She hissed and braced herself against the wall propping her up. Under her breath, she muttered every curse she could think of, both to Yovar and herself. 

Why had she been so idiotic? 

Of course, Yovar’s temper wouldn’t have cooled in his banishment. 

What had she been thinking, trying to reason with him? 

Her lack of common sense might have ruined everything.

Not for the first time since waking up in a barred chamber in Melione’s palace she’d abandoned when she’d left Tartarus, Kore wished she’d killed her brother after he’d first attempted to take her life. 

Then, though, she’d concluded he hadn’t acted out of malice but hurt. Melione had just announced her preference for Kore, and many of her siblings had tried to maim her. 

Yet, why had she excused her brother’s other actions? 

Because he’d been blood? 

Where had Kore acquired a loyalty to others based on their familial ties? 

It hadn’t been a value her parents had preached.

But since Kore could remember, she’d strived to differ from Melione and Tartarus, from most the Underworld inhabitants. Them being in the forgotten realm, the place nightmares and rumored horrors used to scare young ones originated, didn’t mean they had to live like that. 

To languish in chaos kept them all subservient to the Upperworld, and, even as a youngling barely able to walk, Kore had rejected docility. 

The worst of this situation was that Kore had let it happen, and not because she’d shown Yovar forgiveness more times than he deserved. No, the only way her brother had had contact with Cronus was because of a traitor in her court; the same one who’d arranged her assassination. 

Then, Kore hadn’t thought it as dire of as it was. She’d made a gory display of punishing the assassin and had upped her security, and discord in her council had waned. For months after, affairs had run more smoothly than they had in years. 

Not until Kore had announced another journey to the Upperworld had discontent reigned again, though no threat on her life had come. By then, though, the traitor would have already set in motion the plan for Yovar to capture Kore. 

How had they known she’d come to Tartarus with the god? Could Cronus have an oracle of his own? 

More likely, a spy walked the halls of Zeus’ palace and had somehow overhead Hades’ conversation with the Fates. 

But capture could have been avoided if Kore had hunted the snake in her nest. Maybe Kakos had been right. Perhaps Kore had forgotten what it meant to be the Daemon Queen.

A figure stepped from the shadows near the door of Kore’s prison, and she tensed. This time, she was prepared for whatever method might stun her, so she could be removed from the chamber and taken to where Yovar waited to unleash another torture. She’d already suffered at his hands twice, once to have the flesh whipped from her back and the second to have Pyriphlegethon waters dripped onto her skin. 

Instead of the bald empusa with the tarnished brass leg and the irritating habit of giggling every few moments, an elderly, female shadow daemon scurried into view. In her gnarled left hand, she held a ring of keys. Her cloudy sky-blue eyes darted in every direction before she hurried to the prison door.

Kore didn’t move from her spot in the corner. She couldn’t help but laugh. “You’ll transport me?” 

The daemon selected a key and slipped it into the door’s lock. “No, child, I’m freeing you.” 

Kore frowned. Why did she know the daemon’s tremulous voice? 

“Who are you?” 

The daemon eased open the door, her bloodless lips cocked in an amused smile. “Has it been so long, child, you’ve forgotten me?” 

No, it couldn’t be. 

“Fulrict?” 

The daemon nodded. 

Kore’s mouth fell open. 

Fulrict had been the one bright spot in Tartarus. She’d been forced from the Underworld when she’d sided with Melione in the war between Melione and her brother. As a reward, Melione had appointed Fulrict her children’s nursemaid. 

Of one thing Kore and her siblings had all agreed on was their love for the shrewd daemon who’d saved many of them from their parents’ wrath. 

“I thought you’d—Yovar told me...”

“He’s always been one for melodramatics.” 

Kore leaped to her feet, much to her various wounds’ outrage, and raced toward the daemon. She wrapped Fulrict in a tight hug that was returned. Tears pricked Kore’s eyes. 

“I—Why haven’t you sent word to me? I’d have taken you from here.” 

Fulrict shook her head. “I’m not trapped.”

