The Iron Queen (Daughters of Zeus) (13 page)

“Annie, are you okay?” The kid shouted in my ear over and over again.

Gods, he was loud!

I caught my breath and turned to face the mysterious stranger. He looked twelve or thirteen with streaked blond hair hanging haphazardly in his face. A Metallica shirt and jeans with all kinds of holes in them hung off his lanky frame.

I stared at him in complete shock. Where was I? Who was this kid?

“Are you okay, Annie?”

“That’s not my name.” I took a quick look around the cave we were crouched in.

Despite the darkness, every detail was illuminated, just like in the Underworld where there was no sun but it was somehow always light. Water filled most of the cavern, leaving us in the only dry spot. My skirt had turned a dingy gray with black streaks from the slick rocks below me, and I was soaking wet.

He was completely dry.

The kid shrugged and showed me his phone. “It’s one of the steps.”

I stared at the video through the thick, bulky, waterproof case, now more confused than ever. A woman performed CPR on a child-sized dummy on the screen.

Well, that explains what he was doing.

Had that been my thought or Hades’? The fact I didn’t know bothered me, but I pushed my concerns aside. There were more important things to worry about.

“Where am I?” Touching my necklace, I took a mental inventory. I didn’t feel
good,
but nothing screamed life-threatening injury.

The boy’s eyes flicked back and forth over my face with frank curiosity. “The ocean.”

Gee, that narrows it down.
That time I knew the thought came from Hades. It seemed our connection was restored even outside of dreamwalking.

Thank the gods,
I thought before turning my attention back to the kid. I opened my mouth to demand a more specific answer, then noticed the kid’s eyes churning blue and green with streaks of brown and white swirling like tiny waves around his pupils.

“You’re Poseidon’s son.”

He tensed.

“He mentioned you—said he had a son about my age.” My age? Apparently the god of the sea couldn’t add.

You’re closer to his age than Poseidon’s,
Hades pointed out.

The kid brightened and puffed out his chest. “If he told you that, he must trust you a lot. No one’s supposed to know he has a son.”

That made sense. The more people who knew he existed, the greater chance of his name getting out there and people killing him with worship he wasn’t old enough to handle. I grimaced as my ribs knit themselves back together. I was glad to have been unconscious for the bulk of the heal from the fall.

When the pain passed, I returned my attention to the kid. “You saved me.”

He didn’t save you. It takes more than drowning to kill you,
Hades pointed out.

I’m awake, I’m breathing, and I’m not at the bottom of the ocean. Kudos to the kid.
Turning my thoughts away from Hades, I focused on the conversation at hand.

“Thank you so much.”

He turned bright red. “Aw, it was nothin’. Triton.” He stuck out his hand.

“Persephone.”

He hadn’t taken his eyes off me since I woke up. “You’re like me, right?”

“A god, you mean?” I climbed to my feet and glanced around the cave. There wasn’t much to see.

He nodded.

“Yes.”

“Wow!” The way he stared at me, like I was some sort of new and interesting species, made me uncomfortable.

I pressed my fingers against the wet wall of the cave. It felt odd beneath my hand. Normally when I touched stones or dirt or plants, I felt connected to them, like I’d tapped into some kind of energy. But this…felt empty. Foreign. It wasn’t my realm. “Surely you’ve seen a goddess before. What about your mom?”

He looked down, fidgeting with his phone. “You’re different.” Clearing his throat, he looked up at me through his messy hair. “Why are you here? No offense, but you’re not supposed to be here. I can feel it.”

I knew exactly what he meant. Since I wasn’t invited to this realm, it felt like it was trying to push me out. The menacing water lapped on the rocks and the walls of the cave felt like they were bearing down on me. “I escaped from another god. If you could just point me toward land…”

“You’re a long way off.”

I clutched at my necklace. I’d been afraid of that.

“But don’t worry. I can call my father—”

“No!”

Triton looked up at me in alarm, and I forced myself to smile.

“I mean, I’d rather not involve anyone if I don’t have to. The other god…”
is maybe only a little worse than your dad.

