The Dragon Legion Collection

Chapter Four



Petra couldn’t believe her eyes.

The creature at Damien’s feet was clearly dead.

He couldn’t possibly have made a worse choice. Petra rubbed her forehead, knowing that the chances of either of them escaping the underworld had just diminished to less than nothing.

Damien read her reaction well. “What was she?”

“One of the Erinyes,” Petra admitted, then gave Damien a look.

He had paled. “The Kindly Ones?”

The sight of him frightened her, for he looked more dead than she was. “They aren’t kindly and you know it. That’s just flattery, to keep them from doing their worst.”

Damien eyed the fallen creature and shuddered.

“You couldn’t have just scared her off, could you?” Petra asked, worry sharpening her tone. “You couldn’t have just injured her a little, instead of killing her outright?”

“She attacked me! I didn’t have time to think or consider. It was her or me.”

He was probably right about that.

Damien fixed Petra with a look. “But everyone in the underworld is dead already, except me. How could I kill anyone here?”

“The Erinyes are half-divine.”

“So, anything is possible.” Damien winced before she could say more. He passed a hand over his forehead, swore, then sank to his knees beside the fallen monster. “Of course, the Erinyes have a connection with Hades.”

“They work for him, doing his will by tormenting the dead who don’t deserve to rest.” Petra glanced about them. “This must be Tartarus.”

“It doesn’t look any different from the rest.”

“No, but the Erinyes are said to guard its gates and punish its occupants for Hades.”

“Then where are the occupants?”

Petra heaved a sigh. “I think we should be glad to be unable to see them. Maybe we’re only half-dead now.”

“I feel half-dead,” he muttered, then surveyed the corpse again. Damien’s disgust with himself was clear—and a perfect echo of Petra’s own. “I had no idea what she was.”

“Stories,” Petra reminded him, unable to resist.

“I never had much opportunity to listen to stories, even when I was a boy.”

“Why not?”

His frown deepened. “My father was consumed with serving my mother’s will. She kept him drunk, hungry, and a slave to the pleasures of her bedchamber. She liked having a pet dragon.” He shook his head. “There were no stories in our home.”

“I’m sorry.”

He continued, his tone so matter-of-fact that she knew he was still pained by the memory. “My father said I should be sent to train as soon as my powers were noted. I was eleven years of age when I was sent to Delphi.”

Delphi. He’d gone to Delphi for that prophecy.

“My mother didn’t want me to go. She would have kept me back, just to have another dragon at the ready. My father defied her for the first time ever. He said the Spartans sent their sons to the agape to train at eight years of age. By his reckoning, she’d had three extra years by then.”

“Your father must have won that battle,” Petra said.

He met her gaze steadily. “She’d been giving him a potion for years. It was from the east and intended to weaken him. He was a slave to pleasure with no thoughts of his own. His defiance over my fate surprised her and angered her. He roused himself, what was left, and commanded me to run. It was the only order he’d ever given me and I didn’t dare to disobey.”

“Did she kill him?” Petra asked.

Damien nodded. “I prefer to think that he let her win.”

Petra stared at the ground, realizing why Damien had been afraid to trust her with his survival. She considered him now and feared that he too would be destroyed by a determination to save his son.

“Could you tell me the prophecy again?”

“You don’t remember?”

“I don’t have a dragon’s memory.” Their gazes locked and held for a hot moment, then Damien spoke softly, reciting the verse.



“A lost child mourned for many years

A mother who will shed no tears

A dragon warrior turned to stone

A woman abandoned, all alone.

Firestorm’s promise will fade to naught

Until stone and fire pay death’s cost.

After a Pyr sacrifice is made

Destiny’s promise can be claimed.



He looked at her hard. “There’s a promise in it, a chance if its conditions are fulfilled. At the time, I heard only the warning.”

“And you were sure that I’d be the one who turned you to stone.”

Damien looked embarrassed. “I didn’t even know that such a thing was possible. I was surprised, Petra, and reacted badly.” He stood up and came to her, taking her hand in his. She didn’t dare meet his gaze, not when he ran his thumb across her hand and bent his attention on her as he did now. He was trying to convince her of something and Petra knew his task was half won. “I didn’t tell you what happened to my company of warriors, or where I’ve been.”

His words surprised her into looking up, and then she was snared by the intensity of his gaze.

“We went to hunt a viper, which is what we call one of our kind turned bad. This one was enchanting men in his vicinity, turning their thoughts to wickedness. He was inciting war and hardship. He turned his spell on us.”

