“Send them home,” he ordered. “The five of us need to talk.”
Without a word to him, she turned and did what he said.
* * *
Amazingly enough, someone “almost” drowning is automatically a party buzz killer. It wasn’t hard to convince everyone there it was time to go, and most left with nothing more than a grunt or dull stare. Of course, at the same token it was obvious that this was going to be the talk of school come Monday, in which no doubt, everyone would then think it was cool.
Spencer wondered over how she could have ever been like that, how something as serious as a near-death experience could have excited and thrilled her only months before like it did them.
This was just another story to be told, another event to gossip and brag about. Anyone who hadn’t been able to attend the party would be made to feel inadequate for their absence. Like they’d missed out on the event of the year. It would be different if Sydney hadn’t been ok, sure, but the fact that they’d all seen her sit up was enough to make it another thing to laugh about later.
That was either very smart—to find the good when they could—or it was very stupid. She couldn’t tell, and her own near-death experience didn’t really help her figure it out.
She and Quinn had gotten Syd up to her room on the second floor, practically carrying her the whole way between them.
She’d calmed some since waking up, but she was still frazzled. The whole experience had left her shaken and traumatized. There had been questions brimming in both her and Quinn’s eyes, though they hadn’t asked them. Yet.
Spencer knew it was coming. Which was why the second Syd was settled in her bed with Quinn there fussing, she’d taken her chance to step out of the room for a breather.
How was she going to explain to them what had just happened? Especially considering she didn’t have a clue herself. They weren’t the only ones who wanted to know what was going on here. She stopped at the top of the stairs, tilted her head so that she could make out the voices below better.
Hadrian and Ferris were standing just inside the doorway that led to the living room. She could see their shadows moving with them.
She descended another step when their words reached her ears.
“Do you think it wise you saved her?” Ferris was asking in a hushed voice. He sounded skeptical, which only made Spencer angry.
“Would you have had me stand by and watch?” Hadrian snapped back.
“She is mortal, Lord. The lives of mortals end.”
“It wasn’t her time. You know that as well as I do. Could feel it. Sydney Benson was not meant to pass this night.”
“And yet she did.” His voice dropped even lower. “She was marked, you saw it.”
“What’s your point, Ferryman?”
“We don’t interfere in the others’ affairs; that was your agreement. He’ll retaliate now; target something more precious, more meaningful than a human you barely care about. Mortals die before their time more frequently than you or I can count. What makes this one any different? Sydney Benson means nothing to you.”
“No,” Hadrian agreed. “She does not.”
Spencer just barely caught herself from gasping.
“Do not make the same mistakes you made in the past,” Ferris continued. “Once chosen, this cannot be undone. Let’s leave; drop the mortals and go. This is none of our concern, as it has never been.”
“I can’t,” Hadrian growled.
There was a long pause and then, “Since when has one of them taken your interest?”
“It’s happened before.” He didn’t sound as sure of himself this time, more frustrated and surly. She saw the arm of his shadow move up, assumed he was running his fingers through his dark hair.
“Precisely my point,” Ferris exclaimed.
“This is different,” Hadrian insisted. “It’s only a curiosity.”
“If there’s no more to it then you’ll walk away from this.”
“You forget your place, Ferryman.”
“My place is as your advisor,” his shadow melded with the other at the shoulder, “as your oldest friend. I do not wish to see you go through this again. They are abominations. Cosmic mistakes. The two of you agreed that after the last time, swore to keep away.”
“I was not the one to seek her out.”
“No, but you welcomed her with open arms.”
“My arms were hardly open.”
Having heard enough, Spencer lifted a leg to barge down there and demand to know what was going on. In that same second a scream ripped across the air, and before she could think, she was spinning on her heel and racing back down the hall towards the room she’d just vacated.
Vaguely, she heard the two guys coming up behind her, but didn’t turn to see them. Once she was in the room, she heaved a sigh of relief when she saw both of her friends were alright. That relief vanished when she noticed what Syd was doing.
“Get it off!” The blond was clawing at something on her chest, directly over her heart. There was a thick panic surrounding her, adding to the crazed look brought on by the tangled damp hair and the smeared mascara. “Get it the fuck off of me!”
“Spencer!” Quinn struggled to contain Syd, yanking at her arms to try and get her to stop.
Rushing forward, she tackled Syd to the bed, pinning her arms over her head in the process. Now that she had her straddled, she got a perfect view of just what had upset her so much.
She sucked in a breath and stared.
“What the hell is that?” Quinn asked, leaning over so that she could see it as well.
A black circle about the size of a quarter had appeared on Syd’s skin. Inside the center of the circle was a tiny horizontal dash. Something that had most definitely not been there a half hour ago.
“Get off me!” Syd demanded, bucking underneath her. “Get off!”
Still in shock, Spencer did as she asked, moving back a few feet as her friend sprang into an upright position and scrambled to press her back against the headboard.
