Persephone

  “What about Boreas, can’t you spy on him in his dreams?”

  “His defenses are too good.”

  “Better than you?”

  Hypnos hesitated. “Actually, yes.”

  “How? Hades and my mom said there was no way he had much power left. How is he pulling all of this off?”

  “That’s a good question.”

  When no answer was forthcoming, I gritted my teeth. “What if I leave myself open? If he came to me, how could I get information from him?”

  Hypnos’ face closed of all emotion. “I’m not going to help you if you’re going to do something foolish. Goodbye, Persephone.” He closed the door.

  When I could sleep, I left my mind unguarded. Boreas didn’t take the bait. I felt like I’d hardly blinked when Saturday arrived. I summoned my keys and wallet and shoved them in my book bag. I pushed it under the bed, then I went to wait outside of Hades’ chambers, as I had every morning since Melissa’s abduction, while he conferred with my mother. I jumped when the door opened.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “She couldn’t find him, but she’s not giving up. She’s searching everywhere. We know exactly where he’s going to be this afternoon. If she can catch him off guard before…”

  I knew what he meant. If they could rescue Melissa before he realized that I was not coming…otherwise she would be dead.

  Tears weren’t hard to call up, and I flung myself into Hades’ arms. He hugged me, and I muttered something about my bedroom, sniffling for good measure. He led me back to my room where Cassandra was waiting.

  “I need to change,” I said as though dazed. I plucked at the top of my white dress, indicating the stains from my mascara running.

  Hades held out a hand, blocking Thanatos from entering my room.

  “I’ll wait out here,” Thanatos said with a shrug.

  The door closed. I made a show of sniffling while I changed into jeans and a thick velvet shirt. When Hades’ footsteps faded down the hall, I stopped crying. Cassandra turned to face me, eyes wary.

  “Interesting choice,” she noted as I pulled on a sweatshirt.

  “I’d do the same for you.” I reached under the bed and grabbed my bag.

  Comprehension dawned in her eyes. “I can’t let you.”

  “I don’t suppose that, since I’m your queen, you have to obey me?” The sentence came out garbled, the thought half formed in my head, but the indignant look that flashed through her eyes told me she understood what I was getting at.

  “Humans have always had free will. I’ve known Hades much longer than I’ve known you. If you try something, I will go to him. I can’t let you do anything stupid.”

  “I’ve got free will too.” I grabbed her arm. “It’s not in your power to let me do anything.”

  “Thanatos!” she shouted.

  I acted without thinking, otherwise it would have never worked on Cassandra. When I opened my eyes, we were looking down at the palace as the Lethe sparkled becomingly in the distance.

  “What did you do?” Cassandra wrenched her arm free. “Where are we?”

  “Olympus.”

  “You can’t! No one can teleport past the rivers!”

  “No, you can’t,” I replied, as though I’d known this would work. “I’m queen of this realm, remember?”

  “Persephone!” she gasped. “You can’t do this. I can’t cross the Lethe.”

  “I can’t have you telling Hades,” I replied, watching mournfully as our friendship died. “I’ll be back for you, but if I don’t make it back, it won’t take Hades long to find you.”

  “Thanatos had to have heard me!”

  “Then I’d better hurry.”

  “No! Persephone!” She grabbed my arm. “Please don’t leave me here. Anywhere else, you can leave me anywhere else and I’ll stay, I promise I’ll stay. Please don’t leave me here.” She sounded close to tears, her voice was panicked, and she was breathing hard.

  “Why?”

  “Please,” she begged, tears dripping down her face. “Don’t leave me where the other gods could find me. You wouldn’t understand, you didn’t grow up when they were in power. They aren’t like you or Hades.”

  She was shaking, and too late I remembered how she had been cursed with visions.

  “I won’t leave you in Tartarus.” I shuddered. “I couldn’t put you through that.”

  “I won’t tell him, I promise. Please don’t leave me here, please.” She searched my face and saw I didn’t believe her. “Take me to the other side of the Styx,” she suggested. “You know Charon won’t reach it until this afternoon. You know his schedule as well as I do. You can do that.”

