that. I love him. I even love his arrogance. I just…I need to know he’s okay.”
“He is a god. Why wouldn’t he be ‘okay’?” Rhagos gives me an imperious look.
I’m starting to think Arrogance might have won out in Rhagos, too. “Please.”
The god of death studies me for a long moment. Then, with an impatient flick of his hand, he gestures at the web and the shimmering gives a subtle shift. A second later, I see mismatched eyes under dark brows, and scars. I ache at the sight of him, all of my body full of yearning. My Aron. He’s so handsome.
The web “zooms” out and Aron’s moving, fighting as he swings his mighty axe, surrounded by men. It’s an enormous battlefield, full of swarming, fighting people and as I watch, Aron raises his axe and lets out another battle cry.
I press my hands to my mouth, horrified. “We didn’t stop the war?”
“Oh, you stopped the war.” The god’s voice is full of irony. “He started another.”
“What?”
Rhagos gives me another one of those fascinated looks, studying my face. “Aron ascended the moment you died. He was rather furious, because it seems he was unaware you had to die in order for him to return. He is laying siege to the Underworld.”
I clutch my throat, shocked. “Why?”
“You have to ask? It is because you are here and he refuses to let you go.”
Oh. Warmth floods through me. He said he wouldn’t forget me. It’s all I wanted. Now, I have a new want. A new yearning. I want to be with him. I don’t care if I have to spend my afterlife surrounded by a bunch of bloodthirsty warriors. As long as I’m with Aron, it’ll be the happiest forever-until-eternity. I turn to look at Rhagos, pleading in my eyes.
He simply studies me, like I’m something he can’t quite figure out. “I’m told he approached the High Father and demanded your return. That he shouted so angrily that storms flooded the mortal world for a month straight. Magra was quite displeased at his little tantrum.”
Aron’s fighting to get me back?
He approached the High Father?
I feel so warm and fuzzy. “God, I love that man.”
“Yes, you have said so.”
I send another pleading look to Rhagos. “Will you let me go to him? Please? I can make him stop.”
“Do you think I care? Let him fight. The dead are dead.” Rhagos shrugs. “He knows I will give you back, but only under very specific conditions.” He nods at my direction, and the web goes dark, the picture of Aron fading. “Take her away. There is time yet.”
Take me away? I look around, but suddenly invisible hands are on my arms, tugging me forward, and then I’m dragged out of Rhagos’s throne room and down a hall. I’m led deeper into the palace of the lord of the dead by his unseen servants, and then a door opens. The room I’m led into is opulent and lush—I’m guessing so Aron won’t be pissed that I’m being mistreated—but the doors shut behind me and click, and then I’m locked in.
I look around my new prison, but even this can’t stop the giddy rush in my heart.
Aron’s coming for me.
He’s storming the underworld. For me.
83
So I wait.
Impatiently.
It seems that whatever weird “between” I existed in is no longer the case—my hands are solid, my mind is sharp, and my stomach is hungry. Plates of food are offered up to me, appearing like magic in my room, and for a while I think I shouldn’t eat them. I remember stories of Persephone in the underworld and how she couldn’t leave after she ate one shitty pomegranate. This isn’t pomegranates, either. It’s fresh fruit, sure, but it’s also Yshremi sweetcakes and thick slabs of amazing-looking cheese. It’s roasted meats and breads, bowls of nuts, and it all smells so heavenly—and I’m so hungry—that my hunger strike lasts all of a day.
I mean, I’m already dead. Isn’t “being stuck in the underworld for the rest of my days” kind of a default at this point? So I eat. And I sleep in the big, fluffy bed. I bathe in the tub that shows up full of hot, steaming water, and I try not to think if the invisible servants are watching me scrub my girly parts. I wear fresh clothes, and I wait for Aron.
My Aron.
I’m bursting with love, and I can’t wait to touch him again. To hold him, to hear his sexy voice. I want to hear