TWENTY-SEVEN

“I really don’t need this—“

“You haven’t seen everything, Guinevere,” he cut her off and she cleared her throat.

“I don’t need to see everything. I plan on leaving…?” She glanced in his direction but he didn’t seem to be too interested in looking at her. It was weird considering that he had a different look on his face that night—

She shook her head. She can’t possibly be thinking about what happened last night. Especially not now.

“Just in case you change your mind and decide to stay,” he said and looked at her. “It’s important you know where the place for doom and the place for pleasure.”

She cleared her throat again at the mention of pleasure and she heard Hades let out a small chuckle. “I meant art or gardening or reading—whatever you do for pleasure.”

“I was thinking the exact same thing,” she said a bit defensively and gave him a look only to see him already looking at her with brows raised.

“Of course,” he said and proceeded to walk. She followed him and they were out of the castle. The outside was gloomy and she couldn’t help but bristle at the dullness of the surroundings. She is not someone fond of plants or even gardening but her aunt was someone who likes to collect colorful flowers and she must admit, it was pleasant to look at. Although her aunt did not develop the habit of taking care of them so she ended up taking care of them.

“Plants don’t grow around here, huh,” she started as she continued to look around. She could only see barren soil and leafless trees. The gargoyle statues dominated the whole yard and they were almost covered with withered vines only showing the statues’ gnarly teeth.

“There’s no point having plants around here,” he answered.

“Why? Magic can’t handle it?”

Hades let out a chuckle and gave her a sideward glance. “Underworld magic can do more important things than growing plants.”

“It would be nice and less scary to look—“

He stopped walking and looked at her which made her stop walking too.

“This place isn’t up for decoration. This is the underworld.”

“And yet you have a place for art?”

“That’s different.”

“Art is not supposed to be confined in one space, Hades. It’s supposed to be spread. What’s the use of art if not shared?”

“It is only there to keep the mortals sane,” he said curtly as if that should answer her questions. It was an implicit statement too that mortals in the world and insanity are not too far off. Suddenly, she regretted talking to him.

She pursed her lips and cleared her throat as they arrived at the entrance. The gigantic twin statues loomed over them and she could have sworn the eyes of the statues followed every step she took.

Unconsciously, she took a step closer to Hades but not too close that he noticed.

“So this place about the pleasure you were talking about, were there a lot of mortals who get to use them?”

He was silent for a moment and she thought he wasn’t planning on answering the question but then he started talking.

“I was cursed for so long, Morgiana. And within those years, I have tried a lot of things to break it—including taking different mortals. Sometimes one at a time. Sometimes I took a lot of them.”

“Did the place help with keeping their sanity?”

“They went insane before we could even begin,” he answered and she swallowed hard. She could see why. While this place may have not treated her like how it treated the others, she could tell it could make someone lose their mind. It was called the underworld for a reason. A reason she doesn’t plan on finding out.

Maybe she could call herself lucky. Maybe she was fortunate enough to have every bad thing thrown at her and now being in the underworld felt like something an unfortunate person like her is bound to experience.

It was the same for Henrietta. Her life in the mortal world wasn’t so great. What Hades offered to her was so much better than her life when she was back there. There was something that kept Henrietta chained to her sanity. The question now is: What keeps her chained from hers? Will she go insane just like the others?

“You really stole Zeus’ girlfriend?” she asked and she wanted to smack herself from starting that conversation. Hades gave her a look and she knew she crossed the line.

“You’re extra curious today,” he merely said and she managed a shrug.

“You want me to break this damned curse so I might as well know what the hell got involved into.”

“You were so confident you’d get your freedom.”

“Oh, I still am.”

He fully faced her and his eyes narrowed. “Making a deal and then challenging me. You like doing something that’s not so easy for you.”

“After what happened, I figured it might not be so hard at all.”

Now his face was filled with amusement. He didn’t say anything but he looked like he was waiting for her to say something more. So she did.

