Page 19 of Curse the Flame

Relief rushes through me. “How?”

“Oh. No. You misunderstand. I can tell you how to get home, but I won’t.”

The relief vanishes as quickly as it arrived. “What? Why not?”

“Because you aren’t ready to leave just yet. The very same magic that brought you to the Other has you in its clutches. You belonged to it from the moment you stepped foot in this realm. You must pay its price. Only once you have will you be able to return mirrorside.”

Mirrorside. Of course. Why wouldn’t my world be referred to as mirrorside considering I had to pass through the glass to end up here?

But pay the magic? What does that mean?

I blow out a frustrated breath, trying not to take it out on Cassandra. Don’t shoot the messenger, right? “I’m sorry, and I’m not trying to be rude, honest, I’m not… but is any of that supposed to make sense?”

She thinks about my question for a moment. “Not yet,” she answers, “but it will.”

She could’ve just said “no”. “You said you saw me coming. That you saw Sir, too. Do you see what happens next?” I think of my empty condo and everything I left behind. “Do I go home?”

Cassandra is even more contemplative this time. Then, right when I’m beginning to think she’s not going to answer me, she says, “I could tell you what I see for your future, goddess, but you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

She shakes her head. “I cannot. But know this: this Persephone plays a larger role than any that have come before her. The legends are breaking. The paths aren’t set in stone.” Her eyes turn fully black: irises, pupils, and sclera included. When she speaks again, her voice has deepened, reverberating as she says, “The Other lives and dies by your choices. Shadows are searching, and shades are waiting, but it’ll be a horse’s last shot that will save us all so long as you believe in Death.”

Um… what?

Before I can ask what the heck that was about, Cassandra eyes return to normal. She squeezes her fist, extinguishing the fire in her palm.

Then, pointing at me, she says in her normal voice: “One last warning. Refuse to believe me at your own peril, goddess. Should he drag you down, do not eat anything the Underworld offers. If you hunger, there are trees in my woods that you may eat. If you have thirst, drink from my brooks. But in the Underworld… to feed is to stay.”

At least I understand that. If she really thinks I have anything to do with Persephone, I know what happens to the goddess of spring. She’s captured by the god of the Underworld, dragged on a golden chariot to his realm of the dead, and forced to become his bride. She eats six pomegranate seeds meaning she has to return to the Underworld for six months of the year. It’s a legend that accounts for the turn of the four seasons, but if she really wants to sell this whole “we’re in Ancient Greece” thing, if I somehow end up in the Underworld, I can’t eat anything if I want to go home again.

Got it.

“Okay.”

Cassandra blinks. “You… you believe me?”

I shrug. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because I am Cassandra.”

“And I’m Willow.”

“For now,” she says, and she totally gets the last word in because, a heartbeat later, she’s gone.

She’s just gone.

Cassandra found us. The next time Sir and I stumble upon someone else in these dark woods, it’s a complete accident on our part.

The sun is beginning to set. Or, at least, I think it is.

The sky overhead has slowly traded its bright gold for deeper shades of amber and violet, though I still haven’t actually seen the sun itself. The trees are too tall, their half-dead branches woven together into a canopy thick enough that the light filters through in scattered ribbons instead of shining directly overhead.

I don’t know how long we’ve been wandering at this point. Long enough for my feet to ache. Long enough for my stomach to remind me that the last thing I ate was pizza for dinner, and for my tired eyes to point out that I still haven’t gone to sleep yet.

I can’t. Not until I find somewhere safe, just in case another cyclops—or a witch with worse intentions than just warning me about my fate—finds me while I’m vulnerable.

One good thing about running into Cassandra? I start to notice there is fruit growing on certain trees and bushes. I’d noticed them earlier, but now I have to believe they’re safe to eat—and I do. I grabbed a piece of fruit from the first tree we passed that actually had something growing on it. It looked a little like a peach if peaches were more orange and twice the size.