“Can you help me find my daughter?”
He studied me for a moment, cocking his head just a little, causing his dark hair to tumble into his eye. He tossed it out of the way.
“Perhaps,” he answered. “But what would do for me in return?”
Panic took off in my chest like a flock of startled birds. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Raquel. But here in the Underworld with Hades, I felt as though my very soul was on the line. And I knew that more than likely, that was exactly the case.
“What do you mean?” I whispered, taking a step back.
He circled around me, putting both hands on my shoulders and leaning in to speak softly into my ear. His breath was warm on my cheek.
“I think you know what I mean,” he answered. “I want you to stay here… with me. Is that too high a price for your daughter?”
His voice was almost intoxicating, as if it was caressing my face as he spoke. I almost leaned into it before I realized what I was doing. I blinked hard and yanked away.
“What are you doing to me?” I demanded. “Stay there. Don’t come any closer.” He laughed, but remained motionless as I requested.
“We have a connection. Don’t you see?”He watched me from a distance as I backed slowly away.
“We don’t have a connection, Hades. You just want what you cannot have. I think you must get bored down here and this is how you bring excitement into your life.”
Before I could say another word, he blurred into motion and was at my side in an instant. I had forgotten… I might not have goddess abilities here, but he certainly retained his. I cringed away as he pulled me to him, sliding his hands against my back.
“You think that was excitement?” he asked innocently. “I think not.”
He pressed his lean form against me, running his hands along my sides, trailing his fingers upward along the sides of my br**sts. My nerve endings were on fire. I inhaled sharply and looked away.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” he continued softly, pushing the hair away from my neck. “I can see your pulse beat here,” he said as he lightly caressed my neck. “You seem afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” I answered. “But I am married and I am not enjoying this. You need to stop.”
“There’s something you should know about me,” he said as he looked into my eyes. “I am the King of the Underworld. And one of my gifts is knowing when someone is lying. You are lying. You are enjoying this right now. Perhaps it is deep down in the murky part of your soul where you hide bad things away, but nevertheless… you are enjoying this.”
And by the gods, he was right. Everywhere he had touched me was tingling with pleasure and it turned my stomach. But it didn’t mean that it wasn’t true.
Even still, I knew it wasn’t my fault. Hades had done something… enchanted me somehow. Perhaps this strange magnetism was one of his gifts, just like Aphrodite. I was in love with my husband with every cell in my body. Somehow, some way, Hades had turned my body into a traitor. I wrenched away from him, shaking as I stood several feet away.
“Please,” I pleaded. “Please. Do you know where Raquel is?”
He nodded seriously.
“Yes.”
My heart rate picked up and I stepped toward him once again.
“Where?” I heard the desperation in my voice myself, but it didn’t matter. He already knew that I was desperate to find her. I couldn’t hide that.
“You know the price,” he said simply.
I closed my eyes and sagged against the wall dejectedly. How was I ever going to save her? Would I really have to sacrifice my soul to do it?
“Harmonia, come with me,” Hades murmured from two inches away. I opened my eyes hesitantly. He had silently moved to my side and reached to take my elbow. “There is something that might help you decide.”
“There is no decision,” I snapped. “I am not staying with you. You have a wife. You love her dearly. Why would you want me anyway?”
He looked at me in surprise. “Of course I love Persephone. What does that have to do with anything?”
I stared back in exasperation. “It has everything to do with it! You have a wife, I have a husband. I am not staying here with you.”
He threw his head back and laughed.
“Ah, Harmonia. I should have expected nothing less from you and it is so delightful and refreshing.” He sobered as he studied me once more and I felt as though he was looking into my soul.
“But I will have you.”
He began strolling, lightly grasping my elbow. “Come. I must show you something.”
I was nervous, but I didn’t have a choice. Although his touch on my arm was light, it had bound me to him with invisible steel. I found my feet moving along with his, even though I wasn’t propelling them myself. Strange.
We crossed through the lavish banquet hall and out onto a manicured terrace. Exotic flowers grew around the stone tiles of the courtyard and I inhaled them. The heady scent was delicious, like nothing I had ever smelled before…like a combination of peaches, roses, honeysuckle and jasmine. It was heavy and lingered on my tongue.
In the center of the courtyard was a bubbling fountain. I could tell that it was very old. Three large layered bowls were balanced on a stone pedestal with water pouring from the top down. Hades led me to it.
“This is the Fountain of Truth,” he explained. “Drink from it and it will reveal parcels of truth to you, things that have happened or things that will be. There is nothing else like it in all the world.”
“Can it help me find Raquel?” I turned my eyes to him. He shrugged.
“I do not know what it will reveal to you. Would you like to find out?”
I looked at it again. It seemed innocuous enough. It was only water. Right? What harm could it do? I nodded.
“Alright.”
He picked up a nearby bronze cup and dipped it in the bottom bowl of the fountain. He handed it to me, stepping back to allow me to drink. I sniffed at it. It had no smell. It appeared to truly be water.
I took a tentative sip. Then another. Nothing happened.
And then my eyes clouded over and the present ceased to exist. I was staring through murky fog at what seemed to be the past. Zeus and Cadmus walked the cobblestone streets of Olympus, speaking in earnest.
“You must,” Zeus implored my husband. He was frightening with his insistence, his silver eyes drilling a hole in Cadmus. Zeus clearly wanted something very badly from him. “It is the only way to protect her.”