by Holly Hook
"Sure did." Cal reached in Maria's backpack and produced a glass bottle that might have held milk in the nineteen fifties. Well, a plastic jug wasn't going to do for holding something so dangerous. "Thing is, who's going to go down there and fill this? Should we draw straws?"
I stood on my tiptoes. The river must span a good thirty feet, judging from the chasm, with the neat, trimmed grass rising on the other side.
"Maybe?" Maria asked with a grimace.
I crept forward, joining Ronin at the point where the ground sloped downward. Then I saw what Cal, who was taller than me, meant.
The drop-off was steep. As in, we'd have to slide down it steep. The grass didn't grow here--it was just dirt--and at the very bottom, with a very narrow bank, flowed the River Lethe.
And it was even more terrifying than I remembered.
"Yikes," Wendy said.
Shocker.
The water, almost whitish, fizzled like acid, and the incredible chill rising from the river took me back to that day in Gramp's Convenience Store. The water itself held an eerie glow as it bubbled near the bank. What was this place again? I backed off, breathing normal air.
One bad whiff would make me forget who I was and why we were here.
"This is dangerous," Wendy said. She checked behind her, to the now-distant black wall of the palace. "Whoever goes down there is going to forget everything until they back out again. I felt it just now. For a few seconds I forgot that I now hate Hades and my entire life."
"Wendy," I said.
She glared at me, but the thrum of her dread didn't strike. Instead, she must be turning it inward. Pain flashed in her dark eyes. Wendy's world had collapsed within a couple of hours.
"What?"
"You've had way too many people betray you," I forced. "It's not fair."
"Giselle's right," Mikey said. "You can get revenge by helping us grab that water and getting out of here before Hades is able to get out of his palace. We don't have much time. And by the way, we can't go back the way we came. Is there another way out of here?"
"Well, we can't get into Elysium and get out that way." Wendy swallowed, turning her gaze to the amazing landscape on the other side. "There must be a way back to the Asphodel Meadows because all the dead have to drink from this river to reincarnate. That means there's an entrance and it'll be close to this river. And from there, we can get out."
"Good," I said, following the river's flow with my gaze. It curved, leaving my view. Where did it go?
"Who goes down?" Cal asked with a shrug. He, too, eyed the distant palace, of which we could only see one black wall set into stone. "No King of Darkness yet, but as soon as he recovers--"
"Me," I volunteered.
Ronin gripped my shoulders from behind. "Me." He left no room for argument.
"You already threw Cerberus into the river," I said. "Let someone else go."
"I'm only allowed one hero move per day?"
"Yes. You guys will need to remind me what to do once I'm down there. Do we, um, have a rope we could tie to me? In case I fall in?" Crazy.
Maria frowned and looked to Mikey.
"No," she said. "For once I'm not prepared."
"Then you'll just have to order me around," I said, reaching for the glass jug Cal held.
"Giselle, breathe enough of that stuff in and you could be doomed. We'll be starting all over." Pain flashed in Ronin's eyes. If that happened, I'd forget about my friends. And him, too.
"I'll volunteer, then," Wendy said, snatching the jug from Cal. "And no one is going to argue." A few tiny tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, refusing to fall.
"Wendy, don't do this," I said. "I'm more likely to recover from something like this. You won't. Do you really want to forget everything that's happened in your life?"
"Maybe." She squared off with me, daring me to say more.
But what could she do? Banish me to the Underworld? "Then everyone can take advantage of you and that's not cool. It won't make things better."
She paused and screwed up her face. "Maybe I'd have my friends back."
Cal shifted leg to leg and Ronin released my shoulders. Maria and Mikey looked at each other.
"Those aren't your friends," I said.
"But--"
I marched over and I seized the jug from Wendy's grasp.
At the same time, Maria grabbed her shoulder. "We've got your back."
I didn't wait to see Wendy's reaction. Before Ronin could stop me, I turned away, sat on the edge of the drop-off, and filled my lungs with normal air. If I worked fast, I could get down and up again without breathing. Fifteen feet down. Fifteen feet back up. I slid, in a sitting position, closer to the bank, which had to be less than a foot wide. The ground down here was rocky. Uneven. Slippery. My feet struck the stones and I sunk my hand into dirt to keep from tumbling into the water.
