Daughter of the Earth and Sky (7 page)

“I’m not leaving you alone with her.”

I shrugged and let him in. I dug through my bag, too tired to care what I wore to sleep. I threw a green silk nightdress to Aphrodite.

When she disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, Hades turned to me. “Are you okay? You haven’t said much since…”

“I went crazy?” I gave a bitter laugh. “I’ll get over it.”

I felt a flash of power as Hades dropped a shield around us and knew Aphrodite couldn’t hear us.

“What are we going to do with her?” he asked.

“I didn’t want Poseidon to know I couldn’t kill her.”

Hades nodded. “Of course, but now…”

“We have to protect her. She needs to learn how to fit into this world and to control her powers. We’re the only people who can help her.”

“Or that’s exactly what Zeus wanted. What if he sent her out in the world to cause chaos and keep us occupied?”

“Keep us occupied for what?” I sat down on the bed. “And how could he possibly know Poseidon would send for us?”

He held his hands up in frustration. “Who else is left to send for? If it wasn’t you, it would have been me or your mother. The Muses wouldn’t be of any use.”

“But how did he know Poseidon would send for anyone at all?”

Hades shrugged. “Then she’d be wandering around collecting worshipers for Zeus. This is why I hate Zeus. He has back-up plans for his back-up plans. Any move we ever made always played right into his hands.”

I folded my hands in my lap and looked around the room like it had answers. “What else can we do? We can’t just leave her alone, and we can’t kill her.”

“There are ways to detain a god.”

I thought of the smile on Aphrodite’s face when she had hugged me, like I was some kind of hero rescuing her. “We can’t just keep her prisoner forever. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“What do you suggest we do?”

I thought about it for a moment. “Help her.” When Hades rolled his eyes, I spoke fast. “Use her? We don’t have any weaknesses to speak of. There’s nothing of value she could pass along to Zeus. If we can’t hurt her, then she can’t hurt us, and if she has any other purpose here, we’ll be right there to stop her.”

Hades shook his head. “I have a weakness, and you have many.”

“What’s your weakness?” I asked.

Hades gave me a significant look and touched my cheek softly. “Who do you think? And” —he continued when I blushed — “your people are vulnerable, remember?”

I sat down on the bed. Of course I remembered my people were vulnerable. Mom. Melissa. Her mother. I’d never forget watching Melissa die for no reason other than the fact that she meant something to me. I couldn’t put her, or any of my friends, in danger again.

I yawned, exhausted. It had been a really long day in the hot sun, and we were no closer to answers than we’d been before we left. Worse, we had more questions. “This sucks.”

“Why don’t you get some sleep?” Hades suggested, dropping the shield when Aphrodite left the bathroom. “I’ll think about it.”

I was exhausted, but desperately needed a shower. I could feel the DEET burrowing into my skin. Thankfully, gods are immune to cancer.

I unclipped my necklace and hung it on the doorknob then hurried through my shower, toweled my hair dry, and slipped into a blue satin nightgown. The clingy material had me raising my eyebrows at my reflection, but at least it wasn’t too low-cut. Not like Hades would even notice.

I moved toward the door, freezing when I heard Aphrodite’s voice.

“…
don’t want to hurt her,” Aphrodite said softly. “We’re sisters. I can’t use charm on her anymore, can I? Even accidentally?”

“No, she’s immune to your level of charm now,” Hades said after a moment.

“You must love her very much, to give that much of yourself to protect her.” Her voice was wishful.

I hadn’t thought of that. He’d done more than just snap me out of that craziness on the beach. He’d given me part of his powers.

“That’s not really your business,” Hades replied.

“You’re very powerful, aren’t you? Are you stronger than Zeus?”

I opened the door and walked to the bed, motioning for them to continue talking. Aphrodite lounged on the red couch, and Hades was sitting on the edge of the bed. I pulled the sheet over me, feeling self-conscious.

Hades greeted me with a smile. There was an awkward silence when Aphrodite realized he wasn’t going to answer her question. How could he? We had no idea how powerful Zeus was.

“What do you think?” I asked finally. “You’ve seen Zeus.”

“I was shielded. I didn’t get a sense of power from him like I do from the two of you.”

