“It’s really you? You’re truly alright?”

Her voice was anxious and motherly, causing relief to flood through me. But she was here in the Underworld. I didn’t understand that.

“Mother, why are you here?” I asked as I uncurled myself from her grasp and crawled to my feet. She looked at me in confusion.

“Empusa, why wouldn’t I be? I’ve been trying to get you here for a long time.”

I looked from her to Hades and back to her. Suddenly, comprehension dawned on me, draining the blood from my face.

“You arranged this?” I whispered again. Judging by her expression of guilt, I knew I was right. “You tricked me. You somehow arranged everything with Poseidon to get me here, didn’t you?”

She was still and her cheeks pale as she registered the anger in my voice.

“Empusa, you don’t understand. You never understood the danger that you were in. You needed to come here. You had no idea how important it was.”

“So you arranged it. I want you to say the words. You tricked me, mother.”

She nodded curtly. “For your own good, I arranged it, yes.”

“And what of Brennan?” I asked haltingly. Hades had faded from my attention by this point. My eyes were focused on my mother. She was almost apologetic when she answered.

“You cannot be with Brennan,” she finally said, true regret washing across her lovely features. “I’m so sorry, Empusa. But you cannot. The magic… the power that you would create together would be too much, impossible to control. It is for your own good that you stay away from him.”

I shook my head, trying to make everything make sense. “So, how did you do it? I know you weren’t working with Mormo. What did you do?”

“I teamed with Poseidon, of course,” she shrugged. “At my behest, he reached out to Mormo, making the offer: your Moonstone for your life. All Mormo had to do was deliver you to Poseidon and Poseidon agreed to turn his back when Mormo stole you away.”

“But Poseidon didn’t mean it, right? So what will happen when Mormo discovers the truth? He’s searching for Brennan right now, you know. What if he finds him before I do?”

“Empusa,” my mother’s voice was stern. “You are not going after that boy. I will make certain that Mormo never finds him. It will be impossible anyway. Hades is going to bring Mormo back here and imprison him in the Underworld forever. Mormo will never be a threat to you again.”

I looked to Hades, who at this point was almost a shadow on the edge of the room. “Is that true?” I asked him. “Are you going to undo my curse and put it back on its rightful owner… finally?”

I was afraid to hope, my breath caught in my throat. My fingers shook as I waited for him to speak. And he took his time. His dark eyes appraised me, taking everything about me in as if he was drinking in the details. His gaze swept from my head to my feet and back again. And finally, when I thought I would die from suspense, he nodded.

“Of course, I am certainly willing to uphold my end of the bargain. With one small caveat.”

My head snapped up at the same time as my mother’s.

“Hades,” she cautioned warningly, her voice dangerously calm. “There is no turning back. You gave your word.”

Hades returned her gaze without flinching, seemingly unafraid. Most were afraid of my mother. To not fear her was either stupid or very, very brave.

“Hecate,” he answered smoothly. “You created a bracelet enchanted with power that could be used over some in my realm. Any creature of the night can be affected by the spells that you used, controlled against their will. And when my subjects are affected, that is my concern. When you destroy that bracelet, I will destroy the curse. Fair is fair.”

I hated to admit it, but he was right. If anyone who fell under the moon’s realm could be controlled by my bracelet in the same way that Poseidon had controlled me, that wasn’t right. And the bracelet should be destroyed.

“Mother, he’s right,” I turned to her. “Poseidon had quite the fun time showing me that he could control me with that thing. It isn’t right to allow it to remain in the world if it could be used against someone else.”

“Empusa,” my mother’s voice was pained and thin, something that startled me. She was always collected, always calm. If she showed emotion, something was wrong.

“What?” my voice was a whisper.

“You don’t understand,” she replied weakly. “I did what I had to do to protect you from your father. You don’t understand how much he is capable of. I did what I had to do…”

Her voice trailed off and I struggled to breathe.

“What did you do?” I asked stiltedly. My breath felt like it was coming in short pants and each one was harder than the one before it.

Her cornflower eyes stared into mine and the pain I found there was striking, taking my limited breaths away.

“What?” I breathed.

My mother squared her shoulders. “You are tied to the Moonstone,” she stated simply. “If it is destroyed, so too shall you be. It was the only way. I had to ensure your protection. If Mormo had ever managed to steal you, I would have been able to find you with the Moonstone. It’s why I did it, why I took the risk. It was worth it to keep you safe.” She dropped her hands limply.

“And am I safe now?” I asked quietly. She looked away and shook her head.

“You knew this, yet you allow Poseidon to hold it?” The anger in my voice was causing it to shake, even though I tried to maintain my control. It was a feat that got more difficult by the moment.

