The Underworld (The Atlas Series Book 3) (18 page)

A familiar voice sounded from behind Kala. “Sorry to disappoint, but she’s about to get her memories back
without
your help.”

Kala saw Talan’s face first. His reaction to whoever was behind her was one of horror. She was almost afraid to look, but Kala’s curiosity won out.

Two men stood next to each other. One was tall with brown eyes and sandy brown hair and looked like a supermodel and the other one was …

Jack.

As if watching a movie in fast-forward, Kala’s memories suddenly flew through her mind at frightening speed: her birth, her life as a foster kid, being adopted by Owen, training as a Seal, her military operations, Turner, Clifton, falling in love with Jack, becoming Atlas, killing Jack, fighting Cronus… It was too fast to keep up!

In less than an instant Kala remembered everything.

She was thankful that she was already on the ground or she would have collapsed from the impact. Water from the river Lethe poured out of her ears in small waterfalls. She didn’t think that her head could hold that much liquid.

She was Kala Hicks, daughter of Gaia, raised by a Grigori angel.

The pain was too much to bear. Remembering everything was more of a curse than being Atlas. She almost wished she could dunk herself back into the river Lethe. The river’s amnesia had been quiet. It had been safe. It had been calm. Now responsibility, pressure and anguish all threatened to pull her down into a dark abyss.

But seeing Jack so close to her…

Rising to her feet and brushing past Asmodeus, Kala raced to Jack. She wrapped her arms around the only man she ever loved. It took her a moment to notice Jack hadn’t moved to embrace her back. Her heart sank as she pulled away and looked into his eyes.

Blank.

Everyone had been right. Jack was just a shell housing a soul. A soul that could never exist with hers in the world of the living. Only in the Underworld could they stand like this, together. It was unbearable to look at him. Staring straight ahead with no expression was excruciating to witness. All his personality, his memories, his life: gone. Tears filled Kala’s eyes as she reached up to touch Jack’s cheek. He was still so beautiful, even in death.

“Jack,” she said aloud, as if saying his name would revive him somehow.

“What were you thinking?” Talan accused Asmodeus angrily.

Asmodeus acted as if he expected this kind of reaction from Talan. “She has her memories back, doesn’t she? You’re welcome.”

“By bringing her pain?” Talan was furious. “She would have remembered all on her own. She doesn’t need you! Did you take him from Elysium?”

“Of course I did. It’s not like he knows what going on,” Asmodeus added, defending his actions. “And I’ve had to walk all day with this zombie since I can’t teleport in this place, so I don’t want to hear it.”

The last thing Kala wanted to hear was bickering, but at learning what Asmodeus had done... “Did you just rip him from Elysium? Can you take him back?” Her heart squeezed in pain at the thought.

Asmodeus shrugged guiltily. “Possibly? But I really don’t particularly want to make that trek a second time.”

Kala whirled on Hades, who she now noticed was staring at her with a mixture of fascination and fear. “Can
you
take Jack back to the Fields of Elysium?”

Hades seemed to be processing what he had just seen, so he ignored Kala’s question. “No one has ever released the waters of River Lethe by themselves. No one.”

“What can I say? I’m full of surprises. Now, can you take him to Elysium?” Kala was desperate. She had been fighting so hard to find Elysium and rescue Jack, but when Rhea had told her that the prophecy still stood – that Jack and Kala could never be on earth together without it shattering – Kala had decided she’d settle for just seeing him.

But, now, Asmodeus had torn Jack away from what was essentially heaven. Kala was terrified her own selfishness would doom Jack to wandering this crappy gray desert forever.

“Tell me how you did it, and I’ll consider taking him back.” Hades tried to bargain.

“I don’t know how I did it,” Kala answered honestly, though internally she wanted to smack the god. “I saw Jack and BOOM, everything remembered.”

“You lie. You won’t tell me,” Hades accused. “If you refuse to confess, I’ll send your precious Jack to Tartarus where he’ll be imprisoned and tortured for all eternity.” Hades had a satisfied grin plastered to his face from his threat.

Kala didn’t like threats.

“You ungrateful dick,” she began to fume. “I woke your ass up after 2,000 years of lying in a cave at the bottom of the ocean and you bring me
here
,” she motioned to her gray surroundings. “Your mother throws me into a memory-erasing river and now you’re threatening to throw the love of my life into the worst prison system in the universe?” Kala shook her head, appalled. “Are you kidding me?”

“No?” Hades appeared confused. “Was that a question?”

Kala was sick and tired of these gods and Titans who acted like children. “No, it was not a question. You
will not
take Jack to Tartarus, you
will
take him to the Fields of Elysium, where he will be treated like a king until the end of days. Do you understand?” Enough was enough.

Hades puffed up, angry. “How dare you talk to me like that in my own realm. I don’t care who you are, I’m sending you all to Tartarus!” Then he grew. A lot.

“We should probably run,” Asmodeus suggested.

“No way.” Kala was just as livid as Hades.

The Olympian laughed. “I was warned about your powers. You won’t get anywhere near me.” Hades threw his hands up and with it hundreds of rotted arms burst through the cracked desert floor, pushing their way to Kala, Talan, Asmodeus and comatose-Jack. In a matter of seconds they were suddenly facing an army of zombies.

“
Now
do you want to run?” Asmodeus suggested again, with a little more urgency in his voice. “We could leave these two as distractions and make our getaway.”

Kala didn’t even dignify the Demon with a response. He knew very well that she would never abandon Talan and Jack.

But more than that, she was seriously pissed at Hades.

Sliding very comfortably back into soldier-mode, Kala made a quick head count of the decrepit army now facing her: somewhere around fifty. It was the most foul spectacle Kala had ever witnessed. The bodies ranged from slightly rotted, to goopy, to almost full-on skeleton. Logic said the ones with less meat would be easier to take down.