I gave Hades a puzzled look, and he inclined his head letting me know he’d explain later.

“I’m so glad you came for me.” She beamed at me, and her smile was so beautiful my breath caught.

“I wasn’t going to just leave you in the ocean.” I shuddered, remembering those crashing waves.

I played her words back through my mind to find a loophole in her story, but I was too tired to think. I felt myself drifting off. Through the cotton sheet I could feel Hades’ reassuring hand on my leg. I thought of the new word I’d chosen to close my mind to intruders.
Adios.

When I woke up, Hades was slouched against the wooden headboard, reading a book with a blue cover. I could feel the warmth of him through the sheets and had instinctively snuggled closer during my nap.

I yawned, stretching, and glanced over to the couch where Aphrodite lay curled up, red hair cascading down the upholstery onto the floor. A look out the window told me it was dark outside, but I couldn’t tell if it was early dark or late dark.

“How long have I been asleep?” My voice was hoarse.

“A few hours,” Hades said softly, power blanketing the room so we couldn’t be heard. I studied the shimmering shield and realized we couldn’t be seen either.

“What time is it?” I asked, sitting up.

Hades glanced at the clock on the bedside table. “A little after two.”

I blinked. I’d slept the entire day away. “Why—”

“There’s a physical toll sometimes. Fighting that much charm, taking in that much power. You’re not supposed to be doing any of this yet.”

I nodded. There was a reason no one talked about child-gods. Before maturity, a deity’s body just wasn’t meant to handle much power.

I put a hand to my throbbing forehead and frowned. “Did you figure something out about Aphrodite?”

“I talked to her for a while after you drifted off. She’s not privy to Zeus’ plans.”

“But she’s a part of them,” I reminded him, uncomfortable with the realization that I didn’t want him to get too friendly with Aphrodite.

Hades shrugged. “She doesn’t want to be. I think she’s afraid of him. You’re right. She needs our help, Persephone.”

I pushed the blue spaghetti straps of my nightgown back up my arms from where they had fallen. “She needs to learn to fit in then. Right now she sticks out like a sore thumb.”

“I taught her to do a glamour,” Hades replied. “Socialization she’ll have to learn from you.”

“I thought she knew everything.” I blinked at my snarky tone, but Hades didn’t seem to notice. Was I still jealous? I’d thought that feeling fled with the charm, but hearing Hades say she needed help…

Gods, Persephone, he can’t win for losing. If he doesn’t want to help her, you think he’s a jerk, and if he does, you get jealous? What’s wrong with you
?

“Not how to blend. It’s natural for you because you were raised human, but for the rest of us…We’re a different species. It can be hard, even for me, to understand humans all the time. She might be great with humans. Zeus is. But her attitude toward them may be different from what you’re accustomed to. She needs to live in this world, Persephone. The Underworld isn’t going to be an option for her.”

“She can stay with me.”

“Bad idea.” Hades shook his head. “Your mother won’t like that one bit, and I don’t feel comfortable with her under your roof.”

I suppressed a smile. Hades could be so overprotective. “I guess she can stay with Melissa then. Learn what normal girls her age do. I can count on Melissa to keep tabs on her.”

Hades hesitated. “Is that wise?”

“I’ll have her swear an oath not to harm Melissa, or her mother.”

“No, have her swear an oath to protect Melissa and her mother from all harm,” Hades corrected. “So she can’t stand by and watch something happen to them.”

“I’m going to have to work on the wording.” I’d seen enough movies about angry supercomputers or robots to know better than to ask for protection from all harm. I winced and rubbed my temples.

“I was afraid of that.” Hades traced my forehead with his fingertips. I didn’t have the energy to ask—just waited for him to clarify. “I gave you too much power. Your headaches are getting worse.”

“I’d rather have a headache than ever feel that again.” I shifted so I faced Hades. “Have you ever been charmed?”

Hades opened his mouth then closed it, gaze going distant. “I’ll never know.”

He spoke so low, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly. “What do you mean?”