I couldn’t say that. Poseidon was an ass and a pervert. He’d harassed and raped my mom centuries back when she’d spurned his advances. Supposedly he felt bad about it now, and he’d told me he wanted to help me when I was dying on his beach, but I’d rather die than put my mom in the position of having to be grateful to that jerk.

Still, however screwed up Poseidon was, his kid was sweet. “It’s kind of complicated.”

Triton wrinkled his nose. “It’s political stuff, huh?”

I considered. That could work. Zeus, Poseidon, my mom, and Hades were all realm rulers. Anything involving them had ramifications. “Isn’t everything?”

“I can take you to land. And”—he reached up and put a hand on my shoulder, a faint blush covering his face—“I can protect you from that other god. I’m stronger than I look.”

Having a guide would be helpful.

But what if Zeus found me? Could I really justify putting this kid in danger?

It’s worse than that,
I realized, horrified. This wasn’t just some kid. He was Poseidon’s son. Zeus would want him for the same reason he wanted me. We both had a natural right to realms he didn’t control.

Zeus would torture him like he’d tortured me, and when, not if, Triton broke, Zeus would have access to this realm and be that much harder to defeat.

That would suck, but it was the thought of Zeus torturing this happy, smiling, adorable kid that filled my gut with dread.

“I’ll find my own way, thanks.”

Triton gave me a skeptical look, eyes sparkling in challenge. He lifted his chin and with a confident grin demanded, “What are you gonna do? Swim?”

I opened my mouth to reply and realized I didn’t have the slightest clue how to get home.

“Yeah, I thought so.” Triton’s voice was thick with satisfaction. “You’re stuck with me, like it or not.”

Chapter XXVI

Aphrodite

Hades would live.

Between the two of us, Demeter and I propped him up on the couch and cleaned most of the blood off his face—ugh, nose blood. Gross. He was still out cold, and Demeter was on edge. No doubt wondering what had happened to Persephone to reverberate to Hades like that.

I shuddered to think of it. Gods shouldn’t bleed. Stopping outside of Persephone’s room, I raised my hand to knock on the door.

“…just saying that was thoughtless,” Orpheus said from within the room.

I froze.

“I refuse to be afraid of them,” Melissa snapped.

I looked up and down the hall. No one was there. Shrugging, I pressed my ear against the door.

“That’s your first mistake,” Orpheus retorted. “But fine, don’t be afraid. Would it kill you to show a little humanity? Her daughter is missing—”

“Gosh, I missed that memo.”

I smirked. It was nice not being on the receiving end of Melissa’s snark.

“Look, I get it. She’s your best friend, and you’re scared and worried. But multiply that times infinity for Demeter. We’re lucky she hasn’t scorched the earth looking for Persephone. We’re
extremely
lucky she’s not pointing fingers. In case you haven’t noticed, deities aren’t the most mentally stable people, so the least you could do is not
bait
one who’s barely holding it together.”

I frowned. Yes, he had a point, but I didn’t like my mental stability being impugned upon by some half-breed. These crazy people kept acting like humanity was something to aspire to. Did they read newspapers? Humans were crazier than the gods had ever been.

I heard a thud, like something banged hard against the nightstand. “I hate her.” Melissa’s voice was so soft I could barely hear her.

“I don’t think you do.”

“Having fun?” A voice whispered in my ear.

I jumped a foot off the ground with an embarrassing, pathetic-sounding squeak.

“Easy now.” Ares laughed and put his arm around my shoulder to steady me. I jolted at the sensation of cold leather brushing against my bare arms.

Speaking of arms—wow, his were firm! I gave him a subtle once-over and tried to recover what dignity I could. Melissa was busy, and I was bored.

He caught my look and grinned. “Need a distraction?”

I leaned forward, pressing my body against his, balancing on my tiptoes, and whispered, lips brushing against his ear, “I could use a change of scenery.”

His arms dropped to my waist. “I’ll take you wherever you want.”

I slipped out of his embrace and flashed him a smile. “Great, I’ll get the keys.” I giggled at his confused look. “You did say anywhere. Let’s go recruit Hephaestus.”

