“You were moaning. It sounding like please more or something like that.”
The blush on my cheeks was hot enough to burn. “I dreamed that I was at a feast with all my favorite foods. It’s been nearly half a day since I’ve eaten anything. I’m starving.”
To my relief, he didn’t ask any further questions. Even though some unidentified emotion passed over his face before he let me go. I had no idea what I might have told him if he’d demanded the entire truth.
A splash of cold water on her face was enough to wake Cleo, who shot up with a curse as she pushed sopping wet hair out of her eyes. Cerberus blinked a few times as I called his name, sliding from sleep into wakefulness in a way that seemed completely seamless.
Neither of them seemed to remember any impossible dreams or at least none they admitted out loud. It made me wonder if the fog had only done its job on me, which was beyond strange. I’d watched tendrils of it snake up Cleo’s nostrils as she inhaled right before she collapsed. And Cerberus would have been hit with it at the same time I was.
Which meant Hades had only wanted me to dream, which made sense. And Adonis, which didn’t make any sense at all.
But I pushed that aside as we made our way off the boat to the outskirts of Hades’s castle. All of us were awake and moving, right now, that was the only thing that mattered.
Adonis was trapped somewhere inside those walls. And I would never get the chance to discover what we could be together if I didn’t save him. That was more important than any lingering embarrassment about a sex dream.
To my surprise, Cleo seemed almost chipper as she climbed off the boat. Clearly, the fog hadn’t brought her anything more than restful sleep.
“Let’s go kick some Hades ass,” she cried, wrapping one arm around my shoulders as we started down the path. “That asshole won’t know what hit him.”
I couldn’t stop myself from leaning into her a little bit, if just because I needed someone to tell me that everything was going to work out. “I wish I had your confidence.”
“Girl, you are one of the most amazing people that I’ve ever met. If anyone can show this guy who’s boss, it’s you.”
My own arm came up to wrap around her waist, so we looked like we were about to start running a three-legged race. I felt like Dorothy setting off on the yellow brick road about to face down the wicked witch, but knowing she didn’t have to do it alone.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, because of the danger and all, but I am so glad you’re here,” I said, laughing even though I inexplicably wanted to cry. I knew this brief moment of happiness or camaraderie, or whatever you wanted to call it, wouldn’t last for very long. The next shoe to drop would be a boot to our necks. “Although I’ll probably regret saying that if we all die. I don’t think I could have gotten through some of this without you there.”
Cleo gave me a lopsided grin, but there was a note of wistfulness in her expression. “I’ve always been there for you, no reason to stop now.”
It was only after she said it that I realized it was true. For the longest time, I’d thought of her as just an extension of my guardian and chomped at the bit to elude the control they had over my life. Friendship had always been a foreign concept to me. The years that I should have spent as a young girl having birthday parties and sleepovers were spent institutionalized or under Diana’s watchful eye.
It had taken months of wheedling to convince her that she could let me out of her sight long enough to go away for college. Cleo had been paid to make sure that I took my pills and didn’t spiral out of control, not to hang out or warn me when Diana went on the warpath. She’d acted like my friend before I realized that was the word for it.
Without thinking through the impulse for too long, I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank you. For everything. When we get back, I’m going to talk to Diana about giving you a raise.”
“Oh, don’t do that. If she figures out we’re friends, then she’ll realize I’ve been withholding information, and she’ll sic somebody else on your tail,” Cleo replied with a laugh, letting me go. She seemed to think about it for a moment. “Although, you can upgrade our cable package with HBO if you really want to do me a favor.”
Of course. “You got it.”
But the pleasant feelings quickly turned to confusion when I saw what was waiting for us at the gates of the grand castle.
“Seriously? This is the last challenge.” Cleo pulled away from me to rush ahead. “I think Hades is losing his touch.”
Cerberus lengthened his stride to catch up with her. “Appearances can be deceiving. We should proceed with caution.”
But nothing ahead of us appeared to be at all foreboding. In fact, it was the exact opposite. We were surrounded by lush green grass, healthier than anything else I’d seen here. The grass was cut at alternating lengths in a square pattern, mimicking a chessboard. Full size chess pieces made of clear and frosted glass stood at the ready, set up perfectly for us to begin a game. It looked like something that I’d seen before at a local park meant for kids to play with, except those pieces had been made of plastic.
What was supposed to be scary about that?
I turned to Ryn, who was hanging back on the very edge of the grass. “What do you think?”
He shrugged. “I’ve already accepted that we’re all going to die, so I’m the wrong person to ask. Cerberus is right, though. We should be careful. Hades always has a trick up his sleeve.”
“He has to keep his tricks up his sleeve because there’s no room in those tight ass pants.”
But Ryn didn’t laugh at the joke, surprising me. Not because what I said was particularly funny, but because he’d been bopping around since the beginning, always the source of levity. But now he seemed deathly serious, his face practically a mask. It was as if finally arriving at Hades’s castle had drained all of the joy from him.
“Are you okay?” I murmured, only loud enough for him to hear.
