It meant fading into the gloom until you forgot your own name.
She shook her head slightly, a frantic, minute motion. I couldn't tell whether she was encouraging me to reject both options or pitying me for having to choose between them, because I didn't see any other way out of this mess. The whole world seemed to be rejecting us, literally.
I looked back at my men. My monsters.
Kaelen roared, a sound of pure frustration that sent a tremor through the ground. He was trapped in the dragon form, his humanity submerged under layers of scales and instinct. Though I couldn't read his facial expressions anymore, that didn't mean that I was oblivious to his rage. I could feel it boiling in the bond between us, a river of molten gold.
They have spent a millennium in the dark,I thought, the realization sharp and agonizing.I won't send them back. I can't be the reason they lose the sun again.
I stepped toward Hades. My metal boots crunched on the molten stone, leaving glowing, violet footprints in my wake.
"We take option one," I said.
The silence that followed was absolute. Even the Devourer seemed to pause its chewing. The wind died. The fires halted.
"Aria," Athena whispered, stepping forward, her hand reaching out but stopping short of touching me. "You will be... frozen. Forever. It is a fate worse than death."
"I'm a Keeper," I said, my voice steady, though my human heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against my metal ribs. "My job is to hold the door. That is the first rule of the Citadel.The Keeper stands between.This is just a permanent position."
I lifted my chin, forcing back the tears that threatened to blur my vision. "I was never meant to have a life anyway. I was made for this."
I extended my hand toward the Lord of the Dead. "Do it. I'll act as the jar or box or whatever. Just tell me what to do."
NO.
The word didn't come from a throat. It exploded in my skull like a grenade, shattering my thoughts. I yanked my hand back and cupped the sides of my head as though that could do anything to alleviate the pain that the voices had caused.
It was a four-part harmony of absolute, violent rejection.
Kaelen moved.
He didn't launch himself at Hades. He launched himself atme.
A massive, scaled claw, the size of a carriage, slammed down in front of me, shattering the rock and cutting off my path to the Death God. The impact knocked me back, the shockwave lifting me off my feet. I stumbled, sparks flying as my metal shoulder scraped against a granite boulder.
You do not make this trade,Kaelen’s voice roared in my mind. It was dragon-speech, layered with fire, gold, and the screeching of metal on metal.I did not claw my way out of the dark just to watch you turn into a star. I did not burn the world to find you only to lose you to the sky!
I sink,Thane’s thought rumbled, a deep, tectonic grinding that shook the marrow of my bones.I sink into the mud before I let you stand alone in the cold. I will pull the whole world down on top of us before I let you become a statue, Aria. I will break the earth itself.
"He's offering you freedom!" I screamed at the dragon, ignoring the heat radiating from his body, gesturing frantically to the sliver of unobscured sky. "You go back to Olympus! You live! It's what you wanted!"
We live as widowers,Elias’s voice cut in, sharp and agonizingly sad.
The Phoenix screeched from above, a streak of copper and turquoise, diving to land on Kaelen’s shoulder. His fire scorched the black scales, but Kaelen didn't flinch.The equation is balanced, Aria. You are the bridge. If you remove the bridge, we are just islands drifting apart from one another on an ocean of darkness. I do not want a sky, or a realm, or a life without you in it. I have lived a thousand lives without you, and I refuse to live one second of another.
Flynn snarled, pacing around me in a tight circle, cutting off my retreat. His amber eyes were wild, dilated with the unique madness of a wolf cornered. He snapped his jaws at the air, saliva dripping from his teeth.
The pack stays together,he snapped, a growl of static and tearing meat.We hunt the dark. We eat the dark. But we do it together. I’m not being a pet to the dead, and I'm not walking free while you freeze. I’m not being a pet to anyone unless you’re holding the leash.
"You're idiots!" I yelled, tears finally spilling over, stinging my eyes and sizzling as they hit my heated skin. "You're choosing the Underworld! You're choosing slavery! Don't you understand what he is?"
We choose you,Kaelen snarled.
Smoke poured from his nostrils in thick, choking waves as he lowered his massive horned head until his snout was inches from my face. The heat was blistering, but I didn't pull away.
We choose the cage if you are in it. To hell with the sky. To hell with Olympus.
He turned his massive head toward Hades, his scales scraping against the rock with a sound like sharpening knives. The gold in his eyes was molten, terrifying, ancient.
