Persephone

  My mother took a measured breath. “It doesn’t work like that. We were created, not born. Genetically we have nothing in common with each other. Brother and sister are human titles for the relationship we have with each other. And marriage is different to gods. Humans have a much narrower moral code—”

  “Rather shortsighted of you to raise me as one then.”

  “Nothing I do is shortsighted. If you’d like, we can discuss the different customs and moral standards between gods and humans on the road. We have a long drive ahead of us. Now get in the car.”

  I decided to humor her. It was either that or take her seriously, and I couldn’t handle that. If I treated this like a joke long enough, maybe she would crack a smile, or laugh and admit she was just messing with me. It could be true. Mom had a horrible sense of humor. “I suppose Mount Olympus is a rather long drive. But hey, I’ve always wanted to meet my dad.”

  “The majority of the gods died thousands of years ago when Olympus fell.”

  Okay, I was done humoring her. “Mom, I’m only sixteen.”

  “I couldn’t let you come into the world back then,” she said, catching my hand. “Those were terrible times. I waited until you would be safe. I cursed my priestesses with immortality so I would always have worshippers—”

  “Doesn’t sound like much of a curse.”

  “And when the time was right, I arranged for Melissa to be born. I’ll curse more priestesses for you over time.”

  “Well, thanks for that.”

  My sarcasm was lost on her. “As a child of Zeus, you’re especially blessed.” She released my hand and turned to take a last look around the shop. “You will be successful in anything—”

  I couldn’t listen anymore. I bolted out the door and dashed into the parking lot. My mother had lost her mind to a delusion of freaking Greco-Roman proportions. This was my fault. I’d brought home too many of Professor Homer’s myths.

  I fumbled with the keys, watching the door of the shop for my mom. My car roared to life before she got the door opened. I slammed my car into drive and tore out of the parking lot, narrowly avoiding the tree in its center. My cell phone rang and I silenced it, throwing it in the back seat. I turned the radio on when I turned onto Lumpkin Street.

  When Five Points disappeared from my rearview mirror I let myself cry. What was I going to do? I didn’t know a lot about crazy people. Was this the first step before my mom went on some kind of murderous rampage? Oh my God, would she take my suggestion to smite people seriously? I had to warn Chloe not to come back to the shop.

  I reached for my phone instinctively before remembering it was in the back seat. I glanced in my rearview mirror. The screen was still lit up, indicating a call was coming through. I remembered Mom saying Chloe wasn’t coming back after the deliveries. I’d just have to hope that was the case.

  The stores and traffic faded behind me, replaced by trees and winding roads. I realized I’d driven toward Melissa’s farm. I needed to warn her in case my mom really did try to kidnap Melissa. Mrs. Minthe could help me. She could tell me what to do.

  Chapter VI

  Orpheus’ latest album blared out of my speakers singing “Mortus Dei,” as my bug tore down Hog Mountain Road. What if she’s not crazy, a voice in the back of my mind whispered. I laughed. Was this how it started? Voices disguising themselves as your own thoughts? She had to be crazy.

  I gripped the steering wheel. If I began to believe my mother’s claims of divinity, my world would unravel! If she were telling the truth it would mean everything I knew about myself was a lie. My mother, and even Melissa, the two people I trusted more than anyone else in the world, had lied to me my entire life.

  No. I would rather believe my mother was crazy. They had pills to fix crazy. Trust was harder to repair. Lives were harder to rebuild. I couldn’t move away! This was the only home I’d ever known. I’d fix this somehow.

  It makes sense.

  “Shut up!”

  Unbidden images flashed through my mind. Eyes disappearing behind enlarged pupils. Frost creeping up yellow legal pad pages. Ice slashing across my windshield. Orpheus handing me his card.

  Orpheus… I turned my head to look at my phone, perched tantalizingly on the back seat. I swore, turning my attention to the road. A deer darted across. I didn’t even slow.

  Was this what he’d been talking about? No way. You’ve never even been sick, I reminded myself. Gods couldn’t get sick, could they? The other kids at school got sick all the time, colds, allergies, something.

