Persephone

  The woman blanched and I hurriedly continued. “Alive. In the living realm, to collect your daughter immediately. We will get her to your family safely.”

  “There’s no one else.” She broke down sobbing.

  “That’s okay. She’ll be in good hands.” I told her about my mother and her priestesses, ending with, “She may even get a chance to be blessed with immortal life.”

  The woman took a second to process this. “I would never see her again?”

  “That will be up to her.”

  “She won’t remember me,” she said, blinking back tears. “I want what’s best for my daughter, but I just wish I could hold her again. Why was I taken from her! We had three weeks—” She broke off as the tears overwhelmed her.

  I wanted to hug her, or offer some sort of condolences, but what could be said in a situation like this? It sucked beyond description.

  The woman collected herself and gave Moirae the pertinent information. Then she left to be reunited with her husband.

  “How bittersweet,” Hades said after we contacted my mother. “Reunited with one love while another lost forever.”

  I nodded, blinking back my own tears. What right did I have to cry over this?

  “Is that why gods view immortality as a curse?”

  Hades shrugged. “Mostly when people were cursed with immortality, it was done in anger. The cursed would live, alone, and watch everyone they came to care for die over time. No one used it like your mother does. She formed a community. She’s always been different from the others.” He smiled at me. “Come on. It’s time to go to dinner, and then do your training.”

  Chapter XXI

  Over the next week, Hades began training me to use my abilities in earnest. I had to burn through my power before it burned through me, so every night after dinner I met with Hades in his library, I had my lesson, and then he would channel the residual power away so I could sleep without fear of exploding or something.

  Tonight was no exception, even though I was exhausted after the Valentine Ball. It had been different from Brumalia because Cassandra had been distant since Hades had snapped at her.

  I couldn’t blame her for being upset. She had been acting as the Queen of the Underworld for who knew how many hundreds of years before I came along. She’d always been at Hades’ side in court, public events, planning the events, and running a thousand minute day-to-day activities at the palace. Then I came along.

  I didn’t want the job. Cassandra could do it all, for all I cared. I’d grown to love the Underworld, but I didn’t want to rule it.

  I missed Cassandra.

  “You’re not focusing.” Hades sighed.

  His constant sighing didn’t grate at me like it once had, but it didn’t stop me from feeling a pinprick of annoyance for my interrupted reverie. I tried to empty my mind like Hades instructed. I’d been excited about today’s lesson. He was finally teaching me how to teleport. It would only work in the Underworld, but it was possible I might be able to do something similar in the living realm. That would be a great resource if I ever needed to escape—or sneak up on—someone. Though I wasn’t sharing that revelation with Hades.

  Then we started the lesson. Hades used a lot of phrases like “empty your mind,” “visualize a place,” “focus your energies,” and whatever. It all felt New Age to me.

  Still, every now and then everything would snap into place, and I would feel things starting to shift. Then Hades would stop me and make me do it again.

  I emptied my mind and tried to focus my energy. I could feel it buzzing through me, resonating from the plants I grew in the library and humming through Hades. I visualized myself standing behind him and gave a little push.

  The world shifted around me, and I felt myself being pulled apart and thrown back together in a whir of sickening motion. I landed behind Hades with a thud, stumbling against his chair and nearly falling into his lap.

  “I did it!” I exclaimed, laughing.

  “Good. Let’s stop for tonight.” Hades caught my arm and stabilized me.

  “But I just got the hang of this!”

  “You’re straining too hard. You need to back off before you burn yourself out.” He led me back to my seat and gave me a little push. I frowned at him and sat.

  “Fine. I’ll go to bed.” I stood, or tried to. My knees gave way beneath me and I sank back in the chair, exhausted from using my abilities. Hades gave me a sideways glance as he returned to his chair, wisely saying nothing.

  “Why can’t we lie?” I asked. The question had been weighing on me ever since the words to save Pirithous had stuck in my throat. “Humans can, so why can they do something we can’t?”

  “It’s a fail-safe we implemented after we created them and made the world a more suitable place.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “When a god speaks, the words have power. Speaking an untruth could change the nature of the thing we’re lying about. Since creation was a collaborative effort, we took away our ability to change our creations without the other gods present.”

  “Oh.” I glanced around the library, searching for a way to change the topic without making it obvious I’d pushed myself too hard to make it down the hallway. “You don’t have to keep those. I can plant them outside.” I motioned to the flower pots scattered around the room.

  Wait a minute. They weren’t scattered. I leaned forward. Three tiny flower pots decorated the windowsill. One sat on a table, and a pair of tall pots flanked a set of book shelves. Hades plucked the flowers we’d been working with today off the table and set them on his desk, shuffling the papers to make room.

  Hades was decorating. With something of mine. The library was his most private, personal space, and something I’d made belonged in it. This was big.

  “You draw on them for your power. It leads to better practices.”

  I frowned, shoulders slumping. Or there’s a perfectly logical explanation.

  Hades shrugged. “Also, they smell like—” He cut off and busied himself in sorting his papers. “They smell good.”

  Me? Did they smell like me? My mind flashed back to the throne room. He’d said he was in love with me, but… I glanced at the flowers again.

