Captured (Shadow Guild Hades & Persephone #3) - Linsey Hall Page 0,9
as you choose the darkness.”
His jaw tightened. “Your place is at my side, Seraphia. I need you there.”
My jaw tightened. His words confirmed that my plan to hide my curse was a good one. He was still obsessed with having me at his side. I couldn’t let him focus on fixing my curse instead of defeating Chronos and saving the world. If it came down to me or them—them being the seven billion people currently freezing solid—it was an easy choice.
“I am here to defeat Chronos,” Hades said. “But we can only do it together.”
“What do you mean?”
He stepped toward me, and I stepped back. He stopped, his jaw tightening, then said, “Lachesis, one of the three Moirai, paid me a visit.”
“One of the three fates?”
He nodded. “She gave me a message. We can only defeat Chronos if we work together.”
My jaw tightened. I knew I needed to work with him. Hell, it was the whole reason I’d run to the library. But now that I was in front of him and could see his face, the idea made my heart pound so fast that I thought I might pass out.
“Come.” I turned and walked toward the library exit. “I have something to show you.”
Though his footsteps were silent, I could feel him following me, as if we were connected by a wire. At the door, I stopped, pulling it open to reveal the frightened crowds running for the city gate. On the other side of the street, the Tudor buildings were covered in a thin layer of ice. Through one of the windows, I could see a person, standing frozen as they stared outside. My heart hurt to see them like this.
“Chronos.” Hades voice was soft, but full of menace. “This is his work.”
“It’s happening everywhere. All over the Earth, even the human parts.” I shuddered to think of the chaos it would cause. Humans had no idea that magic existed, but that was only achieved through a careful balance of magic and secrecy. Now…who knew what they would think? Climate change gone wild? Magic? Crazy advanced warfare?
“We can stop this,” Hades said. “Together, we can turn it back.”
“But then what?” I asked. “You still want to destroy the Earth, don’t you?”
“Destroy is relative. And—” he stopped talking abruptly.
I looked up at him, so close that I could see the pure, deep blue of his eyes. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“You were going to say something else.”
“It’s irrelevant.” He picked up my hand and looked at it. His touch made heat race up my arm, and I shivered, pinned by his intense gaze.
What was he looking for?
Did he know about my curse?
He hadn’t mentioned it.
I pulled my hand back, unable to bear touching him. It reminded me of every other time we’d touched, memories that made an unwelcome heat race through my veins. His firelight scent wrapped around me, so intoxicating that I held my breath as I tucked my hand behind my back. “You can’t possibly want to continue with your terrible plan.”
“I must. There is so much at stake.” There was so much stubbornness in his voice that I couldn’t imagine ever swaying him.
“What does it look like if you rule instead of Chronos?” I couldn’t let it happen, but I needed to know.
“You’ve seen what it looks like.”
I swallowed hard, my mind flashing back to the vision I’d had. Back to the moment when I’d killed the land to save my friends.
It had been horrible. “So that’s what it is, then. Every ounce of life sucked out of the trees and plants. Even the sun dampened, until the Earth looks like the underworld?”
He nodded. “Precisely.”
“That will kill people. Humans can’t live without plants and sun.”
“They will still be under my domain.”
“Under your domain?” I frowned, mind racing. “You mean they would die, but they would stay on Earth, never traveling to their own afterlife?”
Many humans had it wrong about religion. There wasn’t just one correct one, with all the others being misguided mythologies. No—they all existed. In harmony, for the most part. Upon death, a being would go to the afterlife they believed in. If they believed in none…well, no one was quite sure, but many scholars thought that they were reincarnated.
But under Hades’ plan, their entire futures would be ruined. They’d be stuck in a miserable half-life on a destroyed Earth, never to be reunited with their families who had already passed on. “So they’ll stay here, miserable. Because that’s what you do. You spread misery. Your underworld reflects