“It was the only way,” she offered sadly. “I’m on my way right not to retrieve it from him. Empusa, the risks were worth your safety.”

“Mother, you do not know Poseidon as well as you think you do if you believe that he will simply hand it over to you. He finally has something that no one else has ever had but the Fates themselves: leverage over you, the goddess of witchcraft. Don’t think that he won’t use it to his best advantage.”

My mother looked miserable.

“He would not dare cross me,” she announced fiercely. “I would make his life a living hell. And I am not an idiot, Empusa. There is but one thing that can destroy the Moonstone- Zeus’ sword. In which case, one would have to appeal to Zeus and ask him to destroy it. It wouldn’t happen without good reason. Trust me, he would not do such a thing for Poseidon.”

I felt an ounce of relief. Zeus would likely require a very good reason for using his sword to destroy it. My life was probably safe- for now. But the thought that my life was tied to a trinket, a bracelet that had dangled carelessly on my wrist for years… it was unsettling.

“Mother, you should have told me,” I admonished seriously. “I never had any idea of the importance of that stone.”

“I know,” she answered sadly. “There was never a good time. I told you to guard it with your life. I told you to never take it off.”

“And I didn’t,” I answered. “Because I trusted you.”

She took a step toward me and grabbed my hand. “Empusa, you’re my daughter. I love you more than anything else in all the world. I would not jeopardize you for anything. You must trust that creating the Moonstone was the only way that I could guarantee your safety.”

I yanked my hand away and took a few steps away from her.

“Mother, what do you not understand? It wasn’t necessary. You thought I wouldn’t be safe on my own, yet I’ve managed to elude you and stay safe for years. You’ve allowed who you are to cloud your judgment. You are not invincible and other people are competent besides you. I don’t see why you can’t understand that. What you have done in creating the Moonstone was not protect me but jeopardize me. You have put me at risk. You.”

Her face crumbled with my words and I felt a fleeting sense of guilt, but tampered it down. This was something she needed to hear.

“Mother, I love you. But this is not right. And you need to fix it. I am going to trust you now. I am going to find Brennan. You need to put this to rights. Retrieve the Moonstone from Poseidon. Appeal to Zeus. See if there is any way that we can remove my connection with it in order to destroy it. If not, then I guess I’ll have to remain cursed forever. But for now, see what you can do. If anyone can fix this, you can.”

I glanced at Hades and my mother only once before I closed my eyes and faded from the Underworld. My mother’s expression of pain lingered with me though and I knew that I would carry it with me forever.

Chapter Fifteen

I burst into the mortal world as I hit the ground running on the empty fairways of AdventureLand. I wasn’t sure what had made me come here. I just knew that if I was Brennan, this might be where I would stay. It was out of the way, no one else would think of it and it was the last place in the mortal world we had been together.

An early snowfall had carpeted the paved walkways in white flakes that glistened in the sun and I crunched through them as I ran toward the haunted house. A flock of blackbirds startled as I ran past and scattered screaming into the sky as I leapt lightly onto the porch.

Throwing the door wide open, I sprinted for the room that we had turned into our makeshift hide-out, bounding over the metal tracks and rubber hoses that littered my path. I almost didn’t dare to hope, but even still… I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t explain it. I just felt as though he was here.

“Brennan!” I yelled as I skidded around the corner and into the bedroom.

Brennan stared at me in surprise from the middle of the bed amidst open books and stacks of maps. He was every bit as handsome as he was in my mind, his golden hair curling up at his collar, his hazel eyes widening in surprise as he registered who I was.

“Em,” he breathed before he leapt from the bed, scattering his documents everywhere. He was by my side in one second flat. One beat later, I was clenched to his chest in a vice grip.

“What are you doing here?” he asked quickly before he crushed my lips with his own. “You’re not safe here,” he muttered against my lips before he kissed me frantically again. Then again. And again. His lips were like satin, his breath like honey. I found that I wanted to pour him into a glass and drink him and I tightened my arms around his muscled waist.

“You’re not safe here, either,” I told him with an ironic smile. I found it funny that he was concerned with my safety while there was a psychotic immortal chasing him. “I don’t have my bracelet anymore, so truly, neither of us is safe.”

“Is it bad that nothing else seems to matter as long as you’re with me?” Brennan asked quietly as he inhaled my neck. I stretched out my chin to give him better access as I shook my head and grasped him tightly.

“No. It’s not bad. It’s exactly how I feel. I love you, Brennan. Don’t ever leave me like that again or I swear by the gods that I will kill you myself.”

I felt him smile against my skin, before he lightly kissed it.

“Well, that’s romantic,” he announced as he pulled away to look at me. “Empusa, I had to leave. I have to find your mother. You’ll never be safe until I do.”