Goddess of Spring (Goddess Summoning #2)(40)

"Then that just reinforces the fact that you made a wise decision. Stheneboia would have been reborn to make someone else miserable."

"She based her life on lies - most of which she told herself about her true nature. It was not riches or luxury for which her soul yearned; it was love. And love cannot exist with lies and deceit," Hades said.

"You're very insightful about love," Lina said thoughtfully. Hades paused before he spoke his next words, and as he paused he felt hope stir once again within him. "I have spent eons studying the souls of the dead, and I have come to understand that love is one emotion that mortals know infinitely better than the gods."

Lina blinked in surprise. Mortals knew love better than the gods? For a woman who had been divorced and hadn't had a decent date in years, his words came as quite a shock.

"Do you real y think so?" she asked incredulously.

Hades felt the flicker of hope falter. "Yes, I know it as truth," he said with grim finality before he nodded to Iapis, who cracked the spear against the floor again.

Lina had little time to ponder Hades' reaction to her question. At lapis' command, another shadowy figure detached from the waiting doorway and Lina watched a pale woman make her way hesitantly across the Great Hal . She was dressed in much more somber robes than Stheneboia had been, but her attire looked just as rich and her dark hair was intricately dressed in a similar fashion. A smal coronet circled her head. As she drew closer, Lina could see that she was a plump but attractive woman who looked to be thirty-ish. Then she felt a jolt as she realized that the splash of scarlet on the front of her robes was an open wound, which stil seeped blood. The spirit curtsied deeply.

"Persephone and Hades, I am honored to bow before the Goddess of Spring as well as the Lord of the Underworld."

The woman's voice was strong and regal. Lina smiled and inclined her own head in welcome.

"Greetings, Dido. What petition does the Queen of Carthage have to set before me today?" Hades asked.

"Hades, I beseech your blessing that I may depart the Region of Lamentation beside the River Cocytus and pass into Elysia."

The God studied the spirit thoughtfully. "Have you overcome the grief of your unrequited love, Dido?"

The woman lowered her eyes, not coyly as had Stheneboia, but in a manner that Lina recognized too well from her own past. She lowered them to hide the pain that was stil reflected there.

"Yes, Great God. I am finished pining for that which I cannot have." Lina shifted restlessly in her chair and glanced at Hades. Surely he wouldn't believe Dido. Hades rubbed his chin and considered the dead queen. "What have you learned from your time of lamentation?"

"That I should have believed more firmly in the strength of love. I should have known that Aeneas just needed time. He was ordered by Zeus to leave me, what else could he do? He was a pious man, a warrior of great faith. It was not his fault. I should have been more understanding, more wil ing to - " Her words broke on a sob and she covered her face with her hands.

"Dido, you have not overcome your lamentation." The God's voice was gentle.

"But I have!" Dido raised her chin and wiped her face. "It is simply that I am fil ed with the awe of a child at being in the presence of immortals, and it has made my emotions tremulous." Her shining eyes shifted to Lina frantical y, looking for aid from the Goddess.

Lina returned the desperate woman's gaze with sympathy. She knew too well how it felt to be abandoned and left to blame only oneself.

"I grant your request, Dido. You may enter Elysia with my blessing." Hades' words shocked Lina to the core. She found herself staring blankly at the God as the exuberant Dido rushed from the Great Hal .

Again, Iapis moved to raise the God's spear and Hades' motion prevented him.

"You do not agree with my decision, Persephone?" He turned in his throne so that he was facing the Goddess.

Lina straightened her spine and met his gaze. You're a goddess... you're a goddess... you're - no. She stopped the litany. More importantly, she was a woman who had, in real life, loved and been rejected and she understood exactly what Dido was feeling.

"No. I do not agree with your decision."

Surprised by her answer he said, "Could you explain?"

"Dido's not over Aeneas. She's deep in the trenches of hurting and blaming herself. She's stil a victim. Whatever lesson the River of Lamentation was supposed to teach her, it hasn't taken hold yet."

Hades felt his anger rise. What did Persephone know of love and loss? She was a young goddess who had always been given everything she desired.

"And how would you know that?"

Lina's eyes narrowed at his condescending tone, but she caught herself before she spat a snide answer at him. To Hades she was only a young goddess. He had no way of knowing her true past and her heartaches. She took deep, slow breaths and got a firm grip on her temper before she began her explanation.

"Wel , there were a couple major hints. First, looking away and crying was a dead giveaway. Pardon the bad pun. Second, did you listen to what she said?" Lina barreled on, without giving him a chance to reply. "Her whole little speech was fil ed with I, I, I and poor me, me, me. Add that to the

"it's not his fault, it's my fault," and you have one huge victim complex. She doesn't need to go to paradise, she needs to go to the gym, or maybe to a shrink, and work out some of that selfhatred." Lina abruptly shut up, wondering if Hades had any idea what a shrink was. He cocked his head sideways and looked at her as if she was a very interesting science experiment. Then he did something that real y pissed her off. He smiled. And chuckled. She set her jaw and dug deep, trying to find her own voice somewhere in Persephone's youthful sweetness, and she was rewarded by a steely tone with a satisfyingly sarcastic edge.