My realms have already been transformed in another way.
Fear has crept into every corner and crevice. It seeps into the places that ash cannot reach. For the first time, there is no peace. There is no comfort. There are no voices. Silence covers every realm like a thick, invisible layer of ash. The souls who pray to me pray that I will forget them. They do not wish for me to remember they exist. To be left alone in the state of war.
I sneer at that silent plea. Forget them? Forget the souls I have tended to with fairness and compassion all these centuries? Forget the duty I have crushed under my powers? I cannot forget them. I could not forget them any more than I could forget Persephone.
An inkling occurs to me that I may one day become riddled with guilt. If she is returned to me, then I will have to repair the damage I have done to these realms. I will do so if she requires it.
But forget? Impossible.
If these souls truly wanted me to forget, they would stop their prayers. Another plea whispers into my ear with a gentle hiss as I gather more of my power and send another demon, this one gaunt but more ravenous, into the mortal realm. They must assume I cannot hear them if they do not speak out loud.
Absurd. I can always hear them. I will always remember them. I am their god, and they will not forget it.
“Send her back to me,” I snap at the sky, which is shaded in gray with speckles of lit ash, creating a speckling of lit red in the darkness. All this talk of imbalances between the realms, and yet Persephone is not here. That is the first imbalance that must be fixed. With every minute that passes, I become more and more desperate. More and more enraged. Zeus caved to Demeter because of her wrath. Now they will all suffer mine.
With my fists clenched and my blood throbbing through my veins, I summon more magic, waiting with my eyes closed while I draw on the deep pools of power in the Underworld. This will be a demon larger and more powerful than any I have sent before. It will stalk people’s nightmares and send them fleeing to me in their sleep. Praying for death. They will not be safe while they dream, and soon everyone left on the Earth realm will know it.
“I will take everything,” I say to the sky. “I will take your dreams. I will take your souls while they still dwell in the mortal realm. I will take your hopes and your fears. I will take everything, and then I will rip apart your only chance to be mortal again.”
I send another demon.
“You do not hear me, but you will understand,” I say lightly. “I will make you understand. All of you, in every realm. You have spent too long refusing to see. Pretending you did not know. But you will know.”
I send another demon.
“Do you hear your doom approaching? Have you noticed the demon standing above your bed? Did you wake up screaming?”
I send another demon.
Time passes and I refuse to sleep. I refuse to acknowledge Minox hiding in the shadows. I refuse to take leave given I am at war. Ash falls to the Underworld like snow. It forms drifts and piles. It is the residue of all these spells. All my power. I have been so restrained with it, and not a soul has ever known. I’ve held back my rage and my pain and been considerate in my judgments. The Underworld has never seen my powers like this.
I imagine Persephone standing beside me, looking out at what I have done. At what I am still doing. She will not need an explanation of what is happening to the mortal realm. She will know what it means to send demons there to drive people to their deaths.
She will understand that I had to do this.
But…
She will also touch me.
My whole body shivers at the memory of her touch.
Persephone will not play games with me. She will lay her hand on my arm and say my name and ask me to come to bed with her. She will say, you do not have to do this anymore, I have returned to you, and I will not leave again. She will put an end to the choking terror that grows in the back of my mind.
My queen. Not only do I need her, the world needs her to balance me. For they allowed me to love then took her away. Now they will receive my hatred.
I push that promise into the next demon, giving it the features of the fear in my mind. Horns rise from its skull and a tail whips behind it. Grant it the color of passion: a deep red. Give it the name: the devil. It will send mortals fleeing from their houses and into dark waters. It will send them tumbling off cliffs. They will run for their very lives, and they will be right to do it, because they will see all their worst fears in this demon’s face.
More demons shudder out of the palms of my hands, faster than the last. I will send them until she returns. I will not sleep. I will not eat. I will do nothing but pull my power together and send it screaming into the mortal realm.
“I’m living in a nightmare.” I send that thought with the next demon. “You will live in a nightmare, too. Zeus would do well to pay attention.” They will blame him, eventually. It will all come back to him, and he will have to pay the penance for it. When they have had their fill in the mortal realm, these demons will be starved for Olympus.
Demeter floods the Underworld with souls, I return them as demons. This is justice. This is righteous. It is earned. And Zeus allowed it!
Thump, thump, thump. The steady but slow pacing is easily heard between the thunderous births of my undead army.
Footsteps approach from somewhere in my home.
The door to my chambers opens with an eerie creak. It’s gentle yet firm.
