Daughter of the Earth and Sky (4 page)

I got out of the car, combed my fingers through my hair, and checked my reflection in the rearview mirror. “I’m sure you’re exhausted.” I straightened my dress. “So did you just want to crash here and hit Cumberland Island tomorrow?”

“Are you kidding? This is the longest I’ve been on the surface in…” Hades trailed off to think. “Nearly forever. I’m not going to waste a minute sleeping. We should go sightseeing! We’ve got two days, might as well make the most of them.” He gave me a hopeful look.

I yawned again and reached down to adjust the strap on my sandal.

“Unless you’re still tired,” he amended, sounding crestfallen.

I looked up. His shoulders were slumped as he grabbed his suitcase out of the trunk.

Aww
, he wanted to go sightseeing! “Give me five minutes.”

Hades led me into the hotel and directed me toward a wooden staircase. I kept a hand on the espresso-colored railing. A striped cat raced past me. It was a really nice hotel, really homey. The top half of the walls were white with curvy, wrought iron lights fastened every few feet, and the bottom half was paneled with the same espresso-colored wood of the staircase. The wood floors were covered with red rugs with paisley patterns printed on them.

“This one.” Hades unlocked the door and opened it for me. “And I’m right here.” He pointed at the next door before entering his room and closing the door behind him.

I took a quick look around my room before I tossed the unicorn bag onto the massive four-poster bed. A painting of two palm trees on a beach hung above the bed. I stood between the bed and the fireplace and dug through the bag Cassandra packed for me. “Oh, gods.”

The short skirt and shiny aquamarine top were thrown to the side. It would have looked great on Cassandra; on me it would look ridiculous. I dug past the sexy sleepwear and found a linen sundress that was more my style.

I ran a brush through my hair, pulling some of it back into a daisy clip, and let the rest of the blonde waves cascade down my shoulders. My bright green eyes caught my attention in the mirror.
Oh right
. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting the human glamour settle over me.

I didn’t have to change much. I’d passed for human most of my life. When I opened my eyes, they’d dulled to a more natural shade of green. My skin and hair were no longer as bright or glossy. It was probably overkill, but ever since Pirithous had tried to abduct me from my mother’s flower shop last year, I’d realized you can never be too careful.

Between Orpheus’ publicity stunt and Boreas’ freak blizzard that tore through the world last year, the gods were no longer regarded entirely as myths. We still weren’t widely worshiped, but the glimmer of belief that we could be real had spread like wildfire, igniting a sense of hope and fear in the human race.

When I stepped into the hall, Hades was leaning against a wall reading a brochure. He’d altered his appearance, too. His unearthly electric blue eyes had dimmed, and his hair was lightened to a normal shade of black. Even his gait had changed from his unnatural, almost predatory walk to a clumsier human stride.

I took in his black T-shirt and blue jeans with an amused smile. “Wow, you look almost normal.”

He glanced up from the brochure and gave an uncomfortable looking shrug. “I hate it,” he admitted. “I don’t know how you can tolerate keeping your glamour up twenty-four seven.”

“It gets easier,” I assured him. I motioned to the brochure. “Where to?”

* * * *

We spent a surprisingly normal day together. We walked through Orange Hall Museum, a beautiful antebellum mansion, and explored the rest of the city. According to the dream message, Poseidon wasn’t expecting us on Cumberland Island until tomorrow night, and since the island was only accessible by a ferry that ran earlier in the day, there was no getting there today anyway. Plus, I wasn’t going to suggest we hurry. I was enjoying my time with Hades.

“I can’t believe all the houses have been here since 1820.” I motioned toward a brick building down the street. “There’s a spot like this in Athens, timeless. If you ignore the cars and stuff, you can imagine back when the streets were dirt, and there were horses and—” I broke off seeing Hades’ amused look. “What?”

“I need to take you to Europe. That—” he pointed at the huge white house “—is an infant.”

I stuck my tongue out at him and caught sight of a cemetery with a huge statue of an angel. “That more your style?”

Hades didn’t answer. I turned to look at him and saw his attention was focused on a man dressed in dark robes across the street. The light bent around him. My throat went dry when I recognized he was a Reaper.

