They burned slightly on her skin, but she was grateful for that as well. She felt as though she might sink beneath them. Chrysate removed her opal ring, and placed it on Selene’s left hand. It flashed a thousand colors, shining in the lamplight.

The knife the priestess brought from her robes shone as well, a lovely thing, tooled metal with a handle in the shape of a hound. The blade was long and very sharp, and Selene appreciated that as she gazed upon it.

It was a perfect thing.

13

At long last, Antony and Cleopatra came to a crossroad, where the path divided between the domains of the blessed dead of Elysium and the screaming laborers of Tartarus. At the crossroads, there stood an iron tower rising as high as the sky. Cleopatra looked to her husband.

“Are you certain?” he asked.

“We are here,” she said.

“Yes. Ready yourself.” He hesitated for a moment before putting his hand on the door and opening it.

Then, the only sound in the world was the sound of a creature unspeakably enormous, hissing and spitting in the darkness.

“We must not stop here!” yelled Antony, grabbing her by the hand, nearly snatching her off her feet, but the creature had already sensed them. Cleopatra felt something pass behind her ankles, and suddenly she knew. It was all around them. Antony drew his sword.

“Run when I tell you to run. The door to the throne room is on the other side of this.”

She could hear its coils rattling across the stone, endless looping lengths.

“A serpent,” she whispered.

“No longer,” said Antony. “A shade.”

It whipped toward her face and Antony shouted and slashed at it, but his sword went through its body. All Cleopatra could see were eyes, hundreds of them, glittering in the dark.

“Cut off one head, and two grow in its place,” she murmured. “The Hydra.”

“It has died a thousand times,” said Antony. “Each time one of its heads was cut off, it went to Hades. Now all of its dead selves are here, guarding the doorway to the gods. Only one of the heads is immortal, still living.”

He lashed out, slicing at another striking head. Cleopatra readied herself to run, but then something changed.

The monster was no serpent.

“Stop!” Cleopatra screamed.

It was Selene’s face, appearing out of the dark, her eyes shining, her cheeks rosy. Her child.

Cleopatra took a step forward, and as she did so, Antony’s sword slashed forward across Selene’s face, leaving a long wound.

Cleopatra tore Antony’s sword from his hands and, in moments, had him on his knees.

“How dare you —”

Selene’s mouth opened, wide and shocked, and Cleopatra reached for her.

Selene hissed.

Antony looked up at her, his eyes sad. His skin was nearly transparent now. She could see the wall through his heart.

“We have to go through the beast,” Antony said, and stood, reaching out his hand for his sword. Cleopatra found that she could not let go of it.