Petra caught her breath. “He turned you to stone.”

“To teeth, actually. Warriors defeated by him were turned to dragon teeth, used by him in attacking others. But when he died and his remains became part of the earth, the teeth turned to stone.”

“That would have taken a long time.”

“Centuries.” Damien’s lips tightened and his thumb stilled against her skin. “We were enchanted for almost two thousand years, Petra, until another Pyr guessed how to break the spell.”

“By planting the teeth, sowing them like seeds,” Petra guessed.

Damien looked up in surprise.

“It’s in a story,” she explained with a smile and he shook his head. “But two thousand years?”

He nodded. “I have seen the future. I thought this world lost to us.” He sighed. “We all thought ourselves adrift, until the darkfire was released.”


“Released from what?”

“It was trapped in a stone by some sorcery. Actually, there are said to be three darkfire crystals, according to the Pyr of future times, and one of them was broken, setting the force of darkfire loose in the world.” He frowned. “Everything can change when the darkfire burns.”

Was everything changing for her and Damien? Petra wanted that to be true so badly that she didn’t want to say it aloud.

“The darkfire brought you here, then.”

Damien nodded. “Our commander, Drake, took possession of one of the crystals. He thought it ordered him to do so. Once he had it, it began to flare intermittently. Whenever it did that, we were flung through space and time, cast down in a strange place until the crystal lit again. We lost men along the way. It was before we came here that Thaddeus suggested the crystal was taking us to our firestorms. One of us, Alexander, was taken back to the village where he left Katina and his son.”

“What happened to him?”

“I don’t know. The crystal lit again, and Alexander ran from us, determined to be left behind.” He met her gaze steadily. “Then it took us to a place where Orion’s firestorm sparked. He pursued her and the crystal brought us here. As soon as I saw the River Acheron, I knew the darkfire was giving me the chance to save our son.” He squeezed her hand slightly. “What if the darkfire is giving us a second chance?”

The baby kicked just as his father spoke. Petra would have turned away, but Damien was too observant to miss her reaction. He was leaning over her in a heartbeat, her elbow in his hand. “What is it?”

She had trusted him from that first night, and even though he had disappointed her, Petra realized she still did trust Damien. He wasn’t the only one who had made a mistake, after all.

She took his hand and placed it over her ripe belly. He was momentarily confused, then the baby kicked hard.

“He’s alive!” Damien said with such delight that tears rose to Petra’s eyes. “Has he been doing this all along?”

“No.” Petra shook her head. “No. The labor didn’t start, Damien, and he went still. He’d been kicking and kicking, but suddenly stopped.” Her breath caught. “I felt that he had turned to stone and I was afraid.”

Damien drew her into his arms and held her tightly against his chest. Petra was alarmed to realize that he wasn’t as warm as he had been. “That’s why you took the ferry, even when the sea was rough.”

“I had to go back to the Mothers.”

“Where?”

“The closest place to home for me.”

Damien pressed a kiss into her hair and Petra felt her tears begin to fall. “I was so wrong, Petra. Please forgive me for not trusting you as I should have done.” He framed her face in his hands and kissed her tears away.

“You’re not the only one who made a mistake,” Petra admitted quietly.

“I don’t understand. You’ve done nothing wrong...”

“I did. I invoked the Erinyes.”

Damien looked down at the corpse again. “Just now?” He leaned down, nearly touching his nose to hers, his determined gaze boring into her own. “Why did you do it?”

“You’re not condemning me?”

“Not until I give you a chance to explain.” His grin made her heart skip a beat. “Second chances only work if you learn from your mistakes.”

“It was after you left,” she admitted. “When I was on the ferry.”

“When you knew it was going to sink.”

“I was still angry. I thought everything was your fault.” She flicked a glance at Damien, surprised to find his expression thoughtful. “How could I know that carrying a child would make me want more?”

Damien caught a tendril of her hair between his finger and thumb, then wound it around his finger. His smile was crooked. “You remember that I wasn’t exactly gone the next morning.”

“No, you stayed three months. I thought that was your plan.”

“No. One night was the plan, but you were a temptation that I couldn’t easily leave.”

Petra once again hoped their thoughts were as one. “But you would still have followed Drake, even if we hadn’t argued, and you still would have been enchanted. You still wouldn’t have returned.”

“Don’t believe that. The darkfire still would have been loosed, and I might have found you faster.” Damien was winding her hair more tightly around his finger, his body pressed against her own. He leaned down and touched a feather light kiss to her earlobe, one that weakened her knees and made her heart pound.

