Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 74198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Cerberus barks, all three of his heads chiming in at different times. I let out a short laugh. My mind is wound too tight around Persephone’s absence for genuine delight, but it is close enough.
I straighten and wave my hand at the largest grate. The fire had burned low, but it flares again, casting its reflection into the obsidian. The flames lick up the ashes and flicker into a bright light. The sight is a reminder of Persephone’s face in the firelight at Olympus. The sunset becoming an ember behind her. The pink, soft folds between her thighs. Her power surging through the glass.
A shiver quakes in me. Her power had been evident. Zeus’s attempt to starve her of it has failed. I have no doubt that he has recognized it, and that is why he felt such fury tonight.
With the flames echoing in my gaze, I know he has only himself to blame for what comes next. Zeus did not need to cower in the face of the prophecy. He didn’t have to resort to these machinations to ensure his rule.
A loud crack blisters through my thoughts, and I turn toward the sound. Eerily, calmly, and expectantly. If my heart beats faster, it’s because I’m impatient to say what must be said.
Hecate, in all her glory, strides across the andron, running her fingers through her hair and tossing it over her shoulders. The dark robe she wears this evening is reminiscent of the ashes in the fire.
“Send her to the mortal realm,” she says calmly, her low voice still echoing against the walls as she arrives at my side of the andron. “Demeter and Persephone can live there until it is decided.”
A crease forms in the middle of my brow as I tell her, “You do not know why I have called you here.”
“Send her to the mortal realm,” Hecate insists. “You know it is for the best.”
“I do not.”
Hecate narrows her eyes, the darkness knows no depth in them. “Why have you called me here, Hades?”
“It is time for my queen to return.”
“Surely, you can see the wisdom in sending her to the mortal realm. With her mother. A chance for healing and for Demeter to see reason. To see the strength in her child and what good has come.”
“There is no wisdom in being separated from my queen. I cannot allow her to stay in Zeus’s presence any longer. Not when he fears her strength.”
Hecate waves this off. “He fears all his children.”
“The problem is that he does not fear me. Minox,” I call. Raising my voice, even slightly, isn’t necessary but in my desperation I am unable to stop myself. I could call to Minox in a whisper, and he would hear me from the farthest reaches of the Underworld and come to my side.
He glides out of the shadows, his form materializing as he steps into the firelight. He lifts his bowed head. “My Lord?”
I’m filled with anticipation that seems wild. Nearly uncontrollable. It is like fire in my veins. A sudden power I had not noticed before. It’s like the moment I saw light again after my long imprisonment. It’s like stepping foot in the Underworld and understanding, for the first time, that I had a realm to exist in—one that lived and breathed and turned in its cycles. It did not matter that life was for the mortal realm. This would be my life.
I inhale, and the air tastes the same as it did that day. Brimming with all the power of the souls who dwell here and the attendants who do the work of judging them and guiding them.
“Bring darkness over the world,” I order Minox. “Bring the fear of death. Unleash monsters in the dark.”
“Hades,” Hecate says urgently. Her eyes widen like I’ve never seen before.
“My Lord?” Minox questions. I expect this from him. He saw the depths of my grief and rage. He saw me tearing souls apart and causing carnage throughout the Underworld. He will want to be sure I am not repeating those actions.
“Do as I command,” I say, staring into his eyes. Then I look back at Hecate. “And let Zeus know—Olympus will be next.”
Hecate opens her mouth to speak, but there is nothing she can say to change my mind. There is nothing anyone can say. If she thought the pendulum had swung, she was wrong. The darkness has just begun.
The only person who could change my mind is Persephone, but Persephone is not here. This is what I must do to get her back. I have known it since I saw the lightning in the sky, glaring at me from Olympus. The mortals always pay the price of the gods. Demeter started this and I will finish it.
Hecate seems to realize what I am about to tell her before I can speak the words. I see the shock flash through her eyes, and then calculation.