Persephone (26 page)

He?

Boreas’ footsteps crunched along the snow. “You have been a thorn in my side for too long, you and your bitch of a mother.”

“Run!” I shouted to Melissa. “It’s me he wants!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“You have to!”

The tree shattered and I hit the ground, hands covering my head. I threw up a shield, rolling away from the daggers of ice. Vines shot around Boreas’ ankles.

“Persephone!” Melissa shrieked. I blindly groped for her hand. The second my skin made contact I teleported, calling up the image of Five Points.

My breath whooshed out of me when I hit a solid wall of ice. I fell to the ground, Melissa tumbling after me. I gasped in pain, unable to draw breath into my lungs.

“Persephone!” Melissa shook my shoulder. “Persephone, you have to get up. Move! Persephone—” She hiccupped.

Ignoring the blinding pain, I turned to face her. It was a struggle to make even that simple movement. She slouched above me, her face frozen in shock. A red icicle emerged between the two middle buttons on her blouse, and I frowned at the incongruous image.

“Melissa?” I wheezed. She collapsed on top of me, her blood vivid against the white snow.

Chapter XXIV

Cold hands grabbed at my throat, dragging me up through the icy snow. I dug my feet into the snow and clawed at his hand. His foot caught me in my ribs, and I felt something snap. Boreas released my throat and yanked me to my feet by my hair. His lewd gaze took in my struggling form, and he smiled.

No. Not happening
. My wordless howl erupted through the clearing. The scream unleashed something deep within me, and I felt the power I’d been holding at bay explode through my body. What did it matter if it burned through me? Melissa was dead, and anything would be better than what Boreas had planned for me.

A bright flash filled the clearing, and for a split second every detail in the clearing stood in stark relief against the light. Boreas howled and dropped me. My feet hit the ground and the snow melted beneath my feet, giving way to newborn grass.

I looked at Boreas and narrowed my eyes. Vines shot through him, growing from within his struggling body, holding him aloft in the air.

“What are you
doing
here?” Thanatos asked behind me. “Hades is going to—”

“You can’t take her.” My voice was so feral I didn’t recognize it. I met his eyes and saw his pupils widen.

I drew back in surprise. I wasn’t supposed to be able to charm gods!

“My lady,” he gasped. “I have no desire to offend you, but a soul was lost here today and a soul must be collected.”

“Any soul?”

He hesitated, and I stepped aside. Thanatos drew in a sharp breath at the sight of Boreas. The vines looped around his body, squeezing and tightening their grasp. Boreas made choking sounds as the vines crept out of his mouth, working their way out of his throat.

I met Boreas’ eyes and watched his pupils widen. When I was sure he was charmed, I commanded, “Speak.”

The vines shot out of his mouth and loosened from around his neck. Drops of frozen blood soaked into the grass beneath him.

“I am sorry,” he breathed, entranced, “to have angered you. I will do anything to make it up to you.”

“Why me?”

“You’re beautiful and strong and—”

“Why did you come after me!” I demanded.

“I would have chosen you amongst thousands of others. All others pale in comparison to you—” I narrowed my eyes at him, and he swallowed hard. “I was asked to retrieve you by my master.”

“Who is your master?”

“Long has he been in hiding, building his strength. When he discovered he still had a daughter in the mortal realm, he instructed me to—”

My head whipped forward in surprise. “
What?
”

“Zeus lives.” He gasped as the vines tightened around him in response to my surprise. “I will tell you anything you wish. I will do anything.”

I didn’t want anything from him. I wanted Melissa back. Tears pricked my eyes and I spoke without thinking. “I wish you were dead.”

Boreas disintegrated into snow and ice.

I blinked. Gods weren’t supposed to be able to die either. What was going on?

Doesn’t matter; you have a soul now. Maybe you can still save Melissa.

“There’s your soul,” I told Thanatos, like he had a choice in the matter. I wasn’t sure if this was possible, but it was worth a shot. “Melissa stays.”

“Yes, my lady,” he said reverently. He stared at me, and I shifted uncomfortably. Thanatos was a friend. Manipulating him like this was wrong.

“Go get Cassandra. She’s at the entrance to the Underworld. Return her safely to the palace. Only then may you tell Hades where I am.”

He vanished, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Melissa stirred. I knelt beside her and placed my hand on the icicle, watching it melt away. Her flesh knit itself back together. My head was buzzing, the flesh on my hands tingling uncomfortably. I released a final surge of power, shattering the ice wall.

The world spun around me. Dimly I heard footsteps crunching in the snow. My mother’s voice. Strong arms wrapped around me and Hades whispered in my ear before I fell into a blissful slumber.

Chapter XXV

I woke up, and every bone in my body ached.
Hades.
I looked up at the ceiling, felt my cotton sheets, and knew I was home. The realization filled me with a crushing disappointment. The feeling shocked me. Only a few months ago, I’d been in tears because I couldn’t come home. Now all I wanted to do was go back to him.

“Mom?” I croaked hoarsely.

She was beside me in an instant, fussing over me until I finally got a word in edgewise.

“What am I doing here?”

She looked surprised. “Where else would you be?”

“The Underworld.”

“Honey.” She fluffed my pillow and adjusted my blankets. “You destroyed Boreas. Why would you need to go back?”

