‘Dear Cyane, come to Thesmophoria on your twenty-fourth year. We await you in Syracuse, Sicily. Your father.’
He recognized the handwriting.
The Question Best Left Unanswered
Gazing out from the dais,Cyane thought she’d found Cerberus, but then the shadows shifted once again to shady foliage. The potent reek of Dionysus’s wine and the pounding tribalized music put her on edge.
She couldn’t look at the bodies around her for long without her stomach feeling the urge to succumb to its own violence. Cyane tangled her fingers in her lap and pressed her thighs together tightly.
Before her was a glittery pond where a single female bathed. A naked male watched from the shore. They played a game, chase and retreat, a form of foreplay.
Guilt filled her for watching such a sight, but it was far easier to focus on them than the sounds in her ears, the brutal orgy, or Hades, who sat barely a foot away, acting as though he’d forgotten she was there.
And now I’m wetting the seat.Unwanted desire still beat in her. Cyane wrenched her eyes closed with embarrassment.
“How are you enjoying the entertainment?” Hades asked.
Her eyes snapped open.
“It’s...interesting…my lord.”It makes me feel sick and terrible. It makes me want to run. It makes me want to hate everything about this place.
It makes me want to join in.
“Yes,” Hades mused with a little more mirth then she cared to hear in his voice. “Every year I’m awed. You would think if you’d lived as long as I have, and have seen what I’ve seen, not much would phase you anymore. Yet today always brings a surprise.”
“Some of your subjects are being hurt.”
Hades turned towards her. “Do you feel for them? Would you stop their hurts if you could?”
Even from the corner of her eye, his presence was all consuming when his attention was on her. “Yes.”
“Even though this day has happened each year for countless years?” Hades raised one ebony brow. “Everyone came here knowing exactly what would happen, the dangers they were putting themselves in, as well as the vast pleasure, and they still choose to come. Some choose to be hurt. They seek it. They need it. Some come to hurt others or for revenge from past years.”
Cyane licked her lips. “Why are you telling me this?”
“To tell you not to care so much.” Hades laughed. “They didn’t have to come. No one is here against their will.”
She tangled her fingers even tighter in her lap. “Except me…”
Don’t look at him. Don’t look at him!She didn’t want to see Cerberus in him.I want Cerberus, not him.
The woman in the pond splashed at the man on the shore, stealing Cyane’s attention. She wondered what it would be like to be them right now. They appeared so carefree and happy, enjoying their voyeurism without shame. It’s not like she was voyeuristic, but she’d switch places with the nymph in a heartbeat to be free of...this.
“Cyane, even you came here with free will,” Hades purred.
Cyane paused. “I followed you for answers.”
“Hah! Yes, yes you did. But I mean here”—he waved his arm out—“to my kingdom. You couldn’t stay away. You were given all the freedom of the world above, yet you still came here willingly.”
She stiffened and turned to him, flinching when she saw Cerberus for a split-second. “What do you mean? My boat capsized. I was on the way to Sicily for—”
“Thesmophoria?”
“How did you know?”
He leaned over the arm of his chair and lowered his voice. “What do you think this festival is? It’s not like the mortal one above, which is all women honoring my shrew of a sister, Demeter, where they beg and pray for good harvests and fertility. That bitch brought you winter and starvation without a care in the world for your meager mortal lives. She’s as selfish as they come.”
“And you kidnapped her daughter without consent and kept her here to be your queen, I’d say you’re selfish, too,” Cyane snapped.
