Susan looked up at her older brother, trying very much to keep from speaking up.

The two jackal gods who had invited them to their abode had just told them a crazy fairytale. They were children, how where they supposed to fight a war against an evil goddess of the underworld who could summon zombies? And what was this about them leading an army prepared for them by some lion goddess of life and rebirth? All of this was most definitely someone's big joke. Maybe Professor Kirke was in on it too. After all, his wardrobe had led them to this somewhat land of the dead.

"Mom sent us here to get away from the war." She reminded Peter. 

She knew her brother was slightly tempted. He would probably feel the need to because he felt bad for not believing Lucy. Heck, even Edmund might decide to stay here and help fight this war. Who knows what logic that boy used. It was up to her to knock a bit of sense into them if needed. She was usually the siblings' voice of reason.

After a conflicting moment, Peter turned to their two canine hosts to tell them that they had made a mistake. Although the gods Anubis and Anput tried to somewhat reason with them, their dearest Lucy pleading for them to save her dear friend, the ghost, Albas, Peter was unmoving about their decision to turn back.

Besides, Susan wasn't going to let him change his mind anytime soon. They were going straight home, not sticking around in this god forsaken wasteland.

However, as the siblings turned to leave, they noticed one thing. Edmund was gone.

"Edmund?" They called out, hoping the other boy was somewhere close by goofing off.

When he didn't reply, Peter got pissed off.

"That little shit, I'll kill him." He said through his teeth.

Anubis looked at them with a grim expression before he spoke. "Your brother, has he ever been here before?"

The three siblings looked amongst themselves, confirming the death god's worst nightmare.

"It seems Hela has gotten to him." He told them sadly.

"We have to save him!" Lucy pleaded with her older siblings.

"No! You have to save yourselves!  Hela wants all four of you! She knows that your appearance in the land of the dead brings about the promise of life and rebirth and she would squash any hope that the souls trapped here have." Anubis cautioned.

"Edmund is our brother! There's no way we are leaving him in the hands of this evil witch goddess. If we're going back home then we're all going back together!"

Before anyone could talk him out of it, Peter took Lucy's hand in his and led his sister's out into the cold, dark and barren wasteland that was the Underworld in search of their wayward brother. Eventually, Anubis and his wife Anput decided to follow the three teenagers to at least provide some sort of guidance and protection.

Edmund, on the other hand was aware they were following him. In fact, he was counting on it. He had been a loner in high school for most of his life. No body wanted to date a loser like him. Yet this beautiful girl wanted him. He could still feel his lips tingling at the memory of the kiss she had given him. She would make him her king and he would be able to show her off to all his friends. So what if she wanted to meet her family? That didn't sound as bad as those two jackal gods had said.

In fact, now that he was thinking about it, everything they had said about Hela was the complete opposite of what he had seen himself. When they had met in the forest of death after Edmund had followed Lucy through the magic wardrobe, Hela would have killed him on the spot if she was some evil heartless tyrant. Yet she had seen he was lost, given him a ride and even saved him from a horde of zombies that had found him and chased him into the forest. 

Her personality had been warm and radiant. Surely if she was an evil witch she wouldn't have done any of that, right? 

As he looked upon the majestic castle made of shiny black marble rock, his resolution was solidified. His dreams were within reach and he wasn't about to let them be taken from him. Especially not by his bossy older brother. Peter was always acting like he was all grown up. Sure he was the oldest but that didn't mean he had the right to fill in their father's shoes.

Shaking these thoughts from his head, he approached the front of the castle. This part wasn't decorated with the usual lawn ornaments that you would expect. Rather, the front was littered by what appeared to be life sized skeleton statues locked in

He gazed at one, the tip of his fingers grazing the smooth bony shoulder of one of them.

"Why, that's some attention to detail." He muttered.

He jumped over what appeared to be the rotting corpse of a military man as he continued his observation.

Before he could react the corpse he had jumped suddenly moving, pinning him to the ground with it's bony hands.

"Who goes there? How dare you trespass upon Queen Hela's territory!"

The zombie glared down at him with fiery red eyes. Half of its face was gone, exposing  the underlying bone with only a few pieces of skin still attached to the bone.

"Wait! The Queen invited me!" Edmund said out, his brow sweating with the fear that was now coursing through his veins.

The zombie man regarded him with somewhat of a sneer before getting up. Extending his hand, the zombie man helped Edmund to get up.

"Well come on in, esteemed guest of the queen."

Edmund followed him in to the cold dark castle. The hallways were made of the same marble as the outside. The floor tiling, however, looked suspiciously like human skulls.

When they got to the throne room , the zombie man turned to Edmund.

"Wait here." He said. "And don't touch anything."

Edmund was left standing there, admiring the hauntingly beautiful black throne. It design and texture made it look like it was a blob of ink melting into the floor. Strange carvings of ghostly faces- some he was convinced were moving -  were etched along the headrest, armrest and footrest.

He approached the intimidating chair with caution. What he would give to command such power.

In fact, he could probably get away with sitting on the throne for a few seconds. Just to feel invincible for a moment.

"Do you like it?" Came Hela's sweet voice, startling him.

He turned to face her, getting up in embracement. She regarded him with her glittering dark eyes. Her dark auburn hair fell like a sleek curtain over her shoulders. Her deep crimson dress hugged her body in a sensual way, making him blush a little.

"Yes, it's very comfortable." He said, trying to keep his voice from shaking.

"Good." She said with a cool tone as she inched closer. "I was hoping to share it with you but I want a king that can actually get things done. You, my dear Edmund, can't even do the simplest of tasks. Where are your siblings?"

"I tried to get them here..." He began but she cut him off.

"Well obviously you didn't try hard enough."  She spat as she began to walk away.

Turning to the zombie man that had brought him in, she began to instruct him.

"They followed me here. I mean, that counts, right?" He called out, catching her attention.

She regarded him with a cold calculating look before she turned back to her zombie fiend.

"Did you hear that, general? At least the human is not completely useless." She said with a smirk. "Take him to his cell."

"Cell? Wait! Am I your prisoner?" Edmund asked in shock.

"My dear boy, did you think I would ever make a silly human boy my king?" Hela sneered at him. "But don't worry, you get to spend your days in the presence of a pretty girl."

With that Edmund was dragged away whilst the evil goddess Hela had her legion of zombies hint down his sibling.