Daughter of the Earth and Sky (19 page)

The door swung open. “Whoa!” Cassandra said. “Sorry to interrupt, but do you have any idea how late you are?”

Hades ignored her, but I pulled away. There was something…My mind flashed back to a half-remembered conversation between Thanatos and…someone.

“How much power would he give her if the situation turned dire?”

“Everything.”

My breath caught. Who had said that? Who had said what? Damn it! It was slipping away!

What was slipping away? I blinked and tried to remember something…important?

I looked up at Hades. His gaze was locked on mine.

“Almost,” he murmured. “Cassandra, do you mind?”

“Yes, actually. She should have been here hours ago. You, too! Go get ready.”

“She’s right,” I said quickly. “I need to get ready.”

Cassandra gave him a triumphant smile, and I stepped into my room. “Bye, Hades.”

He clenched his jaw. “You’ve got one hour.”

“See you in two.” Cassandra laughed and closed the door. She turned around to face me. “Hey!”

I’d already changed into my costume—a white, Greek-styled tunic. I added heavy gold jewelry crafted to look like leaves to the ensemble. I touched the crown and adjusted the necklace until it felt comfortable. I let a glamour settle over me instead of bothering with makeup.

“Take all the fun out of it, why don’t you?” Cassandra muttered.

“Sorry, you said we were in a rush.” My thoughts were racing. Hades hadn’t caught on to Thanatos yet, but he had to be at least suspicious of the Reapers. I needed to push him further in that direction, but in the meantime I’d actually touched a Reaper today. Physically. It probably had something to do with Halloween, but if I could touch them, could I charm them? Normally souls were immune, but they weren’t typically corporeal either. It was like all the rules had just changed. Maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t completely helpless today.

I needed to hurry. “Say, Cassandra, could you do me a favor?”

“Might as well,” she grumbled. “Not like we have anything else to do.” She stood in front of the mirror and tapped her shoulder. Her costume appeared on her—some anime-style fairy thing.

“That looks great.” I smiled at her as she yanked her black hair back and twisted it into an up-do.

“Save the flattery. What do you want?”

“I didn’t want to bother Hades with this, but I was wondering if you could send me a few of the Reapers.” I moved aside the sheer canopy and plopped down on the bed.

Cassandra’s eyes narrowed. “Why? They should all be off now that you’re here. It’s Halloween, Persephone. It’s like their biggest holiday.”

It was still weird to me that Greek gods celebrated Halloween. I knew Hades wasn’t
just
Hades. He was the god of the Underworld in every culture. He had thousands of names, but the Greek names stuck, so that was how I thought of him.

I plucked at my necklace. “I know it’s typically their night off, but I wanted a few of them to keep an eye on my friends and family on the surface. If Zeus was going to do anything, he’d do it tonight, wouldn’t he?”

Cassandra frowned. “Yeah, actually, that makes sense. Hang on; I’m sure there are a few of them wandering the palace.”

She vanished. A few minutes later she popped up with three Reapers. The light fractured around them. I’d never seen the one in the middle before; he had hair so blonde it was almost white. “This enough?”

I pretended to consider. “I don’t know…”

“Hang on.” She vanished again.

I smiled at the Reapers when she left. Their pupils widened as my charm took hold. “I want to try something.”

“Okay,” one of them said. The others nodded, grinning like idiots.

“Swear fealty.”

They hit their knees.

* * * *

It took almost all night to find and charm the rest of the Reapers. It wasn’t easy slipping away from Hades at the party, but bit by bit I managed to corner every single Reaper alone. Fealty was weird. I could feel each Reaper tethered to me. It felt strange, unnatural.

It was nearly midnight when Zachary found me in the banquet hall. “What have you done?”

“I fought back.” I grabbed a glass of water from a passing soul and sat at the large table. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to charm you.”

“And what do you think Thanatos is going to do to you once he figures out what you’ve done?”

“What more could he possibly do to me?”

Zachary gave me a sympathetic look. “You have no idea.” He knelt on one knee. “I swear—”

I held up my hand to stop him. “You don’t have to! You helped me. I trust you. You don’t need to swear to me to prove anything.”

“Yes, I do. What do you think Thanatos would do to me if he realized I was the only unsworn Reaper?”