“What the hell is that?” Quinn repeated, with a little more force in her tone this time. Her chocolate eyes landed on hers. “Tell us what’s going on here, Spence.”
She opened her mouth but no sound came out. How could she explain this? Or anything for that matter, without sounding like either the worst friend on the planet, or a complete and total nut?
“She’s been marked,” Hadrian’s voice cut into their staring contest, reminding them all that he and Ferris were standing in the doorway. When they glanced his way, he stepped further into the room. “That’s what that symbol is.”
“Marked by what?” Quinn asked.
“It’s a warning symbol,” Ferris answered. “Specifically, the warning symbol. Of Death.”
“The warning symbol of death?” Syd pointed at it on her chest. “I have a fricken tattoo that’s supposedly warning me of death?!” Her voice rose with every word, until she was practically shouting. “Have you all completely lost your minds?! Get this thing off me!”
“We can’t do that,” Ferris said. “That isn’t how it works.”
“Do you think I give a flying fuck how it works? Just get it off! If my dad sees this, he’s going to flip!”
“You almost just died,” Quinn said trying to settle her down some. “A tattoo is the least of your worries right now.”
“How can you say that?” she began to argue, but then the night’s events seemed to really hit her and her eyes went wide with fear. “Oh my god. I almost died!”
“Did, actually,” Hadrian told her.
“Excuse me?”
“You did die. For about two minutes.”
“You brought her back,” Spencer found the ability of speech and said. “That thing with your hands. And you,” she turned to Ferris, “with your tattoo.” She wiggled her finger at the side of her own neck, frowning when she saw that there was no sign of it on him anymore.
“That’s what that was?” Quinn shook her
head. “I thought it was a panic attack induced hallucination.”
Spencer focused on the guy standing before her with the almost too still expression on his face. The conversation she’d just overheard came back to her, reminding her that there was more going on here than she’d originally believed.
“How do I know that you didn’t do this on purpose?” she asked quietly. “What did you do to Sydney? What have you really been doing here?”
Quinn and Syd glanced between the two of them, clearly lost.
The only one in the room not uneasy was Hadrian, who held himself completely composed. So much so, that he was bordering on rigid. His shoulders were squared back, feet spread apart. In the all black outfit with the slightly mussed hair, he was the very epitome of what she imagined a Greek soldier would look like.
Aggressive, rugged, ruffianly. The guy she’d been playing pool with only a short time ago was gone, in his place was the God of myth that had kept children—and even some adults—up at night.
And they were currently trapped in a room with him. He and the Ferryman blocked the door, the only exit to Syd’s large bedroom.
“I retrieved her soul from the Underworld,” he told her evenly. “I found her out among the pits and I yanked her essence back into her body.” He took a single threatening step closer. “I brought her back from the dead.”
Chapter 15:
“I was dead?!” Syd squealed, pressing even harder against the headboard. “As in done?! Fineto?! Deceased?!”
An unsympathetic “no duh” caught in Spencer’s throat, and she banked it down. It wasn’t appropriate for her to point out how obvious it had been that Sydney was dead at their arrival.
“The Underworld?” Quinn spoke up again. “What are you talking about? Who are you?”
Hadrian rolled his eyes. “What’s with you mortals and putting emphasis on every other word?”
“Mor—mortals?” Syd hiccupped. Waving her hand frantically at Spencer she motioned her over. “Come here. Get away from them.”
Hadrian scowled. “You think I’d hurt her now? After having just saved your life? Way to be grateful. Perhaps I should have let you die. You being here certainly has no benefit for me.”
“Don’t speak to her like that,” Spencer said holding her ground.
“And you,” he turned his heated gaze back her way. “At least her lack of gratitude is understandable, but yours? You stand there accusing me of causing this? What would I have to gain by killing her, only to revive her moments later?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe it was just another game to you. Maybe you’re still angry about—”
“What?” he barked, moving another foot closer.
She clenched her hands into tight fists at her sides to keep from visibly shaking. “About the other night.”
“What about it?”
Her eyes narrowed. How was it that even now he could push her buttons and piss her off? “We really going to do this again?”
“Tell me,” he pressed, backing her up in the process. Every step he took forward, she took back. “I’ll just keep pushing until you do.”
“You know what I’m talking about,” she snapped. She tried to stay focused on the topic, but it was hard to do with him moving close enough for her to make out the specks of deep blue among the black pools his eyes had basically turned into. “I shouldn’t have to elaborate.”
“Whether you should or not,” he rasped, finally managing to successfully crowd her completely when her back came up against the solid wall, “you do have to.”
“I know what you’re doing,” she countered, and received a humorless chuckle in response. She couldn’t help the sharp inhale she took when he lifted both arms to each side of her head.
He blocked her in, his forearms pressed against the light green wall. Shifting closer, he brought the rest of his body flush against hers, pinning her tightly now so that she’d barely be able to wiggle if she tried.
Which she did not. Just the thought of moving against him like that…
Every part of her he touched burned, and before she really knew what she was doing, she reached out and gripped his hips. Flares of electricity ricocheted through her hands at the contact, causing her cheeks to flush a bright red and her breathing labor.
