Heir to the Underworld

by Walker, E. D.

  The stag-god gathered Mom into his arms. "Abigail, it is over. All these years I've dreamed of your return. My beauty. My love." He bent his head.

  Mom dodged his kiss and pushed him back. "Is that how you think this ends, Cernunnos? You and I just pick up where we left off?" She shook her head. "I'm not a love struck teenager anymore."

  "No." He traced the line of her cheekbone with a tender caress. Freddy's fist twitched. "I think you are lovelier now than you could ever have been then."

  "Cernunnos." Mom wrapped her fingers in his and pulled his hand away. "It can't be. We can't…" She sighed and lowered her voice. Freddy strained to hear her. "A part of me is tempted. A part of me does still love you--will always love you. You were my first…everything. You fathered my child…"

  Freddy looked at her dad. A muscle in his jaw jumped. He closed his eyes and turned his head away.

  Cernunnos laughed with a deep rumble. He leaned toward Mom but again she held him off. "You can't give me what I want, Cernunnos."

  The stag-god pulled back as if she had slapped him.

  Mom placed her hands against his chest and met his gaze. "What we had was real. But I want more. I need more than you can give me."

  Cernunnos looked at Dad, a dark frown on his face. "Cúchulainn?"

  Mom smiled. "Yes. I love him. If he'll have me, I want to spend the rest of my life with him." Mom looked at Dad, too.

  Dad's eyes flicked open. Freddy grinned and hugged his shoulders. Her eyes were stinging with relieved tears. Mom wants Dad.

  Cernunnos looked around at Freddy and her family. "So be it." He moved away and released Mom, though he still held one of her hands in his. He heaved a deep sigh as his massive shoulders rose and fell like continents forming. "Abigail, you almost make me wish I could be the kind of man you need. You are the most remarkable mortal I have ever met." He pursed his lips. "Goodbye, my love. When next we meet, let it be as friends."

  "I'd like that." Mom took a deep breath. "Farewell, Cernunnos."

  Cernunnos hesitated, then, catching his breath, he dipped his head and kissed Mom fully, passionately on the lips. And lingered there.

  Mom's hand fluttered to his cheek, her eyes filled for a moment with old memories and unshed tears. Then she stepped away from Cernunnos, and went to Dad and Freddy. Freddy reeled her mom in for a hug.

  Cernunnos watched Mom walk from him, a curious pain in his eyes.

  Freddy experienced very little regret on behalf of her feckless, forever-young father. He had a new love and a new path to embark upon, after all. She guessed, seeing the hurt in his eyes, Cernunnos couldn't help but wish things had turned out differently with Mom. Forever is a long time to regret anything, but somewhere deep inside his heart--she assumed he had one--Cernunnos would probably always regret losing her mom.

  Freddy figured the emotion wouldn't remain on the surface too long. Probably until he could hook up with Kore. After all, what better remedy for a fit of godly sullens than a roll in the hay with your sweet young lover?

  Freddy's eyes slid to Deg sitting beside her. He watched her face a moment and frowned, tilting his head in confusion. She looked away, worry burrowing through her gut.

  Did a parting like her parents' wait for her and Deg someday? Or something very like it? Jealousy. Danger. Death. Love. Loss. Regrets by the barrel-full.

  Off the top of her head, Freddy couldn't remember any story where mortals and gods had mixed romantically to good effect. Yet with Deg stretched out against her side her heart ached at the thought of leaving him, losing him now after everything.

  She glanced at Mom and suddenly wanted to ask if, even after all the crap she'd gone through because of her godly lover, she wouldn't do it all over again anyway. Did the incredible highs make the darkest lows worth it?

  Am I willing to take the gamble and find out for myself?

  Cernunnos' voice cut through her thoughts. "My daughter."

  She blinked, and after an inner struggle, she went to him. "Yeah?" Shifting from one foot to the other, she tried to keep her eyes on his face when she really just wanted to look away. He opened his mouth to speak a few times then looked at her face and stopped.

  After a few of these false starts, she sighed and took pity on him. "Look, I guess I can see how you sort of meant well with all of this. Pretty much." Then she remembered the thing with her dad. And Clymenus. And stealing Kore and-- "Although, you did do some really messed up stuff, you know?"

