Unhinged

by Chani Lynn Feener

  Micah crossed the river on his own. He’d told her that before, that she’d only helped him somehow. She’d created an opening leading right to her when she’d summoned him. But the river, the gate itself, he’d crossed it. He’d gotten through. Because he loved her.

  Guilt swarmed through her, because even though Hadrian had lied about Persephone, she knew he wasn’t lying about this. Which meant Micah’s love really had been strong enough to defy death.

  And she’d been about to tell Hadrian she had feelings for him.

  She went to look at Micah, and caught Persephone slinking towards her actual body.

  “Hadrian!” she pointed, trying to warn him, but it was too late.

  Dropping to her knees, Persephone placed her palms against the chest of her body and was instantly overcome by a blinding yellow light. It shot out in every direction, forcing Hadrian back when he tried to stop her. Within moments it faded, showing Sarah’s lifeless form lying on the ground next to Persephone.

  Persephone, who was currently shifting to her feet, a wicked grin painted across her delicate features.

  As much as she hated to admit it, Spencer was forced to acknowledge that the girl was beautiful. Her straight blonde hair cascaded like a waterfall down her arms, stopping just above her elbows. Her eyes, round sky blue gems, reminded her of the expression, doe-eyed, big and innocent looking. Until they turned on her and a cruel gleam filled them.

  Without moving a muscle, she somehow shoved Spencer to the ground, like a magnet had pulled her down. Then she turned her attention towards Hadrian, who’d stilled some feet away.

  “Hello, lover,” she practically purred, making her way over to him seductively. “I’ve missed you.” She lifted a hand, long fingers delving through his hair to cup the back of his head.

  Spencer couldn’t help it. Jealousy flared within her and she shot to her feet before she even knew what she intended to do about it. She was across the room within seconds, throwing out her hands still a good foot away, and directing that same green electricity to remove Persephone from Hadrian.

  “Get the hell away from him,” she growled, not recognized the threatening bite to her tone. She saw red, shifting so that she stood at his side, glaring down the girl who’d been making her life a nightmare. Who’d tied her up and killed her friends.

  “There’s only room for one Gravewalker in this universe,” Persephone hissed, steadying herself.

  “On that much,” Spencer braced herself, “we agree.”

  “Hmm,” she held out a hand, making a tight fist.

  Hadrian dropped to his knees, clutching at his chest. He gagged, all of his muscles noticeably straining as the pain racked him. He toppled over onto his side, face turning an off shade of purple.

  “I can’t kill him,” Persephone said in a bored tone. “But I can make him hurt. And when I’m done punishing him for what he’s done to me, I’m going to rip you limb from limb.”

  Spencer was not going to let that happen. This bitch had taken enough for one night. She didn’t know what being a Gravewalker was, but she’d seen firsthand already what she could do to a spirit. Persephone might have a body now, but tethers could be snapped.

  She tugged on all of the anger and the grief she’d felt the past six months. Pulled on her fear, on her guilt. She thought about the feel of Hadrian’s arms around her, of the way he’d held her hand and made her face her fear of Cerberus. How he’d gotten her the dress that was now bloody and ruined. His screams filled her ears, reminding her of Micah’s earlier.

  Then she thought one thing and one thing only. She let the thought consume her, become her. And she shot all of it out towards Persephone, everything she was and had.

  Persephone’s eyes widened a fraction of a second before the blast hit her. A shriek tore from her pink lips, and she threw up her arms too late. Light exploded in every direction, bouncing off the walls and momentarily encasing everything.

  Spencer didn’t have to worry about it blinding her, however. Her eyes were already closed, her body slowly falling backwards as her energy was completely drained away. She felt light and numb all at the same time.

  Her last thought was that Thayer must have made good on his promise. She must be in the river again, floating downstream weightlessly.

  She was already unconscious by the time she hit the ground.

  Chapter 32:

  “Spencer!” The voice sounded far away, and she groaned wanting nothing to do with it. “Spencer! Wake up! Spencer, please, wake up, love!”

  Love. The corner of her mouth curved in a small smile, as the word brought to mind a blond haired boy with hazel eyes. Within seconds the image changed, morphing to a shock of dark midnight hair and deep blue eyes instead.

  She frowned. That wasn’t right.

  Strong arms banded around her, shook her, forcing her to make her way out of the darkness and back to the waking world, even though all she wanted to do was drift further into sleep. She was exhausted, felt like she hadn’t rested in weeks or months. But the hard floor beneath her was uncomfortable, and the voice so insistent…

  Blinking open her eyes, she inhaled slowly when she saw his panicked face above hers. Then it all came rushing back to her and she shot into an upright position, twisting around, readying herself for an attack.

  “Shh,” Hadrian reached for her, settled her back against his chest. “It’s ok, Spencer. You’re ok. It’s all going to be alright.”

  “Persephone…”

  “She’s gone.” At her hopeful look he shook his head. “Not dead. You weren’t strong enough to do that. But you got rid of her. It was…” he stared down at her in apparent awe. “It was incredible. The power you drew out forced her soul to scatter. It’ll take her a while to regroup. Gives us time to figure all of this out.”

