by Molly Ringle
“Yes.” Tracy frowned around at the sea caves, still full of echoing water and shadows, looking about as they did in the regular world. “But this isn’t the Underworld, is it.”
Tenebra stood again and examined their surroundings. “No souls. Likely not.”
“I thought so.” He sighed. “None of our sources say it’s on an island, so I imagined Diros was the likelier set of caves, not Zakynthos. Still, this is useful to know.”
“We will try Diros soon, then. It is just across the water, yes?”
“On the mainland and further south. Ah, there, see?” He pointed. In the deepening twilight over the water, a glowing human soul streaked southward. As they watched, other faint streaks dashed across the sky, all going the same direction. “If I had to triangulate from them, I’d say Diros was exactly where they’re headed. We’ll know soon.”
“Yes.” She grasped his hand. “Now take me back and forth some more. I must sense this magical wall better, learn how to hold it open for our soldiers.”
Tracy took her over the boundary and back several times. They were fortunate in having the section of cave to themselves, but it wasn’t a large spot. There was only this narrow ledge to stand on. You couldn’t even get down here by land; they’d arrived by a small motorboat they’d rented. It was that or swim, which wasn’t appealing in the biting February wind and choppy waves.
“I think I begin to see,” Tenebra said after a few minutes. “But it will take some study, some practice. Perhaps—”
Her sentence was interrupted by a giant creature who surged up out of the water at their feet. Its honking roar reverberated in the sea caves. Tracy caught a glimpse of meter-long tusks and other huge teeth in an open mouth big enough to swallow both their heads at once, all attached to a several-ton brown body throwing itself onto the ledge.
He barely had time to scrabble for the gun in his pocket when Tenebra pronounced, “Sormajhaturm!”
The animal grunted and fell limp. Even dead, it was tremendously imposing: lying in a heap, it rose as high as Tracy’s chest, and reeked of marine life.
He grimaced, and prodded its leathery hide with his now-soaked shoe. “God in heaven. What is it? Part walrus, part hippo, but twice as big as either?”
“There are dangers here.” Tenebra regarded the beast grimly. “As we have been told. However…” She tilted her head as she studied it, then pulled out a utility knife from a pocket. “This may be of use, magically. Help me take some blood while it is still warm.”
***
Sophie held a dinner party in the Airstream a couple of nights after Groundhog Day. Just family, or close enough: Liam, Tab, and Zoe got treated to her cooking, Rosie got to nose around on the floor for scraps, and the souls of Terry and Isabel hung out during dinner and joined in the conversation. Sophie made vegetarian chili from scratch, along with cornbread—also from scratch, naturally.
“Those boxed mixes will not do,” she informed her guests.
“When you get to know her longer,” Tab told Zoe, pouring her another glass of red wine, “you’ll learn she says that every time she makes or serves cornbread.”
“Because it’s true,” Sophie defended, while everyone laughed.
“That’s my girl,” Terry said.
There’d been a lot of laughing, actually. On her part too. Tonight was the first time she’d felt anything like the domestic warmth and happiness she’d been missing with such agony. It was inspiring that she could manage this even in the spirit realm, with her parents in ghost form, in a crowded trailer borrowed from her on-hold boyfriend who was out there making sure a cult wasn’t going to attack anyone tonight.
Must be the scents and nourishment of a proper home-cooked meal at last. And the wine. And the chocolate cake—from scratch. Couldn’t discount those.
The comfortable glow stayed with her after everyone had departed for the night. Zoe and Tab had done the dishes and put away the leftovers, so Sophie was at leisure to lean against the counter with a mug of chamomile tea and gaze at the candles that still burned on the table. A Greek radio station played Euro-pop at low volume.
She had to decide what life was going to look like for the better part of her future, and she couldn’t decide that until the latest imminent Thanatos threat had been smacked down. But if her future included occasional evenings like this, in a home that felt like this—but a little bigger—she could be content with that. Maybe it could be managed after all, a life that balanced the spirit realm and the living realm. Tonight it felt more plausible than usual, though she had a lot of logistics to sort out yet.
