Page 61 of Curse the Flame

For a moment, she’s distracted from looking for Aiden. Only for a moment, though, before she says, “I love you, Will, but if I wanted this chat to be just between us, I’d invite you to our palace. No shade, but this place is way too fucking depressing. Give me gold any day.”

Alex nuzzles her again. “I do whenever you let me. Because I love you, my sweet, and it’s because I love you that I think you should stop taking pot shots at Hades.”

Daphne’s eyebrows shoot sky-high. “Don’t tell me the great Apollo is afraid of the Lord of the Underworld. Shit, Alex. He’s not even one of the Twelve like you are.”

“That’s true, but he is one of the big three. He won’t hurt me, but if he hurts you, álokhos, he’ll do more damage to me than Kronos ever can.”

Kronos. The missing titan, the embodiment of chaos, and the reason that Daphne seems determined to get Aiden to agree to track down the monster and return him to Tartarus.

No one knows for sure how long Kronos has been imprisoned in Tartarus—or how long he’s been missing from the Underworld’s most guarded prison for its worst offenders. He was gone long before Aiden returned as the most recent Hades, and none of the memories he has of the countless lifetimes Hades lived before can answer that question.

But that’s the biggest problem. He was so close to losing his mind without Persephone to balance him that Hades not only let Kronos escape, he doesn’t even remember when it happened.

Centuries, at least. Alex said that, for close to two hundred years, Zeus has been searching for the titan before Zeus turned his focus on restoring balance between the Other and mirrorside by bringing more and more reincarnates to this realm. Especially the Twelve main Olympians, and he has. There are more currently living in the Other than not, and while I thought that was a good thing, Daphne quickly set me straight.

Kronos doesn’t want balance. He wants chaos. His idea is to destroy both worlds any way he can, and if the balance swings our way, that’s where we’ll find Kronos.

Here. In the Other.

I shake my head, giving Daphne an apologetic grimace. “I know you guys are really worried about this because Mr. Z”—another shake, and a correction—“Zeus says Kronos is a big problem. But I’ve talked to my husband. If Aiden thinks there’s a threat to the Underworld, he’ll act. But only if his realm is in danger⁠—”

“Fuck the Underworld,” snaps Daphne, her green eyes blazing with anger. “It’s you I’m worried about, Willow.”

What? “Me? Why would you be worried about me? I told you that Aiden protects me now.”

“Yeah?” she dares. “Then where is he? Because I don’t think he gets it. The Underworld is in danger. He wants to destroy the entire Other, and if you two stay down here and won’t help us get him before he gets us, you’re goners. And even if we can escape mirrorside, hope that he leaves the mortals alone, you can’t go, Willow. You can’t.”

I know.

Alex squeezes his wife to him, but when I offer my hand out to my cousin, he releases her before she has the chance to shake him off. He’s finally understood that Daphne can love both of us. I’m her cousin, he’s her soulmate… we’re not in competition, even if Alex starts to glow a deep golden color for a moment before he forces it back.

Daphne takes my hand. She’s trembling, and I can’t help but remember that being a nymph didn’t make Daphne Ackerly’s anxiety disappear.

No wonder she’s so determined to take on Kronos herself, with the handful of allies she and Alex have gathered because Zeus told them to. That’s Daphne, all right. When those she loves are at risk, she’ll do anything to save them.

Even follow them through an enchanted mirror into a mythical world.

I squeeze her fingers. “I promise you, Daph… I’m going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine.”

I can tell from the look in her eyes that I’m being silly, optimistic Willow all over again. But because she’ll never make me feel bad for it, she swallows roughly and says, “It better be.”

The moment that Daphne and Alex reluctantly leave the megaron, heading toward Charon’s boat so that he can summon a portal to bring them to the entrance to the River Styx above, I let out a soft breath as Aiden’s hand falls possessively on my shoulder.

I turn on my heel, the skirt of my chiton twisting around my knees as I brace my palms against Aiden’s chest.

He shudders under my touch. “If you want to join their crusade, Blossom, I won’t stop you. And if Hades tries anything, I’ll stop him. You hear me?”

I do, but I also know darn well he’s not talking to me.

Over the last nine months, I’ve learned that Aiden does better when he’s not battling the dark god inside his head. Whenever his Brooklyn accent slips out like that, I know I’m with the man he was, not the god they forced him to be. Finishing our story and cementing our bond… Aiden is the Lord of the Underworld, tapping into Hades’s impressive powers, and I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll risk his sanity again by fighting against his god if that’s what I want.

But I don’t want that. I want him.

I lower my hands so that instead of clutching the shirt of his black suit, I’m wrapping them around his lower back. I press the side of my cheek to his chest.

“I’m not going anywhere, baby. You hear that?”

He hums softly, and I feel the sensation both against my skin and in my heart.