Page 140 of This Divine Revelry

Hades looks between us both, and finally his gaze softens.

‘If I make allowances like this, everyone will look for them. You aren’t the first god to love a mortal.’

‘Love as powerful as this? To compel such dangers? Please, Hades. Whatever you want. I’ll join your court instead. I’ll give you a century of servitude. I’ll –’

‘Enough,’ Hades says, the slightest of winces crossing his brow. ‘I don’t do this out of malice. And frankly the last thing I want is you here for even longer. But souls must stay in the Underworld. It’s a law of the realm – unravel one thread and you could fray every mote of power. It’s too volatile to risk.’

‘Souls are reincarnated sometimes, aren’t they?’ I ask. Hades turns to me once more, without the rage this time, though it’s no less terrifying for it. ‘Heroes can choose to leave Elysium to be reincarnated and perhaps make it to paradise again until they finally reach the isles of the blessed.’

‘Yes, but that’s a new cycle. You couldn’t return to your old body – you’d be born anew.’

That tickles something in my mind – though it takes me a moment. And then it is Medea’s echoing words: Death and rebirth was a continuous refrain.

What if Hecate was telling us the way?

‘That’s already the plan,’ Dionysus says quickly. ‘Her old body isn’t really an option. Bit cold. Awfully hard-headed. Hephaestus is crafting a new one as we speak – moulding it from the same clay they supposedly made the first ever woman out of.’

For a moment, they blink – Dionysus and Hades alike, as though a memory they can’t quite grasp flits along the edges of their minds.

It is gone in an instant and Hades presses his lips close. ‘It could work. Half escape, half reincarnation – enough to skirt past the restrictions that would tie you here.’ He seems almost swayed – if nothing else, curious to see if it truly might work. But then he remembers himself. ‘But you are still asking me to release a soul so she might join the Olympian court.’

‘This isn’t a passing whim for a mortal I’m partial to, Hades. This is everything to me.’ Dionysus takes my hand and together we face the King of the Underworld. ‘Name your price.’

There is a beat, a moment of tension strung so tight I’m certain he’s about to raise his sceptre and cast me into the pit of Tartarus.

Then he sighs. ‘If you make it, you’ll need to get her to a body quickly. There is a reason Hermes leads the souls to the Underworld – untethered souls are at risk. Too long unbound and anima can shift – become a volatile spirit or a haunting screech or scatter altogether. So if you’d rather not take that risk, say now and we can surely come to a more suitable arrangement down here.’

We say nothing to his offer, and finally Hades gives a curt nod. ‘Very well, then.’ He goes to walk away but hesitates before his first step, turning one last time to Dionysus. ‘And while we’re on the topic of wives we’d break sacred laws for: don’t tell Persephone I allowed this. She’ll never let me live it down.’

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

HADES SNAPS HIS FINGERS AND the shadows at our own feet pull us suddenly down. We are spat into a new, distant patch of asphodel.

‘This is as far as I can take you,’ Hades grumbles. ‘Don’t let any other gods see you or there will be questions about my soft heart that I don’t care to answer. But you should know that leaving is not easy. The gates themselves will force some sort of test and if you fail to pass it please don’t expect me to send you on to paradise. You will face judgement just like everyone else.’

Then he sinks back into the flowers, as though it is them he travels through rather than the shadows.

In the distance, I see the waiting souls at the banks of the river.

But Dionysus’s gaze doesn’t leave his own feet and all those secrets – the bargains and deals he’d failed to mention – spill out between us.

‘I can’t lose you again,’ he says, like it’s the only thing he can admit right now.

‘Why didn’t you tell me you’d joined the council? That you’d made an agreement with them?’

His breath shudders. ‘Because the Olympians weren’t the only ones who doubted I’d get this far. I didn’t want to get your hopes up, didn’t want to get my own hopes up. I didn’t think I’d even make it to the Underworld, let alone find you within it, escape without notice – certainly not get Hades to allow us to go.’

‘Who told you the way?’ I ask – because it’s the only tangible question I have.

Dionysus glances around and then, lowering his voice, he says: ‘Hera.’

‘He–’ I exclaim before he claps his hand over my mouth and, irked, I push him away. Though his point was made so, lower, I hiss: ‘Why would she help? This is clearly a trap.’

‘No, it’s not,’ he says firmly. ‘I told you – I understand why she goes after the women and the bastards. She’s the goddess of marriage and her husband weakens her hold on her godhood with every affair. But this? A god going to the Underworld to rescue his mortal wife? To make her immortal too? That’s the sort of thing that could solidify her divinity for as long as they tell the tale. So it appears, Ariadne, that you’ve achieved the impossible. You’ve brought Hera to my side.’

I stare because … because that’s his greatest fear simply erased. Hera will no longer come for him … because of us.

‘I’ve planned this, Ariadne. Thought each step of it out. And somehow, impossibly, it’s worked. The gate is troubling but from every rumour I’ve heard, its intention is to confuse you and sow seeds of doubt – and here you are with powers of clarity, to pinpoint the right path and work to the centre. We should be past the worst of it now but …’