“But...” Kore pulled back to study the older daemon. “This isn’t your home.” 

“My home is with you and your siblings.” 

“I don’t...”

Fulrict patted Kore’s cheek. “Yovar needed me more.” 

“Then why are you helping me escape?”

Fulrict’s expression darkened. “He’s got a horrid plan, one that will topple all the Underworld. I can’t allow that to happen.” 

“I won’t be able to leave here without killing him.”

Fulrict sighed. “I know.”  

“I won’t—I promise I’ll make it quick.” 

When Yovar had been inflicting her pain, Kore’s mind hadn’t turned to the ways she could repay the favor if she got freed. She’d considered other ways to make him see reason, but she’d mostly thought of plans to escape with Hades and their weapons. Also, how to get to Keuthonymos, their only chance of finding the Hecatoncheires, before he moved on to another part Tartarus.

From the nearest shadow, Fulrict pulled out Kore’s staff and her sword. The rare ability of shadow traveling and hiding objects in shadows had amazed Kore as a youngling, and she still marveled at it. It wasn’t as powerful as her mist or Yovar’s transportation skill, but it had unrealized potential. 

Fulrict gave Kore her weapons. “I know you will.” 

Kore tied the sword around her hips. “Will you want to—I have more than enough room for you.” 

“I’m sure I won’t live to see this day’s end. It won’t be difficult for them to figure out who released you.” 

Kore’s stomach churned. “Flee now, then. I can wait to—” 

Fulrict chuckled. “You’ll need a distraction to get the god.” 

“Fulrict, I—” Kore embraced her old nursemaid again. “Thank you.” 

The daemon’s warm gaze settled on Kore. “You’ve become spectacular.” 

Kore snorted; tears coated her face. “Because of you.” 

Fulrict wiped away her tears. “Well, of course.” 

They both laughed for a moment. Then Fulrict turned serious. She explained where Hades was being kept (unharmed, per Cronus’ instructions), how she planned to engage the guard so Kore could rescue him, and the quickest path out of the palace. 

Before they parted ways, the shadow daemon added, “Keuthonymos has taken an interest in these parts of the woods the past few years.”

The way she said it made Kore grin. “After all this time, he hasn’t tired of you?” 

Fulrict stepped into the shadows. “If he knows what’s best for him,” she said, and then was gone.

Kore waited for Fulrict to get into place before she hurried down the corridor that held other chambers like the one she’d been in. 

Yovar hadn’t put Hades in any of them. Her brother had opted to keep the god in his personal chambers, which was three levels above Kore’s current location. 

Servants milled about, but Kore had had enough practice evading palace staff, especially in Melione’s palace, and didn’t run into any difficulties on her way to the fourth floor. 

Yovar had taken over Melione’s chambers, one of the few places in the palace Kore hadn’t explored extensively. One of Kore’s older sisters had taken Melione’s favorite sandals, as a joke, and Melione had discovered her. Though Kore’s sister’s death had been quick, it hadn’t been painless. 

In front of the double blue diamond doors stood an Erinys, her black-rimmed eyes alert though the rest of her looked feeble. The peplos she wore was purposefully too large. Underneath she had concealed a double-headed ax (the Erinyes’ favorite weapon). 

Kore hid around the corner but kept the Erinys in sight. 

Soon after she’d arrived, Fulrict’s head popped out of the shadow beside Kore. She winked at her old charge and disappeared again. 

A jar appeared above the Erinys. Fulrict dropped the jar, and it broke at the Erinys’ feet. A thick violet cloud emerged and swirled around the Erinys. She tried to dart away from it but couldn’t move fast enough, and the cloud overcame her. 

In an instant, the cloud dissolved. It left behind a solidified Erinys, not dead but petrified forever without the cure.

Fulrict fully emerged from the shadows and shoved the Erinys. She crashed to the floor, and her left foot broke off. The Erinys made no noise, but her eyes, the only part of her unaffected, widened. 

“Good luck,” Fulrict said and faded back into the shadows. 

