Daughter of the Earth and Sky (5 page)

The door to the adjoining suite burst open revealing a wide-eyed Hades. “What was that?”

I untangled myself from the covers and waved my phone with an apologetic smile. “Time to wake up.”

He leaned against the door, inhaling sharply. “I thought the building was on fire! You wake up to that every morning?”

My hands moved automatically to fix my hair and straighten my nightgown. I paused at the unfamiliar silky fabric and rolled my eyes, remembering the crazy clothes Cassandra chose for me. “What would happen to us if the building was on fire?”

“And we didn’t get out? It would hurt. A lot.”

I tilted my head as I took in his black T-shirt and black pants. “Do you ever wear color?”

“Black is a color.”

With his dark hair ruffled haphazardly and a crease from his pillow marring his cheeks, Hades looked so disheveled I had to laugh. He usually looked so put together.

Unable to resist, I stood on my tiptoes and brushed the hair out of his face.

“Hey!” His hands lifted to his hair, and he snapped his chin up so I couldn’t reach it.

The sudden movement knocked me off balance. I stumbled into him. His strong arms wrapped around me, steadying me.

“You okay?” he murmured. The deep rumble of his words vibrated through me.

“Uh-huh,” I managed. My pulse pounded as I realized all that separated us was a nightgown that suddenly felt really flimsy. I looked up at him through my lashes, half hoping he’d make the next move…and half terrified.

Hades cleared his throat, hands dropping to his sides. “Um…We should get going if we want to catch the boat.”

I stepped away from him, cheeks flaming. “Right. Of course.” I fled toward the bathroom. When I reached the doorway, I glanced back at him. “Sorry my phone scared you, but thanks for coming to my rescue.”

He gave me a slow smile. “Always.”

I ducked into the bathroom and changed, glad Cassandra had the foresight to pack hiking gear. Once I braided my hair and donned my human glamour, I sprayed on my sunscreen then wrinkled my nose before spraying insect repellent into a toxic cloud. I coughed, turning around under the mist of DEET.

“What are you doing?” Hades coughed as the door swung open.

“Trust me, you’ll need it.” I tossed him the bug spray.

He caught it and sprayed it on his broad arms, making a face when the acrid odor hit his nose. “I’m already missing the Underworld,” he grumbled.

“That’s right, no bugs.” I remembered, clipping on my new necklace. “So what happens to them when they die?”

“They go to their own realm in Tartarus.”

“You send bugs to hell? Wow you really don’t like them.”

Hades tightened the laces on his black hiking boots. “Serial killer hell. The bugs love it. You ready?”

I nodded and followed him back into the room. I threw a few bottles of water from our room’s courtesy basket into my backpack purse, and we headed down the hall. I grabbed the picnic lunch we’d ordered from the hotel when we reached the lobby, and Hades moved ahead of me to get the door.

“Hey, you!” A hand grabbed me by the wrist.

“Excuse me?” I twisted around. A woman in a business suit towered over me.

“Where do you think you’re going? The rest of the students are waiting outside with the buses.” She pushed her glasses up her nose with a pinky and gave me a no-nonsense look. “If you girls keep trying to sneak off, this trip is off next year.”

I blinked. “What?”

“You heard me; we already caught your little friends after their adventure last night. Just because you’re not in my class doesn’t mean you don’t have to listen to me, but I’d be more than happy to get Mrs. Powers over here if you’d rather talk to her.” The way she said ‘Mrs. Powers’ sounded like quite a threat.

“I’m not with a group.” I tried to pull my hand away, but the woman held fast.

A shadow fell over the woman. She looked behind me, and her jaw went slack. Hades had that effect on people.

“Let her go,” he growled.

The woman closed her mouth with a snap and released my hand. “Umm…” She stared at Hades for another moment, a blush creeping to her face. “I mean…” She cleared her throat and shook her head.

I took pity on her. “I’m not here with a group.”

“You’re not?”

“No. She’s not. And now we’re running late,” Hades snapped. He ushered me to the door. I followed him even though the woman seemed conflicted about letting me leave with a strange older man.

Once we were out the door, he picked up the pace, and I had to jog to keep up with him. “You know I’m, like, really short, right?”

He slowed. “Why didn’t you just charm her?”

