Forbidden To Love (The Erosians) (27 page)

“
If you were to love Hades, though, you wouldn’t know any different and you wouldn’t want to be without him, so there’d be no need for a war.”

Persephone
’s eyes flash with anger at my suggestion. “I see the only thing Zeus improved with each Erosian was their bra size and not their IQ!”

I look away ashamed as she continues.

“Do you not think I know that? Do you not think I know that if you were to make me love my husband, I wouldn’t know what it felt like not to love him? It is not that which concerns me. It is the pain my mother will feel at me never wanting to leave the Underworld to be with her as I do now. My mother will not forgive you, or Zeus, for allowing Eros to send you here.”

“
But why? I don’t understand. You’re already married to Hades. Why is it such a big deal if you love him?”

“
I never chose to marry my husband. He stole me when I was just a child because Zeus was too much of a coward to tell him no.”

“
But you stayed with him”

Persephone
’s childish tinkle of a laugh echoes around my prison, “I had no choice. It was only because my mother, Demeter, caused a famine in the mortal world, which panicked Zeus; that I manage to get out of here for any time at all.” Her face twists momentarily with disgust at her past.

“
So Zeus got you out?” I look at her stunned. I had no idea Hades had abducted her. I just thought it was an arranged marriage that went wrong.

“
When Zeus told Hades to give me back, Hades found a loophole and tricked me into eating from the Underworld. Because of those stupid pomegranate seeds I took, I'm only released from this dismal place a few months of the year. If you make me love Hades, the human race will start to suffer because my mother will cause a famine again and Zeus will have no option but to start a war against Hades to force him to release me. Hades wants that to happen, he wants the war.” She stops abruptly as her emotions start breaking through towards the end of her story.

I try to reach out to her to comfort her but she straightens herself up and I step back.

“I’ll have a new dress sent to you.” She smoothes her hands down her bodice as she calms her tone and leaves as silently as she arrived.

I feel I should run through the open cell door until I find a way to escape, before I'm forced to admit I can
’t do as Hades asks. I want out of this terrible situation. Every new piece of information I'm given just makes me feel more disgusted with the position I’ve put myself in. Hades said I had a few days to think about it, but for all I know, those days could have gone, my time could already be up. I pound my fists against the wall in frustration. This is so messed up!

What if I could make them love each other? Maybe I should. Hades would probably win the war and it
’s not that big a deal if I side with him.

There
’s nothing in the mortal world for me and there’s nothing in Olympus, so why should I care if I begin the apocalypse? I was willing to give up my life as I knew it for Josh, why not start a new one with Luca?

My heart throbs. Josh
’s memory deserves better than this. He died for me because he loved me. How can I so quickly succumb to Luca?

What about Allana? She
’d be caught up in it, perhaps even killed or, worse, enslaved to Hades and tortured by one of the other guards. I can’t let that happen. I’ll have to tell the truth. I’ll be cast away to live a life alone, the way I should’ve done all along. And if I had, I never would have been in this situation.

A small voice in the back of mind whispers,
“Luca,” and my heart feels so torn between everyone I love and want to protect that I'm sure it’s going to give in at any second and just collapse under the weight of it all.

A small girl scurries into my room carrying a bundle of silver fabric. She places it on the floor in front of me, curtsies, and runs off. The bundle opens out into a floor length dress. It has thick straps which are intricately embroidered with jewels that sparkle even without the sunlight. I quickly shuffle out of my now-ruined ball gown and slip this dress on. The silk is cool on my bare skin. The feel reminds me of Luca
’s touch. I look down at my crumpled old gown, torn and covered with ash. That dress will never be worn again; I will never be with Josh again.

I run my fingers down my new dress. It
’s fitted along my waist, flowing out slightly from my hips. I reach up and take my hair clip out from my much messed-up style, allowing the few ringlets that haven’t dropped out to fall down along my back. I toss the clip with my old dress, and push them to the corner of the room and hide them underneath the throw.

That dress is the past; this new one is now.

I look at the open prison door, wondering if I should go find Luca myself, or maybe Hades, and tell him the truth. I wouldn’t know the first place to begin looking for him, though, and Luca might get pissed if I take off without even telling him. I look between the window and the open door and back again, desperate for a sign of what to do.

“
Thinking of going somewhere?” Luca is leaning against the open door frame when I look back at it from the window. “Nice dress,” he adds but eyes me suspiciously

“
Persephone… ” I start. His whole demeanour changes at the mention of her name. I swear if the blood could drain from his face, it would have done.

“
What did you tell her?” he asks with a deathly edge to his tone.

“
Nothing” I shake my head. “She came to warn me, not to invite me to a sleep over for gossip.”

He begins pacing the room.
“Did you tell her about us?”             

“
Of course not!” I'm not that stupid. I may not know much about life down here but I can pretty much surmise Hades wouldn’t be impressed if he knew about me and Luca. “She noticed my dress was ripped and said she’d send me a new one, then she told me that if I did what Hades wanted me to, I’d start a war and basically end the world.” I throw my arms up at the end and shake my head, “She’s probably exaggerating.”

Luca stops and walks over to me purposefully. He takes hold of my wrists.
“She’s not exaggerating. Hades is desperate for the war and he is desperate to overthrow Zeus.” He calms down slightly when my body tenses in his touch. He exhales loudly and runs his fingers through my loose hair. “I like it better this way.” I smile at his touch and expect to feel the stabbing flames of betrayal across my chest but Luca won’t allow me to hurt. “You said you couldn’t make God’s love each other.” He drops the strands of hair he was wrapping between his fingers.

