Royal Heiress (17 page)

Around her, she saw imperfect people who had
more joy in their lives than anyone she recalled seeing above
ground. She’d learned that happiness came from within. It was what
one did with the circumstances given to them that determined the
quality of their lives, not the circumstances themselves. Finally,
there was no reason to envy Amanda anymore.

“With all my heart, I pledge my loyalty,
love, and life to you,” Hades promised Persephone during his
vows.

“And I return the same to you, my best
friend, husband, and lover,” Persephone finished their
exchange.

He slipped the diamond and onyx ring on her
finger before he kissed her.

Everyone clapped and cheered as the marriage
was sealed. Children giggled at the sight of two people kissing,
and their new parents laughed at their response. Already,
relationships between men and women were developing, which would
lead to their own marriages.

Jake reached out and gently squeezed
Katherine’s hand. She glanced at him in surprise. She blushed at
his smile, suddenly realizing he liked her romantically.

“Now we dance and eat!” Hades announced.

“You’ll do no such thing!” Zeus thundered as
he and Hermes ran to the happy couple. “You must stop this wedding
at once.”

“Even you won’t spoil my day today,” Hades
replied, not the least bit disturbed by his brother’s unexpected
outburst.

“Persephone, you need to return to your
mother,” Hermes told her. “She won’t let you stay down here.”

“We love each other. She’s now my wife,”
Hades replied. “She belongs down here.”

“No,” Zeus argued, his face getting red with
anger. “She belongs with her mother. Demeter is furious. She has
sent the whole city under a pile of ice and snow. We are not
prepared for such extreme cold. It’s only a matter of time before
people freeze to death up there.”

Persephone gasped. “What?”

“He’s trying to scare you,” Hades told her.
“Demeter’s doing no such thing.”

“Zeus isn’t bluffing,” Hermes replied. “If
you don’t believe us, take a look for yourself. You have a view of
the world above ground from the den in your mansion.”

“I knew she would be upset, but I had no idea
she’d risk the lives of innocent people to get me back,” Persephone
said. “This is much worse than I expected.”

“Zeus, what good is being the head leader if
you can’t control the leaders under you?” Hades snapped. “Put a
stop to her antics, and we’ll be just fine.”

Zeus shook his head. “You, of all people,
know how difficult it is to control others. You do as you please
regardless of what I think.”

Hades huffed. “Only because I know a better
way to do things. Look around you, Zeus. What do you see? This is
the Underworld, a place for the unloved and unwanted. Yet
Persephone has made it a haven where they can be accepted as they
are.”

“I can’t let her stay,” Zeus said. “The
citizens above ground are adamant. She must return to her mother at
once. Then, they will be happy.”

“You were always weak. Life is more than a
popularity contest.”

“Enough of this rivalry,” Hermes protested.
“Come with me, Persephone.”

Before she could protest, he grabbed her and
flew towards the entrance of the Underworld.

Hades tried to follow them, but Zeus knocked
him to the ground and turned to leave.

“You haven’t seen the last of me,” Hades
promised, his voice grim with determination.

Zeus ignored his threat and continued out of
the place.

***

Pallid didn’t require sleep like other people
since he had the Stone of Immortality. He sat on his bed thinking
about everything that had transpired since Jake called him. He had
hoped for this moment, when he would be back on Atlantis,
surrounded by familiar things. He loved this place. It was his
home.

And yet, there was something missing.

He didn’t understand it. He expected to feel
complete again. He had been content in the past. He sighed. Well,
he had been content, except for one detail: Daphne.

That had been his wife’s name. She was long
since dead, of course, and he had forgiven her. But, because of his
perfect memory, he could never forget any detail about her
existence or how things had been between them

She was remarkable. He’d loved her with all
of his heart. He’d thought she loved him, too. When they discovered
they were incapable of conceiving a child together, it made little
difference to him. He sympathized with the leaders’ disappointment,
but producing more Infers wasn’t his primary concern. The leaders
could easily make more. Their technology enabled them to create him
to begin with, and cloning was a common practice in the city.