“You don’t know that.”

“I believe in stories, especially the ones that end well.”

Petra stole a glance at him and the resolve in his expression made her mouth go dry.

“What if we start again?” he murmured, his breath a seductive caress. “What if I apologize for leaving you and you apologize for invoking the Erinyes?”

“Then what?” Petra asked, her voice husky.

Damien brushed a kiss across her lips, a fleeting touch that filled her with yearning. “Then we just have to figure out how to get out of here.”

“Partners,” Petra breathed and Damien grinned.

“If you’ll have me.”

“If you’ll trust me,” she said quietly and his smile broadened.

“I’ve learned from my mistake.” He kissed her then, sending a wonderful heat through her body and filling her with a new conviction. When he lifted his head, she was simmering and optimistic.

Until her gaze fell on the dead monster.

“We have to go to Hades and appeal to him for release.”

Damien winced. “Even I know that never goes well in stories.”

Petra shook her head and took Damien’s hand, trying to encourage him. “But no one in the stories ever had darkfire on their side.”

Damien nodded, his expression thoughtful as he scanned the bleak terrain of Tartarus.

“What is it?”

“There’s no more darkfire.” He lifted their linked hands and Petra saw that there was no glimmer of blue-green light between their hands. She looked but couldn’t see a single spark, even though it had haunted her since Damien’s arrival.

Had the darkfire abandoned them here?

“It’s leaving us to our own resources,” she guessed.

Damien nodded and squeezed her hand. “Fortunately, we have plenty.”

His optimism was undeserved, though, at least in Petra’s opinion. She could see that her dragon warrior was fading and feared that he might be the sacrifice that was required.

Not if she had anything to say about it.

“He is supposed to hold court on the other side of Tartarus,” Petra said, refusing to believe that everything could be lost. Damien nodded and tightened his grip on her hand, setting a quick pace in the direction she indicated.



* * *



“You have to be joking.” Damien folded his arms across his chest and glared at the dark ribbon of water. Its surface was moving in a way that he distrusted. They had walked for ages, even though there was no good measurement of time in this place. He was tired and his stomach was so empty, it felt hollow. He was having a hard time keeping his thoughts focused and now this. “We have to cross the river without a ferry?”

“I don’t see a ferry,” Petra said mildly. “I’ve never heard of there being one on the River Leche. If you want to appeal to Hades, we have to cross it.”


“We have to go deeper into the underworld.”

“Until we reach its heart.”

Petra moved toward the water with a confidence Damien couldn’t echo. He watched the water and realized its surface was covered with dark creatures. “Snakes,” he muttered under his breath.

“Well, I told you. They make sense here,” Petra continued calmly. “We’re in the underworld, deep in the earth, which is where snakes are supposed to live. In stories, they symbolize lost secrets and forbidden desires.” She gave him a smile that reminded him of all his desires for her.

“I hate snakes.”

“Maybe you’ll conquer your fear.”

“It’s not fear...”

“They’re said to only attack in self-defense. Don’t hurt them and they won’t hurt you.”

“That’s only a rumor.”

She didn’t answer him, just smiled then walked to the bank.

Damien shifted his weight from foot to foot, the sight of those black snakes making him sweat. There had to be thousands of them, maybe millions of them, writhing over each other in a kind of frenzy. The idea of being surrounded by them, of having them touch his skin, was enough to make him feel sick. “It’s fine for you to take such a chance. You’re dead already.”

She cast him an amused glance. “Such a bold dragon,” she said under her breath, her gaze taunting him.

Damien was on the cusp of arguing that he wasn’t a dragon any more, or at least not in this place, but she wasn’t really talking about his shifting powers. “Can’t you cause an earthquake and make the seas part?”

“It wouldn’t necessarily get rid of the snakes.”

“I say it’s worth a try.”

“I’m saving my strength,” she said, and he heard that she was tired. He saw her hand cup her ripe belly again and wondered if she felt the baby’s time was coming. “They’re just snakes, Damien.”

He marched down to the river to stand beside Petra, deeply uneasy about the whole exercise. “It would be a lot easier if I could still shift shape,” he noted. “We could just fly over the river.”

“Which might be the point. This might be a test of your determination.”

He gave her a sizzling glance. “I’m determined enough.”

“We’ll soon find out. This river isn’t supposed to be very deep.”

