Emblazed (5 page)

Suddenly, a young, beautiful woman entered the doors, interrupting my efforts. She
wore a short, flowing, deep purple dress as she skipped through the room towards me.
Her long, blonde hair and bright green eyes were definitely out of place.

She carried a tray, which I assumed held food. I wondered what someone like her was
doing in the Underworld, but looks could always be deceiving. She could have been
a God in disguise, or some other mythical creature for that matter. Power didn’t radiate
from her like a God, so I concluded it was the latter.

Once she reached the steps, she spoke in a singsong voice, “Hi. I’ve brought you some
food. Hades told me that you refuse to eat. You need to eat.”

“Why do you care? Who are you anyway?”

“I’m one of Hades’ nymphs. My name is Leuce.”

“I thought nymphs were only found in nature, like around water and land. What are
you doing down here?”

“There are Celestial, Land, Wood, Water, and Underworld nymphs. All are associated
with some type of nature, and contrary to popular belief, there is nature down here.
People portray the Underworld as a barren, fire-filled wasteland, but only parts of
the Underworld are like that.”

“And it doesn’t bother you what Hades does down here? You stay willingly?” I asked.

“He loves me. He loves all his mates,” she said, but I could tell she was unsure of
her own words by the change of tone in her voice.

“Yeah, but you are all second to Persephone. She’s his queen,” I pointed out.

“She is gone for half of the year. I come first when she is not here,” Leuce defended.
She set the tray down roughly in front of me before stalking away.

Damn, I don’t need any extra enemies down here.
“Wait, I didn’t mean it like that.”

She stopped, and I took it as a signal to continue. “You’re just so beautiful. I don’t
understand how he can put you second. You could probably do much better,” I complimented,
attempting to get on her good side, thinking she might be able to help me escape.

She turned and walked back towards me. “I guess you haven’t seen Persephone. She is
pure beauty—flawless. Plus, a nymph like me could do no better than a God like Hades.”

“Do you like living down here?”

“Most of the time. It doesn’t matter since I can’t leave. He would just come back
to Earth and reclaim me,” she said sadly.

“If you help me escape, I’ll take you with me. I’ll protect you,” I offered.

“Oh, I couldn’t do that. He would find me and punish me. Don’t let him hear you talk
like that,” she replied fearfully before glancing around to make sure no one overheard
what I said.

“Do you want to eat?” she asked after a few moments, changing the subject.

I looked at the tray, which had a sandwich, an apple, and some baby carrots. It smelled
a lot better than that slop the Cyclops had brought me last time, but that didn’t
matter. I couldn’t eat it anyway.

“I’m not stupid, I know that if I eat anything down here, I’ll be bound, just like
Persephone,” I informed her.

A smirk tilted the corner of her mouth. “I told Hades that you wouldn’t be so easily
fooled.”

“Let me guess, he thought some stupid mortal wouldn’t know that law.”

Softly laughing, she replied, “Those were almost his exact words.”

I scoffed, “He really underestimates me.”

Smiling, she picked up the tray before turning to leave. “I’ll leave you be.”

Shit, this could be one of my only opportunities to escape. Women had to stick together,
right?
“Leuce, wait!” I called out to her, hoping she might help me.

She turned and looked at me, giving me a smile. “Yes?”

“Can you tell me how to get out of here?” I asked, figuring she would know the layout
of the castle, if not the whole Underworld.

Her face paled, and her smile faded before she wordlessly turned and hastily walked
out, despite my repeated apologies and pleas for her to come back. I hoped that she
wasn’t going to tell Hades that I had asked for her to let me go, and I wondered if
I had made a huge mistake.

I stumbled along the banks of the Acheron River in Greece. We had just been transported
by the Oracle, and were all experiencing the side effects of teleportation. I braced
my hands on my knees as I waited for the nausea to subside. I didn’t want to throw
up what I had forced myself to eat, but it was hard to fight when combined with my
withdrawals.

I vomited my breakfast, and then proceeded to spit several times to get the residue
out of my mouth. My throat was already becoming raw, and I felt like my energy was
being siphoned from me every time I vomited. Behind me I heard someone else throwing
up, followed by Kimber cursing.

Once we had all regained our bearings, the Oracle spoke, “You must travel southwest
until the Acheron flows underground. You will find Charon there. May the Gods’ favor
be with you.”

She disappeared following her statement, leaving Zane, Kimber, Kiera, and me to continue
the journey by ourselves. I led in the direction the Oracle had instructed, and the
others quickly followed.

“I wonder how far it is,” Kiera said.

“Doesn’t matter—all that matters is getting to Brielle,” I spat, agitated by this
whole situation, especially my withdrawals from Brie. I hated how weak they made me,
how unfocused and distracted I was because of them.

“I was just wondering. Geez,” Kiera replied.

Everyone remained silent for the rest of the walk, knowing that I was not in the best
of moods. The constant throb in my head slammed my skull more intensely by the second,
but I fought through it, determined not to let anything deter my plans to get to Brielle.

We walked for about an hour before the ground began to slope downward, and I could
see the river lead into a dark cave that had formed in a hill. My pace quickened,
my anxiousness to get to Brielle rising with each step.

The void in my head and soul was slowly driving me crazy without her presence, and
I was on the verge of a complete breakdown, which I couldn’t afford. We all needed
to be focused, I, most of all. Brielle’s life, the safety of our souls, and our eternity
together all depended on me and my choices and actions in the Underworld.

Once we entered the mouth of the cave, the river continued to flow deeper into its
depths. Dozens of shades wandered the banks aimlessly, a look of confusion and loss
on their transparent faces. They didn’t even glance at us as we passed them.