  Holy cow! He was. He really was. “Hades?”

  He turned from the desk. “Yes?”

  My mind went blank. “Um…you have a lot of books.” The instant the words left my mouth I felt stupid. But I hadn’t known what else to say. I’ve known this whole time that you can’t lie or anything, but I didn’t really believe you until I saw the flowers? That sounded stupid. Besides, I knew where the conversation would lead. Stupid age difference.

  “Reading is a passion of mine.”

  “Ditto.” I smiled, thinking of a few of my favorites.

  His eyebrows rose in surprise, but I was used to that reaction. I was admittedly not the brightest crayon in the box, so people seldom thought I was the type of person who would sit around on rainy days and read books. Granted, I was more likely to be reading the latest supernatural romance novel in the Dusk series than I was to be reading Jane Austen.

  “Don’t look so surprised,” I snapped, moving to stand.

  Hades laughed. “I’ve just never seen you with a book. I’ve seen you here before, but never reading anything.”

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I wasn’t getting service, but I could still access my books, music, and movies.

  “All my books are on here.” I opened the application. “Less clutter.”

  He took my phone and started flipping through the small screen. “You read whole books on this?”

  “All the time. They have a big version, but mom says it’s too expensive.” We’d see about that when I got back from the Underworld.

  Hades snorted. “These aren’t books, these are—” He paused. “Dusk? Seriously?”

  “What? It’s good!”

  “I considered creating a dimension of Tartarus that forced souls to watch the movie
based on this book for all eternity. Complete with shrieking harpy fan girls in the audience.”

  I snatched my phone back. “Have you even seen it?”

  “Cassandra made me watch it.” Hades shuddered.

  “It’s a great movie and an even better book!”

  “It’s ludicrous. What is with this recent human obsession with vampires?”

  I sat up in my chair. “Were there ever any vampires?”

  “Well, there was Hecate’s daughter, Empusa. She would seduce men and drink their blood as they slept. Poseidon’s daughter, Lamia—”

  “Like the Midnight World books!”

  “What?”

  I scooted my chair closer to him and pulled up the book on my phone. “Born vampires are called Lamia, and made vampires are called—”

  “Yeah, sorry I asked. Anyway, Lamia was Poseidon’s daughter. She had an affair with Zeus and had several kids. Hera found out about it and forced her to devour her children—” I gasped and Hades paused. He looked as though he was going to say something, perhaps to defend Hera, then shrugged and continued with the story. “Afterward, Lamia continued to drink the blood of mortal children until Zeus took pity on her and removed her eyes.”

  “How exactly was that supposed to help?”

  “It makes it harder to catch the children.”

  I shook my head. “That’s…you know what, there are no words.”

  “There were also Striges, or Strix, which were birds that fed on blood, and there was that island of the blood dri—”

  “Okay! I’m sorry I asked.” I held up my hands in surrender. “I meant—” I pointed to my phone “—vampires like these.”

  “Refined gentlemen who occasionally drink blood? It’s a complete myth.”

  I thought it was ironic to hear that from Hades while sitting in the Underworld, but refrained from pointing that out. “What’s your favorite book? Oh, let me guess. Inferno.”

  Hades laughed. “No. It’s hard to say a favorite. I enjoyed everything by Alexander Dumas. Have you read his work?”

  “I’ve seen the movies.”

  “The books are much better.” He stood and pulled them from the shelf. “Here, you should read them. In print.”

  I laughed and stood to accept them. “Thank you.” My hand brushed his when I took the books and I suppressed a smile at the thrill that went through me.

  Hades cleared his throat, and I realized I’d frozen in place, but then he hadn’t moved either.

  The door to the study burst open and I jumped guiltily away from Hades, as if I’d been caught doing more than just standing there. Hades remained where he was and raised an eyebrow at the intrusion.

  “Yes, Cassandra?”

  “I need to talk to you,” she panted. I wondered if she had run all the way here. “Alone.”

  I gaped at her. She’d been distant but never rude. She couldn’t be ignoring me completely now, could she? I ground my teeth together, hurt. I’d never been good at confrontation. I wished I knew a way to make this right.

  Hades frowned. “Cassandra—”

  “Hades, I mean it,” she snapped. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “This can’t wait.”

  “You’ve had a vision?” Hades asked, and Cassandra nodded. The two exchanged a look I couldn’t read. Hades let out a tense breath and turned to me. “Persephone, you should—”

  “Don’t finish that sentence,” I warned him, and turned to Cassandra. “Why don’t you want me to know what you saw?” I asked Cassandra, panic rising. “My mom? Did something happen to my—”

  “No,” she assured me. “Your mother is fine.”

  “What then?” I demanded. “What happened?”

  She looked at Hades, appealing to him with her eyes.

  “Persephone…” Hades whispered.

  “No! I am not leaving until I know what she saw!”

  Cassandra looked apologetically at Hades. “Boreas has taken Melissa.”

  Chapter XXII

  The air whooshed out of my body and I sat with a thud. Has taken. Not will take. Whatever she saw, it was something that would be done now that Boreas had taken Melissa. A thousand possibilities competed for attention in my thoughts, each worse than the last. Hades was talking, but I couldn’t hear him. All I could think about was my friend in the hands of that monster.

