the three judges were now there, eyes intent on Minthe and I. 'Please welcome your host for these incredible Trials one last time!'
Black smoke suddenly billowed through the area, and the crowd gasped as it began to gather in front of the dais, a small tornado forming. It began to solidify as blue light flickered through the air, lighting up the smoke like a strobe light. An enormous two-pronged trident made of gleaming onyx emerged from the swirling smoke, then the smoky form of a man followed it, at least ten feet tall.
'This is the grand entrance you were talking about?' I said mentally to Hades as the crowd erupted into cheers.
'It was not my fucking idea,' he ground out.
'You look impressive,' I told him. The smoke figure raised the trident and blue light shot from the end like fireworks. The cheers got louder.
'Impressive? I'm supposed to be terrifying, not impressive. I could make every unwelcome person in this hall feel their worst fears right now,' he hissed. 'Instead, Zeus turns me into a jester with tricks and lights.' His words were laced with bitterness, and I understood his anger. Zeus was turning the King of the Dead, Lord of the Underworld, into a spectacle, whilst showing the world the realm he had always striven to keep private.
'Maybe give them a little taste of what you can do,' I said, and saw his smoke form pause.
'Really?'
'Just a little. Don't make anyone actually mess themselves.' I heard a tiny chuckle, then cold rippled over me and the cheers died out abruptly. Tendrils of something pricked at my skin, and discomfort and fear started to seep into my mind, but my healing magic leaped up around me. Within a second, the fear had been forced out, barred from me completely.
When the room was silent, Zeus stood. His expression was tight.
'Thank you, brother, for that welcome,' he said tersely. Hades flickered, and reappeared on his throne. His smoke form looked languid and relaxed. I didn't know if he got pleasure from frightening people or what that said about him, but I did know he got pleasure from defying Zeus. And that was worth freaking out a few morbid spectators.
'Thank you, Zeus,' Hades said, his voice slithery and creepy. It was so weird now to hear him speak like that, his rich, warm tones nowhere to be heard. 'The race is along the Styx, to the gates of Virgo. You will encounter all three hell-hounds on the way, ending with Cerberus. Each dog is guarding a gem. Green for Persephone, red for Minthe. Collect all the gems first and you will win.'
A massive swell of nerves rolled through me. His cold, impassive voice was so completely at odds with how I knew he felt, but he sounded for all the world like he didn’t give a shit which of us won. Doubt stabbed at my mind, until I heard his voice, his real voice, in my mind.
'Win for me, my Queen.'
'I will.'
'I have to leave now. A smoke dummy will be in my place so that the crowd don't know.'
Hecate and Morpheus were climbing onto the chariot and two people had joined Minthe. I couldn't look anywhere other than him though. I didn't want him to leave.
'OK,' I said, stumbling as I stepped onto my chariot. My eyes were locked on his smoke form, adrenaline now rushing through my body. 'I love you.'
'I love you,' he replied. I felt him leave, the bond pulsing with a faint sense of loss inside me as he moved further from me.
'Shit,' muttered Hecate beside me, and I dragged my eyes from the fake smoke figure now on Hades’ throne.
'What's wrong?' I asked her.
'That,' she said, pointing to Minthe's chariot. 'That's what's wrong. Fucking look at them!'
I took a deep breath, anxiety making me feel sick as I took in Minthe's team mates.
The woman at the front of the chariot was wearing a toga and looked about a hundred years old, but that wasn't what I noticed first. She was see-through. Like actually transparent. And the other woman on the chariot was at least six feet tall, wearing a wonder-woman type outfit made of gleaming armor, and holding a crossbow. Her blonde hair was in a knot on top of her head and the muscles cording her arms and shoulders put my brother's to shame.
'What are they?'
'The woman at the front is an Eidolon. That's a ghost in your world.'
'I thought you controlled ghosts?'
'The ones down here, I