I didn’t know how much time had passed since Erebus locked me up in these chains, but I was sure that it had at least been a day or two on Earth. The door opened, and Erebus walked into the room with the key to unchain me.
He crawled onto the bed next to me, lying down and drawing his fingers across my chin. “We spoke about hurting Helios,” Erebus said to me, eyes turning black and awakening the darkness that he planted inside my brain. “But there is someone else you need to kill before that can happen.”
“Anything.”
Anything to get out of these chains. I wanted to walk around again, needed to breathe the kingdom’s ashy air. I nodded my head and waited patiently as he unchained my wrists and ankles, yet kept a strong hold on my upper arm.
We walked down the stone palace steps to the dungeon filled with rotting corpses, rats, and an overwhelming stench of blood. Hella stood at the edge of a cell, one hand on her hip, that white eye fixed on me. “Will she do it?” she asked Erebus.
Erebus pushed me toward her. “If she wants me to let her roam free one day.”
When we reached the cell doors, my heart stopped beating. Eos sat in the cell, her eyes closed softly, chains binding her wrists and ankles together. When she saw me, she struggled against the divine chains. “Nyx! Let me out, please! They’re going to torture me down here.”
They wanted me to kill my best friend.
My best friend who I used to get closer to her brother.
My best friend who was the key to getting Helios down here.
My best friend who I set up, knowing that this would happen.
No. I shook my head. That was the darkness talking. Not me. But… I was the darkness too.
Erebus pushed me into the cell with her and shut the door behind me. “Tear her to pieces. I want your lover to hurt. I want him to hate you. I want him to try to come down here and kill you, so you can kill his ass.”
“No, Nyx! Please, don’t listen to him…” Eos pleaded with me, tears streaming down her face. “You can’t kill immortals. You can’t…” she whispered. “Just let me go. Please, let me go.”
Hella laughed right in her face. “Darling, you shouldn’t have touched a man who wasn’t yours. You are going to get everything you deserve.” Hella turned to me. “Make it hurt oh-so-good.”
“You can try to kill me, Nyx… but you won’t be able to. No god has died, ever.”
“Not true,” Erebus said, lips curled into a smirk. “Nyx killed one just last year. She’s been the only goddess able to tear another divine to pieces. All those rumors those earthly gods had been whispering about were true. You should’ve believed them.”
I turned to Eos, feeling my nails lengthened into talons. She shook her head at me. “It’s not true, Nyx. I know you. You’re not bad. You’re good…”
“It’s true.”
I didn’t lie this time. Not to myself and not to her.
Erebus might’ve thought that this was his idea, but it wasn’t.
My plan had fallen into place exactly how I wanted it. This was the only way. When Helios found Eos dead, he would be so angry that he’d come to the Underworld and I’d trap him here. He wanted to spend eternity with me and I wanted to spend eternity with him. This was the only way it could work.
But I’d have to make it look like I didn’t do it. I’d make it look like the wolves and rogues that Eos always hung out with tore her to pieces. And when he confronted me about it… well, then, I’d give him my big and innocent eyes and swear to him that I had no idea what happened.
Lie.
It was what I was best at.