All Chapters of Three Days Before the Styx: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

Right after I got home, my mother helped me to a wicker chair in the garden. Then Cassandra pushed the door open. She stood there, her eyes flickering with unease."Elara, we need to talk."I looked at her tense face. I knew why she was here. It was exactly like seven years ago. The day the Oracle of Delphi announced my curse, she had rushed into the Underworld Temple just like this.I was still terrified. Hopeless about the sudden curse. She just dropped to her knees right by my sickbed."Let him go, Elara." Cassandra fell to her knees. "He will inherit the Underworld throne. Olympus will never accept a cursed priestess. You were the temple's most devoted priestess, and you loved him. Do not ruin him.""I've arranged it," she whispered. "Tell him you hate the stench of death in his blood. Tell him you crave the light. Frame yourself with Aiden, a son of Apollo. Break the oath."Because of those words, I gave up seeking the gods' protection. I chose cold-blooded betrayal. I pushed the

The next morning, Mom did my makeup through her tears.She used white powder to hide my pale cheeks.Red pigment to give my lips some color.I looked in the mirror. I almost didn't look like a dying girl."Are you really doing this?" Mom choked on her words."I have to." I stroked her hand. "This is the path I chose."Ethan was already waiting by the porch. I could see the obvious irritation in his eyes. When he saw how frail I was, he frowned hard."Where is your golden boy? Why isn't he taking care of you?" he said coldly. His voice sounded bitter and tight. "Letting a little sickness leave you looking half-dead."His words sliced right through me. Seven years ago, if I even caught a cold, he would go crazy with worry. He would brew medicine himself. He would stay up all night with me. Now, his eyes only held anger and mockery."Ethan, don't be mean." Sierra smacked his arm playfully. "You're so cold to everyone but me." She smiled at me. "Don't mind him, Elara. That's just how he is

Ethan's POV"The healers confirmed it. Sierra and the baby are perfectly fine. Just a few scratches," my mother announced cheerfully.I pushed open the door to the ward. I didn't even glance at Sierra on the bed.A blind panic gripped my chest. It felt like an invisible hand was crushing my guts.My mind kept flashing back to the Starlight Promenade. Elara, lying in a pool of blood. Her pale finger rested on a half-drawn rune traced in her own blood.Those eyes, once full of stars, held no grievances. No hatred. Just a suffocating sense of finality and relief.She looked at me like I was a total stranger. Like I meant absolutely nothing.The realization made my blood run cold. Right then, a dull snap echoed deep in my soul.It was our mate bond forged by the River Styx. The tie that neither life nor death could cut.Now, it was severed.Dead silence. Absolute dead silence.I snatched my scrying glass. My fingers shook. I recklessly forced my Underworld magic into the mirror.The dark g

Ethan's POVSierra's screams were still echoing in the sealed study.Her proud Naiad magic trembled violently beneath my black mist.I ignored her begging and spun around.I kicked open the study door and marched straight to the deepest part of the family temple.That was the resting place of our pure white divine altar. It protected our bloodline for millennia.It was the peak of power my mother had defended her entire life. It was the root of all evil that crushed Elara.My mother finally realized what I was about to do. She crawled and lunged at me, hugging my legs tight."Ethan! You're crazy! Don't touch it! That is our family's foundation in the divine realm!" Her shrill voice dripped with utter despair.I looked coldly at the woman who gave birth to me.I kicked her away without a shred of mercy.Black Underworld magic surged wildly in my palm. It formed a massive pitch-black hammer.I hoisted it high and smashed it down hard on the glowing, sacred altar.With a deafening boom, t