Stretching out her hand, she called on whatever plant could flourish here. She thought perhaps it would be some warped, disgusting thing. A cave plant with dripping ooze. Before her eyes, moss grew into a thick, plush bed that waited for her to tumble down into waiting arms. Tiny white ferns glowed in the midst of the thick bed, their coils so bright she could see them from four stories up.
“Wow,” she whispered. “I didn’t know you grew here.”
She could almost hear these plants in her head. Like they had the spirits of a mortal within them, or at least more life than the thousands of plants above ground. They called out to her, waiting to hold her in their arms.
No time for hesitation. Kore pulled up her skirts and tucked them into the waistband of her peplos, girding her loins for the next step. Plummeting that far to the ground would not be easy, but she wasn’t about to let anyone know she was wandering around the castle.
She leapt from the window and fell through the air. Wind whistled in her ears and for a moment she lost all the breath in her lungs. Had she really just leapt to her death?
The ferns caught her first, stretching up to help ease her down onto the bed of moss. They were almost like fingers, stroking her sides and petting her hair before they released her. Safe and sound, without a scratch or bruise on her.
Kore looked up at the window where she had fallen from. It really was very high.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “That was very kind of you.”
The plants dissolved beneath her until she was lying on the stone walkway. They went back to wherever they came from, but she could still feel their tender thoughts and gentle nature. Perhaps it wasn’t so bad here if the plants were that kind.
The black pillars of the castle rose around her. Some of them were regular pillars as she was used to, but others were carved into grotesque figures of men straining to hold the significant weight of the ceiling on their back. Some beautiful women and goddesses holding urns from which water poured. One in particular caught her eye.
It was the figure of a shirtless man. He wore his chiton low at his waist, tied around his hips rather than thrown over his shoulder. His dark hair was pin straight and fell around his shoulders like water. The white marble of his carved body gleamed in the light, as though the artist had polished it. Black marble wings stretched out behind him, each feather so carefully carved that she could see the faint lines where they had once been ruffled.
And then he moved.
She gasped and crab-crawled away from him until her back hit another column. The statue advanced upon her with an evil grin.
No, not a statue. She had seen men this handsome before, and they were very real.
“Hello,” the man said. His voice was a rasp, as though someone had cut his throat and it hadn’t healed right. “I wondered when I’d meet the new queen.”
She swallowed hard. “My name is Kore. What’s yours?”
He chuckled, and the sound was like nails screeching down freshly hewn stone. “Thanatos. The one whom the mortals forget.”
Thanatos. God of Death. He was the one who’s breath smelled like rotting flesh and whose touch could kill. Even Demeter feared him with his pointed teeth and evil grin. He could take the life of a god if he wished.
Breathing hard, she tried to scramble further away from the deadly creature but found herself completely and utterly trapped. Thanatos opened his wings wide, spreading them around her until there was nowhere for her to escape. She should never have left her room. Hades warned her there were creatures here who could hurt her, creatures who...
“Thanatos,” a voice snapped. “Are you trying to scare the girl? You already know the rumors make Olympians terrified of you. I’m sure she’s heard more than enough about your devious past.”
A woman stepped out of the shadows. This one was dark as the night. Her hair was black as obsidian and her skin a deep umber like the ancient trees in the forest. The blue light of the Underworld gave her a sheen, or perhaps that was merely the static of magic around her. She’d braided her hair into a thousand tightly woven strands and at the ends, beads clacked together. Kore looked closer