THE ACOLYTE'S EYES WERE WHITER THAN THE MOON AND WIDER THAN PLATES OF PORCELAIN.

"Please," she stammered. "Please."

Apollo scraped the steel of his knife against the flesh of her pale cheek, the light glinting off it to reflect in the depths of his eyes.

"Shh..." he muttered. "Not another sound. Don't make me hurt you."

The girl sobbed quietly, her drawing breath in huge gulps.

"Please. Please. Just let me go. I promise I won't speak of this-"

"Of course you can go," I crooned. "After you help us out."

"I don't know anything," she pleaded, and the tear tracks on her face were streaking through the grime and dirt on her cheeks. I had never seen anything so shabby, pitiful and pathetic.

"Of course you do. Rosamund, isn't it?" My hand gestured to the earthen pot on the stove, a fire blazing under it merrily as the contents swirled ferociously in it like a sea monster. "Well, Rosamund - you see this? Essence of sage. Just a drop of this would make you spill the truth out of your lips, regardless of whether you like it or not. It is up to you. Speak, or I will make you drink this."

"Goddess," she begged, falling to my feet. "Goddess, please."

"You could save your family if you are a good girl and tell me what I need to know, Rosamund. Or else... you will force me to drastic measures. Apart from burning your father's lands to the ground."

Her tears mingled with the sweat rolling down her temples from the stifling heat in the room. The spotless white robes were now edged with soot, and the hair tucked into her neatly tied braid was coming undone.

I had known that Hecate had acolytes - her own personal attendants to carry out her most important tasks like harvesting herbs or collecting ingredients from above the Underworld. What I had not known was when I could find them. It had taken a single guess for me to wait till the blood moon was full and a shade of angry crimson. In the dead of night did I find the girl up to her knees in an orchard a few miles south. Not much of a fight to put up. Quite pitiful indeed.

"Put the knife away, Apollo. You're scaring her."

He glared at me once, before pocketing the blade and draping himself over a velvet chaise. I raised an eyebrow once at the girl, who gulped as she took in Hermes, standing right behind my chair.

"Okay," she whispered. "But please... please don't hurt them. My family-"

"I give you my word, sweet girl. No harm comes to them as long as you tell me what I need. I much despise what I have had to do in order to get my innocent daughter back, but well, well, well... desperate times call for desperate measures."

I interlaced my fingers, resting my chin on them.

"Tell me how he got her in."

"I - I..." her voice was breaking. "I did not see it occur. But - they said he got her in through the hidden entrance."

"The one through Poseidon's realm?"

She wordlessly nodded, chest rising and falling rapidly.

"Hmm," I mused. The nymph, Andromeda - the one who had seen this happen - she had said the same. About how he stuck his staff thrice on the banks of the river Cyane. About how the earth opened up at his command, allowing him to pass forth with her in his arms. About how it swallowed them whole, closing up behind them.

Getting in through there would be difficult.

"Which one is the main entrance?"

"The one guarded by the Gates of Hades," Rosamund fumbled, speaking rapidly.

"Thanatos uses that gate when he collects a shade?"

Another nod.

"Are you thinking what I am?" Apollo's eyes lit up as he looked at me. I gave him a thin smile.

Well, then. It would seem that we would have to follow Thanatos all the way in.

"Have you seen her? My daughter?"

The acolyte sniffed.

"Yes, my Lady."

"And?"

"She... has not been harmed."

I stood up abruptly, seething.

"Of course he would not hurt her. Not in a place you would see, anyway!"

"My Lady, she appears happy," her voice was shaking, and fear crept into her bloodshot eyes. "I - I think it would be best for her to stay-"

"Did I ask you for an opinion, girl?" I hissed.

She stopped speaking at once, head bowed. The shaking grew worse.

"Happy. With him. As if," I spat. Defilements and blasphemy! Just the thought of his filthy hands on her soft white skin made me sick. And the thought of him making her hurt, making her scream-

I shook out of those thoughts. Giving into them was like consuming poison.

"What else?"

'Lord Hades... he promised to send her back to you if she wanted to leave after a month."

"Lies," Hermes hissed behind me, his hand resting on the arm of my chair. "You know how manipulative he is with women. Especially one as naive and innocent as her."

"What else? Do you see her? What does she do?"

"He - he takes her to court," Rosamund stammered.

"Takes her to - takes her to court-" I spluttered. "Takes her to court! Is he out of his mind? He parades her around like a gift - like a prized possession to be shown off to his court of liars and delinquents!"

"Control your emotions, Demeter," Apollo clicked his tongue. "Getting worked up will do you no good in times of keeping a clear head. What else?" he questioned, nodding to the now violently shaking girl.

"They found her in Tartarus yesterday morning," she whispered.

The entire room went silent.

"They what?"

"My Lady-"

"What did you say?" I rounded on her as she shrank into herself, growing smaller. "What did you just say? Persephone? In Tartarus? That devil - he let her into that prison of hell - and she let him!"

"Did Hades send her there?" Apollo questioned, keenly examining the acolyte's face. She covered it with her palms, trembling with fear.

"I - I don't know, goddess - they just found her there in the morning - and Lady Hecate died - and she brought her back to life-"

"Wait, what?" Hermes looked at me, shocked.

Speechless.

Not a word I could speak. That was how speechless I was.

"What exactly happened there, girl? Tell it now, and tell it straight," Apollo demanded, his vice a near hiss, vicious and full of poison.

Rosamund's face had gone a sickly shade of green.

"I don't know," she confessed, her head bent. "I know not what happened - but my mistress was dead. A blade in her heart, a sharp one at that. And Lady Persephone... she somehow made her heart beat again. Fluttering wildly, as if born yesterday."

"Persephone can bring back the dead?" I whispered. "My Persephone? My beloved, protected child - my angel - cavorting around with the likes of him and his vile companions!"

"I do not know what nonsense Hades has filled into that head of hers," Hermes clicked his tongue, eyeing me. "You see what he is doing, Demeter? He is consuming her - bit by bit, inch by inch - holding her captive and bending her to his will, making her do as he bids. Vile, vile creature, that brother of yours."

"Not that I am surprised," Apollo muttered. "Frankly speaking, I do not know how you can stand the thought of him controlling her like that-"

"Nice of you to assume I can stand it," I snapped, standing up. "You think I can sleep at night? Imagining all that poor thing must be going through without me? Imagining if I had been there - if I had not let her be when he came to take her away and make her his prisoner!"

My breath was ragged, but my anger was endless. I knew not where it began, and I knew not where it ended. It was a sea of rage - an ocean of rage, and I was drowning in it. It was enough to make me forget how to swim.

"How do I know you are not lying, Rosamund?"

"I only know what I saw..." the acolyte pleaded. There was hardly any color in her cheeks.

Enough for me to know that it was the truth. Nothing else could have scared her more.

"I must get her out before the next turn of the moon," I muttered to my companions. "If we wait any longer - I shudder to think of the things that devil will do to her. The plague has just begun," I rose, my voice graver than stone. "And it will not end until I get her back."