  Cernunnos laugh boomed out. "Frederica, I trust I have learned not to mettle with mortals for a long time yet." His eyes flicked to Mom then back.

  "Yeah. Remember that."

  Cernunnos smirked. "I owe you a birthday present, do I not?"

  Freddy stepped back and waved her hands. "Let's call it even."

  "Ah, no. I have ever been remiss in my duties as your father. Some amends must be made." He pulled a pouch from his belt and cut the string that tied it there with his knife. "Here. A token to pave your way in the world of mortals." She let him drop the "token," a beat-up leather pouch, into her hand. The bag jingled with the sound of metal inside. Probably coins.

  "Thanks." She tied the cut strings around one of the belt loops on her jeans. The money pouch chinked and clinked against her thigh, surprisingly heavy. A small tickle of resigned disgust shot through her at the total lack of sincerity in Cernunnos' birthday gift. Cliché deadbeat dad, much?

  The heft of the money pouch was an oddly satisfying weight, though. Maybe I'll buy myself a laptop for my birthday, after all. A slow smile curled her lips.

  Cernunnos placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed her cheek. Her face warmed in slight embarrassment at the gesture. When he pulled back, he whispered in her ear, "Gods are not good at making themselves understood to mortals at all times. Know this, child of my blood, I have always and will always love you. Very much. Take that back to your world. And, if you should ever need me, you have only to call my name, and I will be there."

  Freddy wouldn't be calling on Cernunnos in a hurry, but when he leaned back to look at her, trying to keep things polite, she smiled and nodded. "I'll remember. Goodbye."

  A quick smile flared and died on Cernunnos' face. He started to leave, but as he reached the door, Freddy called him frantically back. "Hey, Cernunnos!"

  He stopped and turned back, raising a questioning eyebrow.

  Freddy squared her shoulders and crossed her arms over her chest. "I want a divorce." Ah, and me still a teenager. Kids these days. "If you want to help me--get that ball rolling."

  Cernunnos pursed his lips in irritation, then half-smiled and gave a dignified nod. "I shall see to the formalities of dissolving your marriage to the Greek." He nodded at her and turned toward Deg. "Farewell, Son of Hades. I suppose I shall be seeing you soon." He waved then left to follow his departed court and queen.

