I’d never felt so amazing in all my life. I could accomplish anything.
I spun around, catching sight of two figures.
Hades and myself.
The sight nearly made me lightheaded.
We just…fit.
He stood behind me, tall and broad, with one strong arm wrapped around my waist. I was far shorter than he was, and the way he curved protectively over me made something pulse inside me. It was the only physical sensation I had.
Was this an out-of-body experience?
It had to be.
I’d become one with the magic of the forest. The earthy scent was stronger, the feel of the breeze stronger. I was connected with it in a way I never had been before.
I watched as we stood in the middle of the clearing, seemingly frozen. Magic sparked around us, swirling in glittering bursts of gold and black. The tattoo on my arm glowed as I used my power. Hades was so deadly, so evil, yet the way he held me…
I wanted to watch forever, but the forest called to me. Needing me.
I could feel its hunger, its desperation for life. It’d been suffering here for an untold amount of time, but I could fix it. I just needed to give the dying trees the life they so desperately required. And I could feel it in the forest, low against the ground. In the air.
Take.
I commanded the trees with my power, feeling the connection between them and the earth. I commanded their branches and roots to reach out and take the life that they so desperately required. Somehow, it felt dark.
Bad.
But they needed it. And the power felt so good.
I kept going.
When I spotted one of the branches strangling a silver bird, I gasped. Then I caught sight of a root with a rabbit in its grip.
This was where the trees were getting their life? I’d commanded them to take it from the forest creatures?
Yes.
The darkness seemed to swell inside me, pleased that I was finally making the connection. Despite the fact that the idea made me ill, I liked the sensation. I felt invincible, and the trees were as well.
And yet, my soul screamed within me. What I was doing was terrible. I’d never do something like this normally, and yet the darkness had control of me. It strangled my normal self, urging me on, filling me with such certainty that I ignored the horror around me and kept going. Kept saving the forest at expense of the animals.
Seraphia!
The shriek sounded inside my head, and I looked up to see Echo in the grip of a branch.
Horror opened a chasm inside my soul, and desperation followed.
The sight of it shocked me into action, dredging up the last vestiges of my soul that fought to embrace the light.
“Stop!” I tried to scream.
But I had no body. I was still an incorporeal mass, watching the trees strangle the life from all the helpless creatures of the forest.
I had to fix this. Had to save them.
They needed life. All of them needed life now. The forest animals that were dying and the trees that were just trying to survive. My first attempt at using magic was causing unmitigated chaos, and only I could stop it.
But how?
Where was I going to get that kind of living energy from?
For a long, horrible moment, my mind was entirely blank…and then it came to me.
Myself.
The thought blazed with such certainty that it had to be true.
Head ringing with panic, I tried to force my magic into the trees. Into the animals.
At first, it didn’t work. The darkness didn’t want to let it work. Hades, this place, had twisted me. It’d polluted my soul, and now I had to find the real me again.
“Echo!” The word was soundless, but the bat seemed to understand.
He thrashed more fiercely against the branch, finally breaking free. Frantic, he flew toward me. Toward the shadow that I’d become.
When his little form shot through my chest, I felt a burst of strength. Of focus. He flew back and hovered near my shoulder, his presence strengthening me.
I had no idea how to use my magic like this—I was certain this wasn’t what Hades was training me to do—but I had to try. Desperate, I focused on the forest around me, imagining giving my life force to the trees and animals, envisioning it as a white mist that flowed into them with strength and healing.
Come on.
It had to work. If it didn’t, I’d lose myself to the dark. I could feel it even now, pulling on me. It sang to me, a siren song of strength and power. The worst part was that it was nearly impossible to resist.
But I did—barely. I focused on Echo, taking strength from my familiar, and fed my magic into the trees. I imagined it flowing into them as a glowing light of life. Eventually, they released the animals. I felt it more than saw it, but I knew they were fine. Shaken, but alive.
My strength waned as the trees turned greener. The buds unfurled into flowers, and leaves appeared. My vision went blurry, and my thoughts turned slow.
One second, I was standing away from my physical body, and the next, I was inside it. For the briefest moment, I felt Hades’ arms around me. I should hate it, knowing the way he’d pushed my magic.
I didn’t. Couldn’t.
Before I could fully process the thought, unconsciousness reached up to take me. I collapsed, my knees going weak. The last thing I felt before passing out was Hades sweeping me off my feet.
Hades
In my arms, Seraphia collapsed.
“Seraphia!” The fear in my voice would have shocked me if I’d had time to think about it.
Her form had gone completely still, and fear was an icicle through my heart. I swept her up, then went to my knees, cradling her against me. Her face was pale, her cheeks almost hollow.
“Seraphia.” I shook her gently, cradling her back with one arm while I brushed the hair off her face with my other hand, wishing I wasn’t wearing the glove. “Wake up, Seraphia.”
Her breathing was shallow. Too shallow.
I pressed my hand to the middle of her chest, about to heal her.
She gasped, jerking, and her eyes opened. The emerald depths were slightly cloudy with exhaustion and confusion.
“Don’t,” she croaked.
“Don’t heal you?”
“Don’t want anything from you.”
Pain pierced me, a thin blade of steel through the heart. I blinked at her, surprised by the feeling. She hated me that much.
Of course she did.
“Are the animals all right?” she whispered, trying to sit up. She was too weak, and the movements were barely a twitch.
“They’re fine.”
“You almost made me kill them.” Accusation echoed in her voice.
“I didn’t. That was you.”
Shadows flashed in her eyes—anger and confusion. Regret. She had to know it was true. I hadn’t commanded that. I’d had no idea how she would use her magic, just that I was meant to help her embrace it. She was in control of how she used it.
“This place…” Her words were weak, but she seemed determined to get them out. “The darkness.”
“What of it?” My tone was sharp. “The darkness is this place. It’s the underworld. It’s not meant to be anything other than what it is.”
Frustration bubbled up within me, worthless, pointless frustration. I was a creature of the underworld, created from death and darkness itself to lead. And yet, she expected the underworld to be different. Expected me to be different.