by Bella Klaus
“I’m a captain,” she hissed, her muscles tightening.
My brows rose. Captain Caria sure was particular about being seen as normal. If it wasn’t for Hades telling me why he found her trustworthy, I would never have guessed they were related.
“If you don’t mean any harm, let go of Captain Caria,” said the fury from the middle of the crowd.
“Then you’ll all pile on me in revenge?” I held the captain tighter to my chest. “Just call Namara. She’ll clear up this misunderstanding.”
The demons in the crowd bared their teeth in snarls of varying degrees of volume, and enough magic crackled in the air to make the wall sconces flicker. Despite their desire to tear me apart, none of them made a move toward me—not with Captain Caria in the way.
Ignoring their hostility, I started my tale. “I’m Queen Hades, also known as Kora, the young woman Hades recently married.”
“You’re Persephone,” said a man with golden curls, who was shirtless, save for a white cloak. He had been the one to suggest sending the furies to apprehend Persephone. “I’ve known her since before the Great Divide.”
“This is Persephone’s body,” I said. “And Kora was Persephone’s soul.”
They all exchanged confused glances.
Captain Caria’s muscles became less tense. “If you’re really Kora, then you’ll tell me what we ate together the first time we allowed you to leave Hell.”
“That’s a trick question because you weren’t there,” I snapped. “The first time I left Hell was after I used my lightning to fight off Lyca and his twin brother’s attack. Hades took me to Duck Island, where we ate lamb shanks with Lucifer.”
She stilled. “And who did I take you to see in the Asphodel Meadows?” she asked.
“Madame Lorraine,” I said. “She told us I wasn’t Persephone, but someone else.”
Captain Caria raised a palm. “Everyone, stand down.”
“You believe her?” asked a man dressed in full armor, complete with his helmet.
“Mostly,” the captain muttered.
The crowd stepped back, although none of them returned to their places. They continued to stare at us through eyes narrowed with suspicion.
I pressed my lips into a tight line. “If you want me to release Captain Caria, you’re going to stand around the table, all right?”
A few of them backed away, but most of them remained.
“Tell them what you want,” the Captain said in a low voice.
“My body never belonged to me. It was a vessel my mother purchased to house my soul. When I absorbed a large quantity of power in the Devil’s Ball, it began to wear thin.”
“Then why not get a new vessel?” Aello pointed a crooked finger toward my face. “Why get dressed in that?”
“Because my soul is Persephone’s,” I said. “Hers shattered into pieces during the Great Divide, and my mother spent centuries putting me together.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Yet you came here under the guise of another?”
“I didn’t know anything about it at the time,” I snapped. She spoke as though my presence in Hell had originally been voluntary.
The blond man raised a hand. “That sounds like the sort of thing Demeter would do.” He turned in our direction and smiled. “Do you remember me?”
“Sorry, I don’t,” I murmured.
“It’s Hermes,” he said, his smile faltering. “I used to be the messenger of the gods.”
I gulped. “Pleased to meet you.”
“There’s one thing I don’t understand,” he said. “If you’re occupying Persephone’s body and you used to have a vessel of your own, who was running rampage through the Fifth Faction?”
“Demeter possessed Persephone.”
“How?” asked the man in full armor.
I raised a shoulder. “She’s married to Samael. He probably showed her how to use avatars, like the one he sent into the throne room.”
The people in the crowd exchanged glances, and some of them returned to their seats.
“How do we know you’re not a Trojan horse?” asked the fury.
“Quite right,” said the man in armor. “This Persephone vessel you’re wearing may contain hundreds of those deadly plants, or Demeter might have rein to possess you again.”
I gulped and loosened my grip on the captain. They actually made excellent points.
She turned around, her eyes softening. “I believe you, but do you see why I can’t allow you near His Majesty?”
A fist of pain reached through my ribs and clutched at my heart, making me wince. I’d come here to save Hades, to share my news of Samael’s plans, and to be at his side again. But what if Samael had released me because he knew I’d track a poison into the Fifth?
And I also hadn’t even considered how Hades would react to my new body.
“Can Healer Iaso check me for dangerous spores or anything else that might be harmful to Hades?” I asked.
“He’s taken a turn for the worse.” The captain’s voice cracked. “There are tiny parasites in his lungs, eating at the flesh. Each time he regenerates, they feed on his tissues until he can’t breathe.”
Nausea surged up to my throat, and anguish clawed its way across my chest. “Plant-based parasites?”
She nodded. “We have botanical specialists from all over the realms working on tissue samples to discern a way to save His Majesty, but they all say the magic won’t respond to the usual remedies.”
A noose of terror wrapped around my throat, making me feel like I couldn’t breathe. “Maybe there’s something I can do.”
“How can you help?” asked the captain.
“If Mother created the plants with Persephone’s body, maybe I can call them off?”
Her features hardened. “We can’t take the risk of you getting close to him.”
“Not even through a screen?” My voice trembled, and every fiber of my being screamed at me to insist that they take me to my husband, but I couldn’t allow my selfish desire to see him jeopardize his life. Not when Mother or Samael could have planted absolutely anything on this new body.
