I glance again at the lifeless body on the floor beside me, and my heart seizes up with pain. How long had I sat there crying? How long has it been since the watcher snapped his neck and took him from me?
I can’t think about him in the Underworld. He won’t know that I’m coming for him. He’ll be alone, wandering, thinking I’ve forgotten him completely. How much faster does time move there?
“You’ll need to put it in your mouth, as we do with the dead. Cut your tongue. Or bite down. When your blood offering touches the coin, it will take you to Charon.”
He holds out the gold piece and drops it in my palm.
Quickly, I drop to the floor, laying down beside Wilder. I grab his hand, lacing our fingers together, and lift the coin to my mouth.
But first, “The string. I can’t feel it. But I didn’t feel it snap either. Not like when my sister died. Can you still see it?”
“Fate is a fickle mistress, Kalliope. Do not think of her as a friend. She will tie you up or cut you loose to reach her ends.”
I nod and hold the coin up as if it’s a toast.
“To be made whole, all must first be lost.”
I place the cold coin in my mouth, and before I can think about the pain, I bite down hard on my tongue.
Blood floods my mouth, and my last thought before I’m ripped from this world is of Bridget’s prophecy.
Erebus draws near.
End of Book One