“Do you know the last thing Hades ever said to me?” he asked, voice almost conversational despite the obvious fear in his eyes. “Precisely what he would do to me if he ever saw me again. I’ll spare you the details, but it wasn’t family-friendly.”
It made sense that he would be afraid. Hades ruled this realm, altered it to fit his whims, and exerted complete control. It was no wonder that I’d stumbled on Ryn along the outskirts, as far from the castle as it was possible to get. “You don’t have to come with us. That was never our deal.”
His smile was sad. “And let you face him on your own? It would be better to die than to live with myself if the worst happened.”
The setting sun had turned a bloody red on the horizon. Despite the chessboard colored like Easter grass with its crystal pieces glinting in the light, I felt a stab of ominous premonition. I didn’t need a crystal ball to know that something terrible was about to happen.
Cleo jogged back to us, cheeks pink from the effort as she took a deep breath. Physical activity had never really been her thing. “The castle gates are locked. Cerberus thinks we have to play the game to open them. Do you want to be white or black?”
“White, obviously,” I said, thinking of the obvious corollary of good versus evil. “I used to play chess all the time when I was a kid. This should be easy. And white gets to go first, which gives us an advantage.”
She had the grace to look abashed. “Good, because I already tried to move the first piece. Good thing it didn’t work because Cerberus told me it was the worst opening move he’s ever seen.”
Rolling my eyes, I hustled her forward. “Let’s go.”
“Ready?” Cleo called from her position behind me, drawing me from my reverie. “We’re running short of time here.”
I didn’t need to look down at the lariat to know that all but one of the stones had completely darkened. And the last had already begun its shift from clear to tinged with color. The thirteen hours were almost up, and I was wasting time on history lessons. It should thr
ill me that Hades’s world was dying because that asshole might go with it.
But a strange feeling burned in my chest that I didn’t understand. It felt like regret.
Or guilt.
“Any time now,” Cleo called again.
“Yeah, I got it.” I took a position next to a rook because I refused to be a pawn. Cleo had already claimed the queen, Cerberus stood sentry next to a knight while Ryn moved next to a bishop. “Now what?”
She looked a little confused and shrugged. “I guess you have to move the pieces. Should I start with this one?”
“Uh, no.” Considering that she was standing next to the king, which would be both inadvisable and impossible to move as an opening, I decided to start. The Queen’s Gambit was an aggressive opening, but one of my favorites. “Pawn to Knight’s four.”
It shouldn’t have surprised me when the pawn moved under its own powers, gliding soundlessly across the grass, but it still did. I’d been strangely removed from the magic of this place and the reminder that different rules governed the Underworld made me feel a little sick to my stomach.
In response to my opening, a black pawn moved next as if pushed by an unseen hand. It shifted to meet the white one at the center of the board, not exactly unexpected. Whatever magic created this setup had obviously been trained with classical responses.
By the third move, I was feeling more than confident. The black pieces were moving slowly toward a trap that would ensure our victory. We were still playing a cat and mouse game with all of the pieces remaining on the board, but I was setting us up for a sweeping victory. I opened my mouth to shout the move that would put them in check when Cleo interrupted.
“Their queen is open, that’s like the most important piece on the board,” she shouted. “Hey knight, take black’s queen.”
“No!”
But it was too late. The knight that I had in place blocking access to our queen, the piece Cleo stood next to, had already slid out of position to take the black queen. Of course, I’d noticed that the queen was unguarded, but I also recognized it for the trap that it was.
What happened next seemed like it was in slow motion. The black bishop slid across the grass straight toward Cleo and the white king. For a moment, I thought that the bishop would crash into them, and I opened my mouth to scream at her to run. Before I could say or do anything, the ground opened up at her feet, revealing a gaping chasm.
I heard her shocked cry and watched as she disappeared into the earth.
My body had already rushed forward before I connected the intent to dive after her, but Cerberus’s grip on my arm held me back.
“She’s gone,” he said as I tried to fight him off. “Those chasms go on forever; there is no coming back from one.”
“No,” I wrenched my arm from his grip, but Ryn had already come to my other side, their combined strength too much for me to overcome. I could only watch in horror as the hole disappeared. Bright green grass sprouted where it had been just as the black bishop slid into place.
They released my arms, and I fell to my knees, so overcome by disbelief that initially, the grief didn’t penetrate. And then it hit me in a wave, accompanied by rage. I shoved at the bishop that might as well have been a boulder for all that it moved and tore at the grass around it. Ryn and Cerberus pulled me back as I screeched that we had to dig Cleo out of there. They had to tell me a dozen times that Hades’s chasms have no end and a beginning only when he wishes it.
Chasms without end, falling forever.
Cleo was gone.
And it was all my fault.
She made a stupid decision, but I was the reason she was here in the first place. I wrote down the words that I knew were charged with forbidden meaning, even if I didn’t truly understand the consequences. I summoned Hades to us, and the responsibility for what happened here rested on my shoulders.
Ryn knelt down next to me, expression creased with concern. He reached out to touch my shoulder, but then hesitated and pulled away. “I am so sorry, Seph.”
