Solstice (41 page)

Chloe bites her lip, and my eyes meet hers. “I’m so sorry for everything, Piper.”

A gust of wind blows, and she turns away from me, looking out toward the barren water. Before I realize what she’s going to do, she puts her hands up into the wind and jumps.

C
hloe falls, and I run to the edge, but she’s already gone. I’m too slow. My stomach tightens into a knot so hard and full of disbelief, I can’t stand it. I lunge out on the cliff, but stop myself, unable to go beyond the rim.

Chloe will die.

I heard the words before and tried to stop them, but it was useless. Chloe is dead, and there is nothing I can do about it. Maybe there was never anything I could really do about it except postpone it.

“No! No! No!” I’m staring over the side, but I can’t bring myself to actually look for her body. She’s dead. She’s gone. And though she’s killed herself, I feel like I’ve pushed her. “Please come back. Don’t leave me.” I want the old Chloe here with me now. I want us to be friends, before my knowledge of phoenixes or the Underworld or Persephone ever came back to me. “Please, Chloe.”

Lightning cracks, and this time it strikes a building across on the other shore. In seconds, the building catches fire, and smoke fills the air.

Off to the side, I hear the college kids coming toward me. Did they hear me screaming? Did I scream? I can’t face them or anyone. Before they can reach me, I run the other way.

Chloe cannot be dead.

Chloe will die.

It was her fate, and she knew it. But what is my fate? To be a curse to everyone I know?

I will not have it.

I direct all my thoughts to the Underworld. Not to travel there, but to command there. I was once the Queen of the Underworld. I should have power. And I want that power back if only for this one decision.

I see the Underworld before me. I rule it.

“Randy and Chloe will be moved to the Elysian Fields,” I command. I have no idea if I even vocalize it. But I know I will make it happen with my sheer will. I may not be able to count on Shayne to do it for me, so I will do it myself.

The ground underneath me seems to quake at my words. I think for a second it will split and swallow me whole. Maybe I will have to take their places in Tartarus. Maybe this act will ensure Chloe and Shayne being together. But whatever the cost, I accept it.

“Now,” I say. “Put them in Elysium.”

The ground trembles one more time, and I feel it happen. I feel their souls move from the fires of Tartarus to paradise. My best friend may be dead, but now she’s in her rightful place in paradise. It’s where she should have been last week. I shudder from the power I’ve exerted. I’ve done it. Chloe and Randy are going to be okay. They’ll have paradise forever.

I turn my mind from the Underworld back to the world around me. I run down the embankment, heading out into the street. I don’t know where to go. I love Shayne. And I want to be with him now more than anything. But the image of Shayne and Chloe drops back in my mind. I stop and force it away and focus on the earth.

It’s still hot as a sauna, but the wind is blowing so hard, it’s almost pushing me over. The lightning is a storm of light and sound, striking everything it can. Sirens explode in the air, and smoke is thick. I run in the direction of the Botanical Haven, because if my mom is somehow responsible for this weather, I have to make her stop. It’s killing the earth.

My legs pound; I run forever. I’m almost there. Sirens and wind are rampant around me, and lightning is striking everything in sight. It cracks so close it feels like it’s next to me, and one of the Spanish Oaks in our yard splits in half and falls to the ground.

Another branch falls, and it smacks onto the glass roof of the Botanical Haven. I hold my breath even though the glass is shatterproof because it hits with such force.

The glass holds.

The rest of the world isn’t as lucky as we are. I can only imagine how this lightning storm is wrecking downtown Austin. Wrecking the world.

Chloe flashes through my mind, jumping over the side of the cliff. I ache at the thought of her and Shayne together, but I’ve paid the price for my mistakes.

I run across the rocks that make up our yard and pull the door open. My mom is inside, clipping dead leaves off the plants like everything in the world is as it should be. How could she be so oblivious to the earth outside the Botanical Haven when she’s always claimed to love it? The leaves drop to the floor at her feet like the branches outside. I slam the door shut behind me to let her know I’m home. I need to confront her, and it has to start here with her killing everything around her for her own selfish needs.

