Gods Save the Princess (Grace of Gods Book 2) (17 page)

"I could start a list of differences if you'd like." He chuckled again, sipping the wine before turning and walking away from me. I relaxed immensely, taking a deep breath before peeling myself from the shelving unit.

"What are you going to do?"

"Help you figure out your Goddess of course."

I frowned, "why would you do that?"

"It's of a dire importance to me."

"Do I get a hint?"

"It's not as fun that way." He grinned cruelly again before sipping the wine and setting the goblet down. He leaned against the arm of the couch and folded his hands together as he stared at me with interest. I felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny, like he was sizing up my capacity for dealing with whatever he was about to throw at me. I still didn't want him to have any control over me.

"So do I have to stay here until I figure it out?"

"For a while," he said ominously before straightening himself out, "let's see... What do we know about your Goddess from your own life that might help you understand a little better?"

He tapped his chin but I didn't understand how he was going to know anything about my past when I still hadn't divulged it to Griffin. "You have a lot of siblings." He said simply, "and you were exceptionally close to your mother." He eyed me to see my reaction. Initially my eyes widened in surprise before I composed myself, trying to remain placid. I didn’t want to give anything away, who knew what other cards he had in his hands.

"You find yourself to be somewhat invisible amongst your large family, except for one family member. He noticed you, where others didn't." My skin turned cold, my insides twisted and he just smiled at me. How did he know all this? I turned my head away; unable to bear looking at him anymore for fear that looking in my eyes would tell him even my darkest secrets.

"Well, it seems so far I'm right." He was guessing? I instinctively looked up again before catching myself and diverting my gaze.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I stuck my chin out and moved away from him to look at something else for a distraction. He laughed again, like my entire existence was a joke.

"Oh, this is so much fun. We should keep playing... Okay, was he a family friend?" He paused waiting for my reaction, "no. Okay... Milkman? Postman? Neighbour?" Nothing. I wasn't giving him anything. I picked up one of the tomes and flipped it open. The pages were blank. I frowned at them. "Okay, Grandparent? Brother? Cousin?" He chuckled suddenly but I wasn't paying attention to him anymore. The pages in front of me had begun to transform and words started to list themselves in a black curlicue script. Only it wasn't words, it was names listed next to dates. Names that I recognised. They belonged to my siblings but the dates next to their names wasn't their birthdays. These were dates of the future, times that hadn't passed yet. I looked up in horror as I realised what this was.

"Uncle." He grinned at me as we both stared at each other. I was still shocked over the contents of the tome but something in the back of my mind pointed out that this had been a game, he had known all along the answer. "Yes, it was an uncle."

"These are death dates." I said point blank, deliberately trying to ignore him.

"Yes."

"How can you have them before these people have died?"

"I am the King of the Underworld, I must know when to expect high volumes of traffic."

"I don't believe you." I closed the book, unable to bear looking at them anymore.

"Doesn't really matter what you believe does it? It is within my realm that I know these kinds of things; it's not for you to know... Unless..." He grinned more; he was referring to my Goddess again.

"It's killing you keeping it a secret, why don't you just tell me?" I crossed my arms defensively and gave him an indignant look. I was being brave but inside I was worried. Was my name in that book? No, it would've shown itself to me. Instead it showed family. He was just messing with me, trying to get into my head.

"It's not as fun that way." He stood up and moved toward me again. This time I moved quicker to get away from him and he stopped short, all bemusement in his features gone. "You'll find everything you need here for you, you're welcome to whatever your little mind can conjure as a necessity. It's a prison, but not a rudimentary one. I'd like for you to be comfortable."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because, you're important to me and it hurts me ever so deeply that you continue to avoid my advances."

"I went to a dinner and a party with you! How is that avoiding your advances?"

"Those were nothing more than a simple boy's sad attempt at love. What he doesn't understand is that love doesn't come that easily. Sometimes it is necessary to force love."

"You're wrong, how could you think that?" I said, watching in horror as he walked around me and made his way toward the door. "Love only comes to those who deserve it and you're nothing but a sad pathetic man who thinks he deserves everything when he deserves nothing!" He laughed again as he reached the door and pulled it open, he turned around slightly to glance at me before shrugging his shoulder.

"You'll see in good time that what I am doing is in your best interests."

"Griffin!" I shouted at him, starting toward the door as it started to swing shut. "Griffin! HADES." The door slammed in my face and I made to grab the handle to try it but there wasn't one. There wasn't even a door anymore. I shrieked in horror, pulling back from the wall and looked around frantically for some kind of escape. But there wasn't any. He had locked me in a room with no exit or entrance. No door was available to anyone who wasn't the God of the Underworld.

"HADES!" I screamed his name again knowing that he could hear me. I could feel that he was listening, even watching me. "HADES!" I kept screaming until my voice was hoarse and I felt defeated, I walked over to the couch where he had left the wine and hit it with the back of my hand childishly. The goblet fell to the floor with a clamour and the ground absorbed the liquid. I slumped down on the couch, burying my face in my hands. I wanted to cry but I was more angry and confused than anything. It felt like the revelation of my Goddess was at hand, like she was staring me in the face waiting for me to realise who she was. Hades certainly seemed to think it was obvious. I wished I knew Greek mythology a little better; maybe then it would be obvious to me. I turned slightly on the couch to look at the bookshelves. Maybe one of those tomes would have a list of Gods in it, some kind of hint I could glean. But I was afraid to open them again to see when my family would die. It was a heavy thought I wasn't prepared for.

