She shook her head. “I’m not okay, Hades.”
My arms tightened around her. “I know. But you will be, when this is all over you’re going to be fine. You have to hang on to that, hear me?” I stared into her eyes. “You’re not okay, but you will be. We will fix this, I promise. Now, where are you?”
“I escaped Zeus, I think.” Her voice was muffled from talking into my shoulder. “I jumped out of his weird cloud castle thing. It’s in this hemisphere. It was still daylight when I jumped.”
My mouth dropped open. “You jumped?” Zeus’ fortress wouldn’t be close to the ground. The pain I’d felt had been her shattering upon impact.
She sniffled. “I couldn’t...” Her breath hitched. “I thought if I jumped I could teleport, but even if I couldn’t, anything would be better than what he was doing to me.”
Her shoulders shook, and I tightened my embrace. Zeus wasn’t dumb enough to leave his offspring with teleportation rights. I had my doubts she’d actually managed to escape him, but we’d cross that bridge when she woke up. “Do you know where you landed?”
The look on her face told me this wasn’t going to be good news. “The middle of the ocean.”
Poseidon’s realm. Shit. I took a deep breath. “Did you swear fealty to Zeus?”
She shook her head. “I tried. Hades, I’m so sorry, I tried, but I made this promise I wouldn’t hurt you. So I couldn’t do it.”
Relief rushed through me, and I immediately felt guilty for it. She couldn’t swear fealty. My realm was safe. But what had that cost her?
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
My voice hardened when I asked the next question. “What did he do to you?”
“What did he do to us?” she asked, ducking my question. “I can’t feel you anymore. I don’t know what you’re thinking. Did the lightning sever our connection somehow?”
“Impossible.” I tilted her head up, lips brushing against hers with tentative patience. I’d let her set the pace. She surged forward, pushing up on her tiptoes and looping an arm around my neck to yank me to her level as her lips crushed against mine with a desperate urgency. Power surged between us, ripping through our connection. It felt like something broken within me had been restored. We were whole again.
Gods! Her whispered thought echoed in my mind. I was so afraid I’d never feel this again. Persephone’s fingers dug into my back as she clung to me with all her strength and joy, and unbelievably enough, love. She loved me. How could she possibly have it in her to feel happiness after what she’d been through, much less joy? She was so strong.
No, I’m not, she objected. I would have sworn to him if I could have, I wanted to give in.
Anyone would have. There’s more to it than that. You didn’t break.
Persephone didn’t get it, but that wasn’t surprising. She was young. I’d been around long enough to see the way pain could twist and bend people. How they could buckle under the misery until they had nothing left to them but the horror of what they’d gone through.
I wanted to follow her example. Escape the horror of the situation though a kiss. But I had to know.
May I?
She hesitated, and then I felt her tentative agreement. Her thoughts flooded mine, and I saw all the things Zeus had put her through. The memory of his voice slithered into my thoughts.
“Maybe I should tell you about some of the things he’s done. Better yet—” a curved blade appeared in Zeus’ hand “—how about I just show you?”
The images of what came next, the shallow slashes separating each layer of skin as she cried out for the torment to end, for me to help her, assaulted my mind like blows. My hands tightened around her, and I broke off our kiss. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“It wasn’t you.” Her soft lips whispered against mine. Teasing me with their proximity.
I took the bait. I’m only a god after all. Even guilt couldn’t stop me from enjoying the way the kiss deepened, or the feel of her body tight against mine. No. I’d sooner slit my throat than hurt her. But I’d given Zeus ideas, methods to use to torture her. That was almost as bad.
Teeth grazing my bottom lip, Persephone teased images of her mom, Melissa, and the other priestesses from my mind. Her relief coursed through me with the realization that her people were safe.
When Persephone came up for air, she tilted her head. “Where is everything?”
The dreamscape had gone blank. My face heated. I’d been so wrapped up in her, so focused, that for a moment nothing else existed. Drawing on a modicum of power, I formed an image of our library in my mind. Nothing fancy, it was just a general impression of warm colors, rich browns, and earthy reds with bookshelves and big comfortable furniture. I never put much detail into my dreamscapes. Why waste the power? Still, I was careful not to leave out the touches of her influence that were scattered throughout the library. Bright splashes of colors, flowers in vases on the wooden tables.
Persephone smiled. Moving to one of the small wooden tables that lined the walls between shelves, she touched one of the flowers, a bright yellow daffodil. Suddenly, that flower was the brightest, crispest thing in the room. “What’s a sympathetic bond?”
I led her to one of the indistinct chairs in the library. “I always thought sympathetic bonds were a myth. Apparently, upon reaching equilibrium, we can feel what the other feels.”
Her thoughts flashed to... what was that, a pearl? “So if you hurt one of us you hurt both of us?”
“To a diminished degree. I doubt I would have been walking around these last few weeks if I’d felt the full extent of what you experienced.”
She considered that. “If I die, what happens to you?”
My heart seized in my chest, not from fear of my own death, but hers. “I’m not going to let that happen.”
