Page 45 of Spring's Descent
An ember caught, the flash of heat expanding over my palms. I blinked my eyes open, grinning as I saw the faint shimmer of light coating my hands. A shiver rocked through me as my magic coursed through my body, repairing all damage done by the fall and the cold before settling over me in a cloud of warmth.
Gods above. I’d done it. I was channeling life magic.
The opal along my neck pulsed. Lark would be so impressed. So relieved. This may be the craziest thing I had ever done, but Iwasdoing it.
This power, this incredible magic, was coming from me. I choked down an incredulous laugh. Lark was going to be beside herself when she saw what I could do. I only hoped I wasn’t too late to save her.
29
PERSEPHONE
Sapphires and sleetcrunched beneath my worn boots, small puddles forming along the edges as my life magic burned bright through the layers of snow surrounding me. Slowly making progress, I followed my magic along an unforeseen path, looking for a cave entrance.
The earth of The Underworld helped when it could, like a subtle tugging deep within. I could also feel Aidoneus behind me, somehow remaining close despite me literally jumping to my possible death to get away from him.
That demon had seriously fucked with my mind.
It should have been easy to distance myself from sex and emotion. It had never been a problem before. The Earth Coven may have hated the idea of casual sex, and gods knew we were taught to hate ourselves for it, but Lark and I carved out our own morality code.
My worth wasn’t defined by how many partners I took to bed. I wasn’t used or dirty. I wasn’t a ripped piece of cloth poorly stitched back together or a crumpled flower with its petals plucked and tossed to the floor.
My body was my own.
It was mine to do with what I pleased. Sex didn’t condemn me. Allowing myself to believe the truth of those sentiments had dramatically altered my life for the better. It was freeing. I’d never let that self-confidence waver. And because of that, I’d never let the line between physical and emotional blur. Until Aidoneus.
There shouldn’t have been anything to distance myselffrom. But he’d gotten under my skin. Limits didn’t exist for Aidoneus. He took what he wanted, and he didn’t once question himself. Power came naturally for him, that much was obvious, and I found myself reaching for my own power when he was near.
He made me want to push. To shatter the expectations that had been placed on me by my mother, by the coven, but also… by myself.
It had been so hard for me to accept that I had power. That the humming beneath my veins, the pricks of electricity at my fingertips—that such power could bemine.
I’d been told so often that I was worthless. Weak. Useless. That I was a burden who would never amount to anything… it was hard to believe there was a reality where I was powerful and strong—one where my life hadmeaning.
And yet, somehow, Aidoneus had believed in me.
Shaking my head against the onslaught of budding self-worth battling with years of learned helplessness, I lifted my hands and drew more of that fire to my palms.
Melted ice trickled down the sheet of snow covering me, but the bank in front of me felt weaker than the others. Less oppressive. The sapphires at my feet hummed. I followed their urging, calling more of the magic in my veins as I pushed forward.
The snow broke, the edges tumbling around my forearms as my palms melted through the last of it. I stepped out of mysleeted path into a large tunnel illuminated by the continuing, faint blue stones at its base.
Brine and frosted air reached me as I blinked against the gleaming blue light reflecting against the walls. It was both forbidding and comforting as the cries of the cursed souls echoed through the caves. Rumbling water pounded the ground further ahead. I was sure of it, just as I knew the icy pit of Cocytus was waiting for me, wanting me to make my way toward the hopeless shores like all the other wandering spirits.
A tingle caressed my spine, snapping my head back toward the wall of snow I’d just left. Aidoneus was drawing closer. I needed to move faster.
Letting out a shuddering breath that fogged in the chilled air, I jogged toward the light. Aidoneus said we needed to travel beneath the frozen lake to reach The Asphodel Plains, but I had no intention of going to The Dark Palace just yet. I would return to The Underworld and fulfill my duty, I swore to the gods I would, but only after Lark was safe. For now, I needed to focus on crossing the lake and getting through the caves on the other side to reach the staircase Orpheus took, all before my demon found me.
I let my desires fuel me, focusing every thought on finding the path to The Realm of the Living. And then simply… let go. My magic rose to the surface, keeping my body warm as the temperature plummeted around me. I’d never been particularly excited for my awakening, considering I anticipated dying, but for the first time, I wondered if I might have a chance at living beyond my twenty-first birthday. And what that would mean.
The tunnel linked up to others. Souls stumbled in, the crowd of them growing until I was surrounded by the dead. Aidoneus’s warning about wraiths rang through my mind as I fell into step beside the meandering souls. Their boots and slippers had been rendered to scraps as they walked on bloodied feet, andthere was a constant stream of tears tracking down their cheeks, staining their tatters of clothes in rivulets, but they continued mourning without sparing me a second glance.
For the most part, the souls were like people in my realm, but wraiths had been here centuries. They had little memory of what they’d once been, clinging only to their infinite bitterness and loss. It became exceedingly harder to keep my distance as more joined our steady progression downward.
“Sorry,” I mumbled automatically as a woman with the same dark curls and hazel eyes as Lark bumped into me. Her shoulders and chest were slimy with years of spent tears, her black robes tattered and frayed at the edges. She blinked, her puffy, swollen eyes seeming to come out of a fog as her gaze met mine.
That couldn’t be good.
Tilting my head down, I picked up my pace, weaving through the souls as quickly as I could. My magic flared brighter as panic gripped my chest. It took effort to reign in the heat pouring off me. Sweat beaded on my brow, and my pulse raced as more and more souls took notice of me, their anguished cries quieting as I raced past.