Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 18893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 94(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18893 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 94(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
That is the deal that allowed the realms to open. If Athena knew the details of the agreement, her eyes would widen, then burn with anger, and I do not know how long our discord would last.
I cannot tell Athena and dismiss the thought from my mind as soon as it comes. I won’t let the idea linger for even a few moments and won’t entertain it as a real possibility.
“I mean the very thought that a demon could enter other realms…even Olympus… Does that not concern you?” she asks, and I swallow.
“Athena, please, do you not have other matters to tend to?” She scoffs at my question, leaving me alone in the room with my thoughts, the shift in the air, and her warning.
Hades would be a fool to come here. There’s no chance he would dare show himself in Olympus.
The realization feels as though it strangles me. I felt him when I saw Persephone just a moment ago. It is him. What have I done?
And with that, I leave my sanctuary, in search of Ares.
EPILOGUE
Carlisle
Time blurs when it is endless. At least it does now that I have her.
Over and over again, she lets it fade into the background, and as the hours become days and the days become weeks, she stops thinking about the life she had without me and remembers those lives we lived together. The darkness and emptiness fade, and slowly we build our heaven together.
I’ve never felt so whole. It took not having her to know what pieces of me she filled. Little by little, the underworld has captivated her as it does me. No longer my hell, now that she is here by my side.
“There you are,” she says one morning. It’s the first thing I hear from her lips after she turns over and sees me lying next to her and smiles. “You’re still here.”
“Always.”
Her curious mind has found peace here. So many books and stories to be told.
I’ve shown her everything I can that would bring her wonderment. I show her the river with stars beneath it and the mountain ranges that disappear into black clouds and the wide fields that have the darkest soil Ivy’s ever seen. She stands up and closes her eyes, listening silently to the space around us, and finally opens them again.
We make new memories, like many of the things we shared before. Words we whisper into each other’s ears. Promises we make under the covers at night.
Time has passed and our bond is stronger than ever, but still a thought plagues me.
“Are you content here with me?”
Her lips tilt into a soft smile as the fabric of her dress puddles around her. “Of course I am.” She sits up on her knees, places both hands on my jaw, and kisses me before returning to the other end of the chaise.
“I was so afraid, and now I can’t remember why.” Ivy lounges on the couch, stretching her toes out so she can press them against my thigh. Her soft curves tempt me and the luxury of never needing or wanting anything but her is a comfort.
She’s warm and soft and beautiful. The only woman I want to memorize like this. The only woman I craved so badly that I would have done anything to have her again. I would have done much worse things than I did to taste her sweet mouth even one more time. I would have done anything the gods asked of me.
I kiss her as much as I can. A hundred times a day. Two hundred. It doesn’t matter. Every time I can put my lips to hers, I do it. I missed so many moments with her, and I’m not missing another one ever again.
“I love you Carlisle,” she whispers, and a beautiful blush rises to her cheeks.
My heaven.
One day, not long after, her hand in mine, we walk down a path lined with onyx and dark flowers when a scream tears through the air.
A chilling scream. One that echoes in the air. Everything stops and the scream is all present. Her body presses to mine, her heart racing. “What was that?” she whispers.
In the distance, the life that exists is still. As if everything paused, wondering the same.
It was a sound from Hades’s tower. Not from the hells beyond the wall.
It’s a scream that should not exist. A goddess that does not belong here.
It was an act of war and the knowledge of my participation chills me to the core of my being. They will never know and I am to forget.
As Ivy needs to do as well.
“You didn’t hear anything,” I say just beneath my breath and then turn her around.
When Ivy looks up at me, her feet refuse to move. “I thought I heard someone scream.”
“You didn’t.” I lean down and kiss her forehead, then tug her hand and continue walking down the path. She hesitates but follows. Her hand still in mine.