Page 37 of A Spell of Bones and Madness
Below the Mountain of Cyther
Pale skin—made even more so from the lack of sunlight—radiated in a faint golden glow. The buzzing was incessant. Damning, even. One of many constants in the cave.
Everything else was black and red. The obsidian rock that lined the walls, ancient letters scrawled in thick crimson liquid. A matted three-headed creature lay at the entrance to the cave, its heavy breathing the only reprieve for the buzzing—no, not buzzing—hissing.
She thrashed, trying to send the creatures scattering below, but it was to no avail. Her wrists were shackled together anda chain threaded between the cuffs at her wrists and the ones around her ankles. Lying on the floor of the cave, she was nothing more than a lamb out for slaughter, skewered and hung on a spit for others to devour.
Her voice abandoned her—no way to cry for help, not that she expected anyone here would want to help her. There had been no movement other than the three-headed creature and whatdaimonslay below her, not since she was brought here days before.
Was it better than the cage they kept her in before? Its golden metal searing fire into her flesh with every touch? Was the hissing better than the maddening screams she could not escape? It wasn’t as if she could escape wherever this was.
Thin, writhing snakes lined the floor, so she could not tell what lay below. If she was just lying on a mountain of the creatures or if something was covered deep underneath. Their fiery gold eyes illuminated as they bit into her flesh, drinking what little power she had left, draining her of blood and soul.
Do not come for me. Do not come for me, she repeated over and over. Grasping at the frayed tether in her mind.
I must, a voice echoed back.
Smoke and starlight swirled around the cave and a shadowy figure appeared before her.No,she thought,I told you not to come. You cannot be here. Not now. Not when he is so close.
“Hello,kardiá mou,” he rasped, before her love, her Fated, Aidoneus, collapsed to the ground below.
The veil between realms was too thin.
It was the end. It was the end for all of them.
How had they fallen so far?
How had the gods been betrayed?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ember
Gut-wrenching nausea swirled in Ember’s stomach. What had her father been thinking, drinking water from the Lethe? Every memory of him visiting Alentus when she was young flashed in her mind. Kora dancing around the courtyard, plucking flowers from the garden. The way her father chased her around the great hall or played hide and seek. A strange hue clouded her memories, a blackened sheen coated the castle, a rose color glittered from her mother, distorting what little reminders she clung to. She had been so small then, so naive to think that was how life would always be. That her family would always be whole—be together.
Her father had disappeared after drinking the potion, no real goodbye for Ember to savor, just another brief memory she could add to her list. Happiness was always in the past, never her future. She had slept for what seemed like the whole two days that Thalia needed to finish healing—resigning herself to her room, not even allowing Ajax to enter. It didn’t matter that she refused to see anyone, the commander had still sat outside her door the entire time, which gave her a small amount of comfort.
Her father was not dead, but he might as well be. And she was the only one who could bring him back.
Now she stood alone, gripping some all-powerful relic, waiting to be joined by the others to climb their way back out of this darkened kingdom. An eerie wind swirled around Ember, filling her nose with the smell of something sweet and crisp. Just as quickly, the essence faded. The staff in her hand heated as she gripped it tighter. Gods, it was heavy, weighing at least four times more than the sword strapped across her back. Were all the relics this cumbersome? If they were, how was it that they could be kept hidden so well? How was she supposed to keep it hidden until it was time to use it on the Olympi? Could she trust Nikolaos with the knowledge? Her father must have thought so since he displayed the relic in front of both Nikolaos’s son and spymaster.
Padding of boots sounded from behind her as Ajax approached with a lantern of blue flame, guiding Dimitris who helped a limping Thalia toward the winding corridor they would need to take back to the Stygian River. The littledaimonkept close to Thalia’s heels, stepping slowly in symmetry with the seer. Mykonos seemed to be in a better state than her human, though she looked equally asweary at their surroundings, nose pointed to the ground, sniffing out for anydaimonsthat might appear unannounced once more.
“It is good to see you awake.” Ember leaned down and gave Mykonos a scratch under the chin. “Both of you.”
“She is not fully healed yet, despite what the healer says. We will have you rest again when we reach Nexos, you can take all the time you need.” Dimitris stared at the violet-eyed seer, his jaw tight. Was that compassion Ember heard in the prince’s normally sarcastic voice?
“I am not sure if it will ever get better…” Thalia trailed off, a blank gaze tracing the walls around them, clutching her stomach with a trembling hand.
“No, I don’t think it will,” Ember admitted, although they each felt that way for very different reasons.
A firm hand wrapped around Ember’s hip. “We really should be going, Drakos. I’d rather not encounter Aidon when he doesn’t remember it is his daughter before him,” Ajax whispered. Gods, if that didn’t gut Ember to her core to hear out loud.
“Yes, you’re right.” Ember turned back toward the corridor before them, blue flames lighting the path back to Charon, to the beach. “We must make haste. Aidon does not take kindly to mortals leaving this kingdom, especially not now.”
So they walked, no sounds but the stomping of their boots on onyx floors filled the halls and stairways they journeyed through. It was simpler leaving Aidesian than the route they had taken in. No haunting illusions, no monsters, not even the eerie sound of talons in the distance. Just breathing and boots, save the occasional wince from the seer. Ember wondered if it was from all the walking or if it was from what her father had told them, if Thalia even knew whatfate lay in front of her. If the healer told her of the consequences of living.
A clearing formed ahead, and the whooshing of water trickled into the cave from the exit. Ajax flung his arm in front of Ember and they halted at the sight that lay before them.