The wind beats on the glass walls and ceiling, but I try to filter it out. But another branch slams into the roof, and I jump. The glass groans under the weight but holds.

“Why did you do it, Mom?”

She has her scissors in her hand, hanging down at her side, her gloves still on. “What?”

“Kill the phoenix. Why did you take me from the Underworld?”

The smile evaporates from her face like the mist sprayed over our hot Earth. “Who told you that?”

I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. I know—that’s what matters.”

Her eyes narrow, and her face turns red. “It does matter. Nobody was allowed to speak of it. Whoever told you will go to Tartarus.”

“You’ve lied to me my entire life.”

“Ares told you, didn’t he?”

“Ares didn’t tell me.”

Her eyes are wild, moving around the room, looking for something or someone to blame. “He did. I know it.”

I uncross my arms and take a step closer to her. “You don’t know anything. You killed a phoenix and me at the same time.”

My mom shakes her head. “No! I would never kill you. Someone has been lying to you. I love you.”

“Love me! You killed me, and then, when I was reborn as Piper, you hid me away from everything I ever knew.”

“You’re wrong. It wasn’t like that at all.”

“You never even told me who my father really was.”

My mom’s hand flies to her mouth. “You know about that?”

I nod. “I know everything, Mom. Everything. I know who you are. Who I am. Who I used to be.”

“But how—?”

“I loved Hades, and you took me away.” When I say his name, I think of Chloe and Shayne. It can’t be true. “Everything was perfect, and you ruined it all.” Tears well up inside my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall.

“Perfect! How can you even say that? I was forced to be away from you for half the year. My precious daughter. And you never even seemed to mind.”

“I belonged in Hell as much as I belonged here. My place was as Queen of the Underworld.”

“Your place was here with me.” She moves back, and her eyes bulge out of her head. They aren’t focused on me. They don’t focus on anything. There’s sweat beading down her face, catching in her hair. “With your mother. Not off in some godsforsaken place damning souls for eternity. You should have been among the living. Not wandering around underground with no one to keep you company but ghosts.”

“I had Shayne.” And I want Shayne now.

My mom raises her eyebrows. “Yes, you had Shayne. But that’s hardly a reason to spend half the year away from your mother.”

“Was he really that bad, Mom? Couldn’t you have just tried to get along?”

My mom stops cutting since all the leaves are gone. “Of course he was that bad. He couldn’t stand to be around me. He was rude to me and arrogant. He showed me absolutely no respect.”

My mouth falls open. I can’t believe she’s saying this. “But he was good to me. And I loved him.”

My mom throws down the scissors, smashing them into the ground. “Good to you? He took you away from me.” Overhead, the glass creaks again, and then the branch is too much. An entire section of the roof comes down off to my right raining glass in a glittering shower.

“Yes, he took me away from you, but he treated me like a queen.”

My mom doesn’t even seem to notice the roof. “So what? Any god could do that.”

My mind flashes to Reese, but I push him aside. I don’t need him coming into this conversation.

“I didn’t want any god. I wanted Shayne. But you ruined all that.” I dig my fingers into the soil of a nearby plant and grab a clump, smashing it in my fist. “You ruined everything. You’re selfish, Mom. You’ve always been nothing but selfish. But let me tell you something. I’m grown up now. I make my own decisions. I will not be under your control any longer. You don’t own me.”

She meets my eyes then, and we hold them there. Her gaze bores into me, but I maintain the hold, not wanting to look away. Refusing to back down.

“You will obey me, Piper.” Each word comes out slowly. Methodically. Like she’s making a plan even as she says it.

I shake my head. “No, I won’t.”

“You will go upstairs and pack your things. We’re leaving. Right now. We’ll hide, and no one will find us again.”

