Page 7 of Bought By the Cerberus
Phonos glared at me, and I had no doubt he’d keep his promise. But looking down at her peaceful face nestled against me, I knew I’d make the same choice a thousand times over.
Let Phonos do his worst. I had something worth fighting for now, and for her, for Callista, there was nothing I wouldn’t do.
Chapter 3
Charon's Trade
Callista
Ishouldbedead.It was the very first thought that crossed my mind, the moment my awareness returned.
I remembered, with crystal clarity, the piercing pain of Syagros’s horn. An icy chill had spread through me as I’d bled out on the ground. I’d made my peace with it, with dying. But it hadn’t been meant to be.
I took a deep breath, and my lungs expanded with no discomfort. I pressed my hand against my front and found no trace of the wound that should have killed me. Only clean bandages, and surprisingly, crushed flower petals. What was going on?
“You’re awake at last. Welcome back.”
The female voice startled me from my stupor. My vision cleared, and for the first time, I could focus on where I was. I’d survived, yes, but what did that mean for me?
The chamber I was in would have put royal healers to shame. Its clean walls surged upward in graceful arches. Crystals pulsed inside the masonry, and beautiful white flowers bloomed in every corner of the room. My soft sheets were finer than any fabric I could have ever dreamed to weave.
But that wasn’t the strangest thing at all. A woman sat beside my bed, and her terrible beauty scared me. Her eyes glowed with a surreal light that seemed to reach into my chest and squeeze. The girls in Agrion would have begged to have a skin as clear and smooth as hers. And instead of hair, she had serpents. Slender bronze snakes that curled around her cheeks the same way they would around prey.
If I didn’t scream, it was because one serpent turned directly toward me. It blinked once in what appeared to be acknowledgment. Terror should have frozen my blood, but what I found in its gaze gave me pause.
“Don’t be scared.” The woman smiled and petted the snake who’d looked at me. “I’m Iaso, and you’re perfectly safe now.”
I gripped the sheets so hard my knuckles went white. “Where am I?”
“You are in the city of Thanatos.” Iaso brushed a hand over the pristine petals of the closest flower. “In my healer’s wing, in Asphodelia.”
I’d never heard of the city she spoke of, but that changed nothing. In my heart, I already knew where I’d been brought. “Is this… Is this the Blighted Lands?”
Iaso took my accusation in stride. “In the words of your people, yes. But we are anything but blighted. We are blessed. Like you.”
“Blessed?” Was this a joke? I was the broken one. The cursed one with a barren womb. My own friends and neighbors had tried to kill me, to make me pay for the misfortune I’d brought upon them. “Is this some kind of trick?”
Iaso shook her head. “Not a trick. But I can see why you might think that, Callista.”
A chill ran down my spine. This strange woman had just called me by my name. That couldn’t be a good sign. “How do you know who I am?”
“We know many things.” Iaso rose and moved toward tall windows. “Now, come. See what your barrenness has earned you.”
The words hit me almost as hard as Elena’s accusations had, back in Agrion. Decades of shame came crashing down on my shoulders. “You… You figured it out, too. My curse.”
Iaso released a deep sigh, and the snake hissed, as if echoing her. “Oh, Callista. It’s not a curse. It never has been.”
How could that be true? Iaso spoke it without disgust, while everyone in Agrion had spat at me. How could the two be so different?
Iaso didn’t insist. Instead, she opened the windows, letting the cool air in. “Understanding will come. You don’t have to force it. All you need to do is give your new life a chance.”
I couldn’t hope to refuse her. It wasn’t just that she’d saved my life, though that definitely contributed to it. It wasn’t just her kindness, or her unusual nature. Those two words. “New life.” It was what I’d been looking for, three years ago, what I’d failed to find in Agrion. It might have been foolish of me, but I still craved it.
Like a woman in a dream, I joined Iaso by the large windows. My breath caught at the surreal sight that met my eyes. Asphodelia stretched below us, a tapestry of black marble streets, ghostly mist, and silver-blue crystals. More white flowers lined every pathway, their strong perfume enveloping me in a familiar embrace.
Through those streets walked the terrible beasts every woodland child had been taught to fear. The monsters of the Blighted Lands spread destruction wherever they went. They had murdered everyone Syagros had gathered for his ritual and brought ruin to everything pure and innocent. “You’re monsters of nightmare,” I croaked out. “Creatures of corruption and death.”
“Creatures of death, yes,” Iaso replied, not seeming in the slightest bit offended. “But, Callista, that’s not a bad thing. On the contrary.”
