Chapter 3

Chapter Three

CLIO

The taller man grinned, his threatening demeanor mitigated by cheerful humor. "Hey, Kass. Nice weather, huh?"

Kassia stepped back to make room for him, her expression neutral. "Hello, Eryx."

The prince's bodyguard swaggered inside, his crimson eyes sweeping the room carefully before stopping on Clio. His brow furrowed. "What happened to you?"

She glanced at her muddy skirt and drenched, dirt-spattered shirt. Her face heated. "Uh, I got caught in the rain."

"At home?"

She shrugged self-consciously. "I was working in the garden."

Bastian stepped across the threshold, water droplets clinging to his black wool jacket. As Kassia shut the door and keyed the defensive spells, he undid the first few buttons of his coat but didn't remove it.

Clio's half-brother stood about four inches taller than her and shared her blond hair and creamy skin. His eyes, however, were a much lighter shade of her sky-blue irises. He was lean and graceful, and his beauty had the same effeminate quality as hers.

Towering over her and Bastian, Eryx gave off a vibe somewhere between disreputable and dangerous. A rain-spotted leather jacket over a white t-shirt, jeans with one knee ripped out, four earrings in his left ear, and constantly messy red hair. It was a style he'd cultivated for his Earthly glamour; in the Overworld, he wore the uniform of the Iridian royal guard.

Though he guarded the nymph prince, Eryx himself wasn't a nymph. He and Kassia were chimeras, a warrior caste that lived in the kingdom of Irida. They were also cousins, though from what Clio had seen, they weren't particularly close.

"Clio," Bastian said softly, opening his arms.

She wanted to rush into her brother's embrace, but she hastily retreated instead. "Oh, I'm too muddy to?—"

He stepped forward and hugged her, ignoring her wet, mud-splattered clothes.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he murmured. "We were delayed unexpectedly. I'm afraid we can't stay long."

His words sent a cascade of disappointment through her, but his reassuring squeeze before he stepped back assuaged it.

"Come sit down," she said. "You must be tired."

She headed for the living room as Bastian paused to greet Kassia. Clio perched on the edge of their threadbare recliner and tucked her filthy feet together to hide them. Kassia leaned against the chair beside her, while Bastian and Eryx sat on the sofa, the latter sprawling comfortably.

"How are things at home?" Clio asked quickly. Bastian usually spent the first part of his visit inquiring about her comfort and well-being, but he was in a hurry tonight and she didn't want him to worry about hurting her feelings if he skipped straight to business.

Bastian sighed. "Tensions along the southern border are increasing, but Father is reluctant to reinforce our defenses in case it triggers a military confrontation with Ra."

The most powerful territory in the Overworld belonged to the Ra family, a desert people whose name, power, and prestige had inspired a human sun deity thousands of years ago. Unfortunately for Clio and Bastian's comparatively unimpressive homeland of Irida, they shared a border with Ra.

Bastian rubbed his jaw, lines of stress around his mouth. "The situation is only worsening. Ra keeps increasing their border patrols. I fear the day they abandon all pretenses of diplomacy."

Sick anxiety churned in Clio's gut. Eryx gazed vacantly toward the living room window, pointedly not participating in the conversation. Kassia was equally silent. When Bastian was here, her role as a bodyguard took precedence over her friendship with Clio.

"How did your last assignment go?" Bastian asked.

"It went …" Clio plucked at the front of her wet shirt, unsticking it from her chest. "I couldn't get a read on the spell. When the Ra agent picked it up, there was another customer trying to steal an expensive item. I was distracted and missed my opportunity."

Silence thrummed through the room before Bastian spoke. "That's unfortunate, but obviously beyond your control. I know you did your best."

Had she? She should have ignored the incubus. She should have done better. The whole reason she was here, on Earth instead of living in Irida with her family, was to spy on Ra agents and help protect her homeland.

"We'll manage without that information," he added gently. "We can't track every custom spell they commission."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, feeling cold all over. "I failed my assignment. I didn't?—"

Bastian held up a hand. "As I said, one spell won't change anything. Knowing more about their magic arsenal is useful, but we don't have the resources to match their spellcrafted weaponry. At least, not in quantity."

Clio frowned, not sure what he was getting at.

He sat forward again. "Clio, have you ever heard of Chrysalis?"

