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I want to offer her justice.I am surprised by the thought. I am surprised, for I’ve never thought of my heart as vengeful. But seeing her now, sensing her ancient pain—I want exactly that. Vengeance.

I want to destroy Hercules.

I ask instead, “Why am I here?”

Her heads drift slowly back to me. Her mauve eyes, so deep and so yearning, pin onto mine. Her voice is an ancient lullaby in my mind.“When you first walked the Underworld, I sensed you. My home stretches deep in the underbelly of the realm.”She gestures with her heads to dark pits cast in shadows, tunnels in the walls that I hadn’t noticed before.“I guarded The Lernaean Lake, but it was one of the most powerful portals into this realm, of which I moved between frequently. I remember the moment you were pulled between the folds of the realms. The waters of my lake quivered. Pulsed. I was compelled deep below the surface. When I pulled the whole of my lake into the Underworld, into Tartarus, I would pace the length of these twisting halls, swimming the deepest deep of the trenches where the pressure is so great that not even the souls stripped of their flesh can suffer. I have felt you, Persephone. Only you. I have walked with you through your grief, your wonder, your love. And I was there, deep beneath the surface, when you met your tragic end.”

I gasp.

Her heads twist back to mine and I swear her entire body sinks into a deep sadness she is helpless to battle.

“I fought to save you.”Her voice, so deep and husky and yet so feminine, rings with vicious strength.“I charged the pitch black of the stone again and again, before I called upon the flames of the pit in which I was born. For the first time in my life, I roared those flames into the ceiling of this prison I sequestered myself to after Hercules—”She breaks off, blinks, and continues,“Those flames spread throughout the entirety of my prison. They burn to this day, a storm of my rage and failed desperation to save you.”

I glace up at the magenta storm in the ceiling, realizing for the first time that the waves aren’t stormclouds, but a firestorm trapped in stone. A thunderous rolling rage of flame.

“I am sorry I could not save you. I felt your soul leave your body. The snap of your life band breaking—untethering. And then you were here with me, in the caves where you remained for far, far too long.”

“I was—” Breath rushes from my lungs as I find my feet on shaky legs. “I was here—the whole time—with you?”

Her heads nod.“Yes.”

“Why—why didn’t you tell Hades?” I’m horrified by the magnitude of this secret. “He looked for my soul forcenturies!”

“I brought you to him. Your soul, I mean.”Her heads tip to the side in a gesture that feels like a frown.“You were not like the others who come to Tartarus. They have bodies, physical bodies. They are stripped of their skin again and again in a cycle of torment their souls are helpless to escape. You were simply spirit. I could see you, but I could also seethroughyou.”

She scoots a little closer, and my hurt heart softens.

Deep inside the consciousness that makes me who I am, I can’t ignore the familiarity that stretches between me and Hydra. My soul knows her. Loves her.

“I don’t understand,” I admit softly.

Her heads bow before lifting to meet my eyes.“At first, I could not convince you to leave my caves, and I refused to leave you. For hundreds of years, we existed together deep in the underbelly of the Underworld. The need I’d always felt to protect you, to be with you, only grew the more time we spent together. You became my greatest friend, my dearest love. The way I imagine a mother might care for her child.”

The truth of her words strums the chords of my heart in the melody of its ancient song. My heart bleeds for her, exposed.

She continues,“When you first arrived to me, it was in the deep of the earth where the secrets of the Lethe are forever kept. A cavern of whispers so devastating, too long spent there couldmake even me, mad. But above us, the Underworld grieved. I could feel, that, too. Knew it grieved the loss of you.”

“I don’t remember this…”

“Do you remember your life? Before?”

“Pieces of it, yes,” I admit.

“When you first came to me, you were confused. You had little knowledge of the life you’d lived—or even who you were.”She settles, a long, thick tail scaled in shades of metallic purple curling around her body.

I meet Hydra’s eyes. “You helped me remember, didn’t you?”

I don’t know how I know.I just know.

“I did my best.”She heaves a sigh that warms the chilled air. I realize then that I am shivering.“You were terribly confused in the beginning. With time, you settled into your afterlife with me. But I always knew—always sensed—that one day you would leave me.”

“You said you took me to Hades?”

“I did, yes. When I could finally convince you to travel with me to the surface, through the pools. Hades comes to my shores often. But even he cannot converse with me, cannot decipher the words in which I speak, and I have tried. Such an experience appears to be yours alone. To most, I am simply monster. Beast. You, Persephone, understand me.”

“But you brought me to him?”

She nods her heads in sync, but it clings to a wariness that tells me I won’t like this tale.