by Melody Rose
The black river started flowing again, rough and violent. It raced for us like a stampede, and we were caught right in the middle of it.
“Ansel!” I shouted out his name before the waves crashed around me.
I didn’t have enough time to gather a proper breath and managed to swallow some of the inky water. It burned my throat like raw alcohol and forced a cough from me, which only caused me to inhale more. It got up my nose and seared against my forehead. The force of the rushing river flipped my body over backward, the current too strong for me to swim against.
It slammed into me randomly, without warning. My lungs begged for air, and I tried my hardest to push past the tumbling water and get some air, but it was no use. I was caught in an undercurrent, held prisoner from life-giving oxygen.
The river dragged my body along, the color of the water getting darker by the second. Something clicked in my brain as I fought for coherent thought. The river flowed into the Tunnel of Fear. Even after my attempts to jump out and avoid my worst nightmares, the river was still going to force me to face them.
I tucked my body into a ball, the helm pressed in my stomach, so I could protect the most vulnerable parts of myself and the item I’d carried throughout this whole journey. If I lost it now, this trickery and pain would be for nothing. So I used some of my last conscious thoughts to hold on to the helm.
Suddenly, there was a burst of light from behind my eyelids. I squinted them open, and the world spun around me. I quickly shut them again, thinking it must have been the last of the other tunnel fading in the distance when there was a jerk on my arm.
At first, I resisted, thinking it was someone trying to take the helm from me. I pushed it farther into myself, tucking my knees up more. But the being who grabbed me took me by the shoulders when it couldn’t get a good hold on my arms. I was caught in a vice-like grip, unable to escape. Without another choice, I let myself be dragged along against the current of the river.
Then, to my surprise, I broke through the surface.
My jaw dropped, and my lungs expanded for the first time in what felt like ages. Air rushed in, cold and refreshing. My vision blurred as I took in my surroundings and saw we were in another rocky cavern, though this one had a reddish tint to it. I recognized a rocky inlet and swam over to it as fast as my exhausted body would allow me.
I hauled my ass up onto the shore and laid flat on my back to collect myself. The helm pressed against my chest, with my arms wrapping it in an off hug. Only then did I realize that I had been in the inky black waters of the Underworld and somehow had made my way to a different section. One that I had never been in before.
“Come on, Cheyenne, I know you’re exhausted, but you gotta get up,” Esme’s voice said from somewhere nearby.
I did not do as I was told. I stayed right where I was, lying flat, but I did turn my head in the direction of her voice. She sat there, gray-toned but smiling, as though we were meeting for tea.
“What the hell just happened?” I wheezed, still finding my voice after all that screaming.
“I just saved your ass is what happened,” Esme said with a smug grin.
I groaned and righted my head so that I stared back up at the ceiling. “Do I even want to know?”
“Know what?” Esme asked.
“Where we are right now,” I clarified with a wince.
“Oh, yeah,” Esme said, hesitation in her voice. “Well, it’s not great, but welcome to Tartarus!”
28
“Tartarus?” I shouted. “We’re in Tartarus?”
“Keep your voice down,” Esme warned. “We don’t need the whole Underworld knowing we’re here.”
I clamped my mouth shut, sensing the desperation in Esme’s voice. It outweighed my shock and the need for answers. Luckily, before I had a chance to interrogate Esme more, even in a stage whisper, a groan interrupted our conversation. From behind Esme, I could see Ansel’s body lying flat on the ground but shifting uncomfortably as though he were waking up from a long nap.
“Ansel!” I said, not thinking about the level of my voice again. Esme gave me the largest eye roll, but I didn’t care. I ran over to the son of Apollo and launched myself atop him. He let out a grunt as the weight of me knocked the wind out of him. But when he came to his senses, Ansel wrapped his strong arms around me and pulled me tighter to him.
“Cheyenne,” he whispered in my ear. I could hear the relief in his voice. “I thought I had lost you.”