Even the possibility of snakes up to his waist made Damien shudder. “Does anybody know for sure?”

“No one who’s telling.”

He exhaled and tried to find his courage. It also would have been much easier without the sight of all those sinuous bodies entwining and tangling, glistening wet, and much easier if he’d been feeling his usual self. “Doesn’t this river have some kind of power?”

“You’re stalling,” Petra teased with a laugh.

“I’m gathering information to make the best choice,” Damien retorted and she laughed again. He couldn’t help but smile that she knew him so well.

“The Leche is called the river of oblivion, which is a tempting prospect in a way.”

Damien was surprised. “What could you want to forget?”

“You broke my heart, Damien,” she said softly. “And forgetting that ache would make any situation easier to bear.”

He caught her hand in his, wanting to make this right while he could. He had absolutely no confidence that he could pass through this river unscathed, and this one thing, he had to set straight with Petra while he could. He turned her hand in his, trying to find a way to explain. “I thought I was supposed to take care of you.”

“I thought you were the one man who could accept me for what I was.”

Damien nodded, knowing he should have done better. “I’ve been with others of my kind while I’ve been gone,” he said. “These other Pyr have an idea that their mates are more than the mothers of their sons.”

“I like them already.”

“They think of their mates as their partners, and in fact, they believe that making a permanent bond with their mate makes them stronger.”

“The whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts?”

“Exactly.” Damien nodded. “I know I disappointed you, Petra, and I know I was wrong, but I’ll take that chance you offered.”

She considered him. “I thought you came just for your son.”

He smiled at her. “I thought so, too, but seeing you again has made me realize how empty my life has been without you. Come with me, Petra. Be partners with me.”

She averted her gaze, her throat working. “It’s not up to me. We have to appeal to Hades, but you have to know that he never lets anyone leave.”

“I won’t believe it. The darkfire has to be making the impossible possible. I have to believe that if you decide to be with me, then we will be able to leave.”

She considered him for a long moment. “You won’t abandon me again?”

“Never.”

Petra studied him for a long moment. She squeezed his hand and kissed his cheek, then turned and walked into the dark water. The water stained the hem of her tunic first, making the fabric look dark. She walked steadily into the water, showing a bravery Damien wished he felt, especially when the first of the snakes wound around her legs. He shuddered and couldn’t bear to watch, but couldn’t turn away either.

As Petra continued to wade deeper, the snakes merely slipped around her body. They seemed to create a path for her and carry on with their own business, untroubled by her presence. It looked as if the water was only as deep as her hips.

“I wish I were an Earthdaughter,” Damien muttered.

Petra laughed. “You aren’t. Hurry up.”

He clenched his fists and tried to control his breathing. He eyed the distance to the far shore and tried to estimate the number of steps. He wished he hadn’t lost his shifting powers. He wished the river wasn’t full of snakes. He wished he didn’t have to cross it to ask Hades to make an exception. He wished he wasn’t so terrified.

But Damien had to follow Petra. He forced himself to take a step closer to the water, and then another. He took a trio of deep breaths, told himself he could do it, and took a step into the dark water. The first snake wound over the top of his boot, sinuous and revolting.

But it continued on its way. Damien felt cold sweat slide down his back as he took another step. The water was over the top of his boots in three steps, cold and slimy enough to make him shudder as it ran over his feet. He wouldn’t think about snakes slithering in there with it, wouldn’t think of how many of them there were, wouldn’t think about the way it was hard to push his legs through the barricade of their bodies. He shivered, feeling chilled to the bone.

He kept his thoughts on his goal. He lifted his gaze to Petra and the far shore.

He looked up just in time to see her slip.

She cried out as she fell and he guessed that she had lost her balance because of the baby.

Then she disappeared under the water.

“No!” Damien shouted Petra’s name in dismay. She didn’t answer, and she didn’t surface. He tried again to shift shape, but it still didn’t work.

All the while, he was striding further into the river, wanting only to reach her. She couldn’t drown, not in this place. He couldn’t lose her again.

He flung aside snakes, clearing his path with his hands and fighting his disgust. The only thing that mattered was Petra. Damien targeted the spot where he was sure he’d seen her go under. It was taking too long to reach her, he feared, and he would find her when it was too late.


He barely noticed the slight pain on his chest, and he certainly didn’t see the dark green dragon scale slip from beneath the hem of his shirt, slide over the bodies of the snakes, then disappear as it was submerged in the River Leche.

Forgotten.

