Persephone (13 page)

“How?” I gulped, blinking back tears. “I mean, there were
children
, and they all wanted—” I couldn’t finish.

He opened his mouth, closed it, and ran his fingers through his hair. “You get used to it. Those people, they’re upset for the moment, but when they adjust—”

I made a strangled laughing sound.

“I’m serious,” he said. “Follow me.”

I hesitantly trailed him through the courtyard. He led me to the edge of the suburbs where the new souls milled around looking out of place.

“What—” I began.

“There.” He pointed at an elderly man rapidly approaching the group, calling a woman’s name.

An older woman turned, her eyes widening when she saw the man. A wordless yell erupted from her lips and she ran to him and leaped into his arms. He spun her around, laughing.

“See?” Hades said. “It gets better.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

He nodded and walked back toward the palace. “See you at dinner?”

I nodded. Thanatos came and took his place beside me when Hades stopped at the group of children gathered near the new souls and knelt to their level, speaking animatedly.

I watched in disbelief as worry and fear left their faces. They smiled when he produced some candy from his pocket and sent them clamoring toward a large playground with adults surrounding it. The adults watched the children with expressions ranging from hope to dread. Were they people who’d always wanted kids, or parents looking for their children? What would that be like, watching every day, half hoping you could see your children again, half terrified because it meant their lives would be over?

I watched the playground for a long time, waiting until each child was claimed.

Chapter XI

“There you are!” Cassandra exclaimed, dragging a gorgeous blond woman with her. “Persephone, Helen. Helen, Persephone. Come on, we’ve got a lot to do.”

“Like what?” I followed her back to my room.

“Helen designs the best dresses, and we have to go over everything you’ll need to know about the ball tomorrow.”

“I’ll be out here if you need me,” Thanatos reminded me.

Helen and Cassandra were babbling to one another at the speed of light about fabrics, colors, and cuts. All I knew about dresses was that they came from the mall. “I think I may need you,” I whispered to Thanatos in trepidation.

Thanatos grinned at me. “No way in hell.” He winked as my door closed.

Designing a dress didn’t take long in the Underworld. Helen tapped my shoulder, and I was wearing a princess cut gown. She frowned and made adjustments here and there, tapping my shoulder each time.

“Are you Helen of Troy?” I asked. Her golden eyes warily turned to me and she nodded.

It was strange being in the same room with the face that launched a thousand ships. She was pretty, but it wasn’t her face that stood out to me. It was her hair. It was a beautiful shade of red and blonde that combined to make a golden color I’d never seen before. It fell down her back in luxurious waves. I’d never had a problem with my hair before. I considered it to be my best feature, but seeing Helen’s hair, I was jealous.

“You have pretty hair!” I blurted out. My eyes widened, horrified I’d spoken aloud.

“Thank you,” she said warmly. “Want to try it out?”

“Huh?”

A floor-length mirror appeared in front of me and I glanced into it, startled to see my hair the same golden tone. I stared at the two of us standing side by side in the mirror, and something about the reflections bothered me.

In a flash I knew what it was. “You look like me!” I reverted to my blonde shade. “I mean, not the hair color, obviously, but we look alike.”

“We do share a father.”

I was momentarily dumbfounded before I remembered: Helen of Troy was a daughter of Zeus.

“Okay, we’re done here.” She tapped my shoulder, and I was wearing a pair of black shorts and sleeveless blue t-shirt, made of thin waterproof material.

“What?” I looked at my outfit dumbfounded.

“Time for your self-defense lessons.” Cassandra grinned.

Helen smiled. “I’ll be by tomorrow night, right before the ball.”

They’d hardly left when Charon entered my room.

“Good afternoon,” he called in his jovial voice. “You ready to learn how to kick ass?”

He walked me through basic self-defense moves. I remembered most of it from the class I’d taken a few years ago. Charon reviewed how to escape different holds and grabs.

“Can I meet some of the heroes?” I asked when he wrapped up the lesson.

“Sorry, sunshine. Most heroes choose to drink from the Lethe. They tend to have tragic lives. Now they can finally rest.”

“Oh.”

He laughed at the obvious disappointment in my voice. “Who were you hoping to meet?”

I flushed. “I was a fan of the Hercules show when I was younger.”

“He had a show?” Charon raised his eyebrows. “I only caught the cartoon.”

“I loved that cartoon!”

“Don’t let Hades hear you say that.” Charon laughed. “Or that you’re a fan of Herc.”

“Why?”

“There’s been bad blood between those two ever since Hercules stole Hades’ dog.”

“Cerberus? The myth called that a
loan
.”

“It was. But Hercules never brought Cerberus back, and now he’s drunk from the Lethe so he can never tell Hades where to find him.”

I blinked. Everything dead came to the Underworld. If Cerberus had never returned… “You mean there’s a three-headed dog running around on the surface?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. You seem to have a pretty firm grasp on the basics, so let’s see how you do.”

“Do? Like…” I struggled to remember the word. “Sparring?”

“Yes.”

“With you? Today? I only just started. You and Thanatos weren’t serious about that bet, were you?”

“No, Thanatos isn’t an idiot. He wouldn’t dare lay a finger on you, and neither will I.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“You’re Hades’ wife.”

I flushed. “Not really, we’re just—”

Charon waved a hand. “Doesn’t matter. No god in their right mind is going to lay a finger on you unless they want to start a war. We need someone Hades can safely channel his anger at if you get hurt.”

“I don’t think I’m ready for—”

“You’re not human. Humans have fight-or-flight instincts. We have only fight. We weren’t designed to be afraid of anything. We created the food chain, so that arrogance is hardwired right into our DNA. You have better instincts for this than you think you do, and the only way I can evaluate that is to see you in action.”

