Page 36 of A Spell of Bones and Madness (Nostos #2)
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ember
G ut-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 little daimon kept 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 as weary at their surroundings, nose pointed to the ground, sniffing out for any daimons that 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 what fate 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.
White flowers. Thousands of white flowers seeped in a sanguine liquid covered the riverbed, extending up the walls of the cave.
It was—it was the same kind of flower she saw blossom where her blood had fallen.
It was impossible that this many could have sprouted in the short time.
Another illusion—that was it. But with each inhale the sweet and crisp scent of the narcissus hung in the air.
“No, no, no,” Ember pleaded as the hooded ferryman approached the dock in his boat.
“What is all this?” Dimitris questioned, stepping in front of Thalia and Mykonos, clutching the pommel of his sword ready to fight.
“I warned you, Lady of Spring, it was not safe for you here. Yet, you did not heed my warning and journeyed into the lowest levels of Aidesian. Into Tartaros, the abyss of everlasting night and death. Now you shall pay the consequences.”
Ajax did draw his sword, Dimitris following suit. “Like fuck she will!” Ajax yelled at the reaper.
A hollow chuckle left the man’s lips. “It is not my intention to harm her, Archer , only to warn once more. I promised my lord safe passage to you all and I do not intend on breaking that promise. Just listen this time when I tell you never to return to a place such as this, where the veil between olde and new blurs. To the realms of gods. ”
“Enough of your riddles, Charon. If you promised to take us back to the cave’s entrance then do it, before I unleash my wolves on you.” There was the spitfire attitude of the seer Ember had come to know, even if it was short-lived.
Yet, from the time they crossed the Stygian all the way to being aervaded back to Nexos, Ember could not help but feel there was more to what Charon had spoken.