Free Destroyer of Light by Rachel Alexander Page A

cheek and reassuringly looked him in the eye once more. “There is still so much suffering. Needless, endless suffering. And it’s so strange to think that she will come back as a mortal with no recollection of the aeons she was alive.”
    “Not for a while, rest assured. Her circumstance is… unique, but we are the caretakers of the souls. We can’t make special exceptions in a cycle as old as mortality itself. But if we could, what would we do differently? What would you want?”
    She smiled and dropped her gaze, tears in the corners of her eyes. No matter how vehemently the House of Nyx and the Hundred Handed Ones had insisted that this realm belonged to her, she was still amazed that Aidoneus sought to include her as his equal. “I’d let the better souls rest.”
    He raised his eyebrows at her. “The better ones?”
    “Merope, for instance. Surely she has done enough good and suffered enough ill?”
    “Who else?”
    She thought for a minute. “Tartarus is there for those who spend their lives destroying the lives of others, is it not? But what about their opposites? What about those who made the lives of those around them better? What about those who sacrificed themselves for others, those who were especially brave or kind…”
    “And sacrifice their usefulness to the world above? Won’t the living world only deteriorate if we cloister them here?”
    “If they decided to leave, they would have that right. And new souls are made here every day. They can take the place of those who wish to stay. People can change.”
    He frowned. “You have more faith in them than I do, I’m afraid.”
    “They can. After all, we’ve changed, and it certainly took less than a human lifetime. I would be unrecognizable to someone who knew me only before I met you. And you’ve changed as well.”
    “Oh?” he said with a smile.
    “Well of course you have,” she said, brushing the lines near his mouth and eyes. “This, for instance. You were so very grim and serious when I first arrived.”
    “I was afraid.”
    “You? Of me?” she said with a teasing smirk. He nodded. “The warrior who fought Titans?”
    He lowered his head, the half smile still on his face. “Doesn’t compare to the terror of starting my married life with you, sweet one.” He chuckled when her nose scrunched up. “I don’t mean that to offend. Remember, it took me all the time from when you reached majority until two months ago to muster the courage to ask for you. And nothing in my life frightened me more than the possibility that I’d lost you forever, thanks to the manner in which I brought you here.”
    “But nothing frightens you now?”
    He looked away, exhaustion evident on his face once more. He’d barely slept the night before. She’d drifted out of sleep a few times over the course of the night, just as worried as he was, and each time she’d seen Aidoneus staring at the ceiling, willing himself to rest. She held his hand. “Sisyphus.”
    “It’s more than just him. So many things have transpired that are not supposed to happen. And after what we were told— what we saw in Tartarus…”
    “Husband, none of that was true.”
    “There were grains of truth. And now…” he shook his head and paled with anxiety. “A mortal… a living mortal has stepped through barriers that gods cannot cross, and he could have done so at any time. But he chose that last moment, on the final leg to the Phlegethon. He only stayed as long as he did to observe our strengths and weaknesses. And I don’t know what he learned or what he’ll do with that knowledge, much less with the Chains he stole.”
    “How can he possibly have done that?”
    Aidon said nothing.
    “The Titans are infinitely more powerful than he is, so if Sisyphus was able to escape, why haven’t they ?”
    He remained silent. All he could see was the last vision of Kronos.
    “And why didn’t Hecate—”
    “Because she was busy trying to reason with your mother!” he