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“Did you know there are caves under the water, Hades? Did you know they snake throughout the whole of the Underworld, deep below the surface?”

He swallows. I watch his throat work around the swell of it. “I did not know that.”

“Well, there are so many caves. She lived there, mostly alone.”

“Mostly alone?” There is death in his voice. A low simmer of darkness that has that shiver coiling tighter around my spine.

My hands shift from his neck to cup his face. “That’s where I was, Hades. After Demeter murdered me in my first life. My soul sought sanctuary with Hydra deep below the surface of the Underworld. I remained there with her?—”

“She was withyou?” His eyes cut to Hydra. There is a rage in the deep of them that I’ve never seen. He is a tormentor come to life. His flesh ripples with the temper of the beast he harbours beneath.

I try to catch him as he steps away from me, stepping toward Hydra.

“Hades!”

He roars, “I searched for her! The Underworld searched for her for centuries!”

“Hades!”

“Speak, beast!” He rages at Hydra. “She says you can speak, so speak!”

“She can’t speak to you.” I hurry to position myself between my lover and my friend. “She’s tried, but you can’t hear her.”

His eyes cut to mine even as his nostrils flare with every hot breath. He growls, “Explain.”

“She speaks in my mind.”

“That doesn’t answer why she kept you to herself for centuries when the Underworld searched. When it weakened.”

I can feel Hydra moving at my back. I can sense that for me, she would throw down with the God of the Underworld.

How is this my life?Surreal.

I get my head back into the game when I suck in a deep breath that tastes a little like charbroiled, angry God.

Calmly, I explain, “She tried to bring me to you. I wasn’t right when I first arrived to her in the Underworld. I was—confused. For a long time, I think.”

“A very long time.”It’s the first time Hydra speaks since bringing me to Hades. Feeling her sound in my mind, so soothing and ancient and powerful, puts me at ease.

Hades’ eyes flick between the two of us. “She speaks to you now, doesn’t she?”

I nod. “She tried to bring me to you. I screamed for you to hear me. She tried to speak to you as well. You couldn’t hear either of us. You couldn’tseeme. She took me back below the surface to the caves of her home where we stayed together until I felt the pull to the Elysian Tree. Until I felt the pull to live again.”

“And she just let you go?”

I feel incredibly emotional. “It was written.”

“Written?” Hades shakes his head, but I can sense his anger is waning even as his agitation remains high. “Written where? By whom?”

“The walls of the cave,” I answer simply. “And it was written by me, but I think—” My eyes drift once again to the black mountain that plunges high into the sky. “I think they gave me the visions—or whatever it was that inspired me to carve the walls.”

“Carve the walls with what?” Hades asks, wariness dripping from his voice now.

“The future.”

Chapter

Six