by Amy Sumida
“How ironic.” Heidi smirked. “Wouldn't it be funny if Persephone found the sirens after they couldn't find her?”
“Yes, hilarious,” I said dryly.
“Oh, I do apologize,” Heidi said, instantly contrite. “I didn't mean to make light of your situation. Working here has given me a thick skin and a callous nature.”
“It's okay.” I waved away her concern. “I do the same thing all the time.”
“Yeah, you two are a lot alike,” Cer noted. “I think that's why we make such great friends, Elaria.”
“Then we'll be friends as well,” Heidi said generously. “For now, though, let's get you to the palace. I can let you through the gates, but you'll still have a bit of travel ahead of you. You might want to go it in hound form, Brother.”
Cerberus sighed and looked through the iron gates at the dark landscape ahead of us. “Yeah, that's a good idea.” He turned to me. “You up for a doggy-back ride, Ellie?”
“When am I not?” I chuckled.
“It was good to see you, Sis.” Cerberus hugged his sister one last time.
“Hopefully we can meet again before another six centuries pass,” Heidi said, then looked to me. “Take care of my brother, Elaria.”
“I will.” I reached out to give her another handshake and she pulled me into a hug.
“Thank you for being there for him when I couldn't,” she whispered in my ear.
“He's been there for me too,” I whispered back.
After I pulled away, sister and brother both changed into their other forms. Cerberus did so after he got undressed and handed me his clothes to hold onto. Cer's hound form was even more massive there in Hades; the Underworld Realm amped up his magic. I wondered if it was the same for Heidi, and if she became a smaller hydra in the Human Realm. Also, before I forget, can I just say: “Holy fucking hellfire, Hydra is a girl!” How did I not know that? And how did I not know that she was Cerberus's sister? I mean, technically, this is my pantheon; the Greeks are my peeps. I should know this stuff. So shameful. I could never tell my mother, she'd be utterly disappointed.
“Get on, El,” Cerberus said as he lowered one of his three heads.
I climbed on, using handfuls of fur to pull me up onto Cerberus's wide shoulders. It was an unusual seat, what with two other heads bracketing his central one. Once he lifted all three, though, I was actually penned in safely and didn't even have to bother with holding on. His heads held me.
Heidi opened the gates for us, and we passed through into Hades-proper. We called our goodbyes to her as Cerberus started an easy lope, covering thirty feet with each stride. The landscape passed by quickly, and I was grateful for that. Most of Hades is actually sunlit and beautiful, but the entrance is rather depressing. I could see it brightening up ahead, but first, we'd have to get across the Acheron, also known as the River of Woe, and to do that, we'd have to coerce Charon to give us a boat ride.
I was trying to work out how to handle Charon, the filthy bastard (I mean that quite literally, Charon has the worst hygiene of anyone I've ever known, even manticores think he's stinky) when we came to the shores of Acheron, where the souls of the unburied roam for eternity. It's really sad, actually, and as if their plight isn't bad enough, there's this giant elm tree that grows near the river, with false dreams clinging to the underside of each of its leaves. That may not sound so bad to you, but let me give you a clearer visual; this massive, dark tree –something that looks like it belongs in a Tim Burton graveyard– stretches its branches out like grasping, skeletal arms, hundreds of feet overhead. From each branch grows leaves bigger than my palm, and beneath each leaf, right where you can look up and see them, are these amorphous clouds the color of oil slicks. Within these pulsing, bulbous masses, lurk the false dreams of every human on earth. Every nightmare, every failed hope, every torment you can think of, plays out in technicolor within the creepy, clingy, aqueous film beneath the leaves. And those poor, unburied souls had to stare at that shit forever.
Damn, Hades could be an asshole.
I was distracted by the tree, as nearly everyone who comes close to it is, so I didn't notice Cerberus's change of course, which was now taking us straight to the river, instead of to the line of souls which waited on the banks for Charon and his boat. I didn't even realize what the hound was doing until he was hip-deep in water. I screeched, pulling up my feet, even though I wasn't anywhere close to getting wet.