“
No I can’t.” I search his eyes, looking for some sort of reaction, scared his disappointment is going to change the way he feels about me. “Not yet, anyway.” I carry on trying to salvage what’s happening as his body seems to edge further from me.

“
What do you mean?” Now it’s his turn to ask the questions.

“
I haven’t progressed enough to start playing with the emotions of the Gods. I'm not even at the same level as Amora yet,” I explain.

“
There are levels?” He walks over to the window.

“
Yeh, we start out only being able to see and manipulate the part of the aura to do with love, then we can start to plant thoughts in people’s minds, and then after that we can cause instant attraction. Eros and Allana can do that.”

He doesn’t show any response to what I'm saying so I don’t stop. “Once we’ve got to that stage, we can see the rest of the aura and start playing with the other emotions” I shudder slightly at the memory of Allana using Amora’s emotions against her.

“
So when can you do it to the Gods?”

“
I don’t know. I don’t even know how long Allana has been able to do it. My life barely came with any instruction. They didn’t throw me a time line to look over.” My irritation at his sudden detachment from me pushes its way through. It works, though. He comes back to me and takes my hands in his.

“I'm sorry, but if Hades knows that you can’t help him, he isn’t going to keep you here.” He moves his hands up my arms

“
But if we tell him that I will be able to eventually, maybe he’ll keep me around till I can and he’ll let me be here with you.” Luca closes his eyes.

“
Do you really think if they knew about us they’d just let us carry on together? And Hades has already been waiting since the dawn of time for a shot at Zeus. He is done waiting” I hadn’t thought of that.

“
So what would happen to me?” Luca’s lips lightly press against my forehead. “Nothing, Hades would want to hand you over to the Furies.” I inhale sharply and jump at Luca's revelation. “He’d have to take you from me first. I'm never going to let anything happen to you.” I nod as his arms envelop me.

“
This is all Allana’s fault.” His tone has grows bitter as he looks out of the window onto the fields.

“
What’s Allana’s fault?”

His eyes snap back to me.
“Have they told you nothing of the past?” I shake my head, not wanting to reveal what I know, as by the sounds of it, it’s probably wrong.

“
Allana went running into the arms of another God, a married God. When Zeus gave Eros Amora, Allana was hurt by his rejection so she got consoled by this other God, but they had to escape to the mortal world when Allana found out she was pregnant.” I freeze. That means Amora was telling the truth.

“
So because she betrayed Eros, he’s taking it out on me?” Luca nods. “You, Amora and Allana - he wants none of you but he doesn’t want you to want anyone else - mortal, God or Underworld guard.” I shrink down to the floor and Luca keeps his hands on my arms, guiding me safely.

“
Why didn’t he take it out on Allana?” I ask, and then curse myself for wishing the hurt upon her rather than me.

“
Eros may not have wanted Allana, but he grew to love her as a sister. He was angry at himself for causing her betrayal.”

I don
’t get it and Luca can tell that I don’t. “If Eros could have just loved Allana, Zeus wouldn’t have made him Amora and then he wouldn’t have hurt her.” I am starting to understand their complicated history.

Luca leans back against the wall as he stares out to the landing.
“So Eros and Allana are the only ones who can help Hades. Maybe if Psyche died, Hades would have a bargaining chip,” Luca says to himself. I can almost hear the cogs in his mind turning as he formulates a plan.

“
Psyche is Eros’ true love,” I add, feeling a slight relief at the one part of my history I do know.

“
Yes and the most beautiful mortal woman mankind has ever seen, which riled Aphrodite when Eros fell in love with her. She forced Eros to make Psyche love the most grotesque man she could find for her. Psyche is joined to him until one of them dies.” Luca stops there.

“
So that’s why Eros has so much hate for his mother?”

Luca nods.
“She manipulated him into giving up his only chance at happiness and when he lost this chance, he made sure no one else got theirs.”

“
If Psyche dies, it won’t help Hades. If she dies, Eros will forget all of his feelings for her.” Luca’s face falls as I dampen his plan. “But if Psyche’s husband dies, any feelings she had for Eros would be reignited and they could be together, but that would kill Allana. She was made to love Eros and she’ll only be released if he dies.” I'm talking more to myself than to Luca. I'm trying to make sense of it all. “Who was the God Allana slept with? Where’s the child?”

I'm not sure which answer is more important but Luca can
’t give me either of them. He just shakes his head. “Nobody knows. They left the child with a mortal family and they went back to Olympus.” I can’t believe I never knew any of this.

“
When did this all happen?” Luca looks like he’s trying to think back. “Sixteen, seventeen years ago.” He runs his fingers through his hair, trying to think back.

“
How do you know so much about our history?”

Luca takes his other arm from me and rests it against the window ledge.
“After Eros made Psyche love her husband, he went mad, which I'm now grateful for because it ultimately led to your creation.” He smiles at me and I can’t help but return it.

              “Anyway he came down here begging the Fates to cut Psyche’s husband’s thread of life so Thanatos could kill him, but the Fates refused and Eros couldn’t convince Hades to force them to do it. Maybe he would have done if Hades had met Persephone by that time, but she was still a young child. I was one of the guards who led him to Hades, and then I followed his work as he destroyed the mortal race.”

I
’d gathered that much from what Allana had told me and the threats he made my first day in this life. “Zeus stepped in with Allana, and then Amora. I was given the duty of training new soldiers after that, so never knew you existed.”

I sit nodding at Luca as he fills the gaps into my history, waiting for some magical plan to appear in my mind to get me out of this mess. Luca distracts me though as he jumps up, staring at something intently through the window.