He gave me a withering look. “Not what I had in mind.”

I tossed my hair over my shoulder. “
You
should have been more specific.”

Chapter XXVII

Hades

I woke to a cold appraisal from Athena’s gray eyes. Disoriented, I sat up and realized I was in Demeter’s living room.

Hades!
Persephone’s fear sliced through me.

I’m here,
I assured her before turning my attention back to Athena. “Can I help you?” I laced the sentence with as much sarcasm as I could muster.

It wasn’t much. Whatever just happened to Persephone had left me shaken. Pain was not an experience I relished, especially hers. I pushed my hair out of my face and narrowed my eyes at Athena.

“You need a haircut,” she observed.

My attention snapped back to Persephone as she struggled to get out from under…who was that kid and what the hell did he think he was doing?

CPR. An ally then.

“You’re up.” Demeter walked into the room. Her face was pale and drawn with worry.

I swung my feet over the couch and sat up. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

“Is she okay?” Demeter demanded.

The ocean
, the kid chirped.

Gee, that narrows it down.
I stood, taking a deep breath to steady myself as the room shifted around me. “She seems to have escaped Zeus.”

Athena’s expression became guarded, and I exchanged glances with Demeter. We all knew it wasn’t likely she’d escaped. Zeus was up to something.

You’re Poseidon’s son,
Persephone exclaimed.

I swore. But how! How could he have known she’d find some random, unknown child of Poseidon?

Unless…

“Could Zeus have access to a prophet?” I asked while Persephone got worked up about Poseidon saying Triton was her age.
You’re closer to his age than Poseidon’s.
I didn’t add how relieved I was that Poseidon saw Persephone as a child. Or that I wondered what it said about me that I didn’t.

You saved me,
she said to the child-god.

No, he didn’t,
I objected. It was irrational to feel defensive, but that didn’t seem to matter. Twice now someone from Poseidon’s world had saved her when I couldn’t.
It takes more than drowning to kill you.

“…not aware of any living prophets, divine or otherwise.” Athena leaned back in her chair.

I jerked my head up. “What?”

She frowned at me. “Are you all right?”

With effort, I turned my attention away from Persephone. She was safe. I was no good to her if I couldn’t focus. But when I opened my mouth, I realized I couldn’t answer Athena’s question because I wasn’t “all right.” I’d seen what Zeus had put Persephone through, and it wasn’t over yet. “Can you repeat whatever you just said?”

She let out a long breath, as though repeating herself was beneath her. “I am not aware of any living prophets.”

Prophet gods were rare, even before Olympus fell. Knowing the future impacted the outcome, and gods, even minor ones, tended to be involved in events in a big way. Most gods born with the gift of prophecy passed it along to demigods eons ago. Humans rarely lived long enough to master it. It had taken Cassandra centuries to get to the point where she could understand her visions, much less communicate them to me in any meaningful way. It was unlikely Zeus had access to a prophet.

But it made so much sense. Over the last year we’d been moved around like pawns until we were exactly where Zeus wanted us. I thought back to the day I’d rescued Persephone and brought her down to the Underworld. Could that have all been engineered by Zeus?

He couldn’t have known how everything would end up, could he?

“Demeter…” I paused, uncertain how to proceed. “Persephone is in Poseidon’s realm.”

Demeter’s face went white.

“He hasn’t found her yet, but—”

Demeter grabbed my hand, and before I could blink, we were standing on a beach. She walked to the edge of the shoreline, picked up a shell, and tossed it into the ocean.

“I can handle this.” I kept my eyes on the ocean and off her face, sensing that she needed a moment to compose herself. “You didn’t have to come.”

“Yes, I did.” Demeter’s skirt and hair whipped around her in the wind. She looked so much like Persephone, but I never saw Persephone in her. I’d known Demeter too long, I supposed.

“You ever think we were better off before we rebelled?” Demeter asked.

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged, eyes searching the waves. “Look at what’s become of us. All of us, estranged and half dead for want of worship. At least in the before, in the void, we had one another. We were happy sometimes, weren’t we?”