Solstice (17 page)

I look at Shayne. He rolls his eyes and looks away, so I turn back to Rhadam.

“He’s mentioned me?”

Rhadam laughs. “Gods, he hasn’t talked about anything else all week. It’s been ‘Piper this’ and ’Piper that.’ I feel like I’ve already met you twenty times over.”

My eyes flicker back over to Shayne. It’s his turn to be embarrassed. I can’t resist. “I had no idea the Lord of the Underworld could blush.” But the mere fact that he’s been talking about me this week to his best friend is making my stomach flip around in all sorts of ways I never thought possible.

Shayne clears his throat and gives Rhadam the evil eye. “Rhadam may be exaggerating just a bit.”

Rhadam takes my hand away from Shayne’s. “Trust me, I’m not exaggerating.” And he starts walking with me following at his side.

I look at Shayne who, though still bright red, winks and follows on after us.

Rhadam leads us out of the atrium and into the house. With the structure of the house, we slip between where walls should join, move through doors that don’t come close to shutting, and walk up onto the roof on individual stairs that don’t connect.

“I moved the house because of the view.” He motions out to the river which now looks like it has waves big enough to capsize the Titanic. But behind the ocean, like a giant monolith, a glacier fills the horizon. It’s blue and green and white, and the suns above reflect off it, making it look almost neon. It’s so much ice all in one place and like nothing I’ve ever seen on Earth.

“I don’t blame you.” Shayne stands next to me, so close our legs touch. He takes my other hand, leaving me standing between him and Rhadam. Shayne gives the hand Rhadam still holds a suspicious look, and Rhadam lets go of it.

“The ice,” I say. “There’s so much of it.”

Shayne traces his thumb along the back of my hand. “Sometime we should visit the polar caps.”

I love that this implies there will be more of
us
in the future. “I’ll hold you to that,” I say.

“Good,” Shayne says.

Rhadam clears his throat. “Of course. I’d love to come. Thanks for asking.”

“You can leave?” I ask.

He sighs. “No, not really. It’s one of the funny things about paradise. I can’t ever leave, but whatever I want, I get.” He glances away from the glacier and turns back toward the beach, but instead of being up high, we’re again on ground level. We leave the house and start walking back in the direction of the beach party.

“So how did you die?” Rhadam asks.

It takes a second for his words to make sense. I look down at myself to make sure I’m all still there. “I’m not dead.”

Rhadam laughs, and I realize he’s joking. “Don’t worry. You don’t look dead. You don’t even smell dead.”

It makes me wonder how dead people in the Underworld smell. I haven’t noticed anything, but then again, I’m not sure I’d know what to smell for.

Rhadam purses his lips and then looks to Shayne. “It’s too bad, you know. You should do something about it.”

It’s like Shayne is actually considering it. But then he replies. “I’m not sure that’s the best way to win a girl’s heart.”

“Definitely not,” I say. Though he’s already got the heart part under control.

As we walk, people fill in again until the beach party is back in full swing. Shayne is like a rock star. People rush up to him constantly, telling him how happy they are here in paradise and how their only wish is that he would visit more often. He glances at me out of the corner of his eye as if to apologize, but he doesn’t push them away. In fact, he lets go of my hand so he can have more space.

I’m fighting stabs of jealousy because so many of the girls are gorgeous when Rhadam leans over and whispers in my ear. “They love him here.”

I smile and pretend I’m totally fine with all the attention Shayne is giving them in return. “I can tell.” I can’t help but wonder if that’s how Chloe would act if she were here, all fawning over him and stuff, but I push the thought aside since Chloe will not be here.

As we walk, I decide to ask Rhadam everything I want to know about paradise. Like where people live and if they get married and do they have to work. He tells me about how people fall in love all over again and how weddings are held barefoot on the beach and how everyone has some purpose for his or her existence, whether it’s constructing sand sculptures or trying to get their golf swing just right. He talks about friendships that bond over eternity and children that are reunited with their parents once they pass on. And even though he answers my questions endlessly, what I really can’t understand is the judging criteria. What makes one person better than the next?

“What if someone is kind of good? What then?” I ask.

Maybe I ask too loudly because Shayne pulls away from his most recent group of adorers and comes back to my side. “They get judged,” he says. “Just like everyone else.”