“Is he—” I gasped.

Hades waved to the Reaper, grabbed my arm, and propelled me to the next street. “Just the usual,” he assured me. I heard a woman cry out, and Hades picked up the pace.

My pulse was pounding in my throat. People die, it happens. The Reaper was a blessing; it meant that poor soul wouldn’t have to sit in its dead rotting body. On an intellectual level, I got it.

But my understanding ended there.

“Look.” Hades pushed me toward a small gazebo. Necklaces hung from the roof of the stand, glittering in the sunlight.

I could feel his eyes on me, watching, evaluating whether or not I was about to burst into tears and accuse him of being a heartless god for letting people die.

Well, it wasn’t like it hadn’t happened before.

“Pretty,” I whispered instead, moving closer to the necklaces. I couldn’t fall apart every time someone died. I was Queen of the Underworld! It wasn’t like the Underworld was some terrible place. The soul would adapt.

I did my best to shove all thoughts of the dead or dying out of my head. I couldn’t do anything about it. The necklaces swayed in the breeze. I steadied one and studied it. A small wire basket, about the size of my thumb, kept a small plant in place. It hung on a simple silver chain.

“They’re air plants,” said the woman behind the register. She moved closer to us. “They don’t need soil to grow, just spritz them with water every couple of days and make sure they get plenty of sun.” She plucked another necklace off the stand. “Eventually they bloom.” She motioned to the splash of red growing from the plant’s center.

“Do you get to pick a charm?” Hades asked.

I looked up, unsure of what he was talking about and noticed some of the necklaces had small charms attached the baskets.

“For an additional five dollars you can—”

“You’re going to charge
me?
” Hades’ eyebrows shot up.

“It’s fine.” I reached into my purse to grab some cash and held it out to the woman. Hades intercepted my hand and motioned me to put the money away.

The woman gave Hades a strange look. “Are you someone special?” She frowned like she was trying to place him.

Hades laughed. “You have no idea.” He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a black credit card so dark it seemed to absorb light. It must have felt strange because the woman shuddered when she touched it.

Hades plucked a charm out of a box sitting on the counter top. He showed it to me, and I grinned. It was a pomegranate seed. He’d remembered my favorite fruit.

The woman took the necklace I’d been eyeing and attached the charm to it before giving it back to Hades. “Have a nice day,” she said before moving on to another set of tourists so fast you’d have thought hellhounds were chasing her.

“She thinks you’re crazy,” I told Hades. “Why would you think she wouldn’t charge you?”

Hades grinned. “No reason. I just wanted to be memorable.”

“Why’s that?”

“Can you imagine the look she’s going to have on her face when she sees me again? Here.” Hades moved behind me, taking the two ends of the necklace. “You were right about what you said in the car earlier.” He moved my hair off my neck, and I shivered under the warmth of his fingers. “You’re a bit of both of them. Not the evil bits,” he added quickly. “You’re something different, too.” He moved back, and I touched the necklace before adjusting my hair.

“Thank you,” I whispered, touched.

“Ah, I just wanted to buy something. No commerce in the Underworld.” Hades waved away my thanks and motioned for me to hand him my phone. He pulled up a map of the city and studied it. “Want to go to a movie?” He pointed to a spot on the map. “There’s a theater just down the street that way.”

“The new
Dusk
movie is out!” I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the movie theater.

“I meant a good movie.”

I let Hades pick the movie, after all, it wasn’t like he spent a lot of time on the surface. Afterward, we ate at Seagle’s Waterfront Cafe. The view was breathtaking, or would have been had the ocean not sent chills down my back. Hades pulled the chair facing away from the window back for me, and I shot him a grateful look. I loved that I didn’t have to explain things like that to him. He probably knew more about me than I did.

Hades dug into his rock shrimp with gusto while I ate my salad. Eating out wasn’t always easy for a vegan, but I managed. We talked the entire time, laughing and flirting the day away. Beneath our playful banter, I felt an undercurrent of nerves. I wondered if this was the calm before the storm, and we were both here, clinging to some shred of happiness before it all got ripped away.

