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PAST DESTINIES
CONSTANCE RUTH CLARK
LYRICAL PRESS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/
To the memory of “Billie” Gammon. She followed her dream to bring the Norlands back from ruin and start the Washburn Norlands Living History Museum. Her passion for history made it come alive for hundreds, including the author.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank my husband for encouraging my writing and his patience as I ignored everything but my book. I’d also like to thank the Norlands Living History Foundation for all the fun times spent at the Norlands, both volunteering as an interpreter and dancing the night away at the barn dances. My experiences there were as close to time travel as possible in real life and planted the seeds of imagination from which my book took root. Some of the names of people and places in the book were taken from people who actually lived during the Civil War time period. I would also like to thank my friend Aimee Lantaigne, an American History teacher who also spent time ‘living history’ with me at the Norlands, for helping me keep things more historically accurate.
Prologue
Long Ago
“Whom do we have here?”
The sound of a voice boomed through the cavernous throne room making Agatha jump.
Heart hammering, she looked up to see a god who could only be Hades walk into his throne room. He was definitely a god. Perfection incarnate from the top of his coal-black hair and piercing black eyes, to the sculpted legs moving with cat-like grace peeking out from under his knee length robes. Sauntering toward his throne, he carelessly sat down.
Agatha prostrated herself before him, terrified she might say or do the wrong thing and displease him.
“I am Agatha, Almighty One.”
“Agatha, eh?” Settling into his chair, Hades motioned for a servant to fan him. “What brings you to me? Wait, don’t tell me. Let me guess.” Agatha peeked up at him, wondering how he could be so apathetic about something so important to her. He held up a hand as if to stop her from answering. “You lost your lover.”
“The love of my life.” Agatha fought back threatening tears.
“Blah, blah, blah.” Hades waved a hand in a flippant manner. “Trust me, you’re better off without him.”
Agatha raised her head from her prostrate position. She didn’t care if he was a god–he had no business dismissing her love. How dare he? And after all she’d gone through to get here.
“Better off without love?” Her sweet voice turned to steel. “Is that really what you think?”
“Love isn’t all sonnets and lovemaking.” Hades leaned forward to stare her down, but she refused to flinch. “Sometimes love means sacrifice and pain.”
“What will it take to get him back?” Agatha softened her voice while clenching a fist, trying to sound submissive. She had come for Methodios and wasn’t leaving without him. It didn’t mean she had to like dealing with Hades.
“Right to the point, eh? I like that.” Hades leaned back in his throne, stroking the pointed beard on his chin. “Getting him back is not as easy as you might think.”
“I’ll do anything.”
Doubt plagued her, and Agatha wondered if she’d made a mistake. Maybe there wasn’t anything Hades could do for her, after all. Remembering he was a god who could pretty much do as he pleased stiffened her resolve. She hadn’t come all this way and braved so many dangers to be turned away without trying all she could. She knew that if Methodios was in her position, he’d do the same. The love they’d had for each other was the kind poets wrote of, and she knew she’d never have it again. She would do anything to have him back–there was no other option.
“Anything, eh?” Hades laughed, motioning a hidden servant over with some wine.
As he took a long drink, Agatha could tell he pretended to ignore her attempts to still her trembling body as she stood before him. What was he thinking? She wished she had a window into his mind. It was nerve-wracking, wondering about her fate, now that she had taken advantage of the drop of blood from the gods, handed down from her great-grandmother. Would she have to make some sort of sacrifice? From what she’d heard about Hades, it was more likely he’d have her do some task he’d been putting off. She’d given him the bait, but would he pick it up?
“There is something I’ve been meaning to have someone do,” he said carelessly, returning his cup before motioning over a servant holding ambrosia. “You won’t be able to have your lover back until you’ve completed the task. If you still want him when you’re done.”
It didn’t matter to her that Methodios was probably as flimsy as a sheer curtain and most likely wouldn’t even recognize her. She knew most souls drank from the waters of Lethe soon after arriving, making them forget their mortal lives. Generally they floated around in the appropriate area of the underworld according to what they’d done while mortal, until they forgot enough to be reborn. Odds were high that Methodios had already forgotten her and the rest of his former life, but Agatha had faith in true love and the power of being soul mates. Still, Hades had never been one to reveal his hand too quickly.
“I said I’d do anything, and I stand by that,” Agatha said. “Just return him to me. Please.”
She was beginning to think the god was mocking her before revealing her trip was for naught, and she’d have to stay as a servant or something. She didn’t care as long as there was the possibility she could see Methodios again, even if he didn’t recognize her. She knew he would eventually. Her heart ached as she remembered his face. Closing her eyes she thought of the way his kisses made her feel and remembered his touch on her skin. Blinking away tears, Agatha was determined to be strong. “What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t want the souls. I’ll eventually get them, anyway.” Lounging back in his throne, Hades tapped his fingers on the arm. “Doesn’t pay to get too greedy, you know. Persephone wants me to do more to help the soul mates. You’ve heard of the souls split up when Zeus got mad at Hera? He took some of her children and tore apart their souls, creating two people who must be rejoined to be complete. My wife promised to find a way to help them since Hera can’t do it herself or else risk Zeus’s wrath again. That’s where you come in.”
Agatha nodded slowly as she processed what he was saying. She knew about soul mates because she was sure she’d found hers in Methodios. Wasn’t that why she’d traveled so far and endured so much to get him back?
“I need your help to bring them together before they die and come here.” Hades continued tapping his fingers impatiently on the arm of his throne. “Apparently it’s too late for them to be happy here since they don’t even recognize each other.”
“How can I help?” Agatha asked.
“You can bring the bloody souls together, is what you can do!”
Agatha knew from the servant who had advised her to put off this meeting that Persephone had left the day before to visit her mother for the next four months. Rumor had it that missing his wife always made Hades more impatient than usual. She was sure that Hades couldn’t care less about living souls, but he’d do anything for his wife. Having someone such as herself to help him would be appealing since he would see the task as beneath him, she thought. She’d