Using the time we had as we navigated toward the portal to catch up with my parents, I found I couldn’t stop watching them with wide eyes. It was still difficult to believe this was happening. I had only expected to see them again at the end of a very long life. Even knowing we would journey through Elysium, I was sure the gods would keep any loved ones we wanted to see firmly away.
It was well known that the gods didn’t take well to the living and dead speaking. According to myth, a man once tried to sneak into Elysium and steal his dead lover back to the world of the living. He’d failed, of course, but the gods had been deeply unhappy with him for daring to try to disrupt the peaceful afterlife of a woman he claimed to love.
I could see why they were so firm on that now. I felt a bit of peace fill my own heart at the knowledge that my parents had been reunited in the afterlife and were happy once more. My mother’s death had devastated me, but my father’s death had haunted me.
Knowing how lost he’d been… seeing him found once more lifted a weight on my heart I hadn’t even realized was there.
They both seemed so much more alive in death. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Walking through Elysium, I had no idea what to expect, but we came to a junction where I could see off in several directions. Each way, I spied what looked to be numerous cities and villages, each one different from the last.
“They let us stay wherever we please, here!” My mother gushed. “We, of course, stay in the best section. I think you’ll appreciate it especially, my dear,” she told Asteria as she led us in.
Tall nymph trees lined the path, higher and wider than any I’d ever seen. Starflies and fireflies flickered in different twinkling colors through their leaves. Their branches didn’t droop to the ground here due to their height, but instead created a vast canopy above us. Except for the middle of the lane, where the canopy stopped and let the stars shine down on the path. Which was strange, as it wasn’t night before we’d walked in here…
Asteria’s gasp of delight had me shifting focus to take in the rest, and I could see exactly why Mother thought Asteria would love this. Though how she knew her taste… I wasn’t going to give myself a headache trying to make sense of it.
Large houses lined each side of the street, with warm, glowing lights illuminating the entire area. And they were hardly the only source of light, with the stars above and the glowingflowers, adding to the bright, colorful, and franklymagical, atmosphere—even though it was the deepest night.
Pink, purple, and blue flowers were scattered everywhere. They draped off houses and were planted along the sides of the path. Vines containing more flowers twined around rooftops, which were more like palace towers than regular homes. A strange mix of royal and ordinary seemed to be incorporated into the design here.
The path itself was twinkling, with little lights twinkling on and off, and Asteria twirled herself down it, arms out at her sides as she laughed.
“Calix, do you see this?” She smiled brightly at me. “I was almost disappointed we weren’t going in the direction of Cloud City back there, but this is better than I could have imagined.”
I nearly laughed. I thought I might have imagined seeing a palace sitting atop a giant cloud before my parents brought us this way.
“I see it.” I stepped forward and grabbed her hand, twirling her myself with an adoring smile. She was too cute like this, and it was too rare she got to embrace this carefree side of herself.
She twirled in and out before stumbling into me. I caught her against my chest, and we smiled at one another. I leaned in for a kiss before the sound of a throat loudly clearing had us jumping apart like children caught doing something naughty. I nearly winced at myself. I was four hundred and twenty-one, for Nox’s sake! I wasn’t a child anymore.
“Oh, Orion!” Mother hit my father’s chest. “Let the children play,” she argued fiercely.
Asteria broke into laughter, her head hanging downward for a moment before she looked up at me brightly. “Yes, Calix, let’s go play!”
She giggled, before running down the path ahead. I sighed, looking to my mother, who just winked at me, and I took off after my wayward mate.
* * *
“Nox,I wish the girls were here to see this,” Asteria said wistfully as she looked around at all Elysium had to offer.
We followed behind my parents, hand in hand, as they led us through the city to where we needed to be.
“They will one day.” I reminded her, and she frowned at me, swatting at my chest. “What? They will!”
“That’s depressing.” She sighed, eyeing the area a bit more mournfully, and I nearly kicked myself.
I squeezed her hand. “Hey, look at me.”
She did, those wide blue eyes meeting mine, and I knew I could get lost there if I let myself.
“It’s agoodthing, my réalta. We live two lives. One on Adamah, one in the Otherworld. It’s inevitable that the first won’t last forever, even for those of us who are immortal. All Fae eventually die, just like every human. But here?” I told her, waving a hand at our surroundings.
“Here, we all live again. A true immortality, but one shared by Fae and human alike. Where the concerns of class and race no longer matter. Death is the great equalizer. We all face it with the same thing: the truth of our souls laid bare. And we all receive the same fate: whatever we deserve. Be that an afterlife full of love and joy, or one of pain and despair—” I smirked. “If you’re like Cyrus anyway.”
Asteria couldn’t help but smile at my teasing, but she looked thoughtful, nonetheless, at my words.
“He’s right, you know.” My mother piped up. “And I don’t say that just because he’s my precious little boy.”
