Persephone's Orchard (The Chrysomelia Stories)

by Ringle, Molly

  As she reached a large oak tree, a growl brought her skidding to a halt. From the grass a lion emerged, staring at her with amber eyes. It was a huge lion, as tall as Sophie even when down on its four giant paws, its shoulder muscles piled high behind its short ears. Its fur was browner than any lion’s she had seen in a zoo, and its mane was shorter.

  She’d been scared already, but now pure primal terror chilled her from head to feet.

  Though she might indeed have just stepped through some kind of magic wardrobe, this was not Aslan she was dealing with. From the predatory gaze and the saliva dripping from those fangs (which looked at least six inches long), she was sure this animal regarded her as lunch.

  Oh, please, let this be a dream or a coma, she prayed. Otherwise I’m about to die.

  Were you supposed to climb a tree when faced with a lion, or run in a zigzag pattern, or punch it in the face, or what? She couldn’t recall.

  Then a young man and a medium-sized dog darted in between her and the lion. The guy had curly black hair, tamer than Nikolaos’, and wore all black: untucked long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and boots with laces. She couldn’t see his face yet; he was staring down the lion, as was his dog. The dog’s hackles bristled beneath its golden fur.

  “Off you go, mate,” the guy told the lion.

  As if to back him up, his dog growled, and barked.

  The threat worked. The lion hissed, turned tail, and bounded away into the grass.

  Sophie’s knees shook as her adrenaline subsided, leaving her weak.

  The young man turned around to look at her. “You okay?”

  He was rather lovely. Probably a couple of years older than Sophie, with olive skin, shapely mouth, and large dark eyes with black lashes and brows.

  She parted her lips, found she was too upset to answer, and merely nodded.

  “Please don’t run,” he added. “We’re not going to hurt you. But the lions won’t give you that guarantee. It’s not safe out here.”

  Sophie detected a different accent in the slant of his words, Australian perhaps. She answered with another nod, more guarded this time.

  Footsteps rustled up behind her, and she spun about.

  But it was only Nikolaos. “Told you running off was a bad idea. But now you’ve met…Wat-son.” He separated the syllables playfully, as if this wasn’t the guy’s real name.

  Watson glared at Nikolaos. “Why are you dressed like that? What is wrong with you? Did you need to wear the most conspicuous clothes on the planet?”

  “It worked, obviously,” Nikolaos said. “So, I shall leave you two dears alone.” He sauntered to Watson, and slipped something into his palm while murmuring a few words in a foreign language, maybe Greek again.

  Watson nodded and tucked the item into his jeans pocket. His dog, meanwhile, sat and gazed calmly at each human in turn. It looked like a golden retriever crossbred with something darker, perhaps some kind of shepherd dog. It also looked gentle, not the type of animal who would rip out her throat upon command. She tried to take comfort in the gaze of the friendly dog.

  The two men finished their discussion, and Nikolaos turned and executed a bow in Sophie’s direction. “Sophia, it has been a pleasure. I hope we meet again soon.”

  She didn’t dignify that with a response, only a cold gaze. Yeah, hope we meet again. Thanks for kidnapping me, you lying jerkwad.

  Nikolaos, catching the glare, laughed, then waved and strolled away into the wilderness.

  Sophie turned her wary attention to Watson, or whatever his name was. He was already studying her, but when their eyes met, he looked down and cleared his throat. “All right. Let’s talk.”

  Chapter Two

  ADRIAN’S STOMACH CHURNED. HE HATED having to approach Sophie this way, loathed it. He dared another look at her. Streaks of dirt marked her slim white T-shirt from her tussle on the ground with Nikolaos. Her hair was shorter than last time Adrian had seen her, cut to just below her ears and partially pinned back. Bits of dry grass stuck to her dark brown curls. She hugged her small, curvy body as if trying to protect herself from him. Her hazel eyes watched him, sharp with distrust. Her full lips looked pale, and her light brown complexion had gone ashen.

  She still looked thoroughly beautiful to him.

  And, of course, she had no idea who he was. Yet.

