Destined. Part 27

"I might not be old ... but I know I've got some things to change if I make it out of here." I shoved the boat forward again, but this time it slid to a grating halt.

"Well, what do you know?" Charon asked. "You actually made it the rest of the way. I'm impressed."

I was so relieved to not be paddling, that I staggered out of the boat and fell backwards into the sand. Sprawled on the cool sh.o.r.e, my chest heaved and my hammering heart slowly returned to a more normal pace.

Charon knelt down beside me. I heard the sand near my ear crunch under his boots. "How about a deal?" he asked. "I'll promise to start bringing some souls into Hades without coins - if they have a good excuse - if you'll do something for me."

I closed my eyes and sighed. What choice did I have? Didn't I owe it to a world full of impoverished shades not to d.a.m.n them to eternity in a river?

"Sure," I answered.

His calloused fingers closed around mine. "Good. Let's get going then." With an easy pull, Charon raised me to my feet and let me go.

I shook my head in confusion as we began walking. "What's the favor?"

"You're giving me a vacation while I accompany you through Hades. As the daughter of Aphrodite, I think you've got enough clout to get me the afternoon off."

"That's it? That's really all you want from me?"

Charon turned and looked at me. His eyes were dull, tired. "What more could I want? I'm getting some time off to spend with the most beautiful woman in the world. Isn't that enough?"

"Shus.h.!.+ Aphrodite's mad enough at me as it is. Don't you dare get me into any more trouble with praise like that."

Charon started walking again, leading me toward a far-off light. "I didn't say you were the most lovely immortal, did I? I'm not stupid."

We walked in silence for a little while, coming upon torches that lit a narrow path. Shadows began to dance across Charon's face as the flames flickered. The effect made his face appear angry one moment and concerned the next.

I took a step onto the path, but Charon grabbed my arm and pulled me back. "Wait," he called.

Screeching and hopping, I looked down at my feet, afraid I was about to step on snakes or into a pit or something. Charon chuckled at my graceless little dance.

"For the record," he told me, "Eros would be a d.a.m.n fool if he didn't take you back."

Chapter 50 - Eros.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Eros blinked back the blinding rays of morning sun. He wondered where he was for a few seconds until the memory from the night before settled in.

Seeing Iris's palace in the daylight was disorienting. Curtains were purple, couches were orange, pottery was green. And not muted, pastel versions either. These were full-on, ultra-saturated colors. The explosion of hues gave Eros a headache and he rubbed at his sore temples.

He'd felt like this before, but only after way too much wine. And he'd only had a few sips of ambrosia while he was waiting for Iris to come back. But he didn't remember her returning. In fact, he didn't remember anything after sipping from her cup.

"That harpy drugged me," he realized.

He picked himself up off the floor. Somehow he'd ended propped against a couch, meaning he'd spent the night asleep on the ground. This would not weigh in Iris's favor if he ever caught sight of her again.

"Iris!" he called to the empty palace. "Iris, are you here?" He slowly circled the room to make sure his voice carried to every part of the house.

When Eros's own voice echoed back to him, it was clear he was alone. "Good," he muttered, "because I might have to kill you if you were here."

When his anger ebbed, Eros remembered why he was at Iris's in the first place. She'd promised to help him find Psyche. But now neither woman was here. d.a.m.n it.

Eros pushed through the drug-induced stiffness in his wings as he bolted into the morning sky. As fast as he could manage, he flew to Aphrodite's palace and pounded open the door. The golden portal crashed into the marble wall behind it, shaking the entranceway.

"Mother, don't make me come looking for you. Get out here." Eros clenched his hands into fists so tightly his biceps shook.

Aphrodite sauntered into the room as if nothing were unusual about her son's visit. "Ah, there you are. I was expecting you yesterday, but I guess you found other ways to occupy your evening." Aphrodite half-smiled, twirling a ring on her finger.

Eros eyed his mother. "You sent Iris to drug me? So I wouldn't get here sooner?"

"Umm..." Aphrodite answered with a sigh and brushed her fingertips along Eros's shoulder, touching the remnants of withered flesh that still hadn't fallen off after the burn. Eros jerked his shoulder back reflectively. "How is your scar healing?"

"As you can see, it's fine. Almost gone," Eros said through clenched teeth.

