Corrupted by Bella Klaus

Chapter Three

Iadvanced toward the quaking butler, my fingers sparking with lightning. He shrank into the corner and winced.

“Put yourself in that.” I flicked my head toward the huge circular contraption.

His features fell slack, and he stared at me through bulging eyes. “I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me. Stand in front of that thing and strap yourself in.”

Pirithous pursued his lips. “Miss Kora,” he said in his most admonishing tone. “Surely you don’t expect me to—”

“If you don’t get in place before I reach five and stop talking to me like I’m a child, I’ll electrocute your insides until they melt.”

His gaze bounced across the room, seeming to look for alternatives, but I flared enough lightning from my fingers to show him there were none. His eyes snapped back to me, and his shoulders visibly slumped.

“Very well,” he said with a sigh.

The butler trudged across the room, dragging his feet, as though walking to his own execution. I clenched my teeth, not feeling an ounce of pity for Pirithous. He had been Mother’s best enforcer, and had helped her keep me under control. Never once had he shown remorse about my imprisonment, not even when I had cried.

I would also show him no mercy.

Dami pressed a paw onto my arm, indicating that we should leave before the rest of the coven arrived.

“There’s a few things I need to know before we escape,” I said. “Can you watch the door and yowl if anyone gets close?”

She paused, looking as though she wanted to refuse. My heart clenched. In her position, I’d want to leave immediately, but this was probably my only chance to learn the truth. If I didn’t make Dami feel safe, I would never get my answers.

I scooped her up into my arms and cradled her to my chest. “Hang on.”

Her relaxed meow made my chest ache. Poor Dami must have been through so much if she couldn’t even shift back and talk.

With one arm around her warm little body, I concentrated my magic into my finger. Instead of generating bolts of lightning, my fingernail grew four inches, turning silver and ending in a wicked point. My breath hitched. This was new.

Pirithous stared at the solid magic and grimaced. “Miss Kora, there’s no need for animosity. I will share whatever I know.”

“Why did Mother keep me here as a prisoner?” I asked.

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “Mistress Ceres merely wished to protect you—”

I jabbed the nail into his belly. “Tell me the truth.”

His eyes bulged, and the capillaries in his face turned black. My stomach dropped. This was nearly as bad as the time I’d burned Hades and blown out his eyes. Pulling back my magic, I resisted the urge to apologize.

“Do you want more?” I said. “Because I can torture you all night.”

Pirithous wheezed, letting out a mouthful of smoke. “Mistress Ceres is safeguarding your soul until she can place it in the vessel.”

Vessel. I shook my head, trying to make sense of his words. He made it sound like necromancy or something equally as nefarious. “What are you talking about?”

“Your soul resided in a containment stone for two thousand years,” he rasped. “The coven and I travelled the world, gathering pieces of your shattered spirit to make you whole.”

My stomach dropped. “I don’t understand. How can a person’s soul splinter into pieces?”

“Something terrible happened— a supernatural disaster that tore Mount Olympus asunder and scattered the gods and goddesses across Europe.” He placed a hand over his chest and rubbed the spot where I had prodded him with my magic. “So many perished, including you.”

I paused, letting the words sink into my skull. He was talking about the Great Divide, the cataclysmic event, triggered by the angels’ creator, that had destroyed the reign of all gods. It was part of the reason why Hell was split into nine Factions, and the former gods had to submit to the rules of a mysterious all-powerful deity.

“Who am I?” I asked.

“Perse—” He shook his head. “No one can even say if you’re Persephone anymore.”

All the moisture evaporated from my throat, but I still managed to rasp, “Persephone is alive.”

“Her physical form is missing. Very few things can kill a god, and their bodies never decay. We scoured the earth, the sea, the heavens, searching for pieces of her, but there was no trace.”

My throat spasmed. They couldn’t locate Persephone because Hades had found her. Hades had found her and kept her body restrained in the Fifth Faction of Hell. But people couldn’t operate without a driving spirit.

“And her soul?” I whispered.

“It was shattered,” he said. “Scattered across the earth. We gathered what we could and stored it in a soul star stone, but no one could put it together until we met the soul weaver.”

Thoughts whirred through my mind as I tried to make sense of what he was saying. I understood the Great Divide, and I understood that Persephone’s soul had been torn from her body. But the red-haired woman who had attacked us with plants hadn’t been a soulless husk. Hugging Dami closer to my chest, I went through the last thing Pirithous had said. “What’s a soul weaver?”

“A one-in-a-generation seer who can perceive the clarity of souls,” he replied. “It took the weaver decades and multiple infusions of donor magic, but she managed to stitch you together and make you whole.”

I pressed a hand into my aching chest. “So, Persephone is me?”

“We believe you’re a new goddess in your own right.” He lowered his gaze to the floor. “Your plant magic has diminished, so you’re no longer the goddess of Spring.”

