I couldn’t tell her the truth. First off, she’d never believe me. Second, no matter how much she cared about Prometheus, I wasn’t about to risk the well-being of humanity by telling her anything that could be used against us on the equinox. Or get me imprisoned now.
So not the plan.
Which only left one explanation. “In another time, another place, he was my best friend. And whatever we are now, I’ll always love him.” Even if we never saw each other again, Theo would always be my best friend. I would always love him, and I refused to give him up without a fight. There had to be some kind of wily loophole in the Theo agreement. Like telephones. Technically, I wouldn’t be seeing him, right? I couldn’t give him up. He was a part of me.
I let myself get lost in mushy memories for a bit.
“He never mentioned you.” Oizys said.
I blinked a couple times to clear my pictures of the past, then met her eyes, the fingers of my left hand crossed behind my back. “Because he loves sharing so much, does he?” It was a long shot, but given how closemouthed Theo was, I was willing to bet that the same was true for Prometheus. Which meant he probably didn’t go around talking about his life in Olympus.
She bought it. I could tell by the way that her jaw relaxed. “Fine. You can stay. But annoy me and I’ll throw you into the Styx, and happily watch you dissolve.”
On that cheery note, it was bedtime.
On Tuesday morning, I woke up the polar opposite of refreshed. Part of it may have been the fact that I was wearing yesterday’s clothes, since I dreaded going back to my bedroom and running into Kai. Part of it may have been my nightmares, where the world burned and I was forced to watch, held in place by one enormous spider leg.
Mostly though, it was the equinox was in two days and I had a massive amount of stuff to accomplish: free Prometheus, break the enchantment, get through the portal safely, take down the wards, do the ritual, save the world, and not die anywhere in the process. I was somewhat daunted.
I couldn’t let myself dwell on that, because, well, thinking led to getting overwhelmed, which led to angry feelings and the possibility of uncontrollable destruction.
Back there in reality, I’d managed to throw Planet Earth into a seasonal limbo. I’d made plants burst into flame, and broke branches off trees from twenty-three stories up. Not to mention dealing with an internal rage that was ripping me to shreds. Literally, given the way I’d attacked my arms.
Here
, I was so busy trying to keep Persephone’s emotions at bay that mine hadn’t had a chance to suffocate me. And I planned on keeping it that way. If
my
off-kilteredness somehow managed to leach through and combine with all of Persephone’s issues? That sounded like a recipe for disaster. The makings of a Sophie/Persephone megabomb.
Which was why, as much as I could, I focused all my thoughts on what I could do, what I
had
to do, not what I was feeling. And my immediate problem was freeing Prometheus. “We need to know what obstacles we face in the great prison break,” I told Oizys. Also, how would I buy him time to get the Spirit of Truth here without Kai mounting a manhunt—or rather, a Titan-hunt?
“Where are the dungeons?” I asked. We’d returned to Oizys’ room after breakfast for maximum plotting privacy. She’d needed to eat as badly as I had.
She sat at in front of her mirror, re-applying eyeliner in heavy black lines.
I was on the floor, my back against the daybed, chin resting on my hands. I was hopeful. Neither Kai, nor Hades had crossed our paths. Yet. Out of sight, out of mind seemed like my best policy where those two were concerned. While I understood that Kai—and Kyrillos—didn’t want me hurt, who knew what consequences our newly strained relationship might have.
My breakfast suddenly felt heavy in my stomach. I shifted, uncomfortable.
“There are no dungeons,” Oizys said.
Her voice startled me out of my thoughts. “Where do they imprison people then?”
She tossed a flat stare over her shoulder. “They don’t.”
Queasiness morphed to all out panic. I bolted upright. “They killed him?!”
Watching her reflection, I saw Oizys roll her eyes. “Don’t be stupid. If Hades or Kyrillos were going to pull a power play like that, everyone would know.” She examined herself a final time before turning on her padded stool to face me. “We just have to figure out where they would put him.”
