Unhinged

by Chani Lynn Feener

  “And yet evil you set the spirit free?” Sydney said.

  “He isn’t me,” he snapped. “We’ve established this already.”

  “Who are you talking about?” Micah asked. He’d calmed some since his arrival, but kept jumping back and forth between staring at Hadrian suspiciously and glancing down at Spencer with worry.

  “He’s got a twin brother,” she filled him in. “He decided to pay us a visit tonight.” She cocked her head, realizing something else. “Which by the way, was what you were supposed to be doing. Why weren’t you here?”

  It was pointless to ask where he’d been, she already knew the answer to that. She couldn’t help but be a little put-off however by the fact he’d chosen to ignore that she was here. If he’d shown up like he’d promised, things would have been a hell of a lot less scary that was for sure.

  Guilt flashed over his face. His gaze dropped to the floor, and he seemed to notice the broken glass scattered about for the first time. “What happened? Are you alright?”

  His hands were back on her shoulders and she found that the comfort they’d been giving only a moment before had turned to ire instead. She shook him loose and his expression turned pained.

  “I’m fine,” she told him, taking a deep breath in an attempt to get a hold of herself.

  “Talk about this later,” Hadrian cut in with an annoyed huff, “preferably when I’m not around to have the same old boring details rehashed. Right now, we have bigger concerns; or more to the point, I do. That messenger I destroyed had been given a direct order from Thayer. Now that he knows who you are, that he’s positive, the attacks won’t stop. He’ll keep sending spirits after you.

  “You’re threatening the balance, the circle. There is life and then there is death. The only thing that is eternal—”

  “Is death itself,” she parroted, recalling him having said that already earlier.

  “Yes,” he clearly wasn’t pleased at her interruption, but continued anyway. “There are very few options here. If you want the attacks to stop, to keep your friends safe, then something has to be done. And soon.”

  “Ok, well what?”

  His smile belonged to the god version of himself, completely dashing away the other him that she’d gotten to know in an instant. “Simple. We can either fight the God of Death, or Micah returns to the Underworld. And stays there. Forever.”

  “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Micah shot forward, slipping through her fingers when she tried to pull him back. At the last second he stopped, keeping only a foot between him and Hadrian.

  “Actually,” Hadrian’s voice dropped low, “no, I wouldn’t. If you go, my deal with your girlfriend is forfeit, and I happen to like things just the way they are for the moment. I haven’t yet satisfied my curiosity.”

  It should have hurt that he was admitting to the fact this was all a game to him yet again, but instead Spencer felt sure that there was an underlying meaning to his use of the word this time. He didn’t spare her a glance, but something about the way he held himself, coiled and at the ready, and how he’d chosen to phrase his statement, seemed carefully constructed.

  The real issue was figuring out if that was a good or bad thing.

  “My girlfriend wasn’t created to be your amusement,” Micah hissed back. “I can’t believe this is the first time I’m seeing it. I should have realized after all of those stories she told me about your meetings in the Underworld.”

  Hadrian shot her an accusatory glare, and she flinched.

  For some reason, she actually felt guilty about sharing the things that had taken place between the two of them.

  “Watch yourself,” Hadrian said.

  “What are you going to do to me?” Micah grunted. “I’m already dead.”

  “Trust me,” he growled. “There are far worse things than being dead, Micah St. James, and I am more than willing to introduce you to those things. The only reason you are not currently being tortured in Tartarus is because it would hurt Spencer. She might never recover losing you a second time. Be grateful of my curiosity. It’s all that’s keeping you from ceasing to exist.”

  “Hadrian,” she whispered his name, the sound of it feeling off leaving her lips. “Enough.”

  “It’s enough when I say it is,” he snapped, turning on her in an instant. “Perhaps you all need reminding of who I am. Had I not shown up, my brother would have surely killed one of you, or more. I’m beginning to think I should have stayed away.”

  “You don’t mean that.” This time she really was stung, and it hurt far more than it should.

  “Don’t I? How can you be so sure, Spencer?” He took a single step towards her, growling again at Micah when he stiffened and tried to get between them. With a single wave of his hand, Micah’s body dispersed, shifting into a cloud of colors before fading completely.

  “What did you do?” She didn’t even have it in her to scream again. Her throat was already hoarse enough from before.

  “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again,” he said instead of answering her. He came so close that the tips of his boots touched hers. “You do not know me, Spencer. You do not know what I am capable of. What I’m willing to do to get what I want. The second you stop being of interest to me, you’re screwed. So, tell me, what is your decision?”

  “I don’t know…” It was becoming hard to concentrate now that Micah wasn’t in the room. That intense tingling feeling was starting to snake its way back up her arms and legs, pooling in her gut and at the center of her chest.

  “What do you want to do? Do you beg for my help against Thayer? Or do you finally decide to let go of your deceased boyfriend and ask me to keep him in the Underworld?”

  If that happened, she wouldn’t see Micah again until she died, and maybe not even then. There was always the chance she’d end up in one of the other parts of the Underworld. But if he stayed, if she kept on this path, she put everyone else at risk, including herself.

