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I watch in marvel as the eight necks all begin to move, braiding themselves around her main head and settling into place. She has the body of a dragon, full and powerful andwinged. Her neck is long and, with her heads all tucked close, each of the smaller heads juts out enough to make the length appear taloned and all-seeing, for all her eyes blink as one up the column of her neck.

A shuddering gasp trembles as it rises from my lungs. Her heads move as one, her main head lowering to connect with my forehead. I feel a puff of hot air wash over my chest as she pulls back again. From her mauve eyes, crystal tears fall.

They are no longer scorched black by the curse of a blade struck by a malicious Gods’ power.

I realize in horror that her unhealing body had eternally tried to expunge the curse which festered in her very blood. She is more than healed. Now, she is cleansed.

“Thank you, my Persephone.”Emotion strips her words raw, brandishing for me her very soul. It is a most beautiful soul that I know now my own was always intended to cherish.

Swallowing my own emotion, I ask, “Is there any pain?”

“None.”Her words swim in my mind.“I feel no desire to submerge in the pool for relief as I had for so long. I feelfree.”

I smile. “Will you come with me, then?”

She moves closer, her heads lifting higher with pride. In my mind, her words are a vow.“I will follow you always, my Persephone.”

When she lowers again, I don’t wait for her encouragement as I climb onto her back between her wings. “Take us to Hades.”

She moves to the pool’s edge.

I suck in a deep breath.

We dive into the inky abyss.

Chapter

Four

Hades

“She called me from here.”I face the Erinyes who stand together on the shore of Hydra’s sinkhole. They are unaffected by the sweltering breeze that blows down from the high slopes of the fire opal mountains, which stand sentry over their temple.

“She is coming,” Alecto says, sure as one in the living realm might predict the suns rise.

“Yes,” Megaera agrees as she peers over the side into the black water. Long black hair falls forward to touch the waters, and she inhales. “I sense Hydra is near.”

Acid bubbles in my stomach. Persephone is human. If she fell into the pool and failed to climb back out…

There is no scenario in which she could have survived Hydra’s sinkhole. Not even I am immune to the suction of the sinkhole when I take water for the flames that light the Underworld. If Persephone fell in, the water would have pulled her under.

And if it hadn’t been the deadly power of the ancient current,the Hydra…

No.

I won’t think it. I refuse.

Surely the beast would have sensed the purity of her soul and ended her life before she could be sucked deeper into the inescapable torment of the inky bowels of Tartarus. That is what she had always done. It is her way, and I could never blame her.

Fuck.

Grief and fear erupt inside my chest.

If her life has once again been cut short for her soul to wander aimlessly and undetectable in the Underworld for centuries—I’m not sure the realm would survive her loss.

“The Underworld has only just begun to heal.”

Tisiphone, the Fury who avenges the murdered, moves closer. Her face is a mask of granite that reflects the hard shell that encapsules her soft heart. “Hydra comes, Hades.”