Page 98 of Hades

She held her hand out and the rock before her shattered as several brambles burst through it, lancing the daemons who had been trying to break into it. Rage drove her, sweeping through her blood and blackening her mood as she ripped at the males with her brambles, tearing them apart. It gave her strength as she strode out of the remains of the dome, her eyes fixed on the gate, and struck out at a female who ran at her, cutting her down without even looking at her.

Her lips flattened as she hacked her way through the enemies between her and the gate, several of the soldiers and the commander of the legion falling in around her again to help her. Around them, seedlings sprouted from the wet earth and rock, and rocketed up into towering trees. Vines snaked down from their branches to snare the daemons, trapping them for the soldiers who followed her, and their thick canopy of leaves kept the wind out. Waves crashed over them, striking the dense tops of the trees and falling like light rain rather than lashing at her.

The ground quaked and a fault split open only feet to her left as she held her arms out to steady herself. Half the trees and many males and females fell into the ravine, and wind whipped the rain into the remaining forest as her gaze followed the path of the fracture as it forked across the land. It cut over the hill behind the gate, dangerously close to it.

Her gaze lowered to the colourful disc of the gate as it dimmed and she swore it grew smaller before her eyes, shrinking a little. She stared at it and frowned as she realised it had. Awareness rolled through her to have her moving faster towards it. It was trying to close.

Hades was trying to close it.

She wasn’t the only one who noticed.

“More!” Mnemosyne yelled, a desperate note in her voice as she bellowed that order at the witch. When the witch didn’t move quickly enough, Mnemosyne lifted her blade and brought it down, cutting Cerberus across his flank and spilling his blood.

A red veil seemed to descend over Persephone’s eyes as Cerberus howled in mournful agony.

And Persephone discovered something.

There was darkness inside her too.

As violent and seething, and dangerous as what lived inside her husband.

Something snapped and it flooded her like an oily tide that smothered her lighter emotions and fed the darker ones, pulling them to the surface. She couldn’t bear this. Not this war nor Cerberus’s pain. She intended to end both.

Her head pounded, heart thundering as she stormed towards Mnemosyne, and she couldn’t hold back the fierce cry that burned up her throat. She unleashed the battle cry, snaring the titaness’s attention, and bared her teeth as she ran at the female. Brambles and spears of rock preceded her, killing anyone foolish enough to stand in her way, and she relished the shock that rolled across Mnemosyne’s face as close to a dozen of her men fell in the space of a heartbeat.

Wet strands of Persephone’s scarlet hair clung to her face and water battered her as she reached the end of the protective forest and broke out onto the flat section of rock before the gate.

She grinned as her brambles rose up behind Mnemosyne.

The titaness whirled just in time to stop them from seizing her, cutting them down with a precise swing of her sword. Cerberus panted and whimpered, and Persephone struggled to focus on the titaness and had to fight the need to check on him. He was a distraction. As soon as she had dealt with Mnemosyne and the witch, she would heal him. He would be safe then.

She did what she could for him without allowing his plight to pull her focus away from the fight, using layers of brambles to shield him. They wouldn’t stop the witch, but they might slow her down. The witch immediately leaped into action, cutting at the brambles with her sword. When they regrew thicker wherever she attacked, she turned to her magic, summoning light between her palms.

Good.

With the witch distracted, she could focus on Mnemosyne.

Persephone let out another battle cry that mingled with thunder that boomed overhead as lightning struck the cape, shaking the ground. She didn’t hold back as she clashed with Mnemosyne, their swords crossing. She twisted with her and drove her backwards, trying to force her away from the gate and the witch. She needed to keep this fight one on one.

Mnemosyne leaped back and attacked again, and again Persephone blocked her. Vibrations made her bones sing with pain as their swords met, numbing her hands, but she held on and summoned a bramble while Mnemosyne was distracted with trying to push her backwards. The vine snaked around Mnemosyne’s left leg, thorns punching from it and piercing her flesh, and she grunted and shoved forwards, knocking Persephone away from her. The titaness swept her sword down, cutting the vine in two and freeing herself, and came at her again.

Before she could reach Persephone this time, the ground between them split open and seawater surged out of it, shooting upwards to form a water wall that broke over them both. The wave caught Persephone and she grunted as it smashed her into a large stone block. Pain exploded across her left side as her hip hit it. She gripped the stone and pushed off it as wind blasted against her, and her senses blared a warning.

She ducked to her left and Mnemosyne’s sword struck the block rather than her, showering sparks into the damp air.

Persephone dove around the block, placing it between them, and brought her sword up, preparing to lash out at Mnemosyne. She ended up bracing herself instead as another enormous wave crashed over them. Another large chunk of stone slammed into Mnemosyne, carrying her away from Persephone, towards the gate. The witch screamed and then the sound cut off. Persephone clung to the chiselled block she was next to as the water retreated, dragging her towards the ocean. The heavy block moved with her and she struggled to hold onto it, and bit out a curse when the wave released her and she saw she was over one hundred feet from the gate now.

She ran towards it, leaping over fallen males and females as they struggled to recover.

The gate pulsed with light and then went clear, and what she saw on the other side had her skidding to a halt only twenty feet from it.

Hades knelt on the black rock on the other side, his far too pale skin splashed with crimson. Their eyes locked and cold arrowed down her spine as his crimson gaze softened, a wealth of love shining in it.

“No!” she yelled and lunged for the gate, her heart stopping as he sliced another deep gash into his arm, spilling more precious blood across the black ground.

And then he slumped onto his left side.

The gate wavered, the light around the edges dimming as they began to shrink inwards.

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