Persephone's Orchard (The Chrysomelia Stories) (43 page)

“Oh well. You’re supposed to get deflowered at this festival,” she murmured, “but this is perfectly acceptable.”

He glanced down with a lifted eyebrow at what his fingers were engaged in. “I have to say, you’re looking fairly well deflowered from this angle.”

She laughed. “Feeling it, too.”

Her strokes brought fast breaths from him now. “This will do for me if it will for you,” he said. “Will it fulfill your maidenly spring-equinox fantasies?”

“Quite. As long as we can do it again later, with variations.”

“Agreed.” He bent to kiss her throat, moving his hands with more determination.

Footsteps crashed through the leaves. Laughter floated toward them. Another couple was approaching, one lover chasing the other into the forest. This was still the living world, after all.

At that moment the earth rumbled again—a more violent shock that made the trees sway and threw the young couple to the ground. The earth jolted and cracked open under Hades and Persephone, and she fell into the chasm.

“Hades!” Persephone screamed, scrambling for a foothold in the crumbling dirt. He reached down and caught her arm, his fingers digging into her flesh as he pulled her back up.

She caught one last glimpse of the young couple, who watched them from their startled crouch on the ground, before a stronger tremor knocked Hades off balance too, and he fell into the crack alongside her. He wrapped her in his arms and switched them to the spirit realm even before they rolled to a stop at the bottom of the trench.

Wild, huge trees crawling with vines and shrieking with birds took the place of the living-world forest. The aftershock died away, and the earth went still.

Hades pulled Persephone out of the ragged rip in the ground, and they collapsed naked at the base of a tree, laughing, in each other’s arms.

“We’re having a most exciting day,” he remarked.

“Very.” She trailed her fingers up his chest. “Shall we finish this in the Underworld?”

“Let’s.” And, as she had left her sandals behind in the other realm, he picked her up and carried her across the twigs and rocks to his chariot.

Demeter was going to be furious. Persephone’s life was taking a sharp turn and would never resemble the ordinary again. She might gain worshippers and enemies. She knew all that, but, winding her arms around Hades’ neck as he held her, she chose him gladly and regretted nothing.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

A
DRIAN BORROWED THE LOOSE HALF
of the blanket to keep his legs warm, and kept reading. Sophie had been asleep about an hour, and Adrian was considering lying down to nap too.

She whimpered. She must have been dreaming—her eyes were still closed. But when she twitched and tensed, and whimpered again with brow furrowed, he closed his book. She could be getting a later or earlier scene than she wanted, and there was no shortage of upsetting memories she might be dreaming of.

“Sophie.” He laid his hand on her shoulder. “Soph. It’s okay.”

She pulled in a breath, and her eyes opened. Regarding him hazily, she reached up and slid her hand along his neck.

“Bad dream?”

“No.” She pulled him down, rolling to face him. He lay alongside her and hugged her. “Good dream.” She kissed his neck, and Adrian realized with lovely shock that she was twisting rhythmically against him.

He sank into the mattress, nuzzling her ear. “Spring equinox festival, by any chance?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Finally.” Suddenly quite warm, he pushed the blanket down with his elbow, exposing Sophie’s throat and kissing it. “Good dream indeed.” His mouth traveled along her collarbone.

“I didn’t get to finish it, but now I’m remembering the rest of it. Mmm.”

Yes, Adrian really didn’t need this blanket anymore. He was toasty warm all over. Blazing hot even, some places. “I woke you up in the middle of that? Sorry.”

Sophie hooked her leg over his. “Then you better finish what you started.”

Adrian gave in.

He couldn’t hurt her, he reasoned, by kissing and embracing her in bed. Nor by letting his hands wander like they had in the bus this morning. Maybe she hadn’t specifically given him permission to slide his hands under her shirt and bra this way, but she seemed not to mind. On his part, he didn’t mind her pushing up his sweatshirt and T-shirt to stroke his skin. Or her unbuttoning his jeans to give her hand more room. And he really, really didn’t mind her wriggling out of her own jeans to let him explore too.

Finally he forced himself to stop her. He pulled her hands into neutral territory between their chests, and closed his own around them. “In that memory I did refuse to do a certain act,” he said. “Which I’d still refuse. And I’m sure a health-conscious modern woman like you would never, um, let a substance into her body that might kill her.”

“No,” she assured.

“So then…”

Her full lips curved into a smile. “One of those workarounds?”

“Good plan.”

It had to unleash some invisible magic, he thought; Hades and Persephone, joining together again within these black and holy stone walls, for the first time in millennia. As they indulged in enjoying one another, how could they not be reactivating some power within the Earth itself? Surely they were at least bringing autumn storm clouds rolling and thundering over the Mediterranean.

But probably every boy felt that way when finally in bed caressing the girl he loved.

W
ITH
J
ACOB SHE’D
been so much more self-conscious. She’d been reluctant to let him see her naked at all. Sophie liked her own body, knew it to be healthy and attractive enough; but even so, unveiling it for the critique of a teenage boy daunted her. When Jacob wheedled her into allowing him a look, then professed himself totally wild about her, her relief and gratitude were enough to make her love him for the short term.

But with Adrian it was a different world altogether. Clothes seemed unnecessary once the desire overtook her. Even afterward, lying naked with him felt natural, like something long awaited and finally fulfilled.

Likely it was the memories—they’d known each other’s bodies as lovers in so many lives, and so many circumstances, youth through old age. But it surely had something to do with this life too, with the endearing knowledge that not long ago Adrian had been stuck in a less-than-satisfying body himself.

