by Jasmine Walt
He was absolutely gorgeous and the arrogance in his posture told me that he knew it.
“Hi,” I said. I tried pasting a smile on my face. Not working.
Hades stepped in between us. “Callista, this is Plutus. Plutus, Callista Saunders.”
“Callie,” I corrected automatically.
I reached out to shake his hand. He didn’t even acknowledge the movement. He just watched me from behind those sunglasses. I slowly retracted my hand, feeling immediately offended.
Okay, so when Hades had said “son”, I was imagining a kid, or a teenager perhaps. Not this good-looking young man that made my heart beat faster. I felt immediately put out, like I was way out of my league. Which was probably true.
“Callista Saunders,” he said softly. He raised his voice so that Hades could hear him. “And why is she here?”
“She’s figuring out who's trying to kill you,” Hades answered, like he was chiding a child.
“I’m a police detective,” I added. “Or was. Still am.” I straightened up and tried meeting his eyes through the lenses, but they were so dark, I only had impressions of his eyes beneath them. It was hard to stare someone down when you didn’t know if you were meeting their eyes. For all I knew he could be looking at a spot ten feet behind me.
“I told you, Father, I don’t need help,” Plutus said.
“Plutus,” Hades said, a hint of a warning entering his voice, “just put up with her. For now. It would make your mother and me feel a lot better about your safety.”
Put up with her? I bristled at the way they were talking about me, in front of me, no less.
Plutus gave a short laugh. “Mother doesn’t care what happens to me,” he sneered. “She’d be happy if I died.”
Hades started rubbing his temples. “Do it for me then.” He didn’t argue with his son and I made a mental note to look more deeply into that relationship. “Just tolerate Cassie, please.”
My anger boiled up. They were talking about my deal like they were deciding on what to order for dinner. Not like my life hung in the balance or anything.
“Put up with me?” I cried. “What the fuck? I’m here trying to keep Plutus’s ungrateful ass safe.” At that, I moved forward and poked Plutus very hard in his chest. It must have surprised him, because he stumbled two steps backwards. “Don’t treat me like I’m some sort of...thing.”
To my horror, Hades was smiling. “I’ll leave you two alone,” he announced. “Callie, I’m sure you want to ask my son some questions. He’ll be more than willing to answer them, right?” Plutus didn't answer. “And if he approves you, you will be baptized.”
I had no idea what that entailed. Charon had mentioned it before, yet no one had told me what that really meant.
As he left us, I wanted to crawl under a bush and cry. There was no way now I was going to be able to save my life. Not with the supposed victim who didn't want me around.
Contrary to what I had seen only seconds before, Plutus warmed up by a degree or two. Only just. “Callista...” he said softly. “It means ‘most beautiful’ in Greek, doesn't it? So are you?”
“Am I what?” I snapped.
“Beautiful?”
I threw my hands up in defeat. “What do you think?” I exasperated. My temper was short at this point.
The corners of his mouth turned up the barest amount. “Well, I would tell you, except for the small fact that I can’t see to tell you.”
“What?” I asked. His words were sinking in a bit slowly after my brain was saturated with everything I had to take in. “What did you say?”
Plutus reached up, took off his sunglasses, and looked at me. I involuntarily gasped. His eyes were golden, a strange, beautiful color that I had never seen in a person before now. The pupils were cloudy, giving his eyes the appearance that he was seeing the world through a milky white coat.
“You’re blind,” I stated. I winced at the accusatory tone in my voice.
Everything was making sense. From him not accepting my handshake, to my surprise poke, even to his weird assessment of me, all signs pointed to the fact that I should have been able to pick up on that. I felt my cheeks heat up with embarrassment.
He blinked at me, the wry, sarcastic smile still on his face. “I’ve apparently left you speechless,” he said.
“No it’s...I wasn’t expecting...”
“You weren’t expecting a disabled god?” he asked. “Neither was anyone else. Especially my parents.”
He turned away from me and then I noticed for the first time that he used a cane, and heavily favored his right leg. I gaped, and shut my mouth, which must have made a noise, because he tilted his head in my direction. “Blindness isn’t my only disability,” he bitterly explained.
“How...?” I started, but my voice trailed off. I didn’t want to offend him when he seemed to be in such a pissy mood; it was an anomaly I hadn’t expected. Gods were supposed to be perfect, right? I didn’t want to point that out to him, so I changed tactics. “Your father...he mentioned that an assassin came about six weeks ago...”
Plutus shook his head, a gesture I hadn’t been expecting from a blind man, and paused before speaking. “No, this isn’t from that.” He patted his thigh. “Good old Uncle Zeus saw it fit for me to be blind and lame. Blind so I could dispense wealth without judgment and lame so that it took time for my power to arrive to any of the fortunate.” He grimaced. “So he condemned a baby to be...well...me, all because I was born with the power of wealth.” He laughed mirthlessly.
I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there. “I’m sorry,” I said, although I didn’t know why I was apologizing for the whim of a god I’d never even met. “It seems like such a waste.”
“You’re telling me,” he snorted. He moved deeper into the courtyard away from me. I could saw how pronounced his limp was. He was fighting the entire time to correct his walk, and it was still very bad.
