God of My Dreams (Greek Heroes #1) ✅ Completed

Chapter Twenty-Two: At the Gates

At the Gates  

Morpheus stood at the entrance of Hades’ domain. Once he stepped from the land of dreams into the land of the dead there was no going back. He would be at the mercy of both Hades and Hypnos and that was not particularly a place he ever wanted to be, but he had little choice now.

The dream realm was technically part of the underworld but operated under its own god, laws, and attendants. The two worlds absolutely did not mix. It was among their most sacred and oldest laws that both realms were to be ruled separately and without influence from the other. That being said, it was forbidden for any Oneiroi to willingly pass through into the land of the dead without the express invitation of Hades himself. Morpheus would be crossing a line that was forbidden to his kind but he was not alone – his younger brother Tor stood beside him.

Phobetor looked at him now, “Are you sure about this, Morph? We could really be stepping in it depending on Hades' mood. You know as well as I, the lord of the underworld does not take kindly to unwelcomed visitors.”

Trespassers were more like it Morpheus thought but kept silent. Tor was right but there was no other way. Gwen-Stacey was somewhere in there and he had to find her before it was too late.

One of the lesser known rules of an Olympian’s power was if a mortal died at the hands of a god, the person’s spirit was sent to Hades before passing to whichever afterlife he or she worshipped in life. Initially, when the Greeks had been the primary deities worshiped in the mortal realm, a trip to the underworld was to be expected. Souls passed into Hades and were sent to various points: the Elysian Fields, Tartarus, Isles of the Blessed or beyond, but this was no longer the case. The chaos one of their death curses caused now was a certifiable nightmare and was studiously avoided by all. Artemis appeared to have absolutely no qualms with the bureaucratic red tape associated with killing a mortal in this day and age.

To make things even more complicated, the time a soul spent in Hades varied depending on how ready the soul was to depart their life. Gwen-Stacey had most certainly not expected to die today. Morpheus knew from reading her mind Gwen-Stacey worshipped the Christian god. Her soul would only pass through the Greek underworld for a short time before moving on to where her soul felt it should inevitably go. Morpheus had no doubt his was a very short window – he had to get in, find Gwen-Stacey, and get her back out before she moved on or Hades himself found out she was there. Any number of things could go wrong but running out of time was the most prominent. Morpheus only had a small window to work with and every second counted.

On top of everything else, this was most certainly guaranteed to be a major pain in his ass.  

First of all, Hades hated visitors. No one stepped foot inside the underworld without the god’s express invitation. Even the top gods, who needed no such permission, were loath to visit Hades’ domain. It was not entirely a five-star beach resort down here.

To make matters worse, Hades himself was a damn recluse. He hated the gods even more than Morpheus, which was really saying something. Morpheus and his brothers, for their part, made it a point to stay out of the grim god’s way. Even his father gave Hades a wide berth. Today he was deliberately breaking the law and tossing caution out the freaking window.

It would be hell to pay if he was caught.

“I don’t have a choice, Tor,” Morpheus replied without looking at his younger brother.

According to popular myth,  Tor and his other brother Phantasos were said to be triplets, with Morpheus being the oldest among them. This was a misconception perpetrated by that meddlesome poet, Ovid. The Romans were obsessed with genealogy and were always trying to connect the dots of everyone’s origin – including their gods. As usual, when it came to their knowledge of anything having to do with gods, they were more often wrong than right.