Daughter of the Earth and Sky (12 page)

“Kora?” Rachel asked. I turned, surprised to find her standing behind me.

“One sec,” Melissa muttered, edging her way closer to the crowd.

“Hi Rachel.” I stood on my tiptoes trying to see between the book bags. There were days I hated being short.

“I have a message for you.”

I sighed. “If it’s about missing Jessica and Ashley’s birthday, for the thousandth time I’m sorry. I’ve had a crazy summer and—”

“Swear fealty to Zeus.”

I spun to face her. “What did you say?”

“The longer you wait, the more he’ll take from you.”

Rachel’s hair was wrong, almost blindingly red. Her eyes shone brightly; the colors of her outfit were hyperrealistic. Something inside me went numb as I realized what I was seeing. I felt a flash of power, and suddenly the voices of my classmates were no longer muffled. I heard their screams, cries, and frantic calls for help. I tore my gaze away from Rachel.

Now I could see what everyone was staring at. A shield had been crafted within the group of students so well, I hadn’t even noticed it. Now I could see Rachel lying in the middle of the crowd in a crumbled heap on the concrete. Her eyes were wide open, staring straight at me, face frozen in a grimace of agony.

I turned back to Rachel’s soul. I could fix this; I could put her back in her body…somehow. I’d make this right.

She was gone.

Something brushed my neck, and I hit the ground with a strangled yell. Fire flashed through my veins. I’d felt this before, in the Underworld when I’d shaken a Reaper’s hand. The fire stopped as suddenly as it started. I spun to face my attacker, but no one was there.

“She shook my hand and just collapsed.”

I jumped at the voice, breathing easier when I realized it was Aphrodite. “Did anyone else touch Rachel?” My voice quavered and for some reason my face was wet with tears.
Rachel’s dead,
I realized. Of course I was crying.

“A man in black robes.” Aphrodite twirled her hair nervously. “Persephone, no one else could see him.”

A Reaper. No,
the
Reaper. Thanatos was the only one that could cast shields.
I’ll kill him.
Once I would have been surprised at the coldness of that thought, but I just didn’t have it in me anymore.

“I have to go.” My voice sounded strange to my ears. Distant, like it was coming from the end of a long tunnel.

Melissa walked up to us, giving me an odd look. “Go? Go where? The police are on their way, not to mention all the teachers. I think they’ll want—” She broke off when she saw my face. “Was this a god thing?” she asked in a whisper.

I nodded shakily, and something in her expression closed off.

“Go, we’ve got this.”

“Where is he?” I demanded, storming into the throne room. I couldn’t say Thanatos’ name. Just asking about him sent a wave of agony ripping through me. The three judges and Cassandra and Moirae looked up from where they were sitting on the side of the room in surprise. Only Hades didn’t seem surprised at how I’d stormed in.

The judges exchanged a look and turned to Charon. “Should we…?”

“Go? Great idea. Later Persephone.” Charon waved.

They hastened across the white marble floors, footsteps echoing off the endlessly tall ceilings.

“Cowards!” I called as the ornate wooden door slammed shut.

“Thanatos told me what happened.” Hades pushed off his onyx throne in the center of the large, round room. “He didn’t want to be around when you got down here—”

“I’ll just bet!”

“Because there’s nothing he could do. Zeus killed her in a crowd of people. It can’t be undone.”

That stopped me cold. “You think Zeus did this?”

“Who else could it have been? Rachel repeated the message she delivered to you,” Moirae said with uncharacteristic understanding.

I sighed and shook my head, looking away from Moirae. It was hard to look at her long. She looked dizzyingly average—middle-aged with brown hair and eyes and ambiguously tan skin. Her eyes darted around like she was hearing things we couldn’t.

Mostly because she could. The past, present, and future all warred for attention in the mind of this schizophrenic embodiment of the fates.

There was no explaining that Zeus had never been there. Moirae wouldn’t have seen anything. She saw the past, present, and future of every human she encountered, unless they’d been touched by a god. Rachel would have been invisible to her when she died. I doubted Rachel knew who Thanatos was to accuse him. Even if she happened to spot him, it wasn’t uncommon for souls to accuse the Reapers who collected their souls of killing them.

“Cassandra, did you see what happened?” I asked, fiddling with my necklace. Cassandra could see almost everything that was coming, including the divine.

