Hades Legacy (Hades Series #3)

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

"Ellie! Rise and shine!"

"No." I grumble, burying my face in my pillow. "Leave me alone."

"Hell no." Jasmine retorts stubbornly, and the next thing I know the pillow has disappeared out from underneath me. I wail loudly and promptly pulling the covers up over my head. "You've been moping in that bed ever since I picked you up from the Orphanage yesterday afternoon, and seeing as you won't tell me why, I'm dragging your ass out of bed and forcing you to tell me."

"I'm not moping. I'm thinking." I huff. "Now go away let me think in the darkness, you weird sun-loving freak."

"No." She declares, yanking my covers clean off the bed and staring me down with her hands on her hips. "You've spent far too much of your life in the darkness already, and I am here to shed some light on the situation."

I make a face at her. "That was terrible Jasmine."

"Thank you." She grins at me, her big blue eyes twinkling. "Now come on! You've only got ten days up here with us, and I'm pretty sure you've filled up your moping quota anyway. So really, there's only one option left, and that option is to let me drag you out of that little hermit-hole you've made."

"There are plenty of options left Jasmine, you're just too stubborn to see them."

"See, I know you probably said something intelligent just then, but all I heard was blah blah blah, yes Jasmine, of course I'll let you drag me out of my cocoon and out of this boring little house!"

A grin worms it's way onto my lips as I struggle not to laugh at her ridiculous attempt to mimic me. "Where exactly are you wanting to drag me?"

"Up a mountain!" Jasmine announces brightly, and I blanch, staring at her. "Because hey, it's kind of parallel to the Underworld right, seeing as it's the highest place around here?"

"How is that parallel? That doesn't make any logical sense."

"Okay fine, not in the logical fashion." She rolls her eyes. "In the parallel opposite fashion."

"Oh. Right." I blink in surprise. "You know, weirdly, that makes sense."

"Exactly!" She beams. "Who wouldn't have 'climb a mountain' on their bucket list?"

"Sane people who haven't been locked up in Hell for their whole lives?" I offer up dryly.

"Oh sure, now you develop a sense of humor." She rolls her eyes, grabbing my wrist and tugging me off the bed. "Come on, let's go already! And on the way, you can tell me why you're so mopey! Yay!"

"Your cheerfulness is literally sickening right now." I inform her as she practically throws a change of clothes at me.

"Yes, well, that's because you're a boring excuse for a goddess who has no sense of the word 'positivity'." Jasmine retorts, pushing me towards the bathroom. "Now go! You can pout in your penguin pajamas to your heart's content when your parents drag you back to Hell, but for now, you're climbing a mountain and you're going to be happy about it!"

— — —

"Jas, when you said we were going to climb a mountain, I didn't think you meant a literal mountain."

"Oh quit your complaining, this isn't a mountain. It's just a really ambitious hill." She scoffs, waving her hand dismissively. "And besides, you're immortal; why are you even complaining in the first place?"

"You seem to have the impression that I'm incredibly fit because I'm immortal." I huff, stepping over a large rock jutting out of the earth.

"What, you aren't?" Jasmine asks with a cheeky smile, and I give her an exasperated look. She laughs. "Seriously? You're an unfit immortal? Do those even exist? Wait," She pauses, glancing slyly out at me from the corner of her eye. "You're not telling me that you're the Underworld's local couch potato, are you? I thought all deities had to pass a fitness test or something before they were given the keys to their powers."