  I grabbed her arm and we vanished. When the Underworld materialized around us we were standing on a rickety pier, sticking out into the black water. I remembered the water was made of the tears of those leaving the living realm and wondered if any of those were Cassandra’s.

  She collapsed on the pier, shaking and crying.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling terrible that I needed to leave her in this barren landscape. A thick mist shrouded the pier, leaving me with the feeling of being smothered in darkness.

  “Just go.” She shifted away from me and faced the river.

  I vanished. When my feet touched the ground again, I was standing in Tartarus. The ground hissed beneath my feet, and I heard a bent figure snuffle, feet dragging the ground as it shuffled my way.

  I shuddered, remembering being surrounded by those once-human twisted beings. I flicked my fingers and a thorn bush sprang up around it. It hissed and snapped its jaws, spittle flying from its decayed and bent mouth. I circled it, making sure it was secure.

  “You’re going to take me to the nearest entrance.” I watched as the thorns grew into its thrashing body. “Now.”

  I released it, and the creature stumbled. I expected more of an objection, but the creature led me to a small passageway. It eyed me hopefully. I grimaced as I touched its shoulder. “I wouldn’t bring you with me if I could.”

  I teleported him to the edge of the river of fire. If I got back, I wasn’t sure I’d have enough energy left to defend myself, and I didn’t want to risk him waiting for me at the entrance.

  I adjusted the backpack on my shoulders, took a deep breath, and stepped into the narrow crevice between the stones.

  Chapter XXIII

  I emerged from the earth with a confused frown. I should be in Athens, not the Arctic! Snow and ice covered the ground. A splash of red against the frozen wasteland caught my eye. I slid across the snowy surface. I bent my knees, touching my hand to the ground to slow to a stop when I approached a giant snow-covered tree with long icicles weighing down its mighty branches. A carpet of poppies surrounded the base, somehow unaffected by the snow towering around them.

  My breath caught, and I surveyed the landscape with new eyes. It wasn’t possible. I’d never seen more than a few inches of snow in Athens in my entire life! There should be a lake in the distance, and a road. I didn’t bother looking for my car; my mother would have picked it up shortly after the attempted abduction. The blanket and the pomegranate would be long gone, but surely an entire park couldn’t be obliterated by snow!

  I closed my eyes, envisioning Five Points. Hades hadn’t been sure if I could teleport in the living realm, but the theory was sound. The earth was my domain, shared by my mother. I should be able to move about as freely here as I could in the Underworld. With a sickening lurch, the land whipped around me, and I found myself standing in Earth Fare’s parking lot across from my mother’s flower shop.

  Five Points was deserted. Every store was closed tightly against the icy invasion. I picked my way across the street until I reached the window of our shop. Empty. Everything was empty. No one was walking down the street, and no cars waited at the intersection.

  Fingers clumsy with cold, I reached into the bag I’d prepared in the Underworld and pulled out the shop keys. It was no warmer inside. I flipped on the heat a
nd perched on the wooden stool by the register. Unwilling to deal with the shop’s slow computer, I pulled out my phone, loading the webpage for the Banner-Herald. Story after story filled the screen. For the first time in written history snow covered the ground worldwide. Meteorologists were scrambling for answers.

  Here and there I could see touches of my mother’s work to keep the world afloat: Plants inexplicably unharmed by frost, electricity that had remained on throughout the blizzard, women—my mother’s priestesses—coming to the aid of stranded motorists. While I’d been making my impetuous demands, the entire world had been freezing.

  Mention of Orpheus’ new cult slammed the brakes on my thoughts. Orpheus had been careful not to mention Boreas, so as not to lend him power with belief. My mother’s namewas used frequently as someone who could help during this time of peril. The mysteriously helpful women were identified as belonging to something called the Eleusinian Mysteries or the cult of Demeter. At the base of the cult was a heartfelt tale of a woman trying desperately to be reunited with her lost daughter.

