Ghosts Of Revenge | ongoing

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE PAINTINGS OF THE PAST

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I COULDN'T RESIST the urge to approach another painting.

I didn't know in which order they went (if they were arranged chronologically or randomly) but I let my fingers caress the soft wood, unsure of what I would see. My eyes didn't wander though, they just shifted from one screen to another, unable to take their attention off of the screen.

Finally, when the image cleared, it showed me the man haunting me once again. This time he was alone, in the brick bridge Eunomia had almost completely destroyed. He was leaning his upper weight on the railing, his elbows digging into the iron bars as his head lay low. It didn't take long to realise how heartbroken and devastated he looked. When he slightly lifted his head, despair and agony could clearly be shown on his face. His usually terrifying blue eyes were filled to the brim with tears, yet none seemed to want to fall, content into blurring the god's eyes. His bottom lip was trembling as if he was trying extremely hard to stop his painful sobs from escaping.

And maybe he was. I couldn't blame him.

Hades had endured something I couldn't understand; he had lost his lover from something probably worse than death. Because if she had actually died, she wouldn't have left his side at all. He would have made sure of that as she would have to enter his domain for what waited for the gods in their afterlife.

Did gods even die?

Titans certainly didn't; their bodies were imprisoned by the gods in Tartarus to stop them from reemerging and taking over the world. Or at least, that's what Cosmo and Tempest had told me in one of our mythology lessons. I didn't dwell too much on my thoughts though as movement in the painting caught my attention once more.

A new deity appeared; the faint glow around his body and the unusually bright colour of his eyes gave him away. He had curly dark hair that flowed with the wind along with his white toga. His skin was fair but filled to the brim with tattoos; from ships and roads to sheep and horses carrying a chariot. I'm pretty sure I also saw two men wrestling somewhere along his ribs but the wind blew again and his toga covered the image before I could take a better look. His golden eyes assessed the situation, his expression grim and full of guilt. But it was none of those things that caught my attention. It was the winged sandals on his feet that helped me identify him.

Hermes, god of... well, a lot of things as shown by his tattoos.

And also, Cosmo's dad.

I couldn't help but think back to the piece of paper Cosmo had shown me - the message his father had given him for this quest - and I quickly felt my anger rise. I didn't know anything about him but I had already decided that Hermes could die and I wouldn't even blink an eye. Not after how he treated his own son. At least my mother had the decency to tell me face to face. he was but a coward, hiding behind his workload so that he wouldn't have to face his own blood.

Fuck that guy.

"Hades," the Upperworld god spoke, gaining my attention. He flew closer to the other god but just as his feet touched the floor of the bridge, a sudden wind picked up and blew him against the wall. Hermes grunted and fell on the ground, on his knees in front of the god of the Underworld.

Hades' lip raised in a snarl, "You don't deserve to speak my name. Better yet, you don't deserve my audience at all,"

"If you would just listen to me..." Hermes tried again but the wind sent him flying all the way towards one of the ends of the bridge. He hit the wall next to a door, one that looked familiar to the one that Hades and I had come out of before Eunomia's attack. I couldn't stop my wince as the wall cracked and then, god groaned once again.