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“Careful,” Thalia’s voice whispered near me.
I whipped my head left, then right, but I couldn’t see her.
“Stay in there too long, you’ll stop healing eventually. It’s underworld lava, not normal lava.”
I looked around again. Was I imagining things? I moved through and tried to speed toward the edge, but I couldn’t run fast.
After wading as fast as I could, I made it to the stone ledge, feeling mortal again. I climbed out and vomited again, then looked back at the moat. I didn’t want to see my legs until they were healed again.
Thalia’s voice whispered again, “It slows your powers.”
I looked at the moat of fiery red-and-orange liquid. “You think?” I whispered back and looked around. “Where are you?”
She slipped out from the shadow of a stone. Her moonstruck gaze landed on me, and kindness creased the corners of her eyes. “You’re not the only one trying to save him, you know.”
I sighed with relief. “You’re okay.”
“I know how to hide here. I was goddess of the dead.”
“Aziel’s dead.”
Her expression dropped. “I know. I couldn’t get to him in time.” A tear hesitated on the edge of tipping from her eye. “Lucius will pay.”
“I think an existence trapped in here is punishment enough.”
“It is not.” Her mouth twisted in disgust. “He will pay with his life.”
“Then someone has to take his place here.” My stomach knotted. “I can seal this place so no one can ever leave, so he can’t leave.
“The underworld does not need to be sealed.” She spoke with an heir of regality. “It needs better leadership.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “You think Raiden can offer that?”
She evaluated my expression until a small smile tugged her lips upward. “Raiden loves your mortal realm too much.” She looked me up and down. “Immortality suits you.”
“I’m sorry you died,” I admitted. From my pocket, I pulled out the vial with the essence of the goddess of the dead. “I got this for you. You can come back.”
Her gaze flickered with uncertainty as she took it and placed it between her breasts, covered with white silk fabric flowing over her curves: a dress fit for an empress. “Thank you for this.”
“You need to come to the portal so Edmund and Naomi can join you with it again, and you can come back.”
She answered with a smile. “We must go help Raiden.”
“The only problem is I lost your dagger.”
“Lucius has it?”
I nodded.
“Then I’m going to need to trust you.”
With no windows, the only way in without walking through the front doors was through a side door. Thalia kept to the shadows, and I used my sharp sight and hearing to hide from lurking demons. We climbed a spiral staircase to a second floor, then reached a row of doors that ran along a dark corridor, which seemed to go on forever. “Which one is Raiden in?”
She shook her head. “Space is not the same here.” Her tone seemed to float somehow. “There are thousands of doors, with thousands of souls inside them. The castle is a prison for the evilest of souls, so they can never roam, never escape, unlike the mortal souls kept down in the pits in the wastelands, tormented by demons.
I shuddered. “Do we open each one to check?” I reached for a handle, but she grabbed my wrist, her touch icy cold.
“They will be able to escape. We must find another way.” She gazed down the corridor. “If we hear punching and swearing through one of them, it’s probably his.”