  “And the feeling of being watched, Persephone?” I deflected. “Got an answer for that? This is textbook crazy. I mean, I’m even talking to myself.”

  Pirithous did mention someone sending him.

  I wanted to put my hands to my ears, but the damn steering wheel demanded my attention. I sang as loudly as I could but the voice within me would not be silenced.

  I heard Melissa’s voice. “You know she’ll do anything your mom asks.”

  “You’re going to have questions.”

  “No!” I stabbed at the dial, turning up the music. Gravel crunched under my tires when I pulled into Melissa’s driveway. I didn’t even have time to knock before Melissa opened the door and threw herself into my arms.

  “Your mom called and told us what happened! Are you okay?” She pulled me into the house before I could formulate an answer.

  All that reckless driving and I’d gone exactly where she’d expected. Go figure. “What did my mom tell you exactly?”

  “She said some guy found out what you are and tried to take you!”

  Found out what you are! My hope that this was all a crazy theory of my mother’s was being ripped from my grasp. “What do you mean by that?”

  “He found out that you’re a goddess.”

  I couldn’t breathe. The world spun. I was slipping and sliding sideways, unable to regain my balance.

  “Persephone!” Melissa yelled as I swayed on my feet.

  I took a deep breath, forcing the sparkling spots to slowly slip away. I stumbled away from Melissa and back onto the wooden porch. “Not you too.”

  “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you, but your mom wouldn’t let me.” She reached out to steady me.

  “Stay away from me!” I retreated down the stairs and to my car. Melissa shouted after me but I ignored her. I needed to get out of here. I needed to think, to process everything that had happened. The drive passed in a blur that I couldn’t remember and I found myself at Memorial Park.

  I made my way to my usual picnic spot; the flowers and trees and flowing water fountain in the middle of the sparkling lake always calmed me down. My stomach growled, reminding me that I’d skipped lunch in all the confusion. I dug in my purse for my stash of snacks and pulled out a plastic bag full of pomegranate seeds.

  I walked past the playground to the rock garden, spreading my daisy-patterned blanket out on top of the bleached grass. Wildflowers grew, tricked into bloom by the mild weather. My breath caught when a crane took flight from the scrub bushes near the wooden bridge spanning the lake. I ate a pomegranate seed and tried to think. I needed a plan.

  My red-stained fingertips reverently clutched the card Orpheus had given me. Did my mom think he was a god? Mom had said something about building a support net. Maybe that was why he’d acted so weird around me.

  But Melissa believed my mom. What did that mean?

  My hands shook as I held the card. If one more person believed her theory, I’d know. I’d know I wasn’t going crazy, that something was legitimately different about me.

  I didn’t need to look at the card to dial the number. My heart threatened to beat free of my chest as the phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  My mouth went dry at the sound of his voice.

  “Hello?” He waited a beat, sounding irritated now. “Is anyone there?”

  I hung up. I couldn’t ask him if I was a god! He’d think I was crazy! Or worse, he’d know that I wasn’t.
>
  This was ridiculous. If I was a goddess, I should be able to do something. If I couldn’t, I wasn’t. No need to drag anyone else into this.

  “I can’t believe I’m even considering this,” I muttered.

  My hair whipped across my face as a breeze picked up around me. I sat up and placed my hand on the cool, dark earth before me, feeling energy thrumming through the soil. I closed my eyes and concentrated on making something, anything, happen.

  I felt a tickle against my palm and jerked forward, eyes flying open. I nearly fell face first in the dirt when a bright green stem unwound itself between two of my outstretched fingers. I scarcely breathed as red petals unfurled themselves into a tiny red poppy.

  I gasped. I had powers! I was a goddess! I wasn’t crazy, Mom wasn’t crazy. Melissa, Orpheus, it was all true. Wasn’t it?