He didn’t know if Petra could die again, but he did now that if he lost her in this river, he’d lose her for all time.

Nothing could keep him from giving his all to prevent that, even millions of snakes.



* * *



Petra was drowning all over again. She felt that first dismay like a sharp pang, reliving the moment when they’d realized the vessel was in danger. She saw the dark water gathering on the bottom of the boat, and knew it was coming in too fast. She looked, as she had that fateful day, and noted how far it was to shore. In a heartbeat, she knew they could never reach safety before the boat sank.

She fell to her knees, helping to bail the bottom of the boat, shaking with the certainty that all efforts were futile. The wind whipped at the sails, spinning the boat like a toy. The women on board wept. Petra could only feel the weight of her unborn child, and the burden of her failure.

The water was up to her knees in no time, dark and so cold that she soon couldn’t feel her feet. She wished her gift had been associated with water or with air, but this was one place her link with the earth could do no good.

She felt powerless for the first time in her life, and despair washed over her.

She cried out to the Erinyes to avenge her on the father of her child.

Then the boat sank with startling speed. Petra was terrified when the water touched her belly and she heard herself scream when the boat dropped from beneath her feet. She was plunged into the cold sea, struggling to reach the surface. She wasn’t a swimmer and never had been, but her instinct to survive was strong.

She reached the surface and took a single breath before an angry wave crashed over her. She was driven down into the depths again, as if Poseidon himself was determined to claim her forever. Petra fought her way upward again, losing her direction as the sea churned around her. She was alone and wondered what had become of the other people on the boat.

This time, she had a chance to look when she broke the surface. All she could see was churning water in every direction. She shouted, but the wind snatched away her voice. She thought she could hear cries for help, but couldn’t guess the direction.

She couldn’t even see land anymore. The sea rose and fell, swirling around her and tugging her down. Petra panicked, then saw a piece of the boat not far away. The wood was smashed but floating. She fought to approach it, then the sea lifted it on a wave. She had a moment to think that providence was on her side, that the water was bringing her the piece of wood and she’d be able to survive. Then the wave crashed over her and the wood slammed into her temple.

Then there was only darkness on all sides.

Darkness and oblivion.

Petra sank, knowing there’d be no reprieve for her now.



* * *



Damien’s knees weakened when he reached into the snakes and felt the curve of Petra’s hip. He plunged his hands in so that he was up to his shoulders in cold water and slithering snakes.

Petra was there. He grabbed her and hauled her to the surface, clearing the muck of the river and a few smaller snakes from her face. He couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not and didn’t intend to linger in the river to find out.

Her expression was peaceful, her features so tranquil that he feared the worst.

He strode to the shore that had been their destination, relieved to find the ground rise up quickly beneath his boots. He laid Petra on the dry bank, even as rivulets of water ran from her clothes. Her lashes fluttered slightly, but he saw that the color that had bloomed in her cheeks after his kiss had faded again. Her pallor and the chill of her hands terrified him.

He found himself whispering her name, as if his voice alone could rouse her or repeating her name could reassure him. He ran one fingertip across her cool lips before he realized the same strategy might work again. He bent and touched his lips to hers, hoping against hope that she would revive beneath his touch.

To his relief, darkfire burned and shimmered between them, touching Petra’s features with its ethereal glow, filling Damien’s body with heat. He could only hope that his kiss passed it to Petra. He kissed her again and again, hoping the spark would light to a flame, that the power of his kind could save the woman he loved.

He loved Petra, and he’d never told her so.

Damien only hoped he hadn’t realized the truth too late.

When Petra lifted one hand to his shoulder and parted her lips beneath his own, Damien’s hope surged. He caught her close and deepened his kiss, pouring all he felt for her into his touch, telling her with his embrace what he’d never told her in words. Petra clung to him, her arms wrapping around him to hold him close, her kiss meeting him measure for measure. He saw the darkfire brighten between then and heat to a brilliant white glow, a hot white light that wouldn’t soon be extinguished. When he lifted his head and reluctantly broke his kiss, she was flushed and rosy again.

Even more importantly, she smiled at him. Her gaze was so warm that he could have basked in it forever.

“Well,” she said. “Thank you.”

“I owed you for Cerberus.”

“Does that make us even then?” Petra teased. “So we now go our separate ways?”

“No! Though we are even,” Damien said gruffly, pleased and confused. Feeling both at the same time was disconcerting, but not all bad. He’d survived the electricity of living with Petra before, after all, and had missed the spark she put in his day.

