Whipping around I lunge at him, tackling him and we both hit the hard marble floor—hard. I slide away from him and use the corner of the fireplace to hoist myself up. “You!” I shout as hatred and rage jumble together rippling through me. He’s wearing a stunned look as he picks himself up. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
“Of course I know what I’ve done,” he states. He’s all thrills and chills, not an ounce of warmth to his tone.
“Well, you’d better undo it!” I limp toward him, as pain surges through my ankle, up my shin, and throbs at my knee cap. I wince and look away, swallowing hard. Then I put on a fierce brave face and narrow my eyes. “My mom is probably worried sick!”
Hades tilts his head to the side and centers his gaze on my ankle. “Did you hurt yourself?”
“What business is that of yours?” I harrumph.
He starts for me and I back away. “Stop moving,” he commands. He takes another step forward and I take another step back. Hades exhales, frustrated. “We can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way. Now stay put!”
I won’t listen to him. He just tricked me. He stole me from my home. He’s a thief. And mom always taught me to never trust a thief, so when he moves again so do I. Then I smile triumphantly, but that smile fades when he vanishes from in front of me and appears behind me. I try to step away, but he latches onto my elbow and grips it hard. I swat at him. “Let me go!”
But he doesn’t. He tightens his grip and crouches down wrapping his long slender fingers around my ankle. I struggle then stop as an overwhelming warmth floods through my limbs and makes my skin tingle. “What are you doing?”
Hades straightens up and backs away. “Try walking on it.”
I move away. My limp is gone. The ache in my ribs is gone. I feel rejuvenated. Brand new. Like an unwrapped toy underneath a Christmas tree. Rolling my ankle I stare at the appendage, baffled. “How did you do that?”
“I am the God of the Dead. I have the power to do a lot of things.”
For a second I forget that I’m angry with him. He’s observing me yet at the same time looking at me in an entitled way. Like he owns me. I’m not a pet. I’m a person and I have free will. He does not and never will own me. Circling him, I narrow my eyes. “You might think I don’t know anything, but I know all about you, Hades.”
&nbs
p; An amused expression crosses over his features and he places his forefinger and thumb on his chin. “Is that so? Why don’t you enlighten me then? Tell me what you think you know, Persephone.”
I decide that being vague is my best option. “All I need to know.” I stop walking around him and face him. “Now you take me back to earth, right now.”
“I don’t like that idea,” he replies. “Besides, it’s not that simple.”
“Sure it is. You took me, now take me back. See, it’s simple.”
He glares at me like I’m an escapee from an insane asylum. He lowers his gaze searching the floor for my discarded straight jacket. “You can stand there making demands and protest all you want,” he says, looking at me again. “I’m not taking you back.”
Balling my fists, I slam them at my sides. “Take me back!”
He appears to be thinking it over. Then he shakes his head. “No, I don’t think so.”
“You are taking me back!”
“No. I am not.”
“You can’t just steal me! I’m someone’s child!” I’ve never been away from my mother for more than six hours. She’s probably a mess. I picture her sitting at the kitchen table sobbing. Knowing she’s in pain tears me up inside.
Hades slinks closer to me. “Why not? I take people all the time.”
“After they die! This is different!”
“How, so?”
Frustration bubbles in the pit of my stomach. I’m not in the mood to play his games. “Stop this! You know the answer to that!”
He smirks. “Do I?”
I scream so loud and so boisterous I swear it shakes the entire room. “You know I’m an immortal! You know I will not die!”
The thought of death makes me shudder. I don’t want to think about dead things. Cold corpses. No heartbeat. Dead plants. The underworld will be full of all the things dead. I don’t belong here. I belong on earth with mom, walking amongst plants, animals, and mortals that are alive.