The waves crushed her from overhead, burying her beneath them, sending her spiraling even faster as she fought for breath. The pressure built, a pain searing against her chest, and for a moment, she worried she might have leaned forward and fallen over the cliff before Proserpina could find her.
Just as she thought she might lose herself entirely, her knees clashed into gray sand, sending a shockwave through her bones and water sputtering from her throat.
“Oh,” a deep voice sighed. “They never hold their breath.”
Lunelle’s head snapped forward, the figure before her not Proserpina at all, but a towering frame of smoke and shadow, surrounded by fathomless black seas.
His eyes sparkled in sapphire, his complexion was that same cerulean hue she’d learned to admire. The same as the man who’d betrayed her.
She stood quickly, flicking water from her hands.
“A Lunar princess… fascinating.”
His sharp jaw set as he paced around her in a circle, revealing an iron throne behind him, lit by blue flickering flames.
“Pluto,” Lunelle whispered, feeling the God of Death’s name bubble to her lips.
“Were you seeking someone else?” He stopped before her, two heads taller than her own lithe frame, and rested his finger on his chin. “Because I certainly heard you calling my name,” he said.
“I do not know what I seek anymore,” Lunelle confessed, a chill running through her spine. She had surely made a wrong turn through the cosmos, veering into a territory that would only end in more tragedy.
“Oh, come now, Princess. We both know that’s untrue. You knowexactlywhat you want.”
Lunelle chewed on her lip. The gods were powerful, but were they all-knowing?
“I can smell it on you. The desperation. Only Fate and her wicked ways create so much strife in so young a rose.”
Lunelle swallowed. Perhaps shehadcalled to him. Perhaps she and Proserpina were not so different after all.
Perhaps he could help her.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Ah,” Pluto said, strolling back to his throne. He folded himself into the cold seat, the black silk draped across his chest catching what little light lived there. “Not knowing what you want and not knowing how to get it aren’t quite the same thing, are they?”
She shook her head.
“Do you know what my love’s greatest sin was, Princess?”
Lunelle watched as his long, skeletal fingers drew lines over the smooth arm of the throne.
He continued, “She believed her desires were selfish, and not a gift of Fate in and of themselves.”
“What—”
“Where do you think your yearnings come from? Gods may be self-centered, but we are not monsters. Fate weaves those threads into your heart, your muscles, your blood—your destiny lives in a million Tethers inside you long before that pesky one in your chest bursts forth.”
Lunelle felt both lighter and ready to vomit.
“It’s horrifying, isn’t it? What we want is already ours, if only we’re strong enough to take it.” Pluto rested his chin in his hand, his eyes falling over Lunelle and into the ether around them. A soft smile unfolded as a warm light shone and twinkled across the bobbing waves beyond them.
“I’m afraid to hurt everyone.”
“Hmm,” Pluto leaned back, crossing his leg as he gestured to her chest, the pulsing against the Tether flaring in response. “I wonder which will hurt your king more? Suffering with you, or without?”
He curled two fingers, motioning someone forward.
Proserpina’s warmth clung to Lunelle’s back as she moved into their space, throwing glittering stars against the shadows. She crossed between them, perching on the arm of the throne. Pluto’s hand fell to her hip in a motion so well-practiced it seemed odd that he might ever be anywhere but there.