She was waiting for him to say something, so he tried to indicate his changed feelings. “It’s important in a partnership to keep everything balanced.”

“Is that so? Suddenly you know so much about balanced relationships?” She was teasing him, her tone light and playful.

“No, but I’m trying to learn.”

“Oh, I want to meet these other Pyr,” Petra said with purpose, reaching for his hand to get to her feet. Damien caught both her hands in his and lifted her up. “I want to meet the dragons who managed to change your thinking.”

“It wasn’t them,” he admitted. Damien saw the tentative hope in her eyes and reached to draw her closer again. “It was you.” He tipped up her chin with one fingertip. “I love you, Petra. Let’s be partners.”

She smiled and her eyes lit with the promise of their future. “Oh, Damien, I’ve loved you all along.”

Damien bent his head to kiss Petra again, to secure the agreement with a scorching kiss, but his lips never touched hers.

There was a scream overhead, and he looked up to see two enormous birds descending toward them. He tried to shelter Petra beneath him and struggled again to shift shape without success.

“The Erinyes!” Petra whispered, and Damien saw that she was right. Just like the creature he’d killed, they were women, not birds, women with wings like bats and blood running from their eyes. They had fangs and long yellowed nails, just like their sister.

And writhing snakes for their hair.

Of course.

“Is this when we pay death’s price?” Petra whispered, but Damien pulled his dagger. He was aware of Petra humming, but concentrated on the Erinyes. They swooped low, snatching and screaming. The stench of them was foul. When they dove at him, Damien managed to nick the wing of one of them.

They screamed even louder, even as the blood spurted.


“You broke your word!” she cried at Damien.

“You betrayed her trust,” screamed the second.

He expected Petra to do something, because she’d been humming as she did when she invoked her power. He spared a glance her way and she shook her head.

So, neither of them had their powers.

This was not good.

The Erinyes swooped low again and Damien leapt up to stab at the second one. There had to be a way out of the underworld and a lesser price they could pay than death. What sacrifice would work? He’d already killed one of these creatures.

A snake launched itself from the leg of the second sister, falling on Damien as it hissed and spat. He decapitated it and flung its body aside.

“Oath-breaker, oath-breaker,” chanted the Erinyes overhead.

“He didn’t break his word,” Petra shouted. “He never promised me anything.”

It was true, but didn’t sound like much of an endorsement to Damien’s ears.

“I invoked you in anger,” Petra said, her tone firm. “It was a mistake.”

The Erinyes screamed as if being tortured, but they didn’t fly away. They dropped lower, wings flapping, eyes bleeding, snakes hissing. Damien wasn’t sure what to watch or where to strike.

Petra distracted him then by crying out in dismay. He looked back to see that her water had broken, and that dark liquid was spreading across the ground. “Our son,” she whispered, the light of hope in her eyes. “He’s coming.”

Damien had to get Petra and their son out of this realm.

“He still murdered our sister, Tisiphone,” the two Erinyes whispered in unison, then lunged at him, claws bared as they screamed for vengeance.

Damien roared and dove after the Erinyes, his dagger held high. They leapt out of his path, in the same moment that a flash of lightning blinded Petra.

She opened her eyes to find Hades himself standing before them. The god was dressed in long dark robes. His beard and brow were silvered and his expression was grim. They weren’t in the same place anymore, because the River Leche was gone. To Damien’s dismay, they were back in the forest of stone trees.

And the corpse of the Erinye he’d killed was at the god’s feet.

“Who dares to slaughter one of my own?” he demanded in a voice like thunder.

The two surviving Erinyes landed on either side of Damien. Before he could evade them, they seized his arms and shoved him forward, so that he fell on his knees before the ruler of the underworld.

He looked up and doubted he had anything to offer that Hades might want.

But Damien was determined to try.



* * *



Damien loved her.

It was everything Petra had ever wanted and more. He hadn’t just said the words she’d wanted to hear: he’d proved his feelings with actions, as a dragon ought to do. He’d saved her, he’d committed to being partners with her, and now she had to use her powers to get them free of the Erinyes and the underworld.

She would have tried but her water had broken, and the sensation had been enough to take her to her knees. Her womb contracted and she felt her son moving downward.

Petra had feared the worst when the Erinyes attacked, for they could devise the most vicious torments. Damien was determined to defend her, but she knew he was weary. They couldn’t both be confined here forever, not now!

