Authors: Taylor Lavati
"I love the army you've assembled. How aggressive of you." Hades snarls with his yellow teeth jutting out. More rocks fall at the sound of his booming voice. His hair hangs down his forehead in black tendrils, like hissing snakes. He's in all black: dressing for the occasion, I'm sure.
"We just want to end the curse and go home." My voice is louder than I expected. I sound strong and not like my regular self. But I stand up straight and meet his dark brown eyes.
Hades laughs in my face. "You think this makeshift
army
is going to scare me?" he questions, although I know it's rhetorical.
He lifts a hand, and the ground begins to shake from beneath us. I bend my knees so I don't fall over and look toward where Hades's hand is pointing. The entrance to the courtyard is blocked by ground that has risen out of nowhere. It's like a wave of dirt that is frozen in place. We all hold our places in front of the altar, refusing to back down despite the rumbling.
"Come out, boys!" Hades raises his hands again, lifting them to the dark gray sky.
All at once, at least fifty gods come out from behind Hades. It's like they move through the walls in a stampede-like formation. My heart picks up its pace, my adrenaline instantly pumping. Hermes leads the pack, a smirk rising from his chin to his brows as he comes over the horizon.
"We don't want to fight!" I yell so Hades can hear me beyond the rumble of all the demons marching to the canyon. "We just want to end this."
"You were foolish to bring these people. And now, because of your ignorance and naiveté, they'll all die."
"Hades, please," I beg him, stepping forward, out of the grasp of my two loves.
"Just let us up to the altar, and we can finish this. You can go to Earth and conquer it or kill everyone. We don't care. We just want to get out of here," Ollie pleads.
Hades seems to think about this. He wraps his arm around Persephone and tugs her close to him. She looks at me, something like sadness on her face. She lifts her chin and whispers something I can't hear in Hades' ear. Then a large smile blooms on his face, and she looks away from me, refusing to make eye contact.
"Come, Eurydice." Hades steps forward and holds up his arm for me to take. I swallow down a knot in my throat and step forward, letting go of both of my guys.
"Are you going to kill me?"
"We don't want you to die," Persephone says, still clutching Hades. I look up at him, and he rolls his eyes, trying to play it off.
"Why not?"
"We never did this to hurt you. Over the years I've come to consider you a friend. As long as the curse ends, you'll go free." Persephone looks deeply at me, and strangely I believe her words. I don't think she wants to hurt me at all.
"What about my friends?"
"My followers are hungry for blood. I can't promise more than your safety," Hades says, and I swear his voice is bored. I look behind me and realize that nobody else can hear our conversation.
"I don't know what to do…" I shake my head and try to push through the fog of my choices.
"You do know." Persephone reaches for me and takes my hand in one of hers. "You just have to admit it to yourself. You'll get what you want, we'll get what we want, and we can part ways forever."
"I'll need the blood from the man who isn't my soul mate then," I say, my voice soft and not as strong as I would like it to be.
Hades nods and suddenly, noises from around us come back. I hear murmuring from behind us, and I look back into the eyes of Ollie and Ari. Hades stops in front of the altar and moves so he's right behind it, almost like a pastor at a church behind a podium. I follow him, the wood separating us.
"Which boy should I call up?" Again, his voice erupts in the room.
"Aristeus." I shut my eyes in pain, praying that Ari understands what I'm doing. I don't want him to see the hurt in my eyes. I hear a yelp, and my eyes spring open.
"Get him." Just then the earth moves again, and a huge mass of rock juts up in between Ari and Ollie, pushing them apart. Both boys are knocked to the side. I lunge for them, but Hades springs up a rock in front of me that stops me from moving.
I sidestep it, but another rock appears. Before I know it, I'm caged in rock walls. I slam my fists against the rock, and it barely splinters at all. I scream, but it seems like my yells are trapped in the rock box as well.
"I'll stay!" I yell to Hades, and within a second, the walls around me crumble. Hades nods at me, and I know if I make a move, I'll be trapped again.