“Relax, princess”–Cerberus chortled–“the water isn't that deep.”
“Cer, this is the River of Woe!” I cried out as if he wasn't more familiar with Hades than I was. “You'll be slitting your own wrists by the time we . . . reach . . .”
My voice trailed off as Cerberus climbed up the bank and gave a shake, sending woeful water droplets flying in all directions. Luckily, I was so far up, they didn't splatter me.
“You were saying?”
“Shut up, you asshole,” I grumbled. “How the hell did you wade through that water without it affecting you?”
“Baby, I was born in Hell,” Cerberus said. “That's how. Nothing here affects me. It's in my blood. I'm a fucking monster of the realm.”
“Well, shit,” I huffed. “You could have warned me.”
“And miss seeing you panic? Not a chance.”
“You nearly had piss all over your back.”
“Oh”–Cerberus shivered–“that would not have been cool.”
“No, it would probably have been quite warm.” I chuckled. “And you would have deserved every drop.”
“Gross, El.”
“Your sister guards a gate hung with dead bodies, and yet it's my pee that grosses you out?”
“Nobody likes the thought of getting piss on them,” Cerberus said.
I would have laughed except we were traveling through what was sort of a neutral zone in Hades. The souls of children watched us with apathetic gazes. Among them were the souls of people sentenced to death wrongly, and those who committed suicide. None there had been evil enough to be punished, but neither were they good enough to be allowed into the Asphodel Fields, which was sort of the Paradise subdivision of Hades. The sad souls kind of ruined the joviality of my mood.
And then came the Vale of Mourning.
“Fuck, I forgot about this place,” I moaned.
“Yeah, it's one of those horrors that you force yourself to forget,” Cerberus agreed.
And boy was it. The Vale of Mourning was the darkest place above ground in the Underworld Realm. Only Tartarus was darker, and that was far to the West, beneath the earth. In Tartarus, the truly evil souls were tortured. So, I suppose that was the true Hell of Hells. But the Vale of Mourning was a close second. It was where the souls of those consumed with unhappy love dwell. Doesn't sound so bad? Just a bunch of whiny Romeos? Well, imagine your greatest heartbreak, and then imagine experiencing it times ten, forever. How would you react? How much would you scream? Would you pull your hair from your head? Perhaps cry until you were nothing but a husk? Beg for the pain to stop? Yes, you would do all of those things. The wailing of these heartbroken souls was chilling, and it stayed with me long after we crossed through their dark territory.
When we finally made it to Hades's Palace, I was a little shaken, and a lot relieved that I wouldn't have to return the same way we had come. Once within the palace, you could leave as you willed; so long as you were a welcome guest. If they'd known we were visiting, we could have probably traveled straight into the palace, like I'd done numerous times before, but Cerberus hadn't been certain of his welcome and had begged me not to give them a warning.
“Never again,” I vowed to Cerberus as I knocked on the ridiculously tall doors of Hades's Palace.“The next time I need to speak to Persephone, I'm going alone.”
I swear those doors were like fifty feet high. Who needs doors that large? Then I recalled Heidi and her hydra height.
“Come on, that was fun.” Cerberus smacked my shoulder.
He'd transformed back i
nto his man-shape, and put his clothes back on, just in time for someone to answer our knock. The guy who opened the door was one of Hades's attendants. I don't know which one, so don't ask me. It was best not to get too friendly with Hades's minions. And how weird is it that the god's name is also the name of the place where he lives? It always throws me off, but at the same time, I enjoy using it; it gives me a little internal giggle; Hades, Lord of Hades.
We were led through long, open hallways, and finally ushered into the royal receiving room; a rectangular space filled with statuary, Persian rugs, potted ferns, and rich fabrics. The floor was covered in an elaborate mosaic depicting Hades abducting Persephone. Ah, the humor of the gods –so whimsical. I grimaced at it.
