Asphodel (The Underworld Trilogy)

I need to sleep. It’s weird, but I feel like sleep with make me feel better. Sleep will clear my head and eliminate the fog that’s been filling up in my brain all day. And just as I push myself away from the door, I hear them. Voices. Two voices. And I know I’ll want to hear what they have to say. Placing my ear against the door, I realize I’m eavesdropping on a conversation between Hades and Charon.

“So you returned her safely?” Hades asks.

“Yes master,” Charon answers.

“Many thanks, Charon. You are a

trusting and loyal servant.”

Footsteps scuffle against the cement walkway and I back away from the door in case Hades or Charon opens it. It’s probably Hades though. Even though I haven’t been here that long, I know that Charon rarely comes into the palace. He spends all of his time on that stupid ferry.

“What did you do to her, master?” Charon blurts out.

The footsteps cut out and I hear a shuffle. “What do you mean what did I do to her?” Charon isn’t challenging Hades authority. He simply wants to know what Hades had done to offend me. “Well, go on,” Hades urges him.

“I didn’t ask her what was wrong but, she mumbled your name a few times on the way back. And she was crying master, heavily crying.”

“I don’t recall doing anything.” That’s because he didn’t do anything. He stood there like a moron and did absolutely nothing.

“She was certainly upset about something.”

“But she’s safe.”

“Yes.”

Well at least he cares about my safety.

The doorknob jiggles and I back away from the door and Hades freezes at the same time touching me with his eyes. I can feel them all over me. I can feel them peeling away the layers of my clothes, the layers of my skin. He can see my muscles. He can see all of me. He closes the door without breaking his gaze. “Were you eavesdropping?”

“No.” Of course I was.

He purses his lips and narrows his eyes. “Tell me the truth.”

“Okay maybe I was.”

“Is what Charon said true then?”

“About?”

“Were you crying?”

“No.” And I will never admit to him that I was. Even though there’s probably evidence on my face; tearstained cheeks. Red, puffy eyes. Still, I keep a hard look on my face. I do not want him to know that I was crying. Much less crying over him. There’s a vacant expression on his face, but his eyebrows are drawn together. A flicker of emotion sparks in his eyes and I can he wants to say something. But he says nothing and once again I feel like I’m being swallowed by a black cloud of nothingness. It’s expanding. The emptiness is spreading. I have to get away from him before emptiness swallows me and rips at me, eating me alive.

I turn, but before I can spin all the way around Hades clutches my arm and whirls me around to face him. He pulls me close and I taste his sweet breath. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted this,” he murmurs.

“What?”

“This.” Suddenly he cups the back of my neck and smothers my mouth with his and for a second I don’t know what to do. The kiss is awkward and I feel like I’m doing everything wrong. Then almost instinctively my lips part and the kissing intensifies and everything becomes a blur. Colors whirl around me and whiz past me. Bright colors. Bold colors. Red’s, Orange’s. Even Hot pink’s. The room is spinning in circles and I think I might be floating. He gently caresses his tongue with mine and I go from floating to soaring. I’m a bird. I’m flying, flapping my wings as I sweep through miles of endless blue. I hope I never come down.

And I feel myself falling, crashing down to reality when he pulls out of the kiss. “Don’t stop,” I whisper. Never stop. Never ever stop. I’m sick. I think I have the flu and his kiss, his touch—he is my antibiotic. He will cure me. He will make me well again.

“Believe me, I didn’t want to.” He places his forehead against mine and sighs, “But there is someone at the door.

It’s still crazy to me how he can sense things. Or the way he knows things. It’s like his mind is a radio, picking up every wave-length on the planet. Less than a second later, Charon peaks his head through the front door with an urgent look in his eye. “Master, I need to speak with you.”

Hades keeps his forehead against mine. “It can wait.”

“No,” Charon insists. “It can’t.”