Head tilted, still he stared.
“A deal, do we have a deal?”
Brow creased with confusion, he stammered out a perplexed response. “Th-That’s… why I’m w-with you. Because I agreed to h-help. Was that… in some way unclear in our interdimensional leap?”
A hot blush of embarrassment brightening her cheeks to a brilliant carnation pink, she dismissed her faux pas with an impassive shrug of one shoulder. “Very good then. Let’s get on with it, shall we?”
With a roll of her fingers, she opened the parlor window a crack. Closing her eyes, Persephone pursed her bow-shaped lips and blew the spring-time breath of life into the room where Alice rested. The withered fern on a corner table flourished under her grace, exploding into a bushel of brilliant green virility on contact. A newly sprouted vine unfurled, its botanical appendage reaching and stretching in Alice’s direction. While the caregiver read a story about a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing, one leaf brushed Alice’s cheek. An ethereal glow spread through her lifeless form, a rosy kiss of life instantly brightening her complexion. One finger twitched. Her leg gave a shudder. Impossibly long lashes fluttered in their fight to pry open her eyes for the first time in years.
While the nurse read aloud about a huffing and puffing wolf, Alice… woke up.
Bolting upright, her hands closed around her bed sheet in a white-knuckled grip. Eyes bulging from their sockets, an ear-piercing shriek tore from her lungs in a wail that seemed to reverberate from the depths of her soul.
The nurse jerked upright in surprise, then fainted in a heap on the floor.
With a victorious smile, she flipped golden waves of hair over her shoulder. “There. The girl’s awake. Can we go kill my husband now?”
Chapter Two
“I’m… Alice?” the former sleeping beauty asked. She paced the length of the room with fevered steps, as if fearing this was yet another dream she could be ripped from at any moment.
The caregiver had been sent home with a generous severance taken from Alice’s dowry, leaving Sterling to explain the situation as best he could. Which, given the muddled mess of his mind, was rough to put it kindly. “Upon last inspection, but these things do change.”
Confusing as that answer seemed, Alice bobbed her head in complete understanding. “And… you’re my brother?”
“Yes!” He leapt to his feet, proud to have at least one definitive answer to offer.
“Aww,” Alice’s head tilted, her neatly trimmed blonde hair brushing the tops of her shoulders, “that’s lovely. It’s a pleasure to meet you, although it is a bit shocking we have legs.”
Sterling’s eyes narrowed in the direction of his own knees, as if they were plotting nefarious activities behind his back. “I supposed they are. And don’t even get me started on toes… those wiggly little bastards.”
Leaning against the parlor doorway, Persephone filled her lungs to capacity and exhaled through flaring nostrils. “Olympus help me, there are two of them.”
Turning to face her brother, Alice inspected the lines of his face and extent of his scars. “Do I look like you?”
For a moment, clarity sharpened Sterling’s features with a flash of pain. “No, these marks are mine alone to bear.”
Alice’s mouth screwed to the side in a disappointed scowl. “That’s a shame. I once knew a faction of people who believed scars and piercings to be a sign of strength and virility.” As soon as she uttered the words, she glanced to the side as if doubting the truth in the claim. “At least… I think I did. There’s a chance they were a dream.”
“I know that feeling well. Not really here. Not really there.” Sterling held up one hand and then the other. “Makes you wonder if you’re anywhere at all.”
“Enough!” Persephone erupted, her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides. “You led me here under the pretenses we would wake your sister and continue on our quest to bring Hades to his knees! Now you sit here making idle chit-chat in this menial realm. If you dare deceive me I will crush your still beating heart in my bare hands!”
Jerking upright, as if noticing Persephone for the first time, Alice jabbed her thumb in the direction of the door. “Did you want to leave? I would very much be in favor of that. There is a strong stench in this room, and the longer we linger here the more convinced I become that the smell is me.”
Brow furrowed, Sterling sniffed the air. “It’s like stale crackers and sweaty socks. And most definitely is coming from your direction.”
