Chapter 35
Tethys stood beside her mother, sharing in her silent grief. Phosphora, with luminous turquoise eyes, wiped a tear from her midnight cheek. A figure, silent and solemn, placed a bundle of blankets in Phosphora’s outstretched hands.
“I promise you,” Phosphora said, her narrow shoulders shaking with stifled sobs. “This is what’s best.”
Another figure, taller than the first, appeared in the darkness.
Their faces, as if behind a rain-glazed window, were blurred, but Tethys didn’t need to see to know who they were.
Eos and Astraeus. The keeper of dusk wrapped his arm around his lover and guided her gently through the shadowy haze until their figures disappeared entirely.
“You’re safe now,” Phosphora whispered, hushing little cries rising from the bundle in her arms. She rocked it, soothing it with hushed songs.
Tethys leaned into her mother, hoping to catch a glimpse of the babe, now settled into a quiet slumber.
Phosphora turned abruptly though, her starlit dress swishing as she started in the opposite direction.
Although her strides were even and slow, Tethys ran to keep up with her.
She sputtered for air and pushed her legs to their limit, but the distance stretched until her mother was but a silvery blur on the horizon.
Her body twisted and contorted against an invisible assailant.
The shadows wrapped themselves around her ankles, throwing her to the ground before dragging her into their darkness.
Tethys screamed, clawing at the obsidian floor beneath her, searching for anything to cling and hold her position steady.
There was nothing, however, as she plunged into the swirling black mist. Her mother’s song echoed in the air, sending shockwaves through the vast expanse of space.
Tethys’s pulse raced, preparing for her captor’s claws to sink into her flesh. But she slid to a halt, her legs cramping and her back aching. Silence. Nothing but silence remained. The shadows slithered down her legs and dissipated into mist. She stood again, her eyes etched along the horizon.
A faint light in the distance beckoned her forward. She ran to meet it, refusing to give the shadows an opportunity to again take hold.
“Now that it’s sealed, we cannot let her find this,” Phosphora said, her blurred figure again coming into view.
The babe she’d carried was no longer in sight.
Instead, she held a small silver key. The light emulating from the Primordial’s very core seeped into its metal structure, giving it a faint iridescent glow.
Tethys risked a step closer. The crashing of waves shook the cavern of darkness around them, and sharp salted air bristled her nose—like the ocean tide and vast landless horizons.
Phosphora closed her eyes, letting her light illuminate rugged stone walls and jagged salt deposits. This was a cave of some kind? Tethys reached for her mother once more, but her hands slipped through the primordial’s shoulder and fell to her side.
“If she finds it, he will be free,” Phosphora whispered. Her words turned Tethys’s blood to ice.
“Who, Mother?” Tethys asked, closing the distance between the two immortals. Phosphora didn’t seem to hear her though, as she again turned on her heels and traversed the cavern. Her silvery skirts pooled around her frame as she knelt, skimming her hand across the shadows.
“Please, Mother. Who?” Tethys repeated, her breathing frantic now.
Phosphora glanced up at the goddess, her vibrant eyes locking with Tethys. She opened her mouth to speak. It wasn’t words that poured from her lips, but shadow. Like sludge, the darkness flooded her mother’s mouth, cascading to the floor and serpentining toward her.
Then, Tethys ran. Her calves ached and her heart slammed against her chest, but she kept her pace. She didn’t dare look back at the shadows nipping her heels. She wasn’t fast enough though. The darkness sank its claws into her ankles, ripping her from the ground and pulling her back.
Tethys closed her eyes and waited for the demons that lurked in the dark to rip her apart.