Her gaze strayed to the bathroom. She ought to change the towels tonight, and wash them tomorrow along with the sodden dish towels hanging over the sink. Small tasks now. Big life decisions later. She set her mug down and got on her knees to dig into the lower cabinet where Adrian had stashed towels, toilet paper, soap, and other supplies.
Including condoms. She found the box of them, still unopened, under a folded washcloth, and pulled it out to stare at it in surprise. Adrian had never mentioned owning these. But then, he and she hadn’t quite worked up to doing that yet. Just other things. Really lovely other things.
Her mind danced down those steamy stepping stones: insatiable immortals Persephone and Hades, newlyweds Akis and Galateia, and seventy-some other lives in between until getting to Sophie and Adrian unable to keep their hands off each other in the twenty-first century.
A bolt of lust shimmered through her—easily the first time she’d felt that in almost two months.
It dissolved away, but left her contemplating many interesting questions as she changed the towels and finished her tea.
In Freya’s latest life, up until becoming immortal, she had been a women’s health practitioner and sex therapist. Pretty much inevitable for that soul, Sophie figured. What with that consideration and others, Freya stood as pretty much the only person who could now answer Sophie’s question.
So after drying out her mug, she picked up her phone and texted Freya.
Hey! Random question, just curious. What’s the best method of birth control w/ immortals these days?
Goodness, Sophie, Freya responded a minute later. Who do you have in there with you?? ;)
Haha. No one. I found condoms though, not sure why they’re here, and it made me wonder.
Oh yes, I told Adrian to get those, months ago when he was talking about finding you. They’re one half of the best method. Other half is cloudhair seeds, as before.
But condoms… Sophie texted. Wouldn’t things…break through?
No. Our men don’t do *everything* at super strength. ;)
Ohhh-kay, now came the blushing.
Ha. Guess not, she responded. So then, cloudhair seeds too?
Yes. I made capsule form. No more chewing the nasty things. I’ll bring u some tomorrow!
No rush, but thx. So that all works, really?
Has worked for me so far, Freya answered. I’ll of course keep researching other methods. Let me know if you think of any with your plants too.
I will, thanks, Sophie texted back.
Well, okay. There was one possibility for the future. Go in with Freya on spirit-world-sourced birth-control botanicals. Always a market for that.
Sophie snorted a laugh, and stashed the condoms back in the cupboard.
Chapter Forty-Four
Adrian was alarmed at first when Freya showed up to find him. It was night, and he was wandering the streets in the village on Zakynthos where the Thanatos team was staying. He was wearing pieces of the inane disguises Niko had brought him, and supposed his current look was meant to be “uni student on holiday,” as it was a tan wool blazer made forty years ago, his blond-streaked wig and thick-rimmed glasses, and a beige Cambridge University cap.
Freya had no trouble recognizing him, of course. She strolled up to him in her blue ski parka, tight jeans, and beret. “Hello, dear. Have a moment?”
“Sure.” He beckoned her into a cobble
stoned alley, empty of life except for a couple of cats. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just a friendly visit.” She swung a leather bag off her shoulder and unzipped it. “How is it going, tracking our dickhead friends?”
“The usual.” He sighed. “Krystal’s staying in a house at the end of this street. Tracy too, I think. They go in, they go out, they talk to people, but sometimes I lose track of them, like I don’t know, maybe they’ve got secret ways to sneak in and out or something. I see other people, but I rarely see the ones I’d recognize. I can’t find this golden leaf thing anywhere in their rooms, nor anything like weapons that could get them arrested, but I don’t dare get close very often. They’ve come to Greece, so they’re closing in on us. They’ll work out which sacred cave is the Underworld any day now. They might be making colossally important plans right this minute and I wouldn’t bloody know because I can’t just pop into the room and listen, nor read their phones over their shoulders, nor track any of them except Krystal…argh.” He shut up, and returned the glare one of the cats was giving him from a window ledge.
“Relax,” Freya said. “Take a break and do something nice for yourself. Here, humor me. Come into the other realm a minute.”