  She had a chance though to get him back. To make him whole. He wanted his life just as badly as she wanted him to have it. How could she make this choice without him? For him? Something told her there was no way Hadrian was going to allow her to talk it over with Micah. She knew without him having to tell her that he’d sent his spirit straight down to the Asphodel Meadows.

  Why she knew automatically that he wouldn’t have hurt him didn’t matter.

  “What would I have to do,” she asked in a slightly shaky voice, “if I choose the first option?”

  He grinned that wicked grin. “You mean besides the begging?” Shifting on his feet brought him an inch closer. “We would have to find the spirit that possessed Brodie and destroy it.”

  “And after that?”

  “After that we keep you safe until the end of the year when our deal is up. Once Micah is alive again, the gateway will close on its own, and Thayer will have no more use to bother you.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. They find the malicious spirit, stop it from hurting anyone else, and they do the same thing with any others that Thayer might send their way. With Hadrian looking out for signs they’d be fine. He could keep them safe.

  “What about your brother?” She licked her lips, absently glancing down at his where they hovered less than a centimeter away from her own. She’d been forming threads between what she knew, connecting the dots. But now with him so close she lost all train of thought, it becoming too hard for her to concentrate on anything but the heat that radiated off of his body.

  “What about him?” The lesser edge to his tone was proof he knew what she was doing.

  “Where does he fit into all of this?”

  He chuckled, the sound none too kind. “Spencer, that man you met, my brother, is the very one we’ve been speaking of for over a week now. Tonight you once again came face to face with death—a little more literally this time around. That was Thayer.”

  Anger coursed through her. At herself mostly, for being stupid enough not to hav
e caught onto that fact the second she’d realized the man before her hadn’t been Hadrian, but also towards him. He didn’t have to be so mean about it, so harsh. Clearly he thought very little of her.

  However, that added rush of adrenaline helped sway her decision. When the smoke cleared it was obvious what choice she had to make. Really, there wasn’t even a choice at all.

  “Help me find the soul, Hadrian,” she said then, holding his gaze so that he could see the determination behind her green eyes.

  “That doesn’t sound like begging to me,” he goaded, though a bit more serious now than he’d been before.

  “You and I still have a deal,” she reminded him. “Unless you want to be forced to go back on it because I get killed, or worse, one of my friends do, then you’ll help me. You and I want the same thing here.”

  The shutter dropped over his face, a smooth mask that turned him into the statue faster than she could blink. He stepped back, towering over her still despite the distance now between them.

  “I doubt that, Spencer,” he said finally, quietly. “I really do. But I’ll help you. If for no other reason than to see this thing that we’ve started through.”

  She nodded in thanks, unable to speak, hoping that she’d just made the right decision.

  Chapter 24:

  Spencer leaned over the balcony railing. Below, a light breeze blew the glittering onyx sand while the water of the river Lethe flowed gently. Fog had returned, encasing Elysium in thick layers so that she couldn’t make out a single detail on the other side.

  Two weeks ago she’d found out that Hadrian had a twin brother, and that his brother was the God of Death.

  She’d barely spoken to him since.

  There’d been the occasional bored conversations here and there, the one-liners. Some days he even still attended school; though for the most part he kept silent in class, and disappeared around lunch time. Every night he was there to greet her upon her arrival into the Underworld, but she was beginning to think that had more to do with the fact that Ferris was dropping her off in locations he knew his king would be.

  Hadrian would give her something to keep herself amused, point her in the direction of some sight, and then excuse himself. It was always the same thing: he had places to be, more important things to attend to.

  Their bet didn’t hinder on them being together during her stay, and he was using that to his advantage. It was like he couldn’t get away from her fast enough, and it scared her because she actually cared.

  Luckily, there hadn’t been any other unwelcomed visitors in her house. Probably had something to do with the protective barrier Ferris claimed his king had placed over her home. When she’d asked Hadrian about it, he’d simply told her that it was taken care of.

  Of course, she didn’t see how it could be considering they’d yet to be able to find the soul. He was still out there somewhere, probably infecting a new host. They’d narrowed down their search from the get-go to Willowbrooke and the nearest surrounding towns. There was no way he was just going to leave, not if he was following the orders of Thayer.

  As if things couldn’t have been worse, she’d seen less and less of Micah as well. He was always down here with his father. What had once been daily visits had dwindled down to every other at best. They’d gone from spending every single one of her waking moments together to only having enough time for a single conversation.

  He’d hold her in his arms while they lay in bed, but the whole time he’d be talking about his dad. The things he’d just experienced on the other side.

  The amazing Sydney had somehow bounced completely back since their night of terror, sarcastic and boy-crazed as ever.

  The fact that Spencer’s friends could remain themselves throughout all this gave her hope, while at the same time making her feel more self-conscious than she’d ever been in her entire life.

  They’d been met with horrible situations, and yet had managed to keep their integrity. Why hadn’t she been able to do the same?

