Daughter of the Earth and Sky (21 page)

I blinked. I hadn’t considered that. “That’s…nice. Wonderful even. I’m not denying I’m lucky. But I want to be able to trust her. I can’t risk being clueless anymore. Too many people have been hurt.”

“I agree. You should talk to her. But do everyone a favor, Persephone. Once you two work out some kind of agreement, move on. You’re not doing anyone, least of all yourself, any favors by hanging on to this.”

I leaned against the car. “You’re not bad at this whole advice thing.”

“Oh, I’ve got more. You need to make a decision on whether or not you want Melissa to be your priestess or your friend.”

“Friend,” I replied without hesitation. “I never asked her to be my priestess.”

“Maybe that’s the problem. No one did.”

I nodded. From what I’d heard, all my mom’s priestesses had been asked, or had asked to join her. Melissa had been born into it. “Her mom isn’t just going to let her—”

“It’s not up to her mom who you choose to be your head priestess. It’s up to you.”

I swallowed hard. “But she’s going to move away.” I winced at how whiny I sounded. “I mean…I need her. She’s my best friend, without her to talk to…”

Orpheus laid a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay to tell her that. She’s your friend. Of course you’ll miss her. But you can’t let her stay because of an obligation to you and still call yourself her friend. She can be your priestess, and you can keep her around, or you can let her go and keep her friendship. It’s not like you’ll never see her. You can always teleport.”

That was true. “But why can’t she just be both? Mom’s friends with her priestesses. And I’m not just saying that,” I said responding to Orpheus’ incredulous look. “I’ve seen them together. They’re friends.”

“Well…” Orpheus sounded doubtful. Gods! First Hades and now Orpheus. Did my mom really come off that cold? “It’s possible, but they had a choice. I mean, I consider myself your friend, and I follow you.”

I flushed. It was still strange to me that Orpheus had created a cult-like following in my name after his trip to the Underworld to retrieve his wife’s soul. I’d practically worshiped him for years before I knew what I was. He was still my favorite singer.

“Fine. I’ll talk to Minthe,” I acquiesced. I leaned against the car.

“So…That boy? Do you like him or…”

“He’s a friend, mostly. I don’t know.” I pushed my hair out of my face with a sigh. “I keep thinking about breaking things off with him, because I’m not really interested in anyone but Hades. But when I actually see him, my resolve just vanishes. He’s nice. He’s really nice, and he’s actually interested in me without all these crazy hang-ups—”

Orpheus held up his hands. “I don’t want to know all of that. Sorry, I forgot what a loaded question ‘do you like someone’ is to teenagers. I just mean, do you care about him at all? Would it upset you if he got hurt?”

I gave Orpheus an incredulous look. “Of course I’d be upset if he got hurt. I’m not in love with him, but he is still my friend.”

“Then you need to be more careful. Because however you feel, he’s clearly not just interested in your friendship. And had anything happened between you two, and your mother or Hades learned that your judgment had in any way been compromised, what do you think would happen to that boy?”

I paled. “Oh.”

“Oh is right. She would have killed him. And after he suffered whatever horrifically painful death your mother inflicted on him, he would have to deal with Hades.”

“I didn’t even think about that.” I fiddled with my necklace and bit my lip.

“You need to. And even without them in the picture, you’re not the first god to use a human as a distraction from complicated divine problems or relationships, but you’re new at this, so I’m going to tell you how it generally ends.”

I looked up at him.

“Badly. Very, very badly. The humans suffer for it, Persephone. They’re never the same. If you care about him at all, I’d suggest you follow through on breaking things off now, rather than later.”

“You’re right.” I realized. I’d been so stupid leading Joel on like that. What had gotten into me?

The horizon lit up with lightning. “That’s odd.” Orpheus shielded his eyes at the sudden brightness… “No rain or anything.”

“The weather’s always so weird here,” I complained. “This one time I was driving on Epps Bridge Parkway, and it was perfectly sunny. But then when I turned onto Atlanta Highway it was pouring, and later when I turned on to Alps Road, it was sunny again—”

“Persephone?”

“I mean you could see the line where there was rain over here, but not over—”

“Persephone watch out!” Orpheus crashed into me, throwing me off balance and knocking me to the asphalt.

