Hades (The God Chronicles #3) (24 page)

The blades plunged into my chest and I felt my
breath stop, blood fighting its way up my throat and out my mouth,
dripping back onto my torn chest.

Chapter Twenty
Two

I heard frantic yelling coming from somewhere
as the blades pulled from me, saw fire snapping against them and
pushing the Titan back a few steps. Lightning flashed down around
me, pushing him back even further, and I saw Zeus out of the corner
of my eye, his own face bloody and tired.

Erebos snarled at him and was suddenly gone,
having used the other perk of the helmet to disappear from the
fight. The wave of fear that washed over me again was so strong I
choked on the blood already in my mouth, bile trying to push past
it.

“Katrina?”

Hades scrambled into my vision, terror on his
own face as he tried to stop the bleeding from the gaping hole in
my chest.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said, his voice
shaky. “Relax, I’ll take care of you.”

He looked around us at the fighting, true fear
in his eyes, before looking back down at me.

“Hades, no!” Zeus commanded, pushing away
another Titan as he tried to keep the area clear for us.

Hades wasn’t listening, though, gathering me up
into his arms and looking around in desperation.

“You can’t leave,” Zeus yelled, still tied up
with the Titan. “We’re losing as it is!”

Cradling me to his chest, I saw Hades look at
his brother and a single tear slid down his face.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply.

He turned around and ran, dodging through the
crowd, his brother’s enraged cries fading in the din behind
us.

It felt like time slowed down as he ran, his
hands crushing into me so tightly I was probably going to have
bruises. All I could look at was his face, war worn and scared, the
trail from his tear still showing in the dirt on his cheek. Even
when we broke through the edge of the fighting, he didn’t stop
running, carrying me into the trees that surrounded the
area.

“Hang on, Katrina,” he kept saying, over and
over again.

The tremble in his voice told me the truth,
though. There was no way I was going to live through this, no
matter how long I held on.

Finally, when we could no longer hear the
carnage behind us and the forest looked peaceful and undisturbed,
he stopped running, falling to the ground and holding me in his
lap.

“Why would you do that, Katrina?” he asked
sternly, the fear still in his eyes even though he was far from the
helmet’s reach.

Out of all the things I could have said or
done, I think my laughter surprised him the most. It was weak and
sounded as painful as my whole body felt at the moment, but I
laughed anyway, enjoying the happy sound in my last
moments.

“What’s so funny,” he asked in confusion, his
fingers tracing down the unburned side of my face.

“You said my name,” I coughed out. “You always
called me Persephone before.”

“Well, I know now that your name is Katrina,”
he laughed humorlessly, tears forming in his eyes. “Why shouldn’t I
call you by your name?”

“I like it,” I said, coughing some, blood
splattering out onto my chin. “Say it again?”

“Katrina,” he said softly, his lips
trembling.

“I’m sorry,” I said weakly. “I shouldn’t have
kept the truth from you. I was afraid of what you would do if you
found out.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, clearing his
throat and hugging me tighter. “It’s old news. No big
deal.”

“Liar,” I laughed again. “I destroyed the
planet.”

“No,” he laughed. “I’ll take care of it. I
promise.”

“I did love you, you know,” I said, feeling
like I needed to say it now or he would never know. “That wasn’t a
lie.”

“I know,” he said, hanging his head and closing
his eyes for a moment.

When he’d finally composed himself, he looked
back into my eyes, a sad smile on his face.

“And you were right. I am in love with you. You
were what was different, all of the things that made me head over
heels. I only wish I wouldn’t have waited so long to tell
you.”

“It won’t be so bad,” I said, coughing again as
I stumbled through the words. “We’ll still be together. Maybe I can
come work in the castle. That way I’ll remember everything and we
will work out.”

“That’s not how it works,” he said, another
tear escaping from his eye. “You’re not going to be able to come in
to the Underworld.”

“Why not?” I asked in confusion, my vision
started to go slightly foggy.

“You were murdered,” he said, his voice shaky.
“And died too young.”

“A Lost One,” I said softly, taking a much
longer than average blink.

“Yes,” he said softly, clutching me to him
tighter.

“That’s okay,” I said weakly.

“No it’s not,” he argued. “I promise, I’ll find
a way to change it. We’ll be together.”

“Okay,” I said, closing my eyes. “I feel so
tired.”

“Rest,” he urged me, but I could feel the
shaking in his hands. “I bet if you sleep it won’t hurt as bad.
I’ll still be here when you wake up.”

It took me a few seconds to round up the
strength to reply, my eyes opening slightly so I could look at his
face one more time.

“I love you,” I said again.

“I love you, too,” he said, lifting me just
enough to kiss my lips softly. “So much.”

I closed my eyes again, letting my body go limp
as the last of my energy left. Everything felt so cold, so empty
all the sudden. It was like cotton balls were shoved into my ears,
muting everything around me as I slipped into the darkness. I could
hear crying, but it seemed far away, like it was coming through a
fuzzy radio channel in the other room. The sound was so heart
breaking, like whoever was making it had lost the only thing they
ever cared about. I wanted to open my eyes and find who it was, to
comfort them and tell them it would all be okay, but my body
wouldn’t respond to my orders.

Finally, I gave up and surrendered to the sleep
that so desperately waited to claim me.

Epilogue

Hades

I couldn’t move. Her body had long gone cold in
my arms and still I waited, hoping that she would wake
up.

Maybe if I waited long enough I would wake up
and discover it had been nothing more than a nightmare.

