Aphrodite

The ground beneath Rachel was cold and hard, reminiscent of concrete, yet when she glanced down, she saw only darkness. Despite her heavy breathing, there was no sound—no echo of her heartbeat, nor the rasp of her breaths.

Rachel tried to speak, but nothing came out. She attempted to yell and scream, but all that surrounded her was silence. Placing her hand on her chest, she found it devoid of the familiar pulsing beat of her heart.

Gathering her courage, she lifted her seemingly weightless legs and took a tentative step forward. The ground, though invisible as an endless void, felt as solid as the earth. Swallowing her apprehension, she pressed on, placing her trust in the mysterious powers of her creature.

This experience was different from her time with Violet—bleak and seemingly endless. With no markers to gauge distance or time, Rachel trudged onward until her legs grew heavy and her mind weary. An unsettling sensation gnawed at her, as if something powerful and menacing lurked nearby, poised to ensnare her.

A faint light glimmered in the distance, sparking a flicker of hope within her. Hastening her steps, Rachel sprinted towards it. Despite the light seeming distant, no matter how far she ran, she never felt out of breath, and her heart remained eerily still.

Rachel came to a standstill, spinning in a circle, desperate for something to anchor her to reality. Then it struck her—she had the power to light her way. Drawing on her inner strength, she attempted to illuminate the surrounding void. This technique had worked back in the room with Vlad, but here, not even a blink of light emerged.

A tear trailed down her cheek as she collapsed to her knees. Clutching her head in her hands, she surrendered to her fear.

“Where am I?” she asked, her voice quivering with trepidation.

Met with silence, Rachel’s tears flowed freely, splashing onto the ground like droplets of glass. In the dark void, the puddle of tears shimmered—an inexplicable sight.

“You should not have come here,” a deep voice boomed.

Startled, Rachel recoiled. The king stood so close that she could feel the energy pulsing from him. Looking up, her heart sank at the sight of his sunken eyes and hollow cheeks. The creature from the painting was doing something to him, and it was winning the battle.

“It wasn’t a choice,” Rachel replied, her voice firm.

The king’s glare intensified. “If you thought you could find an escape from the Abaddon here, you are mistaken!” he bellowed, his eyes aflame with anger.

“I didn’t come here to escape. I touched the painting...” She paused, noticing a shift in his expression. “I don’t understand how I ended up here, but we need your help.”

“You are here because the Aphrodite is not bound by the realms.”

“Yet the Abaddon is stuck in Inanis.”

“Because he does not possess the powers of life, only death.”

This revelation astounded Rachel. Her abilities surpassed those of other creatures, and she held powers the Abaddon lacked. Maybe, just maybe, it was possible for her to defeat him.

“Each time you walk through my gates, you forget yourself,” a familiar voice said. The creature she had encountered in Violet’s jazz club. His appearance was unchanged, his demeanour as terrifying as before.

“Hades,” Rachel said, her voice trembling, recalling Estella’s suspicions. “Whatever you did... it brought me back to life.”

“Finally, you remember,” Hades responded. “I enhanced your powers, Aphrodite. I have fulfilled every request you have made, but this must be the last. I understand the pain the Abaddon caused you, but you cannot keep fleeing from it. Too many creatures are entering the underworld, and too few are born into the realm of the living. The balance is shifting—you must restore it. King Hyperion has sought my aid as Ammit attacks him, and Ammit answers only to the Abaddon.”

Wiping tears from her eyes, Rachel stood. The frail man before her was the king Vlad cherished deeply. “What can I do?”

“You must fulfill your duty!” King Hyperion roared, his voice unleashing an unexpected blast of wind that buffeted Rachel. “I have exhausted my powers trying to give Vladimir the strength to prevent the Abaddon from breaking through before your bond is severed. I have nothing left to give. If your affections for Vladimir are genuine, you will break the bond.”

Feeling weak and powerless, Rachel stood between two formidable leaders of the underworld. Their anger was directed at her, and she was at a loss. “My duty? I don’t understand what I’ve done to anger you so.”

With a dark glare, he closed the distance between them. “I warned you against changing things, but you insisted on trying to save the humans from him. You disrupted the natural order—humans once worshipped us and offered sacrifices to the Abaddon. In return, you gave them life. Now, those very humans hunt us.

“You have always fled because you are weak. You’ve so tarnished your reputation that other creatures have shunned you for centuries. Vladimir may not remember who you are, but I do. You will not sacrifice another of my loyal subjects for your selfish desires. You will release him and fulfill your duties. We must restore the natural order.”

“Vlad and I are trying to stop him,” she replied.

“Stop being so selfish. You expect everyone else to fight your battles. First the humans, and now my subjects.”

“No, that’s not...” she paused, overwhelmed. “I don’t remember any of this. I was born human. It must have been another Aphrodite. I’m only...”

“You foolish girl, there is only one,” he snapped. “There is one Abaddon and one Aphrodite, eternally bound to each other. You initiated this cycle the moment you involved the Phoenix. Your repeated suicides were acts of selfishness because you refused to confront him. You run, and you poison the men of cities with your essence until he finds you. The only one who forgets is you. The rest of us are burdened with the memory of your actions.”

Hearing those words was devastating. She had grown up, loved by her human parents and taught the ways of human life. Crossing paths with Vlad had thrown her world into chaos, and now she was learning she was hated. Something had forced her to run, and a path of destruction followed her.

