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“Yes, and she will run herself into the ground because of this. She will allow no one but herself
to take responsibility for what happens here. That is how she has always been.”
“Where is she?” Devon asked as he polished off his croissant in one bite and put his coffee down on a side table in the hallway.
“Cocytus,” she answered but received a fading thanks as he did his version of a shadow jump.
***
Devon landed on the muddy banks, his bare feet squelching in the mud. He sneered in disgust as he lifted his feet out of the slippery mud and moved along the riverbed.
She was standing at the edge of the shore, staring out at Tartarus. Her hands fisted at her sides and her mouth in a grim line.
She had shadows under her eyes, and he wondered if she slept at all as he held her or just slipped out after he fell asleep. Most likely the latter.
“Hey.” He walked to stand beside her, not sure what to say. Her body language made it quite obvious how unsettled she was, and he did not feel like he knew her well enough to have the right words to help her mood.
She said nothing, her gaze intense as she watched two of her Reevka guards move along the edge of the boneyard. Their shadowy eyes taking in all the details; monsters and bones.
“They look like they have it in hand,” he whispered, standing shoulder to shoulder with her. His hands in his pockets as they watched the guards march back to another point where several other guards were standing sentry.
“Yes. They are the best in my army. I can hardly imagine anyone getting past them, which is why they will be posted here going forward.” Her words were ones that told that the situation was handled, the enemy’s capture a foregone conclusion, but her tone told a whole different story.
She wasn’t sure who her enemy was right now, and that was eating away at her, making her second guess herself. She folded her arms across her chest as her eyes stared out towards the guards, but he wondered if she even really saw them.
“Can you sense anything that seems out of place? I feel as if I am missing something,” she told
him, her voice faltering on the last word.
She wasn’t looking at him and that bothered him. He wanted to look in her eyes and tell her what she needed to hear, anything to help her. Her loss of control was eating at her and he felt the urge to protect her. Mentally, physically, it didn’t matter.
He cared and when he cared, he protected. There were so few people in his existence that mattered, and every day, she became more and more important to him.
Damn it. Guess his emotional wall was dust and rubble now.
He looked out over the terrain as she asked, unsure of what he could do to help, having only known the Underworld had existed for such a short time.
“Just the color of people’s power,” he answered.
Persephone’s head whipped around to look at him and her jaw dropped.
He tilted his head and turned to respond when he caught sight of a glowing greenish string and began to follow it without thinking.
He was being called to it, he realized, and the closer he got to it, the more he felt a small vibration in his bones. His nervous system felt jolted, like he had over imbibed in caffeine or some other stimulant.
“Finally,” he heard a whisper. Not outside of himself, but in his mind as he stepped closer to the string and realized it wasn’t actually a string at all, but a cord.
One that was moving on its own, full of life. Reaching out his hand, he touched it and his body immediately went rigid as jolts of power flickered through him.
“Devon?” he heard a voice far away. Almost like he had entered a tunnel, the voice faded off into the distance, and he realized he was still holding the cord. The cord that looked like it was covered in scales like a snake.
He took deep breaths to center himself, surprised the powerful jolts were not at all hurting.
“Slept so long…” he heard in his mind again. The voice sounded old, ancient. “You’ve kept me waiting far too long.”
“Who…” his voice broke, and he paused for a moment as he tried to rally his thoughts together again. “Who are you?”
“I am you. You are me. I am the much older and far more powerful version of you. The one you forced to sleep for far too long, little God. Far too long.”
