I grinned and pushed my sunglasses over my eyes. “Guess you’ll just have to stick around and find out.”
Ares studied me before turning his attention to the road. “Why doesn’t anyone trust you?”
I gave a bitter laugh. “Because I’m working with Zeus.”
Ares turned his head so fast he nearly lost control of the car.
“Oh please, not willingly.” I examined my nails so I wouldn’t have to see his face when he put that little puzzle together.
It felt like an eternity passed before he spoke again. “Well, that sucks.”
I laughed. “You’re telling me.”
He pulled the car to a stop. I glanced around. We were parked outside of a square brick building with faded posters of old video games hanging from the windows. “Here?” I waved my hand at the abandoned arcade. “Seriously?”
Ares shrugged. “You can still turn back.”
I got out of the car and walked up to the dingy windows. They were yellow with pollen, making it impossibl e to see inside.
Ares pounded on the door, frowning when the pollen rained down on his hand. “What season is it here?”
His question gave me pause as I wondered where he came from. That, and I found myself stumped, realizing how much time had passed. “Uh…” I did some quick mental math. “Winter? Yeah, it’s what? Mid-December?”
“So…” Ares shook the pollen off his hand. “Is it safe to assume this is old, or has Demeter just completely lost track of the seasons?”
I shrugged. “This is Georgia. It’s never safe to assume anything about the weather here.” I didn’t know if it was the concentration of nature deities in the area or just an unfortunate location, but just because it was nearly eighty degrees outside now didn’t mean it wouldn’t be snowing tomorrow.
Ares knocked again, lacing it with enough power to shake the building. “I know you’re in there!”
“Go away!” a gruff voice shouted back.
“Aw, hell.” Ares clenched his fist and flames sprang up from his flesh. He touched his hand to the glass, and it shattered.
“That’s—” I started.
“Awesome?” Ares interrupted, flashing me a grin.
“Not how glass reacts to fire,” I finished, staring at the pellets of glass covering the sidewalk.
Ares frowned at me and started to say something, but was cut off when a huge hulking shape burst from the arcade screaming obscenities and tackled him.
Ares lit up like a match, flames encasing his body like the top of a baked Alaska. The man punching the daylights out of Ares was undaunted by the fire.
“Knock it off!” I pulled at the big guy’s shoulder. Fire licked my arm and I yelped, surprised by the unexpected pain. The man, Hephaestus, I realized, spun around at my touch and raised his hand as if he were going to hit me, then froze.
I shifted uncomfortably under his intense stare.
“Yeah, she’s pretty. Now get off me.” Ares pushed at the bigger man until he relented. “You okay?”
He grabbed my hand, which was taking its sweet time healing. A pulse of power passed through me, speeding up the process, but I hardly noticed.
Hephaestus stood, towering above me, but that wasn’t what made me step back in fear.
Half of his face was an unrecognizable web of scar tissue. It looked melted. Skin hung in odd places, his empty eye socket drooped toward his nose. Like one of those Photoshop tricks where you click the mouse, and an image swirls into a grotesque parody of its former self.
“What happened to you?” I gasped. Gods could heal from anything, so what could possibly disfigure a deity? I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his face. It rippled, like a current of electricity was passing under his skin.
“I took my weapons back.”
I shuddered as images of the long metal stakes bombarded my mind. Once upon a time, he’d created a weapon that could kill gods with a scratch, but they’d all been melted down centuries ago.
“I’ve told you a hundred thousand times,” he continued, glowering at Ares, “I don’t make them anymore. Bringing her along to charm me into it is just low.”
“I didn’t—” Ares started.
“Hey!” Hephaestus called, but it was too late. I’d slipped into the arcade and was looking around wide-eyed.
