Last Shadow || Deception Book III

Chapter 2 Pt. I

Clarianna

I strained against the silver chains that bound me, trying vainly to break free of my bonds. It was no use. The silver chains, burning with icy fire, dug into my wrists like barbed wire. Even with years of training on Olympus that involved dislocating bones, I couldn't get free of the chains. Chains like the ones that had strung Luke up in the vision of the prophecy I'd seen.

"I didn't even say goodbye to him," I whispered, falling still. The tired smile he flashed me as I hopped onto Blackfire resurfaced from my memory and I sighed, feeling the familiar sense of sadness and conflicting emotions sweep in. It was for the best, I reminded myself again. You need space to think.

"But this," I yanked on the chains again, albeit futilely, "was not supposed to happen. Why the fuck are there even random silver chains lying around on the bank of the Styx?" I gritted my teeth as the metal burned into my skin and yanked harder, hoping that somehow, despite what felt like an eternity, they'd come off. In the back of my mind, something felt off, but I couldn't place what it was. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I was in the Underworld, where everything was supposed to be made of Stygian iron and not seraphim silver.

Just then, there was a huge splash from the direction of the river and I whirled around, my eyes scanning the length of the shore. Most creatures in the Underworld were benign—ghosts and spirits couldn't really do much when they didn't even remember their name—but occasionally, ghouls, who were very capable of inflicting damage, would appear. With wrinkly grey skin stretched thinly over bony frames and teeth sharp enough to cut through bone, their sallow yellow eyes never failed to give me the heebie-jeebies. And of course, there were stray hellhounds from the Fields of Punishment or, gods forbid, monsters escaped from Tartarus.

With my hands bound and a manacle around my left ankle that shackled me to the jagged black sand, I would be dead if it were the latter. Please just let it be some sort of freak wind, I thought fervently. I waited, my breath held, for a few moments, but nothing emerged and I didn't hear anything again. Maybe it was just a freak wind, I thought. I scanned the river again, searching for the sound. There was no way I had such luck. I squinted, trying to see past the freak collection of things floating down the Styx and trying to not think about the lost dreams and hopes all those objects symbolized. If I did, I'd start wallowing in a pit of self-pity and giving myself existential crisis, something I didn't need while bound in chains on the bank of the Styx. I supposed it was fine though since I wasn't even human. I furrowed my brows, still trying to wrap my head around the prophecy the Oracle had given me. I knew it was about me and somehow, I wasn't human. That much had been clear. But the thing about the star . . .

A sudden splash sounded again, but this time, it came from inside the river's waters, not the bank. I stared as I saw the faint shadow of something below the surface of the Styx, feeling a numbing fear growing inside me. Never had Hades ever warned me about creatures in the Styx. Was I about to be eaten by some sort of river monster?

But then, I felt a slight tug in my abdomen, almost as if there was a string attached around my waist and someone had just pulled on it. As if that shadow in the water was trying to pull me in.

Or trying to pull itself out, a voice whispered softly in my head. I cautiously reached for that invisible string in my mind, giving it an experimental tug, waiting with bated breath for a reaction. A twang came down the length, this time from the other side, and I responded, pulling harder this time. I didn't know why, but somehow, it felt right. Like whatever was pulling on the other side of this string was something or someone that my life was meant to be connected to.

And then the water parted and a figure emerged from the water, collapsing onto the rocky shore. I stared in disbelief for a moment, thinking, who the blazing hell would go for a swim in the Styx? before I registered the sandy blond hair, the dual-bladed sword at his side, and the all-too-familiar scar on his face.