Page 106 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
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Kage was startled to find Zagreus waiting for him the instant the Underworld tore him back into its grasp. He landed hard on the ashen ground between the Fields of Mourning and the Forest of Silent Cries, far from the places Zagreus usually haunted. He barely had time to steady himself before Zagreus seized his arm and hauled him away, dragging him from the path he had meant to take.
They had not gone far when a familiar weight thundered towards them. Wren came bounding out of the gloom, her massive form cutting through the grey haze as she hurried to Kage’s side. She pressed her muzzle to his face, licking him insistently, before fixing Zagreus with a warning stare that spoke of teeth and consequences should he continue manhandling Kage in such a way.
Zagreus muttered a stream of curses under his breath but released Kage at once, lifting both hands in surrender to show the giant wolf that he meant no harm. Satisfied, Wren settled back on her haunches and began licking one paw, content now that peace, however fragile, had been restored between them.
‘I need a favour,’ Zagreus said, already turning back towards Tartarus.
Kage knew he ought not to follow. He knew it with the same quiet certainty that told him the sun would never truly warm his skin again. And yet, he followed anyway.
‘What kind of favour?’
Zagreus cast him a wary glance, as though the ease withwhich Kage walked beside him unsettled him. As though help, freely given, was a foreign thing in this realm.
‘I need Mal to kill Eris for me.’
Kage stopped short. The Underworld seemed to hush around them.
‘Mal is a little busy at the moment.’
Zagreus pulled a sharp expression, his already angular features tightening into something brittle and furious. ‘My mother is planning to wed me to Eris.’
‘Isn’t Eris your cousin?’
Zagreus’ mismatched eyes burnt.‘Secondcousin.’
Kage almost smiled. Almost asked whether that truly made it better. But Wren nudged his leg with her nose, a silent warning, and he swallowed the thought.
‘Fine,’ Kage said instead. ‘I’ll speak with Mal.’
The look on Zagreus’ face was pure disbelief. Raw, unguarded, and fleeting. Kage suspected he would never see it again.
‘Why are you so willing to help me?’ Zagreus asked.
Kage shrugged, the motion loose and careless. ‘Why not?’
Zagreus stared at him as if the answer itself were an impossibility, as though kindness without motive had no place in a realm built on bargains and blood.
And perhaps, in the Underworld, it truly did not.
‘When you speak to Mal…’ Zagreus hesitated, as though the words themselves scraped on something unfamiliar inside him. As though this, too, was a kindness he did not quite know how to offer. ‘Tell her Eris and my mother are working together. It is Eris who will try to take her child.’
Kage nodded, though uncertainty tugged at him. It felt like a warning wrapped in smoke. Important, but frustratingly vague.
‘Do you know how she plans to do it?’ he asked.
Zagreus’ mouth curved into a teasing smile. ‘Do you truly think they would share such plans with me?’ Yet beneath the humour, Kage caught the irritation, the old, quiet wound of a son forever kept at arm’s length from his mother’s secrets.
‘Could you… find out?’ Kage asked, carefully. Gently. As though pressing too hard might make Zagreus recoil.
Zagreus’ smile sharpened. ‘For you? Of course.’
Kage resisted the urge to react. It was clear enough: Zagreus understood bargains and favours, trades weighed and measured. What unsettled him was this. Help offered freely, without demand or debt.
In the Underworld, generosity was a language rarely spoken. And Zagreus was still learning its sound.
‘Why don’t you want to marry Eris?’ Kage asked as they set off once more, Wren padding between them, her bright eyes glinting with something suspiciously close to amusement, if such a thing were possible for a giant white wolf. Kage had long suspected it was.
