Goddess Of The Underworld. Chapter 87

**Envy**

The descent is longer than it should be. The walls breathe. I swear they do, slow exhales of chilled air brushing against my neck like fingers trailing over my skin. Noah is silent beside me, the tension between us humming louder than the runes etched into the narrow walls. It's not fear. It's knowing. Dread wrapped in certainty. The shaft opens into a chamber that hums with old power, power that was never meant to wake. And yet here we are. The floor is obsidian stone, carved with runes I recognize only in memory. The same as those beneath the packhouse. The same as the grave. My steps falter as the whispers return, not jumbled, but clear now. Calling. Guiding. Familiar. Then I see them. Suspended in the heart of the room, between two towering black spires, is a boy. No older than seven. Pale. Weightless. Floating midair as though held by invisible strings. Below him, the stone is cracked and glowing, the lines of the runes pulsing weakly. Like a dying heartbeat. But he is not alone. To his left, tethered by thick veins of magic that wrap around her limbs and throat, floats a woman. A witch. The witch, the one from my memories...Salira. Her hair coils like ink in water, suspended, unmoving. Her eyes are shut, her face serene, but beneath her skin, I see it. The strain. The tension. She's the one holding the boy in stasis. And she's losing.

“Noah,” I whisper, not daring to step forward. “He’s alive.”

He swears under his breath. “How?”

“I don’t know. I...” My hand lifts on instinct, like muscle memory. I press my palm to the closest stone, and my magic rushes forward like a dam breaking. Everything comes back. The screaming. The chanting. The children lined in a circle, hands clasped, tears on their cheeks. The witches forming runes in blood. Marcus at the center. Me, on the stone slab, the lock to their key. But the boy... the boy screamed loudest.

“He’s too strong!” the witches had cried. “He’s tearing through the veil...”

And then she came. The witch who floats beside him now. She broke the circle. Severed the chain. Enraged Marcus. She cast the stasis spell to trap them both, to halt what had already begun. And in doing so, she stalled the unraveling. But only for a time. Because spells fade. And this one is dying. I fall to my knees.

Noah grips my shoulder, grounding me. “Envy. Look at me. What do we do?”

I shake my head. “It’s me. I was the lock. He was the key. But she...she stopped it. She knew opening the realms would destroy everything, so she tried to protect him. Protect all of us.”

Before I can rise, footsteps echo behind us, deliberate and slow. Felix.

He steps into the chamber like he’s been here before. His face is grave, but not surprised. “I was wondering when you’d find this place.”

“You knew?” I demand.

He nods.

“She’s dying,” I whisper. “The spell is dying. That’s why the veil is cracking. Why everything’s falling apart.”

“Yes,” Felix agrees. “And if it breaks without control, the gates will collapse entirely. The realms will bleed together. There won’t be death or life...just chaos.”

I rise slowly. “Then I have to stop it. I have to finish what she started.”

Felix’s eyes lock on mine. “No. You have to do what she couldn’t. Recreate the veils. Shape the boundary between realms in your image. Only a true goddess can do that.”

“But I’m not...”

“You are,” he says firmly. “But you haven’t awakened fully yet. You’re still fractured. Still tethered by the old rules.”

I freeze. “Then how do I change that?”

He steps forward and speaks softly, reverently.

“You mark them.”

“What?”

“Your mates. The bonds you’ve formed...those ties are sacred. But they remain incomplete. You need to mark them not as lovers, but as anchors. Through them, you stabilize your magic. With them, you unlock your divine right. You don’t just destroy the old veils, Envy. You replace them, with something that answers to you.”

My heart thunders. “If I do that, will the child survive?”

“Yes. And you’ll be able to finish what Salaris began, free him, close the fracture, and reshape the realms.”

Noah speaks gently. “Then we do it. We mark us. All of us. Together.”

I nod, chest rising with new resolve. “Then I’ll burn the old world down.”

"When you do..." Felix warns, his voice low and sharp, "the veils will drop. All of them. The Underworld, the Mortal Realm, even the Divine planes, they’ll bleed into one another. There will be no boundary between life and death, spirit and flesh. It will be utter chaos. And Marcus... he won’t sit idle.”

He looks at me, something like sorrow flickering in his eyes. “He’s been waiting for this. Preparing. The spell breaking won’t just give you power, it’ll free whatever he’s been keeping caged. Or building. You’ll have moments, Envy. Seconds, maybe. You’ll need to act fast. Recreate the veils. Reshape the worlds before they tear themselves apart.”

I nod slowly, though my chest tightens with the weight of it all. My fingers twitch, the runes on the walls humming like they're listening.

"I'm going to need Theo," I say, my voice steadier than I feel. "And Zion. My brothers have been waiting for something like this, even if they didn’t know it yet. They have their own armies. Their own magic.”

Felix arches a brow. “You trust them?”

“With my life,” I answer without hesitation. “They’re mine, just like the rest of this fight. If we can rally enough people...enough power, we can hold the realms long enough for me to reshape them.”

Noah steps beside me, his jaw set. “You won’t be alone.”

“I know,” I say quietly, eyes drifting back to the suspended boy, to the witch who gave everything to halt this catastrophe. “But I’ll need more than strength. I’ll need loyalty. Willingness. People who believe that the world isn’t beyond saving.”

Felix’s gaze sharpens. “That belief starts with you.”

A deep breath. The air is getting heavier, like even the magic is bracing for impact.

"I’ll call them," I promise. "Theo and Zion will come. We’ll gather our allies. I don’t care what realm they belong to, Fae, Shifter, Seer, God or Ghost. If they want a future, they'll fight for it."

Felix gives a slow nod. “Then get ready. Because once you mark your mates… there’s no turning back.”