by Diana Tyler
He buried his nose into Ethan’s torso, nudging and jabbing as he feigned ravenous grunting sounds. A few seconds later, Lydia jumped into view and perched on a tree root above Ethan’s head, her bushy tail wrapped around her, tiny paws joined at her heart as she looked down on him. Moris followed, making a shrill bleating noise as he pointed his hoof in the direction of the guards.
“They’re gone,” Ethan said, as he squeezed his eyes shut and hissed in pain.
Damian had been rougher than he’d intended, but at least Ethan was alive. By some miracle, they all were. He sat back on his haunches and did his best to apologize to Ethan with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Yeah, I know,” said Ethan. “You did what you had to do.” He lifted himself to a sitting position and rubbed his chest. “I’ll survive.” He patted Damian on the elbow and laughed. “And we thought you were a good wrestler before.”
Damian snorted and shook his head, then searched the sky for Hermes. He could use some assurance that he wouldn’t be this way forever.
“It’ll be okay, Damian.”
Damian stared blankly at Ethan. He knew Ethan didn’t really believe that. If he did, he would’ve eaten the seed, too, instead of backing out at the last moment, leaving the three of them to be the guinea pigs, almost literally.
“Ethan?” a woman’s voice called quietly.
Ethan’s eyes widened and a stunned smile spread across his face. “Chloe!” he shouted at the sight of Damian’s sister. Apparently forgetting all about his pain, he leapt to his feet took off running.
His outsized bear’s heart still pounding, Damian watched as Ethan jogged into a soft shaft of sunlight and embraced Damian’s sister; his sister, whom he had forsaken and written off as a rebel who’d stuck her nose where it didn’t belong; his sister, whom he had watched walk unwittingly through a portal to hell and refused to go after; his sister, who he finally realized was stronger and braver than anyone he’d ever known.
CHAPTER THREE
TRUTH
I thought that bear killed you,” Chloe said, her eyes darting back to the animal sitting strangely still, watching them closely. What in the world is it doing, she thought. And what kind of bear attacks without drawing blood?
“It’s not a bear.” Ethan pulled back just enough to look into her eyes. “It’s your brother.”
“What?” Chloe watched as the bear leaned back against the tree and smiled at her like an oversized stuffed animal. “That’s Damian?”
The bear raised a paw and waved at her.
The ibex beside it bobbed its head and baahed.
If Chloe hadn’t known it was possible for men to be turned into beasts, and if she hadn’t been an enemy of the state, she would have had herself committed.
“How…” Images of Circe and her menagerie of birds, foxes, polecats, and weasels, all former warriors, flashed through her mind’s eye.
Before Chloe could finish her question, Ethan pulled her close again, and she rested her head on his chest, listening as his rapid heartbeat gradually slowed. They could discuss everything later. Right now, they just needed to breathe.
After several long, still moments, Ethan let go of Chloe and she wiped the tears from her cheeks. She slipped off her shoes and sank her toes into a mound of crisp, cool, multicolored leaves, then closed her eyes as she lifted her chin to the sky, letting the light breeze caress her skin.
It was good to feel things, even things as simple as fallen leaves and air in motion. Neither existed where she had come from, up there, millions of miles away from Petros in that indescribable in-between realm perhaps no one else had ever seen—no one living, anyway.
She’d felt like an alien as she had stood there, face to face with Orpheus, a man who had tasted death twice ,and finally, after thousands of years of suffering, found happiness. He’d been sent to ask her forgiveness, and to encourage her not to lose faith. It was as if he had known her troubles were only just beginning.
“Where were you?” Ethan asked.
Chloe grabbed her shoes and they walked toward the tree. She stopped in front of Damian and tried to force a smile, but her muscles refused to move. “I was in hell,” she said finally. Rather than answering Ethan’s question, she had made an unsolicited statement to her brother. She needed to see his face when she said it.