My lungs began to burn. Icy vapor wrapped around me, freezing the outside of my nose, begging me to give in and inhale.
“Hurry,” Cal said. “We'll help you back up.”
The River Lethe continued to foam and fizzle at the edges. It promised icy, carbonated pain. I took the glass bottle and sunk it halfway into the river, collecting the water. The burning in my lungs intensified. The bottle got heavier, threatening to pull out of my grasp. Come on. I had to fill it. Get as much as we could. It would take a lot to make an immortal forget, right?
I had to breathe.
“Giselle!” Ronin shouted. “We have to move. That's enough!”
I'd filled the bottle three quarters of the way up. Water lapped over my fingers, turning them to the arctic, and I gasped.
Someone above me cursed. What was I doing, filling a bottle from such a nasty-looking river? How did I even get here?
“Climb back up. Don't spill any of that. Cal has the lid we should have given you,” a guy above me said, looking down. “I'll help you.” He got on his stomach and extended his hands. He was a cute guy, with attitude written all over his strong jawbone and dark hair that spilled over his golden-flecked eyes. A god descendant. And what were we doing in this strange place?
I sensed I needed to take the help.
I lifted the glass jug from the river. Frost formed on the glass. The water was below freezing. No matter what was happening, getting away from this river was a good idea. Dread curled in my gut. Something was wrong.
So I climbed, sinking my legs into the dirt, and then I slid.
The cute guy cursed again.
He shuffled down the hill towards me. But he lost his footing and toppled towards me, and we crashed into each other. Colors exploded in my vision. A girl screamed from above us as we fell closer to the deadly cold river. I could barely hold the jug out and avoid a spill. The guy wrapped his arm around me, digging his foot into the dirt, trying to stop us from falling to our doom. We hit the rocks. Ice invaded my shoe as I fell back towards doom.
The world exploded into green.
Twin green walls, made of leering spirit faces and swirling, eerie magic, screamed along either side of us as the guy and I fell back onto mossy rocks and wet gravel. We crashed onto a now water-free riverbed. Pain exploded along my arms and legs as rocks jabbed. Feet away, water pushed against one of the green walls. Retreated from the other. The deathly cold retreated, leaving the air normal once again.
The guy landed next to me, arm over my side. His touch was electric, and the longer we were lying here, facing each other, the stronger it got. But it didn't hurt. Instead, there was something fierce and protective about it.
“Ronin.” It all came back. We had to get out. Wendy's walls of magic wouldn't part the river for long. I tightened my grasp on the jar, which hadn't lost much water, and stood, grabbing Ronin's arm. He rose.
“Giselle.” He spoke as if to solidify my existence.
“Get out!” Wendy shouted. She stood at the edge of the drop-off, pointing her glowing sword down at us. “I'm doing you a favor!"
Ronin nodded to me. “Up. I
'll follow you.”
How could I argue? I ran across the riverbed, now dry, and dug my hands into the dirt while Ronin took the jar from my hands. He tossed it upward, and it sailed up to Cal, who caught it without a hitch. Amazing. That left us free to climb.
Cal lowered the jug, screwed a lid on it, and looked behind him. “The master of darkness is coming. Gotta go!”
"Come on!" Mikey shouted.
"Hurry!" Maria.
My arms strained and screamed, but Maria leaned over and pulled me out. Ronin refused her help, hoisting himself up.
Yikes. Cal was right. Hades was coming.
From maybe a half mile away, a dark chariot roared towards us, pulled by two white horses. Hades himself stood like Death in his black robe, snapping the reins, ready to mow us down. The roar of hoofbeats followed.
I crossed my legs, bladder ready to let go. We couldn't cross the river. The bank on the other side was too steep, meant to keep out the unworthy.
Below, the green magic snapped out of existence and Wendy leaned over, gasping for breath, sweat pouring down her forehead.
