Chapter XXII Hades

CHAPTER XXII

HADES

“I cannot believe I am doing this,” Hades grumbled as he navigated along a rocky path within the mountainous range of Erebos to reach the cave in which Hypnos lived.

He would have teleported, but he had been warned against that by Hecate.

“You must show him respect,” she said. “You are going to ask him a favor.”

Hades refrained from saying what he wanted, which was that Hypnos could go fuck himself, because at the same time, he had hope that the God of Sleep could actually help Persephone.

So he continued up the path like a mortal, feet slipping on small rocks, barely fitting between narrow passages until he made it to the mouth of a cave. Water flowed from it, glistening like moonstones, down the side of the mountain from where Hades had come. It fed into the Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness.

He hesitated at the dark entrance, uncertain of how to proceed, but he was saved from deciding when Hypnos yelled from inside.

“Go away!”

“You don’t even know why I’m here,” Hades snapped.

“I know you and that’s enough,” Hypnos said.

Hades let out a low growl and then he spoke through gritted teeth. “I have come to ask for a favor.”

“I do not grant favors, even for the God of the Dead!”

“Yet you will commit treason when forced,” Hades muttered.

“I heard that!” Hypnos snapped.

Hades sighed. “I have brought you a…token,” he said, unable to call it a gift. “If you are willing to help Persephone.”

There was silence, and after a moment, Hypnos emerged from the darkness of his cave. His hair and lashes were white like Thanatos’s, but instead of long locks, his hair was short and coiled close to his head. He was dressed in white and had white wings that fell behind him like a cape, dragging the ground.

“A token, you say?” Hypnos sounded curious, even if his expression remained neutral. “Let me see it.”

“Agree to help Persephone,” Hades said.

“No,” Hypnos said.

This was a mistake. Hades had known that the moment Hecate had suggested it, but he’d had to try. He could hardly handle the dread as night approached, the worry that Pirithous would return again tonight to haunt Persephone’s dreams. It did not matter that his soul was gone now. He still lived on in Persephone’s mind.

Hades stared at the god for a moment and then turned to leave without a word.

“Wait, wait!” Hypnos called.

Hades paused, but he knew the god hesitated.

“A hint at least, before I agree.”

A wave of disgust curled Hades’s lips, and he continued walking and did not respond. For him, it was bad enough that he had to give some kind of offering just to secure Hypnos’s help.

“Not even you would agree to something before you knew the bargain!”

There was a time when Hypnos would, a time when he was known to be calm and gentle, much like his brother.

Hades turned, fists clenched. He had lost all patience. “I have never asked you for anything in your life,” he said.

Hypnos averted his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest as Hades continued.

“But I come to you now because my future wife, my queen, is terrorized every time she closes her eyes, and all you care about is whether the reward is worthy of your time. Have you forgotten what it is like to watch the one you love suffer?”

“At least you can witness her suffering,” Hypnos snapped. “I have not seen my wife since I was sentenced to this hell!”

Hypnos’s wife was named Pasithea. She was one of the Charites, sometimes called Graces. She had been given to him in marriage by Hera, and while he had been lucky that he had not lost her completely, in the aftermath of his betrayal of Zeus, he was separated from her forever.

“Perhaps that would have changed had you agreed to help me.”

“You wish to shame me for refusing you, yet you dangle the promise of my wife before me as if that is not cruel.”

“You had a chance at mercy,” Hades replied.

Hypnos glared, but Hades had nothing more to say. He had not wanted to present the God of Sleep with a gift at all in exchange for his help, but that did not mean the one he’d chosen did not have great significance.

“Wait,” Hypnos said, though it was almost a shout. Hades heard him scrambling and slipping down the rocky path. He ran in front of Hades, arms pushed out as if to stop him. His expression had changed, less angry and far more desperate. “Wait, please. I’ll…I’ll help. Just please…let me see Pasithea.”

Hades studied the god, and after a moment, he extended his hand, palm up, where magic swirled. A crystal bloom formed there, and it glinted, even in the muted darkness.

“Have you tricked me?” Hypnos asked.

Hades picked up the bloom by the stem. The center glowed with warm light, like the rays of dawn spilling over a dark horizon.

“Look into its light,” he said, holding it up between them.

Hypnos glanced at him, wary, but did as he said and soon grasped his hand, tightening his fingers around the brittle stem.

“Pasithea,” he whispered fervently. His mouth quivered, and his eyes glistened.

“You may look through that flower at any point to see her,” Hades said, pulling his hands from beneath Hypnos’s so the god could hold the flower himself. He averted his eyes, feeling as though he were intruding on a too-private moment.

After a moment, Hypnos took a breath that drew Hades’s attention, and when he met the god’s gaze, he had managed to compose himself.

“I will see your Persephone,” Hypnos said.

---

Hades took Hypnos to his castle, to the bedroom he shared with Persephone. He had no idea if that was necessary, but it seemed right that he visited the space where she dreamed.

Within the dark space, Hypnos looked like a bright light, glowing in white robes and gold. He took a few steps forward from where they had manifested, his eyes roving.

“How is it for you,” said Hypnos, “when she dreams?”

“She struggles beside me. It’s how I know she’s facing her attacker again, and when I touch her…” Hades paused a moment, a sour taste entering his mouth as he recalled how her fear had made thorns split her skin. “She doesn’t know it’s me.”

“Do you know the difference between my touch and his?” he had asked.

“When I am awake,” she had said.

He swallowed hard. He did not think he would ever forget that night or her words.

“Hmm,” Hypnos said, scanning the room. “Is it always this dark in here?”

“You live in a cave,” Hades countered. “Who are you to call this dark?”

