Chapter 36

Chapter

Thirty-Six

P ersephone

Addison is losing it. I feel like I should be, too. Maybe I am—but my freak-out is on the inside. His is external.

As Demeter forces us lower and lower and lower into the darkness of the yawning temple, he’s muttering prayers to a God I’m no longer certain exists—what with—you know, the literal Goddess behind me and all.

“Stop,” she commands. Addison whimpers. Actually whimpers. I can’t blame him. She is terrifying.

“What are you going to do to us?” Addison demands after a few more steps. The darkness is lit by nothing more than the phone I carry .

“That depends.”

Somehow, I find my voice. “On what?”

“On whether or not you serve your purpose.”

“What is that?”

She shoves Addison in the back when he pauses, and he stumbles. With our hands clasped tightly together as they are, he nearly brings me down with him before he steadies himself.

I don’t dare glare at the monster over my shoulder.

I can’t help but wonder if my nightmare had been trying to tell me something. To warn me of the beast that lingers under her flesh.

The Gods are real.

My brain can’t seem to cope with that fact. Every time I think those words, the thought simply stops. As though I can’t mentally function—can’t think—beyond this reality I know.

The reality that has always been a lie.

I want to weep. I want to fall to my knees and pray to the God I’ve been taught to worship.

We arrive at the base of the temple, so far below the surface—so much farther than we exhumed. For a moment, both me and Addison stand there with our mouths gaping wide. The room is massive, contained by four stone walls adorned with carvings. Under the light of my phone, images of the Underworld come to life. Images that…

“It’s a map,” Addison breathes.

“A very accurate one, indeed.” Demeter reminds us of her presence as she walks straight to the back wall where the carving rises from the stone in the shape of two massive ivory horns. Each horn is arched slightly inward, appearing as a gate of sorts. Demeter turns back to me. “You will open this portal for me.”

My mouth falls. Addison swings his wide gaze my way.

I find the strength to point at the wall. “That’s a stone wall.”

“It is a sealed portal into the Underworld, Persephone.” Demeter taps her nude talons to the swollen stone horns. “This is the…”

“Gate of Horn and Ivory,” Addison cuts her off.

Demeter doesn’t look impressed. “Yes.”

“Holy shit,” Addison whispers. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

Demeter rolls her eyes, annoyed. “Silence or I will silence you eternally.”

Addison’s jaw closes so fast, the clap of his teeth is audible, echoing in the stone chamber.

Buying time, I ask, “How did all this happen? We didn’t—we haven’t unearthed this.”

Demeter waves her hand, a coy smile playing at her lips. “It was nothing. A little storm wind and centuries of packed earth just,” she shrugs, “vanished.”

My mind flashes back to the storm wind that had cut through my nightmare, swallowed by the Lethe. She said she would kill me again , if I failed her. Does that mean my nightmare had been more than a dream? More than a vision?

Had it been a memory?

From another life? Could it be possible?

Either there is a lot more to this world than society knows today, or I’ve completely lost it. Maybe none of this is real and I’ve finally slipped into the insanity of my mind.

Somehow, I know that’s not the case.

“Come, Persephone, we don’t have time to waste.”

Swallowing hard, I try to release Addison’s hand, but he squeezes mine in response. When I look up at him, his blue eyes tell me that we’re doing it—whatever this is—together.

My heart aches, because I’m afraid we won’t make it out of this tonight. Aside from what Demeter is requesting, confident I possess the ability to open a portal into the Underworld, I know that I can’t.

If she is really the Goddess I saw in my nightmare, I know she hides a dangerous beast beneath her flesh. A winged thing with talons that slice into flesh with ease and screams a vicious storm of wind so violent it can puncture organs and destroy land.

Can clear away centuries of packed earth and the secrets it conceals.

Hand in hand with Addison, we walk across the ancient room. My mind comes alive with memories. I’ve walked this path more times than I can count—as me before I was who I am now .

Images of me standing below the Ivory Gate flash like a collage of images in my mind. I have red hair then white. I wear black satin then white. I am pale then tan. I stand with Minthe, Leuce, Adonis, Herman, and Hades. There are others—others I don’t recognize but feel deep down that I know. But my mind sticks on one face.

Hades.

The man who spills his blood into canvases of torment, who denies my insanity with knowing calm, who smells of woodsmoke and sin and ignites me with flames—Hades.

Could he be…

If this is Demeter…

I can’t make myself ask the question, not even within the safe confines of my own mind.

This can’t be possible. None of this is possible.

The God of the Underworld bears a shocking resemblance to the man I’ve fallen in love with these last few months.

A shuddering cry spills from my lips as I pull my hand from the swell of the horns. I hadn’t even realized I’d touched the swollen stone.

I sob, “I can’t.”

Demeter growls low and menacing. “Try again.”

Frantic, I search the stone for something—anything to open it. There is no lever, no button, no hidden switch. Nothing.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” Fear is a quake that threatens to split me in two. I gasp in breath and taste the spill of water over my lips. The burn of a surging river in my lungs.

I’m panicking. Through the panic, I am aware only enough to feel something swirling in my chest. It is foreign—not me and yet mine.

Demeter moves to my back, shoving Addison away. He stumbles at the force of her touch, his hand connecting with the far wall to brace his fall. She crowds me, breath scenting of fields of wheat under a summer sun. Achingly, it reminds me of home.

“Open it with your power .”

My voice shakes. “I don’t have power.”

“Stupid girl,” she hisses. “Born as you were.” Her hand connects with the back of my head, fingers twisting like talons in my hair. She yells, shrill and bone-grating, “Open it.”

“I can’t!”

“Let her go!” Addison roars.

“No!” I scream, but I’m too late. He’s already lunging, launching his body through the space and into Demeter. With a careless toss, my body connects with the wall. The connection steals the breath from my lungs. I gasp in horror as Demeter changes just as she morphed in my nightmare. Black wings burst from her back, angled into sharp points. Her skin transforms, shifting and pulling back to expose the horror that lies beneath. Her mouth opens so wide— she’s a monster .

And the sound that rips from the yawning part of her mouth has Addison dropping to the stone floor. He screams a silent sound, devoured by the shrill cry Demeter pours into the space. His face contorts in pain and I watch, unable to move, frozen by something other, as blood begins to leak from the corner of his eyes. It spills from his ears to run down the side of his neck. The sound increases, splitting into the night. Blood bubbles from his parted lips, dripping from his chin. Still, he crawls to me—for me.

My heart weeps.

His fingers claw the stone beneath us, pulling his body an inch closer.

Hot tears leak from my eyes now. When it falls from my chin to splash against the stone, it shines a brilliant ruby red. Blood.

We’re going to die here.

Hades! I scream his name in my mind.

Then everything is dark.