“Elaria?” Persephone got up from her chaise and came over to hug me.
Her husband, Hades, remained where he was: seated in an armchair across from her lounger, set before a massive fireplace. He watched me carefully as I hugged his wife, as if I might throw her over my shoulder and run off with her. I suppose once you commit a crime, you eternally suspect everyone of plotting to do the very same thing. Hades didn't relax until I released Persephone and followed the goddess back to the sitting area.
“Boss,” Cerberus greeted Hades.
“Cerberus, you don't have to call me 'Boss' anymore,” Hades reminded Cer, not unkindly (huge surprise there). “Sit down, both of you. We've heard of the disappearances. I assume that's why you're here?”
“I was actually expecting Adelaid to come,” Persephone considered me. “Though I'm not too shocked that it's you, Ellie. How's your mother handling this? She must be so distraught.”
“My mother is one of the missing sirens.” I leveled a hard stare on Persephone. “We need your help.”
“Yes.” Persephone sighed and looked to Hades. “I've talked with my husband about this, but I'm not sure what we can do.”
“You could look for them,” Cerberus growled.
“Cerberus!” Hades snapped and my friend flinched.
“Hell no!” I pointed a finger in Hades's face. “If he doesn't get to call you 'Boss', then you don't get to treat him like an employee, Hades. We are guests in your home, practically family, and we deserve your respect. Especially after we just tromped through the Vale of Mourning to get here.”
“If you want respect, you must first give it,” Hades narrowed his eyes on me.
“Cerberus is suggesting what your wife can do to help women whom she owes a great debt to,” I said calmly. “And every minute we waste here is a minute those women could be going through unspeakable horrors.”
“They can't possibly be going through unspeakable horrors unless they're in my territory.” Hades smirked. “I hold the patent on 'unspeakable'.”
“Hades!” Persephone smacked her husband in the chest. “This is not the time for your jokes! You know they're right. Those women are like family to me and I owe them.”
Hades instantly looked cowed.
“I will do everything I can to help, Elaria,” she vowed. “I promise you, I will try every route open to me. I can make you no other promises, and I honestly don't know what to do, but I'll figure it out, and I will try my best.”
“Thank you, Persephone, that's all I can ask for,” I said. “I'm really worried about them.”
“I know you are, Ellie.” Persephone sighed. “I am too. I love them all dearly.”
“There are gods I can contact to help,” Hades offered. “We'll find them, Elaria. And then we'll punish whoever took them.”
“Get in line,” Cerberus growled.
“Yeah, behind me,” I added.
Chapter Thirty
Cerberus and I returned to Coven Cay, then went back to Pyrosvesti with my father. Cer's associates were following the witch suspects closely, but nothing had come from the surveillance yet. I was exhausted, so I decided to take a nap. Five minutes into sleep, my dreams became memories.
“This is exactly what I feared,” Banning hissed.
My vision panned down. Banning stood over a corpse; a pale body with lips pulled back in a grimace. Fangs glinted from that death rictus.
The blooder had caught me visiting my father. Contacting humans from your pre-blooder past was a crime within our community. Banning had spotted the spy and gave chase, catching up with the man in this alley . . . where he handled it. Banning always solved my problems for me.
“You didn't have to kill him,” I whispered.
“Fortune”–Banning rolled his eyes–“he would have gone straight to Cosmina and she would have killed you. He had to die.”
“Yes, very well,” I huffed.
“You see now why I didn't want you visiting your father?” Banning chided me. “This is too dangerous. After night falls, there is no other network of spies more vast than that of the blooder community. If there is a secret to be found, they will discover it.”
“I could not stay away,” I argued. “He's my father, Banning.”
“Not anymore,” he growled and grabbed my upper arms. “Now, I am your father, your blooded father. I created you and I love you more than anyone else in all the worlds. You threaten our existence with every visit here, Fortune. Can't you see that?”
I looked down at the dead body. “I see that.”