I press him. “Who judges?” I glance to Rhadam, but he has his lips pressed together like he doesn’t want to be part of this conversation.

Shayne stops walking and turns me to him. “I judge.”

“Everyone?”

He nods. “Every single soul that comes across the River Acheron gets judged.”

Rhadam clears his throat. “How about I catch up with you two later?” And before either of us can answer, he simply vanishes. It’s hardly the strangest thing that’s happened today.

“Isn’t that kind of a big job?” I ask once Rhadam’s gone. I’ve never heard the exact numbers, but I know tens of thousands of people die each day. And that number’s only increasing each day the Global Heating Crisis continues. I can only imagine how world disasters affect the death toll.

Shayne’s eyes get a faraway look, and they aren’t meeting mine anymore. “I’ve had help. But it’s still a big job.”

“And an even bigger responsibility,” I say. After all, trying to decide who gets paradise and who gets stuck with eternal torment could probably keep someone up at night.

“Don’t you ever get a feeling about people?” he asks.

“Like what?”

“You know. Like you can look into their soul and see what they’ve done wrong.”

I grab his wrist. “All the time. I swear. My mom tells me I’m imagining things, but I just have this way of knowing who’s to blame.” It’s the reason I want to go to law school once I get out of college. Whether it’s bullies at school or criminals on the tube, I get so sick of seeing people get off with no punishment. I think of the black fungus on Councilman Rendon. For some reason, I’m not only able to sense guilt. Now I can see it.

He nods, and I realize if anyone can ever understand, it’s Shayne.

“That’s how it is for me, too,” he says and motions out across the world. “But it’s just on a bigger scale here. And judgments last forever.”

We reach the dock, and Charlotte runs back up to greet us. She’s every bit of her eleven-year-old giddy self. She grabs both our hands and pulls us. “Come on. They’re just about to judge the contest.”

We let her pull us, and then we run after her as she moves through the people. I worry about running into someone, but it’s like a path has been cleared just for us. People have even stopped flocking around Shayne. And then we head up a dune and down the other side to the contest.

There are about fifteen sand sculptures scattered around the beach. The first I see is a giant head resting on its side with a crown of leaves around it. Its eyes are closed like it’s sleeping, and hanging above it is a giant hand pressing it downward. My face heats up when I see the next sculpture. A man and a woman are in a moment of complete ecstasy. The woman sits on top of the man with her mouth wide open, and birds flying out of it. I glance sideways at Shayne who looks over and reaches for my hand. I let him take it, and he gives it a squeeze. I squeeze it back and finally look away from the figures. Charlotte leads us through all the sculptures, and we stop at each one until we finally reach the smallest. My heart almost stops when I see it. It’s a perfect replica of the box Melina had given me on my birthday. The lid is wide open, and there’s a phoenix flying out. The sun sits just above the head of the phoenix such that the rays of light and the feathers of the bird become one.

“Do you like it, Piper?” Charlotte asks.

I nod. I can’t pull my eyes from it.

“I made it just for you,” she says.

“For me?” How could she have known I would be here?

Shayne smiles at Charlotte. “It’s definitely the best.”

And as if everyone in the contest can hear him, they all start cheering. I take this to mean Charlotte’s won the contest, and I’m not about to disagree. All the sculptures are amazing, but hers rises right to the top.

Charlotte grabs our hands again. “There’s the most wonderful view up from the hills. You have to come see it.”

“Of course,” Shayne says, and the excitement in his voice seems almost childlike. Like given his choice, he’d spend all his days on hills in the Elysian Fields rather than ruling over the Underworld. His eyes light up, and sunshine bounces inside them, mixing with the red flecks, making them glow. They seem to pour out love. But not just love for me. Love for the people around him. Joy from the Elysian Fields.

It’s everywhere, and I can’t help but let it touch me, too. From the beach to the trees to the clouds in the sky. And when we reach the top of the hill Charlotte’s taken us to, I look up and let out a gasp. The Underworld is a rainbow of unadulterated color.

