Page 8 of Taking Orders in the Underworld

“Don’t speak to me in riddles,” Nika grumbled.

“Very well.” Darthyria inclined his head. “Then this is where I leave you.” With that, he began trotting back downstream to his post.

Nika took a deep breath, steeling herself, knowing that while there was no fire this was still likely to hurt. She marked out the easiest path, memorising where she would put her feet so she could move swiftly across, and went for it.

The whole process probably took no more than thirty seconds, but on the other side of the river Nika had to bite back a small scream of pain. Raising her heels, she saw that they were blackened – the soles of her shoes having disintegrated.

Luckily, she’d packed a spare pair of everything with her layers. She had just finished fishing on her boots, and tucking the scarf into her leather jacket, when she heard another sound that had her head whipping around.

A cackle.

There, snapping her wings shut and walking towards Nika in a blood-wet dress, was Tisiphone. She wore a serpent wrapped around her waist in place of a belt, and a whip in one hand that dangled down to her boots. It kissed the ground as she walked towards Nika.

“Hello Aunty.”

“Nika.”

“I should have known you’d still be here, guarding the gate to the entrance of Tartarus.”

She accepted the open arms of Tisiphone for the briefest of hugs before stepping back.

“Are you going to let me through?”

“Is that any way to speak to your aunty?”

Nika shoved her hands back into her jacket. “I can imagine what’s been said about me behind my back.”

Tisiphone tsked at her. “Just because some of us don’t understand why you felt the need to leave, or your current occupation, it doesn’t mean we don’t still love you. You still perform your duties as an Arae when called upon, I suppose?”

“Of course,” Nika lied smoothly.

As one of the original three Erinyes, Nika’s aunty had taught her everything she needed to know as an Arae when it came to cursing the Souls who broke their oaths. Of her three aunties, Tisiphone’s speciality was inflicting madness that would haunt the Soul – a little voice in the back of their heads, which got louder the more they tried to ignore it.

Sometimes, Nika swore she could hear a little voice like that in the back of her own head and wondered if her aunty had placed it there as she’d left Tartarus the first time.

“Well then, welcome home.” Tisiphone gestured to the black iron gate behind her at the mouth of Tartarus.

It had been too easy.

“You’re really just going to let me through?”

The unspoken words sat thick in Nika’s throat – after she had ran away in the bright light of day all those years ago.

“I’ll have to tell your mother you’re here.”

“I’d really rather tell her myself.”

Tisiphone shrugged. “That’s my price of entry. You of all spirits know that nothing goes without consequence, particularly in this land.”

“Fine,” Nika said, rolling her shoulders back and squaring them beneath her leather jacket. “I can handle Nyx.”

Tisiphone cackled again. “Don’t let her catch you calling her that or there will be much more than consequences you’ll be facing, child.”

But Nika was already heading through the mouth of the mountain.

CHAPTER FOUR: As night falls

No sooner had Nika entered through the gates than night descended.

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