Daphne, however, was devastated. She hid her
feelings very well from him, for he never guessed she was so
adversely affected. She pretended all was well, and things went on
as usual between them. She put on the pretense for six months.

He couldn’t believe how blind he had been.
Looking back, his only hint that something was wrong was the fact
that she spent more time away from their home. He never found out
where she went when she wasn’t collecting memories the leaders gave
her to remember.

The day he learned of her accident was the
worst day of his life. He had just left Hestia’s office, mentally
recording the creation of Avar as she’d divulged it to him, when
Hermes informed him Daphne had fallen from the stairway in the arc.
He rushed to see her in the medical lab where Hestia tried to
repair the damage done to Daphne’s legs, arms, and face.

After many hours, Hestia could only recover
the use of Daphne’s legs and one arm. She was lucky to even walk,
Hestia had said. Her left arm had to be cut off, and her fate was
decided. She had two choices: go to the Underworld or die a
dignified death.

When she woke up, she chose the Underworld.
At the time, he didn’t understand why she was so insistent on going
to the Underworld. He would have taken the lethal injection, if it
had been him. It was preferable to die than to live in a constant
state of misery. He’d tried to say good-bye to her, but she told
him it was best if they not prolong the inevitable, adding she
couldn’t bear to say good-bye to him. It wasn’t a memory she wanted
to have to recall.

He thought it was odd but assumed it was a
natural reaction to the shock of having gone through everything she
did. He watched her leave, but she didn’t look back.

Afterwards, he returned to their empty home.
Within two hours, he was notified he would be forced to move to a
small apartment close to the arc since he was no longer married. He
moved out the next day, only taking the things that belonged to
him. Her picture was one of the few items he took, though it was an
inadequate replacement of her.

Days passed and became weeks. The weeks
became months, but before the year was up, he made up his mind. He
would go to be with her. He would rather go through the rest of his
life in a horrible place than enjoy paradise without her. So he
left his apartment one day and went to the entrance of the
Underworld.

He made it down the staircase and walked
through the dismal corridor, aware of the painful groans that
greeted him. He shivered despite the warm atmosphere. He considered
going back but knew he couldn’t bear another day without her. And
so he continued his trek down the long corridor.

Finally, he came to Cerebus who guarded the
gate to the infamous place. He didn’t bother to greet the dog. He
simply waited for the old man to come on his boat, just as he knew
the old man would. It was one of the details he recalled from
Hades’ description of his domain. Cerebus growled at him, showing
him he wasn’t welcome in this world. He ignored the dog, not
disturbed by its behavior. Just as expected, the old man rowed to
the shore.

The old man seemed surprised to see him
there. “You do not belong here,” the old man said as he walked over
to him. He quickly motioned for the dog to quiet down, which
Cerebus reluctantly did.

“I came for my wife,” he replied. “I want to
be with her.”

The old man shook his head. “I have been told
to refuse you entrance.”

The unexpected response aroused his anger. He
came all this way to be with her, and he would join her whether the
old man consented to it or not. “May I ask why?”

“She doesn’t want you here. Her instructions
were very clear.”

“You lie.”

He began to walk past the old man, but the
man put his hand up to his chest.

“I’m going whether you let me or not,” he
spat and swatted the man’s hand away in aggravation.

“This is no place for you. Turn back before
you regret it.”

He ignored the man’s warnings, figuring the
old man didn’t know what he was talking about. He knew Daphne. She
would want him there.

“Cerebus, go,” the man whispered.

Pallid ran to the boat the man had been on,
and he almost made it to his target when Cerebus raced up behind
him and knocked him down. He fell into the River Styx. As he tried
to get out, a slithery creature wrapped around his ankle and pulled
him down.

