Persephone’s lips curled from her teeth, the vein in her temple throbbing. “She was our bargaining chip. The one thing in my possession that could make Hades kneel before me like the pathetic insect he is. Now what? We offer up her corpse and pray for his mercy?” Her head snapped in Alice’s direction, venom dripping from her tone. “You. This is your fault. I brought you back to the land of the living, child, and I will gladly send you back.”
“You won’t touch me,” Alice stated as calmly as if she was merely commenting on the weather. “Because now you’ve seen what I can do and you know you need me. The girl was a liability. Far too large a risk for us to travel with. Consider this me doing you a favor.” Flipping blood-splattered hair over her shoulder, she glanced to Sterling with her brows raised in expectation. “You have an all-knowing mirror? Now would be a grand time to ask it for a bit of advice.”
Throwing her arms out wide, Persephone let them fall to her sides with a slap. “By all means, ask the mirror. Maybe it will have tips to help us dispose of the body.”
Sterling blinked her way, oblivious to sarcasm. “Not to be crass, but don’t you control plant life? Couldn’t you just… bury her beneath a nice shrubbery?”
Persephone’s mouth opened, only to snap back shut again. “Are you a lunatic or a genius? I really can’t figure it out.”
Plunging one hand into his satchel, Sterling let one shoulder rise and fall in a noncommittal shrug. “I’ve only ever been called one of those things.” Pulling out the shard of glass, he polished off the face with the cuff of his sleeve before peering into it. “Mirror, mirror, in my hand; uh… where should we venture from this land?”
The ghostly silhouette of Alastor’s face shimmered into view, a knowing smirk twisting up the corners of his lips. “Impromptu poetry is always a treat, yet you need not rhyme when you want us to meet.”
With the toe of her shoe, Persephone poked at Amphrite’s lifeless leg. “At war with the God of Death, hearts being ripped out of chests, lands torched by horrible wildfires… yet, somehow my biggest fear is coming out of this ordeal rhyming everything I say.”
“There are worse ways to spend a day,” Alice deadpanned, folding her blood-soaked hands over her chest.
Glancing to the side, Alastor peered off at something only he could see. “Hades comes, our time is short. Before I depart, I’ve something to report. Alice killed she who caused the abuse of my love. Your quest will benefit now that her you are free of. With Hades’ prize removed, the god will be enraged, making it far easier for his downfall to be arranged.”
Pupils dilating with vicious desire, Persephone crept closer, staring over Sterling’s shoulder with breathless interest.
“I wish not to insult anyone,” Sterling cast a sideways glance in Persephone’s direction, “but my goal is to help you, brother. To free you from your prison.”
Alastor’s expression softened, making him appear more the man he once was than the apparition he’d become. “You long to achieve the heroic, and that’s just what you’ll do. But the path to salvation depends on you. Turn back the clock, remember where you’ve been. With each jump, more clarity shall you win. Solve the riddle of why you are there, and you’ll free us unfortunate souls with time to spare.”
With those as his parting words, Alastor vanished from sight.
As he stowed the shard away with a visibly trembling hand, Sterling chewed on his lower lip. “I-I think I know what I must do, but I’m not sure I possess the control of my ability to achieve it. If either of you choose not to put your faith in me, I’ll understand.”
Stepping out of the grisly cabin scene that now reeked of the metallic scent of blood, Persephone slumped down on a neighboring boulder. Her hands fell between her knees. “Tell me the truth, I never made it out of the Underworld, did I? This is some cruel, nightmarish existence Hades cooked up to torment me. This may be his most elaborate hoax yet. The attention to detail is uncanny.”
Sterling glanced to his sister, his brow creased with uncertainty. “I’m bad with social cues. And people. And basic communication. Was that a yes? That the three of us are going to attempt this quest… with me at the helm?”
Expression detached and uninterested, Alice’s shoulders raised. “How the hell would I know? I’ve basically been dead a decade.”
