Page 235 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
This ring was unlike any she had encountered before.
The sky above was dark and utterly empty, devoid of stars. Around the lake rose forests so dense and shadowed that it was impossible to see beyond their tangled edges, as though the world itself ended within those black walls of trees.
The man waiting on the opposite shore was stranger still.
In some ways he resembled a wolverian—his skin pale, his hair the colour of silvered frost. Yet his eyes were not the familiar blue of the wolverian people.
They were white.
Even his clothing was white, blending almost eerily with the frozen landscape.
He was neither old nor young. Instead, he seemed caught in an ageless stillness, as though time itself had forgotten how to move around him.
If her father Hades embodied the darkness so beloved by the wyverian people, this man was its perfect opposite.
Not light. But something emptier still.
The absence of everything.
‘Lucifer,’ Mal said once she reached the far shore.
‘Melinoe.’ The demon smiled, revealing canines that gleamed sharp and dangerous in the pale gloom. ‘It has been a very long time since I last enjoyed your company.’
‘You recognise me?’ she asked. ‘Even though I do not wear that face anymore?’
Lucifer gave a careless shrug.
‘How could I not? We spent a rather… memorable amount of time together.’ His pale glare lingered on her with unsettling familiarity. ‘No matter what flesh you wear—goddess, mortal, princess—I will always know my son’s wife.’
Mal stiffened.
Lucifer laughed softly at her reaction.
‘So it is true then?’ she asked. ‘You are Thanatos’ father?’
Lucifer tilted his head slightly, studying her.
‘Why?’ he asked. ‘Would you prefer a different answer? Does it change your feelings towards him?’
Mal said nothing.
She refused to play games with the demon.
‘Why are you here, Melinoe?’ Lucifer continued after a moment, realising she would not indulge him further.
‘I want to make a deal,’ she said plainly. ‘I want Persephone gone.’
Lucifer burst into laughter.
Mal did not understand what was so amusing about her request, but she decided not to react. Silence was sometimes the sharpest weapon she possessed.
‘How curious it is,’ he said eventually.
‘What?’ she asked, her patience thinning.
‘How history always finds a way to repeat itself.’
Mal frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
