Unseen by Amber Lynn Natusch

Author:Amber Lynn Natusch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2015-02-17T05:00:00+00:00

19

The River Styx had always been my sanctuary, but I now sought an environment that mirrored my roiling emotions. The Acheron was the most fitting place. Its waters churned and crashed along the craggy rock walls that hemmed it in. If the Styx was an open oasis, the Acheron was a rushing divide, cutting its way between the dead and the living. With my feelings raging just below my controlled surface, I wondered if I wasn’t destined to become somewhat the same thing. A violent force separating the two.

Standing on the cliff just above the water, I looked across to the other side, thinking it strange that a simple body of water was enough to withhold all that the Underworld imprisoned, but I knew it was. I had seen some of Father’s disgruntled warriors attempt to cross it and escape. It was an ill-conceived plan. Their deaths were swift but grotesque, having been swallowed up in the acidic waves, bodies eroding in a matter of seconds. Strange that as I now gazed at the fast-moving river, I considered doing just as they had.

Reckless? Maybe. But perhaps not.

If my mother had been Dark, then why was it not possible for me to cross of my own accord? I could fly. Why not test my theory? I needed to know if I could personally extract Drew from the Underworld as quickly as possible if Persephone’s plan worked. Perhaps I would need to bring him over while I still contained him. There were too many unknowns to chance—too many to relinquish to the control of others—and as that thought ran through my head, I felt myself lean forward, my body flirting with the cliff’s edge. The familiar pain of my wings pressing through flesh seared in my back. I closed my eyes, hovering farther over the water. Just as my wings extended, I felt another familiar sensation travel along my spine. My heart raced the second his presence registered in my mind, and I stumbled back inelegantly from the water’s edge.

“Tempting fate, are we?” Deimos asked, approaching from behind me. I turned to see him, his frighteningly rugged face fixed on mine. “Those are not the shade that I remembered them to be, nor are they the shade necessary for safe passage across the Acheron.” He eyed me curiously. “But you know that, which makes me wonder precisely what it is that you are doing.”

“Thinking.”

“I would argue the opposite, given that your suicidal notion exhibits a clear lack of thought.”

“I was not going to cross it.”

He smiled menacingly.

“I know. That’s my point. You were not.” I felt my wings fold in behind me, shrinking under the weight of his stare. “You would have perished, and you see, Khara, I cannot have that.”

“Is that why you are here? I now have two chaperones to ensure my safety?” I asked, controlling my expression as best I could.

His face, however, darkened at my question.

“You know why I am here,” he growled. “The real question to be asked is why are you here? Why have you returned?” He slowly circled me like a lion.

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