Page 5 of Thorn & Ash

Goddess, she would miss him.

A memory resurfaced in her mind, as if her thoughts were bidding him farewell. Evander, with his body molded against hers, his mouth hot on her neck, his hands roaming her body and tearing at her dress. The growls and moans of his throat making her toes curl. The scrape of his teeth against her skin…

Enough. This was too painful. Mona had to let him go. This was for Prue. Even if Mona might fancy herself in love with a prince of Hell, her sister was more important.

Eyes still closed, Mona said in a choked voice, “I accept. I will give you all memories… but those of my sister, Prue.”

The beast laughed as if it found this funny, but Mona had no idea why. “The price is paid. Dive in, little goddess, and I will grant you safe passage to the Underworld.”

With a deep breath, Mona sucked in as much air into her lungs and chest as she could before plunging into the sea. The spinning vortex captured her immediately, spinning her about, her body twisting and flailing. The icy water seeped into her, freezing her bones and numbing her flesh. She closed her eyes, fearing she would be sick if she watched the churning water.

Then, she felt something brush against her ankle, and her eyes flew open. She caught sight of the massive beast, its jaws open wide, rows of jagged teeth gleaming as Charybdis drew nearer…

The vortex sucked Mona through, and her scream was lost in the sea. A heavy force slammed into her, flooding her with memories of when she entered the Underworld for the first time. Before her resurrection, before Samhain, when Prue had summoned Cyrus. Before all of this. Her final thought was of Evander and how they had first met, just as the darkness overtook her and swallowed her whole.

PART ONE

“To die is landing on some distant shore.”

John Dryden

UNBOUND

EVANDER

Before Mona’s Resurrection

Evander crouched alongside the riverbank, breathing deeply. The air held the faintest smell of pine and evergreen—the only sense of reality the charmed atmosphere could muster, thanks to his father’s powerful illusion spells. Frankly, Evander was impressed the magic included scents at all. The vision of the forested landscape was delightful enough.

But beneath the familiar smells was the sickly odor of death magic. The sharp scent stung Evander’s nostrils, and he subconsciously ran his fingers over the smooth surface of the moonstone he wore on a leather cord around his neck. He never took it off.

He shuddered, ignoring the stench of the powerful and deadly magic he tried not to think about on a regular basis as he looked for something else. Something new.

He hadn’t shepherded a new soul in days. Yet the river continued to flow smoothly. Evander wondered if perhaps he was doing something wrong, or if he was neglecting his duties. He liked patrolling the river Cocytus. It was peaceful out here, and he didn’t want to lose his position.

Cyrus, his younger brother and the ruler of the Underworld, had once been a friend to Evander. But with his mighty rise to power, he had become something corrupted. Something dangerous. Something Evander couldn’t trust at all.

Again, Evander’s hand went to his moonstone necklace. I will never become like him, he thought grimly. The magic contained in his necklace made certain of that.

The beast within him surged forward, sensing where his thoughts had turned. But Evander willed it to remain caged.

Not now, he told it. Soon, the beast would be free. But not now.

His brothers were too dangerous and volatile to be around, which meant Evander’s only companions out here were the grieving souls in the river. Between his curse, the beast inside him, and his godly responsibility, Evander would likely spend an eternity alone.

But it was worth it.

If constant loneliness is the price I must pay to be free of darkness, then so be it, he thought. The alternative was allowing himself to be warped and twisted into something evil and uncaring like Cyrus.

Never, he vowed.

Evander couldn’t trust that Cyrus would spare him from the same torment he had inflicted on their other brothers, regardless of how cautious Evander was around him. He strived to keep his head down, to avoid drawing attention to himself. But power called to everyone in many disturbing ways. Friends became foes. Love became a weakness, something to despise. Any sign of affection bled away in favor of a cruel, hungry need for more.

It would never be enough. And it would never satisfy.

Deep inside him, the beast rumbled its assent. Never enough.

Evander sighed, determining that there were no new souls in his river today. The purest of souls traveled to Elysium, and the remainder were sorted in the rivers of the Underworld, each one monitored by a prince of Hell. The majority of souls here went straight to Tartarus. Evander’s river, Cocytus, was certainly not a prison for the damned, but also not a refuge for the innocent, either. It was somewhere in between; a small space with very few occupants to keep Evander busy.