God of My Dreams (Greek Heroes #1) ✅ Completed

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Trials of Morpheus Act I

The Trials of Morpheus Act I

Morpheus wiped the blood from his face as dawn broke on day two of the shittiest hour in the history of the Underworld.

In Hades, an hour was a bloody lifetime.

“Ok, so I think we might be wearing him down,” Aphrodite panted. They were crouched behind a large boulder which stood several yards from an imposing silver gate. Through the ornate gateway, the deepest part of the Underworld lay, as did Hades’ castle further down the road.

The ride from Charon across the Acheron River had been blessedly uneventful. It was even somewhat pleasurable once he tuned out Aphrodite’s incessant chatter (something remarkably easy to do as a human male). The boat ride was just over an hour on the Underworld clock but less than a handful of minutes in human time. They’d disembarked on the other side, Aphrodite graciously paying the ferryman’s fee for the both of them. Where she managed to hide silver coins in her skintight get-up was beyond him. Morpheus was just smart enough not make any kind of commentary about it.

As if struck by a bout of uncharacteristic chattiness, Charon pointed out which road to take if they wanted to reach the palace quickly. For his help, Aphrodite gave the crusty sailor a quick peck on the cheek, which caused him to flush and push away from the embankment as quickly as if she’d set him on fire.

“What a crazy old coot,” Aphrodite remarked watching him head back down the river. She licked her lips and smacked them together slightly, “Hmmm…salty.” She’d turned and bounced on down the far path, which according to the ferryman led right to the main gates of Hades’ realm.

As all knowing as most of the gods pretended to be, the Underworld was still a big mystery to most of them. A majority of the land was unchartered territory, but Hades’ palace was a lot like the Magic Kingdom - it was at the heart of it all. Before getting anywhere near this magical center however, one had to cross through a special entry gate. A very large gate with an even larger guard dog protecting it: Cerberus, the three headed guard dog of the Underworld.

One super pissed, soul munching, fierce ass guard dog straight out of the pages of Monster Hellhounds quarterly. He never slept (the heads took turns napping for brief increments), he ate anything with the bad luck of getting too close, and absolutely no one could control him except for Hades himself.

According to most well known stories, the only thing this particular three-headed mutt had ever been distracted by was music. Too bad neither one of them could carry a tune or play an instrument. Had Morpheus retained any of his powers, he would’ve been able to transform himself into any musically gifted human in creation: Orpheus with his smoking lyre skills, Mozart one of the badass granddaddies of classical music, heck he’d even turn himself into Michael Bublé and croon out an old standard or two at this point. But without his powers he couldn’t even whistle out Danny Boy much less sing a hellhound to sleep. Aphrodite was powerful but even she didn’t have that kind of juice anymore thanks to a row with Apollo several centuries earlier. She’d offered to bring down an iPod, which would have been a reasonable alternative if electronics didn’t have a tendency of going up in flames down here.

To make a bad situation even worse, Cerberus absolutely hated Aphrodite. Something to do with some special training Persephone herself had seen to during her time in the Underworld, before they’d gotten over their differences and become BFF’s. The love goddess wouldn’t go into detail but Morpheus was pretty sure it stemmed from the whole Adonis Affair. The Aphrodite-Hate-Training was still in full effect according to her. When pressed, she admitted the last time she'd travelled through the gates, she’d barely made it through with all of her bones intact. That particular occasion she’d been travelling on official business. There was no telling what the beast would do if he caught one whiff of the love goddess now that she was attempting to break in with one very undead human. Only the dead were allowed to pass – it was the reason Cerberus was there in the first place, to ensure no one but the departed stepped across into the true heart of the Underworld.