Petra couldn’t argue her case, not with her whole body tightening in preparation for another contraction. It seemed that her son wasn’t just as stubborn as Damien but as resolute, too. Now that he’d decided to be born, he wasn’t going to waste any time about it.

“Did you do this deed?” Hades demanded of Damien, gesturing to the lifeless Erinye at his feet.

“She attacked me,” Damien said. “I had no choice.”

“No choice but to die,” Hades said. “And you were already in the realm of the dead.” He bent down and touched the cheek of the ancient hag. Even the snakes of her hair had stilled. “She was always a loyal servant.”

The other two Erinyes began to wail, and the blood flowed more quickly from their eyes. Hades spared them a glance, then granted Damien a stern look. “You will pay a price for this.”

“I apologize for killing one of your own,” Damien said tightly.

Hades smiled. “The price will be higher than that.” He straightened then reached out one hand in obvious expectation. A servant leapt forward and put a chalice into his outstretched hand. Petra assumed it was wine or another refreshment, but Hades only sniffed the contents. He then poured the dark liquid over the body of Tisiphone. “Tisiphone, the face of retaliation and the avenger of murder, take life again and exact your own vengeance upon your murderer and his kind. Pursue them through all eternity, until your thirst for revenge is sated.”

As Petra watched, the body of Tisiphone began to change. She shifted shape from a winged harridan to a cobra then to a lithe woman with red hair. In the blink of an eye, she was a harridan again, the rotation between forms becoming faster and faster until her form blurred.

And then she disappeared.

“Where did she go?” one of her sisters asked.

“You all three have walked in whichever realm you chose. Tisiphone will live only in the realm of the living until her vengeance is served.” He gave Damien a hard look. “She will strike among the living, even as she abides in secret. His kind will never know of her vendetta until her vengeance is served.”

Petra was appalled. She could see Damien’s consternation and knew of his loyalty to the Pyr. “But they have to be warned!” she said, even as her womb tightened for a contraction.

“I see no reason for it,” Hades said.

“Let her go,” Damien begged the god. “Let her go so our son can live.”

“It could be argued that he’s dead already,” Hades replied mildly.

“Take me instead,” Damien said with a vigor that shocked Petra. “Take me instead.”

“You just want her to warn the Pyr.”

“Forbid her to do that, but let her go!” Damien appealed, and Petra was amazed that he was more concerned for her than his fellows. “Let her have our child in the world. I’ll stay here instead.”

“Forever?” Hades asked.

“Forever,” Damien said with resolve.

“Snakes and all?” Petra whispered.

Damien swallowed, then looked her in the eye. “Even with the snakes.”

“There’s no guarantee she’ll survive childbirth, even if I do agree,” Hades observed. “Your son might not even survive. You could be sacrificing yourself for nothing.”

“I don’t care. I want to give her the chance.” Damien was resolute. “She gave me a chance and I didn’t deserve it.”

Hades considered them for a long moment and Petra found herself breathing quickly as the pain rose within her.

“No,” he said flatly. “It would set a precedent. It’s far simpler for both of you to stay.”

“You can’t keep Damien here,” Petra argued. “He’s not dead.”

“It’s only a matter of time before that’s resolved,” Hades said. “And we have nothing but time in this realm.”

Petra felt her womb tighten even as her fury rose. She called to the earth, to the stones, to the rocks and roots of the world. She felt the tumult build even as her own contraction grew. She summoned it and gathered it and drew it unto herself to wield it.

“Petra,” Damien whispered in awe.


“What is this?” Hades demanded, even as the ground underfoot trembled. “Stop this immediately!” he cried.

“No! We will not stay!” Petra opened her mouth and roared, commanding the earth to move just as her womb contracted. “We have sacrificed! We have paid! And we are alive!” She felt her son move and channeled the pain with her powers, compelling the element of earth to respond to her command.

The ground underfoot shook hard. It buckled and rolled, then suddenly cracked wide. A large dark fissure opened between them and the ruler of the realm, and snakes spewed from it to scatter in every direction. Damien muttered an oath, but held fast to Petra’s hand. There was a rumble of moving rock.

Petra summoned her strength and pushed harder, directing her efforts upward. The entire realm shook, like a straw house in the wind. There was a deafening boom and the darkness overhead split wide open.

A ray of sunlight stabbed into the underworld. The dead shouted in mingled dismay and delight, but Petra wasn’t done. Their escape path was clear, but they weren’t through it yet. She called to the earth, she drew upon her powers and the land beneath their feet rippled.

It convulsed.

