Chapter 3 #2
Theron stepped fully into the room. His presence filled every corner with barely contained power, but his amber gaze held only concern. “You’re safe now. That’s all that matters.”
The simple statement cut through my fear. When had anyone cared about my safety above all else? Who had ever placed my wellbeing before their own concerns or desires?
“Why would you do that for someone you didn’t know?” I whispered.
His ears flattened against his skull. Fire pulsed around his claws, making shadows dance over the white walls of the healing chambers. “Because you needed me to. And no matter what happens, I’ll always be there to protect you.”
These words carried the finality of death itself. But maybe I was beginning to believe Iaso, because I didn’t fear that, either.
Iaso interrupted us before I could thank him. “I’m sure Callista appreciates your efforts, Theron. But I must remind you. To make her stay here official, there is someone you must see first.”
“Someone?” I forced myself to meet Iaso’s surreal gaze. “Who?”
Theron didn’t answer. Part of me didn’t want him to. I already knew that when he did, his reply would change everything. My new life might still demand prices I wasn’t prepared to pay.
According to Iaso, Theron had been the one to bring me to Asphodelia. I’d been unconscious, unaware of what was going on around me. I must have felt safe, because I didn’t remember experiencing a single moment of apprehension.
Unfortunately, I could no longer take refuge in something so simple. When I walked into Asphodelia’s docks, I did so on my own two feet, and it terrified me.
The stone beneath my boots felt nothing like the familiar dirt paths of Agrion. Bronze braziers flickered along what I hoped was still a path. The air tasted of secrets and things that had died long before I was born.
Without Theron’s arm, I would’ve run back to the healing chamber.
“Don’t be afraid,” Theron rumbled, having obviously sensed my disquiet. “Nothing here can harm you.”
I leaned against his furred shoulder a little more. “I know. This is just… so strange. What are we actually supposed to do here?”
“We’re here to see the one who controls passage between worlds. The Stygian Docks are his home.”
Theron hadn’t been too happy at Iaso’s reminder, but he hadn’t been surprised either. He’d seemed to agree with Iaso that this was necessary. It scared me, but I had to brave this. I needed to find out what Asphodelia’s price was for its unconditional acceptance.
With every step we took, the cold bit deeper into my skin. It reminded me of winter mornings in Agrion when frost killed the harvest. I tried not to see it as a bad omen, but I couldn’t shake the restlessness stirring in my gut.
At the pier’s end stood a circular altar. A figure was already waiting for us in front of it, and his commanding presence made Theron seem small.
The mysterious man carried a massive pole, but the wood was unlike anything from the Korinos Wilds. It whispered secrets too faint for even a dryad to understand, urgent enough to make my skin crawl.
“So our newest human visitor comes seeking passage to a new life,” the man said, studying me from head to toe. “I am Charon, keeper of Asphodelia’s ferry.”
I tried to speak but only managed a strangled sound. No doubt his phrasing had been deliberate. Could he see into my mind? What else did he know about me?
I didn’t have the courage to answer Charon, so instead I looked to Theron for reassurance. Theron didn’t disappoint, but what he did say shocked me. “Charon, Callista needs entry to the bride market. Will you help us with your trade?”
Charon opened his mouth to answer, but I didn’t give him the chance. “The bride market? They won’t want me there.”
After all, in bride markets, monsters chose from among the fertile and whole. I was sterile, cursed, broken. In Agrion, the mere smell of me had made monsters turn girls away.
“This one is different,” Theron assured me, his presence steadying my racing heart. “Asphodelia’s market accepts only death-touched women.”
Of course. I forced myself to gather my thoughts, to shake off my irrational terror. Hadn’t Iaso told me outright that I’d be welcomed here? No doubt, their bride market would welcome me, too.
“Indeed,” Charon added. “The bride market is also the only way forward for human women to stay in the city. It will grant you the privilege of Thanatos’s blessing.”
Oh. So maybe, in some ways, Asphodelia wasn’t that different from everywhere else on Alia Terra. No matter how well I fit their city, I still had to pay the entry price. “What will this cost me? I doubt you take credits.”
“We don’t, indeed.” Charon’s lips twitched in a ghost of a smile. “Your people’s credits mean nothing to us. Callista of Agrion, the price you must pay is not coin. It’s memory.”
“Memory?” That, I had not expected. “What do you mean?”
“I always mean exactly what I say.” Charon tapped the obsidian altar with his pole. “A happy memory, to join the bride market. It’s fairly straightforward.”
“But I don’t have any happiness to give you,” I protested. Gods, I should have known this was too good to be true. “There’s nothing worth taking.”
“Everyone carries happiness, even those who’ve suffered greatly,” Charon said, his low voice somehow rising over my returning panic. “I will find what you’ve forgotten.”
It was possible. I’d been a child once. I’d played with my sisters. My mother had sung to me as she showed me how to pick herbs. My father had smiled when he came back from hard days in the fields.
Those moments were only faded dreams now, but if anyone could track them down, it would be Charon.
I glanced back at Theron, whose eyes burned with the need to protect me. He’d saved me when I had nothing left. This creature who should terrify me felt like safety itself. “I’ll pay. Take whatever happiness you can find.”
“Very good.” Charon nodded in approval. Coins emerged from his ancient robes and started spinning around him. “With this, you’ll have earned your right to enter the bride market. Monsters will bid for you, and you will choose your own fate.”
I already knew what I’d choose. I had, from the moment Theron had walked into the healing chamber. “I understand. What do you need?”
Charon grabbed two worn coins and held them up against the light. “Lie upon the altar. You need to stay calm and composed. Do not fight the ritual. I will do the rest.”
I took a shuddering breath and complied, settling on my back on the altar. It reminded me far too much of my trial, but I tried to force back my panic. “Will it hurt?”
“No more than letting go of anything you’ve held too tightly.” Charon approached with the coins gleaming in his palms. “To prevent pain, the memory will not fade immediately, but after your first sleep. Now, close your eyes.”
I obeyed, and cool metal settled over my eyelids. The coins felt heavier than they should have been, as if they carried the choices of everyone who’d paid this price before me.
Charon’s palms pressed against my forehead with unexpected kindness. His skin felt warm despite the supernatural cold radiating from his presence. “Hold still.”
The extraction began like something being gently drawn from deep water. A tugging sensation in my mind, not painful but strange. Something precious was slipping away, but I couldn’t say what. Like watching something beautiful through increasingly thick glass until it vanished completely.
I felt the moment when whatever piece of my past he’d found disappeared entirely. An empty space where something had been, though I couldn’t say what. The absence didn’t hurt. It just felt like a door closing on something I’d never see again.
“It is done.” Charon lifted his hands from my forehead, the warmth leaving with them. “Your commitment is accepted.”
He lifted the coins from my eyes, and I had no idea what precious piece of myself now belonged to him. Strangely, I didn’t mind. By Theron’s side, I felt safe. That was more precious than any distant, supposedly happy memory could ever be.