Daughter of Hades has just released a boxset! Here's an excerpt from this fantastic new adult series.
I really wanted to say that to the group of recently deceased that stepped up to my father, begging him not to send them to Tartarus, the place of eternal torment—pretty much where all the bad people went. Beside Father was Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aiakos, the other judges of the dead. I sure as Cronus didn’t want to be judged by that deadly trio. First off, they had been here longer than I had, since Zeus appointed them, and although nothing really ages here after death, they seemed to be older and grumpier than ever before. And I, unfortunately, had to witness today’s session of pleas because “I needed to learn the ins and outs of the business in case anything ever happened.” At least, that is what my father, Hades, kept telling me.
Father sat there, quiet, as the three stooges (that’s what I called them in my head, if they ever found out, I would be in so much trouble) examined the next contestant. The man before them was on the fence of being sent to either Tartarus or the Asphodel Meadows, which was why he was being judged. I already knew my father’s decision, since he was quite predictable when it came to judging people.
It would be Tartarus.
Father always took a long while, as if his decision hadn’t already been made. He could have finished judging today’s deceased already if he didn’t take his time about it. It annoyed me tremendously, which I knew he could tell as I sat there nervously fighting with my dress sleeves.
One of the men went down on his knees. “Please, have mercy on me. I never meant to do those things, had I known— “
“Had you known, you would have been perfect, right?” Hades interrupted with a scowl. “Done everything you could to be in paradise? There are no second chances here, the gods have given humans a chance to obey them, a chance to live in paradise. It is not our fault you don’t see the signs.”
I let out a brief yawn, trying to cover it with my hand, but my father noticed right away and gave me one of his cold looks. I tried my hardest to sit up straight, to appear as though my mind hadn’t drifted off to thinking about meeting up with my friends Huntley and A.J., or what I told Father was “being tutored about modern Earth affairs” by these friends of mine. Really, we just hung out and tried not to get into trouble.
Tried was the key word there.
“Tartarus. Send in the next one,” Hades ordered.
This article was written by E.V. Everest.
E.V. Everest is a YA fantasy and sci-fi author, best known for her novel Seven Crowns. Check out more of her work by clicking any of the book covers below.
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