Page 54 of Summer’s Seduction (Sinful Seasons #2)

LARKSPUR

“ A waken, daughter. Awaken and become their worst nightmare.”

A soft, feminine voice reached me in the blackness. My body was mended, the long slash across my neck sealed, but something else had been let in. Something that was preventing me from opening my eyes.

There was a burning in my veins, like fire blazing through straw, and I was nothing but a dried, shallow husk. The raging inferno consumed me, sweeping through bone and muscle until it condensed between my shoulder blades.

The skin there hadn’t healed, the gash from the gorgons still open. Still bleeding. The fire spewed out, dragging and stretching my skin as it did so. I screamed, rolling to my hands and knees. Splinters became bones, lengthening as my skin grew taunt, forming the webbing that connected them. Wings.

They were sticky, still slick from formation, but they were whole. And they were mine. The momentary reprieve of realizing I’d grown wings was overshadowed by the pain coursing through the rest of my body.

My fingers dug into the bloodstained, muddy earth, black claws forming where once I had only nails. I felt a pulse along my fangs and my eyes as everything sharpened.

Chimeras howled at the rising sun, the cry reverberating through the surrounding forest. It was fearsome, a warning as much as a declaration, but I knew they were welcoming me. The wild beasts saw me as Larkspur, Queen of The Nightmare Kingdom, long before I’d known who I was. They would have a special place at my side in the future, but first, I needed to ensure there would be one.

The world around me had changed, like pulling the curtain back during the night, only to find it had been morning all along. Only the dream I’d been having had turned into a nightmare.

Persephone clutched Hades, her glowing palm pressed to his chest as he used a whip of shadows to reign death upon Ares. Every time the God of War attempted to slip past him or drive the mangled throng of souls and humans forward, Hades was there, disintegrating them with a burst of death magic.

The power contained in each blast was staggering. I could see it now, how each shadow swirled around another, blending in deep violet and indigo hues, sapping the essence from anything it touched. Judging by the way his shadows swayed, taking on the same color, I’d bet Persephone was the only thing keeping Hades’s soul from being siphoned.

Lucius was commanding the souls of Elysium and The Dark Ones, beating back the wave of humans who looked out of their minds. A sickly sweet scent clung to them—the same one that had been on Morpheus when he’d tried to kill me.

I caught the glint of golden arrows flying through the sky and the goddess responsible—Aphrodite. My lips curled into a snarl. That explained how Hypnos had been able to ensnare so many souls to his cause and why Ares was so invested.

He’d been chasing Aphrodite for eons. Not only was this a war of gods and mortals spanning realms, but I had no doubt he saw this as an opportunity to win her favor.

And there, at the very back, hidden by the army he’d amassed, was Hypnos. He hurled something over the heads of his army, slipping through the clash of furies and dark ones in the sky.

There was a twisting in my gut as I spotted Morpheus among the fray, watching the item sail through the air and then start to sink. It was a pouch, and based on the smile stretching across Hypnos’s face and the horror on Morpheus’s, it was filled with The Sands of Slumber.

Morpheus wasn’t going to make it. I tried to run forward, but my wings dragged, my body not yet used to their presence. The morning sun crested at our backs as the pouch careened toward the center of our troops, only for a pale arm to reach up and grasp it before it landed.

Psyche looked as if she’d just plucked a ripe apple from a low-hanging branch. “I couldn’t save the rest of them, but the dawn is coming.”

Before I could ask what she meant, I saw dozens of small pouches identical to the one held in my sister’s hand launch into the sky.

“Gods,” Morpheus breathed, dropping down to my side as we watched them travel up, up. It had been a diversion, and we’d played right into Hypnos’s hand.

Golden arrows flew before the pouches could reach the ground, lacerating the rough material just enough to allow the sands to catch on the breeze as they fell. Great clouds erupted across the battlefield, affecting both our troops and theirs, but they could afford to lose numbers where we couldn’t

Morpheus slipped his hand in mine, neither of us needing words. It was enough that he was here. That we were together as a disturbing hush settled over the world. Souls, gorgons, dark ones, and furies fell, drifting into a deep slumber.

Those further back in Hypnos’s great army surged forward, stabbing and slashing as they went until they, too, fell victim to Hypnos’s magic. Weapons were abandoned, clattering to the ground, but arrows continued to fly. Only they weren’t gold.

“I have to stop this,” Morpheus breathed, watching as more of us fell.

“I’ll go with you,” I said, chasing after him.

“The sands can’t affect me.” He shook his head with a sad sort of smile. “But you’d be asleep and trapped in an unconscious state as soon as you breathed them in. I love you, little monster.” He pressed a kiss on my lips, and before I opened my eyes, he was gone.

“Look to the dawn,” Psyche said, her violet eyes staring straight into the sun just as a silver arrow hissed past.