“But if it did?” she persisted. “If something Zeus does can kill me because I haven’t come into my powers, or if my powers burn through me... ?”
I shook my head. “It won’t kill me.” Her mind flashed back to that pearl again. “Persephone, what is this about?”
“Could we maybe talk about that later?” She looked up, green eyes pleading. “I’ll explain, I promise, but I just don’t want to dwell on any of this right now. I won’t ask about your plan or whatever that—” she waved in the direction of the bedroom and I coughed “—was.”
“That was you.”
She turned pink. “I’m not that flexible. Look, I really don’t want to spend this time rehashing everything that’s happened to me. I know that’s probably not wise, but can we just—”
I kissed her. She was right. We didn’t know how much time we had left. She needed time to regroup. To brace herself for whatever was next to come. And me, I just needed to hold her.
A while later I felt her fading beneath my touch.
I’m waking up! Fear saturated her thoughts.
I’ll find you.
Chapter XXV
Persephone
I THINK IT WAS my ribs breaking that woke me up. Gasping, my eyes flew open as a sharp pain ripped through my chest. Hades!
I’m here. His thoughts felt distracted, and I got the distinct impression he was talking to someone. My vision blurred then focused on a kid’s face hovering right above mine. He lifted his head and put his hands to my chest.
Suddenly I had Hades’ full attention. His presence flooded my mind so fast I got mental whiplash. I had the strange knowledge he was seeing, hearing, and feeling everything I was.
Weirdness. I pushed Hades’ mental presence away so I had room to think and shoved the kid off me. Or tried to. Instead I coughed, water spewed from my lips, and the kid helped me roll to my side.
“Annie, are you okay?” The kid shouted in my ear over and over again.
Gods, he was loud!<
br />
I caught my breath and turned to face the mysterious stranger. He looked twelve or thirteen with streaked blond hair hanging haphazardly in his face. A Metallica shirt and jeans with all kinds of holes in them hung off his lanky frame.
I stared at him in complete shock. Where was I? Who was this kid?
“Are you okay, Annie?”
“That’s not my name.” I took a quick look around the cave we were crouched in.
Despite the darkness, every detail was illuminated, just like in the Underworld where there was no sun but it was somehow always light. Water filled most of the cavern, leaving us in the only dry spot. My dress had turned a dingy gray with black streaks from the slick rocks below me, and I was soaking wet.
He was completely dry.
The kid shrugged and showed me his phone. “It’s one of the steps.”
I stared at the video through the thick, bulky, waterproof case, now more confused than ever. A woman performed CPR on a child-sized dummy on the screen.
Well, that explains what he was doing.
Had that been my thought or Hades’? The fact I didn’t know bothered me, but I pushed my concerns aside. There were more important things to worry about.
“Where am I?” Touching my necklace, I took a mental inventory. I didn’t feel good, but nothing screamed life-threatening injury.
The boy’s eyes flicked back and forth over my face with frank curiosity. “The ocean.”
Gee, that narrows it down. That time I knew the thought came from Hades. It seemed our connection was restored even outside of dreamwalking.
Thank the gods, I thought before turning my attention back to the kid. I opened my mouth to demand a more specific answer, then noticed the kid’s eyes churning blue and green with streaks of brown and white swirling like tiny waves around his pupils.
“You’re Poseidon’s son.”
He tensed.
“He mentioned you—said he had a son about my age.” My age? Apparently the god of the sea couldn’t add.
You’re closer to his age than Poseidon’s, Hades pointed out.
The kid brightened and puffed out his chest. “If he told you that, he must trust you a lot. No one’s supposed to know he has a son.”
That made sense. The more people who knew he existed, the greater chance of his name getting out there and killing him with worship he wasn’t old enough to handle. I grimaced as my ribs knit themselves back together. I was glad to have been unconscious for the bulk of my heal from the fall.
When the pain passed, I returned my attention to the kid. “You saved me.”
He didn’t save you. It takes more than drowning to kill you, Hades pointed out.
I’m awake, I’m breathing, and I’m not at the bottom of the ocean. Kudos to the kid. Turning my thoughts away from Hades, I focused on the conversation at hand.
“Thank you so much.”
He turned bright red. “Aw, it was nothin’. Triton.” He stuck out his hand.
“Persephone.”
He hadn’t taken his eyes off me since I woke up. “You’re like me, right?”
“A god, you mean?” I climbed to my feet and glanced around the cave. There wasn’t much to see.
He nodded.
“Yes.”
“Wow!” The way he stared at me, like I was some sort of new and interesting species, made me uncomfortable.
I pressed my fingers against the wet wall of the cave. It felt odd beneath my hand. Normally when I touched stones or dirt or plants, I felt connected to them, like I’d tapped into some kind of energy. But this... felt empty. Foreign. It wasn’t my realm. “Surely you’ve seen a goddess before. What about your mom?”
He looked down, fidgeting with his phone. “You’re different.” Clearing his throat, he looked up at me through his messy hair. “Why are you here? No offense, but you’re not supposed to be here. I can feel it.”
