Darkness To The Kore

Chapter 12

A/N: Can't believe it's been 6 years since I wrote on this story. Talk about a long writer's block. I apologize to my readers who wanted to read more of this story. Went through a lot of depression during those 6 years, but finally I have arrived at the end of the first book. This will be fleshed out now that I know where I am going with this series (now that I know it will be a series that is) and it will be edited a lot so that you guys can get a better understanding, but I wanted to at least finish it out. 

Chapter 12

"Hades, do you take Persephone to be your lawfully wedded wife and Queen Consort to have and to hold for all of eternity?" Morpheus says looking down upon us as we hold each other's hands.

"I do." Hades answers. His dark eyes bore down into my hazel brown ones, looking longingly at me as if I were the sky on a perfect moonlit night.

"Persephone, do you take Hades as your lawfully wedded husband and King Consort to have and to hold for all of eternity."

"I do."

I once again felt as if I was transported into a dream or memory like state where I wasn't exactly me yet me at the same time. Everything seems bright, like heaven (or what I would imagine heaven or Olympus to look like) and all of our friends and servants are surrounding us as we take our vows.

"You may now kiss your wife and Queen of the Underworld."

I or rather she closes her eyes as Hades lips fall down to meet my (her) own. Nothing made me (or rather her) feel as happy as this very moment.

"Nooooo," a familiar voice cried out, turning my bright day into darkness. "This can't be." I could feel my mother's spirit drowning in sadness and somehow sense death falling over the earth.

"Wake up, Madam today is the big day!" Phelony shrieks, shaking me to and fro.

I sit up abruptly, wiping my eyes realizing what she meant. My dream had been a bad omen after all.

"Oh don't give me that look. I saw how your face lit up last night with Master. You are starting to like him...maybe even possibly love him."

Rolling my eyes, "Being cordial and being head-over-heels are two separate things."

"It's a start."

"Doesn't mean it's what I want."

"Kore you haven't lived your life long enough to know what you truly want."

"More reason for me to be against this whole thing. My mother forced me to live with her for 18 years on earth with no friends or family outside of her and my homeschool teacher. I had no choice there and it is the same here. Why would I ever be happy or want to marry someone who is the exact same as my mother?"

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

"Just a moment." Phelony walks over to the door and opens it.

It is Hades standing in the doorway looking unbelievably gloomy. It almost seems to bother me, but I try to knock the urge to ask him what is wrong.

"Hi, sire we were just about to get ready for the ceremony."

"Actually, I must talk to Kore for a moment."

"Oh, ok well I will go fetch some tea and biscuits for you both." Phelony says.

"Thank you, Phelony." He says as she walks quickly out of the room and closing the door shut behind her.

He turns back to me and I almost have the urge to put my hand to his cheek to comfort his sullen face. Stop it, Kore! What is the freaking matter with you? You hate him!

No, you don't! Another voice says in her head that she tries to ignore.

"I know you don't want to get married and I know you don't want to be here with me, but now that you are immortal, you must be here  now more than ever. Your safety is my main priority and if you were to return to Earth, you would be unprotected to the demons who have escaped to Earth."

I shriek out, "How did they escape to Earth? And what about my mother? I must go back to see if she is safe."

Those things were so strong and powerful when they attacked me. My mother surely would not be a match for them if there were a bunch of them in her path.

"I don't know but, she will be fine. Your mother is a Goddess after all." He says in such an apathetic tone that anger fumes into me at that very moment.

"No, but she gave up most of her powers when she turned me into a human."

"Hecate can help her."

"Let me see for myself that she is safe. Now!"

With a flick of the wrist, he brings me to the room of fortune and turns me in front of the majestic mirror.

"Mirror show Demeter, Goddess of Grain and Agriculture."

My mother, with her beautiful golden long hair flowing all around her was on the ground, pale and looks beaten. Several of those bird-like demons are surrounding her.

"She needs help. I must go back now!"

Grabbing me by the waist, he says firmly, "I'm not losing you again. I can't lose you again." The pain in his voice produces a stir in me I have never felt before. 

I move closer to him, putting my hands on each of his cheeks. "Hades please. If you've ever loved me...if you still love me, you will let me go. Please I need to save her."

"You haven't trained long enough, and I can't help you this time. Here I can protect you, but I am powerless on Earth."

"But I thought you could travel any realm."

"I can, but with the caveat that I can't use my powers in any other realm, but the underworld besides collecting souls just like Poseidon can't use his trident except for at sea or to control the weather. Zeus is the only one who can use his powers on Earth directly, but only to a certain degree and plus I can't send you to Earth even if I wanted to."

"Then how did you get me here."

"I didn't," he says with a sigh before continuing, "You did all on your own just like the first time with that." He points towards the necklace. "I never kidnapped you like they say in the books. You came to me willingly guided by the necklace. You wanted to be free of not only your mother, but you wanted to be free of your destiny as reaper. You wanted to fall in love with someone the opposite of your destiny so Aphrodite gave you that to create your own destiny." He puts the compass Mrs. Rogers gave me into my hand and I look down at it and for the first time really grasp the true power of the necklace. I know what I must do.

"Hades I will return to you, but you must let me go."

"I told you I didn't..."

I kiss him with all my might and strength not as Persephone but as Kore. I realize that the compass is a portal key that can only work if our hearts are connected to our mutuality as we are connected...a fact I have been fighting with myself all along. My anger at my mother and wanting to get away was the key that lead me to him and my desire to go back and save my mother must be his too in order for me to go back. 

When we finally break apart, a tear slowly falls down his cheek. "Go."

"Do you mean it?"

"Yes."

I kiss him again as the mirror starts to shake. The compass starts to glow and levitates towards the mirror as if it is signaling that it is the way through. I touch the mirror and my hand seeps through. It is the way back home. I turn back to Hades who looks even more desolate than before. 

"I promise you I will return."

He just nods, looking away as I go through the mirror to my other home. To my mother.