Page 82 of Hades and Persephone: Threads of Fate

She peers into my eyes, hers narrowing. “Sohuman, you are now.” Her gaze drifts down my body and back up again. “But your immortal soul must be in there. You look identical, every freckle the same as before.”

At my side, Addison breathes, “What the fuck is going on?”

Demeter—I’m seriously beginning to believe the woman before me is Demeter—pays him no mind. “I suppose we shall see the power you possess now.”

“I—” My throat is so painfully raw. Scorched by the acid of my fear. “I have none.”

“You must.” She smiles. “For if you don’t, you serve no purpose at all.”

“And—” I croak. “If I don’t?”

“I’ll just have to kill you again. And this time, when the Moirai bring you back, I’ll make sure they do it right.”

Chapter

Thirty-Six

Persephone

Addison is losing it.I feel like I should be, too. Maybe I am—but my freak-out is on the inside. His is external.

As Demeter forces us lower and lower and lower into the darkness of the yawning temple, he’s muttering prayers to a God I’m no longer certain exists—what with—you know, the literal Goddess behind me and all.

“Stop,” she commands. Addison whimpers. Actually whimpers. I can’t blame him. Sheisterrifying.

“What are you going to do to us?” Addison demands after a few more steps. The darkness is lit by nothing more than the phone I carry.

“That depends.”

Somehow, I find my voice. “On what?”

“On whether or not you serve your purpose.”

“What is that?”

She shoves Addison in the back when he pauses, and he stumbles. With our hands clasped tightly together as they are, he nearly brings me down with him before he steadies himself.

I don’t dare glare at the monster over my shoulder.

I can’t help but wonder if my nightmare had been trying to tell me something. To warn me of the beast that lingers under her flesh.

The Gods are real.

My brain can’t seem to cope with that fact. Every time I think those words, the thought simply stops. As though I can’t mentally function—can’t think—beyond this reality I know.

The reality that has always been a lie.

I want to weep. I want to fall to my knees and pray to the God I’ve been taught to worship.

We arrive at the base of the temple, so far below the surface—so much farther than we exhumed. For a moment, both me and Addison stand there with our mouths gaping wide. The room is massive, contained by four stone walls adorned with carvings. Under the light of my phone, images of the Underworld come to life. Images that…

“It’s a map,” Addison breathes.

“A very accurate one, indeed.” Demeter remindsus of her presence as she walks straight to the back wall where the carving rises from the stone in the shape of two massive ivory horns. Each horn is arched slightly inward, appearing as a gate of sorts. Demeter turns back to me. “You will open this portal for me.”

My mouth falls. Addison swings his wide gaze my way.

I find the strength to point at the wall. “That’s astonewall.”

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