He leaned back. “Zeus is like you. He was born, not created. At the time, we hadn’t seen anything like him. He was so much younger than us, so vulnerable. But as he grew into his powers…” Hades spread his hands in front of him in a helpless gesture. “We’d never seen charm before; it was something completely unique to him. We didn’t have any resistance to it. He told us how terrible our parents were, and we believed him.” Hades shrugged. “He wasn’t lying. But, the rebellion…afterward, we were never sure whose idea it was. Or when exactly we’d agreed to it. Then suddenly he was King of the Gods, we had a mountain, and Hera was married to him. It all just happened out of nowhere.”

“No wonder you hate him.”

Hades looked up at me surprised. “For that? No. We’ll never stop owing him for getting us out from under the Titans. It was horrible. No matter what he’s done since, we all still owe him a debt of gratitude. I don’t hate him for that. Just…everything after.”

“But you think he charmed you?”

“We’re not sure. And he was so young, I don’t know that he could ever be sure either. Like I said, charm was new. But we worried, so we found ways to resist, and the others found ways to pass that resistance down so that no other gods could be controlled. It’s too dangerous.”

I blushed. “I think you would know. I was so…possessive. It was like it wasn’t even me. I could feel myself going crazy. I just couldn’t stop it.” I shook my head. Dwelling on it wouldn’t do anyone any good.

“In most cases, the charm will feel more subtle. People shouldn’t realize they’re bending to your will. That’s the difference between controlled and uncontrolled charm. Uncontrolled charm is just a crazy mess. She was using too much to be effective. Had she known what she was doing, that would have been a show of power, or a fatal blow, though to my knowledge you’re the only one who…”

He didn’t have to finish the sentence. I was the only one who had ever used charm to kill someone.

Hades stifled a yawn, and I immediately felt guilty. “We don’t have to do this tonight. You’re tired.”

He shook his head. “I’ll be fine. As for sensing another deity’s powers, that’s just an instinct you’re going to have to learn to trust. You need to master shields so she doesn’t find out you’re not fully vested in your powers.”

“Okay.” I already knew how to identify shields. Shields are pretty much just a wall of power with thought behind them. They could keep a conversation private or make you invisible. Some shields could prevent teleportation, like the one Boreas used against me in the clearing last year. There were stronger shields, meant to block the use of any divine powers, such as the ones keeping the Titans in Tartarus and away from the other souls, but I was nowhere near powerful enough to cast that.

I practiced for a while, never tampering with the shield Hades had left up. My cheeks heated when I realized what conclusion Aphrodite would come to if she woke up and found our bed cloaked from her vision.

When I finished practicing, Hades channeled the excess power from me. When married gods shared any intimate contact, their minds were open to each other. Hades and I hadn’t done anything beyond kissing, but channeling power apparently counted.

Marriage with gods was largely political. Love didn’t often factor into the equation, but power did. An exchange solidified the marriage; the amount varied depending on the gods. Some gods kept as much of their own power as possible, others drained all the power from their spouse, and some chose equilibrium. The gods who chose to be equals were always connected, could always sense each other or hear one another, no matter how far away they actually were.

For the thousandth time, I tried to turn my thoughts to Thanatos. My mind threw up a wall to block the thoughts. I felt Hades respond to it. He was curious, and a little hurt, but he respected me too much to ask. I gave up and discretely searched Hades’ mind for the slightest indication he’d thought anything about sitting so close to me, on a bed, at night, cloaked from view from anyone else in the room.

Not a single passing thought. Damn. That was almost insulting.

I bet he would think about her.

Hades snorted, breaking contact with me as the last of my headache receded. “Not likely.” He paused. “You shouldn’t feel guilty about charming all those humans,” he said, incorrectly guessing what was bothering me. The humans he referred to included pretty much anyone I’d met between my sixteenth birthday and my time in the Underworld. Before I had control of my charm, I’d caused all kinds of problems. “Or Boreas. You didn’t know what you were doing to the humans. I promise, they weren’t as bad off as you were today. Boreas deserved it.”

I frowned at Hades to show him I didn’t appreciate him poking around in my mind. His raised eyebrow reminded me that I’d been poking in his mind first. I shrugged in apology. “I don’t feel guilty about Boreas.” Hades gave me a look. “I don’t!” I protested. “I should, but I don’t. I feel guilty that I don’t feel guilty. Does that make sense?”

“No.”

“What kind of a person kills someone and doesn’t feel bad about it?”