Authors note:  YOU NEED TO READ " Taking Olympus Back Book 1 "  IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THIS BOOK.  Its the first book in the series and without it you would just be lost.  I'd like to welcome returning readers!  Thanks for all your love and support guys!  Comment / Vote so we can get this book noticed.

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# Olympianlove 

I closed the hardcover book I had been reading, running my hand down the face of it, the leather warm and rough against my skin.  It held no interest for me.  I had read it 10 times before.  It was about cell respiration and photosynthesis. Such a dreary, dull subject, especially when it applied to nothing here; there were no plant that I had come across in my months down here. Not a single one. The closest I could come to a plant was the garden Hades designed for Persephone. The garden was separate from the castle, resting on a large slab of floating rock overlooking the Elysium fields, similar to the mountainous slab that Hades' magnificent dark castle nestled into. 

A huge black cage guarded the edges of the garden, keeping its visitors in and outsiders out. However, as I said, there were no plants down here, no life. All of the plants in the garden were made of glass and jewels. What looks like a rose from afar is a ruby up close. The excitement that would fill me as I would walk the path towards the garden, surrounded by guards, would quickly disappear and turn into regret as I neared. I stopped going to close, but I admired from afar as to fool myself. I did a lot of that down here, intentionally tricking myself, to keep myself sane, sane as I could anyways.

Nothing eventful ever happened down here in the underworld, nothing that I got to be a part of at least. I had been here for 6 months and everyday it was the same schedule, unlike on Olympus where things were always changing, and people were always moving. People only moved when you told them to here.  

On Olympus, one day you would be giving an interview or holding a meeting, the next you could be training unicorns and small tots for battle.  Down here everyday went the same way; Breakfast with Hades, be escorted back to my room, be fitted for a gown by dead seamstresses (Their fingers so old and nimble sometimes they'd break... Literally), lunch by myself or on rare occasion Hades, be escorted to the library, dinner with Hades.  And then, since he was by then done working, gods only knew what would happen.  If I was lucky, he would be tired, and fall asleep as soon as we got back to our room.

I was often unlucky, which was when bad things happened.  In the past, Hades had used a love charm from non other than Aphrodite to get me to participate in kissing him or sleeping with him.  But the love charm had worn off and Aphrodite refused to give him another, by persuasion of Ares. I almost wished she had given him another. Maybe then I'd feel something, ANYTHING. There was an emptiness inside me nothing could fill, not with sadness or anger, hurt or pain, though Hades tried them all in an attempt to make me feel something towards him. But it was out of my control, I couldn't. I was in a never ending circle of wanting to feel something and being unable to. The emptiness grew.

I had to give Hades credit, he was determined in all aspects of his life. I was no exception. Perhaps I wasn't as fun for him when I did as I was told and showed no emotion. Or perhaps he genuinely cared. Whatever his reason, he approached my issue from different angles. For a whole week a few months ago, he was overly sweet. A disguise, at best, terribly disengenuine, but an effort to bring something forward in me. I couldn't. The next week he was incredibly strict and harsher than normal - another more genuine front, but a front none the less. He should have known none of these acts wouldn't work on me. It didn't matter how sweet or how cruel he was; he had already taken everything from me. I had nothing. At this point, he should settle for coexisting.

I looked around the room.  Long bookshelves that went from the floor all the way up to celling were filled with books. I sat in the comfortable seating area on the plush white couch that had a stone and brick mantel fire place in front of it.  A large, ceiling to floor window was on the wall next to the fireplace, but it was covered with a black curtain.  I had it covered myself.

I came in her once, months ago when Hades dragged me back down here, to read.  I saw the window and at once was curious as to what the outside of the palace looked like.  Though I'd been in the underworld before, I never got the chance to really study the outside.  I was usually unconscious or to knocked up on chemicals when I was being brought in to know where I was or what was going on.  I had jogged over to it and excitedly spread its curtains.  I regretted it at once.

The outside of the palace was a terrible place.  The sky glowed orange and red from all the humongous fires burning everywhere except on the piece of levitating granite rock mountain that Hades' palace rested on and Elysium.  Dreadful moaning and screaming noises filled the air echoing off of the cavern walls, creating a mesh of wailing noises that seemed to circle the entire castle. In addition, various misciallanious items floated around in the heavy hot air in currents outside. These were the things that people had with them when they died, Hades explained. Pens, pocket watches, cell phones, random things people had in their pockets and purse. Looking at them through the window, these things that people were close to when their lives were stripped away from them, it was something that I didn't want to spend to much time thinking about.

I've taken many lives in my lifetime. Lives of enemies, of betrayers, of wrongdoers. For every life I've taken, there has been reason. Mortals nowadays, more so than in any time I've lived through before, are wasteful. Wasteful with knowledge, wasteful with time, wasteful with lives. Seeing their belongings, cell phones and electronics as well as cigarettes and guns with rope and knives. Its wasteful. I can't handle waste.