  “Am I in a coma?” she asked. “Or dead, or dreaming?”

  “No. You’re awake.”

  “Then where the hell are we? And what’s with the lions?” Her voice was unsteady.

  He’d asked similar questions when he first got dragged into this realm. Using stronger language, in fact. “It’s kind of like another dimension,” he said. He tried to sound gentle and reasonable so he wouldn’t scare her further, though he suspected it wouldn’t work. “It’s the same geography as the living world—see, same mountain over there, same river over there—so in a sense we’re still in Oregon. But only animals live here, species that evolved without humans around. There’s no civilization, because humans don’t live here.”

  “Except you. What are you?” Her eyes narrowed.

  “People like Niko and me, we have certain abilities. We can switch back and forth between the realms. The animals here avoid us.”

  Sophie glanced at Kiri, sitting at attention beside him. “They avoid your dog too?”

  “Yeah, her too.” Adrian reached down to stroke Kiri’s head, then straightened up again. “I had Nikolaos fetch you because I wanted to meet you.”

  “Why?”

  Ah, there it was. The perfectly logical question he didn’t dare answer in full. He swallowed. “You’re important to me. I wanted you to see this place.”

  “Why would I be important to you? We’ve never met.”

  “Well. We have and we haven’t.”

  “When? When have I met you?” She sounded tense and panicky.

  He couldn’t answer that either yet; and in fact, any partially true answer could make it sound like he was a common stalker. In all the time he’d spent planning how to meet her and talk to her, he hadn’t realized how hard it would be to speak calmly when she stood in his presence, staring at him in alarm and suspicion.

  He folded his arms as his stomach tensed again in nervousness. “Never mind. I’m sorry to have done it this way, but you wouldn’t have believed us if we approached you and told you we’ve got this other realm, and invited you nicely to come see it. Would you?”

  Sophie hugged herself tighter, looking out at the field. “Of course not.”

  “And in order to switch you from one world to the other, one of us has to be holding onto you, so Niko had to grab you like that.”

  “And getting me here was so important why?”

  He hesitated. “You have to promise you won’t tell anyone. I say that for your own protection. Niko and I can hide out here and no one’ll find us. But if you try to convince people about this place, well, most of your time will be spent in a psychiatrist’s office, which I doubt is what you want.”

  “Then I’m not crazy? Good. I was wondering.” Clearly she was attempting sarcasm, but the tremor in her voice betrayed her fear.

  “Also,“ he continued, “there are a few people who do know about me, and about this realm, and they’re not fond of us. They’re quite dangerous in fact. You do not want to be on their radar. So just promise you won’t tell anyone.”

  “Okay. I promise.” She sounded as guarded and uneasy as ever, but he was unlikely to get a more trusting pledge for now.

  So Adrian drew in his breath and delivered the true but incomplete explanation: “This world is where souls go. People’s souls, when they die. There’s a place we can go to see them, though it’s a long way from here.”

  Sophie stared at him several long moments without speaking. Then, evidently deciding he was mental, she spread her hands in front of her and said, “Look, if it’s money you’re after, my family doesn’t have much. My parents run a fruit stand, we grow a little produce, but—”


  “No. I know. We’re not after money.”

  “Then…what?” The quiver was back in her voice. Probably she thought he was going to rape her or sell her into slavery.

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” he repeated. “I only want to talk to you. And you can’t get back to the regular world by yourself, so please listen and don’t run away. I’m not lying and I’m not crazy, all right? Can’t you admit that this is…supernatural? That something very unusual is going on here?”

  She pressed her lips together, glancing around. “Unless you or your buddy drugged me or knocked me out.”

  Adrian sighed, and squinted across at the mountain—Mary’s Peak, they called it in the living world. “All right.” He took his own smartphone from his back pocket. The other pocket held Sophie’s phone, which Niko had swiped. “I asked about you, in the—the place where the souls go. Here’s what I found. Watch this, then I’ll take you home, I promise.” He selected the video and held the phone out to her, his heart pounding.

  Sophie took the phone, frowning, and tapped the screen to begin the video. Immediately she inhaled a quick breath.

