Nearly Witches

Chapter Nineteen

Mary was still asleep as Alysanne let go of Rosalie’s hand and looked at her soul floating in the corner of her eye. Persephone looked at her as well, before moving and whispering something into her ear as Alysanne kept an eye on Zack and Mary.

“She’s gone?” Zack asked her, putting his hand gently on the back of his daughter’s head. “Isn’t she?”

“She is,” Persephone told him.

“Persephone and I can take her to Hades ourselves,” Alysanne informed him.

“Hades?” Zack asked.

“Of course, we’ll escort her,” Persephone told them putting her hands on her hips before narrowing her eyes at Alysanne, who just put her hand up in surrender. “In fact, it would be our pleasure. We’ll need to go before the doctors arrive.”  

“The underworld,” Alysanne told them remembering Zack’s question. “The Greek underworld, to avoid any confusion.”

“Mum would have wanted things to end like this; surrounded by loves ones,” Zack told them shifting Mary as he stood up, Alysanne bending down to back away her things before handing him the bag without a second thought. “Mum always did like reading Greek Myths to us as we were growing up, did the same with our children. Now I can see why she did so.”

“Some things are better left unknown,” Persephone told him. “It would be better if you forgot we were here, or never mention it again.”

“It’s safer for everyone if you think we’re ghosts, Mary will forget in time,” Alysanne added.

“The truth will always come out, in the end,” Zack told her. `”Sometimes in ways you don’t think of or in ways that we would like.”

“I doubt anyone’s going to believe this one,” Alysanne remained him with a small smile as Persephone quietly spoke with Rosalie’s ghost. “You can’t get people to agree on anything, including climate chance or ghosts.”

“And your thoughts?”

“I agree with somethings and disagree with others.”

“We should be going,” Persephone told Alysanne. “I can hear the doctors coming and we don’t want to be here and have them question how we got in.”

“Goodbye,” Zack told them as they disappeared with Rosalie in tow, stepping out onto the green fields of Asphodel.

“The Greeks were right then,” Rosalie said.

“Not really,” Alysanne told her.

“Meaning?”

Before Alysanne could reply, Dominic appeared and pulled them both into a hug before crying into Alysanne’s shoulder. It broke her heart, because even before they knew who the other was, she had been closer to him than Rosalie.

“I’m sorry I failed you,” Dominic told her when he stopped crying, stepping out of their hug as Persephone raised an eyebrow. “If I could have made a better tracker, made a tracker that was harder for them to find. Then we could have found you and you could have lived.”

“You can’t have stood up to Greek Gods,” Alysanne told him after looking at Persephone, who nodded her head. “Even if you had found me, you’d have only died sooner and that wasn’t something any of us wanted to risk.”

Dominic and Rosalie just looked at her, before Alysanne put her hand into her pocket and showed Dominic the phone he had given her when he was seventeen. She was sure it was old-fashioned now, but it was something that she would never throw away.

“Kronos would have gotten me one way or another,” Alysanne told them as she showed him the phone. “In fact, I still had your phone the entire time. I don’t know if it works anymore.”

“I can check,” Dominic told her.

“Wait, what?” Rosalie asked her.

Alysanne looked at Persephone after she had handed Dominic her phone, she didn’t know what she could tell them. They could only hope that the war was kept out from the underworld, but she didn’t see the reason that Kronos would want it.

It might be their only safe place in a few years, but Alysanne knew better than to hold her breath.

“Their dead, it’s not like they can tell anyone,” Persephone admitted.

“Tell what?” Dominic and Rosalie asked.

Alysanne sighed before telling them what she knew about the Pagan Gods being reborn, along with the reason that she wasn’t allowed to tell them anything. Kronos would have gotten someone to tell them and she didn’t want their blood on her hands, she already had her own parents and her partners.

“I don’t like them,” Dominic told them.

“Sounds tricky,” Rosalie admitted.

“It can be, and I doubt that I’ll be in the underworld as much as some of the others,” Alysanne told them, someone had to keep an eye out for her siblings. She didn’t think Demeter could, since she didn’t think she liked many of her half-brothers. “Artemis is the Goddess of the wild and I’ll go stir crazy in a matter of days.”

“We’ll keep them out of the underworld, we out number them done here with the premortals and the Titans back,” Persephone told them.  

“Someone needs to stop them from getting the others.”

“At least until we can find the others and stand as one, we won once. We can do it again.”

“How many are back?” Dominic asked her.

“For us, it might be easier to say who’s still missing, then who’s back,” Persephone admitted.

“Then who’s still missing?” Rosalie asked her.

“Most of the Olympians, Hestia and Iris,” Persephone told her.

“Most of the Olympians?” Dominic asked her.

“Other than myself and Demeter,” Alysanne told them.

“That leaves thirteen to be born, Hades is keeping an eye on that since Ares was killed by Kronos fifty years ago.”

“Thirteen,” Dominic and Rosalie said.

“I’ll be the one to keep an eye on them,” Alysanne admitted.

“And the others?” Rosalie asked.

“We don’t know about the others, we don’t talk much and it’s safer if no one knows who’s back and who isn’t,” Persephone told them. “You can’t give away information that you don’t have, and Set has asked Hades that, one of the few times he went top side anyway.”

“Can’t give away information you don’t have,” Alysanne realised.

“What about my children?” Rosalie asked.

“And our grandchildren?” Dominic asked.

“I’ll keep an eye on them,” Alysanne promised.

“Rest before you go out and see a doctor,” Persephone told her. “You can’t take on the world by yourself.”

“And I won’t, and don’t, have to.”

“What if they try doing that again?” Dominic asked them.

“I’ll make sure they can’t touch the rest of them,” Alysanne told him with a grin. “I’ll watch after them, until they can look after themselves and help in the war.”

“Just remember to visit,” Rosalie told her folding her arms and tapping her foot. “I’m sure Mama, Papa and my sisters would like to see you as well. I’ll tell them what you told me.”

“You should be able to return to your house, if you need a place to sleep or mine,” Dominic told her.

“Don’t feel like being spied on,” Alysanne admitted. “But I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Mama kept your house clean; I took over after she couldn’t,” Rosalie informed her. “And your namesake is doing the same. None of us could bear throwing out your old things and that’s what would have happened.”

“I gave her a copy of the keys,” Persephone told them. “And deeds still in my name and it’ll stay in my name, just changing every now and then.”

“I’ll have to remember to thank Violet,” Alysanne said. “And thank you Rosalie, you know that you didn’t have to.”

“It kept them safe in the end,” Persephone told her. “They turned it into a museum, and even future generations will know your name.”          

Which means I can’t use it, Alysanne thought to herself.

“Dominic and I should catch up with everyone,” Rosalie said. “Mama will happy that I lived to an old age.”

“Alysanne and I have to go as well, we have a meeting with the others,” Persephone told them, Dominic and Rosalie waving goodbye before walking into the field and towards the houses. Alysanne stood there until she couldn’t see them anymore, running to catch up with Persephone.

“Debrief?” Alysanne asked her.

“That and a war meeting,” Persephone told her. “Your kidnapping was their first move against us, and we have to make sure their next one isn’t successful.”

“Along with making sure they don’t get anyone else,” Alysanne told her.

“Along with that.”

Alysanne grinned at her, before she looked at Hades house and blinked as she looked at the gold walls and the gems placed into them. Silver framed artwork, it made her think she had walked into the house of a millionaire without knowing it.

The Gods of Riches indeed.