A tight band wrapped around my throat, making me swallow over and over. Hades had been right, except I wasn’t even sure he’d truly known. I really was Persephone after all, but so was that red-haired woman. Pausing, I waited for the revelation to lessen the blow of Hades’ deception, but it still felt as raw as the cat-induced lacerations on Pirithous’s face.

“When was that?” I asked.

His brows drew together. “Pardon?”

“The weaver,” I said through clenched teeth. “When did she put together my soul?”

He inhaled a long breath, his eyes moving down and to the right. “Two centuries ago?”

A boulder dropped into my chest, representing the weight in his words. The weight of the truth. Madame Lorraine had said I wasn’t older than two hundred years. I whispered, “And what happened after that?”

His gaze dropped to the floor. “Please don’t ask, Miss Kora.”

I pressed my finger into his chest. “Tell me.”

He tried shrinking out of my touch, but the restraints held him in place. “Your mother will kill me for divulging this secret.”

“She’d use her short sword and make it quick,” I said. “There’s no telling how long it would take for you to die with my lightning. It could be hours or minutes or even days.”

He licked his lips. “The coven found compatible children and infused them with your soul.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Sweat broke out across his brow, and his breath quickened, turning raspy with silent sobs. “You’ve had multiple lives,” he said. “The body you’re occupying is your seventh since the soul weaver. Each time you die, the coven works out a way to make the next last longer.”

My breath hitched. Dami stiffened, the ear resting against my neck twitching with the revelation. Everything made sense, from the reason why I had memories of being a child, despite being two centuries old, to the photo albums containing images I never remembered posing for.

“Did the coven steal people’s babies?”

He shook his head. “Each mother was well-compensated for her efforts. Neutrals often act as surrogates for supernaturals. It’s a recognized profession—”

“And what happened to the babies who got ejected from their bodies to make room for me?” I asked. “What happened to all the failed attempts?”

“Their innocent souls would have gone to Heaven or to the back of the Karmic line for rebirth.”

My breath turned shallow, barely grazing my lungs. I was a thing in a stone, occupying a purchased body. I clutched Dami tighter until she yowled a complaint.

“Do you see why we needed to keep you safe?” Pirithous said. “It’s hard enough to find a compatible shell, and even when the ritual works, what remains is fragile.”

“The corporality sickness, you mean?” I spat.

Dami tapped on the side of my face with her paw, demanding that I leave before Mother and the others returned.

“One more question?” I murmured.

Pirithous raised his chin. “Will you release me if I answer?”

“The only thing I can promise is that I will kill you slowly if you don’t.”

His shoulders sagged. “Then ask.”

“You said I was pieced together with donor magic. Where did that come from?”

He nodded toward the stone statue. “Your father, Zeus. His immense power has been sustaining us all throughout the centuries.”

Dami’s warning meow kicked me into action. Shoving aside my speculations, I jogged across the dungeon, and headed toward the stairs. She tapped the side of my neck with her paw.

I turned to meet her wide eyes. “What’s wrong?”

She wriggled out of my grip, jumped to the floor and raced across the dungeon and beneath one of the torture tables.

“What are you doing?” I followed after her with a frown.

Dami butted her head against a box, indicating for me to open it.

Reaching down, I pulled it out from beneath the table and placed the box atop the leather surface. “What’s this?”

Inside was a phone. Dami jumped on the table and placed her paw on its surface, activating its security PIN. I bit down on my lip and frowned. Maybe this phone had an enchantment so shifters could use it in their alternative forms?

“Didn’t you just say we should leave?” I asked.

“Meow,” she replied, telling me to wait a minute.

I nodded. “Okay.”

The icons were four times the usual size, taking up all the screen. Dami swiped right with her front paw until she reached a black square with a white capital Ü. After opening it, she tapped a few commands to order an Überwald Achtung.

“Miss Kora,” Pirithous said from the circular torture device. “Now that I’ve answered your questions, would you please consider releasing me?”

I turned to shoot the butler my worst glare. “In the years you’ve been serving this household, did you ever once allow me a moment of freedom?”

He bowed his head. “I tried to make your time here comfortable, Miss Kora.”

The app pinged. Dami butted my hand with her head, indicating that we should go. I scooped her into my arms, picked up the phone, and jogged out of the basement dungeon.

* * *

Minutes later, we exited the kitchen, bumping into Aunt Minerva, who I frightened away with a blast of lightning that had knocked her unconscious. By now, clouds had covered the moon, casting the garden in darkness.

I crept around the mansion’s exterior, and jogged along the driveway, keeping my gaze sharp for Mother or any other members of the coven. When I made it to the street and found a silver Überwald waiting in its usual spot down the road beneath the streetlight, I thought of my very first night of freedom.

“Nearly there,” I whispered to Dami.

“Meow,” she said.

I rapped on the window, recognizing the same driver from before, a gruff-looking man in his thirties with bright blue eyes. He wouldn’t wind down the window and instead raised his brows.

