Page 81 of Spring's Descent
Lark only shook her head, lifting her hand as she took a slow step toward me. “Demeter has my sister, Persephone. She’ll be released from her imprisonment if I deliver you before your awakening. Demeter wants you to pledge your magic to The Earth Coven.”
“That’s never going to happen.” I fought to keep my voice steady as I stepped further into the cell, trying to maintain space between us. One brush of her fingers on my skin and she would send her compulsion through me. “My magic is the one thing that can save our realms. If I pledge it to anything other than restoring balance, death magic will continue to spiral out of control and destroy both The Realm of the Living and The Underworld.”
“My little sister has been trapped for nearly four years. She was young and naive, too gentle and far too good for this world. I can’t pass up my last chance to save her.”
“Lark, please,” I pleaded as my back hit the cold stone. There was nowhere to run. I was cornered, but I wouldn’t go down without a fight. “Don’t make me do this.”
“I promise I’ll stop Demeter before she can harm you.” Lark’s voice dripped with regret, but it wasn’t enough to sway her decision. “I love you, Persephone. Your friendship was one of the few good things in my life, but I must protect my sister. I’ve already failed her once.”
Having no other option, I reached for the pricks of magic along my fingertips, sending it out in a torrent of shadows aimed at Lark’s chest. I darted to the side as her screams filled the dungeon. My heart leapt as I rushed toward the hallway, desperately trying to ignore the bile burning the back of my throat.
Lark’s fingers dug into my shoulder before I reached it, jerking my body back into hers. Her other hand was around my throat before I could utter a word.
“You don’t want to fight me, Persephone. I’m your friend. We’re like sisters.”
No. No. No. I knew she was using compulsion; I could feel the fog closing in around me, but this was so much stronger than anything we’d played at before.
“Please,” I tried to beg, but only a whisper fell from my lips.
“Shh, it’s going to be alright.”
A whimper escaped me as she turned my head to look into her eyes. I couldn’t stifle the scream that tore from my throat as I gazed upon the bloodied, raw tissue along her cheek and chest.
The shadows I’d sent after her had eaten away the skin, gnawing and burning tissue with their touch—the power of death magic. But the raw, blistered muscle and tendons were already healing—much too fast for that of a normal witch. My eyes widened as I met her gaze, finding her irises ringed in scarlet… just like the eyes of The Night Children before they fed.
“Do you see why this is my only chance?” Lark said softly. “I’m punished for my magic. For something I had no control over. Demeter will never free me as long as my mother’s magic runs in my veins, but my little sister isn’t like me. She has a chance at a real life. The chance we never got to take.”
My knees weakened, causing my body to sag against her. Lark caught me, easing my listless body to the ground.
“Don’t worry, Persephone. Sleep.”
It felt like I was caught in the strongest current. I was fighting with all my might to stay in the shallows, to remain on shore, but the tide was too strong. My eyelids closed as my mind drifted, forgetting why I’d been so worried in the first place.
“You’ll see. I can save us all.”
53
HADES
“Where is Thanatos?”I growled, pacing the length of Hecate’s room as she finished with the amplification spell. Everything was taking way too fucking long.
“I sent Medea to search for him,” Hecate said as her brows pinched with concern. “No one has seen him since he left to trail Hypnos.”
“He’s been gone all night?” I asked. She nodded. “We could bring Morpheus in. I’d be happy to put him through a round of questioning.”
Slamming my fist into his smug face sounded incredible. I needed to do something. Anything. I couldn’t stand another moment of waiting around while Hecate worked. I had tried to return to The Realm of the Living without her help, to the forest I’d first taken her from, but the path was blocked. I was trapped here, just like the rest of the miserable souls. Everything now relied on Hecate’s ability to override the death magic gripping our realm and allow me passage.
“Torturing Morpheus won’t help, Hades.” Hecate set down the amulet containing the golden link from Persephone’s necklace in favor of the moonstone.
“It would helpme,” I grumbled as she placed the opalescent stone in a small basin filled with clear water and obsidian shards.
“We can’t afford a war with Hypnos,” Hecate repeated around a weary sigh. “And there’s no evidence he’s connected to Persephone’s abduction.”
I lifted a skeptical brow in her direction as she chanted over the water, sprinkling its surface with a mixture of mint, nettle, and comfrey. “Someone powerful enough blocked all movement between the realms. Beside my siblings in The Above, there aren’t many who can wield such power. And we both know only Hypnos would risk a slight of that magnitude.”
Her brows furrowed as the spell completed, the moonstone flushing to a shimmering bluish glow as Hecate retrieved it. The light within flickered and then died, just like the others. Hecate deflated, her face falling as she stared at yet another failed spell.
“If Hypnos is working with Demeter, if the two of them are powerful enough to ward off the realms and steal our queen… nothing I do will work.”