Promise of Shadows (8 page)

Tallon detaches himself from Blue’s embrace without a word. Then he grabs Blue’s arm and drags him toward a cluster of rocks a little ways off. Apparently Tallon wanted to talk in private. I don’t mind, because I want a moment alone with Cass, as well. I walk over to where she stares off into the distance. As I approach, Cass looks at me like she’s waiting for me to grow another head. I give her a small smile.

“The drakan didn’t devour you,” she says, sounding a little surprised.
I laugh, but the sound is hollow. “Yeah, seems like my luck’s changed.” Even so, my hands tremble from the near miss. I put my palms against my cheeks and try to focus.
She looks over toward where the guys are talking, Tallon somber while Blue gestures wildly with his hands. “You know them.”
I shake my head. “I know Tallon. I’ve never met Blue before. I didn’t even know Tallon had a brother.”
“Where do you know him from?”
I bump my shoulder into Cass’s in reassurance. There’s no jealousy in her tone, but her words seem to hint at it.“My nest mother, which is kind of like a godmother, adopted him. My mom said she used to take in strays, and Tally was just one of them.”
“Tally?”
I shrug. “Stupid childhood nickname. I guess it’s Tallon now.” Which sounds dangerous, and intriguing. I can’t help but to keep staring at him, comparing the guy standing before me with the kid I used to play hide-and-seek with.
I am definitely liking the improvement.
Tallon’s changed from a gawky kid with too-big eyes to a guy who looks like he could break hearts without even trying. He’s tall, with the sleekly chiseled form of a runner. The thin cloth of his shirt drapes over broad shoulders and does nothing to hide the slopes and angles of his muscles. His hair hangs past his shoulders, longer than it ever was when we were kids, but his dark eyes still seem to see too much as he glances at me and Cass over his shoulder.
Blue may be handsome in a golden sort of way, but Tallon completely eclipses him with his darkness. I’m embarrassed to realize I’ve been staring.
Cass shifts from foot to foot, suddenly restless. It’s enough to pull my attention away from Tallon. “What?”
“We need to get out of the Underworld before someone realizes we’re not in the Pits.”
I don’t like the tone of her voice. “What happens if they do?”
“They’ll send a couple of cerberus to drag us back.” My shoulder aches as I remember my last run in with one of the demon dogs. I swallow hard.
“Okay, not fun. So what’s the plan?”
Cass raises an eyebrow. “Why do we need a plan? Aren’t you getting rescued?”
Tallon and Blue still argue a little ways off, and I shake my head. “I’m not waiting on them. What’s your plan?”
Cass points toward the yellow river in the distance. “That’s the Acheron. If we follow it south to the Styx, we could get the Ferryman to take us across to the Mortal Realm.”
“The Ferryman’s gone,”Tallon says as he and Blue return. Blue’s expression is somewhere between sheepish and irritated. Tallon just frowns. His scowl could melt rock.
Cass’s brows draw together. “Gone? Gone where?”
Tallon shrugs. “Wherever it is he goes when travel’s been restricted. Hades closed down escorted travel between the realms. War’s brewing.”
“With who?” I ask, but no one answers me. I take that to mean they don’t know.
I sigh and turn to Cass. “Well, we can’t just stay here and wait for the cerberus to come and get us.”
Cass nods. “We need to get going.” She gives Tallon a low bow. “Thank you for saving my friend. But we must take our leave.” It’s clear that Cass doesn’t trust the guys, even though I know Tallon from way back when. I wonder what kind of life she’s had that even friends could be enemies.
I think of her standing on that hill long ago, challenging an Exalted to a contest that she had no chance of winning. What else don’t I know about Cass?
Tallon doesn’t acknowledge Cass’s dismissive thanks. “You won’t get far without the Ferryman.”
I cross my arms. “So, what’s the plan?”
“I’ll take you both across the Rift. Like I said, I came here to save you.”
“Who sent you?”
Tallon gives me a small, wistful smile. “Nanda.”
My heart aches as I think of the woman who was more of a mom to me than my real mother. Her visits were the highlight of my childhood. She’d blow into town like a whirlwind, a smiling, laughing Harpy who defied the conventions of the Aerie. Sometimes she’d have Tallon in tow, sometimes her bossy daughter Alora. But no matter how long she stayed or when she came to visit, Nanda brought happy times with her.
She’d been in the same year group as my mother, but unlike my mother she’d given up her spot in the Aerie after only a short while. I never knew why; I just knew that the life Nanda lived was a promise of something more, something beyond the restrictive life of the Aerie.
It was a life I had wanted at one point, especially after I failed my Trials. But then Ramun Mar killed Whisper, and my entire existence was thrown into a tailspin.
“Why now?” I ask, my brain grasping to make sense of this sudden turn of events.
“Alora had a vision,” Blue says, looking bored. I wonder if he feels the same way I do about the so-called visions of Alora. I was always sure she was just being a jerk when she would claim to have “seen” things when we were kids. Mostly because her “visions” always ended up with her getting to go first, or getting the better piece of dessert.
“We’re going to take you to the Mortal Realm. Nanda will be able to explain everything,”Tallon says, his voice softening slightly. He still looks sort of gloomy, but now it’s more like he heard a sad song, not like he wants to pummel someone.
Cass shakes her head. “How are you going to get us across?”
Blue throws his arm across Tallon’s shoulders. “My boy here has the peculiar ability to trip the Rift. He can get us across the realms.”
Tallon doesn’t say anything, and I study him, trying to see past the attractive exterior. There’s apparently a lot I don’t know about him.
Cass sighs. “How do we know we can trust you?” she asks, getting right to the heart of the matter.
Blue grins, completely unfazed. “Ah, that’s the tricky thing about trust, isn’t it?” The answer seems to mollify Cass some, and even though she doesn’t lose her defensive posture, she does seem to relax a little.
“So are you guys coming or not?” Tallon asks, shrugging off Blue. Now that’s the impatient little boy I remember. I grin and tug on his hair.
“Lead on! Tallyho!” I say, just like we used to when we were kids.
He doesn’t say anything, just rolls his eyes and sets off toward the river in the direction that Cass wanted to go. Blue follows him, giving me an apologetic smile. Cass stands next to me, and we watch the guys walk away.
“I would guess that the kid you knew has changed some.”
I nod. Now, like Cass, I wonder if I can trust the brooding man my childhood friend has changed into.

