Persephone's Orchard (The Chrysomelia Stories) (45 page)

Freya and Niko, receiving his diatribe, looked more sympathetic than offended.

Niko, in fact, looked impressed. “That may be the most I’ve ever heard you talk all at once, Adrian.”

“Of course we get it, dear.” Freya caught Adrian’s hand and stroked it. “It’s all right. The tree’s still growing and making new flowers. She has time. Plenty of opportunities.”

“And in the meantime,” Niko said, “we’ll catch the bastards. So let’s do it.” As he and Freya turned away, Niko punched Adrian on the shoulder. “You worry too much, mate. We’ll fix this. You’ll see.”

T
EXTS TO AND
from Adrian kept Sophie going that day. As agreed upon beforehand, the messages were vague. When Sophie said
Boring day so far
, she knew Adrian would understand it meant she hadn’t seen anyone following her. And when he answered,
Same here. Saw friends briefly
, she knew it meant he had checked in with Niko and Freya.

They said nothing of substance; no plans for next time they’d meet, not even, “I miss you and I hate this,” though Sophie longed to say it.

She slogged through the day, barely able to focus in classes, itching with paranoia every time she was outside. Rain poured down during most of the hours, hindering her ability to spot anyone suspicious in the crowds. Coats, hats, and umbrellas disguised the populace. Once or twice she thought she saw someone who might be Wilkes, but wasn’t sure.

As night fell, and she sat in her dorm room, depressed at the idea of sleeping alone, a text arrived. “Customer Disservice” was the sender. After a moment, she remembered it was Nikolaos. He hadn’t texted her directly before, but Adrian had forwarded her the contact.

Look out your window, love
, it said.

She leaped up and peered out through the rain and darkness. There, under a lamppost, stood a middle-aged guy under a bright red umbrella. He wore a business suit, his paunchy belly stretching out the jacket, and his hair was gray and thick and combed back. He waved at her. It took her a moment of squinting, then she recognized Niko under the disguise. Tonight, deprived of Greek gods and aching for them, she felt unusually delighted to see him.

Hi! I’ll be right down
, she answered.

“Just going to get some fresh air,” she told Melissa, who was studying at her desk.

“It’s pouring,” Melissa said.

“Yep, I’ll…bring an umbrella.” Grabbing her purple umbrella, Sophie darted from the room, down the stairs, and out into the wet, breezy night.

Niko sauntered over, meeting her beneath the shelter of the dorm’s overhang. He looked ridiculous to her eyes, but surely would pass as a parent or professor to any casual onlooker.

“Hi, Uncle Joe,” she said, not that anyone was out there listening.

“Hello, niece.” He switched to the ancient language that was Persephone’s mother tongue. “I just wanted to assure you I haven’t seen any indication that anyone’s moving in on you tonight. Nor on Adrian, not that they could reach him. He’s safe in his caravan, scowling and being prickly.”

For the word “caravan,” she noticed, he substituted English. That was a word the old language didn’t have.

“Good,” she answered, using the old Greek-ancestral tongue as well. “Is Wilkes following me? I thought maybe I saw him.”

“No, he’s been stuck at home all day. Strangest thing. His car battery—” (he also resorted to English for those words) “—disappeared completely.”

Sophie grinned. “How very strange.”

“Yes. Can’t imagine how that happened. Then, while he was dealing with that, a fire started in his laundry room.”

She covered her mouth. “Niko!”

“Uncle Joe,” he corrected sternly. “No one was hurt, so calm down. Kept him busy all day, though. Not a chance to drive here and disturb anyone.”

“But isn’t he going to suspect someone’s messing with him—that we know his plans?”

“He might, yes.” Niko sighed. “Adrian’s angry at me for that. We’re supposed to be like the Allies in World War Two, I guess, and let attacks happen so no one knows we’re decoding the Nazis’ messages. I’m not a big fan of that approach. I’d have messed with him a lot more if left to my own devices. I had plans for a whole cage of ferrets…” Niko’s voice trailed off as he looked away, forlorn at the rejection of his glorious ideas.

“What about Quentin?”

“Freya’s been looking for her. Surveillance on one rental house after another in Corvallis. Haven’t found her yet.”

“I don’t suppose you could set
her
house on fire when you find it.” Such sentiments were unlike Sophie, but she couldn’t help feeling them when it came to Quentin.

“I just might. Well, we’ll check in tomorrow, darling. Can I bring Ade a kiss back for you?” Without awaiting permission, he leaned down and kissed her juicily on the cheek.

She wiped it off. “Yuck.”

He nodded in commiseration. “Isn’t that the kind of kiss uncles always give, though? Now, Freya’s been complaining that today’s surveillance was absolutely the most boring thing she’s ever had to do, so I’d better go make it up to her with a much more exciting night.”

“Again yuck,” said Sophie, but she smiled.

With a wink, he walked off.

Despite Niko’s assurance, she felt uneasy as she reentered the dorm. The divine liar, thief, and trickster evidently wasn’t above arson. And he remained the only person she knew to have gotten hold of her phone. Was there any chance he was the exact person they should suspect? A chill crawled through her body.

Pausing on the landing in the stairwell, she dialed Adrian’s number.

“What’s up?” he answered, sounding tense.

She resorted to the language of the Underworld this time. “Are we sure we can trust Nikolaos?”

He took a moment to answer, then said, also in that language, “Of course. I mean—trust him, no, never entirely. He does what he wishes, even when it’s reckless and wrong. Like that fire tonight—did you hear?”

“Yes. He just visited. Told me about it and took off.”

“Well, he definitely is irritating, but he wouldn’t sell us to the enemy.”

