Persephone (24 page)

Holy cow!
He was. He really was. “Hades?”

He turned from the desk. “Yes?”

My mind went blank. “Um…you have a lot of books.” The instant the words left my mouth I felt stupid. But I hadn’t known what else to say.
I’ve known this whole time that you can’t lie or anything, but I didn’t
really
believe you until I saw the flowers?
That sounded stupid. Besides, I knew where the conversation would lead.
Stupid age difference.

“Reading is a passion of mine.”

“Ditto.” I smiled, thinking of a few of my favorites.

His eyebrows rose in surprise, but I was used to that reaction. I was admittedly not the brightest crayon in the box, so people seldom thought I was the type of person who would sit around on rainy days and read books. Granted, I was more likely to be reading the latest supernatural romance novel in the Dusk series than I was to be reading Jane Austen.

“Don’t look so surprised,” I snapped, moving to stand.

Hades laughed. “I’ve just never seen you with a book. I’ve seen you here before, but never reading anything.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I wasn’t getting service, but I could still access my books, music, and movies.

“All my books are on here.” I opened the application. “Less clutter.”

He took my phone and started flipping through the small screen. “You read whole books on this?”

“All the time. They have a big version, but mom says it’s too expensive.” We’d see about that when I got back from the Underworld.

Hades snorted. “These aren’t books, these are—” He paused. “Dusk? Seriously?”

“What? It’s good!”

“I considered creating a dimension of Tartarus that forced souls to watch the movie based on this book for all eternity. Complete with shrieking harpy fan girls in the audience.”

I snatched my phone back. “Have you even seen it?”

“Cassandra made me watch it.” Hades shuddered.

“It’s a great movie and an even better book!”

“It’s ludicrous. What is with this recent human obsession with vampires?”

I sat up in my chair. “Were there ever any vampires?”

“Well, there was Hecate’s daughter, Empusa. She would seduce men and drink their blood as they slept. Poseidon’s daughter, Lamia—”

“Like the Midnight World books!”

“What?”

I scooted my chair closer to him and pulled up the book on my phone. “Born vampires are called Lamia, and made vampires are called—”

“Yeah, sorry I asked. Anyway, Lamia was Poseidon’s daughter. She had an affair with Zeus and had several kids. Hera found out about it and forced her to devour her children—” I gasped and Hades paused. He looked as though he was going to say something, perhaps to defend Hera, then shrugged and continued with the story. “Afterward, Lamia continued to drink the blood of mortal children until Zeus took pity on her and removed her eyes.”

“How exactly was that supposed to help?”

“It makes it harder to catch the children.”

I shook my head. “That’s…you know what, there are no words.”

“There were also Striges, or Strix, which were birds that fed on blood, and there was that island of the blood dri—”

“Okay! I’m sorry I asked.” I held up my hands in surrender. “I meant—” I pointed to my phone “—vampires like these.”

“Refined gentlemen who occasionally drink blood? It’s a complete myth.”

I thought it was ironic to hear that from Hades while sitting in the Underworld, but refrained from pointing that out. “What’s your favorite book? Oh, let me guess.
Inferno
.”

Hades laughed. “No. It’s hard to say a favorite. I enjoyed everything by Alexander Dumas. Have you read his work?”

“I’ve seen the movies.”

“The books are much better.” He stood and pulled them from the shelf. “Here, you should read them. In print.”

I laughed and stood to accept them. “Thank you.” My hand brushed his when I took the books and I suppressed a smile at the thrill that went through me.

Hades cleared his throat, and I realized I’d frozen in place, but then he hadn’t moved either.

The door to the study burst open and I jumped guiltily away from Hades, as if I’d been caught doing more than just standing there. Hades remained where he was and raised an eyebrow at the intrusion.

“Yes, Cassandra?”

“I need to talk to you,” she panted. I wondered if she had run all the way here. “Alone.”

I gaped at her. She’d been distant but never rude. She couldn’t be ignoring me completely now, could she? I ground my teeth together, hurt. I’d never been good at confrontation. I wished I knew a way to make this right.

Hades frowned. “Cassandra—”

“Hades, I mean it,” she snapped. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “This can’t wait.”

“You’ve had a vision?” Hades asked, and Cassandra nodded. The two exchanged a look I couldn’t read. Hades let out a tense breath and turned to me. “Persephone, you should—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I warned him, and turned to Cassandra. “Why don’t you want me to know what you saw?” I asked Cassandra, panic rising. “My mom? Did something happen to my—”

“No,” she assured me. “Your mother is fine.”

“What then?” I demanded. “What happened?”

She looked at Hades, appealing to him with her eyes.

“Persephone…” Hades whispered.

“No! I am not leaving until I know what she saw!”

Cassandra looked apologetically at Hades. “Boreas has taken Melissa.”

Chapter XXII

The air whooshed out of my body and I sat with a thud. Has taken. Not will take. Whatever she saw, it was something that would be done now that Boreas had taken Melissa. A thousand possibilities competed for attention in my thoughts, each worse than the last. Hades was talking, but I couldn’t hear him. All I could think about was my friend in the hands of that monster.

“Why didn’t you warn us?” I advanced on Cassandra. She must have seen something in my eyes because she shrank back.

“I can’t see everything. There’s been a lot happening on the surface. Her kidnapping must not have been chaotic enough to draw my attention.”

I narrowed my eyes. What
else
had happened that I wasn’t told? I forced that thought to the background. It didn’t matter right now. I had to rescue Melissa. “You have to help her,” I told Hades.