The news that Zeus was alive had more of an effect on Hades than I’d anticipated. He’d hidden it well, but I could see he was worried. I didn’t know if it was because Zeus was after me, or if it went deeper than that.

I wasn’t that worried. Zeus had been alive forever and hadn’t done anything noteworthy enough for anyone to find out he was still breathing. Why would he do anything differently now? I was more concerned about Thanatos. He could come and go to the Underworld as he pleased, kill humans with a touch, and had an army of Reapers at his disposal. But Hades didn’t know he was a threat.

Later, we walked along the pier hand in hand, enjoying the cool breeze while the sun sank into the sea. A photo booth caught my attention, and I dragged Hades over to it.

“I don’t do pictures.” Hades pulled back on my hand putting up a token resistance, but I noticed he didn’t stop walking in the direction of the photo booth.

“It’ll be fun, please!” I pulled on his hand a bit more, and he took another step toward the photo booth.

“Have you ever seen a picture of me?” Hades protested. “Of any of us? It’s a thing, we don’t—”

I dropped his hand and stared at him in complete shock. “You’ve
never
had a picture taken?”

“We’re immortal. Pictures, paintings, images, they start witch hunts.”

I blinked. I’d never considered that. “I guess it makes sense…being scared that some dead human will make it to the Underworld and go, ‘Hey, that’s the guy from the out-of-focus grainy picture I saw once.’”

Hades smirked. “I was thinking more about you.”

“I have a driver’s license, a passport, a photograph in fifteen years’ worth of yearbooks counting preschool, social networking accounts, and a mother who might have actually invented scrapbooking. If having
pictures
taken is some kind of immortal foil, I am thoroughly screwed. But it’s fine. You probably wouldn’t photograph well anyway,” I teased, walking away from the photo booth.

He caught my hand. “Wanna bet?”

Countless dollars and strips of photographs later, Hades and I emerged from the photo booth laughing.

“Burn that one,” Hades tore off the last picture of one of the strips.

“Why?” I snatched it back from him. “It’s fitting that the Lord of the Underworld look like a corpse.”

He snatched it back and tossed it off the pier. “Yeah, looking like a corpse is fine. It’s the evidence of the bunny-ears that must be destroyed.”

“Fine,” I conceded. “As long as you burn this one.” I tore off the end of another strip that featured a smear of my face captured mid-motion. A sharp pain went through my head and I grimaced, clutching the picture so tight that it crumbled.

“Everything okay?” Concern clouded his features.

“Just a headache.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Hades admonished, pulling me towards the hotel.

I resisted, and he looked at me in surprise. “It can wait,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. My powers could burn through me, causing all kinds of pain and anguish before completely destroying me.

Typically, I would use my powers throughout the day in goddess lessons with my mom and then visit Hades. He would show me more tricks and then siphon away the excess powers. I hadn’t had much of an opportunity to use my powers today, and I was starting to feel the effects of the buildup.

Hades waited for me to offer him an explanation.

“Today’s been so much fun.” I walked to the edge of the pier, looking at the churning waves. “So normal. I don’t want it to end.” I gave a small shrug. “It was almost like a date.”

He stiffened, almost imperceptibly, and I let out the breath I’d been holding. He’d admitted to having feelings for me, even being in love, but he still hadn’t gotten over the whole age difference thing.

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and I looked up at him, my gaze catching on his lips. He’d kissed me three times before. Well, really kissed me, not fished my brain for dream images. It was easy to remember because each time was after a near-death experience. Books and movies make it seem like kisses won under emotional duress are somehow extra romantic. The screen goes blank, and you’re left with the impression that the characters lived happily ever after, or at least dated like normal people. In reality, being kissed only when something earth-shattering has happened is kind of insulting. I shouldn’t have to practically die to get that kind of attention.

“Come on.” He gave my shoulder a little squeeze. I followed him back to the hotel, wishing things could be different.

A blaring alarm that sounded like sirens on a submarine jolted me from my dreams. I fumbled for my phone, knocking it off the unfamiliar nightstand. With a frustrated hiss, I scooped the phone off the floor and moved my fingers across the screen to switch off the alarm.