I turn and see Hermes smile, his yellow teeth gleaming in the strange dark lighting. He sprints right to Ari's side. I glance back at him and watch Ari barely struggle as Hermes moves him and shoves him. Hermes drags him so he's right beside me. The rock walls crumble, and the ground is now littered with rocks.
Hermes throws Ari to the ground beside me. His body lands awkwardly on the rocks from my broken walls, and I fight myself not to help him up. Ari doesn't whimper. He flips so he's on his knees and then stands up. I can't tell if he's actually hurt, or if he's acting the part as well. My pockets are burning as I debate my next move.
The vial of blood is in on the left, the opal on the right, both next to each other, begging to be used. This one single moment will change the path of my life. As I touch my pocket, my mind races, trying to think of the best possible outcome, but it comes up empty handed.
Either way, someone will be hurt. Either way, I will be hurt. There's no safety in this. There's no right answer. I love them both to such an extreme that I'll still be losing someone.
But, I have to know once and for all who my soul mate is. I have to finally understand what has happened to me. I look behind me and Ollie is standing maybe ten feet away, a smile on his face. He's close enough that when I pull out the opal, it'll hopefully reach.
I don't think I'll have another chance to use the opal. I look at Hades's face and his eyebrows are raised in question. He's waiting on my next move. I have to use it now.
I reach into my front pocket and pull out the small box that holds my fate. The royal blue cloth still wraps around the box, and for the first time since I've gotten the rock, I pull the cloth off and stare at the brown box beneath it.
"What are you doing?" Hades asks, his voice filled with confusion.
"Ending this," I answer as I open the box.
Two things happen at the exact same time. Hades lunges for me and Ari stands up to protect me, shielding me with his body. I take the white opal into my palm, holding it face up, and then hide from Hades's attack.
CHAPTER THIRTY
reveal
Everything goes deadly silent. I worry that I've gone into a vision, but when I peek open my eyes, I see everything exactly the same as it was. I'm in the Underworld. The altar is in front of me. The same exact spot I was when I tore the opal from my pocket. But everyone is frozen in his or her place. Everyone except me.
Hades is about a foot before me, his hand reaching towards my face, his claws out and ready to rip me apart. His eyes are drawn together, darkened in a cloud of anger. Knowing that he can't do anything, I let out a small giggle.
To my left, Ari is mid-air, jumping towards me as if shielding me with his body would fix everything. His dark hair falls in front of his face, blocking his light green eyes.
The opal in my hand starts to heat up, and I remember what I'm doing here. My hand burns. What feels like a forest fire sits in the center of my palm, like it's trying to eat a hole through my flesh.
I know that I have to act fast. I stand equally between Ari and Ollie. My hand is still face up, the rock in my hand beginning to glow. I hold the opal in front of Ollie first. I wait for something to happen. Cece said it would shatter, but after six seconds of nothing happening, I can't wait any longer and risk the opal turning black.
I switch my position so my body is facing Ari. He's not standing straight like Ollie, so I hope that, even though he's in a weird position, it will still work.
My eyes widen, and my heart nearly stops beating in my chest. I can't breathe for fear that this opal doesn't work. It was my only saving grace to choose who my soul mate is. Otherwise it's just a guess. The rock seems to be getting hotter, but I refuse to let it fall from my hands. This has to work.
A blinding white light fills the room. I use my other hand to shield my eyes, but I never drop the stone. I refuse to give in to the searing pain in my hand. I scream with agony when my hand feels like it's about to burn off my body. But before I can drop the stone, it explodes in front of my eyes.
It rockets me backwards, and I fall onto my back, my head slamming against the ground. I push up, so I'm on my elbows and look at Ari. A strange ghost-like figure comes out from Ari and floats beside him, next to his body.
I stand and step forward wanting to touch it. When I hold up my arm to reach for Ari, I notice that I have a glow around me as well. I look at his first.
