“What is it, sister?” Alecto asked, already prepared for combat. “What’s happening?”
“Can’t you feel it? The air... it smells of Stygian iron and lost memories.”
Megaera was right. A distinctive scent had invaded our home, very different from the Spire’s own. I knew exactly where it came from and what it meant. Who had brought it here.
Reality itself parted, and a single object struck the floor with a heavy thud. It didn’t bounce. It struck the stone on its edge, spinning lazily with a grating scrape before toppling at my feet.
Alecto took a step forward, her hand dropping to the hilt of her blade. “How?”
I stared at the object. It was a coin. Pitted and dark, it radiated an unnatural stillness that seemed to absorb the warmth from the air. Megaera crouched, her eyes narrowing as she studied the mysterious item. “It is as I thought then. Charon.”
The mist around the coin pulsed, as if responding to Megaera’s words. A rasping whisper echoed from the metal itself, like the skittering of a thousand panicked satyr hooves on loose shale. “The work... is unfinished. The unburdened... belongs to the silence.”
The threat hung in the air, toxic and heavy. I hated that it didn’t surprise me as much as it should have.
Charon was the ultimate guardian of the Bride Market. He should have been the last person in Asphodelia to interfere with a result. But as my family had once proven, nothing in Asphodelia was absolute. Except, perhaps, the will of the Moirae.
“He dares?” Alecto took a step forward, her boot inches from the artifact. “He sends a personal token into the heart of the Spire?”
“This isn’t a payment for one of his trades, Alecto,” Megaera said, already beginning to stand. “Listen to the resonance. It’s... hungry.”
A fierce anger, sharper and deadlier than anything I’d felt in my life, crystallized in my chest. “There’s no need to listen to anything. He thinks he owns her.”
“He thinks because he took her gift, he has a claim on what remains?” Alecto asked in disbelief. “But that makes no sense.”
And yet, it was exactly the situation we were in now. “He never wanted me to approach her. He made that clear from thebeginning. Why bid a memory of the Old World? Why send this now? He views her as an artifact he altered, not a customer he served.”
“He believes he has the right to finish what he started,” Megaera murmured. “It’s some kind of obsession.”
My sisters and I looked back the way I’d come, toward the nest I shared with my mate. Daphne was still sleeping, unaware that the creature who had taken her gift was scratching at the walls of our home. She was helpless before the Ferryman’s machinations.
“Let us remind him that House Keres does not yield its treasures,” Alecto hissed, her bloodlust filling the corridor. “We will burn the pier to the water. We will scatter his coins into the abyss.”
I held up a hand, stopping her. “No. This is my fight, sister.”
“You cannot go to him alone, Phonos,” Megaera warned me, stepping into my path. “The Ferryman on his own dock... You can’t possibly beat him.”
“Perhaps not.” I met my sister’s worried eyes without flinching. “But I doubt this will come to a fight. Charon’s existence has only ever been about what he can take and trade. If he bothered to send us a message now, it’s clearly another trade he’s interested in.”
“And if he demands a price you cannot pay?” Megaera asked, her voice trembling.
I looked at the dark coin on the floor. “Then I will introduce him to the only thing a Keres has left when the silence breaks.”
Alecto hesitated, the lines of her face sharp with worry. “Phonos… I’m not sure about this.”
I didn’t bother listening to what else she had to say. I’d already made my decision, and it was the only one that made sense. “Guard the door. Let no one enter. Let nothing disturb her sleep.”
Without another word, I walked past my sisters, out of the Spire. As I launched myself into the air, the fire of my fury settled into cold determination.
No doubt, the Ferryman had his own schemes and goals. But some things were more powerful than Charon’s trades. Now that I’d finally found my mate, I wouldn’t let anyone separate us.
The barley felt rough in my palm, a familiar, grounding texture. Sunlight slanted through the tall pines, painting warm stripes across the packed earth of my small yard.
Penelope clucked contentedly at my feet, her head cocked in that expectant way that always made joy bubble inside me. This was peace. An uncomplicated reality I’d bled to find.
I let the grain fall from my fingers, a small offering to the quiet of the morning. Penelope chirped and began to peck at the ground with a single-minded focus I desperately envied.
A sudden chill passed over my skin, raising goosebumps on my arms despite the warmth of the sun. As I looked up, the world plunged into an unnatural twilight. The air, once heavy with pine and warm earth, turned sharp and thin, carrying the scent of a cloudless storm. The forest around me began to groan, the earth vibrating through the soles of my feet.