  She nodded, understanding what he was saying somehow. It wasn’t over. Not yet. She flexed her hands on his arms, trying to steady herself. “I feel weak.”

  “It’ll pass,” he told her gently. “You exuded a lot of energy. More than your body was prepared for. You’re lucky to be alive. For a moment there it was like watching the car barreling towards you all over again.”

  “How did she do that to you?” she asked.

  “Judging my godliness?” he attempted to lighten the mood. “She caught me by surprise. I didn’t expect…Had I known she was behind all of this I would never have left you alone for a single second. She’s a powerful Gravewalker; the first of her kind, in fact.”

  Spencer felt her stomach lurch, and scrambled away just in time to upchuck her lunch in the corner.

  He held her hair back as she did, patiently waiting for her to be done.

  Settling back against the wall for support, she met his gaze. There was so much that needed explaining, so much she didn’t know, but one thing stuck out more than the rest, weighing on her.

  “You told me she wasn’t real,” she whispered, feeling a fresh well of betrayal grip her.

  He glanced away, running a hand through his dark hair. “You have to understand, Spencer,” he told her, “she is my greatest regret.”

  “She’s the statue in your courtyard,” she swallowed, “isn’t she?”

  “It was modeled after her, yes,” he admitted. “But that was before I knew who she really was, the type of person she really was. It’s not as the myth claims. I didn’t kidnap her, didn’t force her to marry me. Everything else I told you was true; the only thing I kept from you was her existence.”

  “And Gravewalkers?” she pointed out, pushing away the guilt when he flinched. “What the hell am I, Hadrian?”

  He sighed. “Some souls are too strong for death, their will to live too great. When they die, they enter the Acheron just like everyone else, but instead of moving forward, they pause. They wait. And they turn back.”

  “Like a near-death experience?” She frowned. “That happens all the time. Syd—”

  “Isn’t a Walker,” he said. “She wasn’t there long eno
ugh to become one.

  Near-death experiences aren’t the same. Usually, a body is brought back to life because it’s not their time yet. Their trip to the Underworld is brief, and they never fully cross the river. But you, you were marked. You were supposed to die that night, and you weren’t supposed to come back.

  “When you did, you were something else. Your soul, belonging in the Underworld, and your body belonging here, holds you forever torn between the two. You can come and go from either as you please. And you can bring others with you.”

  She brought a hand to her mouth, biting down on her tongue to snap herself out of it. Bringing her knees up to her chest, she clicked the rest of the pieces in place, feeling her heart break a little with each one.

  “That’s really why I was able to get into the Underworld,” she said. “Why you let me into your castle. Why you agreed to a deal. Were you ever really going to bring Micah back?”

  He refused to meet her gaze.

  “Oh my god.” She caught herself and glared at him. “No, not god. Monster.”

  He grimaced. “Maybe at first I misled you,” he tried to explain, “but that changed, Spencer. The moment I got to know you, that I realized you were nothing like Persephone, it changed. I was going to bring back Micah at the end of our deal. I still intend to.”

  “You’re crazy if you think after all of this, I’m going to go through with that,” she snapped, and he stiffened.

  His eyes narrowed slightly. “Allowing a Gravewalker to live is forbidden. My brother and I agreed to it centuries before you were born. I should have killed you the second you stepped foot in the Underworld, but I didn’t.”

  “Because you were curious.”

  “Because I couldn’t!” he growled. “Damn it, Spencer, I told you how I feel about you. That wasn’t a lie.” He took hold of her arms, forcing her to meet his gaze. “What you are makes you a danger to the entire world. You can undo me.”

  “Persephone said she couldn’t kill you.” Her feelings were scattered, blown to smithereens. One-liners were pretty much all she could manage.

  “You still don’t see it.” He squeezed his eyes shut, getting control of himself, before opening them on her once more. “It isn’t because you’re a Gravewalker, it’s because you’ve got me completely unhinged. I can’t do anything without thinking about you. When I couldn’t find you at the dance…I had Reapers looking everywhere, every classroom, your house, your car.

  “Persephone knew I was close, knew that I’d sense Sarah’s soul if she let it linger, so she banished it to the Underworld almost as soon as she’d slit her wrist. If Thayer hadn’t sensed the death and come to get me—”

  “Thayer told you where I was?” That surprised her, despite the deal that they’d just made.

  “I was shocked too,” he said. “I’d punched him a couple times before he was finally able to convince me he had nothing to do with it and it wasn’t a trap. By the way, I think I might be suspended from school. The principal saw me.”

  She was still too stunned to laugh. “What was she to you?” she asked instead. “How much of the myth is real?”

  He refused to let her go, but settled back on his haunches. “Persephone was once just a girl like you. Beautiful, enough so that her entire village loved and coveted her. One day while she was out picking flowers with some friends, she fell. She’d slipped on some rocks and tumbled down a ravine, hitting her head. She died instantly.

  “Her friends carried her back home, and they laid her body down where everyone could see and grieve. I happened to be at the river at the time, and I saw her. I thought I fell in love with her, so when she begged me to let her go back, to return to her body, I complied. I couldn’t bear the thought of one as beautiful as her dead. I let her, and expected not to see her again for another forty years at least. I never intended for her to become something else. For her to change.”