Damian held her gaze. She knew that if he could speak he’d defend himself until he was blue in the face. He’d scold her for having followed the woman into the mist in the first place. He’d tell her it was her fault that he and the Rosses had been turned into woodland creatures. And when he was done, Chloe would be so wracked with guilt she’d probably turn herself into the councilman.
But Damian couldn’t speak, and she was free to explain to him, without interruption, precisely what she’d endured, how she’d been tortured, all because he’d been too much of a coward to try and save her.
“Do you have any idea what I’ve been through, Damian?” Her voice quavered, not with anger, she realized, but sadness. She’d been betrayed, and despite her father’s words admonishing her not to dwell on the past, she couldn’t rid the betrayal from her mind. She’d been too distracted before to pay the pain any attention, but now, in this long-awaited moment of reprieve, she felt the sharp stab of abandonment all over again.
“I was in prison down there,” she continued, tears burning as they appeared in her eyes. “All alone except for two tormentors who were all too happy to keep me company. It was Phobos who told me you’d betrayed me. I wish it had been harder to believe.”
Her breath caught in her throat as Phobos’s wicked voice echoed in her ears: She’s neither loved nor lucky. And she’d believed it, so much so that she’d wanted nothing more than to drink from the River Lethe and have all her memories erased, not least those of her parents dying and her brother leaving her to rot.
Damian dropped his head and rocked off the tree onto all four of his humongous legs. Then he started walking.
“Go ahead, Damian,” Chloe called after him. “Walk away. Turn your back like you always do.”
“Chloe,” Ethan said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, “your brother is the reason my family and I are alive.”
A lump the size of her fist sank into Chloe’s stomach. “What are you talking about?”
“The councilman was going to kill my mom and me,” said Ethan. “And he was forcing my dad to be the executioner. Your brother risked his life to save ours.”
Chloe shook her head. “That’s impossible. There’s no way a person could have—”
“He’s like you, Chloe,” he said sternly.
Chloe’s mouth fell open as the lump in her abdomen expanded and pressed into her ribs, causing every breath to ache. Surely Carya would’ve told her if Damian had a doma, too. “What…” she rasped. “What do you mean like me?”
“Damian has a power. He can make himself and anyone he touches invisible.”
“I didn’t know.” Chloe placed her hand on the tree and tugged on a piece of peeling bark. “I’m sorry.”
“He’s more like you than you thought, huh?” Ethan said with a smile. “He’s brave.”
Chloe pushed away from the tree and gave a sigh. “I guess I owe him an apology,” she said, resisting the temptation to demand why Damian hadn’t been brave for her. What mattered now was that they were safe, at least for a little while.
The ibex bleated and stomped his hoof.
“I think Dad’s saying we need to go,” said Ethan.
The ibex nodded and turned to follow in the direction Damian had gone.
“Wait,” said Chloe. She stared at the peculiar ibex, then up at the squirrel above their heads, whom she would swear was eavesdropping on their conversation. “Don’t tell me those are your parents.”
“So you can believe that your twin brother is walking around the Eirenian woods as a brown bear, but it’s too far-fetched to believe that my mom’s a squirrel and my dad’s a goat?”
Chloe laughed and started walkin
g. “Well, if you put it that way. I guess…for some reason I thought it was just my family that got caught up in this stuff.”
Ethan shook his head. “No, ma’am.” He reached into his pocket and opened his palm, revealing a bright red pomegranate seed. “The guards found us before I could eat mine. You could’ve been talking to a hedgehog right now.”
Chloe pressed a hand to her chest and stumbled. “Where did you get that? Did Circe give it to you?” She lowered her voice so his parents wouldn’t hear. “That’s permanent, Ethan. I’ve been to Circe’s island. I was supposed to eat one so I wouldn’t be a problem to the Fantásmata.”
Her blood warmed as she thought of Orpheus. If it hadn’t have been for Orpheus, the witch would have forced the seeds down her throat and right now she’d be on that island living an immortal existence in Circe’s accursed zoo. Orpheus had carried goodness in him all along.