“Wait. Better instincts? So because I can make flowers bloom, I’m hardwired to do battle?” I laughed.

“Not every god was lucky enough to get powers,” Charon pointed out. “So don’t knock yours. Every god is blessed with better reflexes, and a touch more strength than the average human.” He frowned. “It was a much more notable difference before humanity discovered vitamins.”

“I’m not stronger than anyone.” I wished I could claim otherwise, but some heavy doors gave me trouble. I had no delusions about my strength.

“Not yet. You haven’t grown into your powers. We’re not talking super-strength, anyway; it’s a pretty tiny boost. And it does correlate to height and build, so chances are while you’ll be stronger than someone else your size, you still won’t outmatch most humans.”

“Oh.”

“So let’s see what we’ve got to work with.” Charon snapped his fingers.

Before I could ask what he meant, a man grabbed me from behind. I threw my head back like I’d been taught, but instead of breaking his nose, my head bounced harmlessly off his chest.

I slammed my foot down, causing him to grunt in pain. His grip barely loosened but it was enough to twist free. I spun to face him and froze.

The figure before me was a bent and twisted husk of a man. His skin was gray, bleached of color, and gaunt. I could make out each bone in his face. His eyes sparked with hatred and he came toward me with a guttural growl.

I sprang backward. “What is he?”

“This is Bob,” Charon said, his cheerful demeanor seeming out of sync in the same room as the man before me. The thing cut Charon an irritated glare and Charon shrugged. “Not Bob? Meh, no one actually cares what your name is. Bob here is one of the residents of Tartarus. I told him if he could beat you I’d consider letting him out on good behavior.”

I remembered what Charon had said about needing a safe target for Hades if I got hurt, and my eyes widened. Before I could respond, Bob surged forward and I scrambled to get out of his path. I wasn’t fast enough, and he caught me in my shoulder. I stumbled and his hand flashed out, wrapped around my neck and slammed me into the wall.

I pried at his hand but his grip didn’t weaken. My vision blurred. I kneed him in the groin and he dropped me with an angry yell. I kicked his knees. He fell to the ground. I rolled to my feet, but his hand wrapped around my ankle and gave me a vicious tug. I fell, my head striking the exercise mat hard enough to see stars. He pinned me to the ground. I squirmed beneath him, trying desperately to escape his grasp, and suddenly the weight lifted off me.

“Bye, Bob,” Charon said, snapping his fingers. Bob vanished. “Okay, so here’s what you did wrong.” Charon launched into a lecture.

I slowly rose to my feet, watching Charon with disbelief. “You’re not letting him go, are you?”

“I considered it.” Charon’s eyes were bright with mischief. “And then I realized I don’t have the power to authorize something like that. Lighten up, Persephone. It wouldn’t be Hell if they couldn’t experience false hope. Can you run?”

“I am capable of running,” I replied, confused by the rapid change of topic. “Sure.”

“Fast, for long distances?”

I frowned. Every year in gym class we trained for the Presidential Fitness Award and ran a mile on the track. Melissa and I typically came in the bottom tenth of the class, but we’d never
tried
to do better. We’d run for a minute so our teacher couldn’t say we hadn’t tried and walk and talk the rest of the time.

“Maybe.”

Charon shook his head. “That won’t do. You need to run every day.”

“Why?”

“Every technique I’m going to teach you is about getting away. If you can’t run from your assailant, then it’s a waste of time.”

I thought of my nightmare last night and shuddered. “What if I can’t get away?”

“If it’s a mortal, you kick their ass. If it’s anything more than a minor deity, you’re screwed.”

I frowned. “We have to have some kind of weakness.”

“Yeah, our kids. You know that whole created-not-born thing?”

I nodded.

“When gods conceive, they give their children part of their power. Literally. From what I can tell, Demeter gave you a major chunk of hers, and Zeus probably just gave you your charming personality.” He smiled at me. I narrowed my eyes at him, unsure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. “Regardless of how much power a god gets from their parents, it was once a part of their parent, so their parents are vulnerable to them.”

All the myths I’d heard where the parents were convinced their children were going to kill them suddenly made a lot more sense.

“That doesn’t help you, though. You come up against a god, run the other way and pray they can’t teleport.”

With that cheerful thought, he worked out a training schedule for me. I was supposed to walk for five minutes, then jog for thirty seconds, increasing the intervals of jogging time over the course of a few weeks, then gradually building up speed and distance. Charon helped me connect my phone to the Underworld’s network and download a jogging app some tech savvy soul had created. He offered to help me create a room with an indoor track, but I declined in favor of finding one outdoors. I was still shaken by the fight and wanted to get as far away from Charon as possible.

The Underworld had no shortage of beautiful trails cutting through dense forests of elms, maples, pines, and oaks. Thanatos showed me a path that wound around a picturesque lake, bordered by live oaks draped with Spanish moss. I put on my headphones and started my playlist, letting the program guide me from walk to run.

I fell into the rhythm without any trouble, leaving my mind free to wander. I didn’t like the idea of being defenseless against anyone. What if I couldn’t run? What if Boreas could teleport? I paused with a sudden thought. Could I teleport? I’d have to ask Hades later, but if I could, was there even any point in building up running endurance?

Maybe insisting on self-defense lessons was silly. Hades seemed to think so, and Charon had pretty much just confirmed it would be useless if I was in any real danger.

Pirithous is human. He can still hurt me.
People, guys in particular, had been acting strange around me. I hadn’t felt safe in a while. It would be nice to know I could handle myself if some crazy situation came up. My mind flashed to Helen and I wondered if that was something we had in common.