I knew exactly what he meant. Since I wasn’t invited to this realm, it felt like it was trying to push me out. The menacing water lapped on the rocks and the walls of the cave felt like they were bearing down on me. “I escaped from another god. If you could just point me toward land... “
“You’re a long way off.”
I clutched at my necklace. I’d been afraid of that.
“But don’t worry. I can call my father—”
“No!”
Triton looked up at me in alarm, and I forced myself to smile.
“I mean, I’d rather not involve anyone if I don’t have to. The other god...” is maybe only a little worse than your dad.
I couldn’t say that. Poseidon was an ass and a pervert. He’d harassed and raped my mom centuries back when she’d spurned his advances. Supposedly he felt bad about it now, and he’d told me he wanted to help me when I was dying on his beach, but I’d rather die than put my mom in the position of having to be grateful to that jerk.
Still, however screwed up Poseidon was, his kid was sweet. “It’s kind of complicated.”
Triton wrinkled his nose. “It’s political stuff, huh?”
I considered. That could work. Zeus, Poseidon, my mom, and Hades were all realm rulers. Anything involving them had ramifications. “Isn’t everything?”
“I can take you to land. And”—he reached up and put a hand on my shoulder, a faint blush covering his face—”I can protect you from that other god. I’m stronger than I look.”
Having a guide would be helpful.
But what if Zeus found me? Could I really justify putting this kid in danger?
It’s worse than that, I realized, horrified. This wasn’t just some kid. He was Poseidon’s son. Zeus would want him for the same reason he wanted me. We both had a natural right to realms he didn’t control.
Zeus would torture him like he’d tortured me, and when, not if, Triton broke, Zeus would have access to this realm and be that much harder to defeat.
That would suck, but it was the thought of Zeus torturing this happy, smiling, adorable kid that filled my gut with dread.
“I’ll find my own way, thanks.”
Triton gave me a skeptical look, eyes sparkling in challenge. He lifted his chin and with a confident grin demanded, “What are you gonna do? Swim?”
I opened my mouth to reply and realized I didn’t have the slightest clue how to get home.
“Yeah, I thought so.” Triton’s voice was thick with satisfaction. “You’re stuck with me, like it or not.”
Chapter XXVI
Aphrodite
HADES WOULD LIVE.
Between the two of us, Demeter and I propped him up on the couch and cleaned most of the blood off his face—ugh, nose blood. Gross. He was still out cold, and Demeter was on edge. No doubt wondering what had happened to Persephone to reverberate to Hades like that.
I shuddered to think of it. Gods shouldn’t bleed. Stopping outside of Persephone’s room, I raised my hand to knock on the door.
“... just saying that was thoughtless,” Orpheus said from within the room.
I froze.
“I refuse to be afraid of them,” Melissa snapped.
I looked up and down the hall. No one was there. Shrugging, I pressed my ear against the door.
“That’s your first mistake,” Orpheus retorted. “But fine, don’t be afraid. Would it kill you to show a little humanity? Her daughter is missing—”
“Gosh, I missed that memo.”
I smirked. It was nice not being on the receiving end of Melissa’s snark.
“Look, I get it. She’s your best friend, and you’re scared and worried. But multiply that times infinity for Demeter. We’re lucky she hasn’t scorched the earth looking for Persephone. We’re extremely lucky she’s not pointing fingers. In case you haven’t noticed, deities aren
’t the most mentally stable people, so the least you could do is not bait one who’s barely holding it together.”
I frowned. Yes, he had a point, but I didn’t like my mental stability being impugned upon by some half-breed. These crazy people kept acting like humanity was something to aspire to. Did they read newspapers? Humans were crazier than the gods had ever been.
I heard a thud, like something banged hard against the nightstand. “I hate her.” Melissa’s voice was so soft I could barely hear her.
“I don’t think you do.”
“Having fun?” A voice whispered in my ear.
I jumped a foot off the ground with an embarrassing, pathetic-sounding squeak.
“Easy now.” Ares laughed and put his arm around my shoulder to steady me. I jolted at the sensation of cold leather brushing against my bare arms.
Speaking of arms—wow, his were firm! I gave him a subtle once-over and tried to recover what dignity I could. Melissa was busy, and I was bored.
He caught my look and grinned. “Need a distraction?”
I leaned forward, pressing my body against his, balancing on my tiptoes, and whispered, lips brushing against his ear, “I could use a change of scenery.”
His arms dropped to my waist. “I’ll take you wherever you want.”
I slipped out of his embrace and flashed him a smile. “Great, I’ll get the keys.” I giggled at his confused look. “You did say anywhere. Let’s go recruit Hephaestus.”
He gave me a withering look. “Not what I had in mind.”
I tossed my hair over my shoulder. “You should have been more specific.”
Chapter XXVII
Hades
I WOKE TO A COLD appraisal from Athena’s gray eyes. Disoriented, I sat up and realized I was in Demeter’s living room.
Hades! Persephone’s fear sliced through me.
I’m here, I assured her before turning my attention back to Athena. “Can I help you?” I laced the sentence with as much sarcasm as I could muster.
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