"Um." She scrunched her face, worried she should know this. "It's not ringing a bell."

"But you know of the Hades family."

A chill whispered through her. Who didn't know of the Hades family? Like the Ras in the Overworld, the Hades family was the most powerful in the Underworld—and they were far more terrifying than any Overworld family.

Luckily, Irida didn't have to worry about Hades. Overworlders didn't go to the Underworld and vice versa, so war between them was impossible. Their conflicts were limited to isolated skirmishes on Earth.

"Chrysalis is an organization—a company, for lack of a better term—controlled by the Hades family," Bastian explained. "Their primary product is magical weaponry, and their spell weavers are the best in the three realms. I could name dozens of common spells that originated from Chrysalis, though most are unaware of its existence."

He drummed his fingers on his knee. "It's not unreasonable to attribute most of Hades's power and success to Chrysalis. They provide Hades with the best, and deadliest, magic to use against their adversaries, and Chrysalis alone could bankroll entire wars with the profits from selling their spellcraft."

Clio worried the hem of her shirt. "Is Chrysalis creating spells for the Ra family?"

"Chrysalis won't sell magic to a Hades rival. As far as we know, they don't deal with Overworlders."

Clio's mouth quirked, and she waited for Bastian to continue with a sinking sense of dread.

He rolled his shoulders back as though to release tension, then abruptly stood. "Let's take a walk in your garden."

Surprised, she hopped to her feet. "Of course."

Eryx uncoiled from the sofa and breezed past Bastian. The back door banged open as he exited to scope out the yard for danger. Clio glanced at Kassia. A wrinkle of worry formed between her eyebrows as she watched Bastian.

Clio led her half-brother through the kitchen, wincing at the sight of her muddy footprints, and held the door open for him. Their townhouse was in the middle of a row of five, with a large communal yard. When Clio moved in two years ago, the yard had been nothing but cracked dirt and garbage. She'd taken it over, clearing out the trash and revitalizing the soil.

Now, after two full growing seasons, it was a small paradise of wildflowers, berries, vegetables, and herbs. Her neighbors, who couldn't have cared less when she first asked about planting a garden, now delighted in visiting the yard and sharing in the harvest of vegetables. There was plenty to go around, with only three of the five houses occupied. Like the city, the neighborhood was full of abandoned streets and rundown buildings.

From what Clio had heard, a few nearby suburbs were in good repair with clean streets, running water, and electricity that didn't cut in and out, but for a daemon, the inner city was the safest place to be.

The rain had gentled to a soft patter. Eryx, standing at the far end of the yard, gave Bastian an affirmative nod that all was safe. The prince ambled along a path to the garden's center, his gaze traveling across the vivid blossoms in the final throes of life before autumn set in. Clio and her neighbors had harvested the edible plants, but the flowers would bloom for a few more weeks.

"It's come so far," Bastian murmured. "You've done an amazing job."

Trailing after him on bare feet, she tried not to look too pleased by the compliment. The yard wasn't much compared to the lush gardens of Irida's royal palace, but it was a big step up from what she'd started with.

He leaned down to touch the heavy blooms of an orange wood lily. As the future king of Irida, he was always careful with how and when he showed emotion, but she'd learned to read the subtle signs of stress and anxiety in his face and body language. He was worried—more worried than she'd seen him all year.

"War would devastate us." Straightening, he tilted his face toward the rain. "Even if we could hold against Ra, the conflict would claim countless lives and lay waste to our kingdom. This is what Father fears, and why he's moving so cautiously."

She clasped her hands together, wishing desperately that she could offer anything to help.

He lowered his gaze to hers, raindrops dotting his pale skin. "If we could arm ourselves with magic that Ra would dare not challenge, magic that would make a war as costly to them as it would be for us, we could end the threat before a single battle was fought."

She frowned. Magic, though powerful, didn't come anywhere near the destructive capabilities of the nuclear weapons humans had once wielded. She couldn't even imagine a spell that could stop a war, let alone envision how to create one.

What had Bastian said about Chrysalis? That they had the best spell weavers in the three realms?

"You said Chrysalis doesn't deal with Overworlders," she reminded him.

Seeing that she was following his train of thought, he smiled faintly. "Not normally, but Chrysalis is a business. If I offer them something valuable enough, they'll at least listen."

Unease filtered through her. "Would Hades allow them to sell that kind of magic to an Overworld kingdom?"

