Crown of Cinders by Emily R. King

Author:Emily R. King [King, Emily R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542023740
Google: 0akqzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Amazon Publishing
Published: 2021-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

15

Theo’s soul was disappearing. I didn’t know what that meant, only that I could sense him fading.

I was going to lose him.

Every time I hadn’t touched him, every time I had pretended I was strong enough on my own, every time I had stayed silent when he declared his love, now burned deep. I forced down my tears. If any part of him was conscious, I couldn’t let him believe I had given up hope.

Why was it taking so long to reach the gates? The skiff soared down the river faster than if I had grabbed Theo and tried to fly back, but it still wasn’t swift enough.

I patted his cheek. “Theo?”

No response.

I tried again with a firmer voice. “Theo.”

“Hmm?” he replied dimly.

“You need to wake up. Try to stay awake.”

“Althea,” he rasped. “Even as a girl, you were fierce.”

“Fierce as in scary?” I was trying to keep him awake by asking questions, but I had never heard what he thought of me when we first met. I had been a child. It was on the night my mother, Stavra, had died.

“I knew straight away . . .” Theo panted, stopping for a breath. “Nothing could stop you. Don’t—don’t let this stop you.”

“Don’t talk like that.”

Poseidon propelled us faster, the wind in our faces and the fetid water speckling us. Hades winced but said nothing. The gates were still somewhere out of sight ahead. A prayer to Gaea slipped past my lips.

“Please,” I said.

Theo’s eyes rolled back into his head. I took off his vial necklace and tested the flip top. I was ready, but it had to be done on his last breath.

“Theo Angelos, you cannot leave me. You said you would be by my side. Did you mean it?” He nodded, so slightly that I thought it might have been caused by the movement of the skiff. I shook him again. “Tell me you’ll be by my side.”

“Aren’t I?” He licked his dry lips. “From the instant I first saw you grown up, I didn’t want to live without you.”

I scanned the horizon, my eyes misty. “You won’t have to live without me, so stay by my side or I’ll kill you myself.”

Hades called out over the wind, “You two have an odd relationship.”

We sailed through the bog. The eerie trees stretched out over the water, their branches like the Erinyes’ emaciated fingers. Poseidon had to slow down to navigate around them, and we still hit roots hidden right below the surface that jolted us hard. I was bent so far over Theo, holding him firmly against the bench, that I smacked my head against the side of the skiff. The burst of pain was nothing. Nothing could hurt me more than Theo’s gasping.

All those years of swearing I would never fall in love now laughed at me. Theo lived in my dreams. The future I envisioned with my sisters included him.

“Althea,” he said. “Find joy.”

A guttural moan pushed past my lips. “Don’t.”

“This is my fate.”

“Unless you’re going to tell me you’re about to take your last breath, reserve your strength and shut up.

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