Page 227 of The Games Gods Play
Another jolt. Then desperation.
“Come on, Lyra!”
Hades. That’s Hades.
“Come back to me, my star.”
Another jolt, and despair creeps into the emotions battering me.
Which is when I come back into myself in a whoosh. Into my body. And yet not. Because I feel no pain, no weakness, only vital, incredible, pulsating…life.
Life!
Another jolt—this one inundated with a sudden, searing hope—and I realize what I’m feeling is…him. His emotions.
“That’s it,” he whispers, as if he can’t make his voice work anymore. “That’s it. You can do this. Stay with me.”
Always. I want to stay with him always.
“Open your eyes, Lyra.”
And I do.
No fluttering. No struggle. I just open them.
To find that we are still in the desert. I am suspended in midair above the ground, upright, and Hades is standing below me, looking up. The champions are behind him, staring in awe.
And the light…the light is coming from me. Is me.
Hades smiles, dimples in full view, face covered in tears and every emotion he was keeping from me, holding back from me, stubbornly refusing to give to me before—it’s all there in his eyes, in that smile that is for me alone.
“I can’t believe that fucking worked,” he says.
Incandescent happiness is like an explosion inside my chest. The light draws inward, as if my body absorbs it, consumes it, becomes it. And as it disappears, I lower slowly to the ground until my feet touch the packed earth.
Then the light is gone, and we are standing staring at each other.
“Hades?”
His smile turns serious as he searches my face, and then he’s across the space between us, his arms wrapped around me so tight, it’s hard to breathe.
And I don’t care.
I don’t care, because he’s trembling and he’s real and he’s holding me. “I couldn’t lose you,” he says in a voice that breaks.
“What happened?” I whisper into his chest. “I died. I know I died.” But before he can answer me, I close my eyes in terrible comprehension, tightening my arms around him. “Tell me you didn’t—”
“If you mean I didn’t give you my crown, it’s too late to take it back.”
I gasp. “Oh my gods…” He gave me the thing that means the most to him in the world, that makes him who he is? I died. He won’t be crowned King of the Gods, either. He gave up everything. For me. “Why?”
“I couldn’t lose you.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal. “I actually wasn’t sure it would work.”
I stare into eyes that harbor no doubts. “I’m…the Queen of the Underworld now?”
“Yes.”
Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy… “Fuck me,” I whisper. “I’m a goddess?”