“No.”

She moves to me to grab my wrist, but I’m faster. I grab hers instead. I clench as tight as I can, hard enough to break it if she were mortal.

“Do you dare to defy your mother? Are you forgetting who I am?”

I grab tighter, holding until I feel the pulse in her arm. “Who?”

My mother stands a little taller. “I am a goddess.”

I let go of her hand, thrusting it down to her side. “And so am I.”

She stares at me, her mouth opening, but nothing comes out. Around us, the wind from the storm whips through the hole in the roof.

“Mom, do you know what the punishment for killing a phoenix is?”

My mom looks down, picking up the bucket of water by her feet. It’s left a wet ring on the tile and drips when she raises it.

“It’s life in Tartarus, Mom. Did you know that?”

She nods, still looking down.

I think about my visit to Tartarus. My horrible meal with Aeacus, Tantalus, and Pirithous. A meal that might have been my last. “Have you ever been to Tartarus?”

My mom lets out a bark of a laugh, but it’s laced with fear. “Of course not.”

“It’s the most horrible place imaginable. Even worse, in fact. I’ve been there—as Piper. I should send you there myself. But even after everything you’ve done, I will never let you end up there.”

The bucket of water falls, and I realize my mom is crying. I stand there, holding my resolve, but her crying tears at my heart. I try to be strong. I try to stay angry. But when I can’t listen any longer, I move to her and catch her in a hug.

“I only did what I thought best for you, Piper. Best for us.”

She’s shaking under me. “Well, you screwed up, Mom. And now everything’s falling apart.”

She stops crying and pulls back to look at me. “I can get help.” Her eyes are wide as if she believes the statement. “I can get Apate to help. She’ll know what to do.”

I stare at her, trying to keep my eyes impassive. “Mom, you can’t trust the goddess of deceit.”

But she nods her head. “Yes, Piper. I can. She helped me before. With you. I never intended to go through with my end of the bargain. I wasn’t going to lose you again. So we came up with the idea of the box. To hide you from Hades and Ares.”

I throw up my hands. “The box! How could you ever think that was a good idea?” The image of the box flashes in my mind, and I get the overwhelming urge to smash it against the wall.

My mom grabs my hands. “It kept you hidden from the gods for eighteen years. Until you opened it.” Her eyes narrow. “Which you never should have been allowed to do.”

“But I did, Mom. Don’t you see? Apate tricked you. You thought you could tuck away your secrets forever. But she tricked you, and I opened it.”

My mom shakes her head. “No. There must have been some weakness. Apate swore to me it would work. We’ll get her help now. Get away from here. No one will ever know.”

I tear my hands away from hers and meet her wide eyes with a cold stare. “But I know, Mom. And I have no intention of ever being part of your games again.”

My mom walks closer to me, but I don’t want her sympathy. I don’t want anything from her.

“I was just trying to help,” she says. “When Ares came to me with the idea—”

My eyes nearly pop out of my head. “Ares! He came to you?”

My mom nods. “Of course. I never would have known about the power of the phoenix sacrifice if not for him. He was the one I made the bargain with in the first place.”

Something clicks far in the back of my mind, but it’s nearly silent.

“Ares told you about the phoenix?” My heart has started beating like a drum, pounding so hard I’m sure it’ll come out of my chest.

“Ares came up with the idea. We planned it all out. But nobody could be told. Not your father. Not Hades. And certainly not you. Everything had to be just perfect.”

Ares knew about the phoenix. It was his idea.

“What happened?” I’m trying to stay calm, but something is building inside me, trying to come out.

My mom pulls off her gloves and tosses then on a plant stand. “We waited until you were due home. And when Hermes brought you back, we acted. We took you to Phoenicia, to the Well of the Phoenix.”

“I fought you.” I remember this like it was yesterday. Standing by the well. Being forced to drink from the water. And flames. Lots and lots of flames.