Persephone (9 page)

I gasped. My arms were crossed over my chest, gripping my shoulders to hold myself together. My vision swam. I doubled over, my head nearly touching the stone floor.

“What happened?” Hades appeared in front of me. He knelt beside me, a frown marring his otherwise perfect face. He touched my shoulder and I cried out. Something within me shifted and suddenly the pain was gone.

I stared up at him, breathing hard. “What—”

Hades was already on his feet, turning on the Reaper. “What are you
doing
here?”

“I didn’t know she was alive, I swear!”

“I didn’t ask if you knew she was alive, I asked what you’re doing here.”

“What happened?” I asked Cassandra when she offered me her hand and helped me up.

“Reapers collect souls and bring them to the Underworld,” she explained.

“Thanatos sent me. I was getting the list. I’m really sorry.” Zachary met my eyes. “I didn’t know you were alive.”

That horrible feeling had been my
soul?
I stared at Zachary in disbelief. He looked terrified. I followed his gaze to Hades.

“It was my fault. I shook his hand. I didn’t know that would happen.”

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “He shouldn’t be here at all, and he knows it. You should be able to walk around freely in your own palace.”

“Her own…” Zachary paled. “Oh shit. I mean, I’m really
really
sorry. I didn’t know we have a queen.”

I opened my mouth to correct him, but Cassandra squeezed my hand.

Hades looked at Cassandra, then back at Zachary. “Go find Thanatos and bring him to me.”

Zachary stumbled away, apologizing with every step.

“You okay?” Hades touched my shoulder and looked me over.

I nodded, shaken. Hades looked concerned, so I cleared my throat and climbed to my feet. “I’m fine.” To my embarrassment I felt myself leaning into his touch. I snapped out of it and looked at Cassandra. “Why did you say this was my palace? I’m just visiting—”

“Nope, you’re the queen,” Cassandra corrected cheerfully. She glanced at Hades. “You want Persephone to have lots of exposure. She needs to be seen by everyone.”

“What did you see?” Hades sounded alarmed.

“See?” I asked confused. My eyes widened as I made the connection. “Wait, you’re
the
Cassandra?”

She gave me a tightlipped smile and nodded before turning back to Hades. “Nothing concrete yet. I just know Boreas is still looking for her.”

Hades leaned against the wall, brow furrowed in thought. “Do you think he’ll give up if he finds out she’s here?”

Cassandra shrugged. “I can’t be sure. But there’s no way he can get down here. As long as he doesn’t have reason to believe she’ll return to the surface, I don’t see why he would bother.”

“But he may cause trouble on the surface to lure her up.”

She shrugged. “Anything is possible at this point.”

“What do you mean?” I demanded “And I
am
going back. In three months, remember?”

“I’m already counting the days,” Hades replied dryly. “Unfortunately, you’ll be back next winter.” He looked at Cassandra. “I’ll contact Demeter and tell her to keep her guard up. She can warn her people.”

“Boreas can’t be stupid enough to think we’d let the queen leave her realm,” Cassandra pointed out.

Hades didn’t look convinced. “Well, Brumalia is coming up. That’s as good a time for a marriage announcement as any. If Boreas has spies here, they’ll see her.”

“
She
is standing right here!” I snapped. “I’m not sure I want to play queen. And spies? I thought I was safe here.”

“You’re not playing queen,” Cassandra began.

Hades cut in. “You are safe—”

“Someone just tried to rip my soul out of my body!”

“It was an accident, and your soul wasn’t going anywhere. You’re a goddess, remember? In a couple of years you’ll be able to shake hands—” he gave me an incredulous look “—with Reapers all day without any problems. You are safe from Boreas and his spies. It’s the rest of the surface I’m worried about. Boreas knows I intervened, but he’s not going to jump to the conclusion that my next step was marrying you and bringing you here.”

“True,” Cassandra said. “Hades has gone millennia without getting married. Why would he choose to share power now? Boreas is probably looking all over Athens for you now, and your people aren’t exactly used to winter.”

I blanched, thinking of everyone I knew up there. “What will he do when he can’t find me?”

“He’ll go after people you know and make them tell him where you are.” Cassandra’s voice was gentle.

“How does he know who I am? Or who I know?”

“He knows,” Hades replied. “He’s never got along particularly well with your mother, so it’s only natural he’d keep close tabs on her whereabouts. I imagine he’s been watching you for quite some time, waiting for you to develop enough of your abilities to survive your abduction.”

I sucked in my breath, realizing the paranoid sensation of being watched hadn’t been so crazy after all. How long had he been lingering in the shadows waiting for the right time to take me?

“He’s been watching me?”

My voice was shaking. Hades’ eyes went wide and he shot a look at Cassandra. She shook her head and stepped back, arms in the air in an “I surrender” motion. “I’m dead, remember? I don’t do comfort well.”

Everything I thought I’d imagined was real. I shuddered, thinking of all the times it had felt like something was right behind me.

A hand touched my shoulder and I jumped.

“It’s okay.” Hades’ voice was reassuring. “He’s not going to find you here.”

I swallowed hard. “If no gods can come down here—”

“Most,” Cassandra interjected.

I froze. Hades shot her an annoyed look. “You’re not helping.” He returned his attention to me. “Without my permission. And that’s a one-way trip. The only gods who can go back and forth are you, me, Thanatos, and Hecate.”