  “Gravewalker,” Spencer said, trying not to dwell on the part where he’d confessed he’d loved her.

  “Yes. The first, a creature I had a hand in creating. She came back to me that night, and the night after that. To explain away her sudden return, the villagers created the story of me kidnapping her, and for six straight months she remained down below with me, in order to get a handle on her abilities.

  “We discovered them together, but when she returned topside, I found out she was using them to thwart Death. She brought back whoever she pleased, yanked souls from the Underworld that weren’t meant to be freed. That’s when Thayer intervened, but she quickly had him under her spell as well. He fell in love with her, too. We warred for her attentions, turning a blind eye to all the evil she was doing, all the people and souls she was destroying in her lust for power.”

  “The war you told me about,” Spencer filled in, recalling how he’d explained most of the other gods had died. “You were responsible.”

  “Yes. When Zeus fell, it was like a rude awakening. We took a look at the damage we’d done, and then at the girl we thought that we loved. She’d used us, pitted us against one another. And we’d let her. By then she’d become so powerful, that both of us were needed in order to drag her back to the Underworld and lock her away in Tartarus. We made a pact, to never allow another Gravewalker to live long enough to cause that kind of damage. The power is addicting, controlling. A mortal was never meant to have it, and it drove Persephone insane. She came undone, the kind and caring girl she’d been completely disappearing beneath the darkness.

  “But you’re not her,” he took her hand in his, “your will is stronger than she’ll ever be.”

  “How can you be so sure?” she whispered. She might throw up again. He was basically telling her that being a Gravewalker would turn her evil. She’d seen the malice in Persephone’s eyes. She didn’t want that. Didn’t want to turn into that. If what he said was true, she’d once been a good, normal girl, whose only fault had been to wish to live.

  “She couldn’t let go,” she realized. “She couldn’t accept death, and it made her malicious. I couldn’t let go of Micah…”

  “Stop,” he ordered softly. “Don’t do that to yourself. You’re nothing like her.”

  “I don’t even know who I am.”

  “I know,” he pressed. “I see you, Spencer. You won’t turn into her. You’re better than that. And if you need reminding,” he pulled her closer, shifting her into his arms, “I’ll be here to remind you.”

  She let herself take a moment to feel him around her, to rest her cheek against the solid plains of his chest. Then she pulled back, panic settling in again when she realized Micah was gone. How had she been so stupid as to forget him?!

  “Micah,” she went to pull away but he held her still.

  “He’s fine,” he told her. “Thayer took him. He’s fine, Spencer. Trust me.”

  For a suspended moment she sat there, half-in his arms half-out, searching herself for whether or not she still did trust him. After everything she’d just found out, she shouldn’t. It was crazy to in fact. He’d lied about Persephone, inadvertently risking the lives of everyone she cared about.

  Hell, this whole thing had started with a lie, him never really meaning to go through with bringing Micah back to life.

  Should have had him swear on the river Styx, she joked inwardly, recalling that he’d said the same thing to Persephone earlier. The fact that she could do that, however, that she could manage a joke at a time like this was all the answer she really needed.

  Before this whole mess she’d been willing to give him a chance. She’d wanted to take one for herself as well. That hadn’t changed. She still felt drawn to him in a way she never had with anyone else.

  With Micah it was different. He’d been a part of her life for so long that she’d found it impossible to imagine a world without him in it. If Thayer had taken him back to the Underworld, then that meant he’d want to stay with his dad for the nine months still. Nine months to rediscover herself. To get to know a guy other than Micah.
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  Despite everything, she still trusted Hadrian.

  “Take me home,” she told him, allowing him to wrap her against his side as he lifted them back to their feet. “What are we going to do about them?” she asked, pausing between Brodie and Sarah.

  “Ferris will take care of her and heal him,” he said. “We can’t have them finding her body and opening a case on this.”

  “Brodie isn’t dead?”

  “No, you saved him when you exorcised Pirithous. That’s what made Thayer begin to change his mind about you in the first place, and come get me.”

  For a split second she was pissed that the God of Death had waited so long, but the exhaustion took over and all else was washed away. She leaned against him and sent one last glance over her shoulder at Sarah, before walking out into the night.

  The dance was still going on, the lights flashing from inside the windows and the music blaring just loud enough for them to hear the lingering notes in the air. He brought her to her car, lifting her into the passenger seat as if afraid she didn’t have the strength to do it herself.

  She probably didn’t.

  She must have fallen asleep for a little while because the next time she opened her eyes, they were already half way to her house. She turned her head to see him watching the road.

  When he noticed her looking, he reached over and took her hand in his.

  She smiled.

  “I was coming back,” she told him so quietly she wasn’t sure if he could hear. He quirked a brow and she knew he had. “When Pirithous grabbed me. I was coming back to the gym.”

  His face fell, but she tightened her grip on him when he would have pulled away. He set a questioning look on her.

  Give into Desire, Swim through the river of Fire. She thought of his tattoo, briefly wondering if he’d gotten it for Persephone before forcing the thought away. It didn’t matter. None of that mattered.