I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t like charming people. It feels wrong. Besides” —I added when Hades rolled his eyes — “she didn’t mean any harm. She thought I was with a school trip or something.”

“Charming isn’t inherently wrong. In that situation—”

“Oh look, T-shirts!” I cut him off to avoid the lecture. “Look at all the
colors
!” I stopped at a wooden pagoda and grabbed a blue shirt with a picture of dolphins on the front.

Hades snatched the shirt and tossed it back to the T-shirt guy.

“Aw, come on!” I yelled, hurrying after him. “It was pretty!”

“I rule the Underworld! I’m not supposed to look pretty.”

“So do I,” I teased. “And look, color.” I motioned toward my dress.

“Yeah, but you’re not just a ruler of the Underworld. You’re Goddess of Spring.”

“So! What if I’d been some random human? Would you make me go Goth?”

I was still picking on him when we reached the ferry. We paid for tickets and made our way onto the ferry with a group of tourists. My mouth went dry when I looked down at the ocean. I plopped down on an empty wooden bench, staring hard at a black speck on the shiny, white vinyl floor.

Hades sat beside me and put an arm around my shoulder. I closed my eyes and leaned into him as the boat moved away from the shore with a lurch. He felt solid. Safe. Completely unlike the water that surrounded this tiny boat. I swallowed hard and gripped the edge of the bench.

“Here.” He took my hand and guided it to my necklace. I jerked in surprise when my fingers brushed against the tiny leaves. They felt
alive
. I’ve always felt something when I touch plants, a hum of energy. It’s not as weird or New Agey as it sounds. Until recently I thought everyone could feel it, but the jolt of energy that came from this plant wasn’t subtle.

“It can work as a conduit when you’re out of your realm,” Hades explained. “You’ll always have your powers, no matter where you are, but this lets you pull them from your realm. It’s easier, plus it’s kind of comforting.”

I looked up at him. “Do you have one?”

He nodded and pulled an old iron coin out of his pocket. It was about the size of a dime, but thicker and more misshapen and lumpy. Like it was trying really hard to be round but couldn’t quite succeed. A centurion was stamped on one side of the coin, and a bird with huge talons was stamped on the other.

“What is that?”

“An obol. Just a knickknack from one of the shops. A demigod walked out of the Underworld with one of these once, and suddenly all of Greece was using them for currency. They had this crazy idea they could use them to bribe Charon.” He touched it to the pomegranate seed on my necklace, and I felt a sudden surge of power.

“Something from each of your realms,” he said, pocketing the coin.

A chorus of amazed “oohs” from a group of tourists caught my attention.

“Dolphins,” Hades said with a nod to the water.

A pod of dolphins crested the surface, and the tourists laughed with delight. The sight filled me with anxiety I couldn’t explain.

Hades took pity on me. “Poseidon’s harbingers. He’s such a show-off.”

“That’s kind of cool.” I forced myself to laugh to take my mind off the rocking boat and the creepy-ass dolphins. “How come you don’t have anything like that?”

“What?” Hades’ lips quirked in amusement. “Splitting the ground in two and coming up from the depths of hell wasn’t dramatic enough?”

I smirked. “Now who’s a show-off?”

When the boat landed on Cumberland Island, I started to depart with the tourists, but Hades held me back.

“You need to charm the captain into coming back for us.” He kept his voice low.

“No.”

Hades sighed. “Look, we don’t have another option. Sunset is well after the last group leaves, and we need a way off this island.” He gripped me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes. “If I could do it, I would. All right? I’m sorry, but it has to be you.”

“What would you have done if I’d stayed home?” I asked, desperate for another option.

He grinned. “Taken shelter in the Underworld and waited out the apocalypse. When have you ever stayed home when there was a chance for conflict?”

I gave him a playful push but sobered as the Captain approached.

“Is everything all right?” he asked with an easy Southern twang. “If you’ve changed your mind about visitin’, you’ll still have to get off I’m afraid. Just a security—”

I’d looked him straight in the eyes, unleashing my charisma. His pupils dilated, and he broke off mid-sentence.

“Easy, Persephone,” Hades whispered. “We want him to have his wits about him.”

I flushed and eased off the charm. “We’re going to be staying longer than the ferry service runs today, and we’ll need a ride home when we’re done.”

