The meadow pulsed beneath my feet as Minthe charged, her fury a living thing that bent the very air. Glass crunched underfoot where the shattered bay window still glittered like broken stars. I powered forward, heart pounding, instincts honed from Hecate’s relentless training—and from every battle I’d ever survived.
Minthe’s eyes blazed with hatred. Her voice shredded the night: “No man—no god—as strong as Hades could ever truly love you. You were always the weak little thing in the corner. Everyone saw that. Adonis threw you away like trash. They all did.”
Pain twisted in my chest. She mentioned Adonis—Aphrodite. The betrayal still echoed in my blood. The fear. The violation. But this time, rage flared hotter than fear.
I didn’t hesitate.
A pulse of power exploded from my chest, rippling outward like the birth of a star. The meadow bowed to me—flowers bending, vines rising—responding to my call.
Minthe staggered, robes snapping in the storm of my aura. She snarled and threw back laced jabs of green flame, but I was already moving. Faster than her.
Hecate’s lessons took shape in my mind: You don’t wield magic—you are the magic. So I stepped into it, letting it flow through my veins.
Suddenly, the sharp crackle of air shifted.
“Persephone! Brenna!” Hermes’s voice cut through the clash like a blade.
I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Hermes appear at the edge of the clearing, eyes wide, wings flickering like restless shadows.
“I felt the surge—enough to rattle even the Underworld,” he called, landing softly beside Brenna, whose face was pale but determined. “Are you two all right?”
“I’m fine,” I shouted, not breaking my focus on Minthe. “This ends tonight.”
Hermes nodded, eyes darting to the swirling battle. “I’ll stay close. Call if you need me.”
His presence was a balm, a tether to sanity amidst the storm of power and fury.
Minthe lunged again. I sidestepped and lashed out with earth underfoot: roots erupted and snaked around Minthe’s ankles. She yelped as they wriggled to bind her. But she was swift. With a scream that split the night, she ripped free, sending roots flying into the air like arrows.
Her next words cut through me like broken glass: “You belong in the Underworld—like a pet. Not a queen. Not someone he should love. They’ll take you. Zeus sees this. The gods are watching. This is just the beginning.”
Her words stung because they were true. I had been small. Overlooked. And this storm in me terrified all of Olympus—and apparently, it frightened Hades too.
But fury gave birth to strength.
I inhaled. Exhaled. Power coalesced around my hands—brilliant and crackling like living lightning.
“This is who I am,” I said, voice low and ancient.
I thrust my palm forward. A bolt of violet energy struck Minthe, sending a shockwave through her so fiercely she was slammed against a tree. Bark splintered, leaves fell like black snow.
Her red hair whipped around her face, vibrant and wild—a mirror of her deathless fury—but she was shaking now, as if truly afraid.
I remembered every moment of betrayal—Adonis and Aphrodite. The kidnapping. The violation. All moments where fear drowned me—but each one had taught me to survive. To fight.
I stepped closer, and power hummed around me. My magic was a living shield now, pulsing with emotion and pain, but stronger than anything Minthe had brought.
“You’re wrong about me,” I said, voice steady, echoing across the meadow. “I’m not merely a pet. Not a goddess in waiting. I am the power. Every moment you underestimated me… that’s your mistake.”
With a thought, vines exploded from the ground around Minthe’s feet, binding wildly—no longer to trap, but to hold long enough for me to call the final spell.
Stars of white flame appeared around us, coalescing from the moonlight and my own power. They swirled, weaving a crown of light around my head.
“Begone.”
The words rang out like thunder. The lights shot forward, striking Minthe full in the chest. She screamed—a cry that wrenched through the night—and shattered like smoke, dissolving into motes of shadow that scattered and vanished.
I staggered as the final echo faded. My heart hammered. The breeze returned, soft, trembling. Leaves drifted down like petals in slow motion.
Brenna and Hermes rushed forward. I sank to my knees, energy spent, chest heaving.
“She’s… gone?” Brenna whispered, hand on my shoulder.
Faint glow of power still flickered in the clearing’s edges. I nodded.
“Persephone?” Hades’s voice was urgent, distant. Shadow trembled in his tone, the storm inside him catching mine as Brenna took the phone from me. “She’s a little… incapacitated at the moment.”
“I feel it,” he said, broken. “I’m… I’m on my way. Brenna, where are you?”
Brenna whispered the location.
“Stay near her,” Hades said softly, voice thick with love and warning. “I’m coming.”
Then the line went silent.
I closed my eyes against the aftershocks still pulsing in my limbs. The storm inside me finally stilled… but I knew Hades would feel its echo.
And soon, Olympus would too.