So instead I stood, deciding that moping on the couch wasn't helping anyone. I wasn't hungry, or thirsty, nor had my anger diminished yet. I walked into the bedroom and looked around. The bed was grander than the one in my apartment, it was a four-poster bed with lavish curtains of deep purple and gold hanging from each post. There was a down blanket thrown on top with another fuzzy foot blanket. There was a closet too but this one didn't appear magical, Hades had seemingly picked out the outfits in this wardrobe for me. I shuddered to think he might be able to watch me undress. Not wanting to sit on the bed quite yet I sunk to the floor, curling into a ball where I leaned against the bedside table with my arms wrapped around my knees.

I wanted to know how he had known all those things about me without me telling him. They must have something to do with my Goddess. Thinking about needing a notebook I pulled away from the drawer enough to open it and freed the book that appeared there with a pen. I flipped it open and propped it on my knees, quickly jotting down the things I could remember him saying and marking them by importance with numbers.

Except the things I found to be more important than others might be different for my Goddess.

I frowned at the list trying to bring to memory all those personalities I had read about. She had to be there somewhere amongst them otherwise he wouldn't have made it seem so obvious. I longed for a computer though; a simple search of Goddesses that were important to Hades would give me my answer. Underneath my list of things Hades had spoken about I started listing Goddesses that might fit the profile. While one would work for point one it wouldn't work for point two and so on and so forth, I had no leads.

When I ran out of names I started thinking of other clues I could think of. Jed's reaction to Cerberus, him calling me "Princess", other things and hints that Hades might've dropped even when Griffin was in control. I frowned at the list just getting more frustrated and feeling stupid for not knowing right off the bat. It had to be there, hidden somewhere in all these lists I had created.

I rubbed at my tired eyes, feeling sleep calling for me like a mistress but I was afraid. If my Goddess knew what was happening, she might make me sleep forever to protect us. This had to have been what she was trying to keep from happening. This is what I stopped her from saving us from but instead had walked us right into it.

If she was even slightly awake inside of me I had no doubt she was angry with me. This was entirely my fault.

I had been so desperate for someone to notice me, to care about me... I was so enthralled with the idea of having a boyfriend I ignored the warning signs and there had been plenty of them.

"Stupid." I muttered, throwing the notebook across the floor watching as it lodged itself under the crack of the door. I wished Cerberus were here, at least for company; the darkness of this cavern didn't make me feel any better about the situation.

I pressed my forehead into my knees, letting my eyes close momentarily. I convinced myself that if I continued to think about the situation I would stay awake.

Soon enough though, against my will, sleep pulled me under and I fell into a dream - the first I’d had since coming to Olympus.

~

"I'm sorry." I turned toward the voice, surprised to find myself staring in the mirror. Only the Valentina on the other side of the glass wasn't a reflection. She wore different clothes; a deep purple toga intricately wrapped around her body and looping up over her shoulder, clasped in place with a flower. "I never thought... I never imagined that..." She frowned and shook her head, lost in her thoughts for a moment.

"Who are you?" I asked, stepping closer and hoping for an answer. She looked up again, smiling sadly.

"You." It wasn't the answer I was looking for.

"No, I mean... As a Goddess, who are you." She reached out, her hand coming out of the mirror to touch my face. It was the strangest sensation; cool to the touch but soon it burned.

"My husband is a fearful man: he fears solitude, he fears loss, he fears our light... Fear can lead men to do great and terrible things."

"Husband. Hades is your- our, husband?" I blinked at the other Valentina and then gasped in recognition. A name coming to me out of the hundreds I had read about.

"Persephone. You - I'm Persephone." She nodded and closed her eyes for a moment before looking up again at me, her pupils suddenly on fire, the brightest shade of green I had ever seen.

"I'm sorry for this, I promise I will fix it but until then you have to stay here."

"Stay where?" I frowned at my reflection as she started to fade away, disappearing from the mirror. "Persephone! Stay where? In this prison? Hey! Come back!"

She was gone and I, decidedly, was starting to get frustrated with Greek Gods.

Chapter Fourteen

I woke not long after that feeling different than before. My limbs moved but I wasn't controlling them. I felt like I was floating outside of my body yet my perspective hadn't changed. I tried to speak, to ask questions but my mouth was no longer mine to command. Something moved me through the bedroom back into the main part of my apartment prison.

I stopped in the middle of the room and looked around as if searching for something, "such an easy prey." I heard myself say but it certainly hadn't been of my volition. I crossed to the bookshelf and pulled down a tome different from the one of the night before. This one's pages were not blank as I flipped them open. Words were scrawled across the page and although my hands moved deftly to go through them I caught glimpses of what it said, "my dearest" "my love" "Persephone" "forever yours" "Hades". This book was a collection of love letters written to me - well, to her. That must be who was controlling me right now.

She finally stopped three quarters of the way through and found the letter she was looking for, her finger scrolling along the words: "I fear that you might one day see what others have seen in me and abandon our love. I know that despite our situation that is what it is, you are my one and true soul mate... I hope one day you will see that and our time apart will be limited. When you're ready my Princess I will be waiting--" I didn't get to finish as I reached out and touched a part of the letter and the whole book lit up. Stepping away from it I turned, crossing my arms over my chest as the door of the wall opened and Griffin - Hades - returned. He was grinning in that uncanny way as he walked in.

"I knew it wouldn't be long."

"Well, when you take to literally repeating history, it's a little hard to stay hidden away."

"You weren't coming back to me."

"I didn't want to." His face changed for a moment, the grin faded and it was momentarily replaced with one of genuine hurt.