The arcade was really nice inside. Sure there were posters of video games plastered all over the walls, but the place had a sleek, modern look that appealed to me. The furniture was beautiful. Everything was made of hand-worked metal. I paused at a large table. Metal, of course, but it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. A myriad of colors—bronze, gold, silver, and every metallic shade in between—wove together to create a spectacular pattern of leaves. I felt like I was touching fall. I’d half expected bunk beds and empty pizza boxes, but this…
Of course the furniture was nothing compared to the tech. One wall showed a picture of heavily-armored, computer-generated people fighting some big, red, fiery…something. But the picture was moving. I tilted my head, searching the seamless wall for a screen. Glancing up, I followed a pattern of lights to a projector attached to the ceiling. The espresso-colored sofa on a wrought-iron frame was littered with keyboards, mice, and random game controllers.
“Dude! Heals? Where are you?” A nasally voice demanding answers drifted from the wireless headset perched on the ottoman.
“Get out!” Hephaestus growled, grabbing me by the shoulder and turning me around. “I didn’t say you could come in here.”
“Your teammates are dying.” I pointed to the wall.
He cursed and snatched his keyboard off the couch, typing at a rapid pace. I watched him play for a minute.
“Course that’s nothing compared to the death and destruction we’re going to see if Zeus gets his way.” I crossed my arms and moved in front of the wall.
Hephaestus paused, a scowl further twisting his mutilated face
I dropped my hands to my sides. “We were hoping you could help us.”
Fire sparked in Hephaestus’ eye. “I don’t make weapons anymore!”
“We have weapons,” Ares interjected from the door.
I looked at him. “We do?”
Ares grinned. “You’ve got me, don’t you? Plus that chick everyone keeps jabbering on about. Demeter’s daughter, what’s-her-face.”
I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Hephaestus. “We don’t need your weapons. We need you and every god left. Zeus is powerful, and if we’re going to have any hope of winning…” I grabbed his hand, giving him a desperate look. If we didn’t defeat Zeus, I was done for. “Please. Help us.”
He started to object, but I squeezed his hand and looked him straight in the eyes…erm, eye, making sure not to flinch.
“Please.” I didn’t dare use charm. I didn’t want him to come looking for me later thinking he’d been coerced into helping.
Hephaestus looked at my hand for a moment, and his gaze softened. Then he looked into my eyes, really looked into them, with an expression I’d only ever seen on Hades’ face. Like he could see through me. But unlike Hades, he seemed to like what he saw. After considering for a long moment, he nodded, putting his other hand on top of mine. “Okay.”
He didn’t let go of my hand until Ares cleared his throat. “Right,” Hephaestus muttered, shoving past Ares and walking to the car. “I’m driving.”
What was it with gods and their inability to let anyone else drive?
Ares shot me a questioning look. “Did you charm him?”
I tossed my hair back. “Not in the way you’re thinking.” I didnhinkt have to use charm to wrap a man, god or no, around my finger. He was mine, hook, line, and sinker.
Chapter XXX
Persephone
I crashed through the trees, Triton right on my heels.
“Run! Run! Run!” Triton urged.
I was a good runner. I’d spent most of the last year running, so I’d had plenty of practice. But no matter how fast I
was, I couldn’t outrun giants. “You said the giants were the other way!” I gasped.
“I got mixed up, okay? Sorry!”
So much for having a useful tour guide. A tree splintered behind me. I ducked as the bark flew at me like shrapnel. Triton cried out and I spun. My eyes widened when I saw a piece of bark as thick as my wrist protruding from his side.
I stared at Triton for a moment, shocked into stillness. Running was out.
Triton looked from the wood, to me, and back again, eyes wide. I didn’t know what to do. His knees gave out beneath him, and he sank to the ground, looking more surprised than hurt, but I knew firsthand the benefits of adrenaline. He’d feel it soon enough. The giant thundered closer, the ground shaking beneath me, and I did what I’d always done in a crisis. Shoved aside the terror and acted on instinct.
Throwing up a shield, I channeled more and more power into it until I thought I would burst from the effort. When the mud-streaked giant hit the wall of energy, I twisted it, pulling the shield around him like a net. I’d seen Hades do that to pin down a Reaper who dared attack me.