“Um… Überwald Achtung?” I asked.

He reached down to the lanyard hanging around his neck and raised an ID card. “Wulfie Kenneally.”

His gaze swept down what I had worn to the Devil’s ball—thick strips of leather held together by golden shoulder plates and a matching belt. Heat rose to my cheeks. Without the crown and Hades at my side, I looked overdressed.

I shot a glance over my shoulder, my skin prickling with the sense of impending danger. “Could you let us in, please?”

The driver narrowed his eyes. “Where’s Damisa Toyger?”

I turned the cat around, so he could see her face. “Here.”

He stared down at his screen and frowned. “I’m not sure if I can accept this fare, since Miss Toyger didn’t submit a photo of her alternative form.”

“What difference does it make?” I snapped.

The driver leaned back in his seat and frowned. “Security. What if the real Miss Toyger called HQ about charges on her card, crying that her no-good friend who’s always getting into trouble stole rides from the app?”

“Bloody hell.” I dangled her close to the window. “Dami made the order herself. Tell him.”

“Meow,” Dami said with a firm nod.

He exhaled a long breath. “I don’t speak cat.”

“Come on,” I said, trying to stop myself from whining. “There’s a bunch of people looking to capture us. If we stay out here any longer, Mother might come with the rest of her coven and her new husband who rules the Third Faction of Hell.”

His eyes narrowed. “Are you both damsels in distress?”

Something in his voice told me he would make an exception if I said yes, so I pulled my features into a frightened mask. “Without your help, kind sir, they’ll torture us in a dungeon.”

The door locks clicked open, and he flicked his head toward the back. “Get inside.”

My heart leaped, and I scrambled into the seat. The worst part about this situation was that I’d been telling the truth.

“Thanks.” I settled Dami onto my lap and glanced over my shoulder, casting my gaze over the walled compounds. “Why aren’t we moving?”

“I’m waiting for you to fasten your seatbelt and put Miss Toyger in the cat seat.”

A growl reverberated in the back of my throat. “At this rate, all three of us will be in that dungeon, stripped naked and tortured to within an inch of our lives.”

Dami whimpered.

My chest tightened. “Sorry.”

The driver sighed. “It sounds like she’s been through a lot. Hold on to her with both hands throughout the journey—no checking Supernatural Media, the Supernet, or anything else on your phone—and I’ll take you to your destination.”

“Alright.” I folded both hands around Dami, just to show him I was complying.

Wulfie pulled out from the street and accelerated down the road toward the highway.

“Where are we going?” I leaned to the side, trying to make eye contact through the rearview mirror.

“I thought a clever young woman like you could speak cat,” he said, his voice flat.

“Is cat language even a real thing? I only understand the body language and the different tones of meows.”

“Kensington Palace,” he said. “Supernatural side.”

I fastened my seatbelt and clutched Dami to my chest. Tiny tremors ran down her back beneath her fur, making my throat thicken with an onslaught of guilt. Dipping my head, I inhaled her sweet scent and whispered, “What did they do to you?”

She shook her head.

“I’m so sorry for what they did,” I murmured. “As soon as I get some money, we’ll take you to the best healer.”

Dami closed her eyes and fell asleep, her body vibrating with gentle purrs. I swallowed hard, swearing to myself that I would make things right for my best friend. Her gentle rumbling calmed my nerves, lulling me into a deep state of relaxation. When my eyes grew heavy, I relaxed into my leather seat, watching the Human World whizz by.

I must have dozed off, because moments later, the driver’s voice made me jolt.

“Kensington Palace,” he said. “Thank you for using Überwald Achtung.”

“Thanks,” I said with a yawn. “The app will pay you, right?”

He inclined his head. “Next time you’re looking for a quick getaway, make sure to select Wulfie K.”

The doors clicked open, and I unfastened my seatbelt.

“I meant to ask before you fell asleep,” he said. “How’s the new husband?”

“A complete and utter bastard.” I stepped out of the car and onto the stone sidewalk. “A lying, womanizing sack of manure.”

“Hmmm…” He gave me a sage nod. “Well, I could have told you all that. Are you leaving him for good?”

“Hopefully,” I muttered.

Hades could have informed the Supernatural Council that my body contained Persephone’s soul, but he had chosen to seduce me out of my virginity to enact some ancient form of marriage. That was before getting me arrested for espousal abandonment and humiliating me in a court of law.

Wulfie barked out a laugh.

“What?” I glowered into his cab.

He flicked his head to the palace’s double doors. “Look lively, then, because he’s tracked you down.”

My stomach plummeted. I turned in the direction the driver was indicating, only to find Hades standing at the top of the stairs, staring down at me with glowing eyes.

“Shit.”

When I turned back toward the palace’s courtyard, the driver was gone. All that was left of him was a pair of headlights speeding away from me in the distance.