The Promise of Hades (The Hades Trials #3) - Eliza Raine Page 0,53

already has, little Lord,' she said, gesturing at my wrist. I instinctively drew on my power, but the response was just a pathetic swell of fury, coursing uselessly through me. I couldn't channel it into magic, no matter how hard I tried.

'Why would Zeus free you? He hates you, and all other Titans.' I couldn't make sense of it. The very last Olympian who would want Cronos to be free was Zeus, surely?

'Ego and hatred are powerful emotions, Hades. The world has forgotten how evil we Titans are supposed to be. They are allowed into the academies to learn magic alongside the other citizens, they are allowed to work and live in the realms, treated the same as everyone else. And now, to top it off, you've given one of our most powerful, the mighty Oceanus, his own realm in Olympus.' I stared at her in disbelief.

'You're saying Zeus is freeing Cronos to show the world that Titans are bad?'

'He doesn't think Cronos will actually make it to freedom. He thinks he can use me, and your lovely ex-wife, to let Cronos wreak a touch of havoc, reminding the world of what Titans are capable of, before he swoops in and saves the day. And then all will hail our mighty King Zeus.' She gave a mocking bow. 'But he's a fucking fool,' she hissed straightening suddenly. 'As soon as Cronos gets his hands on that little flower goddess of yours, Zeus will not be able to contain him. Nobody will!'

Twenty-Four

Persephone

Morpheus kept us on course as we raced along the Styx, to the gates of the Underworld and Cerberus. My leg was still stiff, but the wound was completely closed now, and any loss of blood I may have experienced was being offset by the power still coursing through me from Fonax. I was keeping the voice commanding me to kill at bay by clinging to the image of Hades' face, but the more I thought about him, the more intense his fear felt through the bond, which in turn was making me more anxious and angry and susceptible to the dark power.

'Please tell me we're almost there,' I yelled over the rushing wind.

'Over there,' shouted Hecate, and pointed. We were making our way over ground that was gradually sloping upward and I could just make out a dark hole in the rock above us, that the glowing blue river seemed to be streaming from.

It only took a few moments more to reach it, and I flexed my fists as we entered the darkness.

We flew into a long cavern, and my jaw fell open as I stared around myself. The river veered off to the right, immediately obscured from view by the walls of the cavern. But the walls weren't made from rock, they were made from wings. A hundred feet tall and the same again in length, they stretched the length of the cavern, struts that looked like ribs holding them up at intervals. They were slightly transparent, and I could see huge flames flickering behind then, casting everything in a fiery orange glow. We slowed as we flew further into the long hall, and I saw what the wings were attached to. At the end of the room was a huge iron gate with thick bars, and towering above it, a statue of a demon, the wing walls curving from its back. It looked like a grotesque gargoyle, with fangs and horns and sagging stone skin and I shuddered.

'Wow,' I breathed. The gates of hell were terrifying. Impressive, but terrifying. 'Where's Cerberus?' I asked. The second the dog’s name left my lips, a rumbling growl began to roll through the air. Morpheus brought the chariot to a stop, just a few feet above the ground.

'I don't know, but here's Minthe,' muttered Hecate, looking behind us. Her red chariot was pelting toward us, and as she neared I saw that her arm was wrapped in fabric, blood seeping through the material. She couldn't heal, I remembered, and Olethros' bite was toxic.

'Are you alright?' I called to her, as they slowed. Sanape growled and leveled her crossbow at me, but Minthe barked something at her.

'Fine,' she shouted back at me. 'May the best woman win!'

I nodded at her, as respectfully as I could, and turned back to Hecate, who was giving me a strange look.

'You do actually want to win this, right?'

'Yeah, but not by letting someone else die,' I snapped.

'Her health is not your problem. It's extremely good for