  “Why didn’t you warn us?” I advanced on Cassandra. She must have seen something in my eyes because she shrank back.

  “I can’t see everything. There’s been a lot happening on the surface. Her kidnapping must not have been chaotic enough to draw my attention.”

  I narrowed my eyes. What else had happened that I wasn’t told? I forced that thought to the background. It didn’t matter right now. I had to rescue Melissa. “You have to help her,” I told Hades.

  “Boreas is only doing this to draw you out,” Hades reminded me. “I can’t let you go after her, and I can’t leave my realm unprotected.”

  “You can’t let me?”

  “I can’t risk you for a mortal. No. I’m sorry.” He cut off my protest with a wave of his hand. “I know this is hard for you, but if it’s any consolation, I don’t think he’s going to go to the extremes with her that he did with Oreithyia. He only chose her to draw you out. Once he realizes we’re not coming he’ll simply kill her, and then you’ll be reunited with her down here.”

  Cassandra’s inward hiss of breath was the only warning Hades got before I flew at him.

  “You bastard!” I shrieked, my fists flailing, all of my self-defense lessons completely forgotten. He caught my wrists easily, dodging a knee to the groin. “Coward! You would just let her die!”

  “Persephone!”

  I tried to twist my wrists from his grasp, but he was too strong.

  “Let me talk to your mother, okay?” I tried to wrench free, and he raised his voice. “Let me talk to her! I can’t just step in, Persephone! That is her realm and the daughter of one of her priestesses!”

  The words penetrated the red haze clouding my mind. I went slack in his grip, breathing erratically. My mom could fix this. She would rescue Melissa. Mrs. Minthe was her priestess. Mom had arranged for Melissa to be born so I would have a priestess. Boreas had chosen his victim well. Melissa mattered too much for us to let her die.

  I was not in the room for the conversation with my mother. For some reason Hades was afraid I might try to attack him if the conversation didn’t go my way. I lay down on my bed and did my best to rest. I needed to be at full strength, and Hades and I’d just spent the last of my powers.

  After endless hours, Cassandra updated me on the situation. Boreas was holding Melissa hostage, and the price for her release was me. He promised no harm would come to her until next Saturday, when the exchange could be made.

  That seemed like a long time, but it made sense. He’d no doubt burned through his powers kidnapping Melissa. He’d need ample time to get them back.

  Of course, both my mother and Hades agreed exchanging me was out of the question. Their goal was to find Boreas as soon as possible and rescue Melissa. That was fine with me. I had a backup plan if necessary.

  Over the next week I threw myself into my training. I was careful not to tip off Hades to my plan. He approached my goddess lessons warily but couldn’t deny them to me. It was too dangerous not to have them. He seemed relieved when I chose to focus on teleporting. I could practice everything else on my own time.

  Charon was more blunt. “You’re not going to do something stupid if I teach you this, are you?”

  “How exactly could I use pressure points against Boreas?” I asked in a dry voice. I wiped my sweaty palms on my black exercise shorts, shifting my feet to see the indentions they made on the blue matt.

  “You couldn’t. You know that, right? If you get this close to him you’re as good as dead.”

  “I know that.”

  Charon met my eyes. “He’d come after you sideways, using the elements at his disposal. You’d want to be fas
t on your feet and prepared to break the ice. Watch under your feet, watch for flying icicles, and remember, your plants don’t react well to his ice.”

  I kept my eyes level with his. “Thank you.”

  He sighed. “Has Hades taught you how to make shields?”

  I shook my head. There were different kinds of shields. Hades used shields for privacy as opposed to defense. There were shields to prevent you from being seen, or heard, but there were also shields for physical protection. For the next hour I practiced throwing up a shield when Charon tossed dirt clods at me.

  I focused on keeping him off balance, alternating my shields with making vines twist up around his feet.

  “Hey! You don’t need the thorns here!”

  “Sorry!”

  We kept it up for another few minutes before calling it quits. I stood, breathing hard.

  “It won’t be enough,” Charon muttered on his way out the door.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t want to hurt you. He does. He really, really does. Please, Persephone. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  He didn’t wait for me to answer before he left. He knew I couldn’t lie. After that lesson, Thanatos followed me like a shadow in and out of the palace. He was unusually silent about the whole thing. My feelings were a little hurt. I’d been counting on his support. He might not help me, but I knew he’d understand. Without him to talk through my plans, what could I do?

  I shot him a frustrated look before I knocked on Hypnos’ door.

  Hypnos answered, face falling when he saw it was me. “Persephone.”

  “I need to learn how to get into human dreams to tell Melissa how hard we’re trying to find her. Maybe she knows where she is!”

  “It’s not possible. She hasn’t been given immortality yet. She hasn’t been altered in any way. We can’t enter every human’s dreams. Just a select few.”

  “Melissa’s my priestess. Shouldn’t she be one of the few?”

  Hypnos shook his head. “I already tried. Your mother hasn’t done anything to alter her yet. She’s probably waiting for you to stop aging before cursing her with immortality.”