behind us.
And to enjoy eternity together.
