The Blood of Athens (10 page)

“
What?”
she hissed, shooting him a glare. She was trying to listen.

Peter tipped
his head back over his shoulder. “Look.”

Penny turned
around and laid eyes on the mouth of the cave. She looked back at
Peter.

“
Can you see
it?” he whispered.

“
Of course.”

“
Blockhead
over there can’t.”

“
What?”

Peter smirked.
“Let’s check it out.”

The group was
allowed to wander for a few minutes. They had reached the meet-up
spot for the tour. “Don’t leave my sight,” Mr. McCracken said.
“But you can take pictures and talk until the other groups catch
up.

Peter
approached the hole. To the others, it was just a patch of green
grass with a few slabs of stacked marble laying around. To Peter and
Penny, however, the ground sloped downward and dipped under the
marble, which framed a doorway to a black pit below. Peter looked
down into the hole. There was a path that winded inside and vanished
in the dark. “I wanna go in,” he said.

Penny looked
down the same hole and shook her head. Just looking down it made her
feel claustrophobic. She wanted to get away, but she was dying to
know what was inside. “Not with everyone watching.”

“
It’s
gotta be another portal, like the one at the Acropolis,” he said.

“
And it goes
down? Three guesses where that leads to.”

Celene’s
group was reaching the end of the tour. She was surprised to find
that Nick, the student who, last year, had been one of the
worst-behaved students in her chemistry class, was helping to keep
order and move things along. Her group stopped in front of the relief
of Athena, and Minnie, who Celene had surrendered the pamphlet to,
told her classmates about the carving.

Celene’s
eyes fell on Penny and Peter. They were standing at the entrance to a
cave. Celene had seen that cave in her dreams. It was a hell-mouth.
It was the entrance to Hades that Demeter returned to every spring to
wait for her daughter. Celene abandoned her group and walked as
quickly as she could across the grass.

“
Penny,”
she hissed. “Penny. Get away from there.”

Penny was
staring down into the darkness and listening. She swore she could
hear something below calling to her. Her mother’s voice broke her
out of her focus and she whirled around.

“
Dr. Davis,”
Peter said quietly. Some of the students were watching them. “They
can’t see this, so take it easy.”

Celene looked
around at the students. Curious eyes waited for Celene to go on. She
took a deep breath and wrapped her hand around Penny’s arm. “Come
here, I want to show you this relief.”

“
I’ve
already seen it, Mom.”

Celene lowered
her voice to a whisper, “I don’t want you near that pit.”

Penny nodded.
“Alright.”

Peter watched
Celene drag Penny away from the cave. He glanced back down into the
darkness before shaking his head. He was never going to get a chance
to explore with all of these eyes on him. He quietly said goodbye to
the promise of answers and rejoined the tour group. It was nearly
time for dinner anyway, and Peter was starving.

When they
returned to the hotel Wednesday evening after dinner, the group still
had copious amounts of energy. Celene was certain that they would not
escape the hotel this time, and planted herself with a book next to
the lobby door.

That left them
with no choice but to wander from room to room before curfew, hanging
out and spending their time talking, rather than getting up to
trouble.

Peter sat on
the bed in Penny and Minnie's hotel room, fiddling with a metal
puzzle that he had picked up at a gift shop. Penny sat on the floor,
organizing a bag of brochures and tickets for scrap-booking when she
returned home.

“
I'm just
saying, there were way too many people at The Agora for it to be
fun,” Peter said. “Dead and alive.”

“
But there
was so much to see and buy.”

“
We cross
the Atlantic Ocean to go shopping? We could do that at home.”

“
You can't
buy that stuff at home.”

“
You can on
the internet,” Peter mumbled. “And this piece of crap. This, I
could easily buy at home.”

“
Well that
was the museum gift shop. And you only think it's crap because you
can't solve it.” Penny got up and walked to the bed. She took the
puzzle out of Peter's hand and twisted it. In just a few moves it was
in two pieces.

“
How did
you--?”

“
I've been
watching you attempt it for an hour. I got some ideas.”

Peter tossed
the puzzle to the foot of the bed.

“
Are you
going to complain about a free trip, Peter? Wasn't the Acropolis
alone worth it? And I know you didn’t get to go inside, but the
cave at the cemetery...”

Peter sighed.
“It's just not what I thought it would be.”

“
You
expected more than walking through an archway to Mount Olympus?
And
an
entrance to Hades?”

“
I didn't
expect to fly almost six thousand miles away from home, only to find
yet another dead body.”

Penny sat down
next to Peter. “Oh. That.”

“
Yeah.
That.”

“
We sure
have found a lot of bodies, huh?” Penny tried to recall them all.
First it was the guy that Diana found in the woods, then the museum
curator, and did they count the Titans that they killed? Penny had
helped Frank bury the body of Atlas only a few months before. “I
would think you'd get used to death, what with seeing ghosts,”
Penny said.

“
Yeah. Well
a ghost and a recently offed corpse are two different things.”

“
Is it weird
that the guy's ghost wasn't hanging around?”

