Page 65 of Curse the Flame

It has to be true. The shades can’t lie to me… they can’t lie to Hades’s bride… not down here. Sure, they can twist their circumstances to make them sound better than they are, but they can’t lie—and now, unless someone intercedes on his behalf, Theseus will end up in the fiery river, his soul never to reborn again, all because he didn’t finish his story with Aria before he sacrificed himself to try to save her.

My chest aches despite myself.

He had dismissed his wife. I remember the way she stood after he left, wounded and regretful, and how I told her she could do better.

Not one of my most tactful moments.

“I don’t know exactly what you did,” I tell him softly. “Or what was done to you. But if you became an Unmentionable because your story ended before it should have, and all because you tried to save her… that isn’t fair.”

“I would’ve done more if I could,” he says, and I believe him. “Theseus did love Ariadne in his way. But if this is my fate… I accept it.”

You know what? Repentance doesn’t erase harm. I taught enough children over the years to know that being sorry after hurting someone doesn’t magically repair what happened. But the man in front of me doesn’t look angry or frightened of what’s going to happen it him now.

Nope. He looks like he believes he deserves to disappear.

I know someone else who once believed the same thing.

Aiden spent decades convinced he was nothing more than a killer because other men turned him into one. He carried every life he took as though the weight belonged solely to him, never that man who used him, never the government that trained him, never the world that taught him violence was all he was good for.

Maybe Theseus is guilty. Maybe he isn’t.

Either way, I won’t watch him surrender to oblivion without doing what I was born to do: stand up for the dead.

“I’ll speak to Aiden.” Whoops. “I mean Hades. You know. My husband.” Theseus nods, and I’m sure he does know. “I can’t promise anything. Aiden doesn’t interfere with the judges often, and Hades takes the laws of the dead very seriously. But he also understands what it’s like to have someone else use you.”

A flicker passes through those black eyes. Hope. I think that was hope.

“Stay here,” I tell him. “At the gate. Don’t let anyone take you to the judges until I come back.”

That might be the most ridiculous instruction I have ever given a dead man marked for eternal destruction, but he nods. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Seriously. I don’t even know if this is going to work, but I at least have to try. “Sir? Watch him for me, would you?”

Sir sits beside the shade, tail curling around his front paws. He yips, and I know he’ll make sure that Theseus isn’t shipped off to the Phlegethon before I have the chance to talk to Aiden.

I smile. “Good boy.”

CHAPTER 18

THREE TRUTHS

WILLOW

My whole plan was to enter the megaron, wait until my husband wasn’t busy with any of the dead, and ask him about possibly making an exception when it comes to Theseus. He’s a hero, right? He tried to save his wife. It’s not his fault that the magic didn’t check the box on him before he got trampled by the minotaur.

Now, do I know that that’s what happened? Not even a little. I just know that the minotaur is a half-man, half-bull monster from Greek legend, and that he was kept in the middle of the labyrinth. Theseus was supposed to defeat him, and the princess of Crete, Ariadne, helped him by giving him a length of enchanted string that would aid him in finding his way back out again.

Only, once he did, the original Theseus showed that not all heroes can be trusted. He abandoned her instead of marrying her like he promised, then moved on, doing all sorts of hero things.

I remembered all of that after I ran into Theo and Aria the first time. Though I still felt like she was too good for him after that brief meeting, I at least understood why he felt like he had to go. It’s the Other. The magic that entices us to relive our ancient lives and retell the same stories is hard to deny. Just like how I couldn’t refuse the pomegranate in the end, Theseus probably needed to go on adventure more than both Aria and I understood at the time.

But this Theseus—as Theo—chose to marry her. He came back to her, and when the minotaur became a part of their story, he sacrificed himself in an attempt to save her. He must have, too. Unless the cloaked-figure on the boat was Aria as a shade and not a living woman like I thought, she should still be alive.

At least, fingers crossed that she is…

The megaron sits at the end of the narrow corridor exactly where it always has. Hades’s throne room, it’s the place in the entire palace where Aiden’s hold on Hades is tenuous as best. Hades takes control more often than not here, and I’m okay with that. I’d rather Hades use his powerful godly magic in the megaron rather than the bedroom I share with Aiden.

Does that mean I like dealing with the god of the Underworld? Not really. He doesn’t understand why I don’t let Persephone out more, and since my goddess is content to just exist while Willow takes the reins, we’re at odds over that. Of course, that means we put poor Aiden in the middle, which is another reason why I try my best to keep out of his business.