Cerberus remained silent but even his usual neutral air had morphed into one of sympathetic resignation. He didn’t say anything, as if he understood nothing would help at this point.
I stayed on my hands and knees on the grass for several minutes. Only the dull glow of the last stone of the lariat dangling from my neck pulled me from my self-pitying trance.
“Let’s finish this,” I growled, pushing to my feet.
The rest of the game went quickly. I sacrificed nearly every piece on the board to accomplish the task, but we managed a checkmate. Chasms opened under each one as it was taken, and I watched them fall into the ground, imagining that I was throwing Hades in after them.
As soon as the black king piece disappeared into the earth, I heard the sound of creaking gates behind me. The way into Hades’s castle was clear. Nothing stood in between me and claiming victory. But that victory was hollow, enough to leave a bitter taste on my tongue. I had jumped from the top of the tallest building in Los Angeles to save my friends, both of them.
And I had failed.
But something else kept me moving forward: rage. I would finally face Hades. If there was a way to destroy that monster, I would find it. Even if it killed me.
Chapter Sixteen
Hades’s castle barely deserved the name. As we entered, the sun had fully set against the distant horizon, but even in the meager light, it was obvious the place had seen better days. Long passageways coated in dust and smelling of decay stretched out before us. Dried, dead vines twisted through the stone walls as if nature were desperate to overtake the decaying structure completely.
Only his throne room retained any remnants of the glory I had imagined when I first dreamt of the Underworld.
Hades himself lounged on his throne of skulls and bones. I had a picture on the wall of my room depicting this very same throne, one I painted years ago. But in it, the throne was covered in vines that were were lushly green, blooming with flowers of every variety and color. I didn’t recognize this twisted thing, neither the throne or its occupant.
There was no life here and I didn’t understand why it seemed to me that there should be.
My angry determination left me in a rush when I finally saw him. Fear squeezed my heart with icy fingers, and I had to force myself to put one foot in front of the other. I approached him slowly, alert for any tricks. No way was he about to make this easy for me, considering everything he had done.
He watched us with an unreadable expression, although I saw no trace of disappointment. Was he just going to sit there? I was expecting some final showdown or at least a villain speech, but his preternatural calm took the wind from my sails.
“I have met your challenge, reached your castle before thirteen hours were up.” My chest puffed up with the words as they were wrenched from my throat like some sort of mantra. “That means I win.”
He waved his hand, and the necklace disappeared from my throat and then reappeared twined in his long fingers. Bringing it close to his face, Hades inspected it with a sigh. “So you have. It appears congratulations are in order.”
That was it? He couldn’t possibly just roll over at this point.
I pointed my finger at him, voice thick with anger. “And you lied.”
Ryn gasped behind me but didn’t say anything. Both he and Cerberus had hung back when I marched inside the throne room, hesitating near the doors. Both of them seemed to fear their king’s wrath, but they still wouldn’t let me face him alone.
But only a raised eyebrow met that accusation as Hades asked, “Did I?”
“You said that my friends would be returned home if I reached the castle in time. I’m here, but one of my friends disappeared into a chasm, and I don’t see the other. That makes you a liar.” I was keeping myself calm with a Herculean effort. All I really wanted to do was launch myself across the distance that separated us and then do my best to claw his eyes out. “Where is Adonis?”
“Where he
belongs,” Hades drawled. “Safe at home in his bed, sleeping like a well-fed child.”
“What about Cleo?” I demanded. “Falling forever into an abyss isn’t that much different from dying.”
“The chasms respond to my will as much as anything in this realm does. The girl has been returned to where she belongs as well.”
Confusion tempered my anger as I stared at him. “Then what the hell am I still doing here?”
“Making a choice,” Hades replied enigmatically.
“Just let me go home—”
But he interrupted before I could complete the request. “I sent you on this journey in the hopes that it would jog your memory, although I see that failed. Then I hoped to lure you into staying using your attraction for the human boy. Even allowing you companions was a kindness, though you refuse to see it. I have turned this realm inside out for you, and still, it is not enough. What more can I offer you?”
I swallowed hard, nothing about this was what I expected. “How about the damn truth?”
With a flick of his fingers, a book appeared in my hands. So suddenly that I nearly dropped it before my fingers closed around smooth leather. I looked down and recognized it without even needing to read the cover.
Lament of the Underworld.
“You’ve read it hundreds of times,” he murmured, voice lazy even as his eyes narrowed with alert attention. “At least the version that circulates in the mortal realm. You must have the story memorized by now.”
“You steal young women and make them your queen, at least for as long as they survive. And if they succumb to your advances, then you use their life force to distract yourself from the darkness and death of the Underworld,” I said flatly, in response to the questions he was obviously asking. The rational part of me knew that I should insist he send me back right now with none of the verbal tricks, but I couldn’t stop myself from engaging in the confrontation I’d been waiting thirteen hours to have. “You’re the villain if that’s not obvious.”
Tempted by Darkness Page 17
