I stared down into the abyss. “She is back.”
Good. The voice rumbled through the room, filling the air until it was nearly suffocating. You will need her to help you find the location and time of doomsday.
Seraphia
The door slammed in my face, concealing Hades and leaving me alone in the dungeon.
That bastard.
I stared at the solid wooden door, anger surging through me. It tugged at the darkness in my soul that had ignited when I’d arrived here. The anger and rage were so hard to ignore—unnaturally so.
I strode to the door and pulled on it. As expected, it didn’t budge. I wanted to kick the damned thing, but that would get me nowhere.
You’re a menace to yourself and others. His words echoed in my head.
He was right.
I had more than just the pomegranate problem. I was a problem. What had happened with Lucifer…
I liked the guy. I’d never want to hurt him like that. And yet, I had. Worse, I’d enjoyed it.
The power had coursed through me on a tidal wave of pleasure, pushing me farther and farther. Being back here made it harder to resist. Being around Hades made it harder to resist. When he’d touched me, I’d felt that darkness flare.
I drew in a shuddery breath and shook my head. “Nope. Not going there.”
I called upon the ether, trying to remove one of the bags that Eve had given me. It’d be chock full of helpful potions, including something to break through this lock.
But nothing happened. The ether didn’t respond.
Damn it. Something was wrong.
This time, I really did kick the door, yelping when pain flared.
Aching, knowing I’d been an idiot, I tried to reach into the ether one more time. The spell should be working. It should spit that bag right back out at me.
Yet it didn’t.
Either this prison blocked the magic or the underworld itself did.
Fat lot of good all that preparing had done me.
What about the key?
Frantic, I thrust my hand into the pocket of my jeans, finding the key to the library safe within. I sagged, grateful. If that had disappeared somehow, I’d be screwed. I needed it to get back through the library to return home. Unless he’d changed the locks…
Fear iced my spine, but I pushed it away and turned to face the rest of the small dungeon, searching for anything to help me break out. There was nothing but a cot and a bucket.
A bucket?
Holy fates, I was going to kill Hades for this.
My gaze caught on the tiny window set high in the wall. The sky blazed orange as it transitioned to night. The window was far too small for me to squeeze through, and the iron bars looked sturdy and strong. But there was no glass, and a faint breeze wafted through, smelling of the sea.
I grinned.
I’d never been more grateful for ventilation.
“Echo,” I whispered. “Where are you?”
I waited, breath held and gaze glued to the window. Finally, the tiny bat fluttered into the room, slipping between the bars. He hovered in front of me, little eyes black and bright.
Damn, he was cute.
“Can you bring me a tiny piece of the vine that grows in the garden?”
He gave me a skeptical look.
“It’s okay if its tiny,” I said. “I know you can’t carry much.”
He bristled, as if offended. Before I could clarify that it was his tiny stature and not his strength that had prompted me to say such an offensive thing, he’d whirled around and sped out the window.
“Please work,” I muttered as I began to pace.
Since I had time, I inspected every inch of the dungeon, searching for anything out of the ordinary. There was no telling how many prisoners Hades had locked up here over the years. Maybe one of them had scratched a message in the wall or left something hidden behind a loose stone.
But by the time Echo reappeared, I’d found nothing. It didn’t matter, though, because in his little feet, he clutched a tiny sprig of the succulent from the garden.
I grinned at him and took it. “You are a lifesaver.”
He made a tiny squeaking noise, then flew up to sit on the windowsill and watch.
I turned to inspect the door, going to my knees to get a better view of the lock set into the wood. No way I’d let this little thing stop me.
I held the vine up to the lock, my heart pounding. This was going to be a tall order for someone who had practiced her magic so little, but I was motivated. As quickly as I could, I fed my magic into it, feeling the power flow from my soul and into the plant. It stretched longer and thinner, growing toward the hole in the lock. When it slipped inside, I reined in my power, no longer asking it to grow. Instead, I directed the tendril to poke around inside the lock, pressing on various tiny steel mechanisms.
At first, my efforts were clumsy, and the vine flopped uselessly inside the lock. I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on my power, trying to get a sense of what the plant could feel, to become one with it. I needed more finesse, something other than a growth spell.
I recalled the brief lesson I’d had with Hades and used what I’d learned to increase my connection with the plant.
It worked.
Unfortunately, it also awoke the darkness deep inside my soul. That hunger grew, the desire for power that made goosebumps rise on my skin.
Was it because I’d learned my tricks from him?
Or was it because of me?
At the thought, a desperate sob rose in my throat, coming out of nowhere as the pressure of all that was happening bore down on me.
I sucked it back, swallowing it like a dead fish, and focused on the vine in my hand.
I can do this.
I had to do this.
My magic was good for more than just beating the hell out of people with vines.
And it was working. Eventually, I could feel the different tiny mechanisms like I was touching them myself. Quickly, I used the vine to poke at them, trying to find the pattern that would undo the lock.
Finally, the lock clicked open.
Yes.
I put the vine, now longer and skinnier, into my pocket and stood.
From the window, Echo made a chattering noise.
I grinned back at him. “Pretty good, huh?”
He nodded his tiny head.
I turned back to the door and slipped out into the hall, my heart pounding. It was as dark and dreary as the dungeon behind me, the massive stones covered in a faint slick of damp.
First things first—I tried to reach into the ether to see if I could get the bag that Eve had made for me.
Nothing happened.
“Damn it,” I muttered. All that preparation for nothing. It would have been stupid to walk into the underworld emptyhanded, but I’d have preferred if the spell had worked. Now it was just Echo and me, along with whatever magic I could manage.
I inspected the hall. There was no chance I’d navigate out of here on my first try. Hades had taken so many turns that I couldn’t remember the way. I turned back to the dungeon, spotting Echo still sitting on the windowsill. “Will you lead me to the back garden?”
He swooped down off the window and out into the hall. I followed, hurrying along on silent feet as we moved through the austere halls. Gradually, wooden floors and dark silk wallpaper replaced the damp stone, and we finally reached the back door.
I’d been here enough times that it was starting to feel like home. The idea made me shudder.