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“Did you truly try to rescue the souls trapped here?” Cole asked quietly, surveying the area around us.
“You were my priority, but yeah,” I admitted. “It didn’t seem right. But none would leave with me. In fact, they seemed to hate me fortrying to take them away.”
Cole tensed. “And now we need to convince all of them to do just that when not even one would before. Dare I hope there’s a plan?”
I nodded. “There is. We’re not going to convince them to leave.” I drew in a sharp breath, taking a step towards the nearest pillar, where some long-forgotten creature was hung upside-down, his limbs at unnatural angles. “We’re going to ask.”
And so the process began. I slid down to my knees, coming eye level with the tormented soul.
When I came into view, his unfocused gaze slid around, trying to detect the change in his environment. I went for the chains, but as he hurled oath after oath at me, I gave up and simply asked—“Do you want to be free?”
The soul hesitated. This was the curse of Tartarus. There is no hope; there is no escape. They weren’t just etched into the entrance of the realm, they were burned into the existences of every creature unfortunate enough to be here.
But they were lies. Because there wasalwayshope. You could always pick another path, no matter how terrible the current one was.
My magic stirred under my skin. I nearly jolted from the sensation, like I was suddenly able to inhale when something had choked me. I braced for it to disappear again, but no. It stayed, as if it had never left.
“You can be free,” I repeated. “You can choose what happens to you. If you want to escape back to the underworld. If you want a fresh shot at life. Or if you’re done, and you just want it to be over—you can have that too.” My magic flared, green light encasing us. The unfocused eyes looked at me with new awareness in them. “Or you can stay. It’s all up to you.”
I waited. I waited a thousand years in that moment.
And then, in a quiet, shaky voice, he replied, “I want rest. Eternal rest.”
It was Cole’s magic that I drew on. I wasn’t sure exactly how. Maybe because it was twin to mine, maybe simply because we were blended in every way. But my green life magic turned to the black of death, and I gave the soul the true death. His chains broke.
He disappeared.
I turned back to face Cole. His expression was slack with awe. I offered a half-smile before turning to the next prisoner. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Time was meaningless in Tartarus. Cole and I went from person to person for hours, days, weeks.
But each one chose to leave. Some wanted the final death, like the first. Others wanted to return to the underworld. Few were brave enough to venture back to the realm of the living and discard all their memories.
When I found Hector, I sobbed. He was without his always gleaming armor, his once bulky muscles atrophied into weak lumps. The realm had picked a particularly cruel torment for him—he was chained, watching others die, over and over. His sword was permanently out of reach from his bound hands. For a protector like him, there could be nothing worse. It was hard to ask him what his choice was, because the truth was, I wanted to beg his forgiveness for getting him killed. In equal measure, I wanted to demand he come with me to see Daphne, who still mourned him.
But I did none of that. Like the rest, I asked, not biasing him. It had to behischoice. He would have to choose to abandon the torment. Hewould have to decide he was willing to walk away from the destruction in front of him and take his own chance.
And he did. He chose to reincarnate in the realm of the living, rather than come back to the kingdom. My life-gift broke the ties and sent him away. I wondered if I would ever find him again.
On and on and on. Until we reached the very last soul.
The most recent to have come to the pits—the Moon Goddess.
The realm parted the ice around her just enough for her frozen lips to move. Before I could ask her, though, the realm spoke again.
“You have proved your point, life-giver. I will offer you another boon—you may leave this one with me. Just one final soul. You hate her. You do not need to show mercy. Leave her here, and you will still win and take the rest with you.”
I hesitated. I could have everything I wanted and still leave the Moon Goddess to pay for her sins.
This time, I didn’t look at Cole to silently ask his thoughts. His palm fell to my shoulder, reassuring me that whatever decision I made he would back me.
Her eyes were hateful. There was no pleading in them. She might decide to stay in the pits for spite. Would that force me to lose? It wasn’t clear, and I was too terrified to ask.
But I didn’t have the right to govern another soul so absolutely. Just as the Moon Goddess didn’t. Just as Tartarus didn’t.
“Thank you, but I decline.” There was no kindness in my voice when I spoke to the goddess. “Choose, Phoebe. Do you want to stay here for eternity? Or do you want to free yourself from this miserable realm?”
The Moon Goddess stared at me for ages. Ice edged in and out ofher face, as if wanting to resume its job torturing her.