Aphrodite arched her eyebrows and turned her back on her son. Taking hold of her door, she removed it from where it'd come to rest against the wall and quietly closed it. Then she looked at the large crack that ran through her marble wall, running her fingers over the crevice. "Something else I'm going to have to clean up after you make a mess of it, I see."

"Enough. Where's Psyche?"

Aphrodite strolled over to a padded stool and dropped down into it. She pursed her lips and looked at the ceiling as she sighed. "Hades."

The word worked better than a swift punch to the kidneys. Eros staggered two steps backward, clutching his gut in agony.

"You asked."

Eros continued backing up until he found a stool to sit on. "How? How'd this happen?" He gripped his hair in his hands and rocked himself in denial. "I saved her from the soldiers. I saved her. She got away. I saw it."

"I didn't say she died," Aphrodite finally answered, after letting him marinate in misery for a few moments. "I said she was in Hades. I took her to the Alcyonian Lake yesterday and Charon ferried her in."

Eros's eyes bulged as his hands fell away from the death grip he had on his hair. "You did what?"

"It's a test. I'm sure you've heard of such things; Heracles had twelve of them." When all Eros did was glare, Aphrodite continued. "Psyche's actually getting off easy with only two."

"Why'd you do this?" Eros demanded. "You loved her once too. We were all supposed to be family. Why can't you just let it go?"

"I'm trying to, Son."

"Excuse me?" Eros's eyebrows strained for his hairline.

"I tried to bring the two of you together once and if you'll recall, you both refused. How am I supposed to just act like that never happened? Or that you didn't follow through on my curse? Or that she threw my divine gifts back in my face? And then that she tried to kill you?" Her head lolled back against the cool marble wall. "I still want the two of you to be together if that's what will make you happy, but things are more complicated now."

As a G.o.d himself, Eros appreciated his mother's need to avenge her reputation and her family. Her instincts weren't the prettiest side of her nature, but they all had them. No slight on Earth ever went unnoticed on Olympus.

"When she makes it out, does that settle the score?"

Aphrodite's lips pursed together. "I'm still not sure."

"Will you at least agree to call off Iris?"

"The trip to Hades and back is a long one." Aphrodite went to her son and lifted his chin. "Don't light a torch under Iris's pyre just yet."

Just like his visit two weeks ago, Eros was left waiting when he reached the Alcyonian Lake. He paced along the bank, his steps falling with the graceful impatience of a caged lion. His eyes remained fixed on the cave entrance, but the only thing to see was the current of the river flowing out.

He forgot his pacing when he heard faint splashes on the lake. Every muscle in his back coiled into rigid ropes as he stood frozen on the sh.o.r.e. The splashes grew louder. Charon would be coming out of the cave any second.

Please let Psyche be in the boat.

Chapter 51 - Psyche.

I'd forgotten. There's a reason Hades doesn't need a gatekeeper to keep trespa.s.sers out or shades in. His name is Cerberus, and he's 90 kilograms of nasty, three-headed, s...o...b..ring, growling dog.

We hadn't been on the path into Hades for long when I heard Cerberus's snarl in the distance. But it wasn't the snarl that scared me. It was the vicious, angry barks followed by terrified screams. Since I was still a little hesitant of killer animals after my morning sheep encounter, I half-hid behind Charon as we plodded ahead.

"We don't have far to go now," he a.s.sured me. "Just stay with me, and you'll be fine."

The stench of decaying feces and sulfuric dog-breath wafting through the craggy tunnel confirmed Charon's warning that we were nearly to Cerberus.

When we rounded a corner, I was suddenly face-to-face with three sets of bone-crunching jaws. Saliva splattered against my cheek as one of the heads chopped in my face. My shrill screech echoed the ones I'd heard earlier and I staggered backward into Charon. The ferryman easily caught me and pushed me safely behind him.

Cerberus strained against his heavy chains, snarling and snapping, threatening to bite Charon's head off. But Charon never flinched. He just stood his ground, inches from the snapping fangs, and glared back at the over-grown mutt.

"I don't suppose you have a honey cake in that box of yours, do you?" Charon asked me, never looking away from Cerberus.

I barely heard him over the thundering of my own pulse. Facing Cerberus was bad enough, forgetting the only thing that would distract him was a monumental disaster. Sweat broke out across my upper lip as panic set it.

"No. Now what?"

"Check the box to be sure."

"But I didn't ask Aphrodite to give me a -"

Charon cut off my hysterics. "Check the box."