Trees and bushes grow on rolling hills, and flowers of every size and color fill the spaces in between. Meadows of them—purples and yellows and even my favorite reds. Set underneath the tree tops are tree houses and hobbit holes and stone cottages. It’s a world of nature and beauty, and it reminds me of what I imagine our own Earth looked like before it got paved over.

Charlotte heads back to the beach, but Shayne and I stay, watching the clouds while lying on a blanket of daffodils.

“Do you like paradise?” he asks.

I laugh at the incredulity of the question. “It’s paradise.”

“Chloe would be happy here.”

“What if I say no?” There’s not really a
what if
about it.

“Then Chloe will live.”

It’s the answer I want. “And then when she dies much later on, she’ll come here?” I think of Chloe and me here together enjoying paradise. Forever.

Shayne’s words shake me from my thoughts. “She’ll have to be judged again, Piper. She’ll live her life tempting Fate, and when her time comes again, I’ll have to make that decision.”

“But of course she’d come here.” I can’t see that it’s really a question.

“Near death can change people,” Shayne says. “Not even I know what will happen if you choose to let Chloe live.”

I fall into a half sleep there on the grass, thinking about Chloe and death, but I’m woken by the sound of voices. I pretend to still be asleep, but I crack open one eye so I can see. Rhadam’s come back, and he and Shayne are sitting across from each other, talking.

“I’m not trying to tell you your business,” Rhadam says. “But you have a serious problem.”

“Like what?” Shayne asks, and suddenly I’m wide awake, though I try not to move.

Rhadam’s eyes flicker over to me then back at Shayne. Out of my peripheral vision, I see Shayne nod. He doesn’t know I’m listening.

“I talked to Minos yesterday,” Rhadam says. “I borrowed help from him to move the house. And he mentioned he had a visitor.” His words are staid, and I know it’s because I’m just a couple feet away that he doesn’t want to speak freely.

Shayne’s whole body stiffens. “What kind of visitor?”

Rhadam leans in close. “Okay, he started drinking, and you know how Minos is when he drinks.”

“Everyone in the Underworld knows how Minos is when he’s drunk,” Shayne says.

“Right. So, he started bragging. Saying he knew how to return memories and get souls back across the river.”

“He’s lying,” Shayne says.

Rhadam puts up his hand to silence Shayne.

“Maybe. But then he told me he’d been talking to Ares. That Ares found a way to get through the boundaries of the Underworld. He said Ares knew everything.”

Shayne’s fingers dig into the ground. “That’s impossible.”

“Impossible, but it happened,” Rhadam says. “And you need to watch out.”

Ares is the god of war; I know this from mythology. His name causes my skin to prickle while at the same time making butterflies form in the pit of my stomach.

Shayne stands up. “Tell me how the god of war has managed to enter my domain.” His eyes bore into Rhadam who matches his gaze. “Tell me that.”

Rhadam is silent for a moment while I watch. People getting into the Underworld without Shayne’s knowledge can’t be a good thing.

Finally, Rhadam sighs. “He must have help. Some shortcut in.”

I decide it’s time to enter the conversation. “There are shortcuts into the Underworld?”

Shayne keeps his eyes on Rhadam and doesn’t even blink at the fact that I’m awake. I wonder if he’s known all along. “There are no shortcuts into the Underworld,” he says. “Everyone has to go by Charon.”

Rhadam shakes his head. “Except Ares.”

“How?” I ask.

“Ares is working with someone on the inside; he has to be,” Rhadam says.

Shayne runs a hand through his hair. “I still say it’s not possible. The boundaries should be secure.”

“So this is a real problem?” I ask.

Shayne looks at me then and tries to give me a reassuring smile, but I see how white his face has gotten. “It’s nothing. Just normal stuff going on here in the Underworld.”

He’s lying. The Underworld has issues just like the world above. Maybe the worlds aren’t so different after all. And he really wants me to send Chloe here? “But other gods are getting in.”

“Yes,” Rhadam says at the same time Shayne shakes his head.

“So why now?” I ask.

Shayne’s eyes meet mine. “Good question. Why now?”

I glance at Rhadam whose eyes are fixed on me, waiting. Why would others be coming to the Underworld? I figure the Underworld can’t be much different from any world. “They want control?” I say.

Rhadam nods. “My thoughts exactly. They want control. Ares wants to claim the Underworld for his own.”