“Is it okay?”
His eyes twinkle back at me. “Yes. I think you’ll find it interesting. Elysium is, for each soul, their perfect place.”
“How?”
“Because I allow it.” He’s all arrogant mystery again. “Here. I’ll show you.”
We’re suddenly standing on white beaches, looking out over crystal-blue waters, and there’s a home made of glass that stretches out into the ocean. Then we’re in a city. Paris, I think. It glows sort of pink in evening sunlight.
“Some see their homes from the Overworld. Some see the purest parts of what their imaginations can create.”
We leave Paris, and what greets my eyes next makes me laugh out loud in wonder. “Wow,” I whisper.
He grins, dimples in full view. And now I’m struggling to breathe right, because he’s entirely himself in this moment. Who he was meant to be—the King of the Underworld who truly feels for the souls under his care. That he’s letting me see him like this…
“It’s a recreation of the game Candy Land,” he says. “The little girl who lives here loves that game a lot.”
Still reeling a little and reluctant to glance away from the openness of his face, I force myself to look back out over the view. I didn’t get to play board games as a kid—chess or nothing for us pledges—but I’ve seen it. It was one of those things I imagined doing with friends someday, back when I still bothered to imagine such things. In this living version, I see the Peppermint Forest with what I’m guessing is Licorice Castle in the distance. “I bet the Gumdrop Pass is something.”
He nods.
“Can I see what it would be like for me?”
Hades sighs. “A mortal’s vision of their ideal place changes throughout the course of their lifetime. It is only solidified when their soul arrives in Elysium.”
“Oh.” It would have been nice to know. “Are you able to see what it could be if I died now?”
“Don’t—” His throat works around a swallow. “Don’t think about dying yet, hmmm?”
I offer a soothing smile. “I’m not planning to.”
“Good.”
“What about you?” I ask next. “Do you have a perfect place? I mean, being a god already and all.”
He looks out over the lands and shrugs. “I see many things.”
I’m not entirely sure that’s an answer.
I take a last, long look, then turn to him. “Why are you showing me this?”
“Because whether the champions accept the proposal or not, this will be their home at the end, regardless of if they die in the Crucible or in old mortal age. And I’ll make that true of every champion retroactively and moving forward. I promise you that much, Lyra. And…” He turns his head, looking out over Elysium, jaw clenching slightly. “If you don’t win either of the next two…I wanted you to see that Boone will be fine.”
Fine. He’ll be fine. More than fine. In his own version of paradise. So will the others.
“What about their loved ones?” I ask. “They shouldn’t be alone here.”
“I can arrange that, too.” Amusement filters through his voice.
“Can the souls here interact with one another?”
Hades sort of pauses. “Yes.”
“How, if they’re in their own versions of paradise?”
“If someone else has a similar or same paradise. There are whole families here together. Lovers, friends.”
But only if it’s the same paradise? So I might never see Boone’s face again, and he knows it. He knew it when he visited me as his spectral self.
“You and Persephone made this place as incredible as I’ve ever seen,” I say, still looking out. “And as lonely.” That tells me a lot about both of them.
Hades goes still beside me. Did I hurt his feelings? Offend him?
“What do you see?” I ask again.
His shoulders ease slightly. “Maybe I’ll show you one day.”
But not today. He doesn’t have to say it.
“Can we go back?” I ask.
“Of course.” Immediately, we blink away, and when we arrive at his home, we’re standing in the garden near one of the grottos. The small waterfall that hides the grotto fills the night with a soft gurgle. I’ve always loved the sound of running water.
I glance toward the lights of the house. Why’d he bring us here instead of there?
“I thought seeing Elysium would make you feel better.” He’s searching my face, or the side of it he can see.
“It does.” I may not get to see him ever again, but Boone will be okay either way. That makes it…easier. I frown. “What if Boone doesn’t want to leave there?”