“Of course,” he breathed, looking awestruck. “I’ll wait here for you.”

“No, no. That’s okay. You take the people back and forth like you normally would. Just give me your cell phone number, and I’ll call you—”

“We may need a fast exit,” Hades pointed out. “Ask him to leave us his boat.”

“No!” I said hastily before the Captain could offer. “If you come back after you take the last group home, will anyone notice?”

“Not if I park at the Carnegie’s deck on the little island. They aren’t here durin’ tourist season.”

“Could you get in trouble?” I asked, dreading the answer.

“I’m staff here. I can come and go as I please.”

I looked at Hades, and he gave a curt nod. “Thank you,” I told the Captain and followed Hades off the boat.

* * * *

We spent the remainder of the day poking around Dungeoness and learning about sea turtles. When the sun began to sink through the sky, we made our way deeper into the forest. Gradually, the sounds of tourists faded away.

Hades dropped his glamour with a sigh of relief and motioned for me to do the same. “When we see Poseidon, let me do all the talking.” Hades slapped at a mosquito. He stepped on a twig, and the sound ricocheted through the forest like a gunshot.

My feet crunched the leaves beside him, and I frowned. “Why?”

“Poseidon is old-fashioned. He—”

“Expects me to be arm candy?” I let out an offended laugh.

Hades gave me a look. “You don’t have a lot of experience talking to gods that rank above you. Just this once, defer to experience, okay?”

“I guess he does outrank me.” Given my parentage and my marriage, that didn’t happen often. “You said Poseidon was okay. Why are you so worried about having a simple conversation with him?”

Hades ran his fingers through his hair and stopped under a giant live oak tree draped with Spanish moss. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I never said a word regarding Poseidon’s character. You inferred that all on your own. I wasn’t trying to deceive you. Poseidon may be.”

“I’ll still be listening,” I said, watching the dying light filter through the trees in shadowed patterns.

“Yes, but if you’re not speaking, you can’t give away more than I want him to know. He also won’t be able to lock you into any promises.”

I winced, thinking of Thanatos. “I understand.”

A rustling of leaves caught my attention, and I glanced behind me. Two beautiful horses emerged from the trees. I caught my breath. They were a deep chestnut brown with black manes and perfectly formed white stars on their foreheads. I felt a strange kinship to the animals. Human intelligence sparkled in their eyes. They bowed their head to Hades and studied me carefully.

“Despoina, Arion,” Hades said with a polite nod. “Lead on.”

I followed the horses through the forest, wondering how Hades knew their names. We emerged from the forest to a white, sandy beach. I gasped at the sight of the girl from my dream standing thigh-high in the water.

“She can’t see us,” Hades said under his breath.

I looked again and saw the faint shimmer of a shield surrounding her like a giant bubble that would prevent her from seeing or hearing us.

“Hades!” a jovial voice called.

I turned to see a tall man striding toward us through the shallow surf. He had a flowing blond beard, a deep tan, and was dressed casually in board shorts and nothing else. I raised my eyebrows at his six-pack and gave Hades a speculative look. I’d never seen Hades with his shirt off. Were all gods built like that? I really hoped so.

“Poseidon,” Hades said in a civil voice. He shifted, subtly placing himself between me and Poseidon. “It’s been a long time.”

To anyone who hadn’t spent months overanalyzing Hades’ every move, he looked perfectly calm. But I could feel the tension radiating off him.

Poseidon stopped an arm’s-length away from us and looked at me. I saw his eyes and caught my breath. They swirled with shades of green, blue, and brown-white waves crested in miniature. They were so deep I could feel myself falling into them. I forced myself to meet the crashing and churning waves, not looking away until Poseidon chuckled.

“You’re the spitting image of your mother.” He grinned at me. “Uncanny. Pleased to meet you in person.” He extended his hand.

Hades pushed my hand down before it could meet his. “Don’t.” His voice was full of warning. I followed his gaze to Poseidon, confused by the sudden malice in Hades’ eyes.

Poseidon laughed. “Oh Hades, you’ve got it bad. There’s little need to worry. I don’t often have interest in children.”

Interesting wording. “Didn’t often.” “Little need.” No wonder Hades looked so tense. This guy was slimy. What would have happened if I’d shaken his hand?