Angel of Death [18+]

XXIV| Black veil

|Hades|

The Styx looks fuller than ever which bothers me but I'm only standing in the balcony to look at Cerberus and Abaddon who is sleeping between Cerbie's legs. I've been thinking about what Kharon said for a couple of hours. Maybe he's right, maybe I should go to Azrael because this battle is not only mine, but then I remember Persephone has Hecate looking over my angel so if they see me step into that house, they will break the ring.

"Hades!" Kharon shouted and my eyes immediately turned to him; he seemed frantic. "You need to come here, now!"

In the snap of a finger I was beside him, on his gondola "What is it?"

Kharon was trembling and in human terms: it seemed like he had seen a ghost. But his job is to see ghosts every day. "Lo-look..." his right index pointed forward and there was Azrael in a white himation with a golden braided belt around her waist.

I felt my limbs quiver and tried not to lose balance but failed; Kharon had to hold me up because my legs went numb "It can't be..." my voice broke as tears ran down my cheeks.

"Hades!" I heard Parthenope's voice in my head.

"Parthenope is summoning me," Kharon looked at me with tears escaping his eyes.

Immediately, I closed my eyes to appear at the private beach of the Greece house. My eyes were met with a horrific image; a pristine blanket on the sand with a massive blood stain but nobody around.

"Angel!" I called out, rushing up the beach to reach the stairs. "Azrael!" I shouted but no one was answering. "Angel—" in the living room, my eyes were met with the sight of Apollo, Ares and Athena with a baby in her arms, all wearing black himations.

"I'm sorry, uncle," Athena said, approaching me with a frown. "By the time we got here, it was too late already but this is your son: Diavolo."

My lower lip quivered as my eyes fell to the perfect sleeping baby in her arms "Where is Azrael?"

"In the master bedroom," she quietly replied. "Take your time, we will be here..."

My feet barely functioned; nothing around me made sense. The walk down the hall to reach the bedroom felt like a thousand somber years with the eerie silence in the background and heavy steps that made me feel as if someone was trying to hold down my feet. I've never experienced grief like this; when Persephone betrayed me, I thought it was as low as emotions could go but I was terribly wrong.

In the bedroom, Azrael was lay down on the bed with the blood-stained dress and her hands gathered on top of her bump as a black veil covered her completely and a single gold drachma on each of her closed eyes.

"I'm sorry, angel..." my legs couldn't take it any longer, thus, I fell on my knees. "I should've fought harder but I was so scared of losing you that I pushed you away which didn't prevent any of it..." my forehead rested on the mattress as the tears avoided my face and instead fell directly to my palms.

Slowly, with the help of the bed, I got up on my feet and slithered my arms under the body of my angel to pick her up; she's lighter than I remember because now the heaviest part of her is no longer on this realm. My eyes fell close as I quietly sang the old lullaby my mother taught me during the very short time we spent together; it's about a young boy who lost his way home and sang for thirty-three days in the forest until his mother found him.

Once my eyes opened, I was in the throne room of Olympus and there were my siblings: Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia and Demeter.

"I've done nothing to you," I knelt down in front of them to place down my angel; she looks so peaceful. "All my life, I've only sacrificed myself for all of you. Never have I complained about the short straw that you handed me or how you cast me, the first born of Rhea and Cronus, out of the golden city. Every night since the fight, I've prayed for you all to never forget about my love. I'm gentle and kind and clean up all of your messes like a good older brother does but you give me nothing but hatred and recoil in return. You wanted me to be miserable and wish for the rest of my eternity that I was dead, well, you've succeeded for I cannot ever leave this world but my beloved has; she was young and full of kindness, and love. I promised her a lifetime full of happiness and now she's nothing but an empty vessel with a missing soul. I will now serve all of you as you've always wanted. The only thing she wanted to accomplish with that letter was to reunite us because she had lost everyone but knew that I still had everyone...you won't ever deserve those ample marble thrones you sit upon or the eternal years running through your golden veins because you're all cowards and I don't ever want to see you again," my eyes moved up to gaze at my siblings who seemed taken aback by my words.