  And that was the question that haunted her. If she were honest with herself, it wasn’t that she was currently being stalked by a malicious spirit, or that she was wanted by the God of Death, or even that being ignored by Hadrian bothered her more than it should. At the end of the day, it all came down to one thing and one thing only.

  She hadn’t been able to let go of Micah, but she’d so easily let go of herself. She could blame holing up in her room all summer on the fact that he disappeared when she wasn’t around all she wanted to, but the truth was evident. She’d been afraid, and not just of losing him totally, but of discovering who she could be without him.

  Even knowing that didn’t make it any less hard. She liked the person she was when she was with him, liked the girl that everyone at school knew and could tell stories about. She loved that when she’d walked down the halls people had looked at her and known her name.

  She loved that she’d belonged. With Micah she fit. Without him…she was just that sad girl. The left behind girl whose boyfriend hadn’t survived.

  But now she owed it to him to see this thing through, to stick it out even through the worst so that she could not only return him to her but to their friends. To his mom.

  Maybe she wasn’t the same girl that she’d been before, but she needed to start putting the pieces back together. A year was a long time to wallow and wait. Something needed to be done.

  Starting with the God of the Dead.

  She was sick and tired of being brushed aside. She wouldn’t be ignored any longer, and if the guy had some choice words to say to her well then...he was just going to have to say them to her face.

  With that decision made, she spun on her heels, heading straight back into the palace and then down the winding halls. She picked her way through the labyrinthine castle, coming to the last point she recalled them being before he’d swept them off to the Phlegethon.

  With a curse she realized that there was no way of her knowing how to get there without him, or even which of the millions of exits she needed to take in order to head in a remotely right direction.

  Her initial plan had been to find him at the gateway to the Underworld. She’d hoped that he would be with Cerberus, though why she’d thought that she had no idea. It wasn’t like the few times they’d actually connected had really given her intense foresight into his psyche, after all.

  “Looking for someone?”

  She jumped, twisting to face the familiar sounding voice. The second her eyes landed on him, however, she knew that he wasn’t actually all that familiar. The strange thing was she didn’t even need the green eyes to know that.

  “Hadrian’s around,” she lied, bracing herself when he laughed in response. She hadn’t seen him since the night they’d met, and she’d been praying that she never would again.

  “I know he’s not,” he told her coyly, stepping further out of the shadows and into the bright white lights that hung over the center of the hall.

  His midnight hair was longer, she realized now, curling at the ends slightly around his ears and forehead. He was the exact same towering height, with the same build. But there was something so impassive about his expressions, as if he couldn’t really care about the outcome of a conversation even if he wanted to. He was garbed in all gray, right down to the boots; the color somehow causing the emerald of his eyes to pop more vibrantly.

  It was the sword strapped to his left side that caught her attention the most, and the almost silky cascade of black feathers trailing from the arches of two wings protruding from his back. Neither of which had been there a second prior. When he’d realized that he couldn’t fool her into thinking he was Hadrian again, he must have settled into his true form.

  She was torn between feeling terrified and amazed.

  “Do you really think I’d have come here if he was?” he continued, though he stopped a few feet away from her. “I assume he’s filled you in on our sordid past?”

  “Just that you don’t get
along,” she answered. Maybe playing along would get him to leave faster. And without hurting her. She calculated how quickly she could get to the end of the hall, but it still wouldn’t be quick enough to escape him.

  He tilted his head, as if searching her face to catch another lie. Then, satisfied when he found no traces of one, he sighed. “Another time, perhaps. For now I’ll settle for this.”

  “What do you want from me?” she asked.

  “I’ve seen your face before, you know,” he ignored her question absently. “Once, on a bridge. It was just a brief passing, the barest of touches from the tips of my fingers,” he held his left hand straight out towards her, “against your side. That’s usually all it takes.”

  Her eyes widened, but she somehow managed to hold herself together. “You touched me before I died.”

  “You should be honored,” his voice brimmed with sincerity. “I don’t mark everyone myself. The Ferrymen are greater in number than me. You were supposed to die that night, Spencer Perry, and yet here you are.”

  “Technically,” she attempted to be smart, but it came out forced, “I’m still in the Underworld.”

  “Yes,” his eyes narrowed, “but as a living mortal, not a spirit. There is a difference, mind you. A big one. I’d hoped you knew that; that it was something you both acknowledged and understood. There is a method to the madness of existence. All that begins must end.”

  “I do get that,” she insisted.

  “Really? Is that why you’re trying so hard to get your boyfriend back? You wish to thwart death, and yet here you stand trying to convince me that you grasp the concept of it.”

  “Please, Hadrian—”

  “Can’t help you right now,” he cut her off. “Did he even tell you about me, I wonder? Did he tell you anything at all?”

  “It wasn’t hard to figure out he had a twin after meeting you,” she bit out.

  A knowing smirk came over him, cruel humor glinting in his gemstone eyes. “We’re triplets. There are three of us. The Greeks got many things incorrect, but that Hades has three brothers isn’t one of them. We were born of the same essence, rose from the river in unison as one. Secrets have been kept from you, little mortal, secrets that will no doubt lead to your undoing.”