“Never,” I replied as I put my forehead to his, holding tight to the side of his face.
Ansel tilted his chin upward, and his lips met mine. Despite being in the deepest, darkest, more terrible place in the Underworld, I let myself get lost in his kiss. Comfort and warmth flooded through me as his hands raked up and down my back. I pressed my body into his, not caring that we were wet with blackish water or partially dead.
Suddenly, I pulled back from Ansel and looked him over with wide eyes. His coloring had returned. His blond hair, though wet, held its golden color while his tan skin glowed along with the green of his eyes. There wasn’t a single pox mark on him, and all of his features seemed healthy.
“I can touch you,” I said, the realization hitting me in broken pieces. “You look normal.”
Ansel’s eyes roamed over me, the meaning of that information sinking in. “We’re alive again.”
“Shit,” I cursed under my breath. “We were supposed to have more time.”
“We also weren’t supposed to be in Tartarus,” Ansel pointed out.
“Well, you wouldn’t even be here without my help,” Esme interjected with a scoff.
“Thank you for your help,” Ansel said gently. Esme’s face softened at his gratitude, but her presence still made me nervous. The fact that we were thrown off course so drastically wasn’t helping.
With my free hand, I put it to my chest, intent on fiddling with my necklace. But once again, I found I couldn't grab it. This time it wasn’t because my hand went through my body, but because the necklace wasn’t there.
“Oh, my gods!” I exclaimed.
“Cheyenne, you really need to keep your voice down,” Esme said sharply.
“But my necklace,” I said urgently. “It’s gone. Erich’s gone!”
“You mean this necklace?” Esme held out her hand, and my locket swung off its chain between us.
“Yes,” I breathed a sigh of relief. I let go of Ansel and crawled forward on my hands and knees to snatch it from her. I cradled the locket in my cupped hands, but there was something troubling about the piece of jewelry.
“It’s open,” I gasped. “Does that mean… where is Erich?”
“Your ghost brother?” Esme double-checked as she raised an eyebrow. “He’s fine.”
“You could have started with that!” I snapped at her as I snapped the locket shut.
“That’s where we have to go,” Esme said as she got to her feet. “We have to go and meet him. He’s hiding out from the rest of the spirits.”
“It’s dangerous for him down here,” I told Esme, though she seemed to already know this information. “The psychopomps don’t know he is a soul that hasn’t been properly collected.”
“So he explained,” Esme said. She waved her hand at Ansel and me, indicating that we should follow. “Come on.”
Ansel and I got to our feet and walked a few paces behind Esme. He still held my hand, as though they were fused together. It seemed as though now that Ansel could touch me again, he never wanted to let go.
We trekked over the rocky red ground, having to look at our feet as we moved. The air stank of rotten eggs and sweaty pits. It was sticky and humid, as though we were outside in Florida on the summer solstice. Despite my heat resistance abilities, I struggled against the heat that radiated off the rocks. It was thick and muggy, an environment I was completely unused to.
Eventually, I had to let go of Ansel’s hand because there was too much built-up sweat between our two hands. It was impossible
to hold on to him anymore. Having both of my arms free helped me pump myself like a fast walking suburban mom over the uneven terrain.
“How much longer?” I complained to Esme.
The former soldier whirled around on me with an irritated fire in her eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet?”
“I’m sorry,” I said weakly, like a scolded child.
“Why do we have to be quiet?” Ansel asked in an appropriate whisper.
“This is Tartarus,” Esme said as though the answer should have been obvious. “Every monster from mythology lives down here, or at the least the ones that have been killed in the last century or so. If they got wind that there were two live demigods down here, let’s just say you wouldn’t be alive for much longer.”
Ansel and I shared a knowing look, finally understanding the reasoning behind Esme’s extreme caution. I clamped my mouth shut and did my best to keep it that way for the remainder of the journey.