“Fine. What.” They switched realms, and wound up on one of the scrubby hillsides facing the sea, of which Greece seemingly had a million. The sea at the moment, though, was a softly thundering expanse of black, invisible under the moonless sky.
Freya turned on a couple of camping lanterns and set them on rocks nearby. She took the hat and wig off Adrian’s head. Then she pulled items out of the bag: comb, scissors, and electric clippers with various attachments. “Look at me,” she said. “Hold still.”
He obeyed.
The clippers began buzzing. “You could rock this bearded Hades look,” she said. “But it needs a little grooming.” The clippers zapped his upper lip in one spot, then another.
“Ow!”
“I said hold still.”
She kept buzzing and trimming a few minutes, then let him rub his mouth and cheeks with his sleeve. He spat out the stray bits of hair that had fallen on his lips.
“There.” She held up a compact mirror for him. “Much better, yes?”
His lips were visible again, with a few centimeters cleared around them, and the thin beard on his chin and jawline had gone from chaotic scruff to a defined shape. He looked a good deal more like some bloke in an ad for man-scented body wash. “I guess that’s…a good thing?” he said, in response both to his own thought and to what he saw in the mirror.
“Uber-hot. She’ll like it.” Freya tucked away the mirror.
She. Right. Tenderness bruised him inside again.
Adrian bowed his head, running finger and thumb around his admittedly more kissable mouth. “I don’t know. If you were her, wouldn’t you just walk away from the person who unleashed all that horror into your life?”
“If you two were any other souls, maybe. But when have you ever walked away from each other without regretting it, in any life? She knows that.”
“I’m not so sure.”
“Goddess of love. Trust me.” Freya turned off the lanterns and stashed them in the bag.
Adrian exhaled a puff of air. “Anyway, thanks. I look better.”
“You do, and she’ll notice. I think she already has. Otherwise why would she ask me about birth control for immortals?”
He snapped up his head. “What?”
Grinning, Freya swung her bag back onto her shoulder. “Nothing, dear.” Then she frowned, and turned abruptly, as if listening.
Adrian listened too. “What are you…”
“Zeus. I sense him. He’s near.”
“That’s odd.”
They switched back into the living realm together, reappearing in the shadowed alley.
On the nearest street, a silver sedan with a taxi sign on top rumbled past. “I think he’s in that car,” Freya said.
They crept to the end of the alley to look after it.
“You said he was someone we didn’t know, right?” Adrian said.
“Yes, but I only looked him up once, over a year ago. I never found out his name or anything. He was in England at the time, in a pub, with a bunch of younger women.”
“Sounds like Zeus all right.”
The taxi stopped at the last building in the street’s dead end. Its tail lights glowed as it idled. The passengers got out and ambled into the house.
“That’s Erick Tracy and the Russian woman,” Adrian whispered.
Freya stared. “He’s Zeus.”
***
Sophie gazed at the red violets growing in front of her as she sat in the circle they’d formed for the latest group meeting. While the others settled into their places, she snuck another glance at Adrian, across from her. He’d trimmed up the scruff into a proper beard, not unlike Hades’ in some phases. And damn. He looked hot.
It was good to feel that a guy looked hot. Especially her guy, if she could still call him that. But when he glanced at her, she dropped her gaze back down to the flowers. They had issues on the agenda today rather more important than relationship questions. No point distracting herself until those were dealt with.
“Okay, everyone,” Adrian said. “Well, a few things to discuss. As you’ve heard, Freya has just learned Erick Tracy and Zeus are one and the same.”
“Would’ve been nice to know that earlier.” Tab wiggled her boot against Freya’s blue ballet flat as if to show she was only teasing.
“I would have said something if I could tell he was in Thanatos before,” Freya defended. “I couldn’t. I checked on him out of curiosity last year, but he seemed like a prick, so I left him alone. I never came near him again until last night. I’ve been helping out down here.”
“It’s all right,” Adrian said. “No harm done. In fact, this is great. One more window into the cult. But Freya, it does mean you’re going to be the one responsible for watching him, since you’re the only one who can track him.”
