The Promise of Hades (The Hades Trials #3) - Eliza Raine Page 0,64
myself to my feet, my vision blurry and my whole body numb as Buddy whinnied into existence beside me. And as I had hoped, he wasn't a seahorse. He was a winged horse.
'I love you. You have to let me do this,' I said, looking into Hades anguished face.
'I love you,' he choked, and I pulled myself awkwardly onto Buddy's back. He began to gallop immediately, then his huge wings snapped taut, and we launched into the sky. The waves of pain were increasing now, and I gripped his mane as tightly as I could as we soared higher.
'When I tell you, you've got to get out of here, Buddy,' I whispered to the horse, and he neighed loudly. Poseidon said he could be out of water for five minutes. And to make sure I killed nobody when the power overcame me, I needed to be as high as I could be, as far from everything and everyone in Olympus as possible.
We flew on, higher and higher, and when I could barely see Hades on the rock below, and the pressure inside me was so painful I knew I couldn't bare it any longer, I let go. I let go of Buddy, I let go of the power, I let go of myself. Completely.
A clarity I had never known descended over me as the horse vanished, and I hovered, weightless, suspended in time and space. I stared around myself, gaping, as the pain stopped immediately. A swirling mass of light and shadow was surrounding me, and with a jolt, I realized the power hadn't left me yet.
For the few moments before it overwhelmed me, at that suspended point in time, the power belonged to me. I had magic and strength unparalleled. And as it glowed and swirled around me, understanding came to me.
It wasn't all dark.
Daylight and shadow, light and dark; they both swirled together.
Hades' words sang through my mind. 'You can't keep a light that bright in the dark.' But what other purpose did a bright light serve, if it wasn't lighting the dark? One could not exist without the other. One had no purpose without the other. Light was destined to live with the dark.
I knew what I had to do. I knew it with bone deep certainty. I needed to light the dark.
My vines burst from my palms, gleaming gold, and as I began to fall through the air, I shot them at the surface of Virgo. They slammed into the ground, and I heard Hades shout over the rushing wind, as I drew every bit of light I could from Cronos' power and channeled it into the rock. Life flared bright inside me, rushing through my body, and I focused on Hades' face, on love and light and growth.
And I felt the dark around me, inside me, changing. The shadows in the swirling mass were receding, the light forcing them out. The torrents of power that had been battering against me now flowed through me and into my golden vines like a river of life, and as I approached the surface, green invaded my blurred vision.
Too late I realized I was going to hit the ground, and with my vines connected to the earth I couldn't use them to brace myself. But instead of hard rock, I hit something soft. I was on a cushion of blue light, and as it lowered me gently to the floor, Hades ran toward me.
His face was a mask of awe and shock, and as I channeled the last of the glittering power into the ground, I called out to him.
'A light this bright was made for the dark. They belong together.' My vines disintegrated as he reached me, and he barely slowed, scooping me off my feet and kissing me so hard I couldn't breathe.
'You're alive,' he said, over and over between kisses. Exhilaration rocketed through me, and as the remnants of the godly power left me, my own emotions finally took hold of me again. I was alive. And so was he.
'We both are,' I gasped, and kissed him back, just as hard.
Eventually he set me back down on my feet, staring into my eyes like he'd never seen anything so mesmerizing.
I'd done it. I had actually saved us. I had channeled that immense power into something good, and light. I hadn't let it overwhelm me. I had been strong enough to save us. Disbelief was making me giddy as I stared up at Hades. If I had