It was harder than it looked.
The giant howled with rage. Seconds ticked by where I could do nothing but stare at the grotesque beast. His skin stretched over his colossal frame, pulled so tight it looked as thin and see-through as tissue paper. With every breath the giant took, I worried his skin would split open. I felt sick looking at him.
“What did you just do?” Triton stared at the frozen giant in wonder.
Sweat poured down my face as the giant struggled against the shield. Surely there was an easier way to do this, but my knowledge was limited. Wrenching the shield in half, I brought the giant down to his knees. He still towered above me like a tree, but I could look up and meet his eyes.
“Stop struggling.” I poured every bit of my charm into that order. Fury and terror added weight to my voice, forging it into a force so strong the giant may have listened without the charm.
But I wasn’t going to take that chance.
The giant stopped.
“Persephone,” Triton whimpered.
Right. I shook myself free of the horror and disgust and addressed the giant with a firm voice. “I’m going to release the shield. Do not move.”
With baited breath, I dropped the shield. The thunder of splitting trees and stomping feet vibrated through the forest as the rest of the giants approached. “Tell them you don’t know where we are. Protect us.”
The giant nodded. I pulled Triton behind the giant’s right foot and cast another shield, blocking us from sight and sound.
“Okay.” I knelt beside Triton and touched the tree branch. A sheen of sweat covered his forehead.
“It hurts,” he whimpered.
The giants gathered around us, eclipsing the sun. They spoke in a guttural language, shaking the earth with their gesturing. Please let me be able to fix this. I took a deep breath and yanked the bark free from Triton’s flesh, flinching when he yelled and writhed, his fingers digging violent gouges into the ground. He hit the edge of the shield with a thud. I gritted my teeth against the strain of keeping the giant charmed and the shield in place.
My hands were slick with blood, sweat, and desperation. Triton stopped struggling, eyes going glassy.
“No, you don’t.” I pulled more power through me, and Triton’s flesh knit together beneath my hand. My vision blurred.
When the giants thundered out of the clearing, the charmed one stayed behind. Dropping the shield, I told him, “Go, and forget your part in this.” The ground shook as he walked away. I counted to a hundred before dropping the charm.
“Thanks!” Triton stared at me wide-eyed. “You’re… How did you do all that at once?”
I shook my head, too relieved to care how I’d pulled that off, and struggled to my feet, clutching my necklace like a lifeline. “Let’s find somewhere safe for the night, ’kay?”
“Safe, huh?” Triton offered me his hand. “How do you feel about safe-ish?”
Chapter XXXI
Aphrodite
“You went without me?” Melissa exclaimed. She’d pulled me into Persephone’s room the minute I’d finished showing Hephaestus around and making introductions. “I thought we had an understanding.”
“You were busy with Orpheus.” I yawned, flopping down on Persephone’s papasan chair decorated with yet another flower pattern.
Melissa muttered something under her breath and snatched a fresh shirt from her bag. She changed clothes like five times a day now that we were sharing a roof with so many hot guys. They were fun to look at. I couldn’t tell if Melissa was trying to impress them with her vast wardrobe, or if she was just frustrated that they seemed unimpressed and was not going to give up until she found an outfit that demanded their notice. Either way, I don’t know why she bothered. She could run around naked and they probably wouldn’t react. That was no reflection on her. Gods and nymphs go way back, but she was under Demeter’s protection, and no one would risk losing rights to live in this realm for a mere nymph.
“You should have waited.” She shimmied into a new skirt.
A deep, dark bruise just below her collarbone caught my eye, and I bolted upright. “Is that what I think it is?”
Melissa flushed, covering the hickey with her hand. “It’s not your business.”
I pretended to be scandalized. “He’s married!”
“Oh, don’t be stupid!” Melissa snapped, shoving a silky shirt over her head. “I wouldn’t make out with Orpheus.”