  This blizzard couldn’t have been going on since my abduction. Orpheus and his wife had been hiking before she died. My fingers swiped across the screen, looking for the first of the stories. They began days after Orpheus had begun to make headlines.

  I breathed deeply. It wasn’t as bad as I’d thought, but it was far worse than I’d been told. All of my updates for the living world came from Cassandra. I laughed out loud; Cassandra, the most trusted soul in the Underworld, could lie. My hands shook in anger.

  Stop, think, I commanded myself with a deep breath. I could guess at their reasoning. They didn’t want me doing something stupid. Unforgivable perhaps, but I had bigger fish to fry. What did this mean for me?

  Boreas was stronger than I’d thought. Winter and its elements would be the first thing on everyone’s mind right now. He would be gathering strength from that.

  Why was he doing this? This had to be bigger than me. However powerful Boreas had become, he still couldn’t hold a candle next to Hades or my mom. If this was a pride thing, or revenge against my mother, why hadn’t he tried something like this before?

  I glanced at the clock. Ten-thirty. Boreas would be at the park at noon for the exchange. Hades could discover me missing at any moment, and this would be one of the first places he would look for me. It was time to move on to the second stage of my plan. But first, warmer clothes. I’d underestimated the bite of the cold.

  I debated saving my powers, but my head was already aching. I needed to burn more power if I hoped to be able to stay on my feet in the clearing. I closed my eyes and teleported to Masada Leather. I quickly searched through the racks and found a thick leather jacket. I pulled it on. I couldn’t find anything warmer than the jeans I’d summoned in the Underworld, so I searched until I found a pair of winter boots that didn’t have a crazy heel and kicked off my sneakers. I tossed the price tags on the counter with the appropriate amount of money, and then teleported to the university’s greenhouse to wait out the next hour. I couldn’t go to the clearing early; there was too much of a chance I’d be spotted by my mother—or even Hades, once he found Cassandra—and I needed to practice.

  At noon I appeared under my tree in the clearing. I made sure I knew exactly where the entrance to the Underworld was and breathed a little easier with the knowledge that I could return to safety where Boreas couldn’t follow. To my left, I saw my mother, tight-lipped and pacing the clearing. She looked furious. My feet crunched in the snow and she glanced up, eyes widening when she saw me.

  “Persephone—”

  Ice shot up around the clearing, forming a thick wall between us. Boreas materialized in the center of the clearing, holding a struggling Melissa. Her eyes met mine.

  “No!” she shouted.

  I glared at Boreas, finally able to put a face to my fears. He was tall and broad-shouldered. He wore a white toga, which blended perfectly with his snow-white skin. A white mustache and beard worked together to hide his lips, leaving the only color on his face his ice-blue eyes.

  He gave me a cold smile and widened his eyes. “This is a surprise.”

  His voice sent shivers up my spine, but I forced myself to stand tall as the wind whipped my hair around.

  “Cut the theatrics,” I snapped. “You’re not impressing anyone.”

  He laughed. “As you wish.” The wind died down. Sunlight returned to the clearing, but the ice wall remained. I frowned. He shouldn’t be able to keep my mother out.

  “I am releasing your friend,” Boreas announced with a strange grin. He shoved Melissa toward me, and she ran the remaining steps until she reached me. She threw her arms around me in a quick hug before turning her attention back to Boreas.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her.

  “Are you insane!” she snapped. “What are you doing here?”

  “I swore your friend would be unharmed until I released her to you. Would you say I have kept my bargain?”

  I looked at Melissa. “Did he hurt you? At all?”

  “My wrist is a little sore from him yanking me around,” she grumbled, “but no, he didn’t hurt me.”

  I took a deep breath and looked at Boreas. “You’ve upheld your end, and I’m prepared to uphold mine.”

  “Good.”

  Without batting an eye he sent an icicle hurtling toward us. I shoved Melissa away from me and in a flash of power the tree’s branches shot around us in a protective shell.

  “Enough of that,” Boreas said coldly. “I only have to deliver you alive. He didn’t otherwise specify in what condition.”

  He?