The captain shook her head. “One more attack might be what sends him into a permanent state of stasis.”
“Is that why I can’t communicate with him through our bond?”
She exhaled a long sigh. “Healer Iaso has put His Majesty in a magical coma.”
I sucked in a deep breath, my hands falling from the captain’s body to my sides. None of the spectators attacked. Perhaps it was because I appeared so concerned, or perhaps hearing how badly Hades was injured had been too upsetting.
Either way, I had to fix the damage Mother had one to Hades—and the Fifth.
“He needs the panacea plant,” I said. “The last thing I heard was that the dryads were looking for seeds that might have survived the fire.”
Captain Caria stepped out of reach and stood beside the man with the black armor. “If you manage to recreate it, we’ll need to test it on subjects before letting it anywhere near His Majesty.”
Murmurs of agreement spread around the war room. I glanced down at the table to find that most of the people in the crowd had already moved back to their usual spots, even though their gazes remained fixed on Captain Caria and me.
“Is there a chance of seeing the Healer?” I asked.
“When she’s finished treating His Majesty, I’ll ask her to go and find you,” replied the captain. “Where will you be staying?”
“The greenhouse where she healed the dryads,” I replied.
The captain nodded.
I turned back to the table and placed my hands on the surface, and swept my gaze over the onlookers, whose expressions were no longer so aggressively suspicious. “While King Hades is incapacitated, leadership of the Fifth reverts to me.”
Beside me, Captain Caria stiffened.
“However, I will leave the day-to-day running of the Faction to the captain, while I get control of my power and learn how to he
al King Hades.”
“Your Majesty.” Aello raised her hand. “What are your plans?”
Smoothing my hands down my pajamas, I said, “First, I’ll use the power of this body to grow the panacea plant that will reverse all the damage the parasite did to King Hades, then I’ll take control of it and coax it to leave his body.”
Hermes leaned forward, his brows raised.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Why not take control of the parasite first? Perhaps you could do it remotely.”
My shoulders slumped, and my mind drifted to the time I had burned Hades when we had first connected our magic. “Lightning makes the plants grow, and I’m not prepared to take any risks with Hades’ body. It’s going to take time to work out the extent of my new powers.”
Aello’s brows drew together. “Can you really grow Panacea? I heard it took a century to perfect.”
Part of me hoped Persephone’s muscle memory would guide me through the process, but I couldn’t admit something like that to a room full of Hades’ inner circle. Instead, I raised a shoulder. “We won’t know until we try.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” asked the armored man.
“Then I’ll find a way to force Demeter’s hand,” I said.
“If she’s behind all the attacks, why don’t we wage war against her?” asked the man in armor.
Hermes sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Demeter is no longer His Majesty’s disgruntled mother-in-law. She married Samael, the King of the Third Dimension. And when he took control of the Second, she became the Third’s de facto leader. The Handbook of Hell expressly forbids attacks on other Factions.”
I nodded. “We need Hades more than ever. Samael has plans in place to take over Hell, and I need to share those with him.”
“Why don’t you tell us?” asked a small voice. It belonged to a weasel-faced woman with twitchy features.
My jaw tightened. These people may be Hades’ inner circle, but they weren’t mine. I wasn’t about to divulge information that could spread around the Factions of Hell, or worse—return to Samael.
“Let’s focus on restoring our leader to health,” I said.
Captain Caria turned to me, her expression grim. “I will tell the healer to report to you when she has finished with His Majesty.”
“Thank you.” I teleported into the greenhouse.
I landed by a copse of dwarf apple trees laden with pink blossoms. Their floral scent filled my nostrils, and I turned to take in my surroundings. Four paths stretched out in all directions, each lined with small fruit trees, including pears, plums, peaches, and figs. I headed in the direction of a low table containing gardening equipment, hoping that would be where I’d find the seeds.
Someone on my left shrieked, and tiny feet skittered around the backs of a clump of raspberry canes. I pressed my lips together in a firm line, trying to hold back my annoyance. Not with the frightened dryads, but at myself.
Their terror at seeing the woman who had burned down their habitat and filled one of their bellies with seeds was understandable. If I had thought through my plan, I would have told as many people as possible that I would return to the Fifth with Persephone’s body. Now, all this effort spent proving that I wasn’t an enemy was wasting time.
“This is Kora,” I said.
Neither of them answered.
“I know I look like Persephone on the outside, but it’s Kora on the inside. Remember me?”
The clump raspberry canes remained still without the hint of a pair of small bodies hiding behind them. I strode down the earthen path toward the climb of trees and walked around them.
A small hole—large enough for a child—opened up at their roots. I clenched my teeth and suppressed a snarl. The dryads had disappeared underground.
Dropping to my knees, I dug my fingers through the soil, only for them to become stuck with a cage of tight roots. Clearly, the dryads had devised a way to protect themselves, and they weren’t going to allow me to attack them again.
“All right,” I shouted into the hole. “I’m going to look through your seeds and try to grow them into panacea. I don’t know which ones are which, so I’ll sprout them all.”