I frowned at her. “That actually happened?” When she nodded I asked, “Melissa?”

“She’s fine. You saved her.” My mom fidgeted. “How did you kill Boreas?”

“I don’t—” I paused. “Was Hades here?”

“He helped me get you home.” Mom touched the back of her hand to my forehead. “But he went back a while ago. Do you remember what happened to Boreas, sweetie?”

“I’m not certain. What day is it?”

“March twenty-first.” She smiled at me. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

“The spring equinox,” I murmured.

A smile broke through her worried features. “I’ve missed you so much.” She gave me a hug.

I breathed in the familiar and reassuring scent of damp earth and newly-grown plants.

“I missed you too.” Tears sprang to my eyes.

We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up. I told her about my time in the Underworld, and she told me about her struggles through the blizzard. She was visiting Orpheus’ wife in the hospital daily, trying to restore communication between her soul and her body. Between his cult and the new additions to her priestesses I’d sent her from the Underworld, she was quickly gaining ground on Hades as far as powers were concerned.

She’d cursed Melissa with immortality. She’d hoped to do it when she was older but was afraid Thanatos would come to his senses and return for her soul.

“He wouldn’t do that,” I told her. “You didn’t have to curse her yet.”

“Persephone, I have no idea what happened in that clearing, but I’m not going to risk Melissa again. You won’t be aging for much longer, especially with your powers surfacing so young.”

“I don’t want to lose her any more than you do.”

She frowned at me. “Speaking of your concern for Melissa…”

“Mom, I’m sure you have a long lecture all stored up about how I came to be in that clearing, but it’s going to have to wait.”

“Excuse me?”

I gave her a look. “Hades will be just as worried as you were, and they’re doing this whole equinox thing tonight…”

“Persephone—”

“Mom, I’m linked to the Underworld for the rest of my life. Boreas being gone doesn’t change that.”

“I know, but you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that you aren’t wanted there anymore.”

“What?
Why?
”

“Persephone, what you did in that clearing was terrifying. From the little we could gather from Thanatos, you charmed and killed a god, which shouldn’t be possible. I’m just saying be prepared for some…apprehension.”

I nodded, feeling lightheaded. She gave me a strange look. “What is it?”

“You’ve changed,” she said, tears glittering in her eyes. “You’ve blossomed. I feel like the last time I saw you, you were this little girl, and now you’re all grown up.”

I thought about that while I drove to Melissa’s house. I didn’t feel grown up. I felt small and uncertain in the face of all that had happened. I had to see Melissa before I returned to the Underworld. I had to see with my own eyes that she was safe.

Mrs. Minthe opened the door. “Persephone!” She pulled me into a comfortable hug. “Thank you! Thank you so much for bringing Melissa back to me.”

Tears dampened my hair, but I didn’t mind. She ushered me into the house and offered me milk and cookies. “Your mother did her best, but I just knew—” She drew a shuddering breath. “But you rescued her.” She smiled at me. “I will never forget that.”

“Mom?” Melissa called from down the hall. She emerged carrying a laundry basket overflowing with jeans and T-shirts. She saw me and set it down with a smile. “The hero returns.”

I smiled back at her, relieved not to see any apprehension in her eyes. “For a bit. I’m heading back down under for a few hours. I want to see how Hades is taking all of this.”

A plate crashed in the kitchen, and I turned to see Mrs. Minthe reaching for a broom. “Slippery fingers.” She waved a hand. “Sorry if I startled you.”

“You’re going back?” Melissa motioned for me to follow her to the laundry room. “Why?”

I brought her up to speed on my time in the Underworld, telling her all about Hades while Melissa sorted her laundry. “So you see, I need to at least try to apologize to Cassandra and Thanatos and work out some kind of schedule with Hades. That is if he’s not all scared of me like my mom seems to think.”

The sound of the news in the background caught our attention, and we peered around the door to see the television in the living room.

“And I told my son, Billy Bob. I says Billy Bob! You get out there and shovel that there dern snow! And he says, I can’t Maw-Maw, it’s ice. I couldn’t leave my trailer! I ain’t missed church in fifty years and I couldn’t get out of my dern trailer.”

The camera cut away from the obese woman with the stringy brown hair and yellow teeth to a put-together blonde woman in a power suit. “And there you have it,” she said sadly. “Residents were trapped in this trailer park for over a week…”

“Where do they find those people!” I gasped.

Melissa laughed, peering around the corner for her mom and shoving all the laundry into the machine. “Every time Georgia makes the national news, I swear reporters look for the nastiest rednecks they can find. But back to the subject, your mom thinks Hades is scared…of
you?
” She giggled.

My face fell. “You didn’t see what I did in that clearing, Melissa.
I’m
a little scared of me.” I took a deep breath. “I am so sorry! It’s my fault he came after you, and then he actually
killed
you. Now you’re sixteen forever and—”

“Seventeen,” she reminded me. “Happy birthday to us, and I’m not mad. Well, okay, I’m a little mad,” she amended, “but only for you actually being stupid enough to come after me. None of what happened was your fault, it was all Boreas’. No one else was responsible. Although,” she said, raising her voice, “you’d think turning seventeen and dying would be enough to get you out of chores for a day!”