I snapped the lid open, thrusting it forward so Charon could see it was empty. Like I told him it would be.

Only it wasn't empty.

"Well, what do you know? There's a honey cake in the box," Charon said as he pulled the cake out and closed the lid before flinging the cake in the opposite direction of our path.

Cerberus leapt and spun in the air, throwing himself at the cake. I watched in horror as the heads snapped at each other, drawing self-inflicted blood, in their battle for shreds.

"Come on." Charon grabbed my hand and we lunged forward. He was ridiculously fast for an old man. As I worked to make my feet catch up, my sandal hit something slick and I went down.

Charon's hands latched under my arms and lifted me, but not before Cerberus noticed we were stopped. The beast turned mid-air as he jumped. When his paws struck ground, he was already sprinting toward us. Charon spun me out of the way, but Cerberus still managed to s.n.a.t.c.h a chunk of my dress in his fangs. The heat of his rancid breath burned through the cloth.

With every bit of strength I could manage, I pushed myself forward while Charon continued to pull. Seconds pa.s.sed. We were deadlocked. Cerberus's growls rumbled through the cave. His head snapped side to side as he tried to jerk me free from Charon's protective grasp.

And then came a distinctive tear. The same ripping as when the soldier had shredded my dress, exposing my flesh. Only this time, the sound was the best thing I'd ever heard.

As a swatch of cloth separated from the dress, I tumbled just beyond the reach of his jaws. Savage barks split through the cavern, deafening in their intensity.

"Let's go," Charon screamed over the snarls. We raced down the path until we could no longer hear the hungry heads fighting one another for their chance to spill my blood.

It took longer than I cared to admit, but my breathing finally slowed enough that I could talk. "How'd you know that'd be in there? The honey cake, I mean."

"Even Aphrodite has to abide by some rules." Figures. Charon didn't sound winded at all. "If she wants you to run an errand for her in Hades, she at least has to give you the tools to get inside."

"But she didn't tell me. I mean, if you hadn't been here, I never would've known."

"Just part of the test," Charon said. "Be glad you have a tutor that lets you cheat."

"Please tell me I'm not overhearing evidence of cheating going on," a lovely, young voice piped up. "Especially if it's cheating death. We tend to frown on those sorts of tricks."

Her willowy body materialized on the torch-lit path. Charon immediately bowed to the woman, then took her delicate hand in his. Down here, this could only be Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.

"Of course not, your Highness," Charon chuckled. "At least not the accusation of attempting to cheat death."

Her eyes danced as a wry smile tugged at her lips. "In that case, I'll pretend I didn't hear a word." She squeezed Charon's shoulder tenderly. "It's good to see you again, old friend."

"You know how it is. I never get a day off to come visit," Charon complained.

"And yet, here you are." Persephone's eyes turned to me. They were deep brown, like Ceres's, only shockingly intense. She studied me, perhaps sizing me up, but I didn't get the sense I was being judged.

"Perhaps I understand why," she said, eyebrows raised, still watching me with those eyes. "Charon, aren't you going to introduce me to your ... friend?"

Charon cleared his throat. "Of course. Queen Persephone, this is Princess Psyche, Eros's fiancee. Psyche, Queen Persephone."

Persephone's face instantly brightened. "I didn't know Eros was engaged!" She flung her arms around me and squeezed, welcoming and sisterly. "I'm so glad you came down to meet me. I'm long overdue to return, but I didn't know I'd missed such important news."

Charon frowned. "That's true. You are overdue." Persephone was only supposed to spend fall and winter in Hades. Come spring and summer, she returned to Earth to visit with her mother. "Is everything all right?"

"Oh yes!" she gushed. "If I didn't know better, I'd think Eros had been down here spreading some of his magic. Hades has been such an amazing husband lately, I haven't wanted to leave. And mother agreed spring could still come as long as I'm happy." She shrugged her shoulders. "So, here I am."

I looked around the dimly-lit pathway and jagged, rock-lined walls, wondering how she could possibly want to stay here when spring was exploding in the gardens outside. But then I thought of the nights I'd spent in Eros's company, coc.o.o.ned in darkness and bursting with emotions I couldn't name. It wouldn't have mattered where we were, as long as we were together.

As if picking the image of Eros out of my brain, Persephone asked, "So, Psyche, where is that finance of yours? Is he too scared to come down into Hades himself?"