Interesting.
“Are you mad at me?” Sera asks when Pip turns away from her.
He doesn’t acknowledge her commentary at all, just floats off into the kitchen.
She scrambles after him. “I thought the cat was hurt!”
Pip huffs, the only evidence of the sound found in his fluttering robe and the way it billows around him.
I follow the pair with a chuckle, amused again.
“I didn’t know she shredded your cloak, Pip,” Sera says. “I’m sorry.”
Pip glances back at her, his head cocked. Then he spins around and does a little dance, showing off his new robe. Or I assume that’s what he’s doing.
Sera giggles, the sound one that has my chest feeling a bit warmer than it should. But I don’t overthink the reaction, simply embrace it, and walk over to the table to clean up our snack.
She says a few things to Pip while I work, the pair of them seeming to rekindle their bond in a matter of seconds, then she follows him outside, as he apparently wants to show her something.
Frowning, I trail after them, a bit concerned by this behavior, given her dream.
But all he does is lead her to a garden of flower statues and point to the one that looks like a fire lily.
Sera nods, saying she recognizes it as the one he’s tried to bring for her before.
Then Pip holds up his hand, like he’s telling her to waitfor a moment, and disappears. When he returns, he has his gloves on and the pot of soil from her Netherworld Village hut. We brought that to Hades’s palace, but I haven’t seen it since then.
However, Sera is thrilled to have it again. She carefully takes it from Pip and brings it inside to set on the dining table. Then she frowns and says, “I don’t have any sunlight.”
“Maybe we can try to manifest some?” I suggest.
She looks at me. “You think we can?”
I shrug. “Only one way to find out.”
We’re safe here for now. Might as well do something productive.
Because there isn’t a chance in Styx that I’ll be letting Sera sleep again anytime soon. Not until I’ve had a chance to talk to Hades about her supposed “nightmare.”
Better hurry up, Hades,I think, aware that he can’t actually hear me, but mentally talking to him anyway.And if you can, bring the God of Dreams back here with you. I suspect that we’re going to need him…
Chapter 29
Hades
Something’s wrong.
I sense it the moment my feet touch the ground, the air all around me disturbed by an undesired presence.
Morpheus worsens that feeling when he lands beside me, his white wings a stark contrast to the obsidian rock around us. He resembles an angel descending from above, his silver hair a halo of glittering brightness, thanks to the candlelight flickering around us.
His wings beat once, the gold tips glistening like his hair, then the feathers disappear at his back. “You built a back entrance in the death pits?”
I grunt. “Not quite.”
The magic is born of my powers, which are associated with death. Thus, this is where I come to access my creations.
But I don’t explain any of that out loud.