Chapter Four
“No one has less faith in me than me.” Sterling puffed his cheeks and blew a rogue strand of hair from his eyes. “To know this entire quest rests on my shoulders, that people rely on me… well, that’s not a concept I’m accustomed to. Therefore, I deeply appreciate your encouragement to make this first pivotal jump.”
“Greater good, and all that. Can we let go of you now?” Persephone forced the words through her teeth in her struggle to keep her forearm wrapped around his neck in a tight head-lock.
“Oh! Absolutely.” Sterling nodded exuberantly as she dropped her hold. “Feeling I was making the jump under life or death circumstances made it easier for me to focus and get us here. Otherwise, my mind has a tendency to wander and we could have been whisked anywhere!”
“You don’t say?” The Queen of the Underworld gasped, feigning shock.
Eyebrows disappearing into his hairline, his head continued to bob. “No, it’s true. Alice, you can let go, too. Alice? She is still there, right? Otherwise, my arm is stuck at a most unnatural angle.”
With her wistful stare locked on the waves lapping at the sandy shoreline only a few feet away, Alice inhaled a lungful of salty sea air once, then again. “I’m here. I just forgot how wonderful the ocean smells.” Snapping back to the moment, she released her brother’s arm from where she had twisted his hand up between his shoulder blades.
Shaking out his aching limb, Sterling tried to sniff through his nose, only for his face to crumble in disgust. “I can’t smell anything. But, my lungs are burning something fierce. I don’t remember that from the last time I was in this realm.”
“It’s because you have gills,” Persephone stated matter-of-factly, gesturing to the flaps of skin on the sides of his neck which were expanding and contracting in frantic pants.
“Ah, of course. I should have warned you both ahead of time of that. Sometimes, jumping into a new realm can alter the jumpee’s physical form a bit. Usually, it’s as simple as a wardrobe fluctuation, other times your appendages get manipulated. You never know what’s to come until you get there. That said, it is interesting that you two seem unaffected, while I feel like I’m going to pass out a little bit.”
With Sterling swaying on his feet, Alice grabbed his forearms to steady him. “You need to get to the water, brother.”
“First, I need to know why I’m here.” Relying on his sister to remain upright, he pulled out his fragment of mirror.
This time, Alastor was there, eagerly waiting. “You’ve met my beloved under the sea. Down in the depths, that’s where she’ll be. I ask a favor of you, from man to man. Put a shard of my mirror in her hand.”
Eyes closing, as if in prayer, that eerie face in the mirror faded from sight.
“I have to…” Sterling wheezed, trying to snap the shard in half with his bare hands, “… break it.” Pressing the mirror to his knee, he attempted to yank up one side and snap it. A hard task made impossible by his entire body convulsing in his struggle to breath.
“Oh, for the love of Olympus, give it to me before you slice your leg open.” Snatching it away from him, Persephone used her thumbs and forefingers to snap it in two. “Now, get to the water before you die. You’ll be no use to me at all then.”
Managing nothing more than a nod, Sterling sprinted for the waterline and disappeared in the spray of white-capped waves.
Watching him disappear in the frothy seascape, Persephone jabbed her hands on her hips. “I can’t tell if your brother is brave or moronic. If I didn’t need him to find Hades—”
“You woke me from an eternal sleep.” Alice didn’t look the goddess’s way, but kept her gaze locked on
the horizon. “For that I am grateful and humbly return the favor.”
“I need nothing from you,” Persephone countered with a sideways glance.
“Oh, but you do.” Planting one heel in the sand, Alice swiveled in her direction. “Sterling seems to be a kind soul and good person.”
“Seems to be?” The queen hitched one brow.
“You woke up more than just a frightened young girl. I have all the energy of Pandora’s Box surging through my veins. The power of countless gods and goddesses flows through me.” Stepping in close, Alice offered Persephone a sweet smile that came nowhere near reaching her eyes. “If you hurt or deceive him in any way, I’ll end you with the pulse of one hand on that swan-like throat of yours.”
Persephone’s lips twisted to the side with haughty indifference. “That would be a terrifying declaration, if I believed you to be anything more than a puny human trumped up on power she doesn’t understand.”
