Tolliver stands and holds out his hand. I take it, but before he can pull me up, I recoil. My fingers end in hooked, blackened claws. I turn my hands over to see the outlines of charcoal veins webbing up my wrists and forearms.
“Elle,” Tolliver prompts, hand still outstretched.
To his credit, he only flinches a little when I wrap my hand around his. As he hauls me up, there’s a sharp metalliccrack, and I feel the snapping of joints and sockets. I gasp and pull my hand away to find Tolliver’s prosthesis crushed.
“Oh my god, Tolliver,” I whisper. Try to whisper in a demon voice. I look at him in horror. “I didn’t—I mean, I’m so—”
“You’re so strong,” he says, looking at his ruined limb. “I’m so glad that wasn’t my other hand.”
“I promise I’ll get you a replacement,” I babble. “Whatever you want. Cosmetic. Utility. Hell, it can shoot missiles out of the fingers if you want.”
Tolliver cuts me off. “Babe, you gotta go kill Hades.”
“Oh, right. Shit. Okay.”
I take the winding staircase—why is italways winding—two steps at a time. The door to the roof is already open, occasionally smacking against the stone in the wind. In the center of the turret stands Hades, her robes whipping against her, hair flying back. Infront of her Ezra grips the runed femur with all his strength. CJ is on one knee, not bowing to Hades but rather under the strain of their telempathy. They may have Hades trapped for now, but it won’t last long. I’ve maybe got a few minutes—two, maybe three, tops—to grab her hair and complete the ritual.
Ezra’s eyes flash wide when he sees me, and he drops the bone, breaking the binding.
Okay, maybe no minutes.
“Hades!” I yell, and it cuts through the wind like a machete.
For a second, she remains frozen—and I think maybe the binding is still intact, but then she turns slowly. When she sees me silhouetted in the doorway, her jaw drops. For the first time since I resurrected her, she seems at a loss for words.
“Care to renegotiate?” I try to sound cavalier, but it comes out menacing because of the whole demon thing. This is going to make conning people so much harder.
“You absolute fool,” Hades spits.
“What did you do?” says another voice, and Rook steps from behind Hades, mouth agape.
He’s still in his demon form: clawed hands, charred veins, curved horns.
I give him a sarcastic smile and point between the two of us. “Hey, twinsies!”
He doesn’t laugh.
Hades’s jaw ticks. “What was even the point of all that? Were you wanting the power? I will always be more powerful. I could end you with a flick of my hand.”
“Well, yeah,” I say, “and I can just keep bringing myself back to life. That’s kind of my thing now.”
Hades laughs roughly. “I told you. You can’t kill me. And I can kill you as many times as I want.”
I pout. “I thought you needed me. To build you an army.”
“I needed someone malleable,” she snaps.
“You need a descendant of Persephone.”
Hades lets out a frustrated growl. “Do you know how many descendants of Persephone are out in the world? She wasn’t like the rest of them, keeping their families small. She didn’t care about siloing power.” Hades takes several steps toward me, heels clicking on the wood floor, and I tense. “I can kill you as many times as I need to. I’ll just send Rook out to find someone else to do the spell.”
I’m tired of the evil monologue. Let’s get this over with.
I take a step forward, almost stumbling. It’s been a long day. I’ve died, been resurrected, and had my elemental essence irrevocably changed. Despite all that, I have a half-formed plan that only gets some of us minorly injured.
But then, out of the corner of my eye, I see a shadow cutting across the sky, the flutter of wings, a single glowing eye.
Crowlene soars past Rook, fast as lightning, plucks a hair from Hades’s head, and then disappears into a shadow.