“I didn’t.” She pulled on a strand of her dark hair, a nervous gesture.

“You guys think Zeus killed someone but Cassandra didn’t see it? That doesn’t seem weird to anyone?”

“There was a plane crash.” Cassandra crossed her leg and leaned back, putting her hands behind her head. “I can only see one thing at a time. It’s not often I see human actions rather than the divine, but it does happen.”

“Isn’t Zeus lord of the skies?” I asked pointedly.

“It was one death against hundreds.” Cassandra’s dark eyes flickered, but she kept her voice even. I could tell she wanted to be annoyed but was trying to be sympathetic.

I paused. What would it be like to see the things Cassandra saw? I’d gotten a taste of it in the last week with the Reapers killing people all around me, but those deaths, however disturbing, weren’t violent. Plus, I knew on an intellectual level that they were already on the list to die that day. The Reapers couldn’t afford to attract attention by taking someone who wasn’t on the list…Or so I’d thought.

Rachel wasn’t on the list.

My shoulders drooped; the anger that had been fueling me was spent. I was barely hanging on. Tears pricked my eyes. I hadn’t liked Rachel very much, but I didn’t want her to die.

“I know it’s frightening to think that Zeus may have been so close to you.” Hades moved close to me and clasped my shoulder. “Thanatos has generously offered up some of his Reapers to act as guards.”

You’re supposed to protect me!
I wanted to scream.
Not throw me to the wolves
. How could he be so blind to Thanatos’ betrayal? Why hadn’t he figured out what was wrong and fixed it?

Some of my rage must have shown on my face because Hades drew back in confusion. “It’s a great solution. Only gods can see them, so they shouldn’t interfere with your day-to-day activities. They can keep an eye on Aphrodite as well, and any of your friends or family.”

“No!”

“If Zeus wants you to swear fealty, he’ll stop at nothing—”

I threw my hands up in the air in frustration. “Why would he want me to swear fealty? He had my powers; he gave them to me.”

Anger flashed in Hades’ eyes, quickly doused. He didn’t like being yelled at, but my friend had just died so he was going to let it pass.

I glowered at him. He had
no
idea why I was upset, and in this moment I almost hated him for it.

Hades took a deep breath. “He had a
third
of your powers. I don’t think he’s coming after you for your charm. But having control of the Earth and Underworld would have
some
appeal to him.”

I narrowed my eyes at the sarcasm he’d let slip through. “I don’t have control—”

“You have a legitimate right to both realms. With you, Zeus could gain access to both. He doesn’t need much in the way of permission to enter the living realm, but my realm…”

My heart gave an uncomfortable thump. “He could come here?”

“I would ask you to stay down here, for safety, but…”

“We don’t know how long Zeus will be a threat,” I finished. Zeus wasn’t restricted to a single season like Boreas. I couldn’t live my whole life in the Underworld. And I couldn’t tell Hades why I didn’t want Thanatos’ Reapers shadowing me. I sighed and sat down on my throne. I felt a hand touch my shoulder and looked up to see Cassandra’s concerned face.

“Was she your friend?”

That was complicated. Rachel and I had been friends until I’d accidentally charmed her. I’d managed to undo the charm, but nothing could make up for the months of time we’d had to grow apart. Now that I had control of my powers, everyone was friendly to me again, but no one was close. “I don’t have many friends.”

“She’ll be fine down here,” Moirae said. “After a brief period of adjustment.”

“Thank you.” I stood, brushing off my dress. “I should get back to the surface. Mom’ll be freaking out.”

“Moirae, Cassandra, can we have a moment?” Hades asked. They nodded and left the throne room. “I think you should stay just a few days.”

“No. I’m not hiding again.”

“Then let me come with you.”

Panic flooded my chest. “You can’t leave the Underworld unprotected.”

A muscle jerked in Hades’ jaw. “He can’t come here, but he can come after you! Look, I know you want space, but if anything happened to you…”

I couldn’t stop shaking my head. “I have to go.” I stumbled away from him. “I can’t- you can’t, just…Stay. Please, stay.”

Frustration flickered over his face. “I don’t think the Reapers are going to be enough to protect you. I know you’re still upset with me, but this is bigger than us.”

I searched desperately for a reason, any reason, that didn’t correlate to Thanatos. “You don’t have my mom’s permission—”

“She wants to protect you as badly as I do. I’m sure she’ll allow it.”

