Haley saved me the trouble.
"Remember how I told you that I might not be around for long?" he asked with a sad smile. "You can’t just put Death into a human body and expect the body to be happy about it. It took all of Katie Jones' power to contain me. The best she could guarantee was a month. It took me two weeks to get used to being a mortal, and then once school started, I hoped two weeks would be enough time to convince you that you belong with me."
"So, basically, what you're saying is that you're going to die on Saturday night?" I whispered hoarsely.
Haley shook his head. "This body will 'die,' but I will not. I am a god. I will exist until the end of time. So will you."
"Okay, so, maybe, I technically understand all that," I said carefully, fighting to keep my tears at bay. "But, I hate the idea of it. I don't want you to die at all. I don't want to 'die' or leave this mortal body or whatever. It may be all I know, but I like it. I'm not done being Stephanie Starr, even if I am immortal Persephone. Up until a couple of hours ago, my life plan included college, some kind of career, getting married, having children, watching them grow up, and growing old with my husband. I can't just flip a switch and not want that just because I found out that I’m something other than human."
Haley rubbed his hand over his jaw, frowning.
"I know," he said. "But, at least for me, I don't have a choice. Katie Jones' magic will only last so long.”
He sighed, and I could see his jaw tighten as he added, "I have no choice, but you do. After all, you're the goddess of life. Nothing is wrong with your mortal body. You could live out your biological lifetime just as you planned. I wouldn’t be here with you, but I’d be waiting for you."
The thought of losing him sliced my soul in half, and my joy bled out in ugly tears.
"Well, it's a shitty choice," I said. "I want it all. I'm a goddess for crying out loud! If I can't have it all, then who can?"
"Ah, yes," Haley replied ruefully, reaching out and taking me in his arms, pulling me onto his lap as he leaned us back against the pillows. "I forgot to mention, one of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing can ever be perfect."
"The universe sucks," I whispered. I simply couldn't think about an existence without him. It was too painful, a fundamental agony that ripped me apart.
He ran his hand up and down my arm soothingly, and said, "There’s the one part about the myth of Hades and Persephone that I always thought was the most interesting."
"What part?"
"The pomegranate seeds," he replied. "The myth only states that Persephone ate the seeds, but not why she chose to eat them."
"Maybe she fell in love with Hades?" I mused. "Wait, hang on. Was that the necklace that you gave me? The rubies represented the pomegranate seeds?"
"Perhaps it was a small nod to the myth," Haley acknowledged with a laugh that echoed pleasantly in his chest. "But mostly, it was a small talisman to help protect you—both from your mother and yourself."
"From myself?"
"Yes, it held a small amount of my power which balances yours. I had hoped it would be enough to contain you safely if you accidentally unleashed yourself.”
“How would I do that?”
“Remember this morning?"
"Yeah?"
"From what I can tell, your mother revealed part of her true form to you last night. Just like the Greek myths say, a mortal cannot see the true form of a god and survive. She almost destroyed your mortal body by doing that. She mostly ended up stripping away a layer of the protective magic that helps keep your godliness in check so that it doesn't destroy the body. That meant that your true form was beginning to show through. The more it showed, the more your human body would have weakened until it died, releasing all your power, which incidentally would have put everyone else around you in danger of dying as well."
"I could have killed Helen and Morris," I exclaimed, horrified.
"And everyone in first period, in the halls, and on the stairs, had it gone any further."
"So how did Katie Jones fix me?"
"She used a basic man-from-clay spell to 'reapply' that protective layer over your humanity."
"Man-from-clay? Oh! That's why she used the dust and the water, right? She was making clay?"
"Symbolically."
"Oh my gosh!" An idea struck me. "Can't she just do that with you again? Keep you alive by reapplying your humanity or whatever? That way we can have more time like this?"
Haley's chest rose and fell with a deep, slow breath.
"No," he said. "My true nature is too powerful. Death cannot be contained by life. Entropy and nothingness are too vast to be squeezed into cells and tissue for long."
His words were like a sledgehammer to my fledgling hope, crushing it flat. I took in a shaky breath and tensed all my muscles, as if that could hold back all that I felt.
"I'm scared," I said quietly. "The thought of being without you is terrifying. You are the other half of my heart, and human beings need their hearts. But the thought of dying in order to be with you isn’t great either."
Haley bent his head over mine and kissed me gently, his lips brushing softly over mine. His touch was comforting, but reality was a cold chunk of ice in my gut.
"This is going to sound awful," I warned him, looking into his eyes and allowing him to see everything I felt in mine. "I don't want to lose you, but I don't want to leave this life yet, either. This is all that I know. It's like looking at the edge of a cliff and having no idea how far the fall is or what is waiting at the bottom. I don't want to stop being Stephanie Starr, even if I have immortality ahead of me. Maybe I'm just dumb or being a chicken."
"You are neither," he replied. "Everything you have said is natural, normal, and understandable. Even more so, because your true nature, your power, is that of giving life to all things. Death is your opposite, and your nature is to fight it."
He chuckled and traced his fingers up my thigh, toying with the hem of the boxers I wore.
"Life and Death are in constant struggle," he said with a wicked grin.