We walk for what feels like forever. There’s no time in the Underworld, but it still feels like hours. We alternate our walking with running, covering a large distance before Tallon finally calls a halt. We stand on a slight rise, and the view is impressive. To our left is the Acheron, as yellow and wide as it was when we left the cliff. To the south is the Styx, a black ribbon of water that still seems impossibly far away. And to our right is more of that black forest that makes me very, very nervous.

As soon as we stop, Cass heads over to find out what Tallon’s plans are, and Blue comes over to sit next to me on a large rock.
“So, you’re the infamous Zephyr Mourning.”
I nod. “Yep.” I like Blue and his playful attitude. It’s a welcome relief from Tallon’s sulkiness. The entire walk he’s done nothing but bark out orders, yelling at me when he thought I wasn’t running fast enough. Give me a pair of wings, and I’d show him.
But even though I’m fond of Blue, I don’t trust him. To be fair, there aren’t many people I trust these days.
“You said you and Tallon were brothers,” I say suddenly.
He raises an eyebrow at me. “We are. Half brothers. We share a mother.”
“I never saw you at Nanda’s house.” We never went to Nanda’s house; she always came to visit us at the Aerie. But I’m willing to bet Blue doesn’t know that.
Blue’s normally friendly expression shutters, and he sighs. “I didn’t grow up with Nanda like Tallon did. I just visited her during the summers, until it was time to start high school.”There’s a whisper of sadness in his voice, and the scent of rain on asphalt stings my nose. I want to pry, but it’s obviously a topic surrounded with pain, so I change the subject.
“How come you never came with Nanda to the Aerie?”
Blue grins. “Dragons aren’t allowed. Too dangerous.”
I laugh. “You’re a dragon?”
“Hey, don’t sound so impressed. You’re the Godslayer. That’s way more awesome.”
“What did you just call me?” He actually said Godslayer like it was a good thing, instead of the insult it’s meant to be. Godslayers are worse than murderers. We defy the natural order of things. A Godslayer kills Æthereals, who are supposed to be eternal.
“Zephyr Mourning, Godslayer and Hero to the Vættir,” Blue says, announcing it like I’m the main act in a circus. I just blink at him. My confusion apparently shows on my face. “You haven’t heard the stories?” he asks.
“What stories?”
Blue clears his throat and begins to tell the story like he’s the voice-over for a movie trailer. “Zephyr Mourning, brave Harpy and loving sister, found her dear sister slain by the hand of the General of the Acolytes, the dread Ramun Mar.” He pauses to boo and hiss, and then launches back into the story. “But Zephyr could not let such an insult pass, and she called down the blackest of lightning to avenge her sister and punish the dastardly Ramun Mar. And for her brave defense of family, she was exiled to the Pits of Tartarus.”
“Where’d you hear that?” I ask. I can’t breathe, and my heart beats triple time.
He shrugs, sobering suddenly. “It’s what everyone’s saying. Just a rumor, that’s all.”
But it isn’t a rumor. It’s the truth. And if Blue heard that I used black lightning to kill Ramun Mar, that means the Æthereal High Council has too. Somehow my secret has gotten out.
The Æthereal High Council has been playing with me all this time. They know that I can use the erebos.
I’m already dead. I just didn’t know it.
Terror clutches at my brain, silencing whatever Blue is saying. Tallon calls him over, and he walks off while I try not to burst into panicked tears. I have to get out of the Underworld. We don’t have time to rest.
Hades sees everything that happens in his realm. What if the manticore attack was just a distraction to get me alone so that some Æthereal assassin could take me out? What if Blue and Tallon are really here to kill me?