“Wendy!” Mikey shouted.
“Ronin. Grab her,” I said. “She's overexerted!”
He nodded, grabbing Wendy by the torso. I took her sword, avoiding the Chaos Dagger now back on Ronin's belt. More green energy filled me as the River Lethe crashed back together and resumed its flow to oblivion. My mind sharpened. Holding Wendy's birthright weapon lent me that eerie green magic, but not nearly as much as Hades had. But this was all I had. Wendy was out of commission.
Mikey frowned at me while Cal balled his fists, summoning sunlight around them. And I understood. I had to find the nearest exit.
I closed my eyes. We had less than a minute to decide. Hooves drove closer. Dread grew. I grabbed onto that green Underworld energy, sensing my surroundings, letting them pop in my mind. Exit. I sensed the River Lethe with its cold magic of oblivion, following the flow with my mind until the river vanished into a narrow tunnel, about a quarter mile around the bend.
And it was big enough to let us through...if we swam.
“Guys,” I said, opening my eyes. “Dive into the river and let it take us away. Keep your mouths shut. Don't drink, and we might recover once we're through.”
Chapter Twenty
I kept my death grip on Wendy's sword as I grabbed Ronin's arm and pulled him the river's bank. Maria took Wendy from him, drawing a groan from her.
"Let me down," Wendy said.
"We can't dive in there," Ronin shouted.
Mikey sat at the drop-off, ready to slide down. "We stay, we die!"
The god of the Underworld rapidly approached. The thunder of his horses grew louder by the second. He'd reach us in less than half a minute. One of the horses snorted greenish vapor. The chariot wheels squeaked and screamed. Hades was fear itself.
Even with Wendy's weapon and Ronin's electricity merging with the power of this place, I'd never take him down. I eyed the Chaos Dagger.
"Take it!" Ronin shouted, thrusting his hip at me.
"No." Strength flowed through me. Terror. My heart raced and I pushed Ronin off the edge of the bank. We slid down together.
"Here we go!" Maria followed, Wendy in tow. She sucked in a breath and dove into the icy, frothing water. A loud splash followed, splattering brutal cold drops on my skin. They soaked through my clothes, but it was too late to go back.
"Hold on!" Cal shouted to Mikey. Beside us, the two plunged into the water, wrapped around each other, and a pair of dark forms zoomed past, swept away by the liquid ice.
"We might die," Ronin said.
I tightened my grasp on Wendy's sword and we dove.
Ice stabbed into my body from every angle. I was arctic pain. Someone screamed beside me as the current swept us around the curve. There was no resisting. The water was power itself. I wrapped my numb arm around Ronin's side--maybe--and held my breath. Maybe if I did that long enough, I could keep my memory.
Our cheeks touched.
He, too, held his breath. I lifted a sword out of the water, a terrifying sword glowing greenish-black with skulls on the handle--as horses approached the upper bank of the river, peered over at us, and stopped. A god in a black robe glared down, arm raised, furious green energy spinning around his outstretched hand. I didn't know who he was, only that this was bad, and I ducked my head, nose just two inches from the surface of the deadly ice. No. I couldn't submerge myself in this. I didn't know why, but I sensed putting my face in this water would be the end.
Green energy exploded behind us.
I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, darkness fell over us. The roar of water echoed everywhere as we rounded a curve.
A tunnel with a low ceiling waited ahead.
"Hold on!" the guy shouted. I was in a tunnel with a hot guy who felt like electricity. He was the only warmth in this place. I might not know what was happening, or how I got here--
I couldn't feel anything anymore. The darkness turned complete, and all was pitch black. Smooth stone scraped the top of my head. We had just a foot of air. Maybe less. Panic exploded in my chest. We could drown--
The guy seethed.
And ahead, a girl screamed, the sound stretched by the tunnel.
Who was I, and how did I wind up in a tunnel of horror?
But far ahead, maybe miles ahead, maybe feet ahead, a pale green light shone. Water lashed at my cheeks, stabbing with the cold of deep space. My blood must be freezing. I could no longer move my limbs. Or if I could, I couldn't tell. We were turning to a lump of ice, together.