  “I’m not hallucinating, am I?” I touched the flower, feeling the silky petal brush against my hand. The wind pushed me forward forcefully. My bag of pomegranate seeds blew over, spilling around the poppy. My dress flapped against my ankles as chills shot across my skin. I heard crackling and spun around to see the ground freezing around the flower.

  The frost crept toward me. The branches above me stretched toward my face, ice inching along the branches. I heard a loud snap and a massive branch broke from the tree and hurtled toward my head.

  I screamed and stumbled backward. The branch crashed in front of me, scraping my legs. I ran for the parking lot as fast as I could. The frost closed in, surrounding me. I’d never been claustrophobic, but as the frost cut off my escape path with a solid white wall, I panicked.

  Fog rolled in, like cold death, cutting off my view of the park. It curled around me, brushing against my face, arms, and legs. I turned back to the tree and ran faster, my dress tangling between my legs as the fog and icy wind blew against my skin.

  The parking lot is the other way! my mind screamed. The other way was cut off by a mountain of ice. I felt as if I was being herded. By ice?

  I slipped on the icy ground, falling face first into the frost. Ice crept up my toes and along my legs. I thrashed and screamed. I felt the fog becoming a solid mass above me, pinning me to the ground. The ice piled around me. Am I going to be buried alive?

  I dug my nails into the frigid snow in front of me and tried to claw my way out of the frosted death trap. I was so panicked I didn’t feel it when my nails broke against the impenetrable wall of ice, leaving red crescents of blood welling up on sensitive skin. An hysterical sob worked its way out of my throat as I gouged red lines into the ice. The ice was above my knees, snaking its way up my thighs. I shivered.

  Shivering’s good, I reminded myself. It means your body hasn’t given up…yet. The cold was painful, like a thousand little knives pricking my skin. A violent tremor went up my spine, sending waves of pain through me.

  “Help me!” I screamed, knowing it was futile. I was going to die here.

  Except I couldn’t die. Could I? Mom said I was immortal, but was that all-inclusive? Did I have a weakness? Was snow my Kryptonite? If I got hurt, would I heal or would I be trapped in an injured body in pain forever?

  I suddenly didn’t know if immortality was a good thing or a bad thing. The cold hurt. I was kicking, screaming, and clawing my way out of the frost, but for every inch I gained a mountain piled around me. I thought I heard a man’s laughter on the wind, the sound somehow colder than the ice freezing me into place.

  The ground before my outstretched hand trembled. The shaking increased. The earth lurched beneath me. The surface cracked and the sound was so loud that for a moment all I could hear was high-pitched ringing in my ears. The ground split into an impossibly deep crevice. My voice went hoarse from screaming as I peered into the endless abyss, trapped and unable to move away from the vertigo-inducing edge. A midnight black chariot, drawn by four crepuscular horses that looked like they’d been created out of the night sky, surged from the crevice. I ducked my head into the snow with a frightened whimper as they passed over my prone body.

  The fog around me dissipated as the ice melted away from my body. Terrified, I sprang to my feet, stopping when I was eye-to-eye with one of the frightening horses pulling the chariot. For a moment I could do nothing but stare into its huge, emotionless eyes. A strangled whimper tore from my throat and the horse snorted at me.

  They weren’t black; they weren’t anything. They were an absence of color and of light, a nauseating swirling void. They hurt to look at. My head ached, and my stomach lurched in mutiny. I clenched my fists and turned to the driver.

  His electric blue eyes met mine, and he seemed to see everything I’d done and everything I’d ever do. I had the strange sensation I’d been judged and found wanting. No way this guy was human. His skin could have been carved from marble; his hair was the same disorienting black as the horses. A terrifying power emanated from his tall, statuesque frame.

  I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. His ebony cape billowed behind him as he marched toward me. At the grasp of his hand I snapped back to life and jerked away from him.

  “We have to get out of here.”

  “Let me go!” I yelled, yanking my arm away. He closed in on me, pushing me toward the chariot. I struggled against him, shrieking with rage when he picked me up and slung me over his back like a sack of potatoes.

  I punched his back, kicking my legs. “Let me go! Someone help me! Help!”