Freya sighed. “Yes. All right.”
“Thanks, Freya,” Sophie said, and smiled when Freya glanced at her. Sophie remembered Freya doing surveillance on Quentin for her a few months ago, and finding it dreadfully tedious then too. Not the goddess of love’s ideal pastime.
“I will have to sleep sometimes,” Freya pointed out.
“Luckily they do too,” Adrian said. “But let’s have you get full time on following him, please, until we can close in and take them down.”
Freya nodded, though she twisted her lips into a pout.
“So,” Adrian said, “Zoe tells us the chrysomelia will be ripe soon, maybe in a couple more weeks. In that case, the question of who else to initiate. I know we’ve all been considering it. Zoe and Sophie, you were saying we should take up the group vote again?”
“Yes.” Sophie sat taller. “Like in the old days.” She looked at her mother, father, and grandfather, as well as Rhea, Sanjay, and Adrian’s mum—the representatives of the dead in this circle. “We should include you, the souls, this time too, though we’d have to think of a way for you to cast your vote since you can’t touch the stones.”
But most of them shook their heads with grateful smiles.
“This is a matter for living immortals,” Rhea said. “You are the ones it concerns most.”
“Besides,” Sophie’s grandpop said, “we dead don’t make good voters. We’re too forgiving. We’d say yes to everybody.”
“Not the bad guys,” Liam warned. “Don’t be too forgiving to them. You still have to stab them for us.”
“Oh sure,” Grandpop said. “To defend you guys, that we’ll do.”
“You say ‘living immortals,’” Sophie said to Rhea. “I agree. Liam and I shouldn’t vote yet. In fact, the rest of you have to vote on whether or not to let us in.”
Nearly everyone snorted or rolled their eyes. Sophie overrode the murmurs. “I know. You probably will. But it’s the proper procedure and you s
hould observe it.”
Adrian said, “I think it’s a good precedent to set, given how some fruits were handed out without group discussion.”
Tab and Zoe sent guilty grins at Niko, who smiled angelically.
Adrian looked around the circle. “Re-establish the group vote, then? All in favor?”
“Aye,” everyone chorused.
“Then I officially propose the names of Sophie and Liam.” Zoe smiled.
“Woohoo!” Liam pumped his fists in the air.
“I—” Sophie dropped her gaze. Her face heated in a flush. “I should tell you I haven’t completely decided yet. Whether to eat it, I mean.”
“Still, we can approve you,” Niko said, “then you can decide when it’s ripe.”
“Wait,” Liam said. “What about Rosie?” While the group’s gaze drifted to the boxer snoozing behind him, Liam continued, “It’s just, Adrian has an immortal pet, which is really cool, and Rosie went through a lot with us, so if I’m going to eat it—which I totally will, if I can—then I want her to eat it, too.”
“Fair enough,” Zoe said. “We can vote on that.”
“So who else?” Adrian asked. “There are former immortals we could yet approach. But…”
“But just because someone’s a former immortal doesn’t make them a brilliant choice,” Zoe said.
“Obviously,” Freya said. “Look at Thanatos. Quentin was Hera, Tracy was Zeus, and Krystal was Ares. A pack of douchebags.”
“Right,” Adrian said. “And the others, say—Artemis, Athena, Hephaestus—they’re people with their own lives now, and if we’re not particularly drawn to the idea of immortalizing them, then why not only pick the people we are drawn to? Even if they weren’t immortal before.”
“That’s what I was thinking too,” Sophie said. “Like Zoe’s parents. You know they’d say yes, and we all like them.”
The group nodded in encouragement. Zoe smiled and cast her gaze upward. “My mum and dad around for eternity. Oh Goddess, is the world ready for that?”
“But people like that,” Sophie said, “the ones we love, the ones we can trust, they’re the ones who should be our candidates. Besides, every soul knows about the Underworld, if you unlock their memories. Every soul knows about the immortals. We’re legends down here. We’re part of the common knowledge.”