“Tartarus,” I said, and shivered automatically. I did not want to go back there. Plus, the place was huge. “Let’s rule everywhere else out first.”
Oizys raised an eyebrow. “Scared, Springtime?”
I snagged a pillow from the daybed and wriggled it under my butt. “Uh, yeah. And don’t even try to convince me that you enjoy hanging out there. Because there’s gloom and doom, and then there’s just plain stupid.”
“Nobody enjoys hanging out there,” she said, sounding more than a little convinced of my stupidity.
“Dead people and Olympians don’t,” I said. ”Your kind might think it’s a happy fun park.”
I got an annoyed sigh, but no actual response. I crossed my legs and thought it over. “He wouldn’t be in the palace. That’s too obvious. The first place I’d search.”
“Somewhere that would cause Prometheus maximum pain,” said Oizys, rising to root through the jumble of stuff on her dresser.
“His rock.” We said it in unison. And then, just as quickly, we both shook our heads. “No. Kai would want to keep Prometheus in the Underworld.”
We stared at each other, both somewhat startled. “Great minds think alike,” I murmured.
“Then I don’t know how you reached that conclusion.”
I waved my hands around, faking scared. “Ooh. Insults.”
A corner of her mouth lifted ever-so-slightly into a grin. I had to look really hard, but it was there.
When she spoke, though, her voice was as matter-as-fact as ever. “Even if Kyrillos didn’t actually bind him to the rock again, he could recreate the psychological trauma of it. Briareos, Kottos and Gyes, the Hekatonkheires who helped subdue him initially, live—”
“In Tartarus,” I finished, glumly. “It fits. Kyrillos turned Prometheus over to the giants’ keeping. We have to get him out of their hundred-handed clutches.”
“Three hundred-handed clutches,” Oizys corrected, snagging a tube of lipstick. “A hundred hands each. Along with their combined hundred and fifty heads.”
“Thank you so much for clarifying that,” I snapped. “Because we wouldn’t want any hope going into this.”
She uncapped the tube to paint her lips purple. “Best to know what we’re up against.”
I sighed. “You’re right. I don’t suppose there’s a handy map of Tartarus anywhere?”
Oizys pointed to herself. “Spirit of Misery and Woe, here. If those giants are doing their jobs properly, Prometheus’ pain will call me to him like a beacon.” She sounded pretty miserable about that.
I didn’t blame her. “Okay, so what do you need to—”
“Shut up for five minutes.” She tossed the lipstick back onto the dresser and moved over to her bed.
I shut up.
Oizys hung backward off the bed, her hair sweeping the floor. Her eyes were closed but it didn’t look comfortable.
For a few minutes there was no sound except our breathing. I looked around the room, trying to spot the source of the lovely floral aroma. Given the clutter strewn over the bed, the daybed, the dresser, and another low table, it could have been anywhere.
Oizys raised her head, her eyes bleak. “Found him.”
My heart sank. “And he’s in …”
She rolled herself into a sitting position. “Yeah.”
“Then it’s field trip time. We’ll need ear plugs. And possibly gas masks.” Because I doubted I could withstand long-term exposure to either the sounds or the smells of the damned.
Oizys pointed at my ugly dress. “First, you need some proper clothes.” She strode to her closet and flung the door open. Inside was a whole lot more black. She flipped through her stuff, pulling out a black T-shirt and black cargo pants. “Change.”
It wasn’t a suggestion.
But since it was a damn sight better than what I was wearing, not about to get an argument from me. I stood up, took the clothes, and headed into the bathroom, sponging away any stinkyness as best I could, and using my finger as a toothbrush. With the help of her bathroom mirror, I smoothed the more obvious snarls out of my hair, grimaced at my reflection, and decided this was as good as it was going to get.
Truthfully, it was pretty good. My Sophie self would have looked like something the cat dragged in, but Persephone looked like a slightly tired supermodel.
