The Passion of Hades - Eliza Raine Page 0,47

the river Styx circles the Underworld seven times and is made of hatred. And you want to stay the fuck away from her.'

'How can something be made of hatred?'

'If you become Queen you'll learn all about all the rivers. But they are not going to be the subject of today's Trial, as you couldn't be trapped in any of them without dying instantly so let's move on.'

'Fine,' I sighed. 'Tell me about the unpleasant demons instead.'

'I'm in charge of a bunch of them, and they're all assholes,' she muttered. 'Keres demons, for example, are the deities of violent death. Arae are demons of curses, Lamia are rotten vampiric demons who drink blood, as are Empusa but they're usually on fire too. Then you've got a couple of really nasty spirits, like Eurynomos, who is the demon of rotting corpses, and the three Furies, who are goddesses of vengeance and need seriously reining in most of the time. And then you've got some who are just weird, like Ceuthonymos, who's a spirit we can never pin down and haunts anyone who's not a Titan.'

'Right,' I breathed, forgetting completely about the river. 'Do you think I'm going to meet any of them today?'

'Maybe, yes. You've got Faesforos?' I patted my thigh as I nodded. 'Good. I made you that blade because it can be used against any foe. And that includes Underworld demons.'

'And I'm extremely grateful,' I told her. My nerves were beginning to hum. Blood drinking vampires and demons of rotting corpses? The Spartae skeleton was starting to seem pretty tame right now. 'This is an intelligence test though, right? I hopefully won't be fighting.'

'Fingers crossed,' she answered, without a trace of hope in her voice, and a half-assed smile.

She flashed us to Hades’ throne room, and my eyes shot to his throne immediately, instinctively. He was there, smoky and translucent, and he gave me the briefest flash of silver eyes. Energy pulsed through me, and I rocked on the balls of my booted feet as I scanned along the row of gods. To my astonishment, Poseidon tipped his head to me as I made eye contact with him.

'Good day, Olympus!' sang the commentator's voice, and he glimmered into the space between me and the gods. 'Today Persephone will be facing one of Hecate's creations. She will need to escape the Empusa's lair!' I glanced at Hecate and wished I hadn't. Her face was a mask of dismay.

'Empusa? Please tell me that's not the vampire who's usually on fire?' I hissed to her, pulse now racing.

'Erm,' she whispered, her eyes filled with apology. But before she could say anything else, the room flashed white around me.

Twenty-Two

Persephone

The first thing I noticed was the smell. Sweet rotten meat and moldy earth swamped my nostrils and I was gagging before the light even cleared from my eyes.

'What the-' I started to say, but trailed off as I looked around me. I was standing in the middle of a cave, but unlike the rocky walls that glowed with daylight that I'd seen in Virgo so far, these walls glowed deep red. And they were casting their light over a floor littered with bones.

My stomach roiled as I gaped around at the room. Rows of alcoves were gouged into the rocky walls and there were hundreds of tiny figures lining them, made of something pale and ivory colored. More bone, I realized, as I stepped closer to the wall, screwing my face up as something crunched and sludged beneath my boots. Don't throw up, don't throw up, I chanted in my head, as a fresh wave of putridness assaulted my senses. I tried to remember the smell of meadow flowers and lavender and lilies and incredibly, the rotting smell faded a little, and I was sure I actually could smell lavender. Was that my powers?

Able to concentrate slightly better now, I pulled my attention from the rows of bone carvings to the rest of the small room. The thing that had caused all this must be in here somewhere. And so must a way out. All the walls looked completely solid though, and the room was only fifty feet around. All I could see on the floor were the remains of the prey of whatever lived here.

'Hello?' I called out cautiously, scanning the rocky walls for any clues to what I was supposed to do.

'Good day,' issued a silky voice, and I froze.

'Erm, where are you?'

A figure shimmered into being before me and my heart did