Parvani felt a gaze upon her and looked between the trunks for its source. Those three dark-skinned women were back, watching her in the orchard’s shadows. They didn’t seem to mean her harm, but the gold on their bodies glittered like a threat.

She edged away from them, toward the river. Her throat was suddenly hot and tight, aching for water. Would it be safe to drink? This one didn’t seem to be affecting her, filling her with that terrible sadness.

Biting her lower lip, she sank to her knees on the bank. She skimmed her fingers through the freezing current. Still no reaction. So she cupped her hand and brought the water to her lips to drink. The water was cold and sweet and hazy in her mouth. She reached for another draught.

Hands burst out of the water, skeletal and made of ice. They grabbed her by the arm and, before she could scream, pulled her into the river.

The world turned to ice and darkness. Her lungs frosted over. She opened her mouth and felt the last of her breath leave her, and with it, something intangibly crucial, rendering her incomplete—a book without its binding, or a forge without its fire.

She stopped fighting. The skeletal hands let go. She drifted through the river, content to do nothing. She may have always lived down here, in the murk and gloom.

Then the hands grasped her again—only now they weren’t made of ice, but flesh.

She was pulled out of the current sputtering and coughing. Parvani found herself lying on a shore of black sand, glittering like the afterthoughts of diamonds.

“What are you doing?” growled a voice above her.

She looked up, wet hair sticking to her face. The voice belonged to a beautiful young woman, pale and irate.

“Wh-who are you?” Parvani choked out. Her mind tickled, as if she might know the answer, but she was curiously blank.

The young woman hauled her to her feet and pulled her away from the bank. Parvani followed at a leaden pace. Eventually they came across another river, the water bright turquoise. Without ceremony, the young woman pushed Parvani in.

She splashed and yelped, accidentally swallowing some of the warm water. Coughing, she managed to stand on the riverbed, where the water laughed over her thighs. She glared up at Hades, who stood with her arms crossed on the shore.

“What are you doing?” Parvani demanded.

“That’s my question,” Hades said. “You disappeared, and I found you drowning in the river of forgetfulness.”

It came rushing back now: the grasping hands in the river. Parvani hurried out of the water.

“You’re safe in that one,” Hades drawled. “It’s the river of memory. If you wanted to explore, you should have told me. It’s dangerous otherwise.”

Parvani crossed her arms, pretending she didn’t look like a thing drowned. “After you chastised me?”