The Passion of Hades - Eliza Raine Page 0,71

my shaking body could muster. 'I demand you let me out. Now.'

Campe chuckled softly, the flames of the river dancing in time to the sound.

'A member of the palace? Those vines of yours certainly carry darkness, but you are not royalty.'

'I was,' I said, fiercely. 'And Hades will be pissed if you don't let me go.'

'Hades doesn't visit with us anymore,' she said, touching one hand to her cheek in a kind of mock sadness. 'Such a shame. I would be delighted if your presence brought him to us once more.'

So would I. In fact, I was banking on it.

'Why not?' I asked, deciding that keeping her talking was the best thing to do. It would buy time for Hades to find me. Please, please let him be coming to find me.

'He found himself a wife,' Campe said, bending at her huge waist and moving her beautiful face closer to me. The bloody head of a horned lizard bounced against her sternum. 'She became more appealing to him than torture.'

'I can't think why,' I whispered, staring at her morbid necklace.

'What is your name, baby goddess? It is uncommon to come into your powers so old, and you are clearly untrained.'

I scowled up at her. Would she recognize my name? Would it help me if she did?

'Persephone.'

A long hiss erupted from her, her genial expression morphing into a glare. Her tail lifted, the splayed end rippling as the snakes writhed.

'You are Persephone?'

'Yes, I told you, I was once royalty. Now let me go.'

'Ohhh, how I've waited for this day,' she seethed, her eyes flashing with anger. 'I don't think I will wait for the Titans to wake after all.'

I had about a second’s notice, granted purely by intuition, to get out of the way as her tail curled around her body and came smashing down towards me. I tried to roll away from the river of fire, but I stumbled on the rocky ground and found myself shaken to my hands and knees as the ground rumbled with the impact of her tail smacking the rock. I launched myself back to my feet, my vines helping push me up, then began to run blindly as a low, maniacal cackle rose up behind me. 'I wondered where you were all these years, and now you just stumble into my domain. What a delightful twist of fate,' Campe purred around her laughter.

It was too dark, and I couldn't see anything as I got further from the river, Ixion's wheel high above me providing the only slivers of light left. A piercing scream from my right almost made me fall in shock, and a row of men seated on golden chairs flashed into view. Their faces were masks of agony, twisted and contorted with pain. I changed course, but felt something cold and hard smack into me from behind, then I cried out as I was lifted from my feet by an invisible force. I twirled in the air as I rose, my black vines now flailing around me, seeking the unseen enemy. I floated through the stifling air, coming to a stop before Campe, level now with her gleeful face. I was being held up by nothing at all, just like Ixion’s wheel. My heart was thudding in my chest as I desperately tried to think of a way out, but she had been right when she'd said this was her domain. Her magic far outstripped mine.

'You took him from me, you little whore,' she snarled, and confusion bit through my fear.

'Took who?' I gasped, as I floated helpless before her.

'The king. He was turning. He was becoming what he was destined to be, and the glorious beast inside him was almost free. Then you took him.'

'Do you mean Hades?' I kicked my legs in the air, trying to right myself, to stop the slow spinning.

'Of course I do,' she hissed, leaning her huge face close to me. She smelled like rotting flesh, the iron tang of blood laced through the scent.

A roar bellowed from beneath us and everything around me, including Campe, shook as it reverberated through the pit. Her face morphed, fear actually flashing through her eyes as her cruel smile dropped. 'He is coming,' she hissed, then slithered backwards on her huge snake tail.

'Hades?' Hope soared inside me.

'No. Cronos.'

Cronos? Wasn't he the Titan who had eaten most of the Olympians? The worst of the lot?

'Shit, shit, shit,' I chanted as I willed my vines down towards the floor, searching desperately