Chapter 35
Morpheus
I halt my steps in the underground tunnel, my eyes narrowed as Serapina’s scent calls to my beast.
“She’s close,” I tell Maliki, my voice soft but not a whisper.
Because there’s no point in masking our presence down here.
The souls are well aware of our arrival, but they’re too preoccupied with the chaos happening throughout the death pits to care about our intentions. All the spirits are funneling into an unknown orbit, which explains why the Soul Yards have dried up, as well as the Blood River.
Nothing is working as it should in the Netherworld Kingdom. However, Orcus and his mates are still holding things together above ground.
Mostly, anyway.
Still, whatever Demeter has done to Hades has caused catastrophic damage to death’s ecosystem.
Which makes finding him—and Serapina—paramount.
If only I could still hear my mate. Her mental voice disappeared shortly after she started addressing the fog in her mind.
I determined the cause of that intrusion almost immediately, my instincts firing the moment I heard her investigating the darkness. But she couldn’t hear my protests or my warnings that Hades was clearly trying to protect her.
Instead, she faced his magic and dismantled it. Like a Goddess. I’m both proud and terrified by what she’s done.
Because if Hades is no longer protecting her from his pain, then it’s possible she’s lost consciousness like Mort, Howl, and Ossa.
“Do you feel Hades at all?” I ask Maliki, needing to distract myself from considering Serapina’s current state. Worrying only leads to impulsive decisions, and I cannot afford to be impulsive right now.
I need to be strategic.
Thorough.
And most of all, lethal.
“Everything just feels cold,” Maliki replies, his tone deadly serious. “And very bloody wrong.”
I consider his words. “That’s the power vacuum you’re sensing.” I face him. “Can you trace it? The heart of the wrongness?”
He stares at me, and I half expect him to issue a snarky retort. But instead, he narrows his gaze and says, “Maybe.”
I arch a brow. “Then you should lead.” Because while I know Serapina is nearby, I can’t seem to pinpoint her location. But she’s with Hades. And Hades is at the heart of the wrongness Maliki is picking up on.
“You actually know how to follow?” Maliki asks, some of that trademark wit making an appearance.
“I know how to do a great many things, Maliki. Lead us to Hades and our mate, and perhaps I’ll introduce you to some of my talents later.”
“Always flirting,” he drawls, amusement shining in his gold eyes. But a visible shiver rolling through him has him sobering in a blink. “This way.”
I don’t comment, not wanting to interrupt whatever hint he just picked up on. His mind goes quiet, his thoughts singularly focused on something I can’t hear. Not because he’s intentionally keeping me out, but because he appears to be engaging one of the other mate-links in his head.
Which is basically what Serapina did when she dismantled Hades’s protective energy—she homed all her attention on his essence and tuned out her other mates.
Only, that ended in a complete disruption for reasons I’m not fully aware of yet. Unconsciousness is the obvious explanation.
But I again ignore that potential and instead focus on Maliki’s prowling form.
He moves like he’s on a mission, something I appreciate as I trail behind him.
Neither of us knows this tunnel system. I only recently learned it existed after Hades brought me down here to show me the protective runes around his labyrinth. But there’s a full network of an underground to explore, all laced in and through the death pits.
It’s basically a different kind of maze, one with secret passageways masked as obsidian walls.
Maliki walks through one now, not flinching at all when he moves face-first through a visual blockade. He doesn’t even put up his hand, suggesting he’s either seeing something I can’t or simply following his instincts.
No, not instincts, I realize, Maliki’s mind still fuzzy from him connecting to another mate. Directions.
Someone is talking to him.
And given that I still can’t hear Serapina at all, I assume it’s Hades.
I don’t know if he’s actually voicing words into Maliki’s head or if he’s… he’s guiding him in some other way. But it’s clear that Maliki is on a mission.
Questions filter through my head, but I keep them to myself. They can be addressed later.
We need to find Serapina and Hades.
And then we need to complete this mate-circle. We’ll be stronger as a unit with a shared connection across all of us.
Which means Hades is going to have to accept me as his equal.
He’ll need to permanently mate Maliki, too.
But one step at a time.
The Enforcer steps through another solid black wall, then pauses just as I follow him into a similar-looking corridor.
“We’re close,” he informs me, voice quiet. “The dead should be coming through here to populate the Soul Yards and feed their lethal energy into the Netherworld Kingdom. But they’re being driven into another… plane.”
“The one Serapina has mentioned?” I guess.
“I think so,” he says, not sounding certain. “Only, I think it’s changing…” His brow furrows with the words, his gaze narrowing.
