Summoning Bones
37. With the King

Eirene stepped out of her house, squared her shoulders and began her march to her old home, Hades' castle. The wolf in the front yard bounded to her side and trotted by her, wagging their tail enthusiastically.

The castle loomed over her, the black marble glinted menacingly. Hades stood on the stairs as he had in her vision back in the King's palace in what felt like a lifetime ago.

"Father," she spat approaching him. The wolf bristled at her hostile tone and narrowed its eyes to Hades.

"My lovely Melinoe, how sweet to return to your rightful home. I have an offer you cannot refuse," he sneered. Eirene looked him over. He was a weak imitation of the powerful King he once was. She scoffed.

"What would that be?"

He grinned and raised his arm not leaning on his cane to gesture around the Underworld.

"A place at my side, ruling your own army. I promise you the world."

"You're a fool to think I would accept." Hades lowered his hand at her words and glared into the face of his daughter, though he could not recognize her through the glamour. She hid her true form to not be outcast among those she never would belong to. With him, she could be her true self.

"I am no fool," he growled. The wolf beside her shook out its fur coat and its ear laid back as it bent to attack. She stoked its head, calming its low rumble. "Clever pet."

"Mate," Eirene snapped. Hades face lit up in amusement.

"Well, well, how the times have changed."

"I want my immortality back."

"Oh, so you noticed I plucked it away. Took you long enough, come let's discuss this in my office. The wolf stays outside. I don't like wild animals." Eirene and the wolf growled, making Hades chuckle darkly.

"The wolf comes with."

"Fine, but it is not allowed in my office, I couldn't stand the fur." Eirene glared at her father as he turned and began to make his way to his office. She followed him into the cold castle. They wove through the twisted passages of the castle and arrived in front of the ornate doors to Hades' office.

"Sit," Melinoe whispered. The wolf obeyed and laid down on the cool stone floor.

"Obedient," observed Hades. Melinoe rolled her eyes and beckoned for her father to let her into the office. He opened the door and glided into the room, sitting behind the desk. Eirene sat across form him in one of the plush armchairs.

Once she was closer, she could see how sickly he looked. She stared at her father, a ghost of what he once was. He hair hung in limp tendrils, his skin was ashen and sunken in, so his cheekbones protruded from his face sharp as knives. His eyes held no life, no joy like they had through Eirene's childhood. Hades sat back in his chair, looking his daughter over. The living world had been kind to her, her skin was glowing, her hair healthy. Although perhaps that could be credited to the wolf standing outside his office.

"What do you want from me? I wish only to leave with what I came with," Eirene sneered.

"Ah, but daughter, I need someone to rule my army. And no one except for you could ever do so," he said, lacing his hands together.

"Zagreus would be just as well as me, if not better," Eirene muttered, pulling him into fury.

"I thought I taught you to speak up when you were younger, or have you forgotten my teachings?" Eirene glared at him, her eyes boring into his cold ones that were devoid of any emotion.

"I did not forget what you and Mother taught while you tore me apart, ripping my being in two. I learned I would not be accepted anywhere by anyone, not even my own parents. You made it so I did not know where I belonged," she growled. Now she was in front of him, her anger grew and she lashed out, saying the words she'd felt since she had fled her home.

"You belong by my side, as I intended," Hades said, under his words was a threat, daring her to disobey. However, Eirene had enough of his games and tricks. She found love, and she would keep it. She just needed him to give him her immortality back and she could leave him once and for all.

"I do not belong here. If I were to rule your weak army, I would need to belong in a place that never was home." She stood to leave, but skeletal hands gripped her shoulders forcing her to sit. Her head swung around to meet the icy eyes of Thanatos. He wore a black cloak wrapping over his form, hiding the various weapons he carried around as God of Death. His dark hair hung over his eyes as he walked by her to await further instruction behind Hades. "Nice lap dog," she scoffed.

"Rival only to yours," grinned Hades. Eirene growled a warning, no harm was to come to Cadmus.

"Daughter, I am the only one who give you what you want, peace, rest. I can help you replace your place in this world, my world. We will rule over it all, no one will ever be able to turn their backs on you again," he said, standing and stretching out a hand. "Melinoe," her name dripped of his lips like venom to a gruesome snake, "I can bring you home."

She stared at him. The taste of what he offered was sweet on her tongue. She could feel his dark power roll over her skin, hammering through her veins. She felt a sensation like cold water drip from her head, and pour over her body, followed by scolding hot. It burned a trail to her feet and faded away. She felt a long dead power hum to life. She felt her blood turn back to ichor, then back to blood. She felt her mortality ebb in and out of her being then fall away like a tide. She glanced over the room, flexing her fingers and caught sight of herself in the glass of the window.

Her glamour had fallen away with the transformation back to goddess, Eirene was no more. Melinoe stood in her father's office, being offered a deal she longed for since she was a child, a poor child. Down her body was a clean division between her milk white and oil black skin. Her hair was split down the middle too, one side for her mother's purity, the other, her father's cruel touch. Her warring sides were shown on her body for the world to see.

Hades' face split into a grin.

"My daughter, who else could accept you as this, if not me? Your mate? What makes you think he will not run as far as his measly mortal legs will carry him when he sees you? You will only truly belong when you are under my protection, lead my army Melinoe."

She spared herself one glance at her form, a form she had come to hate with the passing years.

"Liar! He is no weak mortal. He and I hold more power than you could!" She yelled, turning to face her father, her eyes blood red. "I will not bend over to bow to you. You will do no harm to me, and I will make you pay for Makaria," Melinoe spat. Hades face fell, replaced with stony rage.

"Those are bold words for someone who was mortal minutes ago and will be mortal minutes from now. What make you think I wouldn't just-" he snapped his fingers and laughed. Melinoe kneeled over, bent in half with a tabbing pain in her chest. It expanded outwards to every part of her body, tearing her immortality away once more.

"You monster!"

"Your father."

"I will never join you, no matter what you do to me."

"Then I will replace another way."

"And you will die for it." Years ago, Melinoe would have frozen and eaten her words like pomegranate seeds, but she was not a child. Hades cruelty ended with her, now. "Persephone left. I will not replace the whole in your cruel heart. I will be leaving this horrid place, your prison with my love, and I will bring my sister back."

With her words hanging in the air, she turned and left. Thanatos lurched forward, ready to stop her, but Hades lifted his hand, his eye glinting with secrets that he longed to spill.

"And what makes you think he will not fall victim to humanity's greed?" Melinoe stopped, her hand on the doorknob.

"He loves me," she sneered, and despite having her immortality in her grasp only to be ripped away again, a faint smile gracing her lips as she tasted the foreign words she knew to be true. "He loves me," she repeated quietly, so only she could hear, so she could bathe in the wondrous words of the acceptance she had looked for as she grew old.

"When he lets you down, I will be here, waiting with open arms," Hades said as she pushed the door open and left his office. The wolf pacing outside paused and stared at her, his yellow eyes bright with worry. Upon seeing her, he bounded and leaped up to lick her face. Melinoe laughed and pushed the wolf down.

"Hurry, we must go now before Hades regrets letting me leave." They hurried up the corridor and outside the castle. As they ran, Melinoe breathed in the scent of home, committing it to memory for she knew she would never return, and if she did, it would only be as a ghost. They ran across the courtyard, through into the forest and back to the house where Melinoe had run to before learning her way out of the Underworld.

She closed the door with a snap, nearly catching the wolf's tail between it and the wall. Quickly, the murmured a locking and shielding charm. Her hands glowed white before turning back to their opposite colors. She turned back to face Cadmus, his cloak the only thing covering him.