“He said the magic only lasts a few hours in Petros.” Ethan slipped the seed back into his pocket.
“Who said?”
The squirrel scurried past them and stopped in front of Ethan.
“Are you hitchhiking?” he asked.
Lydia nodded, then leapt into his arms.
Now Ethan’s mom could definitely hear everything they said, but Chloe wasn’t upset about it. They were all in this together now. What good would it do to keep secrets?
“Hermes said,” Ethan said, answering Chloe’s question.
“Oh no,” Chloe groaned.
“You know him?”
“I’ve been duped by him, if that’s what you mean. You can’t believe anything he says.” She looked down at Lydia sympathetically. She wished she had something more comforting to say. “When I stepped through the portal, he welcomed me on the other side of the River Styx.”
“No way. That really exists?”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “I’m not the only one picking and choosing what’s believable and what’s not.”
“Okay, okay, so you crossed the Styx, and then what did Hermes do?”
“Long story short, he promised he’d shed some light on my…situation. But instead he deposited me at the Fields of Asphodel, which is absolutely the most depressing place you can imagine.”
Ethan drew a deep breath. “I’m so sorry, Chloe,” he said.
He was looking at her with the greatest measure of pity she’d ever seen on a person’s face. She hadn’t been looking for his pity, but it felt good nevertheless.
“Thank you.” She looked down at the shoes in her hand. “I guess I should put these on.” She did so, but when she straightened, the expression of pity on Ethan’s face had only deepened.
“It isn’t your fault, Ethan.”
She looked down at Lydia, who was looking off wistfully into the distance. “Mrs. Ross, I could be wrong. Maybe Hermes was telling the truth.”
“Time will tell,” said Ethan.
Chloe nodded slowly as his words flicked on a light switch in her brain. “Maybe time won’t have to.”
CHAPTER FOUR
TRAITOR
Ethan stopped walking, waiting for Chloe to expound the idea still percolating in her mind.
“If I can take us out of here,” she said, “out of this time, we can find out right now if what Hermes said was true.”
“So you can time travel?” He looked at her as if she’d just admitted to being able to fly to the moon and back. And that was almost true.
“It seems that way, yes.” She paused. “Is that cooler than Damian’s invisibility?”
“In my opinion? Definitely. That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Chloe smiled softly, trying not to think about the implications inextricably linked to possessing domas, namely the damage and death they attracted to herself and her family.
“What if Hermes wasn’t telling the truth?” Ethan asked.
“My plan doesn’t go that far yet.”
“Fair enough. We’d better catch up to your brother before he loses us.” Ethan looked down at his mom. “Hold on tight, Mom.” Then he whispered over his shoulder to Chloe, “I really hope it works.”
They took off jogging, slowing after half a minute when Chloe got a stitch in her side. “I’ve really gotta work on my endurance if running’s going to be a regular part of my life,” she said, as she bent over and grasped her knees.
“Chloe, look.” Ethan pointed to his right, at a narrow path filled with footprints of various shapes and sizes, the biggest and most distinct of which belonged to a bear.
Chloe followed behind Ethan through the meandering pathway and shivered at the tall, white asphodels filling the spaces between the trees. In the Underworld, the spirits of the dead were obsessed with them. With their memories washed away and their identities forgotten, the flowers that grew in the meadows were their only possession, and, as if compelled by an unseen taskmaster, they spent every waking hour hoarding them. Thank Duna Orpheus had freed them from that hell.
“He found water,” Ethan said.
Chloe looked past Ethan at the sea-green river winding through the saddle of low hills below them, its surface sparkling like diamonds in the morning light. Damian was sitting on the bank with his back to them.
Chloe placed her pinkies in her mouth and whistled. “Damian, it’s us,” she called. She caught Moris stumbling past in her periphery, his huge, backward-curling horns seeming to drag him down the slope.
“We’re sure that’s Damian, right?” Ethan whispered.
“It would be like me to let a man-eating predator know where we are.”