“So until you ate the immortality fruit, you couldn’t do this kind of thing?” Her head rested on his shoulder, their arms and legs cozily interlaced.

“Couldn’t feel a thing below the waist. I could’ve tried pleasing someone else, and wouldn’t have minded giving it a go. But I never had the chance.”

“Hm.” She brushed her cheek back and forth on his collarbone.

“Don’t feel sorry for me. I got cured. A lot of people never do. And even before that, once I ate the pomegranate, I did have the memories, the dreams. In the dreams I could
almost
feel everything. It made me happy.” He kissed her head. “So you see, I was grateful to you before you knew I existed.”

“It wasn’t
only
me you could be grateful to. Other people in the past have, ahem, helped you out.”

“True, but you’ve always been my favorite.” His embrace tightened, and his voice became both bashful and suggestive. “I’ve been over and over those memories. Had to be sure I’d know how to make you happy. Hope it worked?”

“Oh, yes. You did a very good job studying your, um, technique.” She giggled, as did Adrian a second later.

He sighed in contentment, the exhalation washing across her cheek, warm and intimate. “I can’t believe we’re finally here again, like this.” He switched into their ancient tongue, and repeated Hades’ words: “The company of the woman I love.”

Without a qualm, Sophie answered in the same language, “I love you.”

He lifted himself to his elbows to look in her eyes, his face tinted blue by the camping lantern. “I love you, too,” he said in English.

“I know. You said so.”

“Well, I didn’t
exactly
say so. Wanted to make sure you knew.”

She rolled her eyes, and hugged him so he tumbled down across her chest. “So…is this unfair of me, when I haven’t even decided about joining you?”

“Unfair? No.” He shifted over, letting her breathe more easily, while keeping his body fitted snug against her side. “Of course I’d want you to think about it a while, and I do want to be…as close to you as possible while you think about it.”

“Because that way you can influence my choice?”

“I admit there’s a touch of that.” He kissed her shoulder. “But I just want to
be
with you. Whenever I can.”

“Sounds wonderful.” While she snuggled into his arms again, she allowed herself a moment of girlish exultation: she and her new boyfriend were crazily in love, and he was the Greek god of the Underworld, complete with magic and everything. And she was his rightful queen, and could become immortal herself as soon as she was ready. No, it could
not
get much more romantic than that.

For the rest of the weekend they lingered and slept in the bedchamber, explored the Underworld, and visited beaches in living-world Greece. Adrian also took her to the site of the house where she and Demeter used to live, though naturally not a stone of the house itself remained. Now a modern village stood there, small cars puttering down the bumpy streets by the river.

She’d been able to direct him here herself, in the bus. She remembered the way, and knew the house had been here, but the living world had utterly changed since then.

As they walked a path overlooking the river, Kiri padded beside them, sniffing bushes. Sophie watched her. “So she
must
have been Kerberos, right?”

Adrian crouched beside the dog, and received a lick on the face. “I wish she could tell us. But I have to think she was.”

Eventually the real world intruded again, and Sophie had to return to campus—woefully behind on homework, but incandescently in love.

Adrian loitered a few minutes behind the dorm with her, holding her and giving one “last” kiss after another. Promising to meet again no later than tomorrow, they finally parted.

Sophie knew their location wasn’t exactly invisible to outside eyes; there were windows and paths within sight. But she hadn’t realized she’d been spotted by any of her acquaintances until Melissa asked, back in the dorm room, “So who’s the guy you were kissing?”

To buy time, Sophie chuckled, pretending to read her texts. “Oh, you saw that? When?”

“Just now, behind the dorm. I was walking back from dinner.”

“His name’s David.” Sophie had thought up her cover story already in case it was needed. Which apparently it was. “He’s the friend I stayed with, the night the crazy woman broke in. He’s a geography major.”

“And now you two are a thing?” As usual, Melissa sounded about half a shade up from utterly bored.

“Yeah. I guess we are. We weren’t before, but it sort of happened.”

“Good. You look happy. Both of you.” Melissa nodded, as if having solved a sudoku puzzle, then moved to her desk to wake up her computer.

Sophie spread out her latest chemistry worksheet and gazed at it, but her mind drifted all over the globe, and the past and future.

At what point would she tell her family about “David”? How would she introduce him, bring him into the daily reality of their farmhouse back in Washington, without incurring risk to Adrian and herself? How could she
not
introduce him without making her family suspicious? Could she even tell Tabitha? She was itching to fill in her best friend about the fabulous new man in her life, but how much could she safely reveal?

In short, how long could a mortal girl go on dating a Greek god before serious trouble intervened?

T
ROUBLE, IT SEEMED,
waited all of three days. Wednesday evening found Sophie occupied in the same fashion as the previous few nights: tangled in a cozy and exciting roll in the blankets with Adrian, both of them missing most of their clothing. The October wind smacked twigs against the exterior of the Airstream, and occasionally Kiri barked calmly from outside to remind them she was still hanging around.

Adrian lifted his mouth from Sophie’s to call, “Kiri, go run. It’s okay.”

“Poor dog,” Sophie said.

“Eh, she’s having fun. Though not as much fun as me.” Grinning, he dived back into their tangle. His tongue slid along her teeth, then her neck, breasts, belly…

His cell phone rang from the pile of clothes on the floor. With a groan, he grabbed it, glanced at the caller’s name, and answered. “Yes, Niko?”

Lying beside Adrian, Sophie could hear Niko’s voice, thinned and transmuted through the cell. “So I’m near you, but in the regular world, and the two of you are pretty close together, feels like.
This
time are you getting each other off?”