“Try me. Any time, Your Highness.” Uttering the moniker with blatant distain, Alice turned back toward the sea to await her brother’s return.
As if cued by her attention, sea gulls cawed overhead and a flurry of activity erupted not thirty feet from the beach. The water boiled. Tentacles broke the surface in angry coils. Sterling was thrown from the sea, shrieking across the sky before slumping onto the beach in a crumpled heap.
“Sterling! Are you okay?” Alice raced to his side. “Your nose is bleeding!”
“Oh,” rolling onto his side, he wiped at his nose with the back of his hand, “that’s because the mermaid turned sea witch tried to shove the mirror up my nose. It seems she’s holding on to a lot of hostility… and ink.”
“Vanessa the mermaid princess did this?” Alice crouched down beside Sterling, brushing the sand from his cheek with the back of her hand.
“One and the same,” he sniffed, wiggling his nose to make sure it wasn’t broken. “Even so, I feel good about our interaction. I either gave her a way to conversate with the love of her life, or…”
“Or?” Persephone prompted, dipping her head to get a better look at the slice on the side of his nostril.
Picking a clump of seaweed out of his hair, Sterling tossed it aside. “Or, I armed her with a weapon she’ll use to impale someone. I’m doing my best not to entertain that thought.”
“Are we done here, then?” Rising to her feet, Persephone’s golden hair danced around her shoulders. The sunlight glistened off her porcelain skin like a dusting of diamonds. “You’ve finished your little task under the sea and are prepared to charter a course to a realm you can actually breathe in?”
Gills flapping with increasing urgency, Sterling’s brow furrowed as he stared off at the sea and considered the mysteries that lived within its vast body. “We can go. I can only hope I managed to plant seeds of hope beneath those waves... and that I don’t pass out before I manage our next jump.”
Down.
Down.
Down.
In the depths of the ocean, weathered into the side of a ridge, sat a cave that had become home to the most feared creature in all the Seven Seas.
Happy to be rid of her odd little visitor, Ursela cast the pointless fragment of glass aside with a flick of her wrist. Without a doubt, this was yet another thrill seeker looking to make his pulse race by coming face-to-face with the infamous sea witch. She must have been feeling a bit merciful, because she let him live.
Then again, her attentions were distracted. Her darling zebra sharks, Floteson and Jetteson, had ventured back from the Kingdom of Atlantica with news that her waste of gills brother, King Triton, was betrothed to a beauty from the Atlantic faction.
Lips pursed, Ursela’s tentacles roiled beneath her. “My apologies for the interruption, my sweet darlings. Please, tell me more about this fresh-faced beauty that will soon be queen.”
Jetteson coiled around her upper arm, his head brushing against her cheek. “She has cascades of red and purple hair.”
“And a singing voice that is rumored to enrapture all those that hear it,” Floteson finished, swirling around the sea witch’s waist.
Gathering his face in her palms, she dotted a kiss to his forehead. “Because that’s what makes a fair and just queen, the ability to carry a tune.”
“Not all are made to rule, as you were, Vanessa.” Settled into the sand of the cave floor, a face glimmered into view with a knowing smile curling up the corners of ghostly lips.
Filling her gills to capacity, the sea witch exhaled a boiling wreath of bubbles. “No one calls me by that name. Not anymore. Show yourself, wretch, and I’ll gladly add you to my growing garden of souls.”
“Vanessa. It is I—”
The sea witch threw herself into an exasperated backflip. “I cannot express enough the multitude of ways I’m going to kill you if you call me that one more time.” Rolling onto her side, she puffed platinum hair from her eyes. “You were brave enough to come here, seems silly to hide now. Come out, come out, wherever you are…”
“I’m not hiding from you, my wild orchid, I never was.”
Posture snapping upright, her tentacles coiled beneath her like eels preparing to strike. “Isn’t that a fascinating turn of phrase...” The threat of death cut through her words.
If the man in the mirror noticed her shift in tone, he didn’t let it ruffle him. “The last time we were together you gave me a warning—”
“I’m moments from giving you another.” Tentacles pushing off the water, she circled the mirror.
