Finally, I found the door that Kerala had told me about. It was surprisingly unguarded, and I slowed, cracking it open and peering outside. Though it was daytime according to the clocks, the sky was still a deep, dark gray. No stars lingered above, the moon had disappeared, and it was the dreariest thing I’d ever seen.
A faint rain drizzled from the sky, and I sucked in a bracing breath before striding out into the large courtyard at the side of the castle. In the distance, I could hear the roar of the ocean crashing against the cliff. From far away, no one could tell who I was, so moving with confidence would be key.
The garden was a strange place. For one, there were no living plants. Disappointing in the extreme. Something about hades made me crave the presence of living green things more than I’d ever craved them before.
Instead, there were stone statues of plants. Terrible things, low-lying and random—almost as if they’d once been alive and wild and had been captured in stone by an evil curse.
Hell, they probably had been cursed.
As I walked deeper into the large rectangular garden, I caught sight of a single tree within the property.
I veered toward it, smelling the sweet scent of fruit, and feeling the pull of the leaves, as if the living elements inside them called to my soul.
I stopped at the edge of it, far enough away that I couldn't touch the branches.
A pomegranate tree.
From the sky, a small black bat dived at me, driving me away from the tree.
Danger.
“Crap!” I ducked, then darted away, not wanting to be near the pomegranate tree, anyway.
The bat fluttered above me, just out of reach. I squinted up at it. “Were you looking out for me?”
The bat was silent.
“Do you know where the apothecary lives?”
The tiny creature turned and fluttered through the air, leading me onward. I followed.
A few moments later, I spotted the cottage at the edge of the garden. Purple, sparkling smoke wafted from the chimney.
The bat dived over it, then darted off.
“Thanks,” I called quietly.
I hurried toward it. Stopping on the stoop, I knocked. A few moments later, the door swung open and a young woman stared out at me.
She had long black hair and brilliant blue eyes, along with a tattoo of a strange symbol right next to her eye, roughly on her temple. It was a beautiful, shifting thing that glowed with light.
She raised a brow. “Yes?”
“Are you the apothecary?”
“Yes. Who are you?”
“I’m Seraphia.”
“No, you’re not.”
I scowled at her. “Yeah, I am.
“Well, that might be what you’re calling yourself, but it’s not who you are.”
“Who am I, then?”
“Come on in, and we’ll find out.”
Persephone. She was going to say I was Persephone, and I didn’t want to hear it. But I did want to come in.
She turned and stepped inside, so I followed, gasping as I entered.
The inside of the cottage was enormous, far bigger than the tiny exterior would have suggested. Though the footprint of the room wasn’t particularly huge, the ceiling soared a hundred feet overhead. Dried herbs hung from the rafters, lit by the glow of floating fairy lights. Hundreds of books sat on shelves that climbed to the ceiling.
There were so many more books in this realm than I’d ever expected. In fact, if I’d been asked to envision hell, it would have been a place completely devoid of them.
On the far wall, a fireplace flickered merrily, the flames purple and green as they lapped around the edges of a large cauldron. A black cat was curled in front of it on a fluffy bed.
Tables lined the walls, cluttered with tools of the trade, and two comfortable couches sat in the middle, covered in jewel toned cushions.
“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked.
Just the idea of it made my mouth feel as parched as the Sahara. “No, thank you.”
“You don’t want to be trapped here?”
“You can tell I’m not from here?”
She turned to me. “Oh, yes.”
“How?”
She gestured to me. “There’s a light to you. Joy. That’s not usual here.”
I did not feel particularly joyful. Or even a mediocre level of happy. So how she was getting that vibe was beyond me.
“Water won’t make you stay here,” she said. “That’s safe.”
I frowned, uncertain.
She walked toward me and gripped my hand, her pretty face staring intently at me. “I promise. Water flows through all the worlds and is safe. It won’t trap you here.”