I didn’t know if the battle was over, I didn’t
even care. It felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest and
stabbed through just as Katrina’s had been. Nothing else mattered
any more.

I knew as soon as I’d stupidly overreacted and
struck her with fire, I’d made a mistake. She had come to steal
from me, but in the end had tried to stop it, proving she wasn’t
the villain I so desperately wanted her to be. My hurt heart had
gotten the better of me and before I could stop her and apologize,
she’d run from me.

I was the monster everyone thought me to be,
truly now.

Following her, as I should have done, was
suddenly not an option. As I’d hurried through the woods after her,
the gates to Tartarus had been blown open, ripping apart the very
seams of my realm and crumpling the order that had been here. The
very guards I’d trusted to help keep something like this from
happening revealed themselves as some of the masterminds, the leaks
in the system who’d been helping my enemies escape right under my
nose.

Those who remained loyal, joined me in a futile
attempt to keep the chaos under the ground. With all of the things
that had been locked in the prison coming forth at once, though, we
were soon overrun. All I could do was keep fighting and hope that
help was coming from my brothers.

They arrived too late. The mass of Olympians
tried to lock down the maze and push the adversary back, but the
massive amount of doors fought against them. Countless Titans
vanished through the portals, escaping into the world. Finally, in
desperation, I blew one whole gateway open and we pushed the
remaining foes into the field.

Before Katrina had arrived, we were losing
badly. I knew Erebos remained to fight only because he was enjoying
seeing our great loss. Even if I’d stayed, the odds didn’t look
good for my siblings and I.

Katrina’s sacrifice was going to go unnoticed
and forgotten.

Eventually, I knew I would need to get up and
take care of her. She deserved to be put to rest somewhere
beautiful, somewhere she loved. There was only one place I could
really think of that I thought would work.

I carried her body through the woods, to
another entrance to the maze I knew of, away from the battle field.
The last thing I wanted was to get caught up in that again and have
her beautiful body marred even more. The burn on her face stung at
me, a constant reminder of how cruel I’d been. If only I’d put
aside my own anger and listened to her. I would have realized how
sincere she was, just as I did when I first saw her on her horse,
riding through the fight. It had been the bravest act I’d ever seen
someone commit.

When we entered into the Underworld, it was
apparent that things were not well. The doors were broken, allowing
spirits to come and go as they wished. It was residual, from the
unlocking of Tartarus. It’d taken powerful magic to destroy those
doors, so powerful that they might not ever be fully fixed. I
didn’t care anymore, though.

I carried her to our garden. That was the only
way I could think of it now, after the time we had spent there
together. The cabin had been destroyed in my first initial fight
with Erebos, but the beauty remained everywhere else. I carried her
around the whole space before deciding where to bury
her.

I laid her on the ground next to me, digging
her grave in the spot the cabin had stood, the place where we had
truly been one and celebrated our love for each other. After I laid
her body in the ground, I placed a coin from the rubble in the
pocket of her shorts, for when I would finally figure out how to
break the seal keeping her from staying permanently and she would
pay the ferry to bring her back to me.

A desperate wish filled me as I looked down at
her broken body. If only the magic that had broken the gates could
have also broken the curse on the Lost Ones. She could come and go
as she wished now, but she would never remember anything except the
gruesome moments of her death.

Covering her with the dirt was the hardest. I
knew she would be happy here, among the flowers and trees, but I
didn’t want to leave her alone. She needed me to fight for her,
though, to not forget about her. So I covered her beautiful form
with dirt and made her a headstone from one of the biggest rocks I
could find, carving out the inscription with fire.

The perfect finishing touch was found in the
rubble from the cabin as well—the candles from our makeshift
wedding, still burning brightly as I intended.

“I promise,” I said as I set them on the
headstone.

Standing by the mound for a few moments, I
looked around at my sanctuary, the last place in the Underworld to
be marred by the sting of death. I knew I would never come back to
this place, not until I had Katrina by my side.

“I’ll find a way.”

The Story
Continues…

Please enjoy a teaser
from
Adrastia
,
the first book in the spin off series, coming soon!

My whole life, we have been at
war.

It happened just before I was born,
The Undoing. Maybe it was the foolishness of gods who’d held power
too long that enabled the Titans to break from their prison in
Tartarus. Maybe it was simply fate, too tired of seeing the scales
continually tipped in the favor of the Olympians. Either way, the
moment it happened, everything changed.

The Olympians did their best to act
quickly, but to no avail. Those who should have come to our aid
revealed themselves as villains, smashing through the gates and
releasing the greatest enemies the world has ever known.

A battle ensued, with both sides
refusing to give ground. Slowly, the Olympians fell under the
burning hands of their predecessors. When Hades fled the scene, his
dying lover in his arms, all was lost. The remaining Titans took it
as a sign of fear and attacked with more vigor, driving back the
forces of good and escaping into a universe that had long forgotten
what they were capable of.

I was born soon after, into a panicked
and changing world. The Olympians were still trying to track down
any Titans they could, locking them back in Tartarus. The prison
was on high alert, being watched by much more than the fallen God
of the Dead now. Even with the extra precautions, it seemed that
all but Olympus had fallen in the catastrophe.

Things started changing in the mortal
realm, fear seeping into the minds of humans and turning them
against each other, wars exploding into being across their lands.
The Titans were using their stolen helmet to drive them to
extinction, the magic of the helm spreading terror everywhere it
went. It wasn’t hard for the Olympians to discover their plan. By
destroying the very people the Olympians needed worship from to
survive, they would overthrow our tiny hold on power and once again
become the rulers they used to be.