Awakened (The Shadow Guild: Hades & Persephone Book 2) by Linsey Hall

Author:Linsey Hall [Hall, Linsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnie Doon Press
Published: 2020-11-15T18:30:00+00:00

12

Seraphia

It was dark when I woke, the room strangely empty. I was still in Hades’ bed, but he was gone. Not that he’d ever been in the bed, but I was certain he was no longer on the couch.

“Hades?” I called, just to check.

No answer.

But it was the middle of the night. Where the hell had he gone?

I climbed out of bed, too curious to resist. Quickly, I pulled on my jeans and boots, then crept out into the main sitting room. As expected, the couch was empty.

The hallway outside was silent, and the quiet felt still as the grave. But I could almost sense him, like a pulling sensation. I followed it, creeping through the halls. The lamps along the walls had been dimmed, casting deep shadows in front of me.

I moved silently, drawn to the bottom floor of the castle, toward a hallway that was more austere than the others I’d seen. Was I returning to the dungeons?

No, not quite.

A huge wooden door loomed in front of me, a dark mist hovering near the floor in front of it.

Hades?

Skin chilled, I walked toward the door. The large iron handle was smooth beneath my hand as I pulled it open, and the door swung silently on its hinges, revealing a wide staircase that spiraled into the depths of the castle.

I stared hard into the darkness, my bones gone cold with fear.

Hades is down there.

Did he need my help? Not bloody likely.

But what was that place?

There were answers there. They called to me, a siren song impossible to resist.

I took the stairs two at a time, squinting into the dark. When I reached the enormous chamber at the bottom, I gasped and stumbled backward.

The ceiling soared overhead, rough stone that appeared carved out by hand. Or by dark magic. I could feel it so strongly that it turned my insides.

The power wafted from the middle of the room, calling to me. As much as it made me feel ill, I was drawn to it. Slowly, I started forward, realizing that the magic came from a wide, dark pit that plunged far into the earth.

Its pull was so strong that an army couldn’t have stopped me from moving toward it. Reaching inside me, it gripped a hand around my heart, dragging me closer.

Heart pounding, I reached the edge of the pit. I stared down into the depths, finding actual stars. They glinted bright white, and it was like looking up into the heavens.

Just like looking into the sky, there was a sense of infinite possibility. Of purpose. My terror transformed into understanding.

Look deeper.

The voice echoed in my head, feeling like it was part of me.

I obeyed, helpless to resist. As I squinted into the darkness, I began to see visions. They were shadowy at first but gradually coalesced to become more solid.

A black mist swirled, twisting and turning about itself as it grew thicker and thicker. Soon, it was so dense that it looked solid, until finally, Hades stood before me, perfect and whole.

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