“That’s what I feared. Let’s head outside, it seems I could use an airing out.” Catching a lock of hair and twirling it between her fingers, Alice strolled out without glancing back to see if either of them followed.
Not wanting to let his sister out of his sight, Sterling trotted after her. “Our journey can’t begin without a first step!”
The pair disappeared out the door, leaving Persephone blinking after them with her jaw swinging slack in confusion.
“You coming?” Sterling asked, his head popping back through the doorway. “We haven’t a clue where we’re off to. This is your all-consuming vendetta. Really, it’s rude to dawdle.”
Straightening her shoulders, Persephone forced the same haughty indifference Hades gave her each and every time he glanced her way. “There’s a good chance I’m going to kill you before this is through.”
A sad smile tugged at the edges of Sterling’s scarred mouth, a knowing gaze sharpening his stare. “Your Highness, I would be truly surprised if you didn’t.” Not willing to discuss the matter further, he disappeared out the door.
Hand on her stomach, Persephone expelled a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure she had uttered one breath that wasn’t hitched with fear since she sauntered out of the Underworld.
She wasn’t like Hades.
She wasn’t a killer.
Yet, now her hands were stained with blood.
It was she who killed the queen in the previous realm, simply to assume her identity and take possession of the mirror Hades searched for. The woman was gravely ill, and Persephone tried to convince herself that somehow that made a difference—that it made her death an act of mercy, not malice—but the black marks scorched onto her heart told a different tale. One of a ruthless woman who would stop at nothing to serve her own selfish delights. In some ways, she could see bits of herself in Sterling. The innocence she once held. The blind faith that all would work out. The belief that deep down all people were basically good. Life would teach him otherwise, as it had her. At least in her presence it would be a kinder lesson than Hades’ gruff rule.
Not wanting to tarnish her façade of unflappable power, Persephone flipped her hair over her shoulder and held her head high. Looking every bit the regal queen, she sashayed out of the front door with the lace of her skirt swishing around her ankle-high boots.
The moment the sunlight warmed her shoulders, the Queen of Death launched into the next step of her carefully-orchestrated plan. “Now that we’ve handled your little chore, we must journey to the Summerland. There, we will… What are you doing?” Reaching the edge of the porch, she peered down at Sterling’s offered hand.
Standing in the grass, with his back to her, Sterling turned his palm over as if hunting for its objective. “I think it’s a custom here, offering a lady your hand. Unless it was actually handing over a severed limb, like an offering. I can’t recall which it is, though I am partial to one option over the other.”
“I’m quite content with neither,” Persephone snipped. Shoving his hand aside with more force than necessary, she marched down the stairs. “I will never understand you humans and your customs. What? You think me weak? Unable to maneuver stairs on my own? What kind of queen would I be if I couldn’t handle walking without incident?” To her great regret, that was the moment she tripped over an exposed root and stumbled forward to reclaim her footing.
Catching her elbow, Sterling helped to steady her. “Asking for help doesn�
��t make you weak. It just reminds you…” his voice broke with emotion, “you’re not alone.”
Grinding her teeth to the point of pain, she snatched her arm out of his hold. “I’m stronger alone.” The lie soured on her tongue, yet she accepted it as her bitter truth. “I don’t need anyone. Come with me, or don’t. I’m traveling home. My weapon to defeat Hades awaits there.”
Sterling toyed with the idea of letting her go alone. To go back into the house with his sister, and rebuild a life for them there. It was the pulse of the mirror shard in his pocket, beckoning him to do what’s right, that prompted him to grab on to the queen’s wrist. Just as her form illuminated with an ethereal glow, he clapped a hand onto Alice’s shoulder. The mortal coil ripped and the three disappeared in a spray of twinkling lights.
Chapter Three
“It’s a nice change of pace to make a jump without worrying about my insides suddenly being on the outside.” Hands jammed on his hips, Sterling took a deep breath meant to fill his lungs to capacity. Instead, he erupted in a spontaneous coughing fit. “I have to say, I expected a place called Summerland to be… I don’t know… less charred.”