I take a deep breath and fight back the hysteria. I have to try to think about this rationally. If the High Council wanted me dead, they wouldn’t have to send anyone, they could’ve paid off one of the inmates back in the Pits. More than likely all of the attempts on my life over the past year have been as a result of one bribe or another. I probably have Cass to thank for their collective failure.
So where does that leave me now? It’s just a matter of time before Hera and the rest of the Æthereal High Council get tired of playing with me and demand my death. It’s better if I’m in the Mortal Realm when that happens. The Æthereals have less influence there, and if I’m lucky, I can lay low for the next twenty years until everyone forgets about me.
Suddenly, getting to the Mortal Realm isn’t just about saving my sister’s shade, but about saving my life as well.
Tallon strolls over while Cass and Blue disappear into a nearby cluster of trees. Tallon stops when he sees my expression. “Are you okay?”
I nod but don’t say anything. I don’t want to tell him what I suspect, that the Æthereal High Council is hunting me. Tallon was always a cautious kid. I don’t want him to change his mind about getting me and Cass out of hell.
It seems to be enough for him. He drops down into a crouch and pulls at the grass.“Cass and Blue went to go find something to eat. We need to make it to the Styx before we can cross, and from what I can tell of the terrain that’s still a ways away.”
“Okay.”
He seems to take the hint that I’m not in the mood to talk. Tallon stands and walks off, staring into the distance back the way we came. Heartbeats pass before his soft curse cuts through my haze of fear.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Come see for yourself.”
I jump off the rock and stand next to Tallon, close enough that I’m aware of the heat he gives off but far enough away that we aren’t touching.
From our vantage point we can see two cerberus chasing down a pack of far-off vættir. We’re obviously not the only ones who had the bright idea to use the manticore attack as a chance to escape. If we’d been walking at a more relaxed pace, they would’ve caught up to us instead of them.
I have a feeling Cass and I are next on the menu.
“We need to get going,” I say, my heart in my throat.
Tallon nods. “It’s going to be a hard sprint to the Styx.” There’s warning in his voice, like he thinks I’m the weakest one here.
Unfortunately he’s right.
Cass and Blue come running out of the forest with their arms full of the prickly, purple things. I have to swallow a groan.
Tallon hears me. “They’re kind of an acquired taste,” he says, a glimmer in the dark depths of his eyes.
“Yeah, that’s what Blue said,” I grumble.
“Here,” Cass says, shoving one of the fruits at me. “Eat quickly. We need to get moving.”
“You heard the cerberus?”
“Kind of hard to miss,” Blue says around a mouthful of fruit.
Tallon rips open his fruit and takes a bite while heading down the hill. “Let’s eat while we walk. We don’t have time to sit around like a bunch of blue hairs at lunch.”
I shoot him a dirty look, even though I know he really means old women, not me and my blue Harpy hair. Still. It’s kind of a jerky thing to say.
We start walking. The others eat their fruit without a word, but once again I can barely choke mine down. It isn’t very appetizing, and my belly rebels at every bite. It takes everything I have not to gag.
As we walk, the screams and shouts of the vættir behind us start to fade. We still pick up the pace once everyone has finished eating. I get a stitch in my side after only a few steps, but I don’t say anything.
I’ll survive a little pain in my side. I may not survive staying in the Underworld.

