“I forgive you.” He rolled her on top of him. “Would it be so terrible to be married to a barber?”
“A barber who can charm the birds with his own voice and who kisses like Eros himself.”
“How do you know how Eros kisses?”
“I don’t, only that your kisses are the finest in the world.”
Was her mind playing tricks on her, or had he just blushed? Her stomach growled.
“Let me get you some fruit,” he said, rising from the bed. He paused, staring into the bowl.
“What is it?”
“The bowl is full.”
She sprang from the bed, another pang of hunger rippling through her stomach. “The water pitcher is full again too.”
They looked at each other in horror. “How long have we been in that bed, Alena?”
Her eyes searched the room for any clue, but the light hadn’t changed; the temperature was exactly the same. Her gaze fell on her apothecary basket. Hand trembling, she reached down and drew a finger through a layer of dust that had settled on the top. At least a day’s worth of dust, maybe more.
“Orpheus, something isn’t right.”
“I feel strange. Weak. Like we haven’t eaten in days.”
She opened her basket and retrieved a sprig of enchanted mint from one of the jars. “For clarity.” She popped it into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
Almost instantly, the room changed. Paint peeled from the walls, the drapes hung in torn shreds in front of the window, the bed became a filthy, dusty, and stained mess, and it was hot, as hot as where they most certainly were—Hades.
“We need to leave here, Orpheus. Now.”
“What do you see?”
“Get dressed.”
He chose another apple from the basket. “We should take the food in your satchel.”
She raised a hand to her mouth and stifled a gag. Her stomach roiled. “It is rancid. Full of maggots.” She turned away and heaved, but there was nothing in her stomach to eliminate. When he still didn’t put the apple down, she retrieved the rest of the mint from her bag and placed it on his tongue. As soon as the magic took effect, he tossed the rotten fruit back into the basket in disgust.
“Gods, it is another trap. But I thought you tested it!”
Alena pulled the pale green crystal from her pack and placed it in the water. It turned dark almost immediately. “It did change. I just couldn’t see it through the illusion!”
Orpheus began to dress quickly. “This entire time, the gods have been slowly starving us to death.”
“We should have known.”
Alena tried not to reveal her shock when she saw how thin Orpheus looked. They must have been in bed for days. She finished dressing and lifted her bag onto her shoulder. But Orpheus wasn’t moving.
“Hurry. We have to find the grimoire before one or both of us collapses.”
“Was itallan illusion?” he asked her.
Their eyes met.
“No,” she said quickly, surprised at how much she wanted him to know the truth about her feelings. She paused and offered him a soft smile. “Now let us live to prove it.”
He nodded and charged toward the door. Her legs felt frail as she followed him into the corridor, but she pressed on. As they passed through the hall, she saw the house for what it was. Each of the rooms was filthy, some with pairs of skeletons still embracing in the beds. This was a place of forgetting. A place where one could sleep their life away.