Without elaborating, he starts forward once more, this time heading down the hallway instead of through a different wall, only to freeze again on the threshold of another open area. His attention shifts upward, drawing my gaze up with his, and my lips part at the swirl of souls above.
It’s like what Serapina kept thinking about, only… only worse.
“They’re in agony,” I whisper.
“Yes,” Maliki agrees. “It’s like they’re being ripped apart.”
I wince as a spirit splinters right above us, its lips parted in a silent scream.
Orcus’s control above ground is not going to hold.
Not with the chaos unfolding down here. He has to feel this imbalance.
While he’s an Alpha tied to the death world, he’s not the one who manifested it.
And all that energy is what feeds the Netherworld Kingdom, what emboldens the Death Fae and the Corpse Fae.
I understand because my dream world is what provides energy to my kingdom. The Ghouls and the Strigoi require dreams to feed. And I am the lord of that domain. If my manifestation were to suddenly be ripped apart by another entity—another Alpha—it would alter the stability of my domain.
Just as Demeter is altering the stability here.
She’s taking Hades’s manifestation and using it to fuel her own creation.
The Netherworld Kingdom will collapse if she completes this transition.
And there’s nothing Orcus or his mate-circle will be able to do to stop it.
Because Orcus isn’t the God of Death. He didn’t manifest the death world. While he could, in theory, create his own version, it would take time.
Time, of which we do not have.
Maliki growls, likely hearing my analysis. Or perhaps he comes to the same conclusion. It could also have to do with the souls above, as three more were just ripped apart over our heads. Regardless, he’s moving again, his strides radiating purpose.
When he breaks into a run, I don’t question him; I just follow.
He ducks as a new stream of souls shoots out of a nearby wall, their horrified eyes rounded and exuding pain.
Death is supposed to be peaceful, yet this is anything but.
He moves faster.
Harder.
His boots pounding against the stone floor.
Serapina’s presence is all around us, her scent taunting my senses. Where are you, little dreamer? I demand, tired of this labyrinth. Tired of not hearing her. Tired of not holding her.
This is a nightmare.
And I much prefer fantasies to this insanity.
When Maliki jumps, I pause, my eyes widening at the cavern he’s just carelessly leapt into.
“I have wings!” I remind him, furious.
But I jump after him, trusting him implicitly.
When we land with a thud—about twenty or thirty feet down—I wince. I’m immortal, as is he, but that doesn’t mean we’re unbreakable.
Fortunately, my genetics allow me to heal quickly.
Unfortunately, it’s a fucking painful process.
I’m about to demand an explanation when a geyser of souls has me jumping sideways—which hurts, thanks to my still-injured lower limbs.
A curse escapes me.
And Maliki pants, his own torment evident in those puffs of air, as well as his leaning form against a nearby wall.
“You knew that cyclone was coming,” I realize aloud, my voice a low mutter that reveals my own agony from that jump.
“It’s not going to stop either,” Maliki mutters back to me, his hand on his side as he tries to steady his breathing. “There.” He jerks his chin at a glowing rune. “Hades and…” He pushes off the wall and stumbles toward the symbol. “Sera.”
I join him in stumbling toward the blue mark, my mind already analyzing the familiar sequence.
“It’s a concealment rune.” One that’s typically used when trying to hide something of value—like a secret room.
“It shouldn’t be flashing,” I add, frowning at the enchantment. “The whole point is to conceal.”
I don’t touch the blaring rune, instead looking around it for some sort of hint. Some sort of trigger.
This has to be a mistake.
A ruse.
I’m about to say as much when a burst of swirling energy comes up from the ground and causes Maliki to jump toward the wall.
My eyes widen as his shoulder hits the rune, and he begins to fall through the wall.
I go to yank him backward, only to find myself tumbling forward with him into another cavern of sorts.
Fuck. I instantly try to retreat, my hold on Maliki resolute.
But it’s too late.
I come up against a solid rock.
And darkness descends.
My instincts fire, my misting ability attempting to free us from this trap. But it’s too fucking late. Inky bands are already surrounding us, the limbs reminding me of branches on a tree.
Demeter.
Her influence is everywhere.
Life.
Plants.
A garden… of fucking death.
Maliki tries to shadow, the desire one I sense running through his mind. When it doesn’t work, he mentally curses. Now what? he demands into my mind.
I don’t know, I admit. I don’t fucking know.
Because none of this should be possible.
Yet here we are, being strung up in a flytrap like one of Demeter’s garden pests.
In Death’s domain…