I stuck my tongue out at her face, and headed back into the bedroom. “Ready.”
Oizys smirked. “So you didn’t burst into flame wearing black, huh?”
“Sorry to disappoint. Do I get boots?”
She snatched up her glasses from her dresser and put them on. “I don’t share footwear.”
I didn’t have any memory of Persephone owning anything other than sandals. Great.
I looked around. “Thoughts on the ear plugs and gas masks?”
“Yeah. Suck it up and suck it up, princess.”
“Bite me.”
“Ohhhh,” Oizys pursed her lips. “Springtime shows her thorns.”
I felt a momentary pang. This was just an enchantment, and when things returned to normal, we’d probably be mortal enemies. Too bad. I liked this chick. I allowed myself a small smile at how easily Oizys could take Bethany down a notch or two. Then I crossed to the door and opened it. With a flourishing arm sweep, I motioned for Oizys to lead the way.
We kept to the back stairways and corridors as much as possible. Seeing the two of us together, especially when I was dressed like Oizys’ Mini Me, would raise too many questions. Luckily, it was fairly simple to get out undetected. The souls we passed on our way to Tartarus didn’t know us. And frankly, they were more concerned with being dead than finding out what we were up to. All of which allowed us to get within nose-hair-blistering distance of Tartarus relatively easily.
We stopped in front of the bronze fence. This was nowhere near where I’d gone through to meet Demeter. The section was totally smooth, with no door in sight. I debated whether or not to mention that I knew a way in, but figured it would lead to questions I wasn’t about to answer. So I kept quiet and let Oizys take the lead.
She placed her hands on the fence. A violent shudder ran through her.
I moved to push her back, remembering how the cries of the damned had chilled me to the core. But she kicked out at my leg.
“Ow!” I rubbed my calf. “Fine. Touch it, you psycho.”
Oizys looked at me. Her eyes glowed red.
I took several steps back and brought out my green light.
She just laughed. “Like you could take me.” In a feat of insane strength, even for a supernatural being, she dug her fingertips into the bronze, and shredded it like paper.
My eyes bugged as Oizys tore a jagged opening.
“Go.”
I hesitated, taking in her ragged breathing. The red in her eyes had dimmed somewhat. “Touching the fence powered you up, didn’t it? You got strength from their pain.”
Her fingers tightened on the rough segment of fence. “It’s fading fast,” she said. “If you don’t want me to kick your ass so I can amp up again, I suggest you move it before I lose my grip.”
I hopped through the hole, staggering back as a wave of sheer despair overwhelmed me. This was way worse than wherever I’d met with Demeter.
I gritted my teeth. “Lovely.”
Oizys ducked through the opening and let go of the fence. It snapped itself back into place with no sign that it had ever been disturbed.
“Impressive.”
She gave me one of her flat stares and wiped her brow with her arm. Then she tromped past me toward a large boulder.
Awesome traveling companion. I gagged on a particularly vicious waft of sulphur, and an image of a burning pomegranate tree slammed up inside my head.
No way! I knew scent was a trigger but this was a terrible time to get hit. I hustled my butt to catch up with Oizys, keeping my mind on our task and trying to forget the putrid smell.
Oizys strode around the boulder. Without pausing or checking to see if I was still with her, she veered sharply left and entered a low cave.
I scowled at the blackness in front of me, just as the beam of a high-powered flashlight popped on inside.
“Figured you’d be afraid of the dark, Springtime.”
I headed into the cave, making sure my voice was pure sweetness. “What dark? I was going to wrap you in my light vines and use you as a lantern. But a flashlight works too.”
That shut her up.
I peered around as best I could. It didn’t seem too bad. We were in a narrow tunnel made of craggy, black stone. A bit musty, and reeking of old rotten eggs, but at least it was dry.
Famous last words.
My next step went down. I stumbled, just managing to stop myself from falling into a puddle of warm, murky liquid. “Do I want to know?”