Kore raced ahead, stepped over the Erinys, and threw open the doors. 

Inside, a slightly bruised Hades kneeled before Yovar’s bed, his ankles and wrists tied to rings in the floor. 

Yovar was in front of him, his back to the doors. In the crux of one arm, he held Cerberus, and he pointed a dagger at the hound’s heart. 

Cerberus growled but didn’t struggle. 

“I’ll only ask one last time, god. How can I—” 

With all her strength, Kore swung her staff at her brother. It struck the side of his head with an audible crack. Yovar yelped and dropped Cerberus and the dagger. 

Yovar didn’t fall, though. Instead, he teleported from sight.

Kore didn’t panic. Unlike their first meeting, she had no intention to converse with him, and, thus, could focus on the slight noise he made when he reappeared. If unaware, it was almost impossible to detect, but Kore wouldn’t be around if she hadn’t learned it.

There it was, like the rustling of leaves in the wind, right behind her. Just as Yovar manifested, Kore spun around and got her brother high in his chest. The next moment, she launched two more attacks. Both made contact. The first broke his ribs and the other shattered his right hip. 

A high-pitched wail escaped Yovar, and Cerberus howled. Yovar dived at his sister, murder etched in every line of his face. 

Kore met his challenge with a grim smile, almost sad that she’d cracked his calm and he now resorted to the sloppy, last-ditch efforts he’d used as a youngling.

But Kore had come a long way since her youth when she’d been less tactical and hadn’t minded scrapping until she and her opponent were exhausted. When he neared, she acted like she intended to hit him in his skull again. As he ducked, Kore unsheathed her sword and drove it up into his jaw and continued pushing until the blade pierced his brain. 

Yovar convulsed as the light dimmed from his eyes, eyes he’d always hated for reminding him of their father. 

Kore ripped her sword from him, and his body collapsed at her feet. She didn’t have the time, but she took it anyway to send her brother off with a silent prayer. He’d need it, where he was going (all daemons’ souls where taken by Erebus and Nyx. For what purpose? Only outlandish speculation existed as an answer). 

Kore finished; her heart heavy. But she wiped her brother’s blood from her sword and cut Hades’ restraints. The god hadn’t made a single sound during the entire daemon siblings’ fight, and Kore couldn’t gauge his thoughts from his blank expression.

“We need to go,” she said and sheathed her sword. 

Hades touched her arm, avoided her boils. “Are you okay?” 

Kore shrugged him off and pointed at the still-yowling pup. “He’s no doubt drawn an army to us already.” 

“Kore...”

The Daemon Queen marched past the god to one of the three tall archways in the nearby wall that faced the surrounding forest. Vines as thick as Kore’s thighs crawled up the pure white marble walls. They didn’t look sturdy enough hold a fully grown body, but Kore knew the vines’ reliability firsthand. 

She didn’t wait to see if Hades followed before she shimmied through the archway and clung to the vines. While not as nimble as she’d been in her youth, Kore didn’t have difficulty scaling the vines to the ground. It didn’t take her long, and once she’d cleared the palace wall, she looked for Hades. 

He moved at a crawl down the vines because of Cerberus clamped in his one arm. The pup squirmed and yipped, and a few times Hades almost lost his hold on the vines. He murmured reassuring words to the hound, his calm voice at odds with his white face. 

“Throw me the mutt,” Kore called as several Erinyes appeared in the archway. 

The leader threw her spear at the god and narrowly missed him. She shrieked and ordered her group to scale the vines. 

A faint horn echoed throughout the palace. 

“Now!” Kore yelled, and Hades dropped Cerberus. 

The pup squealed louder than ever and twisted as he fell, but Kore caught him without fuss. All three heads nipped her arms, and she just avoided the left one biting her chin. She barked at him to behave, yet it only encouraged the pup to act worse.

Hades cleared the vines and snatched Cerberus from Kore. “Enough!” 

Cerberus calmed and fell silent. 

The god nodded at Kore, and she darted for the forest; him close on her heels.