After another half of a mile or so, Esme made a sudden pivot to the left and took us off the main cavern path. We had to squeeze between a narrow opening in the rock that led to a carved-out room. It barely fit all of us, but it was considerably cooler than the main area we were walking along. I swiped at my forehead and let out a gasp of relief. There was only a moment to process the change in venue when a blue flash of light approached me and tackled me into the wall.
“Oh, my gods, you’re okay!” Erich exclaimed as he held onto me tightly.
We never hugged like this before, only ever exchanging small touches. It was a good thing that I had a resistance to the Eternal Flame that composed his form because he was fully pressed up against me. I awkwardly hugged him back before Erich pulled away to look me up and down.
“When we approached the Tunnel of Fears, I tried to heat up the hell out of that locket to warn you, but you didn’t seem to notice,” Erich said, his words tumbling out of his mouth in a rush.
“We were dead,” I explained. “I couldn’t touch you.”
“Of course,” Erich said as he hit his forehead with his palm. “We should have known that.”
“So, what happened?” Ansel asked, getting to the matter at hand. “Esme, how did you know we were here?”
Something in Esme’s expression changed. It shifted from one of confidence mixed with cocky to something resembling shame. She sat on a nearby boulder. Her shoulders tightened, and she pulled her knees up to her chest, seeming to make herself smaller.
“It was all Erich,” Esme confessed, her voice shrinking along with her stature. “He came and found me.”
“I broke free from the locket,” Erich explained. “Which I did not know was something I could do but thank the gods. I tried to get your attention, but both of you were freaking out in the boat. I needed some way to break you out of whatever mental state you were in. So I toppled the boat.”
“You were the one who caused the splash?” I pointed to him and then to Esme. “But then, how did Esme get there?”
“I couldn’t get you out of the water,” Erich continued. “Even though I’m dead, I was worried about alerting someone to my presence, someone who would have been less kind.”
“So he found me in Tartarus,” Esme added. “He said you two were in trouble and needed my help.”
“How did you know she would be in Tartarus?” Ansel asked, looking directly at Erich.
“Technically, she died by suicide,” Erich said, keeping his voice as gentle as possible.
Esme rolled her eyes. “If I’d jumped just a second earlier, then I wouldn’t be down here. Or I hope I would have spent some time in the Asphodel Meadows. But I didn’t even get a fair chance to be judged. Just dumped straight in hell.”
“When I found Esme, I brought her to the edge of Tartarus, and she dove right into the waters,” Erich said, his voice growing in enthusiasm as he reenacted the scene. “She even gave me this spot to hide in.”
“It’s where I have been hiding since I got here,” Esme confessed, her voice raising an octave in her nervousness. “Trust me, you don’t want to meet the rest of the monsters that live down here.”
From her tense body language, I could see that even the brave, confident Esme was afraid of these creatures. That was enough warning for me to stay away from them.
Ansel reached out a hand and put it on Esme’s shoulder. “Thank you, Esme, for rescuing us.”
“What are you even doing down here?” Esme said, her voice becoming harsh as she moved out of Ansel’s sympathetic touch. “You’re clearly not dead, so what’s the deal?”
“We’re here to rescue Ruby,” I said, unafraid of Esme’s reaction to my words. “From her unjust death.”
Esme gave us a knowing nod. “By unjust death, you mean her murder?”
“Yes, exactly that,” I said, squaring my shoulders in defiance.
“Makes sense,” Esme said slowly. “You really are unable to help yourself, huh?”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, sure that she was insulting me somehow.
“You saved Ansel and his soldiers twice,” Esme recited, ticking the instances off on her fingers. “Then the whole school from the love sickness. Then me and now, Ruby.”
“When did I save you?” I cocked my head to the side. “Do you mean when I didn’t kick you off a cliff when you admitted to murdering Ruby? Because I don’t know if that’s a mercy I should have extended just because you had ‘memory loss.’”
