Hades - God of the Underworld

Chapter Eighteen

Victoria sat there on the bed alone, head in her hands. If felt as if nothing she could do was right. Was it so wrong for her to worry about him throwing himself into situations of danger? She understood the consequences of what could happen if she joined him.

He told her that he went and fought for her, for her safety. Why couldn't she do the same in return?

One single argument was enough to have with him. She hated how she felt the last time they fought, and she didn't want to repeat it all over again.

She was past denying her feelings towards him. Past running away from how he made her feel. This morning had felt like heaven waking up in his arms, surrounded by his scent, his breath in her ear.

Shaking her head, she tried to calm her thoughts.

There was a light knock on the door.

"My Lady," a terrified woman's voice spoke through the wooden door, "are you awake?"

Victoria sat up and tightened the bed sheets around her body. She responded to the question and braced herself, not ready to meet new people.

A maid walked in, dressed in a simple pressed navy dress with white sleeves that came to her elbows, adorned with an apron. Her hair a dark brown as were her eyes.

She curtsied, head down.

"Please," Victoria got up from the bed, "there is no need for that." She couldn't help but notice the maid's trembling hands. "Please tell me, what is your name?"

"Nina, my Lady." The woman fidgeted with her hands as she spoke. "I am you personal maid, please do ring for me if you need me at all."

"Well Nina," Victoria put her hands on her hips and flashed Nina a cheeky grin, the poor maid looked positively terrified at her smile. "The first thing I need you to do is to call me by my name from now on. Does that sound good to you?"

Her maid flushed a light pink, nearly bowing before remembering what Victoria had said only moments ago. Instead, she quickly nodded her head and she stopped fidgeting with her hands.

Good, Victoria thought with satisfaction, this business of using honourifics didn't sit well with her.

"Is there anything that you would like to do today?" Nina asked as she brough in a basin filled with steaming water and cloth. Victoria spent some time getting ready, finally donning a simple linen dress and headed further into the castle with Nina as her guide.

The majority of the morning and afternoon was spent in the castle library. As soon as she had stepped through the grand doors, the smell of books hit her and she was in heaven. It was the perfect escape. Her own momentary sanctuary away from everything.

Every now and then, she'd catch herself muttering.

Indignation began to take root the longer she sat in their argument. Why in the world was he allowed to dictate everything? It felt as if every interaction with him left her reeling. She knew this wouldn't last. Knew that the novelty would wear off and it would exhaust her.

Victoria sat in a patch of sun with a random book she picked off the shelf. She tilted her head and shut her eyes, taking in the warmth as light beamed through the windows.

She needed to make sense of everything. Everything had happened so quickly.

She let loose a deep shuddering breath and drew her attention to the book. Her eyebrows furrowed.

The title read: 'THE INFINITE GUIDE TO DOG SPECIES'

A defeated sight exited her mouth. Well, she may as well try and read some of it.

The idea made her giggle a little and so she began slowly flicking the different pages of the book. The book was full of beautiful illustrations of different dogs with descriptions of them, their history, their breed and ways of taking care of them, all hand written in an elegant cursive. Over time, she began just slowly perusing instead of reading each individual page, enjoying the small moment of childlike relaxation.

Until the last few pages. They seemed to stick out a little. In her curiosity, Victoria flipped to the first page that stuck out and immediately noticed that somebody had taped extra pages at the end of the book.

There was a polaroid picture glued at the top, with some sort of blurred splodge photographed in the image. Frowning in confusion, Victoria's interest peaked and thus began reading, noting that the handwriting for these few pages was completely different to the rest of the book.

NAME: Cerberus
OTHER NAMES: Good Boy
LOVES: Oversized tennis balls, barking too loudly, drooling all over me when he can, being called a good boy
HATES: When I pretend to take him for a walk just so he'll listen to me. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT do this, he will start incessantly crying. He is a big baby. Also hates getting his picture taken. Absolutely NO carrots.

Victoria found herself giggling as she read through the different entries. She had remembered from high school that Cerberus was Hades' dog. At the thought, she giggled some more as she realised that this entry was Hades' doing. That at some point in history, he had sat down and taken the time to tape in extra pages into a book about dogs, taken the time to try and photograph Cerberus and had written pages and pages about this three headed dog.

She had never known that her heart could melt so quickly and so thoroughly. It was so sweet and tender. To know that he had this tenderness within him gave her hope. Hope that things would be okay.

Victoria stood and cradled the book in her arms as an idea formed in her head. She wanted to meet Cerberus. This famous hound known for how terrifying it was and yet completely juxtaposed in Hades' entries.

She wanted to meet him and see for herself what Cerberus was truly like.