I felt sick about the whole thing, mainly because I didn't know what to do, what to say. What to not say. After all, he was a god and I was a mortal.
I didn’t have to worry too long—he took over the conversation.
“Why are you really here?” he asked over his shoulder.
The question spurred me into motion, and I followed him. “I’m here to figure who’s trying to kill you. And why.”
“We already know the why,” he grumbled.
“But why now?” I asked, combing a hand through my hair.
He chuckled dryly. “Well, isn’t that what you’re here for? To find out?”
I had the feeling he was mocking me, so I glared at him, full well knowing that he couldn’t see me. Or so I thought, because he muttered under his breath, “Quit glaring at me.” And then my glare turned into a gape. “I’m a god,” he explained, clearly unimpressed. “Not your average blind man.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I told him. Then to piss him off and push his buttons, I gave him the middle finger.
He didn’t retort or really acknowledge my gesture. Gone was the cocky god from a minute before. He watched me—as best a blind man could, I guess—for a few heartbeats more and then seemed to shake himself.
“Okay,” he murmured softly. Interestingly enough, there wasn’t any sort of mocking or malice. “You’ll do.” He sounded resigned, except it wasn’t even that. It was almost apologetic.
“I’ll do?” I repeated.
“Yes,” he said in that strange, apologetic way. “I approve of you taking the case.”
“Thank you?” I said, turning it into a question.
“We'll just have to dip you to protect your soul here,” he said offhandedly.
“What?” I asked. “What do you mean?”
He whirled back at me, and he looked shocked, and also a bit scared for me. “Wait,” he asked, “my father didn't tell you what would happen next?”
I shook my head, then remembered he was blind and said, “No...”
He cursed under his breath. “How
long have you been here?”
“What—?”
“How long have you been here?”
“I don't...”
The entire garden blurred. The air around us shimmered, and I thought for a good moment that it wasn’t an actual garden we were standing in; instead it felt like hologram. It followed what I had expected from sci-fi movies, but the scene didn’t disappear from view. Once it was done shimmering, it came into blinding, bright focus. I gasped and realized that I couldn’t breathe. I was suffocating. Darkness edged into my vision. And because I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t ask for help.
A hand reached out to steady me. It took me a few seconds to realize that Plutus was holding me up. He was yelling, with words that seemed as muddled as my vision. He was concerned. I think. I was burning up.
Delicate hands grabbed at me from behind, their skin ranging with different hues from olive green to the color of beach sand. They looked fragile, yet they held me with such strength, it hurt.
I managed to find my voice. I shrieked in terror. “Plutus?” I cried, my voice hoarse. I don’t know how I was able to get enough air in my lungs to speak. “Plutus, what’s going on?”
Instead of answering, he watched as I was roughly dragged away by those strange hands. They held my head in place, so I couldn’t see who was pulling me back.
The hands dragged me through the palace, Plutus’ face swimming above mine at points. It seemed like it only took us about thirty seconds to make it outside, which was impossible—the palace was enormous and it would have taken at least a few minutes to make it through that maze. Yet, somehow we ended up outside.
Hades swam into view, sharing a few angry sounding words with Plutus until the younger god left in a huff. The Lord of the Underworld reached out and grabbed my shoulder. The world briefly came into focus, enough for him to speak with me.
“You’re fading, Callie. In order to stay in my palace, we need to baptize you in the River Styx. Do you understand?”
Of course I didn’t understand. I just wanted this paralyzing, agonizing feeling to go away. I let my head loll forward, hoping it came across as a nod.
Hades took it that way and gestured severely to the people that were holding me up.
“This is going to hurt, Callie…” his voice echoed in my brain.
Somehow, that didn't surprise me.
I was pushed forward into the moat that surrounded the property. The water was murky, black, teeming with nightmares, floating spirits, and dead dreams. It was so much more sinister than I could have ever imagined. In fact, it was terrifying.
I screamed and struggled, but the hands were too strong, forcing me into the water. As I was submerged, I opened my mouth to scream and the water rushed in.
I fell into darkness and remembered no more.
6
I’ve passed out quite a few times in my life. It's one of the hazards of the job. I’ve gotten into fights, had a couple of concussions, been clocked in the head, and been shot more than once. And on every one of those occasions, unconsciousness was a blissfully black void.
Not this time.
I felt like I was floating. Shapes and voices drifted along with me, here in my dark little bubble, but not immediately accessible by my hazy mind. It was so easy to sink further into the darkness, I simply smiled and let the darkness take me. There was no pain. There was no reason why I should fight it.
My father’s voice rang in my head, clear as the day I remembered it all those years ago. You are strong, Callie. Don’t ever let anyone bring you down.
Those words echoed in my brain, drowning out all of the shapeless forms and voices that fluttered around me. I hugged my father’s words close to my chest, held them there. They were my anchor to life.
I was going to get out of this.
I had to get out of this.
I exhaled, the murky water of the River Styx pouring out from my lips. That was inside me? I recoiled at the thought and dry retched. I felt the overwhelming need to get it out of me.
