Page 77 of Queen of the Underworld

Persephone shored up her courage and strode forwards—heading east.

Moving away from the mountains would give her a clearer view of the sky and she might be able to spot the glow again so she could calculate how far she was from the tower. If nothing else, it was moving her closer to the gate. She could reach Zeus and he could bring her back to Hades. She was sure he would want to help his brother.

Every step that carried her further from Hades, her heart grew heavier. She cast a look over her shoulder from time to time, an ache to turn around and go back to him forming behind her breast, but she steeled herself and kept moving forwards. The glow in the sky was faint, at a great distance from her, or perhaps the fires were dying out. She wasn’t sure which it was, but returning to Olympus for help seemed the more sensible course of action than climbing a mountain in the hope it would get her back to Hades.

Persephone’s steps slowed as she reached the swath of gnarled black trees, her desire to return to the tower growing stronger as she looked at the path that wound through their sharp branches. She wrapped her arms around herself, a chill skating down her spine. A forest had never looked so forbidding.

Frightening.

She had a bad feeling about this place that eclipsed the one she had about Nyx.

The goddess of night was up to something, and Persephone was beginning to fear she might be the one making a play for Hades’s throne, weakening him by removing Persephone from his reach so she could take him down. She looked over her shoulder in the direction she had come, the need to find Hades increasing. She had to warn him. She set her jaw and shook her head, ridding herself of the temptation to turn around. It was quicker to get to Olympus and convince Zeus to bring her to his brother.

If Nyx had really dropped her near the gate.

Persephone forged onwards, but not along the path.

She avoided it, making her own route through the dead trees. Their blackened trunks and branches glittered in the fading light, and she frowned as she skimmed her fingers over cracks in their surfaces. They looked as if they had been scorched and turned to charcoal. She inspected her fingers and the black soot on them.

Had someone set fire to this forest?

She looked around her, taking in how vast it was as it stretched in all directions as far as her eyes could see.

What kind of blaze could have devoured this entire forest before someone could put it out?

That bad feeling in the pit of her stomach grew worse and she quickened her pace, hurrying to get through the forest as fast as she could, a need to reach the other side drumming inside her in time with the galloping of her heart. She flinched as one of the branches snagged her hair and she grasped the tangled red lengths to tug them free. She made it only a few steps before a lower branch snared her dress. She twisted and pulled herself free and gathered her skirts, bunching them up so they no longer hindered her. No matter what she did, branches caught her hair and her dress, forcing her to stop and free herself, as if they were trying to slow her down.

She lifted her head and turned slowly as a feeling sank through her. Was she heading the right way? Panic flooded her veins as she turned in a slow circle, trying to get her bearings, her heart labouring as her breaths shortened and fear she had been turned about when fighting the branches chilled her blood to icy sludge.

Persephone stilled as a sound cut through the thick, eerie silence that had been her only company for what felt like hours.

A howl.

She stretched her senses outwards, cursing the wards Hades had used on her and how they dampened them, placing her at an even greater disadvantage. Her fingers flexed as she tried to locate the beast and she instinctively reached for her powers. That void inside her where they should have been had never felt so cold and dreadful as another howl went up. This one louder.

Closer.

Persephone twisted on her heel, her gaze darting around the forest. Where was the creature? How large was it? If it was moving through these charred trees without making a sound to alert her to its location, then it had to be small, not much larger than she was. Could she fend off and possibly even defeat such a beast?

There was only one way of finding out.

She took stock of all the trees, hurrying from one to the next, and stopped as she found what she was looking for.

Persephone gripped the long, lance-like branch in both hands, pressed the sole of her right bare foot against the trunk and heaved backwards, putting her weight and all her strength into breaking it free. She gritted her teeth and grunted as she wrestled with it, sweat beading her brow as the stifling heat and fatigue worked against her. She had thought the trees would be weakened by the blaze that had destroyed them, but they were stronger for it. That both worked against her and in her favour. Her spear would also be stronger, if she could get it off the tree.

Another howl went up and she stilled again as snuffling and twigs snapping followed it.

And she sensed it closing in on her.

Her pulse rocketed and her limbs shook, but she steeled her heart and sharpened her mind, refusing to let fear get the better of her. Hades’s words about the creatures of his realm rang in her mind, laced with the mocking barbs Nyx had cast at her. The goddess of night was right, and she wasn’t strong or a warrior, but she could be. She would prove to Nyx and to herself that she could be both of those things.

She had never fought before, but what better motivator was there than her life being on the line?

Persephone shoved her foot harder against the tree trunk and unleashed a rather not-at-all feminine growl of effort as she heaved backwards, gripping the branch so hard that her fingers ached. She shrieked as it suddenly gave way and she landed on her back with a harsh grunt, the heavy branch falling on top of her.

The beast charged into the small clearing.

Persephone grabbed the branch and scrambled to her feet, running around a tree to gain some space and buy herself time to plan an attack.

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