“Come on,” he tells me, nodding to the access panel. “You’re running out of time.”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts. Just go.”
So I do, grabbing on to the edge of the access panel hole at the same time I step into his hands. He boosts me up, but even with his help, my exit isn’t easy and it isn’t graceful. Instead, I dangle halfway in and halfway out of the train as I try to convince my very tired, not-strong-enough-for-these-kinds-of-pull-ups arms to actually get me out of this place.
In the end, I manage to get a knee up on the top of the train and then I push up as hard as I can. “You okay?” Kyrian shouts from below me. “Because the train’s about to—”
“I’ve got it!” I snarl. And then finally, finally, I manage to make it all the way through the opening and flop, face down, on the top of the train.
If this stuff is going to keep happening to me, I really, really have to hit the gym more.
After a few more seconds to recover, I get myself up to my knees and turn to peer down through the access panel. Only to find Kyrian staring up at me with a crooked grin and an enigmatic look in his eyes. “See you later, Penelope,” he tells me.
“See you later?” I answer uncertainly, because I don’t know if that’s actually true.
The grin fades. “Maybe. But do me a favor and check your backpack when you’re out of here.”
“My backpack?” My stomach jumps. “Why?”
He doesn’t answer, just climbs back down off the bench as the train’s gears start to grind against each other.
“What is this place?” I call after him, because I have to know.
For one impossible second, our eyes meet through the hole. And then he says, “The Underworld,” as he starts to slide the access panel shut again.
The last thing I hear him say before the panel closes is, “Run to the back of the train, and then jump as high as you can.”
46.I’m All Rung Out
FOR A MOMENT, I’M FROZENin shock. Did he say the Underworld? As in, Hades? As in, souls? As in…dead people?
All of a sudden, the name of the stop on the train makes sense. Acheron Station. Acheron is the river at the beginning of the Underworld, even before the River Styx. If I remember correctly, it’s in the borderlands, a boundary separating the living from the dead.
And I wasthere? In a room filled with books? I don’t know whether to be elated or terrified—maybe both, considering the books were guarded by more snakes than I ever wanted to see in my life.
But still. I’m in the Underworld? And if what Kyrian said is true, I can get back out? Normally, I wouldn’t believe himabout that, except it’s obvious he gets out. The first time I saw him was aboveground.
All of the myths I’ve ever read, all the history I’ve ever been taught, says that’s impossible for anyone but Persephone—and a few select others with very select circumstances.
So how is it that I am currently on top of a subway train—a train?!—when no myth has ever mentioned trains in the Underworld? Ever. And I’m supposed to escape by jumping as high as I can?
It doesn’t seem real.
And maybe it’s not. But the last thing I want to do is end up moving past the borderlands and into the heart of the Underworld—I don’t think even Kyrian could get me out of that—so I need to get moving. And jump like I’ve never jumped before.
The thought has my stomach churning and my heart beating way too fast. But not nearly as fast as if I had to go back and face those snakes again.
So, heart pounding and mouth dry as that dusty old room I just escaped from, I start walking along the top of the train toward its back. It’s dark and high up here and I’m scared of falling off—I’m good at balancing, but this is a wild—so I go slowly until I get my bearings.
But I’ve only taken three or four steps when I hear the canned voice say, “Please keep your hands and arms and all other body parts inside the train. We should arrive at Acheron Station in eleven minutes.”
Eleven minutes? That means it’s going to start—
A high-pitched whine fills the air, and I take off running just as the train begins to move.
I put every ounce of energy I don’t have into racing to the end of the car. It’s so dark that I can’t see anything beyond it, and I have about fifteen seconds of hope that this is the last part of the train. But as I get to the end, I realize there’s another one.
