by ropes forming a sort of net. Blackened fingers were snaking between the ropes from the rock, drawing closer to her.
'He is usually only able to take the flesh from the dead, but we've made an exception for today,' Zeus said, and Minthe screamed as a finger touched her bare shoulder. Her pale skin darkened instantly, as though she had been burned.
'Stop!' I yelled. 'This is my Trial, not hers!'
'So true, flower goddess. You need two more seeds to win. You may have both, right now, if you let Eurynomos have Minthe.'
'What?' My head spun at his words. I could win right now? No more tests and Trials and fear, just Hades.
But...
I looked up at the woman strapped to the ceiling, a flash of memory causing me to think of Ixion strapped to the burning wheel in Tartarus. My stomach lurched as another finger touched Minthe's leg, and she made a strangled sound.
'This isn't fair!' she screamed. 'I've taken my Trials! I've proven myself!'
She was right.
'If you choose to save her and succeed you will win one token, and therefore will need to win the last Trial to marry Hades,' boomed Zeus. 'If you choose to save her and fail, you lose the Trials. What is it to be, Persephone?'
There was no question in my mind. Maybe the fucked up gods and citizens of Olympus would kill for what they wanted, but I wasn't one of them. I couldn't live my life waking every day knowing I chose to let someone die.
'Let her live,' I said loudly.
'I was hoping you would say that,' Zeus said, and I could hear the delight in his words. The cavern began to rumble and shake around me, and I yelped as a huge part of the rock floor began to crack and split, causing me to stumble.
'I was hoping you would say that too,' hissed a high-pitched voice inside my head. 'It's so rare that I get living company, it is truly a treat.'
'Eurynomos?' I called out loud, as more of the floor cracked around me.
'Indeed. Now, if you want to save her you must cut her free.'
I looked up at Minthe strapped to the ceiling. How was I going to get up there?
With a lurch, the part of the floor I was standing on shot up, and I dropped to my knees as I stumbled. The floor was falling away in huge pieces, leaving pillars of stone at different heights, barely large enough for me to stand on. The one I was on was one of the lowest, but some almost reached the ceiling. As I stared around I realized what I had to do. I had to jump from pillar to pillar, until I was high enough to cut Minthe's ropes.
Heights. Why was it fucking heights! They said I wouldn't have to face them again.
I peered over the edge of my pillar, pulse racing and heart hammering so hard I felt sick.
But the dark chasm I expected to see wasn't there. What I saw was much, much worse.
Bodies. Corpses in every stage of decomposition were rising from the dark, filling the space between the pillars. Many were skeletons like the one I had fought at the start of the Trials, limbs and jaws clacking as they climbed over each other. But some still had flesh clinging to their bones, jaws and shoulders and ribs showing through their sallow, blue-tinged skin. I felt myself heave as their rotten smell rose with them, and called the lavender scent to wrap around me fast.
'Don't fall off the pillars, flower goddess,' taunted Eurynomos. 'They'll rip you apart, and then I'll eat your flesh.'
Shit, shit, shit. Terror surged inside me as I looked between the writhing mass of undead below me, and Minthe, shrieking above me. How the fuck was I going to survive this?
Fourteen
Persephone
OK, human Persephone was scared of heights, I told myself sternly, breathing hard. Goddess Persephone has vines that can catch stuff and recently jumped out of a tree. Goddess Persephone can do this.
'Will you get the fuck on with it!' screamed Minthe from above me. I flicked my eyes to her angrily as I tried to work out which rocky pillar was closest to me.
'Are you shitting me? I could have left you here to die!'
'Well you didn't, so get me the fuck out of here!'
'Stop swearing at me and shut up,' I snapped back, tucking Faesforos back into its sheath. A low rumbling moan was coming from the undead below me, and