It's a very faint yellow all around, but the outside of it is a neon green ring. The glow surrounds him and changes shape, even though he's not moving. It's like his soul is its own person.
I look down at my hand and see a similar soul. It's yellow in the middle with a green outline. I move my hand, and the soul moves with me, just delayed a few seconds. I stare at my legs and see the colors completely envelop me, becoming me.
I step closer to Ari. As our souls touch, they meet and fill each other will energy. It's like pure ecstasy pumps through my veins as I watch the two souls envelop each other and become one single figure. I want to cry with pure joy, but I can't.
I step back from our souls and shake my head. This isn't over. I don't know how much time I have in this parallel state. I don't know when everyone will come alive again but I have one more thing that I need to do.
I grab the vial from my back pocket and sprint to the altar. I have to maneuver myself around Hades's lunging body to get to the carved-out part. I crack the glass on the side of the altar like an egg and let all of the blood from within seep into the wood.
The altar consumes it instantly, sucking it in like a dried up sponge. When I look down at the altar, there are no traces of the blood at all. I go to touch the center to confirm that it's gone, and that Hades will never know, but I'm knocked backwards.
Hades tackles me to the ground as life comes back into motion. Ari falls after lunging for air. But he's quick to fix himself. He reaches down and lifts Hades up, throwing him against the altar, his back cracking the bottom of it. Hades bounces back with unreal quickness, and I stand up just as fast, readying myself for whatever comes next.
"What did you do?" Hades throws Ari to the side like an annoying fly. I watch Hermes lift Ari up and contain him in his muscular arms. Ari squirms, trying to break free, but his grasp is too tight around him.
"What do you mean?" I play stupid. Nobody can prove what I've done and only Ari and Linus know that I had the opal and the vial. Neither would give me up. Hades looks over the crowd, but none of their faces give away a damn thing. Everyone has a blank face.
I meet Ari's gaze. His eyes ask me questions, but I just can't give him an answer yet, despite the pure elation in my heart. I need him and everyone to think he's not my soul mate. I still have to cut him and mix it with the Originals' blood.
"That rock you had. Why did you pull it out?" Hades pulls on my collar and drags me so I'm inches from his face. He looks past me on the ground for the opal, and only I know that it's gone, shattered into a million pieces.
"It was hurting me in my pocket. It's on the ground." I point to my left, not seeing a rock but pretending. It's pretty obvious that they had no idea what was going on when I used the opal. This couldn't have gone better. It just proves that I can't thank Cece and Linus enough for all they've done.
"Just cut Aristeus. Make sure it flows on the altar," Hades snips. Persephone hands me a silver blade with a multicolored jeweled handle. I take it with my trembling hands, holding it uncertainly. Hermes drags Ari by his armpits towards the altar and then disposes of him at the base.
Ari stands up and steps up to the altar. He places his arm over the altar, pulling his long sleeved shirt up and over his elbow, and then lets his arm go limp.
I step towards him and pull in a deep breath, trying to gain the courage to do this. I don't know what will happen when Hades realizes what I've done. All I know is that it's going to be bad. And I'm deathly afraid for all of our lives.
I trail the blade down from the inside of Ari's elbow to his wrist, just deep enough to draw blood. I don't like hurting him, but this will end it all. I lock eyes with him, trying to convey what I know without saying it.
With each inch of the blade, my heart breaks. A single tear falls down my face and mixes in the blood at the altar. I sniff and pray that no more fall, but the horror over what's about to happen begins to eat at me.
"You're going to need more blood than that to kill him." Hades rolls his eyes, and laughs with Persephone in front of me. I look up at Hades, and he's clearly bored with this entire situation. His hands rest on his hips. He has a pained expression on his face. I smile as something that looks like a scroll appears above the altar, hanging in mid-air.
"Whoops," I say as I drop the knife to the ground. It clamors, the jewels banging hard against the rough dirt, clanking on a small rock. My emotions dart across the board from elation over doing exactly what we wanted to dread over what's to come. My curse is lifted, and Hades is still stranded in the Underworld.