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“Well, I’m welcoming a lot of living company these days,” Charon groused with sarcasm. “What do you guys want?”
“We need to get to the Underworld,” I demanded, stepping forward.
“Sorry, that’s not going to happen,” the ferryman snorted, glancing at me. Then he frowned when he recognized me, and he straightened his posture as if he’d been caught misbehaving. “On the other hand,” he cleared his throat—“I’m pretty sure Hades’s brother is welcome. I guess, get in.”
He pointed to his ferry, and I nodded, unsure Hades would be okay with me being in the Underworld—I wasn’t exactly on his guest list. But anything to get past the river.
The five of us climbed onto the ferry and took a seat, facing the front. Charon followed and sat in the back. He started the engine.
“I thought you used an oar,” Elyse said.
Charon chuckled. “Do you think we don’t keep up with the times? Ferrying the souls across the river all the time is much easier when you have a motor.”
Ares had mentioned the ferryman was arrogant, and I saw what he was talking about. But Ares had a way of bringing out the worst out in people. He wasn’t exactly the most tolerable guy, either. So, knowing him, he’d rubbed Charon the wrong way.
The motor was surprisingly quiet, but we glided across the river at a decent speed. While we moved, I looked at the water around us. It seemed dark and dangerous, and it was unclear what lay underneath. I was pretty sure if anyone who wasn’t already dead fell in, they’d feel the consequences. Elyse was looking too, and she trembled.
“Here we are,” the ferryman announced when we reached the other side of the river that divided the living world from the Underworld. “I brought you this far. Don’t blame me if you don’t get past the dog.”
“Cerberus,” Elyse said.
She knew her Greek mythology—all the Lowes had studied it to understand what they were up against, the monsters they had to defeat, and many of the legends. Heracles had captured the three-headed dog with Hades’s approval, showed the mutt to King Eury as part of the quest, then returned the dog to the Underworld. Cerberus now guarded the gates of this realm so none of the souls escaped.
We climbed out of the boat, me first, guiding Elyse behind me. Ares leaped out next, while Apollo followed last. Charon flopped down in the boat and stared out into the river, waiting for our return.
We strode carefully across the stretch of black rock, our shadows flickering on walls pebbled with fiery torches. A haunting hum of voices sang in the distance, and my skin crawled. The songs of the dead were said to be hypnotize anyone who listened to them too long.
As we neared the gates of the Underworld, the humming faded, replaced with barking.
“Here we go,” Apollo said, shaking himself, almost bouncing on his toes. Elyse pushed ahead, gripping her scythe. She never once wavered, and I couldn’t have been prouder of her.
We closed in on enormous golden gates with an elaborate iron sculpture of Cerberus’s head attached to the front, because of course Hades would decorate the place with images of his most treasured pet.
When we pushed open the gates, Cerberus emerged from a cloud of shadows and charged toward us.
Elyse gasped as the animal easily reached her waist.
The three heads were all looked at us, their lips curled away from sharp teeth. The serpents tail swung back and forth rhythmically, and his body was oily and dark, riddled with muscle.
Elyse jumped back, but the dog didn’t attack. It halted a foot from us, growling, saliva drooling from his mouths.
“He’s only here to stop the dead from leaving,” Apollo informed us. “He should let us pass.”
Elyse eyed the animal and gave him a wide berth. “I’d rather not take that chance. And didn’t you hear Charon’s threat?”
“Hell, man, I’m ready to fight it if we need to,” Ares declared, staring at the snarling dog. The mutt leaped toward Ares, three sets of mouths snapping at the air, inches from his pants, and he flinched. Apollo chuckled.
I tucked Elyse against my side, holding her around the waist. “Ares, you’ll get your chance, but not against Hades’s pet.”
We made our way around the dog. I kept myself between Elyse and Cerberus just in case. He dog growled and barked, snapping at the air between us, but he hadn’t sensed death on any of us, as he didn’t attack. Getting in seemed easy enough, but perhaps getting out wouldn’t be so simple.
We passed Cerberus and reached the neutral ground Heracles had spoken of. Hades had built himself a castle on this rock, a palace of darkness. When I looked up at it, I stiffened, studying a magnificent mansion—even if it was dreary. Everything was black. Part of the rock it had been built with glowed red, as if fashioned from embers. The very embers of hell.
This was where Hades had lived since he’d been banished to the Underworld to rule. It was where Persephone had been forced to live for half the year after Hades tricked her into staying with him.
Since we’d deceived Hades into the Underworld in the first place, I felt terrible about what we’d done. At the time, it seemed like a funny joke—a prank that would trump all other pranks. I hadn’t thought it would mean Hades’s banishment from Mount Olympus for the rest of eternity purely because he didn’t reign there.
As the centuries had continued on, the gravity of my mistake started to weight on my heart and mind. Or at least, so I’d thought.