“I haven’t seen Hecate in years,” Cassandra mused. “She’s still avoiding Moirae. Hermes used to be able to cross realms, but he died.” She returned Hades’ death glare. “Fine, not helping. Got it.”

“So how could he have spies?”

Hades sighed. “Anytime I leave the Underworld, it creates an entrance to this realm. Generally only gods or gifted humans can see it. Humans cannot enter except by death, and gods cannot enter except by invitation.”

“So how—”

“Demigods.” Cassandra chimed in. “They kind of fall into a gray area.”

“Which is why all entrances lead to Tartarus,” Hades explained. “That in itself is enough to dissuade most of them. Furthermore, they can’t cross the river if they fall below a certain moral standard. Since Boreas is one of the few gods out there still reproducing, it stands to reason he has some spies among us.”

“They wouldn’t dare attack you. Hades is a fierce god.” Cassandra rolled her eyes when Hades grinned. “Sort of. No one is going to touch you if they think they would have him to deal with afterward. He does have the unique ability to kill you and
then
torture you.”

Hades chuckled, and the sound sent shivers down my spine. “Of course, we’re being excessively cautious. Once Boreas knows you’re spoken for, he should simply move on. However interested he is in you, you’re not worth taking on a god of my caliber.”

“Uh, thanks.” I grimaced. “I feel safer already. If you’re such a powerful god, why do you let spies in your kingdom?”

Hades gave me a savage grin. His footsteps echoed in the large room when he walked over to his throne. “I’ve got nothing to hide. Let them see how far they’ve fallen. And in this case it serves our purposes.” He sobered. “Nonetheless, you’ll need a guard. Do we need to add dance lessons into your—” he suppressed a laugh “—combat training?”

His voice was so smug I was tempted to punch him in the face. I liked him better when he was worried about me and being comforting. Not when he was being an arrogant jerk. “Melissa and I took cotillion classes a couple of years ago.”

Hades snorted. “Of course you did.”

“Shut up!”

His eyebrows shot up. He pushed off the throne and straightened his spine. The air seemed to grow heavy and darken, crackling with an electric charge.

“Shut up?” he demanded. “Have you forgotten who you are speaking to? I rule a third of creation! I am the most powerful god left in this world, and I will not be ordered about by an infant!”

I saw Cassandra’s throat bob as she swallowed hard. She stared at the ground fiercely. A part of me felt like diving underneath the throne and hiding like a small child, but something deep within me responded to his show of power.

I straightened my back, tilted my chin up, and narrowed my eyes at him. “Wow, it is shocking you weren’t already married. Look—” I cut him off before he could speak. “I appreciate your saving me and going through all of this effort to make sure the people I care about are safe, but that doesn’t give you the right to mock me or to yell at me. Got it? I may not rule a third of creation—”

“Actually—” Cassandra interjected, but a withering glare from Hades cut her off.

“See to it she’s prepared for the ball. I have much to attend to.”

“Wait a minute!” I protested. “What the hell is Brumalia?”

“
Now
, Cassandra,” Hades growled.

“Sure thing. We were just wrapping up our tour.” Cassandra grabbed my hand and hustled me down the hall. “Bye now!”

Chapter IX

Cassandra led me through the rest of the tour fast, but I didn’t mind. I was too busy seething with rage at Hades. I didn’t know what it was about him that set me off, but something just made me want to wipe the self-satisfied smirk off his face.

Cassandra had an amused grin the remainder of the tour, and I wondered what she wasn’t telling me. Instead she filled me in on Brumalia. In the Underworld, it was kind of like a combination of a Christmas party and New Year’s ball with a keg party thrown in. Cassandra explained people in the living realm used to celebrate it until the Anglo-Saxons combined it with their holidays.

“Luckily, there’s no need for sacrifices, because everyone is already dead.” Cassandra’s voice was too cheerful.

I stared at her, horrified.

“I’m kidding, Persephone. Hades was never into sacrifices.” She stopped before a door, and I realized we were at the same room I’d woken up in. “This is, of course, your room.”

I shuddered.

Cassandra frowned and opened the door. “Something wrong?”

“It’s a little creepy,” I confessed. “It looks kind of like my room at home, but…different.”

“Oh! You must have been thinking about your home while you were asleep. The room decorated itself accordingly.”

“The room can read my mind?” I twirled my hair around my finger and backed away from the door. “That’s weird.”

“Not exactly,” Cassandra said, walking over to my window. “It just kind of…molds itself to what you want. What kind of afterlife would this be if you had to spend all your time in a place you weren’t happy with? Home is the most important…” She trailed off, looking at the blank windows behind the curtain. “Yeah, this is creepy. Let’s redecorate.”

“There’s nothing outside!” I cried, alarmed.

“What would you like to be out there?”

“I can decorate anything, any way I want, just by thinking about it?”

Cassandra grinned. “In this room, sure. Go for it.”

A smile formed on my face. This was going to be fun.

“Enough!” Cassandra laughed, flopping down on my bed. “We’ve been at this for hours! It looks perfect; can we move on?”

I looked around, unconvinced. I’d traded out the loft bed for a huge king-size bed. At home I liked the loft bed—there was something comforting about being in the air—but it didn’t feel the same here. I also switched my pink comforter out for a white down blanket, added a canopy of sheer billowing fabric to the bed, and added identical curtains to the large bay window.