I grimaced. I hadn’t thought of that. “I won’t keep your power,” I promised. “As soon as Hades finds out what’s going on, as soon as he deals with Thanatos, I swear I’ll release all of you.”

Zachary shrugged. “The dead always serve someone. I’d rather serve you than Thanatos. You make me remember…”

I frowned. “Remember what?”

He gave me a sad smile. “Being alive. The first day we met, I hurt you. And I felt something. Guilt, shame, fear—nothing good, but all the same, it had been so long since I’d felt anything.”

I titled my head and studied him. “How long have you been dead?”

He narrowed his eyes in thought… “Forever. In any case, I swear fealty and protection.”

The power that flowed through me would have knocked me off my feet had I not been sitting down. I gasped, pushing it back to him before it could burn through me, but I could still feel it, tethered to me like a beacon of energy. Burning and bright. It wasn’t just the power of a Reaper. It was the power of a god.

“There you are!” Hades rounded the corner. He glanced between me and Zachary. “Everything okay?”

“Yup,” Zachary replied. He stood and walked toward the archway. “I heard about what happened. I wanted to apologize on behalf of the rest of us.” He glanced at me. “You need me for anything, don’t hesitate.”

Hades looked at me. “Persephone?”

I nodded, wide eyed. “Yeah, everything’s fine.” I shot Zachary a questioning look. “Thank you.”

Hades stared after Zachary for a minute then turned to me. “Would you like to dance?”

I smiled. “Sure.”

We walked into the main hall. I took his hand and let him lead me into a waltz.

“I’ve really missed you.” I let myself relax in his strong arms and laughed. “That sounds so weird, but I feel like I’ve been asleep for like…months.”

Something flickered in his eyes. “Yeah, I get that.”

I hadn’t expected Zachary to have so much power. Between that, the added strain of the Reapers, and the extra power Hades kept giving me for some reason, my head was buzzing. My plan might work sooner than I thought. Hades was going to wonder why all the Reapers had sworn fealty to me. When I couldn’t explain, he’d have to connect the dots to Thanatos.

I brightened. I hadn’t considered that so it didn’t affect my promise. I couldn’t ask Hades to channel the extra power away now, but he knew all the signs, conscious and otherwise.

I winced and put my hand to my forehead.
Gods, it hurt.

“You okay?” Hades led me through a turn, his hand tight and warm around my waist. Souls danced around us, smiling and waving when they recognized us.

When I didn’t respond, his fingers brushed my forehead. “Ah. Let’s try something different. We should see how much you can take. The more power you can hold onto, the better.”

“What? Why?”

“You won’t remember even if I tell you. Just trust me. I’ll keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t—”

“Die?” Desperation colored my laugh.

Hades frowned, steering us away from the other souls. The music softened as we reached the edge of the ballroom. “You’re here. I can make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“It hurts.”

An emotion I couldn’t identify flashed through his eyes. “Yes. But it’s better than letting him use you as his puppet. I don’t know what he’s asked you to do, I can’t risk—” He raked his fingers through his hair. “You still have no idea what I’m talking about do you?”

I gave him a blank stare. He’d said something, and…Something about what he’d said seemed important, but for the life of me I couldn’t grasp what he’d said. The words and meanings slipped out of my brain like…

What had I been thinking about again?

Hades clenched his jaw and flagged down one of the passing souls. A brunette with a far-away look in her eye, common to the souls that drank from the Lethe, offered Hades two champagne glasses from the tray she carried. Hades wasn’t going to change his mind about channeling my powers unless I could explain why. Since my promise prevented me from doing anything to help Hades learn about Thanatos, I was out of luck.

Hades took a cautious sip of my drink. “Sparkling grape juice?” He offered, no doubt remembering the time I’d accidentally drunk ambrosia and made a fool of myself.

I took the glass, rethinking my plan. It would still work, just not the way I’d envisioned it. He’d know something was going on with the Reapers the second he channeled my power. If I didn’t die before he got around to it…

I felt like the floor dropped away beneath me. I could really die. I could die before making things right with Mom, or with Melissa, or with Hades. “I love you.”

Hades’ eyes widened. He opened his mouth, but I rushed on before he could interrupt.

