Page 20 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
‘My sister will come for us,’ Kage said. ‘It won’t be long.’
Zagreus exhaled a quiet snort, returning his attention to Kage. Leaning forward, his mismatched eyes narrowed. ‘Are you so certain of that, wyverian prince?’
‘I am.’
They held one another’s stare in charged silence until Zagreus rose from his throne of bone and stepped nearer, hands tucked smoothly into his pockets, mirroring Kage’s stance. They were of equal height, lean of frame. Reflective, almost.Tooalike.
‘I’ll offer you a word of advice from a prince of the Underworld to a wyverian prince,’ Zagreus said, leaning in untiltheir breaths intertwined. Instinct urged Kage to recoil, as though at any moment Zagreus might reach out and tear into him with unseen claws.
His gaze flicked past Zagreus’ shoulder, seeking Wren. He wondered why she wished him to trust this creature born of shadows.
But he would.
If Wren asked it of him.
‘A word of advice,’ Zagreus repeated, and his mismatched eyes gleamed with mischief. ‘Never trust a god.’
‘I trust my sister Mal.’
‘And yet here you stand, dead because of it.’
Before Kage could muster a reply, Zagreus pivoted sharply and strode down the corridor from which the screams echoed, unceasing and hollow. The white wolf followed at his heel, and after a moment’s hesitation, Kage did thesame, his reluctance trailing behind him like a shadow.
We have all sought, in one way or another, to unearth a means of breaking the curse that binds us. Hades believes the God-Killer will be the key to its undoing. I do not. I believe the God-Killer will be our ruin. The truth is that I no longer think there is any way to sever what has been wrought. I believe the curse is absolute. I believe we are doomed.
Mal Blackburn is where it all began.
She is the origin of this curse. She murdered my lover, my Hadrian. And I committed the one act magic forbids above all others. I brought him back. And in doing so, I bound us. Not merely to each other but to something far greater, far more insidious. A tether none of us fully understand, one that coils through us all like a living thing. This curse will not break with the death of Hades. Nor with the death of Hadrian. Nor even with my own.
Because Mal is the beginning.
And so she must also be the end.
Tabitha Wysteria
Mal headed straight for the castle’s main entrance the moment the servants announced the arrival of guests. Her expression remained impassive as she watched three wyverians stride across the dead land before the gates, moving with little concern and even less ceremony.
Her gaze settled first on Keir, who dropped a weightysatchel at his feet, splattering mud across his black leather boots. He looked ill—ghost-pale, even for their kind. His once thick wyverian hair had thinned so drastically that gaps now showed between the twists of his black horns. Behind him loomed Cronan, silent as ever—an enormous shadow in wyverian form. He was the largest of their species, and to Mal’s knowledge, she had never heard him utter a single word.
Her attention shifted to the woman beside them, nearly Mal’s height, her slender form concealed beneath the dark armour that failed to truly mask the strength beneath it. Her hair was cut short in a masculine style, a choice she had once made to impress Haven Blackburn, many years ago.
‘We’ve dealt with your army,’ Adriana said, adjusting the great wyverian sword that hung at her hip.
After the chaos that had followed recent events, Mal had returned to the Underworld to face Persephone, to warn her brother Kage to hide until she could free him, and to tear Allegra from the goddess’s grasp. In her absence, Ash had been left to manage the aftermath. He had tasked Adriana and Keir with escorting the wyverian troops back to their homeland.
‘My father will return soon, with the rest of my army,’ Mal replied. She did not miss the way Adriana’s eyes narrowed faintly at the wordmy. ‘Ash and I leave tonight.’
‘Can we sit and discuss plans over a drink?’ Adriana asked, rubbing at her aching back. ‘We’ve been travelling for days. I’d like to rest my feet.’
Mal opened her mouth to answer, but she felt Ash’s presence behind her before she heard him. His hand settled warmly between her shoulders. Gentle, but also a warning.Enough. Let him handle this.
She watched as he stepped forward, and Adriana’s face lit up before she rushed to embrace him. Keir let out a laugh andclapped Ash on the back.
Mal remained stationed between them and the castle doors, silent and composed, watching the exchange unfold with a cool and measured eye.
She ignored the other Mal, the one steeped in shadow and malice. She especially ignored the laughter, low and knowing, as though this dark reflection were privy to truths the real Mal refused to face.
‘They’re plotting against you,’ the creature crooned, stepping close enough that its thin lips nearly brushed her ear. ‘Look at that husband of yours. He’s already planning with them. They’re gods, all of them. You could end them.Kill them,before they destroy you first.’