“Sterling, shut up,” Alice stated, her stare locked on Persephone.
The goddess stumbled forward a step before her knees buckled, folding her to the ground. An ear-piercing wail tore from her lungs, slicing through the hush with the dull knife of her anguish. A valley of death loomed before them. Towering trees had been reduced to ash; their trunks splayed across the earth like mutilated corpses. Sprawling gardens, once bursting with blooms of every color, were now shriveled to blackened stalks.
Persephone’s trembling hands covered her mouth. Fat tears streamed down her cheeks in torrents, dripping from her chin unchecked. “Hades, how could you? This was… my home.”
“You just answered your own question, Your Highness,” a trio of velvety voices purred. Cerberus appeared in a cloud of roiling black smoke; their canine façade cast aside for that of a three-headed temptress.
“Hades had to find a way to punish you,” Head One, a silky-haired, exotic Asian beauty, sneered.
Two, a mocha-skinned vision with cruel eyes, dragged her tongue over her top teeth. “You never should have left the Underworld. The second you did, you brought this on yourself.”
Flipping her blonde hair from her eyes, Three taunted Persephone with a wink. “You know better than anyone how good our lord is at achieving the deepest realm’s pain.”
Spine straightening, Persephone rose to her feet. Her glare stabbed daggers of hate in Cerberus’s direction. “You did this.”
“Of course we did.” Two clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “We’ve always taken great pleasure in helping him remind you of your place.”
Persephone stretched one hand toward the earth, her middle-finger giving the slightest twitch. A scorched daisy answered the call of her heart, its ravaged remains blossoming with fresh color and beauty. “I need no reminder of the cruelty I suffered at his hands… and yours.” She glanced their way from under her lashes. All the while, her fingers rolled, restoring life to the arid valley. “However, that was in his world, and this is mine.”
“He’s the God of Death.” One’s teeth met in a ferocious canine snap. “Your strength could never match his.”
Ivy coiled up Persephone’s arms. Threading into her hair, it twisted her golden locks into a crown of beautiful disarray. “You’re right. He is the King of Darkness… and I am his queen. The time has come for you to acknowledge that and bend the knee before me.”
A wicked smile curled across Two’s lips. “You claim to have power. Yet here we are, in your homeland, and you’re still impotent to stop us. Hades is in possession of a mirror that grants him limitless knowledge. You can’t hide and you can’t harm us. He knows all and will come for you.”
Locking eyes with Two, Persephone raised one hand, palm up. When it reached eye level, she flipped her wrist. Her hand curled into a fist. A russet tree root slithered from the soil at her command. Snaking its way around Cerberus’ thighs, it yanked them to their knees.
“I’m counting on it.” Peering down her nose at her now prostrated subjects, she hitched one brow in mild interest. “It’s time for Hades to learn there are things in this world worse than death, and I’m one of them.”
“Do your worst,” Three forced the words through her teeth. “Hades will rip you to shreds.”
Arms thrown out wide, Persephone beckoned roots, grass, and vines to do her bidding. Botanical tendrils churned and twined up Cerberus’s core, imprisoning them in the trunk of a mighty willow tree that formed around them.
“They murdered the land. Now it will feed off their lives in its resurrection,” Persephone muttered to herself.
“The flowers have all wilted, but we didn’t come for them at all.”
Not realizing Sterling had edged up alongside her, Persephone jumped at the sound of his voice. “What?”
“He’s saying we didn’t come here for the flowers.” Alice dragged her fingers through her hair, her complexion growing paler by the second. Bruise-like circles formed under her eyes, the weight of the world acting fast to leave its mark. “Where’s the girl?”
“Amphrite!” Gathering the hem of her skirt in both fists, Persephone sprinted across the valley, down a set of curving slate stairs cut into the earth. As she ran, the meadow came alive around her. Bushels of red, orange, and purple flowers reached their petals toward their queen as she passed. Skirting around the side of a grassy knoll, she skidded to a stop in front of a cottage built into the hillside.
