Solstice (44 page)

I hit the hard-packed sand, but I keep falling, moving through the ground and the river of sentient silver. It embraces me on my way to the safety of the Underworld.

Shayne is there waiting for me, and I rush into his arms, and I don’t need to say anything. He holds me until I’m not shaking anymore, and then we turn to the boat, and Charon helps us onboard.

“Reese said you and Chloe—” I begin. I try to find the words, but I don’t want to voice them.

Shayne pulls me close on the boat. “Reese is a liar.”

I turn so I’m facing him, looking into his dark eyes, and I watch the red flashes. “But Chloe—” The god-awful image of Chloe telling me she’d been sleeping with Shayne won’t go away. I know it’s not true, but I have to ask.

Shayne shifts around and puts a hand on either of my shoulders. His warmth seeps into me and gives me a feeling of security so strong nothing could tear it away. “Reese lied. He got Chloe under his control.”

“Just like he did with me.”

Shayne nods.

How had I ever been so naïve? “I didn’t believe him. I mean once I got away from him, I knew it couldn’t be true.”

“It will never be true,” Shayne says. “I would never be with anyone but you.”

His eyes are so sincere. They’d always been that way, even back when I was Persephone. His lips part, and he leans until his mouth is so close to my ear, I’m sure he’s going to kiss it. I hold still and wait for the kiss, but it doesn’t come.

“Please don’t ever leave me again.”

I feel the words on his breath as he says them. And they are better than any kiss ever could have been. They erase any and every doubt I ever had. And then he does kiss my ear until I’m sure I won’t be able to stand another second without him. But we’re still on the boat with Charon moving across the River Acheron. So I force myself to finally pull back and settle into the crook of his arm.

The water stretches calm before us, and every so often, a monster nips into the air, causing ripples at the surface.

“What was Chloe’s sorrow?” Reese had deceived her and drugged her just as he’d done with me. One day, Reese will get his punishment. He will make a perfect addition to Tartarus.

Shayne is holding both my hands, but releases them. I wonder if he’s going to tell me not to listen to the sorrow. But this is Chloe we’re talking about, and I want to know.

“You can find it,” he says. “You don’t need me to show you.”

He’s right. The Underworld is my domain. I don’t need Shayne for this. I turn my head to the right until I’m looking out across the water. And I send my heart out searching. Looking for a piece of Chloe.

The water of Acheron is as still as the ice of Cocytus, but I remain focused. The river will listen to me. It has in the past. It will in the future. And so I wait. Something touches the surface from below, and concentric circles grow from the spot. A bubble rises, pushing its way up until it sits on the water, and then it skims along the surface as it makes its way toward me. It grows as it gets closer as if it’s a thing alive. And when it reaches the side of the boat, I open my mind and listen.

I never meant to hurt Piper.

There it is. So simple. So selfless. Her final sorrow had been about me. By keeping her alive in the first place, I’d been responsible for her demise on Earth, and here, her last thoughts were concern over my well-being.

There is no better friend than Chloe.

Cerberus greets us on the other shore, and I open my arms to him, letting him knock me to the ground. His three heads fight over who gets to lick me until Shayne finally pulls him away. We say our goodbyes to Charon, and then Cerberus leads us down a tunnel to the safety of Shayne’s home.

I’m with Shayne then, and it’s wonderful and perfect. Exactly how it is supposed to be. His touches wake me up in places I never knew were asleep, and his kisses bring back memories I’m only too happy to relive. As we’re together, I know I’m never leaving again.

I lean back in his arms on the sofa, and look around the room. He’s put living plants everywhere. If I never see cut flowers again, I’ll live a happy life. Reese and his lies can burn forever.

“I’m never going to leave, you know.” The thought of leaving the sanctuary of the Underworld threatens to form a ball of fear in my stomach. I push images of Reese and my mom from my mind.

Shayne kisses my neck and wraps his arms tighter around my stomach. “Never?”

I shake my head and turn to him, pulling back so I can see his wonderful face. I trust him implicitly. “Nope. Never.”

Shayne raises an eyebrow. “What about in the spring?”

I shake my head.

“Or the summer?”

“Nope.” And I’m not kidding.

“But Earth needs you. It could take years for things to return to normal.”

It feels like spring to finally be home. “As far as I’m concerned, my mom and dad can figure out the weather for a while. Maybe the assembly of gods can help.” Because I’m not going to anytime soon.

Shayne gets up and brings us food and drinks. He lifts a bottle of wine and starts to fill the red crystal glasses. “You know that’s going to bring up some issues.”

I stand up also, moving next to him. “I don’t care. I’m not going to risk it. If anyone has issues to bring up, it’s me. I don’t owe the council anything.” At least not yet. Maybe in a few years, I’ll feel differently.

Shayne takes my hands and looks me right in the eye. His brown irises are hard around the edges, and the specks of red I love so much dance around inside. “I won’t ever let anything happen to you again. I swear it.”

I try to push aside the memories from earlier, but they persist. “What do we do about Reese?”

“Today, we don’t do anything.”

I shudder, and my eyes flicker upward. “But he’s still out there.”

Shayne hands me my glass. “Now that you’re back, reinforcing the Underworld, he won’t be able to come down here. And it’ll take him a while to figure out how to put out the flames.”

But I shake my head. “He has my mom to help him.”

Shayne takes a sip of wine and licks the wetness off his lips. “For as much as I love you, I could certainly do without your mom.”