  Freddy puffed her cheeks then blew her breath out in a deep whoosh of relief. She put her hands on her hips and faced the others, projecting a strength she didn't feel as her body teetered on the edge of an exhausted crash. "Home?"

  ~~~

  Later that night, or maybe early that morning, Mom and Deg patched up Dad with the EMT kit he kept in the Honda. Once he was taken care of, Mom drove out to get take-out pancakes and bacon for everyone. Deg helped Freddy's dad clean up in the bathroom, then Freddy and Deg took turns showering, and each changed into clean clothes.

  After breakfast, her parents said goodbye to Deg and goodnight/good morning to Freddy before they went to crash out together in Mom's room. This was the first time in Freddy's memory her parents had gone into a bedroom together. She grinned as the bedroom door swung closed.

  On the couch next to Deg, with his arm around her, she tipped to the side and pressed against his warmth, his strength. Deg squeezed her hand, and she looked at him. Heat churned in her stomach with pleasurable, fluttery wings.

  "Freddy." He trailed his hands in her hair. "I must go."

  She snuggled in deeper and frowned. "
Why?"

  "I must see my father. Explain why I have done these things. He should know of Kore's fate. It is…interesting."

  Freddy sat straighter on the couch. "Will you--are you coming back?"

  "If he doesn't feed me to Cerberus." Deg smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

  Having met Cerberus, Freddy didn't laugh. "Deg."

  He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I will not promise you what I cannot guarantee. I will say this--if any way, any possibility at all, exists for me to return to you, I shall. I will swear my oath to that."

  Her stomach sank, heavy with this new dread. "No need to bring rivers and sticks into it."

  "Kiss me goodbye?" His thumb traced the line of her cheekbone, and his fingers trailed near her lips.

  She didn't want to say goodbye. Goodbye meant he might not return, and no way was Freddy accepting that possibility. She clasped her arms around his middle, digging her chin into his chest as she looked at him. Freddy fought to preserve the sweet, carefree mood she'd felt before, and she tried to project that mood, force it back into Deg. By force of will alone, she would make everything all right again.

  Freddy kept her face mischievous, her tone light. "Deg, how about I just kiss you and we'll sort the rest out later?"

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Returning to the normalcy of day to day life proved difficult for Freddy. Her friends wanted to throw a belated birthday party just when Freddy could barely get out of bed in the morning. After a month of stalling them, hoping for word from Deg, she caved at last.

  She put on a brave face as her house filled with old friends, good food, and loud music. But, after pasting on a smile for several hours, Freddy snuck out to the backyard to sit on the garden wall. It was all beginning to remind her a bit too much of her engagement party.

  Even outside, the laughter and loud music scratched all the raw places inside her. She was free, alive and unhindered under the vast blue sky, as open and unenclosed as something could get. Still it trapped her.

  Her dad banged through the screen door, a package in his hands, his face creased with worry. He sat on the stone wall beside Freddy. "You okay, kiddo?"

  She sighed and leaned against Dad, seeking comfort.

  Next weekend, her parents would have a small civil ceremony at the local courthouse. For the general public, the family billed it as a "vow renewal," but Freddy couldn't help but be crazy happy Mom was finally making an honest man out of Colin.

  Dad's arm settled around Freddy's shoulders, heavy and comforting as a wool blanket on a cool night. She suddenly longed for the days when his presence had been enough to banish all the bad things from the world, when geometry homework had been the worst burden to bear in her life. Talking to him, telling him how worried she was, how lonely, tempted her awfully. Yet the words wouldn't come.

  This reluctance to voice her worries was a stupid, crazy kind of magical thinking, but Freddy still believed deep down inside that if she voiced her worst fears to anyone--even allowed herself internally to admit to having them--they would come true.

  So she just leaned against her dad and sighed. "I'm fine. Everyone's just too loud in there."

  "I understand."

  Two words, but they sent a flood of calm flooding through her. She tilted her face and shot her dad an adoring smile. "You always did, Dad."

  "Here." He pulled the wrapped package from behind his back. "I know presents usually come after the cake, but I thought you could use an early one. Happy birthday, sweetheart." With a wide flourishing arc, he handed Freddy the present.

  The package felt like a book underneath all the gaudy wrapping paper. Her present felt like a truly massive book, actually.

  "Thanks." She tore one corner across and pulled the book out from its paper shell. She read the title and grinned. The Unsurpassable Encyclopedia of World Mythology by Diane Donovan.

  Dad scratched his cheek and watched her from the corner of his eyes. "I thought you might leaf through it sometime. You know, whenever you have a moment or two."

  Freddy flipped through and found the article on Cúchulainn, a good ten pages broken into several sections--Early Life, Famous Battles, Love Affairs, and Death. Seeing that last section, and mildly freaked out by the idea of her dad dying even thousands of years ago, she flipped onward to someone else. Cernunnos only got two and a half pages. Her hand trembled as she looked for Deg, but he only got a measly paragraph:

