Page 34 of Bought By the Manticore

13

The Manticore

Ianthe & Skaros

When Eryx came back, he was silent and pale. The black snakes were eerily still, their red eyes strangely muted.

He had no potion in his hand. For the longest time, he just stared at me, as if looking for an answer to a question he hadn’t asked. “Ianthe. Tell me you’ve changed your mind. Tell me you don’t want to leave this place and go to the shade.”

A spark of hope shot through me. Something had changed since the last time he’d been here. I didn’t know why, but the answer was important. “I haven’t,” I replied as I got up. “I won’t ever change my mind.”

Eryx pressed his lips together so tightly they went white. “So be it, then. Come with me.”

Making his way to my side, he hooked his arm through mine. He kept his face turned away, and for once, so did the snakes. Without another word, he guided me out of the garden.

The mist responded to him in a way it never had to me. The moment he waved his hand, it disappeared entirely, and we were standing in the dark corridor again. The abyss loomed ahead, hollow and threatening.

I closed my eyes without being asked to. I knew what was waiting for me beyond that shield. Skaros.

Eryx guided me through the darkness far more swiftly than Iaso had. I barely had the chance to realize I was being suspended into the nothingness. One moment I was standing in the temple, and the next, I was out.

Almost immediately, the air grew more breathable, thick with the sharp perfume of crushed asphodels. Death crystals glinted in the dark, but this time, their light was much dimmer, barely even there.

Just in front of me, in the dark corridor, a group of guards was waiting. The massive Theron had joined a somber Aion, alongside a few others I didn’t recognize. Another lupine creature, this one with white fur. Some harpies. A minotaur. Iaso.

“By order of the Moirae, you are now exiled from Asphodelia,” Eryx stated. “You were right. We cannot cure you. So it would be cruel to keep you here to suffer.”

The words made no sense. I hadn’t asked to be sent away. What I’d wanted was to be with Skaros. How was I supposed to do that if I wasn’t in Asphodelia?

“Don’t be afraid, Ianthe,” Aion told me. “I promise you, this is for the best.”

Him too? I’d thought he’d be on my side, that he’d at least understand Skaros would never harm me. But apparently, that was too much to ask.

I opened my mouth to answer, to protest this absurdity, to fight back. But no words came out.

Without warning, the stone underneath my feet cracked. The building shook, and the death energy around us grew frantic, wilder. Eryx pulled me closer to him, his snakes hissing angrily. “You have no right to her, you shade. Stay in the dirt where you belong and leave her alone.”

The guards shared a concerned look. I couldn’t understand anything anymore. “What’s happening? Someone please… Tell me what’s going on.”

“Skaros is tearing the city apart to get to you,” Theron replied. “The Moirae have decreed you must be taken to the docks. We have to keep moving.”

“To the docks?” I repeated. “You mean out of his reach. That’s why you’re sending me away.”

No one answered. Instead, they ushered me down the corridor, toward the exit of the healing wing.

They didn’t even seem to mean me any harm. But that just made them even more dangerous. They genuinely thought they were doing the right thing. No matter how hard I tried, I’d never be able to convince them otherwise.

In the end, I didn’t have to. Skaros was with me. He was fighting for me. Whatever the Moirae were doing, he’d find his way through their shields and back to my side. We’d be together again. I believed that in a way I’d never believed anything in my life.

I was proven right much sooner than I’d thought. The moment we left the building, a massive surge of plant life surrounded us, desperately reaching for me. Eryx removed his blindfold, snarling. “Absolutely not! This at least I can still do.”

Before my very eyes, the vines and asphodels dissolved, unweaving into columns of silver-blue death energy. I screamed. “No, don’t! Not again! You’re hurting him!”

But that was the point, wasn’t it? To hurt Skaros, to keep him away from me. This was insanity.

I started to struggle in Eryx’s hold, clawing at his arm, trying to pull his focus away from Skaros. The distraction worked. For a single second, Eryx faltered. And that was when Skaros struck.

The remaining foliage shot forward like a hurricane. Pushing Eryx away, it curled around my waist, my arms, and my thighs. The vines lifted me off the shaking cobblestones. The familiar scent of turned earth and rain enveloped me.