Page 86 of Spring's Descent
“Time to correct past mistakes.” Demeter’s cruel laugh filled the dungeon as her fingers closed around Lark’s neck.
56
PERSEPHONE
Pushingpast the numbness in my limbs, I threw myself forward, knocking them to the ground. My shoulder crashed to the floor and the taste of blood coated my tongue, but Lark was already standing, racing toward Demeter with the slim dagger clasped in her hand.
I pressed my palms flat against the stone, willing new vines to grow from the cracked floor. They answered. Thin roots rose, lashing out at Demeter. She rendered each to ash with little effort, but I sent more—dozens—wrapping around her wrists, her legs, squeezing her chest. Willing each of them to hold on.
Gods Above, we just might make it.
Lark dove, thrusting forward with the tip of the blade aimed at Demeter’s heart.
“Enough!” Demeter yelled. A network of light flared around her, sealing into a shield like the one Cyrus had wielded. Lark’s blade splintered upon contact, the force of the blow blasting her backward.
Lark flew through the air, her head cracked against the stone floor hard enough to have the ground vibrating beneath my feet. A strangled cry left my lips as her eyes stayed closed, themangled sound pitching higher as a red pool grew around her limp form.
I reached for her on instinct. Even after everything she’d done, I couldn’t let her die. There was a familiar tugging of life magic leaving my body, draining what little energy I had left. Wisps of shimmering gold light wrapped around Lark as I willed her broken body to heal. I focused on the fissures along her skull, the swelling of the fleshy brain tissue below. I forced more of my magic out, shredding my own life thread to mend hers.
I didn’t see Demeter until her hands were around my throat.
“It’s time.” She smiled down at me with anything but kindness.
My heart thundered as heat radiated from my fire opal. It acted like a conduit, allowing vast pulses of magic to seep into my body, pumping through my veins in fiery bursts. It felt like I was being burned from the inside out.
“Your awakening is finally upon us. Swear yourself to The Earth Coven—to me—and I might let you live. Or die. The choice is yours.”
“Never,” I snarled, but the word cut short as Demeter’s nails pierced the soft flesh of my neck.
Pain shot through me, but worse than that was the overwhelming fatigue rolling over me. I blinked away the fog, fighting to stay present as I realized what was happening. Somehow, Demeter was acting as her own conduit.
“Yes,” she nodded. She must have seen the surprise flash in my eyes because her grin widened. “The Green Coven and I have shared much. I can pull from you, dear Persephone. It won’t be nearly the amount of magic as it would’ve been if you’d given it freely, but I’ll make do.”
I could feel my fragmented body growing weaker with each second. My gaze darted toward Lark’s still form, her blood pooling out to link with the puddle surrounding Cyrus’s mangledbody. Dead roots littered the dungeon floor, their withered corpses unresponsive to my will.
Demeter would drain me. I was going to die, and I was all alone.
“I pledge my magic…”
Demeter withdrew her nails, allowing me just enough room to breathe. Tears tumbled down my cheeks as I forced the words out. “To the Earth Coven.”
A spiteful smile stretched across her lips as she basked in my defeat.
“And to The Green Coven. I pledge my magic to the Cosmic Coven, the hedge witches, The Dark Faction, the lone witches, and all those in The Crystal City,” I continued as I let the last of my feeble attempts at slowing the flow of magic go.
It raced out of me in a torrent of power, but with that freedom, I was able to grasp the cold shadows of Hades’s magic. She could drain every ounce of life magic from me, but Demeter couldn’t touch the darkness. Shadows billowed out around me in a vast cloud. I used them like a shield, cutting off Demeter’s access to my magic as I scrambled back.
“I pledge my magic to The Realm of the Living. To The Underworld. And every soul caught in between. I pledge my magic to restoring balance between the realms.”
Light punched a hole through the wall of darkness I’d crafted, revealing a wild, infuriated Demeter. Her golden hair was raised with the charge of magic she wielded. Blood dripped from her nose, burst vessels staining the whites of her eyes. All traces of reason had gone. Only ceaseless rage remained.
Shadows closed over the opening she’d made, but for each area I patched, another gap opened. Each blast of her magic forced me to take a step back. Every blow, another retreat, until my heel bumped into the cool stone of the wall. My pulsehummed in my ears as I fought for breath, trying to find a way out.
I stepped right, only for vines to rip up the floor and embed themselves in the wall, narrowly missing my face. I turned, but curling roots were there, too, braiding an impenetrable wall. My stomach clenched. Demeter had me trapped.
“I pledge my life to Hades, God of The Underworld.” Somehow I found the strength to meet Demeter’s gaze as she bore down on me, making a promise to myself that I wouldn’t die with fear in my heart. “I vow to be Hades’s wife. His Queen. To weave every strand of my life thread with his, binding our souls forever.”
Electricity sparked in the air around me as the vows left my lips. Power—such power—was hovering above my body, just out of reach…