Moris joined the bear and took a voracious drink from the river. Damian lowered himself back down and began eating from the neat pile of berries stacked next to him.
“Guess that answers your question,” said Chloe, then she cupped her hands around her mouth and called out, “You shouldn’t be out in the open like that!”
Damian turned his head to the side, just enough to acknowledge that he’d heard her, then turned away and continued to snack.
“Chloe, the councilman is looking for four humans. I think Damian and my parents are just fine.” He gave her his pity look again, only this time it was mixed with unsettling concern.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“When’s the last time you slept?”
“Does getting knocked unconscious in Hades count?”
Ethan looked away and rubbed the back of his neck. How did she expect him to respond? “No, no, it definitely does not count, Chloe.”
His mother chirped in agreement. “You need to sleep.”
Just hearing the word “sleep” made Chloe’s eyelids droop. “Sleep is a luxury we don’t have right now.” She was on the verge of slurring her words.
“May I see your jacket?” Ethan said.
“Ohhhkaaay…” Chloe took it off. “I apologize for the smell. I think I need a bath worse than I need sleep.”
Ethan laughed as he took the jacket. “I’ll hold my breath,” he joked. He set Lydia on a nearby branch, spread the jacket on the ground, then pulled the sleeves inside out, folded it lengthwise, and rolled it up. “Your pillow,” he said, handing the bundle to Chloe. “I would’ve given you my vest to sleep on, but it’s bulletproof.” He gave a wry smile as he drummed his fingers across his chest.
“Well, I guess I know my place in the hierarchy here, but I told you, I’m not sleeping. We have to get out of here.”
Ethan crouched down and set the black helmet he’d been carrying by his side. “Hermes said they’d be human again in a few hours.” Chloe opened her mouth to interject, but Ethan was too quick. “Even if he lied,” he said slowly, punching every syllable, “we can use your power to go back, right? We can go back in time to when Hermes showed up and tell him to go back to where he came from.”
Chloe pursed her lips and tilted her head side to side as she pondered. “Yeah…I guess logically that works.” She could almost feel her brain throbbing as she tried thinking it through. The
re was no denying she needed sleep. She doubted her doma would even operate if she let herself get too exhausted.
“Perfect. So you take a little nap, and I’ll wake you up in a couple hours. Then we’ll go from there.” Ethan held out his hand. “Deal?”
Chloe took his hand and shook it. “Deal.”
She stuffed the makeshift pillow under her head and closed her eyes. Immediately, her father’s face materialized in her mind, his warm green eyes, lined with faint wrinkles and moist with happy tears, smiling at her. Even though she’d reunited with him in the Fields of Asphodel, where he was a spirit and she a prisoner, she’d wished with all her heart she could stay there forever. But she’d been told to be brave; the fate of every listless soul in Hades was depending on her to liberate them. And according to Orpheus, she had succeeded.
Now it was her own world that needed liberating, and she hadn’t the foggiest clue where to start.
“Ethan, I’m turning back.”
Chloe opened her eyes to see the squirrel’s undersized head swelling by the second atop its shaking body.
“I’m turning back!” Lydia repeated, her voice like a chipmunk’s.
Next, her hands replaced her paws and her tail disappeared as the olive green of her hospital gown covered her up completely like a billowing tent. A few moments later, her legs and arms shot out of the gown and she rolled onto her back with a groan, a woman once more, albeit a frazzled one.
Chloe jumped up and ran to her. “Mrs. Ross! Are you okay?”
“Fantastic. Just a bit of a headache,” she said, rubbing her forehead as she turned onto her side and pushed herself up.
Ethan knelt beside his mom and hugged her until she winced and pulled away.
“Sorry, son, but I’m a little tender. I’m not sure what that process entails physiologically, but it leaves one feeling like they just got mauled by a bear.” She smiled and squeezed her son’s hand. Then she looked toward the river and brought a hand to her mouth as she spotted her husband walking in circles, scratching the places where the horns had been. “Moris…”