feet left the floor, tearing my leg from Fonax's mouth, and leaving a chunk of my flesh between his jaws.
Rage blurred my vision, the voice in my head now louder than my own thoughts.
Kill! Burn! Blood!
I burst up through the hole where the trapdoor had been, my vine dragging me along the rocks, the pain interrupting the fury flooding through me.
'Persy!' yelled Hecate, and I rolled to see the chariot just a few feet from me, by the ledge.
But I didn't want to get back on the chariot. Now I had a score to settle, with an ungrateful, murderous hell-hound. I pushed myself onto my knees, dimly aware of the massive amount of blood pouring from my thigh. 'Persy, stop the bleeding, now!'
I ignored her, crawling back towards the trapdoor.
'Persephone, what are you doing? Get back on the chariot!' Morpheus shouted. But fury had taken over, Fonax's bloodthirsty Underworld magic coursing through my body.
'Persy, if you don't stop the bleeding, you will die, and Hades needs you!' Hecate's words finally pierced the fog. Hades. Hades and Minthe and... The race. The Trials.
I turned, the pain penetrating through the rage, obliterating all other thoughts. Heal. I had to heal myself. Fonax was trapped in the space under the trapdoor, and I'd taken most of his power, so when I sent my magic at my leg, no crippling torrents of fear hit me. Slowly, painfully, the wound began to close.
'Persephone, you have to get back on the chariot, we can't lose this much time,' Morpheus said, his voice calmer. I looked sideways, my head swimming, and saw that he had pulled the chariot up alongside the ledge.
'OK,' I stammered, dragging myself up onto my feet. I limped to the ledge, each step agony, still sending as much power as I could to my thigh, and Hecate pulled me onto the wood.
'Tell me you got the gem,' she said, wincing at my leg as I propped my back against the side of the chariot. I felt it lurch into motion as I held up my hand to her, showing her the ring.
'Yeah. I got the gem.'
Twenty-Three
Hades
'Let me go!' I roared, for the hundredth time. Ankhiale rolled her eyes at me, just as she had every other time.
'Good gods, you're irritating. If you're careless enough to let me trap you, then you should handle the consequences like a real man.'
I glared down at the metal band glowing around my wrist, furious that she'd managed to get it there. If I'd known she'd had it I would have fought differently.
'I know who gave this to you,' I hissed. It was a manacle forged by Hephaestus, and there were only three in existence. They were able to bind a god of almost any strength, and due to their exceptional power were only ever used in extreme circumstances.
And the only gods they were entrusted to were the three strongest; Zeus, Poseidon and myself.
I shook my wrist, pouring the little power I could still access into the metal, but the manacle didn't move. It was chained to an iron stake in the ground, pinning me in place. I knew it was useless. I used my own manacle to transport powerful prisoners to Tartarus, until it was no longer needed to trap them and limit their power. I knew how unbreakable the magic was. And I knew that only one of my brothers could remove it.
'Well yeah, it's pretty fucking obvious,' Ankhiale said, stepping through the ring of flames she'd created around me. I couldn't survive her fire without my power. My mind was racing, fear for Persephone overruling all else. I was useless here. 'That pathetic water-loving brother of yours isn't strong enough to free a Titan from Tartarus,' Ankhiale smiled at me.
She was right. Poseidon would never have enough dominion in the Underworld. But Zeus...
'He orchestrated the Trials here so that I would have to relinquish control of the Underworld to him. It was nothing to do with finding me a wife. It’s why he found Persephone.'
She nodded, her flaming hair falling about her face, her blood red lips pulled up in a grin.
'The longer the Trials have gone on, and the more control you have allowed him, the more power he has gained here. He's the strongest of all of you. All he needed was a little time, and a little deference from you. And the girl.'
'I am the Underworld,' I spat. 'He can not beat me in my own realm.' She chuckled.
'It would appear he