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She was an enigma, and it angered him that she intrigued him so much.
Thoughts of her and his new life, an unending one if the Goddess’ estimations were correct, had kept him up last night, tossing and turning. Part of him felt helpless that his entire existence and world view had been upended, but the other part accepted the changes. Really, his mortal life had not been great, but he had been a man in charge of his days. Now, his days yawned ahead of him and he was entirely dependent on the good will of the Goddess of the Underworld.
He needed to regain his composure, but it felt like there was some part of him he couldn’t control. Like a stranger looked out through his eyes, something far more powerful than him, and that stranger recognized the Goddess.
Wanted her.
The wall he always had between himself and others was crumbling faster than he could try to rebuild it. He worried it would be a pile of dust by the end of the week.
Before he opened the door, Devon closed his eyes and focused on the feel of her power. It was pulling a sense of nostalgia from him, one that he couldn’t put his finger on. As if it was some childhood memory that anchored his soul, yet the memory itself eluded him. He wondered if they might’ve met before because a piece of him felt she was connected to him.
Another soft knock pulled him back from his thoughts, and Devon shook his head to clear it. As he opened the door, he caught sight of blue and black smoke around her, which disappeared as he focused his eyes on trying to find her in it. He finally saw her, her appearance making him struggle for words.
She was standing there in black slacks as well, with a white button-down tucked in, the top two buttons open, showing a necklace that looked like a pomegranate and matched her earrings. Her bluish-black hair pulled back into a low, sleek ponytail and those damn heels that gave mortal men heart palpitations.
“You look nice,” she commented, taking in his appearance. “Are you ready to leave?”
It was slightly intimidating that the woman before him ran the financial world, but also arousing. That was the only word he could think of when he looked at her in her business attire, standing tall, ready to make people bend to her will. She was most definitely a force of nature in her own right, Goddess or not.
A squeak of affirmation left his lips before he could stop it. Her eyebrows arched as if asking if he was okay, but he nodded before she could speak.
He forced himself to calm down. He could be around her and not have scandalous thoughts. He was a grown man, not a pre-pubescent teenager.
“Lead the way, boss.” He put his hand out towards the hallway, his face stoic and unlined. He would keep his errant thoughts at bay the best he could. Remember who offered him the seeds that bound him to the Underworld for eternity.
She smiled but did not walk out the door. Instead, she held out her hand for him to grab. He took a moment to steady his mind, remember his anger and why holding her hand meant nothing.
He finally reached out and wrapped his fingers around hers. He was never an affectionate person, and his lifestyle had taught him not to trust anyone touching him unless he controlled it. Someone could always have a knife or bullet with his name on it.
But Persephone’s hand, her soft and dry palm, warmed him to his soul. If he even had one of those anymore.
“We will shadow jump from here. I want you to really focus this time on the sensation at each moment of the jump, starting with when you feel the pull. I can show you things like this throughout our day when the opportunities arise. You’ve already shown an ability to do your own jump, so it should not take long for you to do this independently,” she directed. He began to feel the pull, a slight tugging on his thoughts.
“I feel it,” he told her.
She nodded. “Now, I will command the jump by visualizing the place I want to be. Shadow jumps require great detail, so create as much detail as possible in your mind of where you want to land. I will lead this time since I know where we need to go.”
He saw the lightest whisper of smoke rise from the floor, moving upward over his legs.
More smoke came, increasing and becoming denser, moving higher up their bodies as if to swallow them both. He held out his free hand and watched the shadows follow the movement, wrapping around his skin and rubbing against him like a cat begging for affection. When the shadows covered them both from head to toe, the dark cloud swirled like a black tornado.
“Ready?” she asked, the smoky shadows swirling at a faster pace, picking up momentum. Staring at the smoke in fascination, he nodded. The smoke moved closer to his body and laid against his skin right before a sensation of losing balance struck him.
Before he could jerk his hand free to try to stabilize himself, the feeling vanished. The smoke faded and Devon blinked at the sudden light burning his eyes. He realized he and Persephone were standing on the sidewalk of a busy downtown metropolis. His limbs were once again heavy as if gravity were stronger here than in the Underworld.
The mortal realm.
“Welcome to Halcyon.” She waved a hand around her, encompassing the city that towered above them like a behemoth. The skyscrapers dwarfed even the mountains behind it, whose peaks he could only glimpse in the empty space between the towers.
Looking around, he realized he had never been to this city before, which was interesting since he was sure he had been to every corner of the world. Or what was left of it.
It was so different from the village he had grown up in. He had to be in the city center, standing beneath a huge tower that looked like it was spiraling into the clouds. Halcyon was by far the most modern city he had ever seen in his life. A city that seemed untouched by the Great War.
He thought of the dirty, harsh cities he’d frequented as a mercenary and wondered how Halcyon could be so different–yet the same. Like all other cities, Halcyon struck him with a feeling of being smothered. Maybe it was the crowds and the metal towers. Devon found himself whirling his gaze around, looking at all the detail and life pushing through the city’s metal skeleton.
Looking at everyone going about their mundane lives, Devon felt even more disconnected from them than when he lived as a mercenary. Having seen and been to the Underworld, knowing that there was, in fact, more, made everything here feel foreign. The Underworld was hardly home to him yet, but it had opened a gate to something more inside of him.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Persephone asked, watching him as he glanced around.
