Destined (43 page)

And then came a distinctive tear. The same ripping as when the soldier had shredded my dress, exposing my flesh. Only this time, the sound was the best thing I’d ever heard.

As a swatch of cloth separated from the dress, I tumbled just beyond the reach of his jaws. Savage barks split through the cavern, deafening in their intensity.

“Let’s go,” Charon screamed over the snarls. We raced down the path until we could no longer hear the hungry heads fighting one another for their chance to spill my blood.
 

It took longer than I cared to admit, but my breathing finally slowed enough that I could talk. “How’d you know that’d be in there? The honey cake, I mean.”

“Even Aphrodite has to abide by
some
rules.” Figures. Charon didn’t sound winded at all. “If she wants you to run an errand for her in Hades, she at least has to give you the tools to get inside.”

“But she didn’t tell me. I mean, if you hadn’t been here, I never would’ve known.”

“Just part of the test,” Charon said. “Be glad you have a tutor that lets you cheat.”

“Please tell me I’m not overhearing evidence of cheating going on,” a lovely, young voice piped up. “Especially if it’s cheating death. We tend to frown on those sorts of tricks.”

Her willowy body materialized on the torch-lit path. Charon immediately bowed to the woman, then took her delicate hand in his. Down here, this could only be Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.

“Of course not, your Highness,” Charon chuckled. “At least not the accusation of attempting to cheat death.”

Her eyes danced as a wry smile tugged at her lips. “In that case, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear a word.” She squeezed Charon’s shoulder tenderly. “It’s good to see you again, old friend.”

“You know how it is. I never get a day off to come visit,” Charon complained.

“And yet, here you are.” Persephone’s eyes turned to me. They were deep brown, like Ceres’s, only shockingly intense. She studied me, perhaps sizing me up, but I didn’t get the sense I was being judged.
 

“Perhaps I understand why,” she said, eyebrows raised, still watching me with those eyes. “Charon, aren’t you going to introduce me to your …
friend
?”

Charon cleared his throat. “Of course. Queen Persephone, this is Princess Psyche, Eros’s fiancée. Psyche, Queen Persephone.”

Persephone’s face instantly brightened. “I didn’t know Eros was engaged!” She flung her arms around me and squeezed, welcoming and sisterly. “I’m so glad you came down to meet me. I’m long overdue to return, but I didn’t know I’d missed such important news.”

Charon frowned. “That’s true. You are overdue.” Persephone was only supposed to spend fall and winter in Hades. Come spring and summer, she returned to Earth to visit with her mother. “Is everything all right?”

“Oh yes!” she gushed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think Eros had been down here spreading some of his magic. Hades has been such an amazing husband lately, I haven’t wanted to leave. And mother agreed spring could still come as long as I’m happy.” She shrugged her shoulders. “So, here I am.”

I looked around the dimly-lit pathway and jagged, rock-lined walls, wondering how she could possibly want to stay here when spring was exploding in the gardens outside. But then I thought of the nights I’d spent in Eros’s company, cocooned in darkness and bursting with emotions I couldn’t name. It wouldn’t have mattered where we were, as long as we were together.
   

As if picking the image of Eros out of my brain, Persephone asked, “So, Psyche, where is that financé of yours? Is he too scared to come down into Hades himself?”

“Actually, Charon exaggerates. We’re not really engaged. Aphrodite tried to arrange our marriage but — you know what? It’s a long story. Let’s just leave it at I love him.”

Persephone tilted her head and a spray of honey-colored hair tumbled onto her lean shoulders. “I seriously need a messenger to bring me news from Olympus so I’d have a clue what’s going on.”

When she snapped her fingers, three tripods appeared and the cave illuminated under added torch light. Not that light helped any. Now I could see the stalactites hanging like fangs over my head and the filmy, grey ooze slowly creeping down the walls.

Persephone, however, seemed totally unaffected by her nightmarish reality. “Come, sit. I have all the time in the world.”

So I told her, in as condensed a version as possible. But there was really no way to sugar-coat what I’d done or why I was there. As I reached the end of the story, I rubbed my hand nervously over the top of the little wooden box.

“And so Aphrodite sent me here as my final test. I’m supposed to bring back some of your beauty for her.”

Persephone snorted. “For
her
? What does Aphrodite need with more beauty?”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I hate to ask, but I have no choice.”

“So let me get this straight,” Persephone said, “if I say ‘no’ then it’s my fault you don’t get to see Eros?” She flung her hands into the air and let them fall back to her sides with a thump. “That woman is unbelievable.”

