Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 74198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“What is wrong?” I beg of her. “Please see reason.”
“I cannot help what I feel. I love you too deeply. You are a part of my soul and it feels as if it’s perished when you are there, in the land of the dead.” She heaves in a breath. “For every moment that I am without you, there will be death on Earth. The suffering I feel when we are apart will be felt by all.”
I allow her this moment but merely nod in understanding. It is still what must be. Over the whispers of the crowd, I solidify my decision. “Then when I am with you mother, the earth will celebrate and rejoice with life anew. And when I am with Hades, it will wither. That is the cycle of life is it not?” I turn to Hecate who merely watches. “We will bring seasons to the mortal realm, ones they may survive as well as endure.”
I turn toward my father. “Is this just, god of gods?”
The crowd’s attention turns to him, and he only nods in agreement.
With a small cry, my mother leans against Aphrodite, who pats her shoulder and whispers something into her ear.
“There is no need to fight for me,” I continue, as my mother’s grief spreads throughout the room. “No reason to keep the realms in a state of confusion and chaos. No reason for gods and goddess to turn on one another. This is my choice. This is my will. You have all witnessed it here with your own eyes. I have duties and responsibilities to the mortals on Earth, and I will see to them.” I meet Hades’s gaze as I speak that truth. “I also have duties and responsibilities to the souls in the Underworld as their queen. This way, I will meet them all and will abandon no one. I will be with my king half the year. I will be with my mother the other half. The time will be equal, and so will the seasons be on Earth. A season of growth and a season of honoring the dead.”
“I will have access to scry with my love then,” Hades states and yet it is a question directed at my father.
“It will be arranged,” he answers easily. With that Hades relents.
“And so it will be,” I finish, and lower my hand.
All the realms seem to hold their breath.
There is not a sound in the room. I swallow my fear that all that I have said will not be enough. That the gods and goddesses will disagree, dooming the realms to centuries of pain and death.
But then my father lifts his chin. “And so it will be,” he says, sealing this promise. Making it a sealed law.
The rest of the gods and goddesses follow his word.
And so it will be. Although all three of them stare at me with unanswered questions.
“It is done.” My father’s statement ends the courts, but it does not at all feel like an ending.
Persephone
As the adrenaline of what had occurred earlier subsides, I sit with my own decision. Six moon phases will be the longest I’ve ever spent away and I won’t be able to leave. And yet I remind myself, the time will go far too quickly when it is spent as we do.
Beatrice sits with me in my rooms, both of us before my altar. She takes a shaky breath next to me, audible in the quiet, and I reach for her hand.
“I’m not going forever,” I remind her. “Half of the year, and then I will be back.”
“It seems so…final,” she admits, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye then lifting her free hand to wipe her teary eyes. “You, in the Underworld…”
“I have already been there, Beatrice. It was not so different from being here.”
“Yes, it was,” she says, turning her head to look me in the eyes. “You are sure you will not be lonely?”
I have to stifle an internal laugh at that. “No, I won’t be lonely. I won’t be alone for even a moment, if I don’t want to be. I don’t think Hades will want me to be alone, either.” My stomach sinks at the thought of my king. How does he consider my judgment?
With a heavy exhale, Beatrice relents. “All right. If you won’t be lonely.”
“I’ve told you about Silvie. She’ll be there with me as well. And—in case I haven’t said, Beatrice—Silvie reminds me of you.”
“Does she?” Beatrice’s brow raises as does the pitch in her voice. “And that is a comfort to you?”
“Yes. She’s knowledgeable about magic and the powers in the Underworld. She taught me many things about finding my own power. My own strength.” The memories are fond although we didn’t meet in ideal circumstances. “And she is always very patient with me, even when I take a long time to understand what she is advising me about magic.”