Page 61 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
From somewhere beyond the castle walls, wyverns roared as they cut through the dark, starless sky of her shadow realm, their cries echoing like a promise, or a warning.
‘So how do we destroy Persephone?’ Vera asked, folding her arms across her chest. ‘We cannot lure her onto mortal soil. She will never be so foolish.’
Allegra’s dark fingers tapped against the shadow-stone table. Mal watched the motion, mesmerised, even though none of it was truly solid—the table, their hands, their bodies, all woven from smoke and half-thoughts. Still, she watched as if it mattered. As if it were real.
Her mind drifted, unbidden, to the image of Persephone fallen and broken, erased from every realm. Mal pictured it with unsettling clarity: the queen’s crown tumbling to the ground, her throat opened beneath Mal’s blade. For what she had done to Kage. For what she had done to her family. Persephone did not deserve a swift end. Mal would savour it.
‘There is a way,’ a voice said.
Mal went utterly still.
Slowly, she turned, already knowing who stood behind her. There was only one other soul who could cross into her realm unbidden. One presence she could never fully shut out. One bond she had never asked for and could never sever.
Thanatos smiled, a wicked and achingly familiar smile.
And Mal hated him for it.
Hated how that smile still stirred something in her chest.
Hated even more that a part of her had missed it.
‘You ought to be careful,’ Mal said at last, turning away from him. ‘If you keep straying from Persephone’s side, she willbegin to wonder.’
‘I am merely running an errand,’ Thanatos replied, moving to her side and taking the seat to her left. Mal could not help but notice how his eyes lingered on the curve of her stomach before slowly travelling upwards, along the pale line of her throat, to her face. There was something unnervingly intimate in the way he looked at her, as though he could strip her bare with nothing more than his attention. She cleared her throat, sharply.
‘When I become queen,’ Mal said, her voice firm, ‘you will be bound to me. Is there a way to sever such an attachment?’
‘No,’ Thanatos answered without hesitation. ‘Death serves the king or queen of the Underworld. It has always been so.’
‘I was under the impression that Death served no one.’
He shrugged lightly. ‘In a sense.’ His lips curved, faint but sincere. ‘But if I must serve anyone… I would wish it to be you, Melinoe.’
Mal turned her face away, deliberately ignoring the presence at her side. ‘Don’t say such ridiculous things.’ She fixed her attention on Vera instead, but that proved no refuge either for Vera was smiling far too knowingly. With a quiet exhale, Mal straightened and said, her tone sharp as a drawn blade, ‘You mentioned there is a way to be rid of Persephone. Say it.’
She had not meant to be so cold, not truly. But ever since the truth of her bond with Thanatos had been laid bare, warmth felt like a betrayal of herself. Lies had a way of festering, and forgiveness did not come easily. Her father Hades was gone beyond her reach, beyond her wrath, and someone had to bear the weight of her fury.
Thanatos sighed, clearly sensing the storm simmering behind Mal’s purple glare.
‘You could repay her,’ he said at last.
Mal frowned. ‘Repay her?’
‘She aided your mother, Hecate, in casting you into Hell,’ Thanatos replied, his jaw tightening. ‘You could return the favour.’
Mal leaned back in her chair, folding into the stone as though it were a throne already waiting for her. She let his words settle, heavy and deliberate. Yes, she knew the tale well enough. How fear had driven her mother to betrayal. How Persephone had lent her hand in condemning Mal to the depths of Hell.
And yet Mal had always suspected there was more to that story, threads left deliberately untold, truths buried where they could not easily be unearthed.
‘If I trap Persephone in Hell,’ Mal asked quietly, ‘would she cease to be Queen of the Underworld?’
‘Yes,’ Thanatos replied without hesitation.
Mal inclined her head. ‘Then I would need to strike a bargain with a king.’ She spoke slowly, deliberately, her gaze fixed on him. Thanatos shifted, unease flickering across his features, but he nodded all the same. ‘Very well.’
‘Not yet,’ Thanatos said, his dark eyes drifting to Mal’s stomach. ‘It is far too dangerous to enter Hell with a child in your womb, Melinoe. The kings would sense it. They would want the babe. You must wait until she is born.’
Mal released a breath through her nose, irritation tightening her jaw.
