How to Reform a Rake (Myths Finding Love #3) COMPLETED!

Chapter 32- Goodbyes Are Hard

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Note: Again, late updates because I am busy with work. Also, got sick with the flu. Thanks to everyone who waited patiently.

***hands out boxes of tissues this early on***

CHAPTER 32- GOODBYES ARE HARD

The Fields of Asphodel
The Underworld

-Hera-

Anxiously, I scanned the faces of the shades nearby.

There were so many of them and finding Zeus would be like finding a needle in a haystack. This would take forever and I desperately wanted to see him now.

"Is there no faster way?" I asked Hades and Thanatos. They were the ones who volunteered to accompany me after I stopped crying. But stopping the flow of tears didn't mean that the pain was gone. It did not mean that the hole inside my chest was now patched up.

"The fields of Asphodel is very big. Even I cannot teleport directly to its heart. We must pass through the gates. But don't worry, Zeus is not wandering aimlessly like the other shades. I provided him the best spot in all of Asphodel. He spends his afterlife under the shade of the lone willow tree."

Hades' declaration gave me some measure of comfort. There was only one tree in the vast fields of Asphodel. I was glad Zeus had it. He was the king of the gods and he deserved the very best.

I reached for the glass inside my pocket and trailed my finger across the smooth surface. The lightning contained inside intensified as though reacting to my touch. And touching Zeus' last gift was the only thing that kept the hollow feeling at bay even for just a few seconds.

I did break the glass as Thanatos instructed. But after, I gathered the small lightning bolt contained inside it and made the glass whole again. I just couldn't bear to let go of the last lightning bolt anyone in the world would ever see. The other reason was that it was Zeus' gift and it's the last thing of him that I have.

I gazed at the lightning inside and was immediately taken aback to the moment I smashed the crystal.

♔-♔-♔-♔-♔-♔-♔-♔-♔-♔

The Throne Room
The Underworld Palace

"Be strong, Hera. You can do this," Aerith whispered as she squeezed my hands. Amphitrite also reached for my hands and squeezed. Then, my two friends stepped away.

I nodded. I couldn't reply for my throat was clogged up with tears. I just attended my own husband's funeral, only realizing when it's almost done that it was, in fact, my husband.

I felt a mixture of pain, grief, humiliation, confusion and anger. I also wanted answers. And they said that this fragile glass ball contained the answers I sought.

Everyone else left the Throne Room to give me privacy. I took a deep breath and smashed the crystal in front of me.

At first, nothing happened. And then smoke rose from the shards of the broken glass. A few seconds more and it solidified to Zeus' form.

He looked so solid and real that it was as if I could reach out and touch him. Even in this illusion, the blue of his eyes and his intense, piercing stare still stood out. And those haunting blue orbs, gazed into my hazel ones.

"Hera," Zeus whispered.

I closed my eyes for my heart threatened to burst after hearing him say my name. The last few times he said it, it was in a pleading tone. Now, it sounded lonely and resigned.