The air whooshed out of my lungs. There was a cracking sound, and the pungent smell of burnt ozone in the air. The ground shuddered. Orpheus pulled me to my feet, and we stared in disbelief at the cracked asphalt where we’d been standing just a moment before.

The hair on my arms stood straight up. Lightning lanced down from the sky. I threw up a shield. It shattered with the next strike. Orpheus and I sprang away from each other as lightning struck between us. I shrieked as successive strikes drove us to opposite ends of the parking lot.

“Teleport!” Orpheus shouted. “Get out of here!”

I wasn’t going anywhere without Orpheus. Yet another human I’d put in danger just by association. Orpheus was right; I needed to be more careful.

“Enough!” I shouted when a dozen bolts rained from the sky, turning the smooth parking lot to gravel. “That’s enough! Stop hurting people to get to me. I’m right here! What the hell are you waiting for? You want me so bad, either come and get me, or kill the light show and move on!”

A bolt strong enough to rip the lot in half answered me. I stared at the gaping chasm of stone, eerily reminded of the day Hades had rescued me. But Zeus couldn’t dig or tear deep enough to get to the Underworld.

I skirted around the gap, running to Orpheus. If Zeus wanted to hit either of us, he would have. My reflexes were good, but even I wasn’t faster than lightning.

A bolt hit just behind my heel, and I stumbled forward, losing a layer of skin to the rough stone of the parking lot.

I regained my balance, saw Orpheus rush toward me, and then the sky opened up above him. Blinding light shot down from the heavens. I dashed forward, throwing myself in front of Orpheus.

The lightning stopped a hairsbreadth away from my forehead. I stared into the white-hot molten light cross-eyed and let out a nervous laugh.

“What the hell?” Orpheus murmured behind me.

I threw up a shield and felt behind me for Orpheus’ hand. The second I made contact I teleported to the hospital.

“What
was
that?” Orpheus demanded. “You got in front of me.” He grabbed my arm as I made my way down the hall. “Persephone, what was that? Why would you do that?”

“I can’t die. You can.”

“Still!” He shook his head. “It stopped! It just stopped.” He looked around as if noticing his location for the first time. He searched the room until he found Eurydice, and emotion flickered in his eyes. Fear? Hope? Both?

“If this works, you two need to leave Athens.” I crossed the small room and stood by the bed.

“Wait, what?” Orpheus followed on my heels. “Persephone, I appreciate the effort, but shouldn’t we be getting you down to the Underworld, or telling your mom what happened? That Zeus attacked you! We should—”

“I’m not telling them anything, and neither are you.”

A nurse in pink scrubs pushed open the door, startling with surprise when she saw us.

“You can’t be in here,” she said. “Visiting hours are from—Oh, it’s you,” she said when she saw Orpheus. She gave him a sympathetic smile. “I’ll just go finish my rounds.”

“What do you mean you’re not telling them what happened?” Orpheus demanded when the nurse left the room. “And what do you mean get out of Athens? What’s going on? What did I miss back there?”

“He wasn’t after me. He was after you.” I yanked the heavy wooden chair away from the window and shoved it next to the bed, motioning for Orpheus to sit on the mauve cushion. “Hitting you would send a message, the same threatening intimidating messages he’s been sending all along. So I’m getting you out of here before he can try again.”

“And
why
aren’t we telling your mom or Hades what happened?” Orpheus lowered himself into the seat and took his wife’s hand.

“Because I’m done playing his games. I’m not going to let the only two gods who actually have a chance against Zeus—”

“Three, you’ve forgotten Poseidon.”

I dismissed that with a snort. “Two gods who actually have a chance against Zeus waste any more resources protecting me. He’s not going to hurt me, because if he goes too far, they’ll take me to the Underworld, and Mom, at least, will be able to devote all her resources to finding him.”

“If he’s just using you to distract them, wouldn’t it just be better to hold you hostage so they won’t interfere?”

“No way. Mom and Hades would never stop looking until they found me. He’d have to be constantly on his guard against them. It’s not like I’d stay willingly, so he’d have to watch me to make sure I didn’t run off. This is much more efficient. He throws a few lightning bolts, kills a few bystanders, and Mom and Hades circle the wagons, keeping me safe when they should be throwing everything they have at him.”

Orpheus nodded, considering my theory. “And if you’re wrong?”