“I don’t think you will ever fall in love with me and I don’t think I’d feel the same. People who are in love… look beyond the physical aspect. It’s a deeper connection.”

“You don’t think you’d fall in love with me?”

“Aside from the fact that it literally will kill me, I don’t think you’re my type.”

He looked at her as though she said something he couldn’t fully comprehend. Before he could say something to her, she went on.

“I…my heart is already taken by someone else. And before you go and kill him, you know that getting rid of him won’t make me love you. It won’t change the fate of this curse.”

“I know. But you also know that you die with me if this curse is not broken.”

She swallowed hard. “You have to find a way to break this curse without us getting in love and whatnot. I can serve you whenever you want. I just need you to find another way. There has to be a way. There are always two ways to break a curse.”

Hades was silent as he was looking at her. Then he said, “You’re right. There is another way that doesn’t involve me and you getting in love.”

Hope sparked in her and she looked at him with almost glimmering eyes.

“The other way is to kill the one who made the curse.”

She looked at him in confusion. Zeus asked some witch to do the curse. Hades had a lot of time to kill this witch to undo it. But he never did.

“It’s impossible to kill her,” he said as though reading the question in her eyes. “Because she’s our mother. The one who gave birth to me and my brothers.”

She wanted to ask why would a mother curse her own son but she ended up with, “Is she…very strong?”

“It’s not a matter of who’s stronger and who’s not. She’s been absent ever since we were born.”

“Then how did Zeus manage to ask her to curse you?”

“As I said before, Guinevere, he can do many things because he is powerful.”

Then he started walking. She remained staring at his back as he walked further.

“Stay too far from me and you’ll invite unwanted attention,” he said and it was enough to make her start running close to him.

She started looking around her. The place didn’t look it gets any sunlight at all. It was just dark but not the kind of dark where you couldn’t see anything. She could still see her surroundings. Perhaps it’s one reason why plants don’t grow around here.

“What are you going to show me first?” she asked when it became too quiet.

“The River of Sorrows,” he answered and she swallowed hard.

“What kind of place is it?”

“You’ll see.”

She wanted to ask more. She wanted to ask about the River of Sorrows and what should she expect. But Hades looks like he doesn’t want to entertain more of her curiosity so she just followed him.

The road was surprisingly not so hard to maneuver. She was expecting it would be more…rocky and kinda hot to walk on but it wasn’t. It felt like walking on a forest trail. Trees bordered both sides making it even darker. She was tempted to ask Hades for some light but she stopped herself and just followed him.

After a few minutes of walking, her feet were protesting. Thankfully, Hades had stopped walking. He turned to look at her and watched as she was massaging her feet. She saw her flick his hand and in an instant, the soreness on her feet was gone. So is the other pain she felt in her body. She stood and felt her body was as light as a feather.

“That was…thank you,” she mumbled and Hades let out a scoff.

“Don’t thank the devil, dear.”

Her lips thinned and she did not break from his gaze. Then in an instant, Hades was in front of her and she almost stumbled if it was not for Hades’ quick reflexes. She felt his hand snake around her waist and her arms automatically wrapped around his neck to stop herself from falling.

It was then that she caught sight of his face up close. His eyes were dark—as dark as his hair—

“Careful now,” he said. “One more step behind you and you could have fallen to the river.”

Her brows furrowed as she looked at him. “What?”

Then she heard the flow of water behind her. She quickly pulled away from him and gasped when she realized that there was indeed a river behind her. And what’s more shocking is that they were now standing on a cliff. She looked around, trying to find the trail where they walked but realized there was none.

Suddenly, they were on top of some rock tower. It was wide enough for the two of them to fit while standing with very little allowance for extra movements. And had she taken another step back earlier, she would have fallen to the river below that didn’t look like a normal river.

It was the color of the blackest black but it flowed like normal water.

“How did we get in here?” she asked.

Hades merely smiled before he said, “Magic.”