“Aw, come on. I’m not going to judge you for getting some action while your best friend is missing.” Might put you in a better mood, I thought, though the idea of Melissa being happy and not whining all the time was unimaginable. What would she talk about?
Melissa ignored my teasing, but I wasn’t letting her off the hook that easy. Not after the hard time she’d given me. Plus, I was really curious who would want to make out with Melissa. Who would risk pissing off Demeter? Adonis, maybe?
A flash of envy passed through me, but I suppressed it. I wasn’t interested in Adonis.
“Aw, come on, who’s the lucky guy?”
“Joel,” she snapped.
My smile froze. “Sorry, what?”
“This isn’t new. I had it when I died, and now it’s never, ever going away. Happy?”
My mouth hung open like I was some kind of slack-jawed idiot. Melissa looked close to tears. I scrambled for something to say to make her feel better. “He always had a thing for nymphs.”
Melissa laughed, but it sounded more like a sob. She swiped at her eyes angrily and turned her back to me, taking deep breaths.
“Why didn’t you say anything when she got back? I don’t think she would have spent so much time with him had she known—”
“Gee, that makes me feel much better. What was I supposed to tell her?” Melissa’s voice was thick. “Hey, Persephone, thanks for bringing me back from the dead and all, but while you were stuck in the Underworld, fearing for your life, I was having a blast here on the surface with the guy you’ve been crushing on all year.”
“She had Hades,” I pointed out. “It wasn’t like she was thinking about Joel while she was down there.”
“He didn’t talk to me after…” She trailed off, gathering her hair into a ponytail at the base of her neck. “I thought it was me. Boreas had me for a while, and then I was dealing with the whole coming back to life thing. It wasn’t until school started I even tried to track him down, and by then he’d moved on. Gods, I was so stupid. I was worried about Persephone when she was down in the Underworld. But…I was also relieved. Everything in my life revolved around her, and for the first time, I was free of it.”
Melissa shook her head. “You don’t know what it’s like to have your whole life spelled out for you, and I couldn’t even be mad at her because she didn’t know. She’s my best friend. I love her like a sister, but she’s my obligation. And I thought he—”
Her eyes
closed. “Whatever, I was wrong. He was just keeping tabs on me to use against her. I make a good hostage.”
I nodded. “You really do.”
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Yeah, thanks.”
“Did he charm you?”
She grabbed a white wooden brush—with yellow daisies carved and painted in an intricate pattern running up the handle—from Persephone’s dresser. “No. I think I’m immune. Persephone’s never charmed me, and as much as I’d like to think it’s because I’m her best friend, I watched her come into her charm. She had no control over it.”
Immunity could be handy. “Don’t tell anyone else.” Melissa would make an ideal spy in a room full of Zeus’ offspring who were used to charming mortals into forgetting what they’d just heard. “When Persephone gets back, she can try to charm you to confirm, but you’re probably right. Nymphs had a higher tolerance to that kind of thing.”
“Mmm,” she agreed, pulling her hair up into a ponytail and twisting a purple scrunchie into place. “I think that makes it worse though. That I wasn’t charmed. I don’t have that excuse, you know, for not being able to see through him. For being tricked, or whatever. It was all me.”
“Worse.” Any sympathy I felt for her vanished. Something in my voice must have sounded off, because Melissa stopped fiddling with her hair and studied my reflection in the mirror.
I let out a disgusted sigh. “You know, every time I think I’m starting to like you, that you’re not just beneath me, you open your mouth and something stupid falls out.”
Indignation flashed in Melissa’s eyes but I continued, heedless of her rage. “You have no idea, none, what it’s like not to have a choice. To have to listen and obey. To feel your body controlled by someone else, moved around like a puppet, and to be absolutely powerless to stop it—”
“Aphrodite.” Her voice was low and sympathetic.
I rolled my eyes and turned away from her, grabbing the brush and yanking it through my own hair. “I mean—” I sighed, exasperated. “Just think of how poor Persephone felt.”