Another contraction began deep in her body and she used it, clenching her fists to drive the power as she wished. The ground folded and shifted, and shoved them high into the sky. Damien caught her close so she wouldn’t lose her footing, and she held on to him tightly.

“No one leaves this realm!” Hades cried in dismay.

“Try to stop us,” Damien muttered, resolve making his eyes shine. “Come on, Petra. One more good shove.”

“Yes,” she agreed, and mustered her strength again. She was tired, but she had to save Damien and their son. She pushed hard, closing her eyes as she gave her all.

Suddenly, there was a thunderclap. The crack began to close overhead, sealing the underworld once again.

“No!” Damien cried and leapt upward.

He might have called to the shaft of sunlight. It pierced the darkness as if targeting him and struck him like a bolt of lightning. Petra saw the shimmer of blue-green darkfire roll over Damien’s body and feared Hades had claimed his life, after all.

Then Damien shouted with joy and her relief made her tremble.

“Yes!” he bellowed and Petra knew what would happen. She laughed when she saw the pale blue shimmer of light surround his body and squeezed her eyes shut. Damien shifted shape with glorious speed, and she thrilled as always at the beauty of his dragon form. She opened her eyes to find herself securely in his grasp, his scales cool and hard beneath her hands. She could feel his muscled strength and she delighted in the power of his wings and tail.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he soared toward the sky, holding her safely against his chest as his powerful wings beat hard. Petra felt a waft of fresh wind on her face, smelled the green of the hills and dared to hope that they would succeed.

The crack was closing steadily, as if it would cheat them of freedom right at the last. Petra knew that if they were trapped in the underworld, Hades would make them pay for their transgression for all eternity. She could hear him shouting far below and willed the earth to shake violently in the hope of silencing him.

“Faster,” she whispered to her dragon, even though she knew Damien was already testing his limits.

The crack began to close even more quickly. Petra was afraid it was already too narrow for Damien’s width. He surged forward, his wings beating furiously. He leapt through the crack with a final burst of speed, twisting as he flew to work himself through the narrowing gap.

The fissure snapped shut behind them and he shouted as it claimed the tip of his tail.

Against all expectation, they were free.

“Are you all right?” Petra demanded and Damien laughed.

“Never better.” He soared high in the midday sky, clearly reveling in the return of his powers. The sunlight glinted on his scales, making him sparkle like a gem.

“Your scales,” she said with wonder.

Damien looked over himself, then grinned with pride. “Like it?”

The color of his scales had changed, from deep green dipped in gold to gold dipped in green. He was magnificent in the sunlight, like a piece of jewelry designed to dazzle.

“It must be because you survived the realm of the dead.” Petra couldn’t help thinking that one day they would both return there.

“I sacrificed the tip of my tail, Petra,” Damien said, his eyes dancing. “And we will spend the rest of our days paying homage to Hades in gratitude for our release.”

“You think that will appease him?”

“I plan to spend a lot of years working at it.” He smiled at her, and his confidence was infectious. “I think we have a very good chance of fulfilling the prophecy, Petra.”

Her heart clenched tightly. Claiming the firestorm’s promise sounded wonderful to her, but her son had a more immediate plan. She held tightly to Damien as another contraction rolled through her body. He watched in concern, keeping them airborne.

“A mountaintop?” he asked her. “The soft soil of a clearing? Tell me where you want to be, Petra, and I’ll get you there.”

“With the Mothers,” she said softly. Petra opened her eyes and saw immediately that Damien was missing a scale on his chest. She’d never noticed that before, but there was no time to ask him for details.

Petra surveyed their surroundings and was thrilled to recognize the land. “There,” she said, pointing to a peak crested with stones.

“You’re sure?”

“Very sure. We’re near the Mothers, Damien, which is exactly where I had hoped to be.”

He didn’t bother with questions, although she could see his curiosity. He flew toward the peak she’d indicated, moving more quickly and surely than she’d imagined possible. Petra’s chest tightened as she saw the familiar circle of stones cresting the peak, the clearing in the middle thick with green plants.

She directed Damien to the spot and he circled with caution before he landed, checking their safety. As he deposited Petra with care on the thick greenery, the ground shifted slightly to one side, startling him.

Petra smiled, having anticipated that the Mothers would take care of her. A spring bubbled from the crack in the ground, trickling beside her.

“But where are the Mothers?” he asked, glancing around himself in confusion.

“All around you,” Petra said, indicating the standing stones that encircled them. “You’ll see.”