“Eris has her own motives,” Ahmose admitted. “And they might actually be of assistance.”
“Her motives?” I raised an eyebrow.
He nodded. “She has not miraculously turned good, of course. She has long been in love with Alexi. She wants to find a way to save his soul.”
“Alexi?” I gasped. He had been the lapdog of the Fates for as long as I could remember. He had done their bidding for them and was currently confined in the dungeons of Zeus’ palace. No one had known what to do with him, so they were holding him for Zeus to deal with. It seemed like the fair thing to do.
Ahmose nodded. “And do you remember who Alexi actually is?”
I wracked my brain, but came up empty. All I could remember was how he was now- dispassionate and cold- because the Fates’ had taken his soul. They had sent him to deal with me after they had disposed of Ahmose.
“He’s the son of Alecto.” Ahmose waited for that to click with me, which it quickly did.
Alecto was one of the Erinyes…otherwise known as the Furies or the Avengers. They acted in much the same way as the Keres, but they did it in the Underworld. They tortured prisoners in the Dungeon of the Damned in Tartara. They worked for Hades.
I sucked in a breath and Ahmose nodded. “Do you see where I am going with this?”
“I think so,” I replied quietly. “Alecto will not enjoy hearing that her son’s soul has been taken.”
“I’m sure she already knows,” Ahmose answered. “But her hands are tied because she cannot leave the Underworld. But you are there now. You can talk with her about this…perhaps bargain with her, if you must. It is an angle that might be at your disposal.”
I nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“But right now,” he continued. “You must get to Hades palace as soon as possible. Your mother’s strength will not hold for much longer.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “I know that you are right.”
“Then go,” he instructed, pointing with a long, twisted finger.
And I was awake. My eyes opened to find the cave exactly like it had been when I went to sleep, except that another Amazon had taken Ortrera’s place as guard. The white butterflies were plastered against the walls of the cave, their delicate wings moving slightly as they waited.
“Do you feel better?” Cadmus asked quietly.
I was still lying on his chest and it didn’t look like he had slept much. He was still beautiful, of course, but his face was weary. His chocolate eyes didn’t shine as much as they normally did. I reached up to brush my fingers against his strong jaw line, where his rough stubble snagged at my fingers. We were all a little worse for the wear.
“I’m fine for now,” I answered. “But Ahmose came to me while I slept and I learned a couple of interesting things.”
“Like what?” Ares asked from across the room. Sound carried easily in this cavern. I sat up so that I was facing everyone.
“My mother and I will continue to be drained of energy,” I announced. “Because we thrive on positive energy and there is none of that here. Aphrodite will be more strongly affected than me, because love is a stronger emotion than peace. But both of us will be affected until we leave. Ahmose sent the butterflies from the mortal world- they’ll bring us energy, but they’ll simply keep us alive. They aren’t able to do much more than that. Ahmose says that we can recharge at Hades Palace.”
Ares was already moving, lying Aphrodite on the ground as he stood.
“Well, let’s move then.”
“There’s more.” I leveled my gaze at him. Ares stilled and listened as I explained about Alexi. He stared thoughtfully at me when I finished.
“That makes perfect sense,” he admitted. “I don’t know why we didn’t figure it out before. I’ve seen the way she lingers around him whenever she can. We’ll keep that in our back pocket for later use.”
I crossed the cave to kneel next to my mother. I shook her arm gently, but she didn’t stir. Her face was still deathly pale and she didn’t respond to my attempts to wake her.
“This is bad, Ares!” I cried as I desperately tried to rouse her. He bent and scooped Aphrodite up once again.
“It will be fine!” he decreed as he strode towards the hills. “But as I said, we need to move.”
He didn’t dally. By the time I had packed up our things as quickly as I could and exited the little cave, Ares was a small dot in the distance, surrounded by the billowing white cloud of butterflies. Ortrera looked at me ruefully.
“He’s your father.”
I shook my head. “Oh, he’s mine when he’s difficult?”
She grinned. “I’m glad you agree.”
We laughed and started out across the field in pursuit. But I had only taken a few steps before I felt exhaustion set in myself and I couldn’t help but worry. How would I find Raquel if simply being here might kill me?
I had no sooner had the thought before Cadmus swept me into his arms.
“You’ve got to conserve your strength,” he instructed. I didn’t argue. I rested my head against him as he carried us with strong steps across the Asphodel Fields of Erebus.
Chapter Six
We knew when we were close. As if we had crossed an invisible boundary, the ethereal white butterflies fell dead from the sky.
Thousands of them rained down on us and fluttered lifelessly to the ground.
I met Ortrera’s eyes.
“This doesn’t bode well,” I muttered.
“Chin up, sister,” she answered as she examined the broad horizon. “We don’t know what it means.”
“Oh, I think we do,” Ares said. He was not even out of breath even though he had carried my mother for miles. “It means that Hades is near.”
“He has something against butterflies?” I asked.
“He has something against anything beautiful, if he is not able to own it. He sucks the beauty right out of it.”
I gulped as I glanced at the insects. And Ares was right. As we crested the hill that we were climbing, Hades’ palace loomed in front of us. The butterflies had led us straight to it.
It was enormous. And it wasn’t exactly what you would expect the god of the Underworld to live in. It was actually quite beautiful and only slightly on the gothic side. It had spires and columns and thousands of windows. There was no fire or brimstone in sight.
But there was an army.