“You seem terrified, child. Do you think I’ll eat you?”
“I think Asphodelia has already consumed my last dream,” I replied. I smoothed the iridescent fabric of my robes and stood,lifting my chin. “But it wouldn’t be the first time I felt hopeless. Where is Skaros?”
“There’s no need for you two to meet here,” Phix replied. “Follow me. This subterranean air reeks of desperate immortals.”
We climbed in silence through the winding, damp foundations until we breached the surface. The perpetual silver-blue twilight of Asphodelia washed over me. The air was freezing and beautifully clean against my flushed skin.
Phix paused on a broad terrace overlooking the sprawling lower city. Lowering her massive golden shoulders, she crouched patiently until her broad back was level with my chest.
“Climb on.”
I stared at the heavy muscle rippling beneath her golden pelt. “You want me to ride you?”
“I do not repeat my offers.” Phix flicked her golden tail against the stone. “Unless you prefer walking the long avenues among the defeated bidders.”
I swung my leg carefully over her broad back. Gripping the thick mane near the base of her neck, I stayed away from the sharp edges of her obsidian wings. Phix lunged upward with terrifying power, launching us into the sky.
I buried my face in her mane as the freezing wind roared past my ears. When I finally dared to open my eyes, the sheer scale of Asphodelia left me entirely spellbound. Glowing blue canals carved elegant paths through the stark black marble. The sprawling, melancholic beauty of the city stretched endlessly below us. After I had lived for so long in the dark hold of the Argo, the open, endless sky took my breath away. I was flying freely over a world of monsters.
I wished I could have enjoyed it more.
“Why help us?” I shouted over the rushing wind. “Why orchestrate this massive deception for a human? At Skaros’s expense, no less.”
Phix’s wings beat with a slow, heavy rhythm, holding us perfectly steady in the freezing air. “It is not at his expense, Medea. On the contrary. It is for him.”
“For him?” I repeated. I knew sphinxes loved to speak in riddles, but right then and there, I’d have appreciated a smidgen of clarity.
Thankfully, Phix was feeling generous. “Asphodelia operates on strict woven design, Medea. The Moirae spin the vast majority of citizens from randomly harvested energy.”
She banked sharply to the left, soaring smoothly toward the towering cliffs at the city’s edge. “Occasionally, individuals hoard the energy themselves. They spend decades gathering the pure essence of the end. They offer it to the Loom for a specificcreation. We call this a Weaveline. For you humans… this would be a family.”
A Weaveline? I’d expected anything but that. “You’re talking about parenthood.”
“Quite right. I gathered the death energy for Skaros.” Phix threw the words into the cold air. “I chose the threads myself. I watched the Fates knot his spirit.”
My grip tightened instinctively on her fur. I could fill in the blanks well enough. Skaros, the man who had just bought me for a fortune, was the sphinx’s son.
“Then why… why give him a bride who cannot love him?”
“Because you are what he needs,” Phix replied. “Because he can have no other.”
Before I could get the chance to reply, we descended rapidly toward an ornate dark building. A massive garden bloomed vibrantly at its base, filled with thousands of glowing white asphodels swaying gently in the cold breeze. And Skaros was sitting quietly among the flowers.
The sphinx landed with a heavy, graceful thud. I slid carefully from her back, my legs trembling slightly.
Skaros’s humanoid form appeared entirely relaxed. The ghostly floral light caught the edge of his golden mane. His scorpion taillay coiled peacefully on the ground behind him. He offered a slow, respectful nod of greeting.
“I trust you are well, Medea,” Skaros said. “The market today was an… unpleasant spectacle.”
An unpleasant spectacle. That was putting it lightly. But this was Aion’s brother-in-arms, the man who had staked an unimaginable fortune to spare my life. I would try my best to welcome our relationship, however strange it might be. “It would have been more unpleasant to go back to Jason. For that, I owe you my thanks.”
Skaros flinched. “You owe me nothing.”
“Medea.” Phix stepped gracefully between us, commanding the space. “You asked me why I agreed to this arrangement. We owe you an answer, and we will provide it.”
Skaros stood, rising to his full height. It should have scared me, but somehow, it didn’t. “In Asphodelia, the people of Thanatos don’t need to eat,” he offered. “They are sustained by pure death energy. By Thanatos’s gift. But I am different. I am a hunter. I harbor hungers this city cannot satisfy.”
I searched his amber eyes. They held no malice, only a raw, terrifying vulnerability.