“I think I have an idea.” Charon rubbed his chin with his crooked fingers. “Aphrodite never said Psyche had to get face beauty.” Persephone and I looked between Charon and each other. “The Queen could give Aphrodite beauty from her big toe, and Psyche would still have completed the task.”

This time, Charon was on the receiving end of one of Persephone’s jubilant hugs. “Charon, you’re a genius. I love it!”

“It won’t hurt her, will it?” I asked. “I mean, her face isn’t suddenly going to look like your big toe or anything, right?”

Charon and Persephone burst out laughing. “I wish,” Persephone giggled. “I’d give her my whole foot to see that.”

“No,” Charon explained, “when she opens the box to receive Persephone’s beauty, it will simply go to her toes. Nothing to worry about.”

“But what if she thinks I tricked her?”

“There’s nothing we can do about that,” Persephone said, already unlacing her sandal. “The real test is whether you make it out of here alive after having convinced me to part with some of my beauty. What type of beauty you bring back won’t be that important.”

She freed her foot from the sandal and held out her hand. “Here, give me the box.”

Placing it in her hands, I crouched forward on my stool to see how she went about extracting beauty from an appendage.

“Oh Psyche, you can’t watch this part,” Persephone said. “The essence of divine beauty would probably kill you. Once I give you this box back, whatever you do, don’t open it.”

I shook my head fervently from side to side to show how clearly I understood. No way was I going to open that box. Death by beauty was not what I needed. Talk about ironic.

Persephone opened the box as I backed away. “Wait,” she called. “You forgot your other honey cake.” She removed the cake from the box and held it out to me.

“Oh yeah.”

“I’m not sure how far away you need to be,” Charon said. “You’d better start back down the path. I’ll catch up.”

“What about Cerberus?”

“I didn’t tell you to go all the way back by yourself, did I? Now get.”

I nodded reluctantly. Bile rose in my throat as I thought about having to brush my fingers against the oozing slime to feel my way back out of the cave. “Okay,” I croaked.

I started to leave, but then turned back. “Queen Persephone?” Her dark eyes met mine. “Thank you. For everything. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

Persephone just nodded and smiled kindly. She didn’t need to answer. I knew she understood.

Slowly, I paced down the path that led back to Cerberus. If I moved slowly enough, I didn’t have to touch the walls after all. I just shuffled my feet and leaned back, hoping if I hit a wall, my toes would stop me before my face collided.

As I moved, I squeezed the little cake tight in my fist, not caring if it crumbled, so long as I didn’t lose it.
How much further should I continue without him? What if I ran into Cerberus alone?
We both needed to use the same cake for our escape. I was still trying to figure out my next move when Charon ran up beside me.

The torches rushed to life along the path as he returned, chasing away the inky blackness. I didn’t think I’d ever be so grateful for the smell of burnt olive oil and the sting of smoke in my eyes.

“That was fast.”

“Here you are, my dear,” he said, holding the wooden box out to me.
 

I reached my hand out slowly to take the box, but then pulled back. “Are you sure I can touch it? Persephone said it could kill me.”

He thrust the box toward me as if to say take it. “The only danger is if you let the beauty out of the box. So don’t.”

“Got it,” I confirmed and grabbed the box.

“Better hold it with two hands just to be safe,” Charon noted.

I held up my other hand to show that it was coated in mushed honey cake. “Mind holding this then?” I asked with a grimace.

Charon snorted. “What’d the cake ever do to you?”

“Let’s just say I was keeping a tight grip on it to make sure it didn’t get away.” Charon raised his eyebrows without comment and peeled the sticky, crushed cake from my hand. “I didn’t figure Cerberus would notice if it was a little mashed up.”

“I’ve seen worse come through here. As long as it’s quasi-edible, it’ll do the trick.”

After wiping my sticky fingers on my dress, I gripped the box in both hands. For good measure, I also tucked it into my chest and clutched it there. When we got back to Cerberus, Charon launched the cake remnants and the hound greedily bounded after it.

“Let’s go,” Charon called to me and we both scurried past Cerberus’s lair. I gripped the box tighter as I ran, even though it made me hunch over slightly and run a little slower.

We were barely past Cerberus when Charon started to slow. “Let’s keep going,” I begged. “I just want to get out of here.”

“Of course. Why would you want to stay with me when you have Eros waiting for you?”

“No, it’s not that.” I stopped and turned to face Charon. “That’s not what I meant at all. You’ve been wonderful and I couldn’t have done this without you.” I uncurled one hand from the box to touch his shoulder. “Besides, I don’t know whether Eros is waiting for me or not.”

Charon looked away like he didn’t believe me.

“Really,” I said. “I just want to get this box back to Aphrodite. I feel like I’ve got death in my hands and I don’t want to touch it anymore.”