"What's down there?" I pushed myself away from the hole slowly, not wanting to draw the attention of whatever was trapped inside. Now that I knew where to look, the cells appeared every few feet along the floor.
"Why don't you ask it?"
That's a great idea, let me just stare into the literal depths of hell and shout, "Pardon me, might I inquire as to what, or who, resides in this wretched hole?"
Oh yeah, I'm sure that would get some answers.
"Why do you hate answering my questions so much? Quit being you for a hot second and just tell me. I thought we made a deal, Hector; the least you can do is give me all of the information I need to live up to my end of the bargain."
His expression darkened ever so slightly.
Hector strolled along down the lines of caged cells with slow, measured steps. Virtually empty, dark, and devoid of sound, this place felt right at home in the Underworld. Hector however seemed out of place down there among the monsters.
The room itself seemed to go on forever as Hector continued into the depths of the cavern. He avoided stepping on any bars but was not bothered by getting too close and even though the manholes in the floor all looked identical to me, he seemed to know exactly where he was going.
"This one," he pointed lazily to the bars on his left, just next to his shoe, "Is where I keep a chimera. Opposite of her, I have a Harpy who caught my predecessor on a bad day and has been here for more years than she had lived free. Hades is never one to trifle with. Persephone once spent a night in a hole at the furthest end of the cavern after trying to escape her new husband. Two cells down from these, you'd find a centaur imprisoned for so long that even he has forgotten his name. Further into the cavern, in the deepest pits, is where I keep the Titansâmost of them, anyway. With them, Cyclopes, the Sphinx, and their parents. These are the most dangerous monsters in all of history.
"Where you are, however, you will not find any monsters; trapped just in front of your delicate little fingers is a very important creature. In the hundreds of cells in my dungeon, you'll find that one to be most helpful to you." Hector turned a circle around the closest pits as he spoke. He was in no hurry to announce his favorite beastie, but the pride was evident in his tone. Whoeverâwhateverâwas down there had made an impression on him.
So much of an impression that it cheered him out of his daze and the Hector I knew and loathed began to make an appearance.
And he was planning on letting it out of its cage.
I might not have known much about his mythology, but I knew the Titans were chaos embodied in gargantuan forms, the kind of creatures you don't want to meet in a dark alleyâor anywhere, for that matter. They must have been blue-ribbon prisoners worthy of bragging rights, the kind you bring out to show off at dinner parties. Yet whatever was in the hole by my knees was worse. The Titans, the chimera, the harpy all sounded horrendous but none excited him like this one did.
He was not hurried in coming back to me, to his secret weapon in the hole. The pads of his footfalls kicked up small dust clouds, the soft sound echoing in the cavern. When he finally stopped across the grate from me I could see that man from the street again, the one who said I belonged with him, the man I knew Hector to be. My body leaned forward over sturdy bars as thick as my arm and anchored at the top of the cell's opening.
The second the bars retracted horizontally into the cell wall I shuffled frantically away from the hole in the floor. The screeching from their mechanical removal fell dully in my ears as the void, greedy for noise, tried to swallow the sound.
I could almost hear Hector grinning above me but I refused to look; I couldn't tear my face away from whatever horror was going to emerge from the hole. My gut clenched in anticipationâor fear.
He was letting something terrifying out of its cell; he was allowing it to escape into the world to perform endless horrible acts. And there I was, just kneeling over the top of the open, human-sized hole. No big deal.
Nothing happened for a long minute. So long that I wondered if the creature had died. And then a thought crept into my betrayer's mind: Hector was going to push me into the hole, secure the bars, and leave me to rot. That's what he was waiting for.
Please don't push me in, please don't push me in.
A rustle, soft, almost inaudible, caught my attention. I had just enough time to inch back to the opening in the floor before I was almost pummeled by an explosion of wings and flesh and hair.
What came rushing out of the pit was something of a cliché. It waited so long that I was just about to give into the boredom and give up on it ever coming out of the hole. But just as I was getting to my feet the creature burst out of its prison cell and into freedom. Not for the first time, or the last, I fell backwards against the hard floor.
It burst from the opening, rocketing into the cavern air like it had been drowning in the hole and with one final burst of speed it breached the surface, desperate for air. Like diving too far into the pool and thinking the entire desperate trek back to the surface that you'll never make it.
When it flew out of its prison, one of the thin, filmy wings knocked me back. I landed on my ass with an abrupt grunt as I made contact with the hard stone floor. Little tendrils of ache made their way up my back and down my legs from the impact, but I was too stubborn to nurse my wounds. Whatever Hector wanted to show me must have been important for all of the theatrics. And part of me wanted, needed to know what was zooming around above our heads.
A screech echoed around the cavern, louder than the silence. Whatever Hector had let out to play was definitely powerful, probably old. My ears picked up on feminine laughter, jubilation, the feel of pure freedom rushed through me in that sound. It made my hair stand on end. Laughter should never sound so unnatural.
Finally, it landed. The freed convict had taken its time just enjoying the airspace to fly, the freedom in its wings. There probably wasn't room in the pit to stretch them out; there probably wasn't room in the pit to do much of anything.
When the creature's feet hit the floor, I could tell that this monster was like no other monster I had seen yet. It had descended with a heavy thud that vibrated through the ground and sauntered her way over to Hector.