Peter
shrugged. “Maybe? Not all violent-deaths leave spirits behind.
Maybe he was slightly suicidal. Maybe he was just extremely
emotionally healthy and didn't fear death. Anyway, I didn't have time
to look around. I didn't want to be found with a corpse in a bathroom
overseas. American students don't exactly do well in foreign courts.”

“
I'm sorry,
Peter.”

Peter just
nodded.

“
Really.
Anyone could have found that guy. I'm sorry it had to be you.”

“
It's okay.
Someone from the Pantheon needed to see it. We might be in danger.
Again.”

“
Or it's a
serial killer who is really into his heritage. We are in Athens.”

“
True.”
Peter looked down at his hands. “I'm just a magnet for death.”

“
That's not
true. Diana found that guy last fall and everyone found the museum
curator together. You don't have it any worse than the rest of us.”

“
Penny,”
Peter said. “I see ghosts all the time. When I was born, I killed
my mother.”

Penny looked
away.

“
I have to
blackmail my dad to keep his hands off me because he knows. He knows
it's my fault.”

“
People die,
Peter. It's not your fault. Your father doesn't have the right to
hurt you because he doesn't know how to handle his own sadness.”

Peter nodded.
“Dr. Livingstone wants me to get emancipation and live at a
shelter.”

“
Maybe you
could live with my mom.”

Peter laughed.
“Your mom hates me.”

“
She doesn't
hate you.”

“
She
certainly doesn't want us under the same roof.”

Penny didn't
dispute that. “Are you going to do it?”

“
I might.
Doc says the blackmail isn't a long-term solution.”

Penny threw
her arms around his shoulders. He looked like he needed a hug. Peter
buried his nose in her hair and closed his eyes, just breathing and
enjoying the warmth of her embrace. Peter wasn't a particularly huggy
person, but physical contact from Penny was always welcome.

As Penny
pulled away, Peter felt the moment. It was that moment, when watching
a romantic comedy, that every member in the audience could anticipate
the big, climactic kiss. It was the right moment. He had to go for
it. Peter turned his head, his lips passed by her cheek and then he
was kissing her. The stars had aligned.

Penny pressed
her hand to his chest and pushed him away. She stood up and turned
around.

Peter's heart
tightened in his chest. He opened his mouth, starting to apologize,
but he didn't
want
to
apologize.

“
Why did you
do that?” Penny asked.

“
You know
why,” he said.

“
Peter,”
she warned.

“
I love you,
and it's not just because it's been engrained in my soul for a couple
thousand years. I love you, Penny, not Persephone.”

“
I thought
we covered this in August,” she said. “You're my friend.”

“
Why am I
just your friend? Because I'm not rich like Teddy? Because I'm not as
charming as Zach? Not as tall as Frank? Not as handsome as Nick?”

“
How about
because you raped me.”

Peter fell
silent for a moment. He stood up. “That wasn't me. That was Hades.”

“
Which is
part of you.” Penny sighed. “I know it doesn't seem fair, to be
blamed for things that we did when--”

“
No, it's
not fair. I'm a different person. I was born Peter Hadley, grew up in
a shitty house with my shitty dad, and I would never do that to you.”

“
I know.”

They looked at
each other for a long time. Penny had to admit that Peter had become
quite tall and handsome over the last year and a half. He was her
best friend, but it wasn't enough. “Peter. When you remember me, do
you see me, Penny Davis?”

Peter furrowed
his brow. “You mean when I remember Persephone?”

“
Right.”

“
No. But I
know it's you.”

“
Exactly.
Like a dream. You don't look like you, but I know it's you. And when
I finally remembered that, when that memory came back to me or was
unlocked or whatever the hell happened, I remembered it as you. So
you, Peter Hadley, never did that to me, and never would-- I hope--
but I remember it as you, because it kind of was you, before. I know
this doesn't make sense, but it doesn't have to.”

Penny began to
cry. “When you try to kiss me, Peter, I remember being dragged
through the earth and taken against my will. Nothing will ever fix
that. You could look like Darren Criss and have all the money in the
world, and I would still have that in my mind. I can't be with you,
Peter. Ever. And I know it isn't fair, which is why you're still my
best friend, but some part of you long ago is guilty, and I can't
forget it, even if I've forgiven it. I can't be with someone that I
fear, even a little. I can't ever forget that.”

Peter sat down
on the bed. He took Penny's hand. She tensed, but she didn't pull
away. It had taken two years for Peter to understand. He got it now.
All of this time he had worried that Penny didn’t like him as a
person. He was angry for being saddled with the guilt of something he
had done in a past life. When he had met Penny, he hadn’t felt like
Hades, Lord of the dead. Now, as more memories came back, he knew
that that identity was part of his life. She knew it, too. She didn’t
blame him. She didn’t hate him. She forgave him. She just couldn’t
break that association.

“
I'm sorry,”
he said.

“
I know you
are.”

“
Thank you
for explaining that to me.”

Penny hugged
him and Peter left it at that, just a hug.

“
Friends?”
she asked.

Peter nodded.
“Of course.” Though there was a painful twisting in his gut,
Peter understood. It wasn't fair, but he couldn't fix it. Trying to
force the issue was only going to cost him his best friend.