  “Hi, Sophie Sodapop,” said her grandfather, who’d been dead over a year. Adrian kept his distance rather than watching at her shoulder, but having filmed it himself and previewed it, he knew how it looked. Sophie’s grandpa smiled benevolently, but, like all the souls, glowed greenish and appeared translucent. Behind him milled other souls in the fields. The black of the cave’s interior surrounded them all.

  Adrian felt uneasy bringing photos or videos of the Underworld out of its borders, even into the rest of the spirit realm, but he had to convince her.

  “This fellow here tells me it’s September of 2012,” her grandfather continued on the video, “and you’re about to start college. Sounds like you chose OSU. Honey, I’m so proud.”

  Sophie choked back a sob, and splayed her fingers over her mouth. She kept her gaze riveted to the video. Adrian bowed his head, closing his eyes for a moment. Why was he doing this to her? Why couldn’t he leave her alone? Well, he knew why. But couldn’t he have found a gentler way?

  “I miss you and Liam and your dad and mom,” her grandfather went on, “but it’s not so bad here. There’s all kinds of interesting folks to talk to. I even found some old friends. Now, this boy says he can bring you here to see me, if you’re willing. Sophie, I’d sure love that. I wouldn’t be able to touch you, but it’d be a real treat to talk to you again. I hope you’ll come. In the meantime, I love you so much, honey, and you take care of yourself.”

  The video ended.

  Tears ran down her face. She handed the phone back to Adrian, holding her arm out to the side and not looking at him.

  He took the phone, and handed her a clean cotton handkerchief from his front pocket.

  She accepted it, and blew her nose.

  “I’m sorry,” Adrian said, then found himself talking rapidly, saying things he hadn’t entirely planned to say: “When I was a kid, my mum died. Suddenly. In a routine surgery, one of those complications that isn’t supposed to happen but sometimes does. And when I first went to the…that place, and found her soul, I…was really shaken.” Was crying too hard to talk would sound maudlin, he decided, although it was true. “Everyone feels that way. I mean, the few living people who’ve been there, and talked to their loved ones. It’s normal. But you do get used to it after a while.”

  Sophie wiped her eyes. “I don’t know how you did the video. Or why.” Her voice sounded shakier than ever now. “But I want to go home.”

  His heart sank, but he had expected as much. He nodded. “Then come over here.”

  He walked past a few trees and over into another meadow, Kiri trotting beside him. Sophie followed at a distance of a couple of steps. Adrian stopped by a stake with fluorescent orange flagging tied to its top.

  “Here’s the spot we picked as safe to reappear. Safer than, like, the middle of the street or something.”

  Eyes reddened, Sophie glanced at the stake. She moved her hand to her back pocket, and exhaled a sigh. “Right, I lost my phone. Great.”

  “Oh. Here.” Adrian pulled the purple-cased smartphone from his pocket and offered it to her. “Niko picked your pocket. Didn’t want you causing a panic by dialing 911.”

  She grabbed it, then gazed in abstraction at its screen. “I probably ought to. But I don’t know what I’d say.”

  “Really, don’t. Please. It’ll only complicate things for you.”

  Sophie lowered her arm without dialing anyone.

  He hesitated. “Listen. The souls, your grandfather, this whole realm…it barely scratches the surface of the things I want to show you.”

  She met his gaze, her face tense and disturbed. “How do I know it’s real?”

  “How could I have faked it? That’s what I want you to think about for a few days.”

  “Then what? What happens after a few days?”

  “I’ll ask you again if you want to come with me.”

  Her eyebrows darted closer together. “You’re going to kidnap me again?”

  Adrian tried a smile. “No, I’ll ask you if you want to be kidnapped again.”

  Sophie looked away, declining to answer. After a moment, she glanced at the crumpled handkerchief and held it out to him. “Yours.”

  “Nah, keep it. Maybe it’ll convince you this was real. So will this.” From the breast pocket of his shirt he took a bit of white linen, and unfolded it. A violet with red petals lay within, partially wilted. He’d picked it several hours ago, in the Underworld. He handed the flower to her.