My body shuddered violently, falling into a fit of seizures that took control over my entire being. I screamed in agony as pain consumed me. This was awful. I couldn’t believe what was happening.
I found my voice. “No.” I swallowed and then put my willpower behind it. “No.” It was louder this time. I wasn’t going to go out this way. I wasn’t going to stay in the Underworld. I wasn’t going to drown in the River Styx. I was going to go back to the surface. And I was going to live.
“NO!” I screamed.
I bolted upright.
I was no longer in the realm of nothingness; I was in a bed in an unfamiliar room. For a second, I thought I was in the hospital, waking up from my coma, the Underworld, Hades and Plutus nothing more than neuron flashes, the result of trauma and too many sci-fi shows. Then I realized I wasn’t in a standard hospital bed. Instead of a hospital gown, I was in a flirty red nightgown. The comforter was plush. The door opened and a tiny woman, maybe a faery, entered.
She would have stood up to my shoulders if I was standing upright. A pretty waif of a creature, she was green-skinned with her fiery red hair trimmed into a stylish bob. Bright, intelligent blue eyes watched me. Even with her strange ethereal looks, she was gorgeous, reminding me of Mystique from X-Men.
She bounded over to me and perched right on the nightstand next to the bed like some sort of bird.
“You’re awake, Callista,” she said, showing me a smile full of sharp teeth. It wasn’t an unkind smile, just strange.
“Callie,” my voice croaked. It felt like someone had taken a bunch of razors and shoved them down my throat. “Where am I?”
The girl raised an eyebrow. “You’re in the palace,” she said matter-of-factly. “Or have you forgotten that?” She let out a sigh. “I swear, humans...” she muttered under her breath.
“I haven’t forgotten that,” I retorted, feeling my cheeks burned with embarrassment. Who did she think she was, mocking me like that? I already didn’t like her. “But the last thing I remember was being shoved into...” My mouth dried up even thinking about it. “I was thrown into the River Styx.”
A flicker of remorse crossed her pretty features, just briefly. “Yes, you were.”
“Why did that happen?” The last thing I really remembered before being plunged into watery darkness was that Plutus approved me as a choice for an Underworld Detective.
I fought the urge to gasp for air from the horrific imagery I’d seen while I was in the Styx.
The girl tut-tutted me, her blue eyes sparkling with mischievous humor. “Basically, the almost dead, like you—”
“I'm in a coma,” I corrected. The distinction felt different, better somehow.
The girl sighed. “The almost dead like you cannot exist here. Being stuck in Limbo, your soul isn’t permanent and wants to wander. Like a ghost, if you really want to put an asinine word to it. So you had to have the essence of your soul strengthened in order to stay here indefinitely.”
“By the River Styx? The same place where that dude Achilles got dipped in order to make himself invincible?” That seemed like overkill. My heels itched thinking about it.
She nodded. “Myths always blow things out of proportion. You’re not invincible, so don’t go doing anything stupid. Even though you look like you would.” She smirked. “You’re almost dead, and it won’t take too much to make you completely dead. And if you succeed in this wild goose chase...it won't last when you wake up from your coma.”
It almost felt like a threat, yet I was too tired and peeved to pursue it. Really peeved. The River was terrifying. I’d been in several situations during my job where I was scared, but they all seemed like a cakewalk compared to the River Styx. It was the stuff of nightmares. I was nearly consumed by it, and the only reason I had fought so hard was because I refused to let it do me in.
“Why didn’t that happen before? Why did I have to wait until I was slipping away?”
The girl shrugged. “I su
ppose Hades wanted to make sure that Plutus would approve of you before putting you through something like that. It was bad, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” I replied softly.
“Very few are able to survive that,” she said. She turned away quickly and wiped at her eyes. I wondered if she knew someone who hadn’t survived the River. “You’re very lucky, Callie,” she said, playfulness edging back into her voice.
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t anyone tell me what to expect. A little bit of warning would have gone a long way.”
“You would’ve never agreed to do it. Hades thought it was best that everyone approved you before subjecting you to that. Especially so you could meet Plutus and see the predicament he's in. Your time just ran out before it was explained to you.”
My cheeks flared red, this time with anger. I was pissed. Pissed off at Hades for his lack of information, pissed off at Plutus for his smugness, pissed off at this damn faery-girl who looked at me like I was some sort of toy. I was dealing with people who used humans like pawns in an epic game of chess. I hated chess almost as much as I hated these Underworld clowns.
What chance did I have of solving this case? I was dealing with things that were bigger than me. I couldn’t compete with gods and goddesses and monsters and millions of other things I couldn’t even imagine, much less defeat. I was still alive, somewhere, hooked up on life support in a strange hospital in San Francisco. In order to go back to my body and live out the rest of my life in ignorant bliss, I had to play this game and play by rules that I didn’t even know.
“Assholes.” I wiped at my eyes; I hadn’t realized that I had started crying.
The faery-girl had an amused smile that played across her lips. “Lord Hades, definitely. Plutus, not so much.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my voice rising in anger, remembering his smug smile. “He did nothing while I was being dragged to the River.”