As her world seemed to crumble, Rachel grappled with the shocking possibility that she might have caused pain and suffering. But that couldn’t be the whole truth. Convinced that the king was being manipulated by Ammit, she sought another explanation. The Abaddon was the true harbinger of terror, the source of all that was wrong in the world—not her.

“How do I fix it? I have to fix it.”

“Break your bond with Vladimir. Accept the Abaddon and fulfill your duties, as you once did,” the king commanded.

Hearing those words felt like a tear in the fabric of her soul. If she hadn’t known what Vlad had said about his king, she might have believed he was as malevolent as the Abaddon. Could this be Ammit’s influence speaking through him?

“How could you ask such a thing of me? I don’t remember my past. I want to stay with Vlad. I love him,” she declared. “I won’t do it. You can’t trick me into believing that this is my duty.”

He clenched his thin, bony hand into a fist. “Trick you? TRICK YOU! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” the king erupted, his voice filled with scorn. “You don’t even understand what love is! The Aphrodite toys with love as if it were nothing more than a vessel to harvest essence.”

As he finished his tirade, a hand landed on his shoulder. Rachel gasped—the skin was thick, scaly, and black, tipped with long talon-like nails. Behind the king stood a creature she presumed to be Ammit, his face hidden by a black hood.

“Ammit does not control you?” she asked.

“He will relinquish his hold when you do what is right,” the king replied.

“But Vlad said you were helping us.”

“But you are not like other creatures, are you? You are not bound by the realms nor mortality. You are the reason our numbers dwindle. Humans grow stronger, their armies swell, yet you do nothing to reinforce ours. Until the bond is severed, he is not safe. Sever the bond, Aphrodite.”

“But I don’t want to live without Vlad.”

Ammit removed his hand from the king’s shoulder and moved gracefully toward Rachel. The proximity of such a powerful creature made her shudder; she felt utterly powerless. Trapped in the underworld, she realised there was nothing she could do to stop him, especially now as he demonstrated his might.

Gently, almost tenderly, Ammit lifted his hand and placed his fingers upon the tattoo on her wrist. Paralysed with fear and unable to pull away, Rachel gazed into his beady red eyes.

With a deep, breathy voice, Ammit said, “The Abaddon protects you with his mark. Severing the bond will save Vladimir.”

“Your words mean nothing. You have one goal, and you’ll say anything to convince me.”

Ammit tightened his grip, his talon digging painfully into her skin. She winced at the pressure. “You feel it, don’t you? His power? His hold over you? Serve him, and you will feel stronger than ever before.”

“Perhaps I can commit myself to the underworld and find a way to end you,” she retorted, anger rising at his suggestion.

Ammit chuckled, his deep tone resonating. “The underworld is not a place to be feared. It is the unkind things we can do with our powers. With your powers, it would be possible for you to trap a creature to the Inanis for eternity.”

“When I figure out how, you will be the first.”

“Feisty,” Ammit sneered, digging his talon deep into her wrist.

A searing heat radiated from the wound. She strained to pull away, but his grip was unyielding. Groaning in pain, she glanced down at the long, deep cut—startlingly, no blood flowed from it. She gasped in shock.

“Sever the bond and serve the Abaddon. If you resist, I will drain the remaining essence from the king, and then I will begin with the queen. You will serve the Abaddon, one way or another,” Ammit said, finally releasing his grip.

Rachel stood in stunned silence, nursing her wounded arm, as she processed the dire situation.

“I am not one to meddle in affairs beyond this realm,” Hades began, stepping forward. He grasped her wrist, and the mark seared under his touch. Rachel cried out, the pain overwhelming as she tried to pull away. “Aphrodite, you have violated too many laws. There can only be one bond, and I will assist you in severing the other.”

“No! You can’t do this!” Rachel screamed, fighting him frantically, her fingers clawing at his chest. Marks marred his skin, yet no blood flowed; he remained unmoved, his expression impassive, clearly unaffected by pain. She tried to summon her essence, to harness her power, but nothing happened.

He sighed, sounding tired. “I am sorry, but you must be bound to the Abaddon. You are his light in the darkness.”

As he spoke, his hand glowed with a burst of white energy that emitted from his palm. It burst like lightning, her body tensing as pain ripped through her. A blast of wind hit her with such strength it knocked her right off her feet. Her stomach dropped as the surface she had been standing upon vanished. As the speed of her fall intensified, raw energy moved around her body, her purple light glowing stronger and brighter the further she fell.

Fearing the worst, Rachel clung to thoughts of Vlad. She refused to believe the words were truly the king’s—how could he forbid her from being with Vlad, the creature she had grown to love?

Searing bright lights filled her vision, her fall halting abruptly. She gasped, her lungs starving for air, as her stomach twisted with nausea. Her hands trembled and her heart pounded fiercely in her chest. As her vision cleared, relief washed over her when she saw Vlad looking down at her.

“Vlad,” she whispered. “I’m sorry…”

As the energies that had tossed her through darkness now calmed, the reality of her situation settled heavily on her shoulders. Despite the surrounding chaos, Vlad’s presence—his concerned eyes looking down at her—served as her anchor. Yet, the cold truth lingered in her mind: the bond was now broken, and even Vlad’s king did not stand with her. It felt like the world was pushing her towards a fate intertwined with a creature they all feared, including herself, ushering her towards an inevitable doom.