She looked a lot like Alex, actually. A little paler, a little taller, a little scarier. The biggest difference was the giant tattoo of a snake coiled around her tanned torso, starting at her naval. Though since I'd never seen Alex naked, maybe she had one too. This woman was all but naked: what looked like leather covered her good bits in the fashion of a strappy bikini and left nothing to the imagination.
"Well, isn't this an unexpected surprise. Hades," she bowed to him, slowly and deeply. I tried to look away, but seeing Hector's face was almost worse than seeing her. He was in awe, completely enthralled with her every move. "Long time no see, love."
She didn't take her gaze from him, not even when she bowed. They say certain atrocities are like watching a car wreckâyou can't look away. At first, I thought maybe she was just grateful. What I didn't expect was for her to sidle up to him and try to suck his face off.
Naiveté is not a good look for me.
If that wasn't bad enough, she wrapped one of her legs around his waist. One of his hands grabbed her just above the knee, the other buried in her black hair, and he kissed her back, drinking her in.
Quite the predicament I found myself in. Do I cough, remind them that I was only three feet from their disgusting display? Should I turn my back? What I really wanted to do was rip them apart and toss her back into her pitâ
Which was ridiculous. Why should it bother me that he kissed her? It shouldn't. It didn't.
If this was a standard Underworld greeting, I sincerely hoped Hector wasn't planning on letting any other beasties out to play.
Thankfully Hector pulled away after only a few agonizing seconds. In those few seconds Hector seemed to regain some of his vitality. They were the longest seconds of my life, but who's counting? I gaped at him, incredulous.
The naked lady gave Hector a look of confusion. She pulled back far enough to get a look at him. His eyes were on me. Eyes that smiled again, no longer tired. I think that was the first time she bothered to acknowledge that there was anyone in the room other than her and Hector.
"So you found another one. Hades brings another new Fury plaything on a field trip to see the criminals in all their glory, parading me around for her benefit. Why do you continually bring them here, are you showing me off or them?" Her voice, high and lilting, whined in a play for attention. It was obviously an act, pretending to be hurt. Apparently I was the only one to notice.
"That's an excellent question, Hector. What are we doing here?" I crossed my arms. It wasn't cold, but I could feel a draft bubbling up from the now-empty hole in front of me.
The booming answer to my question ricocheted off of the walls of the cavern. "First, you address him by his title. He is a god and you are a little girl," the convict snarled at me, "unworthy and pathetic. Second, I'm a Fury and I could tear you apart in seconds, so don't piss me off. Thirdâ"
Hector cut her off mid-rant. "Lastly, she is going to mold you into the weapon I need you to be." He turned from me to her, once again in charge, vibrant, eyes catching fire as he spoke down to the Fury, putting her in her place with his cool, even tone. "Lindsay, this is Autumn. She has taken your place in my army as my right hand, little, unworthy, and pathetic as she is. I am running out of time and you are my very last resort."
Her mouth didn't drop open as mine did, though the grind of her teeth was audible in the giant chamber. I could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears. Her fists clenched. But as quickly as she had shown signs of anger, she calmed herself. The awkward tension just dissipated into the air.
I, on the other hand, wanted to scream. Pathetic? Really? I'll show you pathetic...
Before I could open my mouth to give Hector a piece of my mind, Lindsay, self-proclaimed Fury extraordinaire, pushed off of the ground, her wings catching her as her feet left the surface. She flew to the mirror, stopping only to touch the surface, and exited the dungeon without looking back.
"Well, she's just delightful." I finally found my tongue. Snark to show my displeasure, arms crossed over my chest to pronounce my disapproval.
"Desperate times, Autumn. She's the best I have. You could learn a lot from her."
Unlikely; I ignored his last comment. "Then why isn't she leading your stupid army? Why would you let someone weak and pathetic on your front lines? That's a guaranteed loss right there, buddy." Strategist I am not but that just seemed like common sense. If I was trying to sound like a rational adult, I failed. Every word out of my mouth sounded more childish than the last.
"You are more powerful than you think you are, Autumn, the Fury inside you, the one I hope will show herself very soon, is far superior to the Fury who dares to insult the Lord of the Underworld. Do not think so little of yourself that you cannot see when an insult has been returned; do you not understand the confidence I have in your power to come so close to Zeus' deadline? The Olympians have given me one final week to return the Nectar or face their combined wrath. Do you not understand that I have put all of my faith into you? Regardless of Fate, regardless of prophecy, I know that it is your fury I need."
No, I didn't understand. Every time he spoke he gave me more questions than answers. If Fate said I was the one, why did there have to be other Furiesâwhy Lindsay? If he had so much faith in me, where was all of the power going to come from?
What if Fate was wrong?
Hector held out an arm to me again. I didn't take it but when I spun and ventured towards the portal, he followed until we walked side by side in thoughtful silence. With each step I debated taking his hand for the singular purpose of going through the portal unscathed. To save me from having to make the decision, Hector took hold of my wrist as we stepped through the mirror.
I told myself that I hadn't rejected his initial gesture because of the way he had greeted Lindsay or the way he insulted and complimented me in the same breath. No, I'd rejected him for kidnapping me, for playing games with me.
Somehow, I forgot that fact. It wasn't likely to happen again.