time. It’s probably because my growing dread that we’ll be caught hurries my steps. The screams of the vættir have faded but haunt my memory. I can’t let that happen to me.

I spend a long time trying to think about nothing, just focusing on keeping my feet moving. Our pace continues to be brutally fast, but no one complains. Even Tallon manages to stop scowling, although I prefer the frown to the worry that now creases his brow. We need to hurry. If I’m caught, I’m dead. It’s as simple as that.

The cerberus will either tear me to pieces or take me back to the Pits. I won’t spend long in the Pits before I’m taken before the Æthereal High Council and executed. I’m not sure what will happen to Cass, but I doubt her fate will be much better.There’s an urgency to her movements that makes me think she doesn’t want to return to Tartarus either.

Deep down I almost want the cerberus to attack. Something inside me wants to take on the demon dogs, to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget. The craving for violence is a strange discovery, like finding out I suddenly have an extra toe. I recognize it as part of me and yet completely separate, a foreign impulse that I know comes from some facet of my personality I’ve yet to discover. It’s a very Harpy response to jump blindly into a fight. It’s also a drive I’ve never had before, and the unfamiliar feeling isn’t welcome. It makes me anxious, and that’s something I don’t need right now. I push the emotion aside and try to ignore it. I already know that I stand absolutely no chance against a cerberus. No need to tempt the Fates.

We keep walking. The sky doesn’t get any brighter or darker, and there’s no way to tell how long we’ve been traveling. Hours or days. Lethargy has begun to seep deep into my bones. All I want is to lie down for a little while and take a nap, cerberus be damned.

I smell the river long before I see it, the stench of rotting flesh and dead fish wafting across the plain toward us. It smells like hatred and lies, and I wonder if that’s why some vættir refer to the Styx as the River of Deceit. Harpies aren’t the only vættir that can smell emotions, and it makes as much sense as any other explanation.

The terrain shifts from the tall blue grass to charred brown grass. It reminds me of the Mortal Realm, and for a moment I think we must be very close to home.