“They look so sad,” Kimber said.

“Since they didn’t have an obol, they have to wander here for a hundred years before
they can enter the Underworld. They’re basically lost souls until that time,” Zane
answered.

As we traveled further into the belly of the cavern, more and more shades appeared.
I had to light my hands with flames to see where we were going once we put distance
between ourselves and the entrance.

After another thirty minutes of walking, a dock appeared in the distance. A crowd
of shades surrounded it, and if they hadn’t been transparent, we would have had to
push and shove our way around them to reach the dock. I wondered what normal people
saw down there in its place since it was cloaked in magic.

Maybe they could see the dock, but not all the shades and Charon’s boat, which approached
the end as we walked down the pier. The platform had lights at the top of the posts
holding up the dock, allowing me to extinguish my hands as we neared.

We came to the tail end of a long line of shades trying to gain passage onto Charon’s
boat.
I don’t have time for this shit
. I made my way around the line, practically running to the front as Charon docked
the boat and set one foot on the pier.

He looked like a ragged, old fisherman, complete with a dirty, unkempt gray beard
that ended in the middle of his reddish-brown toga. The infamous God appeared like
any other old man, definitely not a deity. His scars, wrinkles, and leathery skin
may fool normal humans, but I knew better. Any being that angered him or attempted
to stow away on his boat without payment was subject to his Godly form, which was
a humongous, winged demon. Needless to say, few dared to cross him.

“You are not a soul. You do not require passage to the Underworld. Move aside,” Charon
directed.

“We need passage to the Underworld. We have payment,” I said as I showed him the obols
in my hand. “Four obols for the four of us.”

“Obols only pay for one-way transport. No return passage,” he responded.

“We know. Can you take us?” I asked impatiently.

After a few seconds, Charon gestured his head towards the boat for us to get in, and
I placed the obols in his hand. I stepped in first, then turned around to help the
girls get in. Zane passed Kimber down to me before doing the same with Kiera and stepping
in himself. Several shades also boarded with us before we finally departed.

Charon stood at the front of the ancient Greek boat, directing it with one wooden
paddle as it floated down the river. The lights from the dock receded behind us and
were replaced with torches fastened along the walls of the cave. The current of the
river became rougher, rocking the boat with its waves and stirring up the nausea I
had forced myself to contain.

I braced myself on the edge of the boat, shutting my eyes as I tried to will my queasiness
away, even though that never worked.

“You okay, bro?” Zane asked as he placed a hand on my back.

I shook my head. We were going to the Underworld to rescue Brielle from Hades, who
was torturing her. I missed her, but that wasn’t even close to expressing what I felt.
It was more like what I had experienced when I almost drowned, struggling for breath
that I couldn’t obtain. That feeling of despair and fear I had felt in that moment
was similar in comparison to how Brielle being taken from me made me feel.

Even still, that didn’t completely explain how broken I was. The barrenness inside
me from her absence was the polar opposite of how I had felt when we met, when she
finally filled the hole that her soul had left in mine. I ached for her, needing her
like I needed the blood pumping my heart and the air filling my lungs.

I retched over the side of the boat, giving my stomach a temporary hiatus from the
pain. It would return soon, but I was getting used to it … sort of. My muscles felt
like they were on fire, but I’d endured worse, and I would endure anything to get
Brielle back.

Sitting with my back against the side of the boat, I propped my elbows on my knees
and pressed my fingers against the outside of the bridge of my nose.

Zane sat next to me and said, “We’ll get her back.”

I nodded. I wasn’t entirely certain we would, but I would die trying to save Brielle—that
was something I was absolutely sure of. I just hoped that I didn’t get anyone else
killed, most of all Zane. I would never forgive myself for any of their deaths, and
neither would Brielle.

About an hour into the trip, I stood and restlessly paced the length of the boat.
Charon addressed me at one point as I was making my way back towards his end, “What’s
your problem, boy?”

“Nothing that concerns you, old man. Just get us to the Underworld.”

“Why do you wish to travel to the Underworld when it is not yet your time?”

I stopped pacing, my anger slowly rising back to the surface as I was reminded why
I had to travel to the Underworld. “Your boss kidnapped my flame. I’m going to rescue
her,” I spat.

“Is that so? I admire your bravery, as foolish as it may be,” he responded.

“Foolish? Rescuing my flame, my other half, is foolish? Whatever, old man,” I said
as I turned around to pace in the opposite direction.
Fuck him
.

“I do not know how you expect to escape once you find her. If Hades wanted her, he
will stop at nothing to keep her.”

I turned back around. “It’s been done before by many others. We can do the same,”
I said resolutely.

I still didn’t know how, as the legends didn’t go into that much detail on the specifics
of how people escaped, but we would find a way.

“For your sake, I hope you are right,” he said before directing his attention back
to the river in front of him.

Another thirty minutes passed before we reached the Underworld. A gasp sounded from
Kiera as we all took in the scene of the approaching Underworld. The narrow cavern
that had housed the river opened into the vast expanse that was the Underworld.

We were met with a bruised sky, painted in hues of purple, gray, and black. Clouds
the color of slate almost blended in with their backdrop. Harpies and other winged
demons screeched as they flew above us, reminding me of my nightmares. The water in
the river morphed to an inky black as it flowed further into the Underworld. Dead
trees and grass filled the landscape, mirroring how I felt inside. I could see where
the Acheron led to a pool, which I assumed to be the Stygian Marsh since the other
rivers led there, as well.