“Good”–Banning sighed deeply–“then go inside and make your final goodbye to your birth father. Tell him how these visits endanger you; I'm certain he shall understand.”
“Alright, Banning.”
“Yes?” He lifted his brows.
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank the gods.” Banning pulled me into a hug and then angled his head down to kiss me.
Tingles raced over my limbs, my thighs clenching together. I slid my hands over his thick shoulders and pulled him tighter to me. Banning growled and bit at me, drawing the tiniest bit of blood. The taste sent us both spiraling into desire, and he lifted me up, my legs wrapping around his hips. But then he faltered –tripping over something– and we both looked down.
“Right.” Banning stared at the body. “Perhaps I should deal with this first.”
“Perhaps.” I chuckled.
“Fortune, you laugh over the body of a fellow blooder.”
I frowned, realizing he was right. I had just found humor in the death of another person. I was barely blooded and already my humanity was slipping away.
“Easy now.” Banning steadied me, lowering me onto my feet. “This is an unusual situation. Perhaps it is a little humorous, in a very dark way, or perhaps you deal with trauma by trivializing it. I just wanted to show you the truth of the matter, so that you don't head down the same road as Cosmina.”
“I don't want to be like her,” I whispered.
“I don't want that either.” He hugged me tightly again. “So we will face our truths together, and if you falter into such cold cruelty, I shall pull you back.”
“And I will do the same for you.”
“You already have.” Banning brushed his lips across mine. It was the barest of kisses, but it sent shivers racing down my spine. “You have become my truth.”
“Banning!” I gasped as I sat straight up in my bed. I scrambled to the edge and snatched at my purse. With shaking fingers, I brought up his number and sent the call through. When his velvet voice answered, I shivered, still lost a little to the memory. “Banning, it's me, Elaria.”
“Elaria,” he went alert, “what is it? What's wrong?”
“How did you know something was wrong?”
“I can hear it in your voice,” he said. “Never mind that; tell me.”
“Is it true that the blooder community has one of the biggest networks of spies in the Beneath?”
“Yes,” his voice held a note of confusion. “The biggest, I'd say. We even sell information on occasion.”
“Do you think they would be able to find someone for me?”
“Elaria, what has happened?”
“Someone has been abducting sirens,” I said. “And they've
taken my mother.”
“I will handle this, sweetheart,” he said immediately. “Give me a few hours and I'll call you back.”
“What? Really?”
“Of course,” Banning said in surprise, “she's your mother, the woman who brought you back to me. Consider her found.”
“Um, I have a list of possible suspects, if that helps.”
“It does,” his concerned tone turned amused. “Go ahead, I'm ready.”
I gave him the names and he took them down, repeating them back to me for clarification.
“Thank you, Banning,” I whispered. “I won't forget this.”
“All that I am and all that I have are yours, Elaria,” Banning declared as if it was a simple fact. “Never hesitate to call on me.”
He hung up and I stared at the phone in shock. Banning always solved my problems for me.
Chapter Thirty-One
“You called who?” Cerberus's eyes couldn't have gotten any bigger.
“I had this dream,” I tried to explain.
“A dream, eh?” Cerberus smirked.
“Well, it was a memory, actually.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Stop looking at me like that,” I snapped.
“Like what?” Cerberus batted his eyes innocently.
“The memory brought up the fact that blooders are adept at uncovering secrets,” I said. “Something you should probably have mentioned.”
“Huh”–Cerberus scowled–“yeah, I guess they are pretty sneaky fuckers.”
“Cerberus,” I groaned.
“It hadn't occurred to me, El.” He shrugged. “But I'm glad it occurred to you, or popped up in your dreams, rather.”
“It was a memory.”
“What else did you remember?” He waggled his brows. “Anything involving my friend Banning in the buff?”
“Shut up.” I threw a pillow at him.
“Fuck, if Banning finds this asshole before I do, I'm gonna feel like shit,” Cerberus whined. “I have a gods-damned security company, for fuck's sake.”
“He's your friend.”
