Daniel almost looked pleased by my words. “The four secret keepers this time are all female, according to the council.”
So, four secret keepers, all born in the same year, all born here in the different houses of Overworld. And all female. I liked the girl-power side of it immensely. Still, it was a freaking lot to take in, especially with my upbringing. My mother had tried to poison me toward these Daelighters, but she hadn’t counted on Daniel. From almost the first moment I heard his voice, he had soothed my distrust. Now, I was open to the possibility of being part of their world.
“Come on,” Daniel finally said, walking again. “We’re going to be really late if we don’t make it back to Earth soon.”
I hurried after him, trying not to let all of my confused thoughts and emotions overwhelm me. Lifting the coffee to my lips, I could have cried at how empty it was. One cup was never enough.
“Tell me about this Hades and Persephone fable.”
I was so caught up in mourning my coffee that I almost missed the question. It surprised me that he remembered that from yesterday, but it was nice that he had. The story was one of the few myths I was well-versed in. A favorite of my mother, who liked to push the consequences of messing with bad boys who needed a woman to change them.“Will never happen, Callie!”she’d yell at me over and over.“Just stay away from them. Men like that don’t change.”
Whoops.Sorry, Mom, I didn’t listen and now I’m tied to a powerful alien that rules the underworld.
Holding my cup with both hands, I smiled at him. “It’s a Greek myth. Hades was the god of the underworld – he ruled over the dead. The myth said that one of the rare times Hades left his domain, he caught sight of Persephone, who was the daughter of a goddess.” I paused for second to think. It had been a while since I heard the story. “I’m not actually sure what her mother ruled over, but something to do with nature. When Hades saw Persephone, he fell instantly in love with her and kidnapped her – as you do – bringing her to the underworld. I’m not sure exactly what happened after that, because I’m crap at reading and my mom liked to only tell the parts she enjoyed, but I believe that Persephone’s mother … Demeter … was really upset, for obvious reasons. Hades ended up making a deal with her that Persephone would stay with him six months of the year, and then go back to her mother for the other six. I think that’s why there’s beautiful weather like spring and summer for half the year, and winter for the other half. Persephone’s mother mourns the loss of her daughter and brings the icy weather.”
We had reached the end of the hallway now. Daniel hadn’t looked in my direction since I started talking, but I knew he was listening. He hit a button on the wall and finally turned to me. “Did Persephone always hate Hades for what he did? For how he trapped her with him for six months of every year?”
Gold burned into me, those eyes too much for an almost-mortal human to stare at. Swallowing the huge lump in my throat, I cleared it and said, “No, actually, she fell in love with him. She saw past the mean, lonely bastard and … well, gave him her heart.” My voice was way huskier than I’d ever heard it before. “She mourned the six months she was away from him.” There might have been another version where she hated him, but I preferred the one with the love.
I could not tear my gaze from Daniel’s. I yearned to know what was carving his face into such an intense expression. I couldn’t tell if he was pleased or not with the final part to the myth, the happyish ending of their story. Before I could ask, a ding had him turning away.
A door slid across the wall, and when Daniel stepped inside, I followed. He pushed a button on a side panel and I realized this was very reminiscent of an elevator, only we shot up in the air so fast that my stomach rolled. I was not losing all of that coffee, though, so I closed my eyes and tried to focus on keeping my stomach contents in place. If I’d had some food to go with it, I might have been less nauseous.
“You need to eat.”
I jerked my head up. He was staring ahead at the wall. “Can you read my mind?” I asked, a little horrified by all of my recent thoughts.Dammit.They should have told me that from the start. I could have guarded my random internal conversations then.
Amused eyes lowered to meet mine. He lifted a hand and brushed his thumb across my cheeks. “You’re blushing. What have you been thinking to put pink in these cheeks?”
I shook him off with a huff. “Uh, it’s really rude to read people’s thoughts. I did not give you permission for that.”
He laughed then, his head tilting back. I glared at him until he finished, flashing me another dimpled smile. “I can’t read your thoughts. You have your hand pressed to your stomach, and I can hear it grumbling. I also haven’t seen you eat since New Orleans.”
The box we were in slowed and another ding signaled that we had reached our destination. I waited for the door to open in front of us, but when the whoosh sounded, it was the roof that slid across. I stared up at the emerald sky before turning to the Daelighter.
“I’ll go up first,” he said, striding toward a metal ladder built into the side of the wall, a ladder I had not noticed until then. “To make sure it’s all safe.” He scaled the side in about a millisecond.
I waited with one hand on the ladder, and the second his head reappeared, I was already moving. Climbing was easy. I could scale the rope all the way to the top in my gym, also vault and hurdle … I loved stretching my muscles and using my flexibility.
When I pulled myself over the top, I stood to find we were back on the huge metal platform, the one with the sparkling transporter. “So this permanently exists between my world and yours?” I asked him.
He nodded and held a hand out to me. “Yep, for some reason this transporter is allowing Earth to power our network. Which is why the treaty cannot fall.”
With a deep sigh, I took the proffered hand and then we were off, heading back to Earth. The journey was longer than the last time I’d been in a transporter, but I enjoyed it more. Knowing what was going to happen made it less scary to watch the streams of energy zipping past. An experience I knew I’d never forget.
At the end we landed in a stone courtyard, then we walked along a rose covered walkway. There was an early morning feel to the sun when we stepped out onto a pretty street, and it was actually colder than I expected. “What’s the date?” I asked. It kind of felt like a million years had passed since I found my mom missing.
“It’s October 30th.”
Disappointment hit me. I tried not to let it show, but I must have failed, because Daniel was giving me a look of inquiry.
“Tomorrow is Halloween,” I said. “I thought I would be in New Orleans for it this year. I wanted to see all the crazy.”
Understanding blossomed over his face. “Maybe we can go next year, if the worlds are still spinning.”
I chuckled. This was definitely one of those “laugh or you’ll cry” situations. As another burst of cold air hit me, I shivered. Daniel surprised me by reaching out and running a hand along my bare skin. A trail of heat followed his touch.
“How can you use your power here?” I asked him. “Away from the network.” He’d been strong even in New Orleans, but I didn’t understand how. My understanding was that their powers were directly linked to the network. Which was on Overworld.