His words and his touch stirred that new warmth in me, and his kiss was like the taste of forgetfulness.
"Thirty-six hours?" I breathed against his mouth, feeling all my thoughts turn hazy as his hands began to wander softly over my body.
"Plenty of time," he replied, his voice now a growl of pure need.
"I agree."
***
Drifting. Warm. Happy. Quiet. Darkness.
***
Something is wrong. Broken. Freed.
I awaken panting, and at the same moment, Haley sits bolt upright in the bed, his face a mask of fearsome anger.
"What is it?" I whisper, clinging to his skin for comfort, still trying to pull my mind fully away from the sweet confusion of sleep.
"The Furies have left the Underworld. They have been summoned to judgment."
He didn’t leave me any time for questions. Before I could even take another breath, Haley was out of bed and moving through the still-dark room. I heard the rustle of clothing, and saw his silhouette as he opened the door to his room.
I sat in the still-warm bed, clutching the sheets around me. Memories fell like rain around me, each moment touching my skin and waking me up further. I was hyper-aware of my body, everything from the very real soreness between my legs to the phantom echoes of pleasure.
My first time having sex had been half-amazing and half-awful. Thankfully, Haley had ignored my moments of embarrassment and introduced me to the amazing part first, taking his time and making sure I was completely and stunningly fulfilled before moving on. When he entered me, I remembered thinking that the few romance novels I had sneaked were full of shit. It hurt, and it didn't 'quickly subside' and turn into 'waves of pleasure' with a 'build-up to a second climax.'
No, my first time had been a teeth-clenching, sheet-gripping, try-not-to-cry experience. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have traded it for anything, and Haley was as gentle and c
onsiderate as he could be under the circumstances.
We touched and talked in the afterglow until enough time had passed, and we were ready again. Once again, Haley made sure I was blissed out before anything else happened. This time, I was raw and sore, but it didn't hurt nearly as bad as the first time. We agreed that practice would make perfect, and that we were both perfectionists.
When we finally drifted off, we had rolled apart on the bed, too hot and sweaty to be too close. Yet, we still found a way to touch with my hand on his shoulder and his fingertips brushing my hip.
"You don't know how much I've wanted to see you just like that."
Haley's voice from the doorway startled me out of my reverie.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Sleepy, satisfied, and smiling," he replied. "All because you love me, and you let me love you."
I looked down, pleased but a little embarrassed. He came over to the bed with a towel and a pile of my clean clothes.
"I’m sorry to make you get up, my love," he said, growing serious again. "But, we have to go. The situation has worsened."
"How?" My stomach did a flip-flop of dread.
"In so many ways," Haley replied with a frustrated growl. "I woke Helen and Zack, and they are getting ready."
"Ready for what? Do I want to know that answer?"
"We have to go back into town."
"Katie Jones?"
"Yes, but that's not all."
"Wait, that’s right. You said something about the Furies. What are the Furies?"
"Get ready, and I will explain everything on the way. I'm sure Helen will want to know as well."
Nasty reality came like a bucket of cold water, and I was beginning to feel the numbness I now knew was associated with panic. Every which way my thoughts turned, I hit a brick wall. I couldn't think through anything to a solution, or even a next step. Every problem only had a worst case scenario for an ending.
Haley kissed me and went downstairs, leaving me to shower and change.
Downstairs, I noticed the clock on the wall said it was all of 4:20 a.m. Awesome. Not only was my world crashing down around me, but it was happening at the ass-crack of dawn.
"Pop Tarts?" Helen sniffed as she rifled through the kitchen pantry. "Is that all you have for breakfast food?"
"Uh, there's some bacon in the fridge, I think." Zack replied, hanging back at a safe distance as Helen tore through boxes and cans in search of anything else. Cerberus was curled up on a giant leather ottoman, snoring softly.
Haley turned on the television.
"Nothing," he snapped flipping through the local channels and then the cable news. “The news doesn’t have anything about Darbyfield.”
"How can that be?" Helen demanded, tossing me a pack of strawberry Pop Tarts.
“I don’t know, and that worries me. A lot.”
“Nothing online either,” Zack added, scrolling through his phone.
“Has anybody tried calling Morris?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Helen answered. “No luck. I tried the restaurant and his apartment. But, I figure the flood messed up his cell phone. It probably also screwed up all the electricity in town, too, so the phone lines won’t be working.”
“Did you reach your parents?” I hated asking that question because I knew she’d hate answering it, but I couldn’t help worry about them a little bit. After all, I had grown up around them.
“Dad’s still at the hospital,” she replied curtly. “Davy said he and Mom are still at home.”
There was an awkward silence as Zack squeezed her shoulder, and she shook it off and gave him a defiant glare.
“So,” she said, changing the subject. “Anyone want to tell me why the hell we’re up at dawn?”
"The Furies have left the Underworld," Haley said.
Helen stared at him. “The Furies are real, too? And, how do you know they’ve left the Underworld?”
"I am the ruler of the Underworld, which is basically the space that exists after life ends. The Furies belong to this domain. I can feel everything that happens in that realm, who comes, who goes—few do, but that's beside the point. The Furies are some of the only creatures that can come and go at will between the planes of the living and the dead."
