too curious to resist. Quickly, I pulled on my jeans and boots, then crept out into the main sitting room. As expected, the couch was empty.
The hallway outside was silent, and the quiet felt still as the grave. But I could almost sense him, like a pulling sensation. I followed it, creeping through the halls. The lamps along the walls had been dimmed, casting deep shadows in front of me.
I moved silently, drawn to the bottom floor of the castle, toward a hallway that was more austere than the others I’d seen. Was I returning to the dungeons?
No, not quite.
A huge wooden door loomed in front of me, a dark mist hovering near the floor in front of it.
Hades?
Skin chilled, I walked toward the door. The large iron handle was smooth beneath my hand as I pulled it open, and the door swung silently on its hinges, revealing a wide staircase that spiraled into the depths of the castle.
I stared hard into the darkness, my bones gone cold with fear.
Hades is down there.
Did he need my help? Not bloody likely.
But what was that place?
There were answers there. They called to me, a siren song impossible to resist.
I took the stairs two at a time, squinting into the dark. When I reached the enormous chamber at the bottom, I gasped and stumbled backward.
The ceiling soared overhead, rough stone that appeared carved out by hand. Or by dark magic. I could feel it so strongly that it turned my insides.
The power wafted from the middle of the room, calling to me. As much as it made me feel ill, I was drawn to it. Slowly, I started forward, realizing that the magic came from a wide, dark pit that plunged far into the earth.
Its pull was so strong that an army couldn’t have stopped me from moving toward it. Reaching inside me, it gripped a hand around my heart, dragging me closer.
Heart pounding, I reached the edge of the pit. I stared down into the depths, finding actual stars. They glinted bright white, and it was like looking up into the heavens.
Just like looking into the sky, there was a sense of infinite possibility. Of purpose. My terror transformed into understanding.
Look deeper.
The voice echoed in my head, feeling like it was part of me.
I obeyed, helpless to resist. As I squinted into the darkness, I began to see visions. They were shadowy at first but gradually coalesced to become more solid.
A black mist swirled, twisting and turning about itself as it grew thicker and thicker. Soon, it was so dense that it looked solid, until finally, Hades stood before me, perfect and whole.
I blinked, shocked.
He wasn’t here—it was just a vision—but had I just witnessed his creation?
He truly was formed of the darkness. In the most literal sense.
How had I felt any light in him at all, then? Surely that should be impossible.
But I’d felt it.
As I watched the image of him, I could feel his conflict. It was almost like we were one and the same. There was light in him, but it fought against the darkness. I could feel his pain as if it were my own, and it felt like my soul was being pulled out through my navel.
I staggered and went to my knees, barely able to keep myself upright. The conflict was tearing through me, and I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to keep from shattering.
The stone bit into my knees where I knelt right at the edge of the abyss. I couldn’t look away from where the stars spun through the blackness. A dark mist wafted from the depths, curling up through me and soothing the agony.
I leaned into it, shuddering as it drove away the pain.
The darkness calmed the horrible torment caused by the light, and the farther I leaned into it, the better I felt. I leaned so far over the pit that I lost my balance and fell, plummeting into the depths.
A scream tore from my throat as the wind whipped my hair back from my face. I scrabbled to catch something, my arms pinwheeling. Fear blanked out my thoughts as I tried to stop my fall, but there was nothing I could do.
Strong arms plucked me out of the air and yanked me toward a strong chest, cradling me close. My descent stopped abruptly. The scent of firelight surrounded me, and I knew.
Hades.
He’d caught me.
I gasped, clinging to him, as he shot out of the abyss, flying upward so fast that