Seconds, or maybe minutes later, the green glow enveloped us and the world opened. The water slowed as if we'd just finished a brutal water slide at an amusement park. I drifted past a girl with black hair that clung to her face, and she paddled to a low, shallow shore lined with dingy tall grass and a few white flowers. Another girl helped to pull her to shore. The air beyond rippled almost as if heat were rising from it, but I sensed none here. I just needed to get to land.
“Come on,” I rasped, hoarse.
“No kidding,” the guy said, raising an eyebrow at me. Tremors racked his body. The girls made it to shore and I ordered my legs to kick. Were they moving?
The girl with red lipstick spit up water as she struggled to her feet, dripping and giving off vapor.
Two guys, wrapped in each others' arms, appeared from the water, only these two, a stunning blond and a smaller guy with brown hair, didn't spit up any water.
The hot guy kicked beside me, kicking up water so much it must be hitting the opposite shore. And looking away for a moment, I saw why. The river dropped off ahead, roaring as it plummeted down what appeared to be a chasm.
“Get onto shore,” the guy said. “I might be buff and hot, but I can't do this by myself.”
The guy tickled my memory, sending a bit of warmth through my limbs. I paddled, and inch by inch, we made it to shallower water and rose into a standing position. I still held the terrifying sword, which flared green and then black as I stood. The guy wore a small dagger with a black handle, one that sent a shudder through me as I eyed it. I both wanted to touch it and look away.
Dripping liquid ice, we both stepped out of the water and onto packed dirt. More vapor rose from us as if the water itself hated our bodies. The girl who had been spitting faced me, and my mind fired off two words.
Maria. Wendy.
But at the same time, dread curled into my gut.
“Spit all of it up,” Maria ordered Wendy. Though both had just left the river, most of the water had evaporated from their clothes already, turned to whitish vapor that sank and merged back with the river. Maria trembled.
"I'm trying," Wendy said.
My blood flowed back into my limbs. The guy whose waist I still had my hand around cursed. On the other side of him, the other two guys sat down beside one of the plants with the white flowers. My clothes dried by the second. It was the strangest sensation.
Th
en my gaze fell on the field beyond these people I must know.
A strange vapor made of ghostly arms, legs, and faces hung over the vast meadow. Spirits. They occupied every inch, merging with each other. A shudder ran up my spine, along with a sense that holding this sword was somehow giving me the ability to see them clear. I let go of it, letting it fall to the grass, and instantly the spirits turned to just a hint of warped air. I breathed a sigh of relief as the greenish, eerie magic left my body.
“Wise choice,” Ronin said.
Ronin.
And Cal. And Mikey. For a few horrible minutes, they had been strangers. I looked down at my clothes, now mostly dry. I let go of Ronin's waist and then held hands with him instead. Though his palm was cold, electricity flowed, and I took some of it for myself, letting his power gather in my chest. We were all alive. And my memory was coming back.
We had just escaped a very angry Hades.
And now we needed to escape the realm that bore his name.
“Everyone,” I said, raspy. “We need to move. Wendy, you need to pick us some of these, um, asphodel flowers on the way out of here.”
Wendy didn't look at me. Instead, she paced as if confused. And Maria, who stood beside her, shook her head at me with wide eyes.
“Her memory,” she said. “She's lost it.”
“Shit,” Ronin said, letting go of my arms. “I might be able to jog it if Giselle doesn't kill me.” He looked to me, silently asking permission to talk to her.
“What are you doing to do?” Time was wasting. I couldn't tell how long we'd been down here, or how much time had passed on the surface world, or how close the weekend was to being over. Once over, Maria's pass would expire. And then--
“Wendy used to have a crush on me,” Ronin said. “I could appeal--”
“No,” I said, not because I was jealous, but because Wendy had been through enough cruelty at the hands of everyone. Yeah, I was defending her. To give her Ronin and then take him away again would shatter what little sanity she had left. So I took my hand from Ronin's and walked over to Wendy, stepping in front of her. “Wendy.”