“Are we sure?” she said. “I’m trying to think of anyone else who might have betrayed us, and there aren’t many possibilities.”

“What could they offer him that he doesn’t already have? What could possibly make him work for their side? We know he’s immortal. We know they hate immortals. There’s no way. No.”

“Then…” She slumped back against the wall. “If it was Jacob spying on my phone, which I guess is the likeliest, then I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it. He’s in another city, and I already dumped him.”

“Nothing. Tonight you don’t have to do anything. Except do your homework and get some sleep.”

“Sleep.” She grunted a laugh, and switched the phone to the other ear. “I’m still avoiding the dreams. I know there’s drama later—Demeter finding out, trouble with immortals and the rest of the world—and I don’t want to go there yet. So when I do visit Persephone, I’ve just been replaying that one day. The spring equinox.” She smiled fondly. “It’s been good. Suppose I should move on, though.”

“You’re in control. Dream what you like.”

“You’re the only thing I want to dream of.”

“You’re the only thing I have dreamed of, for years.”

The soft words washed over her, bringing love and loneliness at the same time. “I’ll miss you tonight,” she said, still in the Underworld tongue.

“You too, my love.”

Chapter Forty

W
HEN
S
OPHIE CAME BACK TO
the room, Melissa glanced up from reading something on her phone. “Not seeing David tonight?”

Lie, lie, lie. A good policy, in case dorm gossip was getting back to Thanatos.

Sophie shook her head, sliding her phone into her pocket. “I don’t think it’s working out. It’s…too weird.”

Melissa nodded, as if she totally knew the weirdness guys brought to your life. “A good night’s sleep ought to help.”

It might, Sophie thought, except her dreams lately took the form of an endless buffet of vivid, emotional scenes from real human lives. At the last moment, drifting off to sleep, her mind reached for Adrian. And perhaps because of Niko’s mention of the Nazis, her dream settled upon the gentler moments between Grete and Karl. She let herself rest in those: coffee in the shop with pictures of trains on the walls, their laughing conversations, his shabby black coat and beautiful young eyes, the heat of his body when he stood close to her outside once, beneath the eaves during a rainstorm. The sadness, the love, the faint comforting hope that goodbye might not be forever.

T
HE NEXT DAY,
Sophie got the call from Niko as she left her last class of the afternoon.

“Wilkes has left Salem,” he said, in the old proto-Greek tongue. “I’m trying to follow him, but traffic’s getting in the way.”

“You’re driving?” She did hear something like the low roar of engines behind his voice.

“Trying to, but everyone and their dog is getting on I-5. Rrrgh, I hate having to do this like a bloody mortal.”

Dread made Sophie feel alert for the first time all day. “I’ll watch for him. I’ll be ready.”

“Call us if he shows up.”

“I will. Thanks, Niko.” She hung up, and for a moment almost burst into tears of stress and exhaustion. Someone was coming, now, today, probably intending to hold her hostage and kill the love of her life.

But then she took a deep breath and held her head high.
Don’t start crying. Start doing.

Wise words. She and her friends could defeat this. They could.

She strode back to the dorm, glancing around for enemies, heart thumping.
Bring the battle
, she thought.
Let’s do this.
Salem was less than an hour’s drive from Corvallis. It would happen soon. They’d catch the assassins. They had to.

But an hour passed, and then two, and the battle hadn’t arrived. Night fell. She had dinner at the cafeteria with Melissa, who ate little and stayed silent except to complain that her cramps were tying her insides into macramé knots.

During that half hour, Sophie’s phone lit up with texts between Niko and Adrian (cc’ing Freya and Sophie), all in their best attempts at writing proto-ancient-Greek in English characters, which made it harder than usual to understand. But, Sophie figured, it also made a pretty good secret code.

Lost him on the road
, Niko said.
Driving around Corvallis looking for him or his car.

Damn it
, Adrian said.
Couldn’t he have switched cars?

Yes, he could have, especially if he picked up a helper and some weapons. Maybe an SUV or van, to hide them better. But I don’t know what he switched to, so it could be anything.

I’m coming to the living world to help look for him
, said Adrian.

No you are not
, said Niko.
You’re the target and they know what you look like.

Sophie put down her fork and tapped “reply.”
Would you both shut up
, she wrote in her own version of English-lettered proto-Greek.
It’s me they’ll come after, so just stay near and wait for me to tell you when they show up.

She’s right,
Freya weighed in.
They’ll make a move on Sophie, and we’ll be there, more of us than they expected.

More of us to blow up at once
, Adrian said.

And risk killing innocent students too? They wouldn’t dare
, said Freya.

But Sophie wasn’t so convinced. Adrian’s words stuck in her mind and destroyed what was left of her appetite.

Across the table, Melissa shoved her plate away with a sigh. “Everything is gross. Ready to go?”

Sophie tucked her phone into her pocket. “Yeah.”

They dumped their trays at the bins, and walked out into the night. The wind blew spatters of cold rain at them. Wet leaves smacked down onto the pavement.

Melissa turned pained eyes up to Sophie. “Will you go with me to the drugstore? I need meds for these cramps.”

Sophie deliberated. Walk the streets in vulnerability, tonight of all nights? Or was it better to go somewhere the opposition wasn’t expecting her, and confuse them? Well, Adrian and the others could track her wherever she was, and perhaps outside was actually better, as they could reach her more quickly. “Sure,” she told Melissa.

They turned their backs to the wind and headed toward the shops at the edge of campus. Sophie tapped a text to her immortal friends on the way:
Going to drugstore with roommate. Quick trip.
Having sent it, she put her phone away, closed her fingers around the stun gun in her coat pocket, and resumed glancing around for suspicious SUVs or vans.