"Is this a good time to ask what the Furies do?" I piped up nervously, abandoning my untoasted Pop Tart, my appetite totally gone.
"I read about them yesterday," Helen answered. "They are avengers. People go to them for vengeance against oath-breakers and specifically ungrateful children. Oh."
There was a moment of weighty silence as we all looked at each other.
"The Furies are known for being three things," Haley said. "They are unceasing, grudging, and bent on vengeful destruction."
After a moment of consideration, Helen asked, "Is there a way to stop them?"
"No," Zack and Haley replied in unison.
Helen and I looked at each other. My brain was full. She looked pissed.
"I'm going to wake Cerberus," Helen announced. "I'll meet you guys at the car."
"You're bringing the dog?" Zack whined. "Why?"
"I just have a feeling," Helen replied.
She went over to the dogs, and I turned to Zack and Haley.
"Helen has never just 'had a feeling' before," I stated grimly.
"So?" Zack asked.
"That means she has no clue what to do, which means we're screwed."
"Oh."
Haley shook his head and led us out the door to where the two stolen cars sat under a light blanket of snow. The golden light from inside the house cast long blue shadows around us in the pre-dawn.
"Which car should we take?" Haley asked with a curl of distaste to his lip.
"We're going down for grand theft auto whichever one we do," Zack replied.
Cerberus bounded out of the house ahead of Helen, all three of him doing their business and then proceeding to romp and roll in the clean snow, tongues hanging out to the side in three identically ridiculous grins.
I looked at Helen with a skeptical eyebrow.
She shrugged, and I guess I saw the sense of it as we drove away.
Why not bring the dogs? Things couldn't get much worse.
Scratch that. They probably could and would.
CHAPTER THIRTY
THERE'S A MOMENT when the Earth's rotation crests in the night and finally begins another spin toward the sun. You can only tell if you're really paying attention because there's just the smallest shift in the intense dark blue of the night sky.
I noticed it that morning because not only was I reluctantly wide awake, but also because the drive to Darbyfield was completely silent, with everyone's emotions stretched tight. There was nothing to do but watch the sky.
I sat in the back seat with Helen and Cerberus. Haley drove, and Zack sat shotgun. Zack and I would have traded places except for the fact that Cerberus tried to bite him when he got in next to Helen.
Pausing in her absent petting of the three sleepy black heads in her lap, Helen sniffed, frowned, then sniffed again.
"Do you smell something?" she asked, her best I Smell Something And You Had Better Smell It Too expression wasted on Haley and Zack since they didn't turn around to look at her.
I sniffed, but then I had to take a much longer, less ladylike sniff to get a hint of what Helen was talking about.
"Something's burning," Zack said. "Smells like wood."
"There's smoke up ahead," Haley said.
"I can't see anything," I remarked. "Are you sure it's not the mist we came through going down the mountain?"
"I can see better in the dark," he replied with a ghost of a laugh in his voice.
"Wait, I think I can see it, too," Zack said.
"I wish my cell phone hadn't died in the flood," Helen snapped. "Not knowing what's going on is completely aggravating."
"You're beautiful when you're aggravated," Zack said smoothly, turning around to smirk at her, only to be met with three mouthfuls of teeth,
fully-bared and not holding back on the growls.
"I like your dog, Haley," Helen said absently, scratching the dogs who trampled back into her lap, turned in three synchronized circles, and curled up.
"Is that a glow up ahead?" I exclaimed, reaching between Zack and Haley to point.
"I don't see anything," Haley said, frowning.
"It's totally there," I insisted. "I can see light better than you can."
That may not have been totally true, but in any case, it got wan smiles from everyone.
"The smell is getting stronger," Helen pointed out. "There must be a forest fire."
"We're also getting close to the town," Haley added, fiddling with the controls to recirculate the air inside the car.
I dug my fingernails into the worn velour of Zack's seat back and leaned forward to look out the window. Within just a minute or two, all we could see was smoke, and the air in the car started to look a little hazy.
There was a deafening crack, a shower of sparks, and the impact of something hitting the roof of the car.
The rear window shattered, and a giant burning branch punched a hole in the roof of the car, impaling the seat between me and Helen. We screamed, even as Haley and Zack yelled our names in panic. The car instantly filled with smoke, cutting off our cries as we now had to work just to breathe.
Haley jerked the car to one side to avoid another falling tree full of flames, this one visible for a split second, through the smoke, before it smashed into the road in front of us.
He floored it and continued to speed down the road, even with part of a burning tree sticking into the car.
"What are you doing?" Helen gasped as she and I used our jackets to try and put out the smoldering branch between us.
"We'll die of smoke inhalation if we abandon the car and try to make it the rest of the way into town on foot!" Haley called back. "I'm trying to get us as close as possible, as fast as possible!"
"Don't talk!" Zack ordered. "Save your air. Cover your noses and mouths."
Helen and I pulled our shirts over our noses, and Zack gave Helen his jacket to wrap around Cerberus, whose pathetic little coughs were worrying me almost more than my own limited oxygen.
Downcast (Olympus Falling Book 1) Page 24