“I’ve tried not to. I know your life would be easier if I didn’t. There are other guys. Guys with less baggage.”

Hades raised an eyebrow and drained his drink.

“Guys who aren’t using me as a placeholder for someone else—”

“What?” Hades set his glass down with a thunk.

“Hera.” My voice was so low that, at first, I thought he hadn’t heard me.

He looked confused. “You think I have feelings for Hera?”

I set my glass down and liquid sloshed over the top, covering my hand in sticky grape juice. “They all looked like her didn’t they? Laurel, Minthe? Everyone else?”

“You don’t.”

His non-answer confirmed my suspicions. “I’m the exact opposite. You keep saying how much you love that I’m not like the rest of the gods, but in the next breath, you can’t be with me because I’m not enough like them. I’m naive and young and not powerful enough—” I broke off with a frustrated sigh. “You want an equal, but you’ve only had that with one person, and it’s not me.”

“Where is this coming from?” Hades’ voice was incredulous.

“Aphrodite—”

Hades groaned. “I should have known.”

“You’re the one who reads the self-help books,” I protested. The whole theory came out in a rush. “It would make sense that Hera hurt you so much that you think you want the exact opposite of her. But really you’re just sabotaging yourself because you’re not over her, so you find fault in the very attributes that attracted you to me because they are so fundamentally unlike her.”

Hades gave me an incredulous look. “I’m sure Aphrodite can twist the facts and rationalize her theory all day, but that’s not what this is. That’s not what we are. I’m not using you to replace her or self-sabotaging or any other nonsense Aphrodite can come up with.”

“Maybe not consciously, but there are so many factors here. How could I ever be sure your feelings for me are real?”

“I love
you
. That’s real. And if you can’t…” He raised his hands in a helpless gesture. “I can’t lie, Persephone. I’m not really sure what else I can do to convince you. Can’t you just trust me?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Can you grant me the same courtesy?”

Hades drew back, his expression guarded. I could almost see him going over the conversation and linking my words with his. His mouth dropped open. “Oh.”

“You tell me that I’m too young to know what I want, or that my feelings might not be real because you saved me, or you’re in my head, or it makes my mom mad. You twist the facts and rationalize my feelings away. It’s insulting and frustrating and condescending, but I love you anyway.” I paused to let that sink in. “And I just…I need you to hear that tonight. I need you to know that I care about you, and I’d never knowingly do anything that would hurt you, and that no matter what I’ve done—” My voice broke. “No matter what happens, I just…I need you to know that I love you, and I’m sorry—”

Hades grabbed my shoulders. “Nothing he’s made you do is your fault. You’re not going to remember this now, but when we break his charm it should all come back. You aren’t responsible for any of that. You don’t need to apologize to me, and I don’t think any less of you for it.”

I stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

He kissed me on the forehead, and I winced as a pinprick of power surged through me. “I miss you too,” he whispered.

It didn’t occur to me to wonder why he’d said it in present tense. I allowed myself to relax in his embrace, laying my head on his chest, feeling the reassuring beat of his heart beneath my cheek as we swayed with the music.

We danced late into the night, neither wanting to let the other go. I think we both felt like we’d been granted a reprieve of some kind, and we didn’t want to waste it. By some unspoken mutual agreement, we didn’t mention Zeus the whole night.

We were both yawning when we finally left the ballroom. He stopped outside of my room, looking like he wanted to say something, but instead, leaned in and gave me a chaste kiss on the forehead.

I touched my hand to my forehead, smiling to myself as I closed the door.

Now to get to work.

I didn’t have much time. My head was already hurting from the added strain of the Reapers’ powers. I figured I had until morning before Hades either realized what was going on with all the Reapers or their power burned through me. Before that happened, there was something I needed to fix.

My mind replayed the conversation between me and Joel while I changed. What if he was right about humans having soul mates? If Orpheus and Eurydice were two parts of the same soul, that would completely change how I’d been trying to heal her.

I teleported to Tartarus and stepped into Memorial Park. It was late. The moon was shining over the lake, casting an eerie light to the rest of the park. I swallowed hard. I was safer in the Underworld, but I needed to set something right. My life had spun so far out of control in these last few months that I didn’t even recognize it as mine anymore. But it could be over in the morning. The very least I could do was make amends where I could.