I shake my head because my mom’s actions are just too much. “I never would have thought she’d be so extreme.”

“You used to defend her.”

“That was before she sacrificed a phoenix and burned me alive.”

I take a long sip of wine and let it move through me, washing away the final thoughts of Reese from my mind. I know I’ll have to face my mom and Reese and Earth above at some point, but that point isn’t now. I look to the table next to the wall, to the empty pedestal there. “He still has the Helm of Darkness, Shayne.”

Shayne nods, glancing over at the empty table also. “I know. And I’ll deal with that in time. But for now, there are way more important things to think about.”

“Like what?” Though I know what he’s talking about and know it is way more important.

His face is moving close to mine now. I start to take another sip of wine, but he stops the glass, taking it from my hand and setting it back on the table. And then he kisses me until I can’t breathe.

My eyes flash to the wall, to the picture above the table. Death, but so different than Reese’s picture. Death as a beautiful thing. Dominion over the Underworld and peace for souls—at least those not in Tartarus.

I put my hands on his chest, and push him away. “What about the Underworld? Doesn’t it need our attention?”

Shayne shakes his head. “The Underworld can wait.”

Warmness spreads through me when I look at Shayne here in front of me. I am finally home. After eighteen long years, I have finally come back.

“Everything will be fine in the Underworld now…Persephone.”

“I think I’ll go by Piper for a while.”

Shayne smiles, and it makes my stomach flutter. “Piper. It’s perfect.”

I
skate across the River Cocytus and visit the Elysian Fields alone. I’ve spent countless years here when my visits are added together, but I never stay very long each time. The job of Queen of the Underworld requires my devotion—a devotion I look forward to every minute of every day.

I visit Charlotte and Chloe and even Randy. I want to tell Randy that his mother and sister are fine, but to do so would only stir up sorrows he left far behind in Acheron. And besides, though Randy’s father is dead, I can’t guarantee a life of happiness for Randy’s mother and sister. That’s their life to choose. And I’m not queen of the world above. Nor am I Fate.

I stay with Chloe the longest. When she’s not hanging out at the beach parties, she lives in a Japanese garden complete with an arched bridge spanning a pond and goldfish of varying sizes and shapes. Reeds shoot out of the water, rustling when the fish swim through them, and river-washed stones are sprinkled in a bed of sand. Chloe has this whole new Japanese thing down. She rakes the sand and snips tiny limbs off plants, creating works of art in bonsai trees. She’s even started a bonsai contest like the sand sculpture contest, and it’s becoming the new rage in paradise. Everyone talks about it.

Her eyes light up every time I visit, but she never misses me. Never worries. We talk about anything from my psychotic mother to bonsai theory to Hannah Reed’s child. All is fair game with Chloe. And our tattoos remain as solid and black as the day we got them.

One day, I visit for over an hour. She has five new tattoos and is trying to convince me to get another. I tell her maybe next time. I ask her if she’s met Rhadam yet, but she tells me no, he’s always seemed too busy. If I didn’t know Chloe better, I’d guess she’s being shy. One of these times, I’ll have to make sure to introduce them. It would be nice to go on a real double date, even if it is in the Underworld. I tell her again how perfect they’d be together, and then I leave.

I walk through the hills, heading for Shayne’s garden. I haven’t visited it since my return to the Underworld. The pomegranate tree has invaded my dreams. It blossoms when I close my eyes, and then flowers, wilts, and dies all in one night. I watch it over and over again. And I can’t stop it. It’s still dying even with my return to the Underworld—at least this is what happens in my nightmares. I’m afraid that when I visit the valley, my nightmares may be reality. And that maybe I don’t belong here after all. And if this is the truth, I don’t want to know.

Cerberus joins me near the water. He bounds out from behind the falls, and I wonder if there is a secret passageway there I know nothing about. I make a mental note to investigate it later; maybe sometime when Shayne isn’t around. I could find out where it goes and surprise him. Teach him something about the Underworld for once.

I sink to the grass and spend some time scratching Cerberus. He’s in no hurry to see the pomegranate tree. Or he just likes to get his tummy rubbed. Thankfully, though he has three heads, he only has one stomach to scratch. Otherwise, the task could occupy an entire day. But soon, he stands and runs off after a bird—in the exact direction I need to go. Toward the garden and the tree.

I wonder if there really is a bird he’s chasing or whether he’s trying to draw me. Whatever the case, I think I need his enthusiasm to help pull me forward.

The garden is alive with colors, just like the first time Shayne showed it to me. Electric blue tulips blow in a breeze, and indigo jasmine hangs from vines twined around large stone columns. It’s the image I remember. Shayne’s green thumb at work. His hobby. Gardeners on Earth would kill for this kind of skill.

I realize I’ve been holding my breath. The last time I was here, death and sorrow hung in the air. So I lift my nose and breathe in. And the smell of the pomegranate tree comes to me. At the end of the garden, near the back. I walk toward it.

Cerberus is still at my side. At the edge of the garden, we come to the tree. When I reach it, the sadness hits me, still pulsing through the wood of the trunk. It reaches its tendrils to every branch. To every leaf. And it casts an oppressive aura around everything in its shadow.

I take a deep breath and place my hands on the mucus-covered bark. Under my palms, the tree shudders, fighting against the poisoning sorrow within. It searches for a way to staunch the sadness which permeates it. It opens its pores and soaks in my energy. It gropes for something to make it whole again. And then the pomegranate tree recognizes me, and its searching stops.