“Did we cross over?” I ask, my tone hopeful. Cass walks beside me, while the boys lead the way in front of us.
She shakes her head. “No, a lot of the Underworld looks like the Mortal Realm since it was all one world before the drakans created the Rift. It’s only Tartarus that’s bad. The rest of the Underworld is almost normal.”
Just when I’m pretty sure that I cannot take another step, we climb a rise and the Styx is right there, a black ribbon of water cutting through the landscape.
I want to cheer, but it seems wrong somehow. Now the stink of the water is strong enough to make me gag, and I cover my nose and mouth. Blue has the same reaction as me. Cass and Tallon are completely unaffected.
The Styx is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Rivers in the mortal realm are brown and rowdy, their currents full of debris. Even the Acheron was full of motion, the yellow water tumbling over stones in its dash to meet up with the Styx. The Styx is flawless.The black water is smooth and undisturbed, a dark mirror that reflects the blood-red sky overhead. There’s no sign that the water is even moving. The river is a midnight swath that stretches off in both directions as far as the eye can see. It’s still and quiet, and it terrifies me.
Blue marches up next to Cass and peers into the water. “So if I jump in there will I be invincible?”
“Try it,”Tallon says. There’s a teasing tone in his voice. He even smiles a little.
Maybe I’m not the only one excited to get out of here.
“More than likely you’d end up getting eaten by one of the creatures that live in the river’s depths,” Cass says, her eyes scanning the surface of the water.
Blue takes a step back. I know how he feels. If the fear of river monsters wasn’t enough, now that the possibility of returning to the Mortal Realm is so close, I’m filled with an anxious excitement. I never really thought we’d make it out, and now that it’s about to happen, I can’t stop myself from bouncing. The thought of going home after all this time makes me light-headed. Getting to the Mortal Realm will solve all of my problems.
Right now I have to believe that.
Tallon sighs and points to a whirlpool a few feet from the river’s edge. “There’s the portal. I can only take two people at a time, so we’ll have to take turns. I’ll jump in and take Blue and Peep across first, and then return for you.”
Cass shakes her head. “No. What’s to make you come back for me?”
Blue nods. “She’s right. Take the girls first. The cerberus aren’t going to be coming for me. I’ll be okay.”
I take a step backward, away from the dark water eddying nearby. My nervous excitement drains away. I’m not sure I want to jump into a whirlpool. It doesn’t really seem safe. “Maybe you guys should go first.”
Tallon gives me a sharp look. “It’s perfectly safe.”
Cass shakes her head. “Blue’s right. He’ll be fine waiting here by himself.”
I hear what she’s not saying, and my face heats in embarrassment. She knows that I’m scared, and that I’m a train wreck when it comes to defending myself. She wants us to go first because I have no chance of surviving a run-in with a cerberus on my own.
I sigh. “Fine.” I want to cop an attitude, to call her out for doubting me. But she’s right. Cass knows me too well. I can’t defend myself against a cerberus. I was lucky to even survive last time. It was only Persephone’s timely intervention that saved me from becoming a dog treat.
I don’t know whether to hug her for her generosity or scream in frustration at my complete and utter lameness.
Tallon holds out his hand to me, and once again the electric tingle shoots down my arm. Cass already holds his other hand. We step into the water, which is oddly warm. I gag at the stench. This close I can taste the dead fish in the air. I clamp my mouth closed and try to take as few breaths as possible.
Tallon adjusts his grip on my hand before looking over to Cass. The water barely covers Tallon’s hips, but it’s a little more than waist high on me and hits her in the center of her chest. I never realized how small she was.
Tallon looks down at me. “Are you ready?” I give a quick nod.
He steps forward, and we go under. I hold my breath and squeeze my eyes closed. There’s a moment of warmth, and then blistering cold.
And then I am nowhere.

I wake suddenly. It’s strange, because I don’t remember falling asleep. It takes me a moment before I remember the portal, and Tallon.

And the Mortal Realm.
I sit up. Little explosions of pain protest the movement, and I know I pushed myself too hard trying to get to the Styx. I ignore the aches. It’s hard to think about a little hurt when the sun is shining on your face.

The sun. Actual sunshine. It’s bright and warm and utterly amazing. I giggle, euphoria sweeping over me. I made it. It’s almost impossible to believe.

But this is definitely the Mortal Realm. I sit in the middle of a cow pasture, and a little ways off a few black and white cows moo their disapproval at me. I look around, noting the trees, a nearby pond, and the sweet, sweet scent of somewhere that isn’t the Underworld. Everything is so blessedly normal.