Lush grass covered the exterior of the humble abode, offering no hints as to if it had been touched by Cerberus’s blaze. For all they knew, the foliage had only grown back the instant Persephone appeared.
Hand hovering over the circular door, Persephone glanced to Sterling and Alice before giving a tentative knock. The door swung open on contact, creaking on its hinges. While nothing within the quaint abode was burned, there were no visible signs of life. No fire crackled in the hearth. No flickering candles cast a warm glow over the space. The bed was unslept in. No aroma of meals cooked lingered in the air.
“Amphrite?” Persephone asked the darkness.
Silence.
The Queen of the Underworld risked a step inside, a chill of unease skittering down her spine. “Amphrite? It is I. You can come out. I assure you, you’re safe.”
“Persephone?” Lilac hair framing ocean blue eyes popped up from behind the narrow bed. A glance to the unknown guests that lingered behind the goddess caused her to sink deeper into her hiding spot.
“They’re friends, I assure you.” Persephone offered her hand, coaxing out the queen of the under-sea kingdom of Atlantica.
“Oh, thank Mother Ocean!” Amphrite gushed, emerging from behind the bed frame. Ever the master of disguises, she had adapted well to her temporary home. Her dress was fashioned out of burlap, a spray of flowers pinned into her waist-length hair. Where she got them was impossible to say, seeing as the artistry of flowers hadn’t returned until Persephone did. But there would be little time to ask such questions in the middle of her long-winded ramble. “I’m so glad you’re here! A horrendous beast came along that scorched your entire realm! Did you see? Of course you saw. That’s not something a person can miss. My dear, sweet child, I’m so sorry for your loss.” Seizing the Queen of Death by the upper arms, she dotted a kiss on one cheek then the other. “It was a beautiful land, and I have no doubt it will be again. You’re quite the capable being. And kind! Have I mentioned kind? Do they know what you did for me? Regardless, it bears repeating. I had plotted the death of Titonis, the Queen of Atlantica, that I may marry her husband, Poseidon, and claim the title of queen as my own. Horrible, yes I know. But you have honest faces, and I have been alone a frightfully long time, so I think the truth can pass between us without judgement. I knew I would never rule the kingdom myself, but I tried to manipulate his daughter, Vanessa,
into being my protégé. That I may control Atlantica through her.” Her grip being shrugged off of Persephone, Amphrite swiveled in Sterling and Alice’s direction and offered them a sweet smile that never melted the icy chill in her gaze. “Unfortunately, she was a strong-willed child with magicks far more powerful than my own. Not only did she cast me from my ocean home, she also tore me from my only begotten child! Can you imagine? Let me tell you, things could have gotten much worse from there. Apparently Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, has some sort of personal vendetta with me. If it wasn’t for Persephone’s kindness, I would surely already be dead. Yet she was generous enough to– Unnnngggghhh.”
Her rant was ended by Alice’s hand shooting out. Her fist sank into Amphrite’s chest with a sickening slurp. A gruesome pop and it reemerged, holding her still-beating heart in her blood slicked hand.
Amphrite’s eyes bulged. Frothy spittle foamed on her lips as she crumbled to the floor.
Jaws swinging slack, like broken screen doors, Sterling and Persephone’s heads slowly swiveled in Alice’s direction, as if taking extra time could somehow erase the horrors that had unfolded.
Alice’s chest rose and fell in agitated heaves, her pupils dilated to black pits of rage. Fighting to steady her breathing, she attempted to wipe the blood away on the skirt of her powder blue dress. “There seemed to be some confusion over what to do with her. So… I handled it.”
Persephone’s peaches and cream complexion drained ashen. “She’s dead. Our key to Hades’ undoing is in a bloody heap on the floor.”
Wetting his lips, Sterling raised one hand in the air. “This is probably a stupid question, but is this one of those realms where hearts can just be put back in?” At the blank expressions staring back at him, he cleared his throat and tried to clarify the question. “There are lands like that. Hearts and heads pop on and off, in and out, all willy nilly. By the looks on your faces, I’m guessing that not to be the case.”
The Unfortunate Souls Collection Page 42