“You told me when the time came, I was to kick for the surface and not to stop until I broke through. I pray to Mother Ocean I can breakthrough with you now.”
Pulling up short, a monsoon of emotion played over the sea witch’s features. “How dare you—”
“In spite of everything we were up against, I loved that you were worried about me. You asked if that was all I loved about you, but it has always—always—been so much deeper than that.” While his voice was a ghostly echo, something about it plucked a cord of familiarity.
“Who… are you?” she beseeched the voice, eyes narrowing at the small shard of mystery.
“I told you from your wit to your demanding ambition, there wasn’t one element I don’t love. That hasn’t changed, not for one second.” Despite being little more than a shadow, his voice was gruff with emotion. “When I left, I promised the moment I returned I would give you my heart forever, an easy feat since it’s belonged to you as long as I could remember.”
Hot tears welling behind her eyes, a lone tear slipped from Vanessa’s lashes unchecked. “It can’t be. It’s impossible.”
“I can see you, Vanessa.” A crack had formed in the sea witch’s façade, and Alastor kept talking in hopes of breaking through. “Beneath the pain this world has inflicted on you, you’re still there. I ask only that you find it in your heart to see… me.”
Chin having fallen to her chest, Vanessa glanced up slowly as if afraid to let herself believe or hope for even an instant. “Alastor?”
Chapter Five
“I did it! This is the realm I was in before venturing under the sea!” Face beaming with pride, Sterling’s feline eyes glittered with golden sparks of celebration. “I didn’t even think about it! I was struggling for breath, and trying to not to die, and poof! Here we are!”
Hands on her knees, Persephone tried to fight back the wave of nausea caused by the jarring jump process. “Good for you. Job well done. Quick question, is it always that unsettling?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Gills gone, Sterling filled his lungs to capacity simply to prove to himself he could. “Never gets easier.”
If Alice was at all disturbed by the warped shift in reality that accompanied Sterling’s jumps, she didn’t let on. Holding her arms in a defensive pose, she scanned the new world they found themselves thrust into. “Sterling, where are we?”
Only then did he glance around to remind himself of the nuances there… and shrank at what he saw. “Oh no. N
o-no-no-no-no. I should have warned you, but how could I ever explain? Of all the places I’ve ever leapt to, this is—by far—the most… disturbing.”
One brow raised, Persephone turned on the ball of her foot in a cursory examination of the fresh hell they found themselves in. “You and I define that word far differently.”
Fire didn’t rain from the sky.
Monsters didn’t prowl for their next meal.
Tortured souls didn’t wail in the distance.
Instead, they were inside a quaint abode tucked into a quiet little burg. The home was no palace, to be sure. One wall fought to be trendy with mismatched rustic timbers, the rest of which were painted a calming gray. The highest compliment the queen could give the furniture was that it looked broken in and comfortable. Even so, no regal goddess would ever deem such a place worthy to spend a night in. Still, it was a few steps up from living in absolute squalor.
“Then you aren’t looking hard enough.” Alice’s voice dropped to a haunting whisper as she inched closer to inspect… something.
“Mustn’t look,” Sterling pleaded, shielding his eyes behind his hands. “Mustn’t read.”
Only then did Persephone’s gaze fall on a petite redhead seated on a gray settee. Her feet were propped up on an upholstered ottoman, her head bowed intently to her task.
“You, there!” Chin lifted with an air of superiority, Persephone allowed her voice to boom off the drab walls. “I order you to speak. Where are we?”
Sterling crept closer on trembling legs that threatened to buckle beneath him. “She can’t hear you. Has no clue at all that we’re here. Not physically anyway.”
“What in the Underworld’s—”
“Blazes does that mean?” While it was Persephone that started the thought, Alice finished it for her. Head whipping in the goddess’s direction, her blue eyes bulged from their sockets. “I read that off the woman’s screen. She knew what you were going to say before you said it!”
The Unfortunate Souls Collection Page 43