I paused at the hole, waiting for at least one of them to peer out at me through the dark, but they were either far away or had decided to stay silent.
Instead of trying to coax them from their hiding-place, I rose to my feet and turned in the direction of the low table. The dryads, or whoever else maintained this space, had arranged all the seeds in small cups, which unfortunately were unlabelled.
A foot-long growing tray lay on the side of the little containers and already contained potting soil, and behind it stood a miniature copper watering can with a fine sprinkler.
I rolled up my sleeves. Time to get to work.
Since I had no idea what panacea seeds looked like, I picked the first I didn’t recognize—a bean-shaped pip that curved inward like a sausage. After depositing it within the soil, I sprinkled on a bit of water and placed my finger into the space next to where I’d planted it.
A thick root grew from its bottom, burrowing deep within the soil before it formed branches across its surface. The seed rose a half an inch from where the sprout emerged. As the plant’s main body unfurled, the pip’s brown casing fell away, and two broad leaves spread toward the artificial light.
I pushed a little magic into my finger, urging it to grow faster, but as the leaves took form, I already knew the plant would belong to the legume family.
My shoulders slumped. “So, that’s not panacea, then?”
I shook my head and glanced at the dozen-or-more cups. The situation could be worse. Most people kept hundreds of different seeds in their greenhouses. At least the dryads had kept their selection to less than twenty.
“Okay,” I muttered to myself. “Next plant.”
A little hand tugged at my pajama top. I looked down to find the smaller of the dryads gazing up at me through huge, green eyes. Her lemongrass hair curved around her delicate features, making her look like a four-year-old.
“Are you really Kora?” she asked, her voice soft.
I blinked, wondering what I had done to deserve their trust. “Yes, that’s me.”
“The panacea seeds are over there.” She pointed at the last of cups with a chubby finger.
“Umm… thank you,” I said.
“You can’t grow them in soil,” said another voice from behind.
Twisting around, I met the second dryad’s gaze. A few of the autumn leaves that made up her hair were singed from the fire. In the panic of dealing with a feral Persephone and trying to save her little friend, I had barely noticed that she had also sustained damage.
“Why not?” I asked.
She held up a small pot that contained a mix of tiny pebbles and sand. “Persephone made them out of aloe vera. Aloe vera needs a mix of sand and peat.”
“Oh.” I bit down on my lip, not knowing how I should phrase my next question. “Why haven’t you been growing them yourselves?”
“We did but they became aloe-panacea.” The smaller of the dryads took my hand and walked me through a path lined with plum trees. At the end of the path stood a clump of tall succulents with serrated leaves that I recognized as a form of aloe vera.
“This is what Healer Iaso has been giving Hades?” I asked.
The taller dryad nodded. “No one else can make true panacea except Persephone.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Maybe I can make a difference, since I now control her body and most of her soul.”
They rushed back toward the potting table, leaving me hurrying after them, and the smaller dryad picked up the cup of panacea seeds. Unlike the other containers, which were half-full, this one contained only twelve.
My stomach tightened. I had twelve chances to get it right, or we would forever lose the opportunity to grow Hades’ cure.
“Could you show me—”
The older dryad shoved
the little pot of sand mix under my nose.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Thanks.”
The smaller dryad plucked a pyramid-shaped seed from the cup and placed it on the sand. I sucked in a deep breath. I had germinated thousands of seeds using the magic Mother had flowed through my body, but today, it felt different. I wasn’t just growing a tomato or a flower. The seed sitting within the sand had the power to change the fortunes of the Fifth Faction.
I swallowed hard. It would also make the difference between Hades thriving or suffering an eternity of being eaten alive.
“Don’t be scared,” said the taller dryad.
Her companion took my hand and moved it above the seed. “You can do it.”
“Thanks.” I pointed my finger and pushed my magic into its tip.
The seeds cracked open, and thick sprouts emerged from the seed, already taking the form of a succulent.
My heart skipped. “It’s working.”
The plant grew taller and split into triangular leaves with tiny spikes. A stalk emerged from the middle of the plant, its pointed tip thickening until it formed a tulip shape. It split open and grinned at me through needle-sharp teeth.
A shudder ran down my spine. “What if Mother did something to my body so all it could grow are wretched carnivores?”
Someone behind us cleared their throat. “Your Majesty?”
I turned to find Healer Iaso walking toward us, her features grave beneath her hooded cloak.
“How is Hades?” I asked.
“In an enchanted sleep,” she said with a long sigh. “I trust that Captain Caria explained the severity of that last attack?”
My heart clenched, and despair wrapped around my chest like a corset. If I hadn’t insisted on seeing Hades and leaked so much magic from my pores, the flower would never have grown to the size required to spread that toxic pollen.
“Is he all right?” I rasped.
“His Majesty is stable now that I’ve slowed his metabolic rate. All his power can now focus on repairing his lungs at a rate that keeps up with the pollen.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “This is the best solution for both his mind and body, and he’s no longer in so much pain.”