Despite her surroundings, despite walking back into a nightmare to confront one of the Twelve, Danae smiled.
She was no longer alone.
18. A Life for a Life
Dust swirled through the rock passage, hazing the light from Charon’s crystal.
Danae lay a hand on the ferryman’s shoulder. ‘We’re close, aren’t we?’
Charon nodded, trembling beneath her touch.
‘You’re afraid?’
He shook his head, but his crimson eyes betrayed him.
Danae’s own heart fluttered as they turned a corner to find the tunnel ahead narrowed by fallen rocks: the wreckage of their escape.
She looked at Hylas, then back at the sliver of passage squeezed by the rubble.
Her heart sank. ‘The way ahead is too narrow for you. Turn back, fly out of here.’
Hylas nibbled her ear.
‘I’ll find you. I promise.’ Despite the certainty in her voice, she felt as though she might crumble as she smoothed his coat, then stepped away from the ice-white horse. ‘Go on.’
Hylas blinked, then tossed his mane and turned back the way they had come. Danae swallowed the lump in her throat at the sound of his hooves echoing down the passage.
‘We need to hide the light,’ said Telamon. ‘Or Hades will see us coming.’
Danae nodded.
Carefully, Charon once more wrapped his crystal in the folds of his cloak and moved towards the narrowed passage. Feeling their way in the darkness, the others followed,easing their bodies between the cavern wall and heap of fallen rocks. As they pressed on, the tunnel narrowed until the rubble blocked their path. Scrabbling in the blackness, they heaved the stones as silently as their straining limbs and lungs would allow, until finally the opening was large enough to squeeze through.
Hello, little Titan.
Danae froze. ‘Stop,’ she whispered. ‘Did you hear that?’
‘What?’ breathed Atalanta.
‘That voice.’
‘I heard nothing,’ replied Telamon.
They carried on clambering around the rocks, Danae’s limbs heavy with dread.
She blinked as they emerged on the other side of the rubble, the passage lit by a dim orange glow bleeding from the braziers illuminating the pit of Tartarus.
Wide, terrified eyes glinted at them from the clefts of what once had been the Missing’s cave. Debris was strewn across the ground, as though Hades had blasted his way out of the collapsed cell. Six bodies lay on the floor, not a mark on them, but clearly dead.
The God of the Underworld was nowhere to be seen. Danae took no comfort from Hades’ absence. Surely he would have pursued her if he thought there was a chance she might escape?
‘Heracles?’ Telamon crept forward.
‘Gone,’ rasped a voice behind them.
A woman crept from the shadows, dressed in the ragged remains of a peplos. She was undernourished, like the rest of the Missing, her age indeterminate under the layers of grime encrusting her skin.
‘He took the hero.’