“Boreas is only doing this to draw you out,” Hades reminded me. “I can’t let you go after her, and I can’t leave my realm unprotected.”

“You can’t
let
me?”

“I can’t risk you for a mortal. No. I’m sorry.” He cut off my protest with a wave of his hand. “I know this is hard for you, but if it’s any consolation, I don’t think he’s going to go to the extremes with her that he did with Oreithyia. He only chose her to draw you out. Once he realizes we’re not coming he’ll simply kill her, and then you’ll be reunited with her down here.”

Cassandra’s inward hiss of breath was the only warning Hades got before I flew at him.

“You
bastard!
” I shrieked, my fists flailing, all of my self-defense lessons completely forgotten. He caught my wrists easily, dodging a knee to the groin. “Coward! You would just let her die!”

“Persephone!”

I tried to twist my wrists from his grasp, but he was too strong.

“Let me talk to your mother, okay?” I tried to wrench free, and he raised his voice. “Let me talk to her! I can’t just step in, Persephone! That is her realm and the daughter of one of her priestesses!”

The words penetrated the red haze clouding my mind. I went slack in his grip, breathing erratically. My mom could fix this. She would rescue Melissa. Mrs. Minthe was her priestess. Mom had arranged for Melissa to be born so I would have a priestess. Boreas had chosen his victim well. Melissa mattered too much for us to let her die.

I was not in the room for the conversation with my mother. For some reason Hades was afraid I might try to attack him if the conversation didn’t go my way. I lay down on my bed and did my best to rest. I needed to be at full strength, and Hades and I’d just spent the last of my powers.

After endless hours, Cassandra updated me on the situation. Boreas was holding Melissa hostage, and the price for her release was me. He promised no harm would come to her until next Saturday, when the exchange could be made.

That seemed like a long time, but it made sense. He’d no doubt burned through his powers kidnapping Melissa. He’d need ample time to get them back.

Of course, both my mother and Hades agreed exchanging me was out of the question. Their goal was to find Boreas as soon as possible and rescue Melissa. That was fine with me. I had a backup plan if necessary.

Over the next week I threw myself into my training. I was careful not to tip off Hades to my plan. He approached my goddess lessons warily but couldn’t deny them to me. It was too dangerous not to have them. He seemed relieved when I chose to focus on teleporting. I could practice everything else on my own time.

Charon was more blunt. “You’re not going to do something stupid if I teach you this, are you?”

“How exactly could I use pressure points against Boreas?” I asked in a dry voice. I wiped my sweaty palms on my black exercise shorts, shifting my feet to see the indentions they made on the blue matt.

“You couldn’t. You know that, right? If you get this close to him you’re as good as dead.”

“I know that.”

Charon met my eyes. “He’d come after you sideways, using the elements at his disposal. You’d want to be fast on your feet and prepared to break the ice. Watch under your feet, watch for flying icicles, and remember, your plants don’t react well to his ice.”

I kept my eyes level with his. “Thank you.”

He sighed. “Has Hades taught you how to make shields?”

I shook my head. There were different kinds of shields. Hades used shields for privacy as opposed to defense. There were shields to prevent you from being seen, or heard, but there were also shields for physical protection. For the next hour I practiced throwing up a shield when Charon tossed dirt clods at me.

I focused on keeping him off balance, alternating my shields with making vines twist up around his feet.

“Hey! You don’t need the thorns here!”

“Sorry!”

We kept it up for another few minutes before calling it quits. I stood, breathing hard.

“It won’t be enough,” Charon muttered on his way out the door.

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to hurt you. He does. He really, really does. Please, Persephone. Don’t do anything stupid.”

He didn’t wait for me to answer before he left. He knew I couldn’t lie. After that lesson, Thanatos followed me like a shadow in and out of the palace. He was unusually silent about the whole thing. My feelings were a little hurt. I’d been counting on his support. He might not help me, but I knew he’d understand. Without him to talk through my plans, what could I do?

I shot him a frustrated look before I knocked on Hypnos’ door.

Hypnos answered, face falling when he saw it was me. “Persephone.”

“I need to learn how to get into human dreams to tell Melissa how hard we’re trying to find her. Maybe she knows where she is!”

“It’s not possible. She hasn’t been given immortality yet. She hasn’t been altered in any way. We can’t enter every human’s dreams. Just a select few.”

“Melissa’s my priestess. Shouldn’t she be one of the few?”

Hypnos shook his head. “I already tried. Your mother hasn’t done anything to alter her yet. She’s probably waiting for you to stop aging before cursing her with immortality.”

“What about Boreas, can’t you spy on him in his dreams?”

“His defenses are too good.”

“Better than you?”

Hypnos hesitated. “Actually, yes.”

“
How?
Hades and my mom said there was no way he had much power left. How is he pulling all of this off?”

“That’s a good question.”

When no answer was forthcoming, I gritted my teeth. “What if I leave myself open? If he came to me, how could I get information from him?”

Hypnos’ face closed of all emotion. “I’m not going to help you if you’re going to do something foolish. Goodbye, Persephone.” He closed the door.

When I could sleep, I left my mind unguarded. Boreas didn’t take the bait. I felt like I’d hardly blinked when Saturday arrived. I summoned my keys and wallet and shoved them in my book bag. I pushed it under the bed, then I went to wait outside of Hades’ chambers, as I had every morning since Melissa’s abduction, while he conferred with my mother. I jumped when the door opened.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “She couldn’t find him, but she’s not giving up. She’s searching everywhere. We know exactly where he’s going to be this afternoon. If she can catch him off guard before…”