PERSEFONE POV
The black smoke kept rising from the flowerbeds and I didn't know what to do.
At first I thought it was some kind of spell, maybe an illusion or a distraction meant to scare us, but the longer I stared at it, the more wrong it felt. Not magical wrong. Not the familiar sensation of power moving through the air before a witch cast a spell.
This felt sick.
Like rot crawling up from the underworld.
Like something had died beneath the earth and decided it wasn't done contaminating the world yet.
The mist curled around my sneakers before climbing slowly higher, wrapping around my calves and knees with lazy determination, and the moment it touched my skin I reached instinctively for Eden.
Hoping.
Praying.
Begging.
That today would finally be the day.
She had been right th