“Just take a hint, would you! I don’t want you protecting me, and I don’t want you in my realm.” The words burst out of me. “Just stay here!” I didn’t wait for a reaction. I teleported to Tartarus and left the Underworld.

I’d barely surfaced in Memorial Park when I heard Joel calling my name. “Kora!”

I stared at him as he crossed the wooden bridge. I felt disoriented, out of place. I didn’t belong in this park, filled with life. The sky was too blue, the cherry blossom trees were too vibrant. Children laughed and played on the playground behind me. Their laughter was jarring; it felt wrong.

“Where did you come from?” Joel asked.

“I …” I looked behind me, toward the parking lot.

Joel caught my hand. “Is it true? What happened to Rachel? I didn’t know her well…But she…I mean, I knew her.” He looked upset. “What happened? Are you okay?”

I burst into tears. I couldn’t take this anymore. If one more person asked if I was okay…

“Hey, hey…” Joel said soothingly. He drew me to him in a tight embrace.

I clung to him, crying for everything I’d lost and everyone I was probably going to lose.

“It’s disgusting,” Melissa said.

“Huh?” I asked. I was supposed to be shopping. That’s why we were at the mall, but all I could concentrate on were the Reapers. They followed me everywhere. But at least in public, they didn’t touch me.

I shuddered at the thought and clutched my necklace. I was defenseless against the Reapers. Their touch tore at my soul. If one of them so much as brushed against me, the pain was bad enough for me to bawl my eyes out.

“That!” Melissa motioned to the food court where Aphrodite sat on a table surrounded by a bunch of guys. “I think some of those guys even have girlfriends.”

I eyed the glowering girls scattered around the food court and had to agree. I turned my attention to the As Seen On TV store. Maybe I would buy some pajama jeans. It wasn’t the type of thing I normally wore, but I wasn’t sleeping much anymore. Anything pajama sounded comfortable to me.

“Persephone, you have to do something about this. It’s like date rape.”

I fought to keep the irritation out of my voice. “For the thousandth time, she’s not charming them.”

“Sure, they just drop everything and follow her because she’s pretty,” Melissa snapped.

“Pretty much.”

She snorted and walked towards Macy’s.

“Melissa, where are you going?” I hurried after her. “Aphrodite’s still back there, we can’t just—”

“She doesn’t need a babysitter. She’s perfectly capable of lifting one of those well-manicured hands to call your cell phone. She might even deign to follow us. Isn’t that a crazy idea? Instead of waiting around for her all day, we could actually get our shopping done.”

“You make it sound like a chore. Shopping is supposed to be fun.”

“Supposed to be
being the key words.” Melissa stopped at the pretzel stand. “Hey, I have a buy one get one free thing. Want one?”

“She’s next,” a redheaded Reaper said, pointing to an elderly woman sitting on the bench. “Five grandkids. See the youngest one over there?”

I followed the Reaper’s outstretched hand to where a little girl was putting a quarter in a gumball machine.

“She gets to watch,” he added in a snide voice.

“Grandma, look!” She held up a pink gumball with triumph. “My favorite!”

“I’m not hungry,” I told Melissa. I watched the little girl run to her grandma, still chattering.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything? I didn’t see you eat lunch.”

It’s hard to eat with death breathing down your neck. “I’m sure.”

Melissa shrugged and ordered a pretzel.

“Look!” The little girl squealed in excitement. “A train!”

“Ugh.” Melissa grabbed her pretzel and a drink and started walking again. “Why do people let their kids shout like that inside?”

I stared at the little girl as she and her grandmother boarded the train that circled around the mall every few minutes. “Leave them alone.” I glared at the Reaper when I said it.

“Huh?” Melissa asked, turning around.

“They’re spending the day together, having fun. Who knows how often they see each other?”

“What are you even looking at?” Melissa waved her hand through the Reaper. “Fine, let her yell. Gods, no need to get so upset about it. You look like you’re about to cry.”

I started to explain about the Reaper then stopped. What was the point? I couldn’t explain they were stalking me without drawing attention to Thanatos, and even if I kept it to the usual business of Reapers, what would telling Melissa accomplish except to get her upset? Why burden anyone else with the knowledge of that grandma’s impending death. “Sorry,” I muttered, as we set off for Macy’s.