I was a master necromancer. I had crossed the boundaries of the world to conquer the secrets of the dead. The gods themselves should have bowed to my ambition. Instead, a sentient puddle and a hollow hunk of scrap metal had trapped me in this misty graveyard.
“Father.”
I spun around, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Heavy mist parted at the end of the gangplank, swirling rapidly away to reveal Medea.
She stood tall at the edge of the stone pier. Her silver hair flowed loose around her shoulders like a halo of moonlight. Her robes were torn, but the terrifying clarity in her eyes made the blood freeze in my veins. The fragile, trembling weapon I had forged was entirely gone. She watched me with the same cold certainty I’d heard in the Acheron’s voice.
But she was alone. And perhaps I could still twist this to my advantage.
“Medea.” I pasted a smile onto my face and straightened my back. “You came back. I knew you would realize these monsters have nothing to offer you. Come aboard. We can still leave. We will sail to Korinos, and I will find a way to fix what that construct did to you.”
She remained perfectly still, as if she weren’t even breathing. “The ship will not move, Jason. The lake knows exactly what you are. It will not allow your corruption to spread any further.”
I forced a sharp, barking laugh. “The lake is a force of nature, Medea. It does not possess morals. It simply waits for a stronger hand to guide it. Now, stop this nonsense and come here. I am rapidly losing my patience.”
I reached out with my mind, seeking the tether of the binding. It was a deeply familiar sensation, like reaching blindly for a well-worn tool. I felt for the knot of necromancy I had anchored deep in her womb. With her power at my fingertips, I could easily escape this place.
Almost immediately, I knew something was wrong. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t grab hold of her leash.
Frowning, I tried again. I pushed harder, pouring every remaining ounce of my dark magic into the mental command.Submit. Kneel. Obey.
Nothing happened. The connection was completely gone.
I stared at her in disbelief. The space where the binding should have anchored felt like a hollow, cauterized wound. The spell-work was woven directly into her living flesh. The only way to break the tether was to completely destroy the flesh holding it. “What did you do?”
Medea took a slow, deliberate step onto the gangplank, then another. Slowly, carefully, she climbed onto the deck. TheArgogroaned beneath her weight, as if the ship were bowing to her.
“I broke your spell,” she said. “You can’t touch me any longer.”
She placed a pale hand casually on the railing. Once, the blighted wood would have turned into ash under her touch. Now, it seemed to almost lean into her hand.
“I took the death magic you cursed me with, Jason, and I turned it inward. I killed the future you planned for me. Now, nothing grows inside me except my own absolute will.”
“You are insane!” I took a step back, unable to believe my ears. “You threw away your entire future! You could have been the mother of a new race of kings. I built you for greatness, and you destroyed your own bloodline for a pile of bronze.”
Medea laughed. The sound echoed harshly over the dark water.
“You built me to be a weapon, not a mother.” Moving across the deck with the slow grace of an apex predator, she kept her dark eyes locked on mine. “I don’t want either role. I only wantAion. He looks at me and sees a person, Jason. He only ever saw Medea.”
“He saw a weapon and a target!” I pressed my back hard against the blighted wood of the mast, realizing I had nowhere left to run. “He is a hollow shell. You traded your existence for a creature who would happily destroy you!”
I had no idea why it hadn't already killed her, but it certainly would, soon. The colossus would track us down if Medea didn’t agree to leave Asphodelia. “Medea, you must see reason. You’re not safe here.”
“I’m safer than I’ve ever been.” The fierce, burning certainty in her eyes did not dim for a single second. “Aion gave his life to protect mine. Now, I am going to give him yours.”
I raised my hand, desperately scraping together the last dregs of my magic to cast a ward between us. Medea moved faster. She crossed the remaining distance in a blur of silver light, her hand shooting out to lock securely around my throat.
I braced myself for the freezing touch of the grave. I waited for my skin to wither to a grey husk, for the blood in my veins to dry into dust. That was the curse I had forged into her flesh.
Instead, a staggering heat seeped into my neck. It held no reassurance, only a terrifying, bottomless hunger. She bypassed the physical decay entirely. Her magic reached straight past my skin and bone, sinking its teeth into the very center of myexistence. She was draining the necromancy directly from my soul.
“Stop.” I tried to claw at her arm, but all of a sudden, I could barely even move. “Medea… I am your father. I created you.”
“You are a parasite.” She leaned in close, her grip tightening like a vise of solid iron. “You lived on the death of others. You fed on my terror from the first moment I drew breath.”
I gasped for air, tasting only the heavy, metallic tang of my own blood. The edges of my vision darkened. The black water of the lake seemed to rise up over the railing, eager to meet the growing shadows in my eyes.
“I will rebuild him.” The sheer force of her declaration vibrated through the deck of theArgo. “I will take every piece of him you tried to break, and I will make him whole. I just need one last thing to do it.”