The old man quickly rushed to help him get
up, but the creature’s hold was too tight, and Pallid found that
struggling with the beast only made it wrap its long and thick body
tighter around his waist. He stopped moving and gave in.

The snake took him down under the water and
to the bottom of the River. A mutated octopus with two heads came
up to the snake and began to fight it for the right to claim Pallid
as its prey.

As the two creatures struggled with each
other, Pallid held his breath, trying to wiggle out of the snake’s
hold without attracting too much attention. It worked. His body
softly landed on the river floor. His lungs began to burn with the
need to inhale air. His fingers dug into the soil, and his fingers
brushed something hard and round.

He didn’t know what it was, but he grabbed it
and securely held onto it. Something shoved him, shocking him. He
unconsciously released his breath and breathed in the water. The
shooting pain in his lungs was the last thing he remembered before
he lost consciousness.

He didn’t know how much time passed before he
found himself on a shore somewhere in the Underworld. He coughed up
some water as his lungs finally expelled the foreign substance out
of his body. Sitting up, he hardly noticed his dirty outfit or
messy appearance. He opened his hand and examined the stone in his
palm. It wasn’t very big, but he recognized it. It was a Stone of
Immortality.

He stood up. He still needed to see his wife.
He walked along the narrow shore, passing by dwellings that were
carved into the cave. He soon realized these were the places the
inhabitants of the Underworld lived. He found one inhabitant, a
morbid old man, and asked him if he knew the location of the Infer
without an arm who’d recently moved there. The old man nodded and
notified him of her location.

He thanked the man and followed his
directions. He found her, sitting quietly outside her dwelling, her
eyes closed, but not sleeping, in her simple chair.

“Daphne,” he whispered, overwhelmed with joy
to see her again.

She quickly opened her eyes, startled. “What
are you doing here?”

“I came to be with you!” he announced.

She shook her head. “But you can’t.”

“Of course, I can. I decided to leave the
world above ground. I won’t go back. We can be together again.”

She looked so baffled that he misinterpreted
her expression for joy.

He was about to take her in his arms when
someone walked out of the dwelling. It was a man, a common citizen
on Atlantis. He was limping.

“You shouldn’t have come,” she said, her tone
void of emotion. “I warned you to leave the past behind.”

He quickly assessed the situation, and a
chill raced through his heart. “I see. You planned the
accident.”

“I couldn’t be with him while I was married
to you, and the leaders denied my petition for a divorce. I had to
do something,” she quietly explained.

“We never meant to fall in love,” the man
added. “It just happened.”

“Did I ask you a question?” Pallid snapped,
his eyes sharp.

“Please, leave us,” she told her lover.

Her lover nodded and went back into the
dwelling.

She turned back to him. “I didn’t want to
hurt you. I wanted your last memory of me to be a good one. That’s
why I asked for you to not say good-bye.”

“How long were you with him before the
accident?” His words were bitter.

“Two years.”

He blanched.

“I intended to quit my affair since I was
married to you,” she began, “but when I found out we couldn’t have
a child, I realized there was no reason to be with you. I only
stayed with you so that I could fulfill my mission and have a child
who retained memories as perfectly as we do. The leaders designed
us for that.”

“Were you going to leave me when the child
was born?” he asked.

“I tried to love you. Really, I did,” she
said. “But you can’t help who you fall in love with.”

Her words did little to ease the ache welling
inside of him. He took a deep breath. “Enjoy the rest of your
life,” he finally stated.

This time he was the one who left, not
looking back. He quickly found his way out of the Underworld,
passing a surprised Cerebus. At that moment, he decided that he
would never get close to anyone ever again.

Though he forgave Daphne years later, he kept
his promise. Atlantis sank, and he found a way to a new land where
he became another face in the crowd. Centuries passed and he hid
his stone in a white cane he bought. He held onto the promise of
Atlantis’ future rise. He had seen this predicted in the leaders’
large mirror. Atlantis became his sole passion as he calmly waited
for the day when he would go back to the city he loved so much.