  "Polydegmon: A Greco-Roman god of late origins, often believed to be the son of Hades and his queen, Persephone. The story of the birth of Polydegmon and his twin siblings, Eubuleus and Kore, is remarkable in that it implies a virgin birth…"

  The author went on for a few more sentences about the seeds, the vomiting, and Demeter's massive bitchiness and concluded with the rather unsatisfactory, "Little else is known about this god or his siblings."

  Freddy snorted. Lady, I could fill a book with what I know about him and his siblings. Actually, Kore might need her own book.

  Dad lifted the book out of her hands and thumbed through it. His voice went deceptively mild, and he didn't look up as he asked, "What happened with the guy?"

  "Deg?"

  "Unless there was another guy in this adventure I missed?"

  Freddy sighed. "No."

  Dad closed the book with a snap. "Fred, is it Monosyllabic Day and everyone forgot to tell me?"

  She hissed her breath out, trying to push some of her tension free with it. "Dad, I don't know. He went back to talk to Hades. He promised he would come back if there was any way he could. I don't want to think he's ditched me, but that's preferable to the other option, you know?"

  Dad pursed his lips and nodded. "So, we're wallowing?"

  "I believe so. Yeah." She sighed again.

  "Shall I leave you to it then?" He raised one eyebrow.

  She laughed and shook her head. Dad's arm settled around her shoulders once more. She sat with him, companionable and silent.

  Freddy eased away after a bit. Dad let her. "Okay now?" he asked.

  "Sure."

  He nodded, probably knowing his affectionate dismissal for what it was, and started back inside.

  She looked up, her gaze following his tall form then, when his hand lay poised on the back door, she yelled, "Dad!"

  "Yeah, Fred?"

  She tilted her head to one side. "The envelope. Why did you write what you wrote?"

  His lips tipped up at the corners, eyes brightening. "It's a quote that always resonated with me while I served Cernunnos, and while we were trying to hide you from the Morrígan. It's been my motto for a while, through hard times, through…everything. I thought it might resonate for you, too."

  "What's it from?"

  "The Count of Monte Cristo. Alexandre Dumas." He stuck his hands in his pockets and tipped his head to stare at the sun as he recited: "'All human wisdom is contained in these two words--wait and hope.'" He looked back at her and gave her a broad smile, looking happier than she'd ever seen him. "I have. I did. Look where it got me."

  She ran to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you for that."

  He gave her a quick kiss in return and a one-armed hug. "Come back in when you feel better. We'll hold the cake for whenever you're ready." He strolled back inside.

  Freddy sat on the ragged garden wall for a while after he'd left.

  The peace Dad had brought in his wake evaporated again under the onslaught of bass thrumming from the house. All the old apprehensions about Deg crashed back on her, a weight of worry pushing on her shoulders.

  The low hum of the music decided for her, its beat pounding inside her head like a hammer. She figured she had at least ten minutes before Mom would check on her; her parents had always been fond of the double-team. Even five minutes of real alone time would be enough.

  Picking her way through the ice lilies choking their mini-hill, an obliging stump helped her over the fence. She landed on the street with a fall that jarred her calves and ankles, but she barely not
iced the pain. The familiarity, the comfort of it all, closed around her, warm and safe, smelling of summer.

  Walking a short way along the road, she hummed and trailed her hands through any bushes or branches that were the right height for it.

  The sound of hooves pounding up the street toward her made her heart jump to her throat. Fortunately, her body took over and pushed her over the guardrail to safety. Her ballet flats sank into the cover of pine needles, crunching, and the dry pollen on the guardrail coated her hands as she clutched the filthy metal. Waiting. Hoping.

  After only a moment, he rode around the corner, larger than life. Mr. Guy Smith. The Heir to the Underworld. Polydegmon himself riding back into her life.

  Her vision swam with moisture, and she gulped a breath in before her throat closed with emotion. She leaned her hip against the guardrail, unsure her legs would support her just then.

  Balios galloped down the pavement and passed her. Deg saw her and reined the beast in. Balios stamped a foot in protest but was ignored. As his gaze met hers Deg's smile seemed tentative. "I see you've learned to get out of the road."

  Freddy returned him a tart grin for his taunt. "I see you've learned to watch where you ride."

  Dismounting quickly, Deg then seemed to stall out, apparently reluctant to go to her, after all. He held Balios' reins in his hands, tugging and twisting them through twitchy fingers. With his back to her, half-turned toward the stupid horse, Deg's posture and stance mirrored the first time she had ever seen him.

  She let a plaintive note creep into her voice. "Still tending to the horse before me?"

  He flicked a half-smile over his shoulder. "This time I have some excuse. You are not half-dead in the gutter, and I did rein the poor beast in rather roughly."

  Freddy thought she might burst with seeing him again. He looked the same as ever, dressed in a striped dark brown toga with leather patches on the shoulders, strappy leather sandals on his feet, his dark hair tousled with inviting waves from the silly straw hat he had already pushed off his head. His eyes warmed, glowing almost gold as he stared at her.