Chapter 123: Requiem For Hades

Lilia POV

The minute everyone straggled into Cresta House, Lilia sensed the dejection. The slumped shoulders, the cloud hanging over all of them.

Her mother and Jude! Were they…

"Mother! Jude! Where are they?"

Ravyn, disheveled and drained, broke away from the weary band, pulling Jude behind her. Lilia shrieked and ran into her mother's arms, drawing her into a tight hug, feeling the slender woman.

"You all look worn to the bone," she whispered. "Worn to a thread. But you're alive."

Ravyn sighed into her daughter's hair, and Lilia sensed vulnerability. "Bad?" she whispered.

"You have no idea," Ravyn mumbled.

Azandra's sharp eyes missed nothing. "Where's Melisande?"

Anneliese held up the vial of ashes, her action speaking volumes. 

Dane could barely force the word out. "Hades?"

Jiro shook his head, more sorrow than Lilia expected shimmering in his eyes. An ocean of sorrow. "He challenged the demon for all our sakes …"

Lilia never saw the punch in the gut coming.

Hades, who made all their lives miserable, despite the joy they'd found because of his constant scheming and manipulation and destruction. 

Hades, the cult master and puppet master. The one who'd recently trapped them all and enslaved them. The last in a long line of misdeeds.

Hades, the ancestor of Cyran and Garnet … and also Talon and William.

"How?" she whispered. "Are we sure he's gone? We've been fooled before."

Ravyn sighed. "It's possible he's still alive, in limbo somewhere, wandering around until she decides to play with him again."

It didn't have to be this way.

Unflappable Kyon stiffened, his Beta strength flagging. He couldn't form the words. "He … he can't be gone. Not truly. We need him."

Yes. They needed him. Hadn't they used him, too? Hadn't they viewed him as a tool, a weapon?

Only Ravyn had tried to have compassion. "Mother," she whispered. "You were right."

Stroking her hair, Ravyn murmured, "This was not the sort of situation that called for easy answers, Lilia. I take no joy in being right. Evil or not, a life is still a life, which we witches are supposed to protect. Those are our values."

"But we protect the pack," Lilia mumbled. 

Standing beside her mother, radiating a raw power and strength she'd never witnessed before, Jude draped a comforting arm over her. 

Daxius, too, joined Ravyn and Lilia, his face full of regret. "I should have been there with you," he murmured. "I've stood by you throughout all of this, and I let you face it alone …"

Lilia shook her head. "No. There was no sense in you risking yourself."

Daxius put his arms around both of them. "Still … I could have been there with you."

Ravyn hugged them both a little bit closer. "No. You've been through enough punishment for twenty years … and Marieke would never forgive me if we risked you."

Jude noted darkly, "He's already spent too long in a darkened cave with a dark overlord."

Ravyn shivered. "Hopefully, without the Wall of Torment …"

Daxius paled. "The Wall of Torment … it's real?"

Lilia was in no mood to answer.

* * * * *

Ravyn POV

Daxius' questions didn't distract Ravyn. Her mind was on the defiant scream of triumph and agony at the moment when the dark weapon struck Hades and obliterated him.

He stood up for them all in the end. Perhaps it was out of vengeance, or a sense of justice, or bitterness. Maybe he feared the Moon Goddess' wrath when he did finally get his eternal rest. 

She remembered him striking the smirking sinister figure with so much power that he slammed to the floor. The Dark Goddess muttered words in an unfamiliar language as she conjured blue and silver fire that engulfed Hades. 

She remembered Hades' last words. "Hello death. Hello, old friend. I've been waiting for you."

And something else. Other words. So low she couldn't make them out. Maybe the same unfamiliar language as the goddess spoke. 

Had it been a confession? A plea for mercy? What could it have been" They'd never know now.

Azandra comforted Garnet while Kyon supported Cyran. Worried, Ravyn looked at William, making sure the boy wasn't permanently scarred by all this. 

Holding Flufftail, he looked more tired than a ten-year old should, and mumbled something about wanting to cuddle his cousins. 

Ravyn's heart ached. He shouldn't have had to tackle such an adult matter–but he'd been ready. She pulled Kelara aside. "I'm sorry … about William."

Her skin sweaty and flushed, Kelara sighed. "He's faced more dangerous situations than this … he's a mage, and a wolf, and an Alpha, and he needs to know how to fight evil. It's going to affect all our children soon."

Could she have risked Lilia at the same age? Could Jude have risked Mali and Bram? She knew Alpha's children were a cut above the rest…but William genuinely looked saddened.

"It didn't have to be like this," she murmured.

Jude rubbed his head. "I don't know about you, but I have a headache." He pulled on Ravyn's hand. "Shifters don't usually get them … but that deathtrap would give anyone aches and pains."

Lilia lifted her head, projecting her voice in the Great Hall. "You all need to get some rest. It's been a long and eventful day."

"Absolutely," Dane agreed. "All of you related to a Cresta, go to bed."

Arm in arm, Jude and Ravyn made their way up the stairs. She sensed his subdued mood, a thick fog that swirled around him.

He'd be all right after a good night's sleep … wouldn't he?