Keeping her eye on the puppet master, Kala was surprised to see that Hades simply watched his army move forward without using any kind of controlled movements. It was as if he simply brought them all back to life and they could function on their own. Each zombie moved at its own pace, with its own gestures. It wasn’t as if they had their own personalities or anything, but they definitely acted of their own volition. Apparently Hades had made them alive just enough to act as individuals, but dead enough that he could still steer them to his means.

Which, at this moment, happened to be attacking Kala.

The first wave of dead soldiers tried to grab at Kala’s throat.

Kala wondered if she could die again in the Underworld, but she knew she couldn’t. This fight wasn’t about killing, it was about capturing. Hades wanted the four of them in Tartarus and he was too afraid to grab Kala for fear of her devouring him.

Fighting the zombies was harder than she thought it would be. No matter how many times she slammed a body to the ground, it would jump back up as if it had merely tripped. If she wasn’t careful the minions would swarm her like a puppy pile minus the cute and cuddliness.

Having a Demon and a Grigori at her back helped, but they seemed just as frustrated at the corpses’ ability to bounce back. Kala lost count of how many arms she had ripped off, but the zombies kept coming, as if losing a limb was always a part of the plan.

She needed to get to Hades. He may have let his reins loose so the corpses could fight on their own, but he was still the man in charge. Stop the master-controller, stop the army. The last thing Kala wanted to do was consume the god of death, but she’d have to get close in order to scare him.

Kala tried to trigger her ability from afar, but from Hades’s relaxed manner, she could tell it wasn’t working. She needed to be close to touch him, to connect physically. She had to try.

“We have to clear a path to Hades,” Kala called out to Talan and Asmodeus.

Hades had taken control of Jack, leading him to his side, but Kala had no intention of letting Hades control Jack permanently. Plus, in a fight, Kala had to prioritize, and Jack in a coma made him easy to keep track of.

Asmodeus screeched his battle scream and it made the hairs on Kala’s neck stand up straight. She hadn’t heard him do that in a while and, as the sound penetrated deep into her eardrums, she realized how thankful she was that she hadn’t. The scream made the zombie soldiers clasp their ears in pain, some clawing the flesh from their heads to make it stop, others trying to yank out their eardrums themselves. Lovely, but effective. Kala almost wanted to do the same, but she managed to tune most of the sound out to focus on her goal.

Hades.

Talan stepped to her side and the two of them tossed aside each minion that dove into their path, lurching their way toward Hades body by body. Mowing them down, actually, sometimes two or three at a time. It was invigorating! Kala’s Atlas strength surged through her and even though each soldier in the zombie army snapped back into place, endlessly renewing the assault, Kala and Talan flung them away again and again.

Slowly, she grew closer to Hades.

In the past, Kala hadn’t known what she was doing when consuming a supernatural being. If she was being honest with herself, she still didn’t know how to trigger that part of her powers. At this moment, though, she had no choice: it was either take down Hades or get thrown into Tartarus. A place that had terrified Atlas.

Kala searched his memories for any sign of visiting the Underworld prison, but apparently it was the hearsay that Atlas feared. Not a surprise, considering how the god had hidden himself from the Titans for thousands of years, but Kala knew better than to risk it. From Atlas’s memories, even Cronus was fearful of Tartarus and Cronus had made the 5
^th
Level of
Hell
his home.

So, yeah. Kala wasn’t about to let herself be taken.

With a renewed sense of purpose, Kala pushed ahead with confidence. She was going to take Hades down in his own world. Zombies flew hundreds of feet in the air at her touch and the path to the Olympian grew shorter and shorter. Kala reveled in the fact that she could see real fear in his eyes the closer she came.

Only five corpses left. Four. Three. Two…

Jack stepped in front of her, eyes alive and angry. “You killed me, now I’m going give you what you deserve!”

Kala froze.

A zombie ran toward her, but Talan now fought for the both of them. He tried to get through to her. “Hades is controlling Jack. Those are not Jack’s words, Kala! Don’t listen to him!”

But she couldn’t move. She stared at Jack in horror.

Jack continued his hateful rant, “If you had truly loved me, you never would have pulled the trigger. You would have let the world burn for me. For us!” He grabbed her arms and shook her. “And now you come to the Underworld and take me from my reward? I was in the Fields of Elysium, Kala! I was at peace! Now, I’ll be sent to Tartarus to burn for all eternity!” he screamed. “Because of
you
!”

All Kala’s worst fears tore at her chest as if one of the zombies had clawed her open. Everything Jack said was true. This
was
him. He meant every word.

Talan screamed as he ripped minion after minion apart. “Kala! Jack would never say those things to you! He loved you! Hades is tapping into your head!”

His words made sense, but Jack’s made more. Kala
did
kill him. Even Turner had said he’d let the world burn to save Roberta and Kala could see in Turner’s eyes that he meant it. Did Kala not love Jack enough to make that sacrifice?

Jack answered her, “No. You didn’t love me enough. You’re not capable of it. You took a gun and shot me in the head.
You
deserve to be punished not me.”

“Kala! I can’t hold them off much longer!” Talan screamed.

Asmodeus’s screeching grew closer and Kala could see he was coming to help Talan keep the soldiers off her.

She heard his voice from behind. “Please tell me she’s not actually listening to Hades’s puppet?”

His words struck her hard. For some reason Asmodeus’s sarcasm managed to weasel into her subconscious more than logic ever could.

All Kala’s pain – the blame, the guilt, the devastation – manifested itself in Jack. That was why his words were so easy to believe because that was how she felt. Kala
did
kill him. She
did
pick the world over Jack. She loved him, but she had made the right decision. And the first person who would agree with her would be… Jack.