If this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up.
I creakily climb to my feet, feeling much older than I am. I’m lucky to be alive. The old stories are full of cautionary tales about what happens to heroes who try to travel the Underworld. I’ve managed to escape Tartarus, outrun a chimera and a pack of cerberus, and make the jump across the Rift dividing the realms. That’s pretty impressive, even for one of the old heroes.
But for a failure like me? It’s a gods-damned miracle.
Now I just have to find my sister’s shade. I don’t have any idea where to start, and the realization dampens my joy a little, but not much. Because I’ve already done the impossible by escaping the Underworld. For the first time since I discovered that her shade wasn’t in the Elysian Fields I feel like I have a real chance of helping her. And that’s kind of awesome, as long as I don’t remember that the gods want me dead.
There’s a rustling sound, and Cass stumbles into view. For the first time since I met her in Tartarus, she actually seems lost and maybe a little uncertain. She spots me and walks over. Cass glances around. “Where are we?”
“I think it’s a cow pasture.”
She sniffs. “The Mortal Realm hasn’t changed much.”
I fight back a smile. “When exactly were you sent to the Underworld?”
“Right after the Spartan War. A very long time ago.”
I think of the rustic clothing of the villagers in the memory Hades showed me, and I nod. That had to be about two, maybe three thousand years ago. Cass’s head is going to explode. Gods, she’s missed so much. How in the hells am I supposed to explain something like the Internet to someone who doesn’t even understand indoor plumbing?
I nod and push aside my worry. One thing at a time. I need to make sure we have a place to hide so the gods can’t find us. Then I need to figure out how to find Whisper’s missing shade. She has to be my first priority once I’m safe. She always took care of me, and now I need to return the favor. Everything else can wait.
“Zephyr! Cass! Hey, where are you guys?” Blue yells, his shout causing the cows to meander away from us.
“Over here!” I answer. I hold out a hand to Cass, and she helps me climb to my feet.
Now that I’m standing, I can see Blue splashing in the pond a little ways away.Tallon is nowhere to be seen. But then he surfaces, pushing his long dark hair out of his face. I blink, because I can’t really believe what I’m seeing.
Is Tallon really smiling?
His entire face transforms. He was handsome before, even scowling. But now, with his full lips twisted into a smile and the barest hint of dimples . . .
He’s absolutely gorgeous.
Even as a kid Tallon wasn’t a big smiler. He always seemed to have very grown-up things on his mind, something Whisper and I always teased him about. But no matter how serious things were, I could always get him to laugh. I considered it one of my special talents. Getting to see him like this again, happy and carefree and completely unguarded, it unlocks something in me. I want to see more of this Tallon.
I stop and just watch him. He jumps on Blue and ducks him under the water. Tallon’s shirt is off, and I get a glimpse of a black shoulder tattoo and biceps before he goes back under the water. I’ve never seen muscles like that on a guy in real life. Just on TV.To be honest, I haven’t been around many guys, period. There weren’t any men in the Aerie, only the occasional visitors, and they were always escorted by one of the high-ranking officers. I’ve definitely never seen anyone as unbelievably beautiful as Tallon.
I push my hand against my stomach.There’s a fluttering hunger there that I’m sure has nothing to do with food. My mouth is dry, and I can’t seem to tear my eyes away from Tallon. Last time I saw him, he was just a boy, but he’s not anymore. He’s different, and so am I. I wonder what it would be like to kiss him. Would it be like the TV shows, where girls seem to be struck stupid by kissing the guy they like? Would it make me feel alive, like soaring over the treetops?
Would it make me feel brave?
Cass lays a hand on my shoulder. “Zephyr, are you okay?”
I jump, and force a smile. “Um, yeah. Just daydreaming.”
She follows the direction of my stare and sighs. “Be careful what you dream about. Some things are more dangerous than they seem.”
I look over at Tallon and frown. “What do you mean?”
“How much do you know about him?”
“Who, Tallon?”
Cass’s gaze meets mine. “Yes.”
I force a laugh. A tendril of guilt creeps through me, because not too long ago I was wondering if Tallon and Blue could be assassins. Obviously I was wrong to suspect them, so hearing Cass echo my earlier thoughts is not comforting. “Cass, I’ve known Tallon since I was a kid. Gods, we aren’t going to go through this again, are we?”
“What kind of vættir is Tallon, then? I’ve never heard of a vættir that can cross the realms.”
Neither have I, but I’m not about to let Cass’s suspicions cloud my mind or dampen my good mood. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. Can you please just drop it?”