It’s just because of the anger, she tried to convince herself. Her thoughts turned to Micah and she steeled herself against whatever effect Hadrian was having on her.
“Maybe you’re still angry,” she repeated through clenched teeth, hating him a little more with every word, “about the argument we got into the other night.” And then she said the part she knew he wanted her to. The reason behind this whole power play he was doing. “While we were in the Underworld.”
Her friends gasped the same second a malicious grin split across his face.
Slowly he dropped his forehead down to hers, maintaining eye contact the entire time, filling her vision so that all she could see was blue and black.
“There,” he whispered. “Was that so hard?”
She wanted to shove him away, wanted to wipe that self-satisfied smirk right off his stupid mouth. Who cared if it was also intensely kissable? She inwardly cursed at the stray thought and actually did push him away this time.
Surprisingly he let her, stepping back so that there was a good three feet separating them now.
“Spencer?” Quinn’s voice shook.
“We’d like to know what’s going on now, please,” Syd added, though she sounded the exact same as their friend. Unsure, scared…doubtful.
Hadrian gave her a once over and then backed up more. “Explain things to your friends,” he said in a deadpan.
“Hey!” Syd stopped both him and Ferris when they would have walked out the door. “Don’t go far, buddy!” she ordered. “I still have tons of questions for you.”
Instead of getting angry like Spencer expected him to, he smiled slightly and nodded once in agreement before leaving without another word.
“Alright,” Syd said before Ferris even had the door fully closed. She crossed her arms and gave Spencer a pointed look. “Explain.”
As if it was that easy.
* * *
Actually, it was.
Two hours later the three of them sat in a circle on Syd’s bed, her having just explained the whole story from start to finish. Including Micah and his reappearance into her life after his death.
They’d taken that part much better than when she’d told them about how she’d foolishly gone into the Underworld to seek out Hades. They properly chastised her for her idiocy, as well as for keeping such big secrets from them. They didn’t however, call her names or accuse her of being a whack job in need of a straight jacket.
The opposite in fact. They’d asked her how she was after having to keep that to herself. Understood how alone she’d felt, and why she’d cut herself off from even them.
“We’re your best friends,” Quinn told her once she’d finally finished the end of her rant. “How could you ever think that we wouldn’t believe you?”
“Yeah, you dunderhead,” Syd added with a light punch on her shoulder. “We love you.”
“But you couldn’t see him,” Spencer said.
“So? We would have taken your word for it,” Quinn squeezed her hand. “We would have trusted you. That’s what friends are for.”
“Ditto.” Syd took her other hand.
“You aren’t mad at me though? For bringing all of this into your lives? For making you aware that there are other things out there?” If it had been reversed, she probably wouldn’t have been entirely pleased about it.
“It’s not like you asked for all this.” Quinn sighed dramatically when Spencer tossed her a correcting look. “Ok, well, it’s not like you asked for the Micah part of all this anyway. The Hadrian thing is all on you, but Micah’s ghost…Wow, Spence. I’m still wrapping my mind around it. That he’s still here, that he’s been here this whole time.”
&nbs
p; “No wonder you couldn’t move on,” Syd jumped in. “I feel even shittier for not understanding why you needed so much space now.”
“Don’t,” she shook her head. “I should have confided in you, you’re right. I’m the one who’s been a terrible friend.”
“Won’t get any arguments there,” Quinn joked and got shoved playfully for it.
“I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?” It felt strange, sitting in this bedroom like she’d done so many times before telling them about trips to the Underworld.
The sea foam green room had acted as their sanctuary on millions of occasions. The one place where they’d all felt safe opening up about their issues and their doubts.
She hadn’t been here in over three months. How many slumber parties had she missed? How many secrets had she thought too unimportant for her to leave the confines of her coffin back home? How could they ever forgive her for being such a complete and total bitch?
“Hon,” Syd spoke first, her thousand watt smile lighting up the dark recesses of Spencer’s heart, “all’s already forgiven.”
“Was the moment you began telling us about your crazy life,” Quinn finished.
Warm tears pooled at the corners of her eyes, and she tugged them both against her.
“You don’t know how much that means to me,” she cried. “How often I almost broke down and told you about Micah.”
“No more sad stuff right now,” Syd brushed her aside. “In case you’ve forgotten, I just recently died. I want to know something awesome. Something exciting.”
“She just told you she’s been to the Underworld and you’re still after something exciting?” Quinn asked incredulous.
Syd waggled her thin blond brows suggestively. “Ok, tell us about Hades. But leave out all the boring stuff. Tell us only details we’d want to know.”
Spencer let the grin slip past her defenses. She knew exactly what her friends were really interested in. “He has an eight-pack.”
“What? Seriously?! I was beginning to think those were just legends! Myths made up to torture women everywhere!”
“Well, you got the myths part right, at least.”
Unhinged Page 15