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“Demeter,” he calls after her. Kore tries to fly after Demeter, but his limbs still course with the poison of her vines—the ones that plucked him from the sky. Kore releases a shout that rattles the glass walls around him. “Demeter!”
He watches with wide eyes as his mother’s dark wings carry her past the shadow cast by the Titan of Time. She moves in the direction of the farthest mountain of Olympus, toward Hades' temporary throne.
Fear grips Kore.Not Hades.
He moves toward his mother’s workbench. Kore’s eyes roam the glass vials, desperate as they search for an antidote to her vines’ thorns. The poison will work its way through him, Kore knows from experience, but he also knows it will take days—if not months—to leave his system long enough to fly.
Kore doesn’t have that kind of time. He needs to chase his mothernow.Yet, nothing reveals itself to him.
“Fuck it,” Kore mutters as his eyes land on a gardening blade. His gaze moves to the places where Demeter’s poisoned thorns struck him. The largest is a perfectly circular puncture that festers in his tan skin. Without hesitation, Kore puts the blade through his flesh. Pain burns where the sharp steel moves—little resistance. Ichor drips around the blade, throbbing out of him with each passing beat of Kore’s immortal heart. With a vindictive sneer, he rips the blade from the gash, watching as his essence splatters over the stone floor—glowing, golden liquid that mortals would find sacrilegious to spill. But Kore doesn’t care as he coaxes more ichor from his wound.
“Bleed, damn you,” Kore commands his body. “Bleed that bitch out of me.”
The puddle around his feet spreads. Kore feels lightheaded, but despite the pain he keeps willing more ichor from his veins. His wings stir beneath the skin of his back, itching for release. Yet, the poison keeps them trapped.
“Shit. Work will you,” Kore curses. His body grows unsteady as he tries to force more of his tainted blood from his veins.
“You fool,” a bass-laden voice sounds from behind him, but it comes to Kore through a strange fog. As if he’s hearing the words during a waking dream, Kore ignores the sound. His eyelids slip closed. Kore fights against looming sleep, but his eyes are weighted like his limbs. Not even Hercules could lift such a burden. Kore slumps, falling, falling, falling until a warmth wraps itself around his body.
“We don’t have time for this,” that voice begins again. “If you fail Hades, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Hades,” Kore tries to say, but the name leaves him as a low moan.
“Yes,Hades,” the annoyed voice replies. “The queen you don’t deserve if this is the extent of your usefulness.”
Kore wants to tell the voice to fuck right off, but he doesn’t. He can’t. His tongue feels as if it’s been glued to the roof of his mouth. His wings continue pressing against the skin of his back, trying valiantly to escape the prison of Kore’s body.
“I hope you’re worth it.” Kore hears from the depths of what feels like a long, narrow tunnel.
His mouth opens with the forceful help of strong fingers, and a minty flavor bursts over Kore’s tongue as thick liquid pours into his mouth. Sticky and dense as molasses, the concoction drips down, pooling at the back of Kore’s mouth until a helpful hand rubs against the outside of Kore’s throat—coaxing him to swallow.
Kore gives himself over to nothingness, and the strange substance burns a path down to his stomach.
36
Hades
Zeus spiraling from the sky should upset her, but Hades watches her baby brother’s descent with indifference.
You loved him once,a voice whispers. One that reminds Hades of her mother.You protected him from your father, and now you betray him.
“He betrayed me first,” Hades whispers to the empty sky. A moving figure catches her eye, and Hades cocks her head. A grim smile twitches at her mouth as she watches Demeter move around the place where Kronos entertains the grandchildren he never met.
“Hades!” Demeter screams, a vision of wrath and destruction rather than love and growth. “Come face me!”
At her side, Hecate appears. “What is your order for Demeter?”
“Leave her to me,” Hades replies.
Sable wings unfurl, gleaming beneath Selene’s glowing moon and the dying orange cast of Helios' sun. Hades drops out of the mouth of the cave, wind rushing past her as she falls in a graceful dive. With a beat of her wings, she avoids the jagged points of mountainous cliffs. Her carelessness serves to enrage Demeter; Hades grins when she hears the other goddess' scream.
“Come for me, Demeter,” Hades taunts, flying upward with a lazy speed. Her crown, heavy as a helm, grows colder than ice as magic wraps Hades in invisibility.
“Your tricks belong to a coward,” Demeter rages, idling in the sky.
Hades watches her opponent with a sharp grin.
“You call yourself a queen, Hades? You’re a joke.”