  I recalled the instructor of some self-defense class long lost in memory reminding me dead weight was harder to carry than a thrashing captive. My body rebelled at the idea of going limp so I pushed aside his cape, pulled his shirt up and raked my torn and ragged nails across his bare skin. His hands jerked in surprise and I slid off his back and onto the hard ground.

  My breath left my body as I hit the ground with enough force to make me dizzy. With strength I didn’t know I possessed, I scrambled away, clawing at him as he pulled me back.

  “Enough!” he shouted. “We don’t have time for this! I have to get you out of here!”

  “No!” I yelled. Did he really just expect me to go Okay, strange creepy man, I’ll get in your scary chariot of death. No problem.

  His furtive gaze took in the empty park, and he swore in a voice as smooth as silk. “I’m sorry.”

  My eyes widened in surprise as his lips pressed against mine. I went wild, hitting and scratching and pushing for all I was worth. He didn’t budge. He exhaled, and I sank lifelessly into his arms.

  Through a haze, I felt myself being lifted and carried away. I tried to open my eyes, but they were too heavy.

  “You handled that well, Hades,” a woman’s sarcastic voice intruded on the fog of my thoughts. “You know what might have made it a bit easier?”

  “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

  Hades? I struggled harder against the heaviness of my eyes. The Hades? Lord of the Underworld, Hades?

  Crap!

  “A simple ‘I’m the good guy’ might have—”

  “You think I’m the good guy, Cassandra?” He laughed.

  “How about ‘I’m here to rescue you’?”

  “I didn’t say that?” He placed me on a soft surface. “I need to talk to Demeter, tell her what almost transpired here. Could you—”

  “You’re not going to return her home.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “Gods help me, Cassandra, I thought you were kidding.”

  “You know I don’t joke about my…”

  I tried to listen, but their conversation wasn’t making any sense and my mind wasn’t up to decoding their nonsense. I thought of my picnic blanket, poppy, and pomegranate seeds. What had happened? Had that freak ice storm been a consequence of using my powers? Something nudged the back of my brain, calling ancient myths and legends forward, but my mind banished those thoughts and surrendered to blissful darkness.

  Chapter VII

  I felt like I was lying on a cloud made of silk. I frowned, eyes fluttering open. My b
ed was not this comfortable, and my sheets were not made of silk, satin, or whatever this shiny slippery stuff was. I sat up, looking around the room, disoriented. It looked like my room but richer somehow.

  I climbed off the loft bed. The moment my feet touched the cool wooden floor, memories rushed through me. I gasped as I recalled the earth freezing and the chariot exploding from the ground. I traced my tingling lips with my fingertip. He’d kissed me! Well, sort of.

  I felt different, lighter somehow. For the first time in my life I’d woken up without any pressing needs. I wasn’t hungry or thirsty, nothing ached; I felt exhilarated.

  It was unnerving. My hands shook and my heart raced so fast I thought it would beat out of my chest. I gulped, remembering the man who’d taken me. I unclipped my phone from my waistband. It was four-forty-four. I’d been out for over six hours? I tried to call 9-1-1, but couldn’t get a signal. I walked through the room, keeping an eye on my phone. No luck.

  I studied my reflection in the full-length mirror hanging on the door. The fabric of my white dress was somehow unmarred by my struggle in the park. The scratches on my legs from the ice were gone; I didn’t have any bruises from the fall or so much as a hair on my head out of place. I checked my nails, expecting them to be torn, ragged, and bloody. They were perfect. I frowned, studying them closer. My clear polish had even been restored.

  Only my lips were different. They were as red as a pomegranate and tender to the touch.

  “What the hell?”

  I was surprised to find the door wasn’t locked. I opened it and stepped into a huge hall that looked as if it was carved from ebony. Not a single fingerprint marred the gleaming surface or silver trim. The floors were a checkerboard of black and white marble. I glanced up, curious if the ceiling was made of marble as well, but couldn’t tell because it was so far above my head.