Page 53 of Gods and Graves

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

THEA

D eath is painful.

Who would’ve thought?

At first, I’m tumbling head over heels in a fathomless abyss of darkness. It feels like it lasts for an eternity but is probably more like five minutes.

Then I see a blinding flash—the light at the end of the tunnel?—and I find myself drifting towards it.

Floating.

Buoyant.

Free.

I know that there’s something I need to remember—or someone—but whenever I try to grasp a hold of the thought, it eludes me.

Then I fall through a portal and land on my knees, the impact rattling my teeth.

What the…?

It all comes rushing back to me.

The guys.

Ares.

The guys.

Aphrodite.

The guys.

The fight.

The guys.

The guys.

My guys.

I peer around my surroundings, momentarily surprised to find myself in Hades’s throne room. The God of Death himself stands before me, his expression unreadable.

“You killed a goddess,” he says, his tone carefully impassive.

I can’t quite tell how he feels about that.

Am I going to be punished?

The thought of spending my afterlife trapped in Tartarus with the very people who tortured me in life…

A chill slithers down my spine.

“I’m…dead,” I whisper, the revelation settling over me like a heavy cloak, weighing me down.

“Yes,” Hades answers simply.

I swallow.

Fuck.

My guys…

They’re probably devastated. They’ve just opened themselves to love after years of fighting against it.

Will they ever find someone now that they’ve lost me again?

A selfish part of me rebels at the thought of them with another woman, the little green monster inside of me rearing her ugly head.

But at the end of the day… I just want them to be happy.

Even if it’s not with me.

Hades’s next words shock me speechless.

“But you don’t have to be.”

“What?”

His piercing silver eyes rest on my own.

“I want to offer you a deal, young reaper. As you know, your…teammates have been granted immortality by Ares, and though Ares is locked away, he’s still alive.

They will live as long as they don’t do anything reckless.

I’m willing to offer you immortality as well, but only if you do something for me. ”

This sounds too good to be true—which usually means it is. But I’m desperate. I would do anything, give up anything, to be with my men.

“Tell me what you need,” I say, my words tumbling over themselves in their haste to escape.

“I want you to be my reaper,” Hades says simply.

“My personal reaper, who works directly alongside me. There are thousands and thousands of reapers out in the world, but their lifespans are only slightly longer than that of a human. With the immortality I’ll grant you, you can help train the new reapers, as well as reap souls that have…

captured my interest, so to speak. There are a lot of souls roaming this earth, and now that the Underworld has been balanced, I’m going to need all the help I can get reaping them. ”

A ball of tension forms in my throat as I gape at him.

“W-why me?” I whisper. “You could have asked any reaper to do this. Why did you choose me?”

I know it’s not because of my sparkly personality.

Hades regards me indifferently for a long moment, his head tilted to one side, before he blows out a breath. “I told you. I created you.”

“You create all reapers,” I point out.

“Not in the way I created you,” Hades says. Then, his voice softer than I’ve ever heard before, at least directed at me, he adds, “Persephone always wanted a child. I agreed to give her one. You were the result.”

Shock wraps its spindly fingers around my throat and squeezes. I suck in a sharp, shuddering breath.

“What?”

“You’re not my biological daughter.” Hades focuses on something in the distance, something only he can see, his lips compressing into a perfectly straight line.

“But you’re also not a normal reaper. You were chosen as a baby to be our child.

Our Winnie. We knew you would have potential to be strong—after all, Ares chose you as his champion—and we wanted you for ourselves.

Your birth mother died during childbirth, and your birth father was no longer in the picture.

So…we took you. Raised you. Treated you as our own since neither of us can have children. ”

I can’t even begin to wrap my head around this revelation.

Hades and Persephone were my…adoptive parents? What the hell?

Later. I’ll dissect this discovery later, when I have the brain capacity to do more than gawk.

“Did you…?” I suddenly can’t ask the question. It gets trapped in my throat, corrugating into a huge ball. But the words need to be said, despite my trepidation. “Did you look for me? When I went missing, I mean? Did you look for me?”

Hades’s eyes sharpen, and he purses his lips, considering.

At first, I think he’s not going to answer, but then he rasps out, “Yes, I looked for you. I tore the whole damn world—and the Underworld—apart to find you. Ares reported you as missing, and I was foolish enough to take his word at face value. To believe him. If I would’ve known what he did…

that Aphrodite had you right underneath our noses this entire time… ”

He hisses out a breath, his hand forming a fist by his side. Then he takes a deep, calming breath and forces his fingers to relax. “But alas, hindsight is…how do they say it? A bitch. I’m going to be honest, Thea.

“I don’t know how to be a father to you.

I didn’t when you were a child, either. Persephone seems to believe there’s something wrong with me, and that may be true, but I will protect you.

You’re my…responsibility.” He clears his throat, his gruff countenance dropping for just a second.

“So accept my offer. Become my reaper. Stay with your men. It’s the best I can offer you. ”

Unexpected tears fill my eyes. Maybe he doesn’t love me, and that’s okay. But he’s offering me the chance to spend eternity with men who do. I’ll be forever grateful for that.

“I accept,” I whisper, my heart thundering in my chest.

Hades clears his throat, appearing uncomfortable with my tears. “Good. Now I’m going to send you back and?—”

“Wait!” a feminine voice shouts, and Persephone runs into the throne room, breathing raggedly.

She throws herself at me in a bruising hug, but this time, I return it.

My…mother.

Fuck, that’s weird to even think in my head, especially since she looks only a few years older than me.

“Please promise you’ll return,” she whispers brokenly, her tears wetting my shoulder.

I meet Hades’s steely eyes, and he nods slightly, letting me know he’ll find a way to make that happen.

“I promise,” I tell her.

This time, I actually mean it.

Persephone pulls away and sniffles. “Good.” A wobbly smile spreads on her face. She cups my cheeks, her touch incredibly gentle. “I’m so, so proud of you, my darling girl. And I’m so, so sorry we couldn’t save you the first time around.”

“You’re allowing me to return to my men,” I tell her. “I can forgive you both for just about anything because of that.”

A single tear cascades down Persephone’s blotchy face, though she doesn’t lift a finger to brush it away.

“Go. Return to your loves. We’ll be here when you need us.” She gives my cheeks one final squeeze and then releases me, stepping away.

I turn to face Hades—my father.

“I’m ready,” I tell him. “Bring me to my men.”