“I realize that. It’s just… difficult. And they’re all so loud.”
The roar of the crowd in the Kratos Circle pressed in, threatening to suffocate me. It was Shift Day. Deemed a day of mourning in Korinos, it was a holiday of great importance for the people of Asphodelia. And today, that meant more.
Megaera leaned close, her wing brushing against my bare arm. “Aion is right,” she murmured. “Phonos has been… avoiding this for a long time. But he understands now. Like we do.”
I looked down at the sand, where Phonos and Alecto stood, a united front of black wings and grim determination. Across from them, Zoe waited, a shimmering coil of silver-green scales.
She had grown since that fateful day of my death. She was now a fully mature basilisk, her power a palpable, living thing. This was her first Shift Day spar, a right granted to adult Asphodelians.
She could have chosen any opponent. She’d picked Phonos. A challenge he could not refuse.
Alecto had invited herself for the challenge. I suspected that, in some ways, she saw herself in the basilisk. As if she and Megaera also shared blame for my death, or for Phonos’s loss of composure.
No matter how hard I tried, I could never convince them it just wasn’t true.
“If push comes to shove, Aion, I’ll send you down there to break it up.”
A low rumble escaped his metallic lips. I’d never do it, and he knew that, but simply having the option helped.
A horn blew, its sharp note cutting through the crowd’s roar. The space between the combatants erupted with activity. Zoe lunged, her tail whipping in a low, vicious arc aimed at Alecto’s legs.
Alecto launched herself into the air, a black shadow evading the sweep. Phonos moved in to cover her, his wing striking like a shield to deflect Zoe’s snapping jaws. The sharp metallic clang of the impact almost overshadowed the rising cries of the watching monsters.
“Zoe has grown strong,” Callista said from Aion’s other side, her hand resting on Theron’s massive arm. Her gaze remained fixed on the brutal dance below. “But she is still young. She doesn’t grasp… the meaning of grief. For her, this is a matter of honor.”
Was it? I wasn’t so sure. Up to a point, I felt we’d all made our peace with the pain of the past. But maybe Callista was right, and maybe this would be good for Zoe too.
Down on the floor, Alecto dove from above, a streak of Keres fury. Her talons raked across Zoe’s flank, and blood welled from the long scratches. The basilisk roared and spun, her tail a scythe that caught Alecto’s wing mid-flight. My sister-in-law tumbled into the sand in a shower of dark feathers.
Before Zoe could press her advantage, Phonos was on her. He wrapped his arms around her thick neck and wrestled her head to the ground, his talons digging into her flesh. Zoe thrashed, her powerful body trying to throw him off. Their muscles strained in a primal, silent battle.
A basilisk’s strength would normally overpower a Keres. But Zoe was inexperienced, and Phonos had been battle-tested more times than I could count. In the end, she went limp in his hold. They slumped together on the ground in a strange parody of an embrace.
Then, Phonos’s hand curled around Zoe’s snout, almost brushing her eye with his talons. It was the only real threat that mattered in Asphodelia. The threat of crippling.
By my side, Callista and Theron both tensed. They cared deeply for the basilisk, almost as if she were their child.
They needn’t have worried. Phonos didn’t move. For a long moment, he stayed like that, frozen with his talons inches from Zoe’s eye. Then, with a shudder that ran through his entire body, he pulled back and climbed off Zoe. As I’d known he would.
I hadn’t for a second believed that he’d hurt her. I knew him too well.
Zoe remained perfectly still, her unblinking stare fixed on him. “You are strange, Keres. Why do you not take my sight? My eyes took your mate from you.”
Phonos looked up then, his gaze finding mine across the distance. There was steady strength in him now, a certainty that hadn’t been there when we’d first met. “Did they? I don’t think so.”
He knew exactly what had stolen me, and it hadn’t been Zoe. But we’d vowed to never speak of it again, to never bring up the chains that no longer bound me.
“I do not understand you,” Zoe insisted. “Death is a beautiful thing. And your mate was beautiful when she shed her mortal skin. But Callista said… Callista said you grieved her.”
“I did, yes,” Phonos confirmed. “But I won’t. Ever again.”
This was our simple, perfect truth. We’d be together forever now. I couldn’t even bring myself to be angry anymore for everything that had happened. Not when this was the result.
“For what it’s worth, I mean you no harm,” Zoe hissed. “I am no danger to you, or to the Ferryman’s daughter.”
The moment the words were spoken, I stood. The low murmur of conversation in the stands died as all eyes turned to me. I made my way down the stone steps and walked out onto the arena floor.
By now, Alecto had gotten up. She greeted me with a warrior’s smile, but gratitude glinted in her eyes. She knew that if I hadn’t come back, she’d have lost her brother, in a way even an Asphodelian couldn’t recover from.