Cass doesn’t answer me at first, just turns and watches the boys. “I think maybe you should be a little more cautious. People can change, Zeph.”
I sigh. “I feel like I’ve gotten this lecture before,” I mutter.
Cass turns back to me. “What?”
“Nothing.”
Blue waves at us before Tallon pushes him under. He surfaces, laughing and sputtering. “What are you waiting for? You know you smell as bad as we do.”
Blue’s right. Our clothes carry the stink of the Styx, not to mention the accumulated sweat of our headlong flight through Tartarus. Cass’s toga is dirt streaked and grimy, and I’m sure my purple basilisk-leather clothes from the Pits don’t look much better.
I nudge Cass. “Let’s go swimming. We can argue about this later.”
She looks at the pond, then at me. “Do you think it’s deep?” she asks.
“Only one way to find out.” I plop down on the grass and unstrap my boots. They’re the only remnant I have left of my life before I landed in Tartarus.
The thought makes me sad, but I push it aside by remembering that Nanda sent Tallon to the Underworld to find me. Whisper is gone, but there’s still someone who cares about me. Even though it’s been years since I saw her, Nanda didn’t forget about me.
The boys have swum out to the middle of the pond, and Blue waves at us. Tallon just watches us with dark, serious eyes, his smile once again hidden. “Come on in; the water’s fine!” Blue calls.
I stand and stretch, then run past Cass and into the water. It’s warm out, either late spring or early summer. The sun beats down on me as I splash through the shallows, breathing in the clean, fresh air of the pasture. Even the smell of the far-off cows isn’t enough to dim my good mood. I probably smell worse than they do.
The water where I stand is chest deep, but Cass has only waded in as far as her knees. “Come on, Cass!” I say, splashing water at her.
She frowns. “I can’t swim.”
“You should still be able to touch right here.”
Without answering she walks farther into the water.
The water is cool, but not cold. The bottom is slimy, and I’m anxious to get out far enough that I can swim rather than squish through mud.The pond is on the large side, but the bottom quickly slopes downward. About twenty feet from the shore I’m treading water, and I turn around and wave at Cass.
“I can’t touch here, just so you know.”
She nods, and I leave her to her own devices.
I swim out quickly to the middle, where the boys paddle in a circle. I duck under, diving until I can touch the bottom before flipping over and heading back toward the surface. The pond isn’t the cleanest in the world, but it’s better than anything in the Underworld. The water washes away the last traces of hell, and when I surface, it feels like I’m finally getting a second chance. “What are you doing in my pond?”
I clear the water out of my eyes. A couple of feet away from me a water sprite stands on the surface of the pond, her transparent arms crossed and her foot tapping. She’s made entirely of water, and her hair moves down her body like a waterfall. I tread water and do a few kicks backward, trying to get closer to the shore.
One the other side of her the boys stop swimming and tread water. “Whoa,” Blue says. The sprite doesn’t seem concerned with the boys, just me.
I offer a friendly smile. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to get clean.”
The sprite stamps her foot, which causes water to splash in all directions. “It’s bad enough those stupid cows wade in when it gets too hot, but at least they don’t know any better. Don’t you know better than to go jumping into other vættir’s ponds?”
“Yes. Look, I’m really sorry. I’ll just swim back to shore—”
“Oh you will, will you? What makes you think I’ll just let you leave?” Her words are filled with menace, and it strikes me that maybe she’s just spoiling for a bit of a fight. She can’t get much company out here in the middle of a cow pasture, and sometimes a decent brawl is just as satisfying as a nice long chat with friends.
But I’m not about to fight a water sprite, especially in her domain.
Blue swims over to me. “Hey, Lyss, we’re really sorry. We just got back from the Underworld, and we didn’t think to introduce you to Zephyr.”
The sprite says nothing, just gestures in our direction. Blue is lifted up by a wave and deposited back next to Tallon.
“My quarrel isn’t with you, Blue. The girly knows the rules. She has trespassed, and now I demand a tribute.”
I paddle backward a little more, hoping that I can maybe get to shore. “A tribute? Look, I don’t have anything to give you. I said I was sorry.” I turn around and begin paddling for shore, once again running away from battle.
Before I can get very far, I’m pulled under, water going up my nose and in my mouth. I close my eyes and kick at the hand wrapped around my ankle. I make contact before the sprite can phase back to water, and she lets me go. I break the surface, coughing and choking.
“That’s enough, Lyss. Leave her alone,” Tallon yells.