  She took it and studied it, looking pensive. Maybe she’d realize you couldn’t easily find a violet with red petals and a stem so pale green it was nearly white. Only in the Underworld, in fact.

  “All right, then.” Adrian stepped closer to her.

  She recoiled a few quick steps.

  “I have to be holding onto you,” he repeated. “In order to take you back.”

  “Oh. Fine.” She kept her eyes averted, but held still.

  Adrian settled his hands on her waist.

  The low evening sun sparkled in her eyes as she gazed past him. The wind blew the scent of her hair to him, feminine and earthy. He would have gladly laid his face in it and breathed it for hours. As indeed he used to.

  He drew her up against him, feeling their bodies touch at knees and hips and chest. “Ready?” he asked. “May want to hold on.”

  Her lips flattened. She settled her hands on his shoulders, one hand still clutching the phone.

  “Here goes.” He tightened his hold on her, and the tip of his nose brushed her forehead. He reached for the living world.

  The ground shoved upward beneath their feet, and flattened out into smooth concrete. Swaying in the moment of tipped balance, Adrian found himself leaning against a wall. Steadying Sophie, who had also stumbled, he stood upright, then let go of her.

  She gasped, turning in circles and looking at everything: the neon signs in restaurant windows, the sheets of paper stuck to a bulletin board in the breezeway where they stood, the tamed ivy crawling out of a stone planter near their feet. The sounds of cars and distant conversations and music thrummed around them. Moving aside, she peeked out of the concrete enclosure, and the bewilderment cleared from her face.

  “Your dorm’s right across there.” Adrian pointed toward the grassy square with an X of sidewalks traversing it.

  “Yeah. I recognize it, thanks.” Back to the sarcasm, evidently.

  “I’ll talk to you in a few days.”

  “Don’t count on it.” She started walking away.

  “Sophie.”

  She paused to hear him, but didn’t turn all the way around.

  “I’m truly sorry for doing it this way. I know it’s hard to believe, but hurting you, or even scaring you, is the last thing I want to do.” He gave a soft laugh, as a stream of poignant memories whispered past in his mind. “We seem meant to cause trouble for each other, you a
nd I.”

  She frowned at him, looking as if she honestly wanted to understand. “Will you still be watching me?” she asked, the words carrying a quiver of fright. “Are you going to come after me again?”

  “Not unless you want me to.”

  She didn’t care for the evasion in the words—he could tell by her lingering frown.

  Laughter and voices danced closer; other students were approaching. Adrian inhaled a cautious breath. “I should go.”

  “Wait. What was all that? And why me?”

  “If you really want to know, come with me next time. Goodbye, Sophie.”

  She stepped toward him in protest, but he slipped back into the spirit realm, and she vanished along with the rest of the city. The concrete gave way to meadow dirt under his boots. Tall grass brushed against his knees.

  He sank into the field, stretching out on his back. Kiri yipped in delight and ran over to lick his face, then flopped down next to him. Adrian drank in the sight of the sky. Puffballs of cloud edged with gold reflected the setting sun, and on the horizon stood a bank of curdled gray thunderheads.

  “But will she come again?” he asked Kiri. “Or did I scare her off?”

  Kiri yawned, and delivered an indeterminate grumble.

  “Yeah,” Adrian said. “We’ll see.” He filled his lungs with the sweet meadow air, and closed his eyes. “Oh, but it was so good to see her.”

  Chapter Three

  SOPHIE CROSSED THE GRASS, HER ankles trembling. She brought up her text messages as she walked. Several had piled up in the half hour she’d been away—wherever exactly “away” was.

  The first text made her eyes widen. R U ok? her roommate Melissa had sent. Just saw a guy tackle you then it looked like you disappeared?? Where are you?

  “Crap,” Sophie whispered, thinking of the damage control she’d have to perform.

  Then her heart pounded, and she leaned sideways against the brick wall of her dorm as she reached it. To an outside observer it looked like she disappeared? Then she had slipped into another dimension, realm, whatever? It hadn’t been a dream? Because a dream was her only explanation.