Page 28 of Wild Hunt
“I already got this lecture from my mother, I don’t need to hear it from you,” he muttered, brushing past me.
I threw my hand out against the wall, blocking his path. The look he gave me would’ve made me back down on any other occasion, but this was too serious. “Resurrection magic?” I hissed. “Do you have any idea what they’ll do to you if they find out? What your father will do?”
“No, it never occurred to me.”
“You can be a smartass all you want, but that won’t save you when they call you before the tribunal.”
“If you don’t go running your mouth, no one has to know.”
“You know me better than that,” I snapped. I jerked my head toward the unconscious girl in the bed. “She’sanother matter.”
“She won’t tell anyone.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because we’re bound now,” he answered. “Without me, there is no her.”
I took a moment to process what he was telling me. “When you say bonded, what exactly do you mean? Are we talking girls swapping embarrassing stories at summer camp, or industrial-strength superglue?”
“I don’t know,” he muttered. “I’ve never done this before, and I haven’t exactly memorized the texts.”
“You obviously memorized enough to bring her back.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ve studied incantations before.”
I fell silent. This wasn’t the first time Hades and I had spoken of resurrection magic, but it was the first time in a long time. Once, while he was drunk off his ass, he’d mentioned a plan to use his power as the soon-to-be god of the Underworld to bring back his mother. We hadn’t spoken of it since, but I should’ve known better than to think he’d abandon the plan entirely.
“This was a test run for you, wasn’t it?”
“You think I planned for her to fall into a siren’s well?” he asked flatly.
“Don’t bullshit me,” I growled. “You saw an opportunity and you took it.”
“Like you wouldn’t do the same.”
“Hedonistic pursuits, sure. Flaunting the laws of nature? That’s ballsy, even for you.”
“What’s done is done.”
I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. He was right, it was done. Kore was alive and Hades was the one who’d brought her back from the dead. We were all going to have to live with the consequences.
“How much does she remember?”
His silence spoke volumes.
“Shit,” I muttered, raking a hand through my hair as I stalked across the room. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Nothing has changed,” Hades said calmly. If anything, he seemed to be in a better mood than usual, even if the dark shadows under his eyes made it clear the forbidden magic had already taken a physical toll. “Except that now I know what’s possible.”
“You got lucky. You got to her before the guides came,” I reminded him. “Resurrecting someone who just died is different from bringing a soul back from Styx. You know that.”
“Of course I do. This is just practice.”
I wasn’t sure which scared me more: his hubris or his apathy. A deadly combination, to be sure.
Not that I should’ve been surprised. It figured the very thing that had drawn me to him would be the thing that got us all killed.
Chapter 16
