What was he looking for?
Did he know about my curse?
He hadn’t mentioned it.
I pulled my hand back, unable to bear touching him. It reminded me of every other time we’d touched, memories that made an unwelcome heat race through my veins. His firelight scent wrapped around me, so intoxicating that I held my breath as I tucked my hand behind my back. “You can’t possibly want to continue with your terrible plan.”
“I must. There is so much at stake.” There was so much stubbornness in his voice that I couldn’t imagine ever swaying him.
“What does it look like if you rule instead of Chronos?” I couldn’t let it happen, but I needed to know.
“You’ve seen what it looks like.”
I swallowed hard, my mind flashing back to the vision I’d had. Back to the moment when I’d killed the land to save my friends.
It had been horrible. “So that’s what it is, then. Every ounce of life sucked out of the trees and plants. Even the sun dampened, until the Earth looks like the underworld?”
He nodded. “Precisely.”
“That will kill people. Humans can’t live without plants and sun.”
“They will still be under my domain.”
“Under your domain?” I frowned, mind racing. “You mean they would die, but they would stay on Earth, never traveling to their own afterlife?”
Many humans had it wrong about religion. There wasn’t just one correct one, with all the others being misguided mythologies. No—they all existed. In harmony, for the most part. Upon death, a being would go to the afterlife they believed in. If they believed in none…well, no one was quite sure, but many scholars thought that they were reincarnated.
But under Hades’ plan, their entire futures would be ruined. They’d be stuck in a miserable half-life on a destroyed Earth, never to be reunited with their families who had already passed on. “So they’ll stay here, miserable. Because that’s what you do. You spread misery. Your underworld reflects that.”
Something flickered in his eyes, something almost like hurt.
But no. Hades didn’t feel hurt. That was absurd.
Right?
“It is what I was created for,” he said. “Everything must end. It is the natural way of things.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“It is how it is meant to be.”
I shook my head. “I don’t believe you.”
“It doesn’t matter if you do.”
“Of course it does. I’m vital to your end goal, am I not?” As much as I wanted to be free of my twisted fate, I also needed whatever control I could get. Power was how I would win this, and I needed more.
“You are necessary, yes. But it is only a matter of time before I win you to my side. You will be my queen, Seraphia.”
“Not going to happen.” But still, I could remember the sweet pull of the darkness. Of him.
I’d vanquished it and proved myself strong enough to resist—that battle was mine no longer. But I could still remember the sweetness of it.
I shook it aside. We needed to get to the meeting in the main town square, but I had one more question. “How does it happen? How do you take control of the Earth?”
“First we must banish Chronos to Tartarus. But the process of me taking control has already started. You saw to that.”
“Yes, but how?”
His eyes shifted left, and his jaw tightened.
“Stop debating if you’re going to tell me the truth,” I said. “Spit it out. If you want me to be your queen, honesty is required.”
Interest flicked in his gaze. “Is that what it would take to win you?”
“I’d say it’s the bare minimum.” I shook my head. “How could you not realize that?”
His right shoulder raised in the slightest shrug. “Feelings are…not my strong suit.”
I pursed my lips and shook my head. “Well, spit it out.”
“There is a magical item called the Crown of Destiny.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“The gods hid it with their magic long ago. The first to don that crown will rule the Earth absolutely, their power magnified until they control all.”
Ice chilled my soul. “That’s what Chronos seeks.”
“It is what I seek.”
“It’s the reason you wanted me to help you walk the Earth by spreading the darkness from the underworld. That’s the first step to you reaching the crown.”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“And you lied to me.”
“I omitted.” His jaw was set in determined lines, his gaze hard.
Shit, shit, shit. He was so determined. So focused. A machine created by dark magic that would pursue its goal no matter what. The cracks I’d thought I’d seen in his shell weren’t there at all. And if he wore that crown and spread darkness eternal…
“You’d really do that?” I asked, my throat tight. Tears pricked my eyes, and I blinked them back, unwilling to let him see. “I am the goddess of plants. Of life. This is my home. What you propose would kill me.”
“This is how I will save you. And you are immortal, Seraphia. It will not kill you.”
Immortal. The word scared the crap out of me, but there was no time to focus on that. He’d see me crushed if it served his end goal. “I’d be at your side, yes. As a shadow of myself, with my soul dead. Can you not see that?”
His jaw flexed, and something flashed in his eyes. Something almost like regret, or uncertainty.
I clung to it, praying that I could see the goodness that I knew was deep inside his soul. It was there. I’d seen it before.
I had to cling to it.
I could save him. My Nana had told me so, and she was the famous Oracle at Kamarina. I had to believe her. Maybe he wasn’t the machine I thought he was.
Oh fates, I don’t know.
“What do we do first?” I asked. Defeating Chronos needed to be my priority.
“Our first step will be to discover who bound your magic and break those bonds. Only then will you be strong enough to survive Chronos. Only then can we defeat him. Together.”
I drew in an unsteady breath. He was right about my bound magic. I might not have believed him, but Alia, the apothecary in his realm, had told me as much. And I could feel the bound magic deep inside me.
If I wanted to fight Chronos, I needed all my power. I needed to truly be a goddess.
I nodded sharply. “Fine. We will work together to defeat Chronos. But from there, I will fight you. You will not wear the crown.”
He nodded, seemingly satisfied. I knew he planned to try to sway me, but that didn’t matter right now. What mattered was starting this journey and defeating Chronos.
“We must go to the main city square,” I said. “There is a meeting of the guilds there, and we need to tell them what we know.”
“Why?” The idea of working with others was clearly foreign to him.
“Because they have the power to possibly hold off Chronos while we try to stop him. His curse is spreading so fast that we may not have time otherwise.”
He hesitated briefly, then nodded.
“Good.” I turned back toward the city street, staring out through the open door. The crowd had thinned, so it was easy to step out of the library.