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"Hades!" Apollo&039;s voice shook the walls of the Lord of the Underworld&039;s Great Hall

The dark god rushed into his throne room with his wife close behind hinize his friend, which had nothing to do with his strange, blood-spattered clothing or the glowing sphere of light he clutched to his chest It was the wild, crazed look in his eye that was so totally foreign to what he knew of the God of Light "What has happened?"

"They killed her The et to her in ti heavily, he spoke in short bursts

Hades&039; wife moved from beside her husband Within Persephone&039;s immortal body, Carolina&039;s soul shivered as she instantly understood

"This is Paht

"A ht the soul of a modern mortal here!" Hades exclaimed

"Of course he did," Lina&039;s voice was hushed "What else could he do?"

"You ain"

Lina&039;s sharp eyes skewered the God of Light "That&039;s enough of that kind of talk She is still Palanced back at where her husband was standing "My love, you must welcome her"

The Lord of the Underworld moved reluctantly He stretched out his hand, but before he touched the light, his gaze caught Apollo&039;s "It is not wise to meddle with the Laws of the Universe, my friend"

"She is od shook his head sadly "Then let us hope that the Fates are understanding" He touched his pal ball "You are welcoht quivered and then elongated With a sound that was very h, it took on for within the circle of Apollo&039;s arht luminescence, but she had also taken on a surreal, transparent look - as if she was a half-finished watercolor of herself With a sob, Apollo tightened his arht He was afraid if he loosened his hold on her, she would float away She didn&039;t move or speak

"Pamela!" Apollo cried "It&039;s me I have you All will be well now"

A shiver passed through her almost insubstantial body "Apollo?"

"Yes, my sweet!" He pressed his face into her hair

She pulled back fro around in confusion She saw that she was standing in an enor woaze went down to her body, and her face went blank with shock

"Tell me this is a dream, Apollo Tell me that pretty soon I&039;ll wake up," Pamela&039;s voice trembled

"I can not," he said brokenly

"Pamela," Lina&039;s voice was like a warhtly on her arm "I am Carolina; you may call me Lina if you&039;d like And this is e and round in her pale face

"Hades?" she whispered Woodenly, she lifted her translucent hand and stared at it "I&039;m dead? And now I&039;m in" Her eyes flew back to Hades, and her mouth opened, as if she wanted to scream

"You&039;re in Elysia," Lina told her with a gentle smile

She took the hand Pamela still held in front of her and wrapped it in her war the immortal powers that rested within Persephone&039;s body to coe of the Elysian Fields The Underworld is a very beautiful place, honey There&039;s nothing here you need to be afraid of"

"The Underworld?" Shaking her head, Pamela looked at Apollo "Why am I in the Greek Underworld?"

"I didn&039;t knohat else to do" Apollo&039;s eyes pleaded with her to understand

"No," Pamela whispered "No, it can&039;t be"

"You died before the sun set I could do nothing to save you Please forgive o - I - I don&039;t think I could ever let you go"

Pa at hi towards her and knew all over again the deadly impact With a jerky, mechanical movement, she stepped from the circle of Apollo&039;s arms to stare wide-eyed at him

"I don&039;t knoe do next," he said

"Well," Lina said et cleaned up and into some clothes that don&039;t have" She paused and decided on different wording "Clothes that aren&039;t so dirty And while you do that, I&039;ll show Paht her husband&039;s eye and raised her brows "We&039;ll be fine"

"I will not be long," Apollo told Paazed at him unresponsively as he and Hades left the room

Lina still held Pae silver-plated door on the far side of the roo, the newly dead spirit followed her Once through the door, they entered a wide hallway that was hung with jeweled chandeliers Lina turned to the right and then again to the left Huge glass doors opened without her touching them, and they walked out into an incredibly lovely courtyard filled with e fountain, and flowers all different shades of white

Even through the terrible knot of panic that seener within Pamela noticed the beauty that surrounded her

"It&039;s fantastic, isn&039;t it?" Lina said "I loved it from the first moment I set eyes on it"

Pamela looked at Lina and blinked rapidly, like a sleepwalker fighting to awaken

"You&039;re not really one of the her chestnut-colored hair to ripple around her shapely waist She smiled and pointed at her body "This is one of them, but this" - she placed her hand over her heart - "is very mortal I&039;m like you - a spirit that has been displaced from what they call the modern mortal world Here, let&039;s sit at this bench" Lina waited until Pamela had settled herself to continue "I&039; story, but the end result is that Persephone and Iand summer in Tulsa, her spirit is there in my body, and I&039;m here in the Underworld with Hades Fall and winter in Oklahoma, I&039;oddess body" Lina grinned "It&039;s a pretty good deal, too Oklahoestured around them - "is always perfect And then, of course, there&039;s Hades" Her eyes softened

"I can&039;t I don&039;t know if I can accept all of this" Pamela wiped a hand over her brow and then hostly hand "I don&039;t feel like me; I don&039;t look like me"

"I know, honey, I know It&039;s always hard when someone dies before they&039;re ready And with you it&039;s especially difficult because this isn&039;t where you expected to end up But I promise you that Elysia welcomes you You&039;ll find peace here You don&039;t need to be afraid Just listen to your spirit - it knows more than you think it does"

"Peace" Pa for breath anyh the shock and the panic she could sense the edge of so that reminded her a little of Lina&039;s voice It eet and war rain, or an afternoon nap, and it was in the air around her A s her It see a lost child into her ar her face

Paain This tihten her Yes, it was still her - her arain, studying it recognizing the soul within the altered casing The war her with palpable acceptance and love

"I think I&039;h her short hair, only vaguely noticing that it felt a little like passing her hand through a coolLina "I can believe that I can find peace here, but what about love?"

"You already know that answer, Pamela Do you still love Apollo?"