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Gods would die. The world would be thrown into chaos. The Heavens would be ripped apart.
Red letter day for Ares, I guess.
I’d rather avoid the whole situation.
We’ve had our dust ups in dreams and visions. Ares can’t actually leave the fifth level, so he hasn’t managed to strangle me yet. I’d rather not give him the chance. But how the heck am I going to avoid him, all on my lonesome? I can’t even use what little magic I have, or it would be like throwing up a giant neon sign reading: ‘demi-goddess over here’.
The necklace around my throat, the relic of the second Garden, trembles lightly, and I cup the strange bronze filigree pendant that hangs from it instinctively.
I’m not alone at all. In all my worry about Adonis, I almost forgot. That’s embarrassing.
I met Rhiannon, a ghost wandering the fourth level, and she offered to help me make it to the Fifth Gate if I agreed to bring her with me. It seemed like a deal that couldn’t bite me in the ass too hard, though she wasn’t really forthcoming as to why she wanted to get to the Fifth Gate so badly.
The gardens were meant as a kind of stepping stone to the afterlife. They made you confront yourself, to let go of the hurts of your life, to wear you down to who you were at your core, so that when you reached Hades, you were ready for judgement and you’d find out where you’d spend eternity. Or, some chose to forget and take another spin around the block.
Rhiannon claimed that she’d been trapped in the Fourth Garden for a really, really long time. Like before the fallen showed up and overthrew the place kind of long time. She refused to ‘let go of her mortal attachments’, whatever that meant, so the Fifth Gate just wouldn’t let her through. She was willing to give me all the dirt on the fourth level, if I agreed to smuggle her through.
The relic of the Second Garden was used to hold energy, and ghosts are pretty much all energy. So, she helped me make it through to Morevna’s castle and the gate, and now I have a haunted necklace.
I also have a ring that shores up my sense of self, a mirror that lets me see ‘what I need to’, (vague much?), and a diadem that grants clarity, which is probably the only reason I’m not a complete gibbering, knee-knocking mess at the prospect of having to step through the Fifth Gate and confront a literal God of War, who’s incandescently furious with someone who happens to look exactly like me.
I need a distraction. A plan. Anything. I’ve been coming into my own powers, getting stronger the further I push myself, but I’m not a match for a full god on my best day. A God of War, no less, when all I had were some sword lessons that I did my best to skip a few centuries ago.
And time is definitely of the essence. I only have four more days to save Janie, and that’s probably like fifteen minutes in the Underworld, with my luck.
I pat myself down, hoping for an idea. None of the Relics will be good for any kind of a fight. I have armor, a sword I can barely use without stabbing myself, a ghost, and a warm Sirocco wind that the Lord of the Third Garden gave me to try to keep me alive in the frozen wastes of the fourth level. It’s curled up inside my armor like a snoozing cat, and far cooler than the scorching wind coming through the gate like a dragon’s exhale.
How can I be carrying so many freaking relics of power, andnoneof them are useful?
My fingers bump against something I stuffed into my armor, on account of not having any pockets. It’s the black chess piece Hades gave me when I first got to the Underworld, a knight. He seemed mostly amused by my quest, and, even now, keeps trying to convince me to sleep with him, which, pass, but he seems like he genuinely doesn’t want me to get murdered, so that’s something.
The bar for allies is getting a bit low.
I turn the piece over in my hand, running my fingers over the smooth lines of the horse’s head, thinking.
Hades said it would help me. It’s made of his power, not mine. And Hades isn’t just a God of Death, or a Lord of the Gardens. He’s the God of the Underworld. The whole thing is technically his domain.
In chess, Knights are the most mobile pieces, able to jump around the board, right over traps and defenses.
A smile curls the corner of my lips.
With one last, deep breath, I take a step forward out of the tunnel.
The Gate snaps shut behind me. And the instant my foot touches down on the craggy, volcanic ground, I can feel the air shiver.
Ares’s awareness is like standing in front of a forge. The heat, the intensity, all focused my way. He knows I’m here. And he’s coming for me.
No games. No minions. Just him.
Here we go.
TWO
PEN
There’s no time.
I can feel Ares coming, bearing down on the gate. The Lord of the Fifth Gate moves, and the realm shivers in response.