"Hades and Irida share a common enemy in the Ra family. That, combined with a sizable down payment, might be enough to open negotiations."

"How much are we talking?" she asked, her apprehension growing. Irida was among the wealthiest territories in the Overworld, but the scope of custom spellwork Bastian was suggesting would be all but priceless.

"To be frank, more than we can afford. We can't empty our treasury on the eve of a potential war. Paying for their magic, however, is not my intent." He stepped closer to Clio and fixed a probing stare on her, as though desperate to see into her head and know what she was thinking. "Clio, I can't in good conscience ask this of you, but it's the only option left."

She forced herself to hold his gaze. "What is?"

"Chrysalis specializes in military spellcraft, and their most lethal magic is reserved for Hades. The weavings they would offer us might not be enough to stop Ra, and we couldn't afford it anyway, but what if we could access their magic—their best magic—without paying them anything?"

Her eyes widened as she realized what he was suggesting.

"You could visit Chrysalis on the pretense of commissioning a spell, and while there, you would find their real warfare weavings. All you need to do is see it. Then you would walk away, empty-handed in their eyes, and they would never know we had acquired the blueprints for magic we never could have otherwise made or afforded."

"I …" She struggled for words, unsure how to express the danger and risk of such a mission. "I'm not sure …"

"Once you see their spells, you can return home and help us duplicate them."

All other thoughts vanished from Clio's head, drowned out by the words "return home."

"I know it would be dangerous," Bastian was saying, "and far more involved than the other assignments you've completed so far, but?—"

"I'll do it."

The declaration was out of her mouth before she could reconsider it—but she didn't want to reconsider it. She didn't want to think about the danger or the difficulty of the mission.

All she wanted to think about was finally going home.

Bastian frowned. "Clio, you should know the risks?—"

"It doesn't matter." She lifted her chin. "This is what we need to stop Ra and protect our home. I want to do whatever I can."

Bastian's pale blue eyes searched her face. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

A smile broke through his grim concern. "Your bravery always surprises me, Clio. I don't know how to thank you."

She didn't quite meet his eyes. It wasn't that she didn't want to protect Irida, but more than anything, she wanted to be back home with Bastian, with the family she'd barely begun to love before she'd had to leave.

"I'll do my best," she mumbled.

"I'll make every arrangement possible to assure your safety. Eryx, prepare someone you trust as my guard. I want you to accompany Clio to Chrysalis."

Eryx saluted from the far side of the garden. "No problem, Prince Bastian. I'll find a couple of replacements." He grinned. "It'll take two guards to equal me."

"That's not necessary," Clio blurted. "I'll have Kass with me, and?—"

"I insist," Bastian said implacably. "Eryx will take care of you."

Before Clio could do more than mumble in protest, Bastian stepped close and swept her into a tight hug.

"Thank you, Clio," he said hoarsely. "You have no idea what this means to me."

She clutched his waist, unexpected tears stinging her eyes. There would be no room for mistakes on this mission. She had to get the spells Bastian needed, no matter what.

He stepped back, steely determination on his face. "I have much to prepare. Come, Eryx."

With Eryx trotting to catch up, Bastian strode to the door and vanished into the house. He was heading back to Irida—to the home she so desperately missed.

Kassia crossed the garden, her flinty stare moving from Clio to the door where Bastian had vanished. "You sure about this, Clio?"

"Of course." She straightened her shoulders. "I won't mess it up. Not even an entire horde of incubi will distract me this time."

Kassia sighed. "That's not what I'm worried about."

Trepidation sizzled along Clio's nerves, but she pushed it away. "I should have asked where Chrysalis is located. Will it be a long trip to get there?"

Kassia gave her a strange look. "Are you serious?"

Clio blinked, equally puzzled. "My assignments so far have all been local, but if a business as important as Chrysalis were here in the city, we would know, right? So where?—"

"Clio," Kassia interrupted. "Chrysalis isn't in a city. It's not a shop or a store."

"But … where is it, then?"

Kassia's face hardened, her worry replaced with ferocity—an expression she normally reserved for deadly combat.

"Chrysalis is in the heart of Hades territory," she told Clio. "In the Underworld."

Dizziness swept through Clio and ice numbed her veins.

In the Underworld.

She, an Overworld nymph, was going to the realm of night.