The door opened, and Hades turned to see Persephone enter the room. She startled, her eyes widening as she paused in the entryway, eyes sliding from him to Hypnos, who had twisted to look at her from where he observed the room.

“Hello,” she said, though it sounded more like a question. She closed the door. “Am I…interrupting something?”

Hypnos snorted.

“Persephone, this is Hypnos, God of Sleep,” Hades said. “He is Thanatos’s brother. They are nothing alike.”

Hypnos’s mouth tightened, and he narrowed his eyes. “She would have figured that out on her own. You didn’t have to tell her.”

“I didn’t want her to have the false impression that you would be as kind.”

“I am not unkind,” Hypnos said. “But I do not do well in the presence of idiots. You are not an idiot, are you, Lady Persephone?”

Hades stiffened at the question.

“N-no,” she said hesitantly, obviously caught off guard by Hypnos’s blunt questioning.

Hades sighed, explaining, “I have asked Hypnos here so that he may help you sleep.”

“I am sure she’s gathered that,” Hypnos said.

“And you?” she asked him. “Did you tell him that you do not sleep?”

Hypnos laughed again. “The God of the Dead admitting that he needs help? That is a pipe dream.”

Hades glared at Hypnos but worked to bury his frustration as he turned his attention to Persephone.

“This is about you,” he said, then turned back to Hypnos. “She hasn’t been sleeping, and when she does, she wakes from nightmares. Sometimes covered in sweat, sometimes screaming.”

“It’s…nothing. They’re just nightmares.”

“And you’re just a glorified gardener,” Hypnos replied.

“Hypnos,” Hades warned.

“No wonder you live outside the Gates of the Underworld,” Persephone muttered.

The god’s brows rose and his lips quirked. “For your information, I live outside the gates because I am still a deity of the Upperworld, despite my sentence here.”

“Your sentence?”

“It is my punishment to live beneath the world for putting Zeus to sleep,” he said.

“Twice,” Hades said. He could feel Hypnos’s glare.

“Twice? You didn’t learn the first time?” Persephone asked.

“I learned, but it’s hard to ignore a request from the Queen of the Gods. Rejecting Hera means living a hellish life, and nobody wants that, right, Hades?”

Hades glared. It seemed the God of Sleep had heard about the labors Hera had assigned him. He had still never shared the details with Persephone, and he wasn’t sure he would. It did not seem necessary now, given that he had secured Hera’s support.

“Tell me of these nightmares,” said Hypnos. “I need details.”

“Why must you hear about them? I told you she was having trouble sleeping. Is that not enough to create a draught?”

“Enough, perhaps, but a draught will not solve the issue. I am older than you, my lord—a primordial deity, remember? Let me do my job.” They glared at one another before Hypnos returned his attention to Persephone. “Well? How often do you have them?”

“Not every night,” she said.

“Is there a pattern? Do they come after a particularly stressful day?”

“I don’t think so. That is part of the reason I do not want to go to sleep. I’m not sure what I’ll find on the other side.”

“These dreams…did they proceed something traumatic?”

Persephone nodded.

“What?”

“I was kidnapped,” she said. “By a demigod. He was obsessed with me and…he wanted to rape me.”

“Was he successful?”

Persephone flinched, and Hades wanted to come undone. Black spires shot from the tips of his fingers.

“Hypnos.”

“Lord Hades,” Hypnos snapped. “One more interruption and I will leave your company.”

“It’s all right, Hades. I know he is trying to help.”

Hypnos smiled pleasantly. “Listen to the woman. She appreciates the art of dream interpretation.”

“No, he was not successful, but when I dream, he seems to get closer and closer to…being successful.”

Hades felt his chest tighten as she spoke.

“Dreams—nightmares—prepare us to survive,” Hypnos said. “They bring our anxieties to life so we may fight them. You are no different, Goddess.”

“But I survived,” Persephone said.

“Do you believe that you would survive if it happened again? Not in the same situation—a different one. One where perhaps a more powerful god abducted you.”

Persephone did not answer.

“You do not need a draught,” Hypnos said. “You need to consider how you will fight in your next dream. Change the ending, and the nightmares will cease.”

The god stood then.

“And for the love of all gods and goddesses, go to fucking sleep.”

Hypnos vanished.

Persephone looked at him. “Well, he was pleasant.”

Hades held her gaze for a moment, then his eyes dropped to a red stain.

“Why is there blood on your shirt?”

Her eyes widened and she looked down at it. “Oh…I was practicing with Hecate,” she said.

“Practicing what?”

“Healing.”

He frowned. “That is a lot of blood.”

“Well…I couldn’t exactly heal if I wasn’t injured,” she said.

Hades narrowed his eyes. “She is having you practice on yourself first?”

“Yes…why is that wrong?”

“You should be practicing on fucking…flowers. Not yourself. What did she have you do?”

“Does it matter? I healed myself. I did it. Besides, I don’t have a lot of time. You know what happened to Adonis and saw what happened to Harmonia.”

“You think I would let what happened to them happen to you?”

“That is not what I’m saying. I want to be able to protect myself.”

He could not help staring at the blood. She crossed her arms over her chest.

“I swear I’m fine,” she said. “Kiss me if you think I’m lying.”

“I believe you, but I will kiss you anyway,” he said and pressed his lips to hers softly, too anxious to kiss her the way he wished, especially after what she’d told Hypnos about her dreams.

When he pulled away, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me I had the ability to heal myself?”

“I figured at some point Hecate would teach you,” he said. “Until then, it was my pleasure to heal you.”

Her eyes fell to his lips, and warmth curled in the bottom of his stomach.

“What shall we do this evening, darling?” he asked.

She smiled. “I am eager for a game of cards.”