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“When her eyes look like that, it’s a hint toback off.” Daphne pulled Xander farther ahead. “We’ll rescue him, Avery. I promise.”
I shook my head, trying to shove the magic down.
“Death isn’t bad,” I said once I felt capable of doing something other than exploding. “But prison is. What Daphne was put in was cruel. It’s worse than what they did to me. And what the black wolf—what Cole—is going through? It’s worse than any of us could imagine. There’s nothing more despicable than trapping a wolf, and I will do anything to save him from that.”
That was a bit of a downer, so I slid out of the conversation. Mainly, Xander and Daphne talked, occasionally volleying questions to Hector or me to keep us involved. I only half-listened, my own words ringing in my head.
“Almost there.” Several hours had passed, but no one hadcomplained.
Xander led us around a corner, and there was no doubt we had reached our destination.
The walls turned smoother than the rough stone of the others, as if they had been carved. It was a long, straight passage, without any of the winding or offshoots the others had.
But most of all, at the end was a final wall of crystal. The green light I’d cast refracted back. Energy pulsed in the air, dark and foreboding.
“This,” Daphne whispered. “This is what it feels like to be in Hell, but way worse.”
I grit my teeth, pushing forward.
“Be careful, your majesty,” Hector said. He was trying to keep pace beside me, but the energy seemed to repel him. It wasn’t exactly easy for me either, but I was doing better than any of my companions.
“You three stay back. I’ll go by myself from here.”
Daphne started to protest, but I shook my head. “If something goes wrong, I won’t have you trapped there with me. Keep them safe, Hector.”
When my guard readied his own argument, I cut him off with a stern look. “That’s an order.”
“Be careful,” Daphne called after me, her warning bouncing off the walls.
It was like walking through snowdrifts. Ice slammed into my bones, the energy an assault, trying to keep me away.
Nothing will keep me from him.
Sweat trickled down my forehead. My hands balled into fists, my nails digging so deeply into my hands that they drew blood. When I reached the crystal wall, I forced my gaze up. It was nearly ten feet tall, with white fragments protruding like weapons.
I slammed my palms onto it, letting the stone taste blood as I summoned my strength.
But like Hecate warned, getting into Tartarus was the easy part.
The hard part would be making it back out.
Chapter VIII
Tartarus.
Toxic air slammed through my lungs. Every cell in my body rebelled at my presence in this forsaken place. It was like it was twisting every atom and turning me inside out. I looked around, trying to ground myself, but my surroundings were mind-bending. What first seemed to be the ground I stood on was somehow the ceiling, and the moment I realized that, I fell down, down, down to the ground. Shifter instincts let me round off my fall into a roll that spared me the worst pain, but the pain was the least of my concerns. I shut my eyes, trying to slow down the ringing in my ears from the fall, but the air continued to suffocate me.
I bent over my knees and vomited.
That made me feel only marginally better. A thousand invisible centipedes crawled over my skin, worming their way under my clothes and warring with each other. I wanted to howl, to shift, to run, but my wolf wanted nothing to do with this hellscape. She recoiled, as though it was something that had already hurt her.
Control yourself, Avery.
I tried to imagine it washisvoice in my head, coaxing me the way he had when I’d faced other challenges. I didn’t have time to lose my shit.
I forced my eyes open.
The under-realm had only ever been referred to in vague terms. The pits. Eternal torture.