“What else could it be? If he wanted to hurt me, nothing is really stopping him. If he wanted to take me, he could.”

“What if he’s herding you?”

“Herding me?” I touched the glass pomegranate on my necklace.

“What if he needs you for something, but you haven’t gotten where he needs you to be yet?”

“What could he possibly need from me?” I asked, frustrated.

Orpheus shrugged. “Think about it. You’re becoming more and more isolated. You’re on the outs with Hades, your mother, and Melissa. You’ve even quit school! You think I’m his next target so he can send a message. What if I’m just his next target to keep you alone? Who’s left that you spend time with?”

“Joel and Aphrodite.”

“I’d bet money that Joel is next on his list, and you already know he wants Aphrodite. So you two are constantly keeping each other company? The two goddesses he needs for…Whatever it is that he needs you for?” He gave me a significant look. “I’ll go wherever you want me to, but what if you’re wrong?”

I met his gaze. “Then I’m wrong. Do you want me to try this, or not?”

Orpheus’ gold eyes turned on his wife then back to me. He seemed conflicted. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”

I gave him a level look and he sighed, gaze going back to his wife. Her frizzy hair was damp with sweat. Myriad of freckles stood out against her sallow skin. She’d lost weight despite the efforts of my mother and me.

Orpheus laid a golden hand on her cheek and leaned down to kiss her forehead. The first time I’d met Orpheus and Eurydice I’d wondered how a guy that looked like him, the ultimate golden boy, had ended up with someone so plain. Then she’d smiled and I’d gotten it. She had a beautiful soul. It sounded cheesy, but that didn’t make it any less true.

Emotion glittered in Orpheus’ metallic gold eyes as he searched her face, seeming to look for some sign of that inner light, some sign of life in his wife, but there wasn’t one. She looked like an empty shell.

“Bring her back to me.” His eyes met mine, and I swallowed hard. There was so much hope, so much desperation in his gaze. What if I couldn’t do this? What if I made it worse?

My hand gripped his, and with power borrowed from the Reapers, I touched his soul. He shuddered, knuckles turning white around my hand. I winced, hoping my fingers wouldn’t break.

This was my last chance. What I was trying was dangerous for him and Eurydice. If this didn’t work, I’d be sending Eurydice’s soul to the Underworld. And if I messed up too badly, Orpheus would be joining her.

But what else could I do? I had to get Orpheus away from Athens, away from me, before Zeus came after him again. Of course Zeus could come after them anywhere, but why make it easy?

If any couple I’d ever met could be described as soul mates, it was Orpheus and Eurydice. I fumbled for Eurydice’s limp hand. I could sense her soul buried further within her and difficult to reach. It sat loosely within her body, unbound and unattached. Thanks to my power borrowed from the Reapers, when I touched her soul it practically leapt into my hands. I winced. She really was more dead than alive.

Through daily healing sessions, Mom kept her off life support and all but the most basic tubes or wires the hospital might otherwise require. But I’d heard her say it had been getting harder every day. I just hoped Eurydice wasn’t too far gone.

Orpheus and Eurydice’s souls poured into my hands. They felt the way candlelight looked. Tenuous and flickering, but aglow with energy that, left uncontrolled, could destroy everything in its path. They resonated with one another. Two parts of a whole, reunited as one.

Joel had been right, or rather, it seemed his long lost myth had been accurate. My mother hadn’t been sure of the origins of that myth. She had little to do with the creation of humans. Her energy had been focused on sustaining them. The souls had been Zeus’ department.

I used Orpheus’ soul as a guide to mold Eurydice’s renewed soul back into her body. His soul flowed effortlessly into her to fill in the missing connections. The souls merged easily, the trouble was getting them to split apart. I pulled more power from the Reapers, shoving each soul back to its rightful place.

The power from the Reapers came easily, but the power from Zachary had a different flavor to it. It was stronger, more wild. It tore through me. When it left my body for Eurydice’s, I felt like I had an open wound. I gasped, winded.

I won’t be doing that again
. The Reapers’ power was filtered through Thanatos; Zachary was something different altogether. I set my mouth in a grim line. I was going to have to ask him about that later.

I let their hands go. Orpheus looked at me then grabbed at his wife’s hands, clutching them to him as though she was the only thing tethering him to the world. He leaned close to her, nose brushing against her cheek. “Please,” he whispered into her ear.