Esme licked her lips and took in a big breath, steeling herself. “Apparently, when you die, all of the secrets and unknowns in your life become known. For better or for worse.”
“You mean…?” I stared at the daughter of Prometheus with my mouth open, a shift in my attitude coming swift and sudden. “You know what happened to your memory?”
“Yeah, I know exactly what happened,” Esme said as she tightened her jaw. “I’m not proud of the choice I made to lead us here, but I believe that it’s going to help you. You need to know what she’s done and what she plans to do.”
Ansel and I caught one another’s eye, and I saw that he shared the same look of confusion that I did. Erich snickered and raised his deep blue eyebrows up and down. “Better buckle in guys. I have a feeling this is going to be a wild story.”
“Why don’t you start with who ‘she’ is?” Ansel said as he leaned himself against one of the rock walls near the narrow entrance. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at his friend expectantly.
“She is Eris,” Esme said. In the second between her breaths, I jumped in, unable to stop myself.
“The goddess of chaos and strife,” I recited, my Seer powers jolting into overdrive. “She’s the daughter of Nyx and Zeus, known for having a shit ton of children, all the gods and goddess of terrible things like murder, lies, hardship, and--”
“Forgetfulness,” Esme supplied, taking the word right out of my mouth. “She came to me the evening after you were assigned to make the Ultimate Weapon that I had been working on for years.” Esme pointed to me with a lazy finger, not in an accusing way. “The goddess offered to help me with making the Ultimate Weapon and using it to act out against the Olympians and their children represented in the Officials on campus.”
“You knew the officials were biased towards demigods born from non-Olympian gods,” Ansel deciphered.
“I hated them for it,” Esme said with a definitive nod, but a sense of regret in her voice. “And I hated how they played favorites with Cheyenne even though she was a first-year and I was a full soldier. I was sure it was because she was Hephaestus’s child.” Esme shook her head, the full disappointment in herself clear. “I didn’t realize it was because you were the better craftsman, the best blacksmith.”
“I didn’t know you felt like I had taken something from you,” I said, my own voice growing soft and my face growing hot due to embarrassment. If only I had known how she felt, I might have been able to help this, help her. Maybe her death could have been prevented.
“But why would a goddess want to hurt the Olympians?” Ansel said as his green eyes shifted to me, knowing that I would have the historical context in order to answer his question.
“Well, she hates the Olympians too,” I answered with a casual shrug. “She was in line to be one of them, being Zeus’s daughter. But Hera had Hephaestus first and oh…” I said as the realization hit me. “I forgot that Hephaestus took her designated spot as one of the twelve.”
“Yeah, she hates your dad,” Esme said with a nod to both me and Erich. “So, consequently, she hates you.”
“Lovely,” Erich said with an epic eye roll.
“Not only that,” I added, the need to share my knowledge spurring me on. “She wasn’t invited to Peleus and Thetis’s wedding when all the other Olympians had been. So she created the Apple of Discord and threw it into the wedding feast. Which caused Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena to fight over it, which caused the whole ‘who’s hotter’ debate, which eventually caused the Trojan war.”
“Wait,” Ansel said, pushing himself off the wall and holding out a hand to stop me from continuing. “She was the apple goddess. She was the one who caused the chaos on campus with Love Struck. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one who gave Violet the apple seeds.”
My eyes widened as the pieces clicked into place. I reached out and grabbed Ansel’s firm upper arm, a gasp escaping my lips. “Esme, what does Eris look like?”
“You mean how she appeared to me?” Esme said with a frown. “When I saw her, she was very tall, very thin, very pale. She had long black hair and always wore her nails long, painted black.”
Memories zipped through my mind’s eye. I thought back to the time that Violet, Janet, and I went shopping off campus for dresses to the dance. I found the perfect red dress that ended up being enchanted and making everyone at the Academy obsessed with me. But it wasn’t the dress I was picturing.