Page 77 of A Touch of Chaos

“What is it?” Ariadne asked.

Whatever it was, it was massive andskinless.

“I don’t know,” Persephone said, but as she neared its head, she thought she could guess. “I think…it was a lion,” she said.

“Oh gods,” Ariadne said right before she threw up again.

Persephone waited until she was finished to speak.

“What do you think happened to it?”

“This is the work of a person,” said Ariadne.

“Hades?” Persephone asked.

“Maybe,” said Ariadne.

Hope rose in her heart. Maybe they were close to finding him.

“It looks like he…” Ariadne’s voice trailed away, and Persephone moved to her side to see she was looking atthe lion’s paws, one of which had been stripped of its middle claw.

Persephone looked at Ariadne.

“Do you think…we need to do the same?”

Before she could respond, Galanthis answered with a meow.

“You can’t be serious,” Ariadne said.

Persephone knelt, examining the claws.

They did not look like bone so much as steel. She reached out and touched the tip of one, surprised when it cut her so easily.

“Ouch,” she hissed and drew her finger away quickly. “They’re sharp…like…knives.”

Yet she thought that these were even sharper.

“Here,” said Ariadne. She pulled off her leather gloves. “Use these as a barrier.”

Persephone took them and layered the gloves on one hand, hoping it would be enough to keep the claw from slicing through to her hand. She chose the middle one, and as she wrapped her gloved fingers around the sharp nail, she wondered why Hades had done this but also knew that he wouldn’t unless he had a good reason.

Still, there was a wrongness to it that made Persephone’s stomach turn. She grit her teeth hard as she felt around the top of the claw where it connected to bone and then used her knife to slice between them with her blade. When the claw was free, she took off the gloves and slipped the claw into the finger, storing it in the pocket of her jacket.

“Well, that was horrible,” she said as she stood, retrieving her spool of thread. “Let’s get out of here.”

They left the lion behind and wove through the endless darkness.

“How far are we from the center?” Persephone asked.

“I…don’t know,” said Ariadne. “I’ve lost track of…everything.”

Persephone had too.

“What do we do if he isn’t there?” she asked, though she hated to even entertain the idea.

“Don’t think that way,” said Ariadne. “He’ll be there, if anything because Theseus will take joy in watching you reunite and then tearing you apart.”

As hard as it was to hear, Persephone appreciated Ariadne’s honesty.

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