Chapter Twenty-Four #2
Mal’s breath hitched. Her fists clenched as fury flared within her. ‘No,’ she said sharply. ‘I will not condemn another to such a fate.’
‘There must be another way,’ Thanatos cut in, his voice a low warning, edged with desperation.
‘There is not,’ came the thunderous reply. The beast began to retreat, the sea folding over its great body like a shroud. ‘That is the bargain. Take it, or be gone.’
Mal turned to Thanatos, her heart pounding. She needed Allegra’s magic, her knowledge was essential. But she would not trade a soul to earn it. She would find another way. Another witch.
Something soft brushed against Mal’s hand, a whisper of movement that sent a chill racing up her spine. She turned and froze.
Makaria stood at her side, silent as moonlight, her mismatched eyes aglow with a terrible and unfathomable calm.
‘No,’ Mal said firmly, her voice trembling with fury and grief.
‘I don’t mind,’ Makaria replied, a soft smile curving her lips.
‘It’s only until you’ve learnt the craft.
Then you’ll return for me.’ A flicker of something darker passed through her eyes.
Uncertainty, perhaps the quiet fear that no one ever would.
That she might be left behind, forgotten in this cursed place.
‘We’ll find another way,’ Mal insisted, tightening her grip on her sister’s hand as if sheer will alone could anchor her to the shore. ‘There are other witches.’
Makaria exhaled, her breath a feather’s sigh.
‘You’re running out of time, Melinoe. And witches willing to help a god-killer are not easy to come by.
’ She smiled a small, wistful, almost shy smile.
‘Let me do this. I never had the chance to be your sister, not truly. Let me be one now. Let me help you.’
Mal’s fingers clamped around Makaria’s arm the moment she moved. But it was too late. The great beast laughed, a rumble that churned the sea itself.
‘A daughter of Hades, offering herself for the good of another?’ the sea king mused, clearly delighted. ‘What a delicious little twist of fate.’
Its massive head descended, mouth yawning wide like a chasm ready to swallow the world.
‘Makaria…’ Mal surged forward, panic rising in her throat, but Thanatos caught her, arms like iron as he held her back.
Makaria stood, waist-deep in the water, her black dress soaked and clinging to her like a shroud. Yet she looked regal, unshaken, a true goddess of the Underworld.
‘Don’t forget to come back for me,’ she said, casting one last look over her shoulder, her voice soft and steady.
And then she stepped into the gaping maw of the beast.
The mouth snapped shut.
Mal screamed.
She lunged forward, but Thanatos’ grip tightened, dragging her back even as the ocean turned wild once more, thrashing with renewed fury. The creature reared one final time before disappearing beneath the waves, vanishing into the abyss.
A towering wave crashed upon the shore, slamming Mal and Thanatos back onto the blackened sand.
The sea had claimed its price.
‘Melinoe…’
His touch seared her skin like a curse, and she recoiled at once, pulling herself from beneath the hand that had dared to graze the bare flesh of her arm. Rising swiftly to her feet, she stood tall and trembling, her gaze snapping back to the sea.
‘You should have let me stop her!’ she screamed, fury coiling behind her eyes like a serpent ready to strike.
‘Perhaps,’ he said softly, rising in a careful, deliberate motion, as though her rage might scorch him if he moved too quickly. ‘But Makaria was right. Your time is running short.’
Mal’s hands curled into trembling fists. The urge to lash out burnt hot beneath her ribs, but she knew the truth of it. This wasn’t his fault. The blame, if it had a place to rest, would always rest with her.
‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled, barely above a whisper.
Thanatos inclined his head. His eyes, black and fathomless, widened suddenly, catching on something she had yet to see. She followed his gaze, squinting towards the sea. At first, there was nothing, only the slow churn of black water, then a tangle of hair, then a head. A body.
Allegra.
She emerged from the depths like some wraith resurrected, gasping for breath, her hands clawing at the surface as though fighting to remain in this world.
Her hair, once wild and curling, clung now to her wet skin.
Her complexion, a rich warm brown like her sisters’, shimmered under the weight of saltwater.
Even in death, Allegra remained a creature of beauty, her curves, her strength, her sharp-boned grace undiminished by time or tide.
She collapsed onto the black shore, heaving for air.
When she opened her eyes, eyes the same violet shade that haunted Mal in every reflection, a wicked smile unfurled across Mal’s face like a blade unsheathed.
‘Welcome back,’ she said, her voice low and serpentine, her smile widening as she watched the panic settle behind Allegra’s stare. ‘Remember me?’
Allegra gave a small, quick nod, her chest rising and falling in shallow, frantic rhythm.
‘Good.’
‘Why…?’ Allegra’s eyes locked on Thanatos, widening further in disbelief. ‘Why am I here?’
Mal crouched low beside her, drawing close until their eyes met on the same level. She let her fingers trail through the soft, obsidian sand, scooping a handful only to let the grains fall again, slowly, like the last sands in a dying hourglass.
‘I need you to teach me magic,’ she said simply.
Allegra’s spine straightened, the name of the old craft clearly not one she had expected.
‘Why?’ she asked, the word brittle, hesitant.
Mal’s smile darkened like a gathering storm.
‘So I may become the God-killer.’ She turned her attention to Thanatos, seeing the glimmer in his eyes, the shine of danger, of prophecy, of fate unfolding. ‘So that I may kill the gods. Every last one of them.’