Cass still stands exactly where she was before I went under. I have to warn her. She doesn’t know how to swim, and for all her badassery she wouldn’t stand a chance against a water sprite. I yell to get her attention. “Cass, you have to get out! There’s a—” My words are cut off by Lyss dragging me back under. She lets go before I have a chance to kick at her again, and I’m just about to break the surface when I’m dragged back under. Water is in my nose and mouth, and my lungs scream for air. I can’t make contact with the sprite. She phases from her water form to her physical form and back too quickly. If this keeps up, she’s going to drown me, and my first day back in the Mortal Realm will be a spectacular failure.
Fear and rage settle deep into my middle. They cut through me, and I sense my darkness rising up, answering the call of my panic. It’s just like the night I killed Ramun Mar, but this time the darkness is different. It feels like a living thing, an old friend who has just been waiting for the chance to help. Without even calling it, my darkness rises. It shrouds me in reassurance. I welcome the confidence it brings. It feels like I can do anything with the darkness at my side.
The attack ceases. I break the surface, coughing and heaving. The erebos surrounds me like a mantle, buoying me up until I stand on the surface of the water. It’s stronger than the last time I called it, over a year ago. But it feels so right, even more so than the night it killed Ramun Mar for me.
The darkness knows what I want, and it’s happy to obey.
The sprite is a few feet away, standing on the water as well. She phases from water to flesh, and her eyes are wide.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I—I was just playing. It’s not a big deal. Really. I’m sorry.”
I barely register her apology. Instead I’m drinking in her fear. The sour scent makes me feel strong, and it would be so easy to give her a taste of pain, to let her know what it’s truly like to be afraid.
The darkness agrees with me. It asks me to release it, as loud as a roar and as quiet as a whisper. I remember what my sister said long ago:
You must control the darkness. You can’t ever give in to it.
But the shadows want to make me happy, and I deserve a little happiness.
A few creeping tendrils of darkness race across the water and wrap around Lyss’s arms, the greater mass of shadows still swirling around my feet. The sprite’s stammering speech is abruptly halted. The sharp, soured musk of the sprite’s fear comes to me across the water, followed quickly by the stagnant-water scent of her resignation. She knows as well as I do that I would have no problem ending her life.
That knowledge scares me, but the emotion is so far away, so detached, that I don’t even bother examining it.
“Let her go, Zephyr.”
I slowly turn toward the voice.Tallon treads water near my feet, his dark eyes watching me intently.
“Why should I?”
“Because she’s done nothing wrong. There’s no need to punish her.”
“She started it.” I turn back to the sprite, who is now crying, sobs shaking her shoulders. Her fear has coalesced into desperation, a rotten-fruit scent that belongs in a garbage dump, not a pond in the middle of nowhere.
“You’re better than this, Peep.” Tallon’s voice is low. He reaches through the darkness and grabs my ankle in a gentle grip. The physical contact combined with the childhood nickname is enough to break through the haze of rage. I look down at him, and I suddenly feel very guilty.
I’m acting like a spoiled brat.
I ask the darkness to release the sprite. It responds immediately, the inkiness that radiates out from my feet retracting and wrapping back around me. I breathe deeply and wait for the cold rage to fade, and as it does, I’m lowered back into the water.
The sprite falls into the water as well, and I turn toward her. “I’m sorry,” I say. She watches me with tear-bright metallic green eyes.
“You’re real. I always thought you were just a myth, something to make us feel better.” She sniffles and swipes at her tears. “I can’t believe you’re real.”
I have no idea what the sprite’s talking about. Exhaustion weighs on my shoulders, and I take a deep breath, trying to clear away the last of the darkness that clings to me. I can feel it in my belly, restless for release. It’s stronger than ever, and I wonder if Hades’s punishment in the Underworld has broken me somehow. Did the wave of erebos he sent at me break the dam I spent so many years trying to build? How do I get my shadows under control again? Right now it feels like a living thing, a caged tiger pacing inside of me. How do I keep myself from using it, when it’s so easy?
I swim back to the shore, past a silent Tallon. I climb out of the water past Cass, who follows me with a bland expression. Fear hurries my steps. My secret is out, and now I am a walking target. But worse than the fear is the shame that heats my cheeks. It makes me feel dirty and ashamed, using the erebos. It just isn’t natural.