In the distance, at least 50 more of the strange levitating rocks floated.  On the one nearest to the castle, I could see hundreds of ghostly people waiting in lines.  I had read about that somewhere.  The spirits wait in line to see where they go.  If they were bad people in their human life, they were damned to a place where their worst nightmares came true.  Where they were tortured beyond anything you could imagine.  

If they were good people during their human life, they went to a place much like Olympus, Elysium.  I could see it in the distance.  Thousands and thousands of very nice houses lined a paved street.  There were plenty of grassy meadows and chirping birds.  Shops were busy and people were happy.   But did they not see what was going on around them?  

Or did they just not care?

Needless to say, I was so terrified, one of the only things I felt during my time down here. How could I live in a place so dead and dark? I went into a hysterical crying fit, screaming to the point where one of Hades skeletal guards had to go retrieve him from whatever type of meeting he was in and bring him to the library where I sat curled into a ball, sobbing.  Hades stormed in, furious at first that I had disrupted him, but was far nicer when he learned my reasons than I expected him to be.  He sat down next to me and stoked my back lightly, explaining that "This is just the way things are down here."  I tried listening to what he said after that, but it was basically in one ear out the other.  "I was unnerved by it myself, at first. You will grow to understand it and become comfortable with it." He assured me, by then my tears we gone and the emptiness was back, taking over my body. Hades searched my eyes, trying to find that emotion once more, hold onto it, bring it forward and release me from this curse of emotionless existence. But it was gone. "It is okay to be upset." He prompted me, trying to send me back into my feelings.

"I'll understand in time." I countered, moving away from him and scanning the shelves filled with books for a subject of interest. Hades starred after me, letting out a sigh before leaving quietly.

After that I had closed all the windows and promised myself I'd never look out it again.  It was so wrong what happened to those people, I felt it mostly our fault as Gods. We put the technology in their hands, failing to stress the precaution that comes with it. We gave them weapons, guns, swords, things perhaps they weren't ready for. I believed in justice, in fact, I stood for justice.  But I also believe that sometimes the circumstances change, making acts that would normally be classified as 'wrong' tolerable.  We did this to them, in a way. Sometimes its necessary to break the rules.  

Now, sitting in the room, I stared into the fire, flickering gold, red and orange.  Hades was at some sort of meeting with the head of the assortment lines, so I had the whole day to myself.  I didn't have to listen to him talk about business.  Even better yet, I didn't have to hear him talk about getting married or having kids. That was a relief beyond all other.

That was all he seemed to talk about lately.  I knew at some point Hades was going to want to get married.  It was inevitable. We were basically already engaged.  I was forced to wear the ring he had given me, every single day. The day after we returned to the underworld from Olympus he began sending the staff to me, planners to help design the wedding quickly. I managed to convince Hades to put off the wedding for 4 months under the pretense that I wanted time to get accustomed to the underworld. Surprisingly, he agreed. 5 months passed without a word on the matter, but now 6 months later, he was beginning to pressure me again.  I could deal with the marriage part now, I had made peace with it long ago, but the children part was freaking me out.  The only person I had talked about having kids with was Ares, both of us wanted a large family of little rambunctious rascals we could teach to hunt and to fish and appreciate the land. But all of that was gone with the wind now, a future that could have been but will never be.

What could I offer to children of Hades? It just wouldn't work.  I couldn't love them, children of that monster. I'd feel I was doing them such a disservice as a distant, cold mother. A Hera to them as she was to me. 

Oh, I wanted so badly to leave the underworld and go home, fight in the war no doubt pressing Olympus.  This wasn't my home, this was a cage, a prison.  I don't belong here, I've don't nothing wrong.  But this is where I have to stay.

I swore on the river Styx.  Which is a bond you can't break. Not even if you're a god.  

It's permanent.  

It's forever.

You don't break an oath that you swore on the River Styx you'd keep under any circumstances. The gods have used the River Styx as an oath holder for as long as I can remember.  The River Styx is a sacred river in the underworld dating back to the times of the Titans. One does not casually swear on the river, either. Especially not with intent to break their promise.

Its not like that.  

It's not something you just throw around, something flimsy.  When you swear on that damned river, your held permanently to whatever Oath you just made unless the god or goddess you made it to releases you from it. The consequences are uncharted. No one has ever wanted to find out.

"What have I done."  I put my hands on my face, and shook my head.  If I had never slept with Ares that night, I would've never sworn on the styx. It was a selfish decision for no reason other than I wanted to disobey Hades, show him up once more.  I didn't love Ares anymore than I did Hades. It was childish at best and now there was no way out of this.  Hades would never, ever let me go now that he has me in the underworld for good.  I kicked my feet up, and rested my head on the arm of the couch.  I let out a huge yawn.  A nap really wouldn't hurt.  It was around mid morning, and Hades wouldn't be out of his meetings for hours.  

I laid on the couch, closing my eyes and trying my hardest to ignore the screams of the poor torchered spirits outside my window.