  Boreas’ footsteps crunched along the snow. “You have been a thorn in my side for too long, you and your bitch of a mother.”

  “Run!” I shouted to Melissa. “It’s me he wants!”

  “I’m not leaving you!”

  “You have to!”

  The tree shattered and I hit the ground, hands covering my head. I threw up a shield, rolling away from the daggers of ice. Vines shot around Boreas’ ankles.

  “Persephone!” Melissa shrieked. I blindly groped for her hand. The second my skin made contact I teleported, calling up the image of Five Points.

  My breath whooshed out of me when I hit a solid wall of ice. I fell to the ground, Melissa tumbling after me. I gasped in pain, unable to draw breath into my lungs.

  “Persephone!” Melissa shook my shoulder. “Persephone, you have to get up. Move! Persephone—” She hiccupped.

  Ignoring the blinding pain, I turned to face her. It was a struggle to make even that simple movement. She slouched above me, her face frozen in shock. A red icicle emerged between the two middle buttons on her blouse, and I frowned at the incongruous image.

  “Melissa?” I wheezed. She collapsed on top of me, her blood vivid against the white snow.

  Chapter XXIV

  Cold hands grabbed at my throat, dragging me up through the icy snow. I dug my feet into the snow and clawed at his hand. His foot caught me in my ribs, and I felt something snap. Boreas released my throat and yanked me to my feet by my hair. His lewd gaze took in my struggling form, and he smiled.

  No. Not happening. My wordless howl erupted through the clearing. The scream unleashed something deep within me, and I felt the power I’d been holding at bay explode through my body. What did it matter if it burned through me? Melissa was dead, and anything would be better than what Boreas had planned for me.

  A bright flash filled the clearing, and for a split second every detail in the clearing stood in stark relief against the light. Boreas howled and dropped me. My feet hit the ground and the snow melted beneath my feet, giving way to newborn grass.

  I looked at Boreas and narrowed my eyes. Vines shot through him, growing from within his struggling body, holding him aloft in the air.

  “What are you doing here?” Thanatos asked behind me. “Hades is going to—”

  “You can’t take her.” My voice was so feral I didn’t recogniz
e it. I met his eyes and saw his pupils widen.

  I drew back in surprise. I wasn’t supposed to be able to charm gods!

  “My lady,” he gasped. “I have no desire to offend you, but a soul was lost here today and a soul must be collected.”

  “Any soul?”

  He hesitated, and I stepped aside. Thanatos drew in a sharp breath at the sight of Boreas. The vines looped around his body, squeezing and tightening their grasp. Boreas made choking sounds as the vines crept out of his mouth, working their way out of his throat.

  I met Boreas’ eyes and watched his pupils widen. When I was sure he was charmed, I commanded, “Speak.”

  The vines shot out of his mouth and loosened from around his neck. Drops of frozen blood soaked into the grass beneath him.

  “I am sorry,” he breathed, entranced, “to have angered you. I will do anything to make it up to you.”

  “Why me?”

  “You’re beautiful and strong and—”

  “Why did you come after me!” I demanded.

  “I would have chosen you amongst thousands of others. All others pale in comparison to you—” I narrowed my eyes at him, and he swallowed hard. “I was asked to retrieve you by my master.”

  “Who is your master?”

  “Long has he been in hiding, building his strength. When he discovered he still had a daughter in the mortal realm, he instructed me to—”

  My head whipped forward in surprise. “What?”

  “Zeus lives.” He gasped as the vines tightened around him in response to my surprise. “I will tell you anything you wish. I will do anything.”

  I didn’t want anything from him. I wanted Melissa back. Tears pricked my eyes and I spoke without thinking. “I wish you were dead.”

  Boreas disintegrated into snow and ice.

  I blinked. Gods weren’t supposed to be able to die either. What was going on?

  Doesn’t matter; you have a soul now. Maybe you can still save Melissa.

  “There’s your soul,” I told Thanatos, like he had a choice in the matter. I wasn’t sure if this was possible, but it was worth a shot. “Melissa stays.”