“And what’s that?” Daniel asked.
Thalia shrugged.
“Now that my father is gone—”
I didn’t like where my sister was going with this one bit, and Daniel, thankfully, had the decency to look uncomfortable with this train of thought, too.
“Right now, Death is ineffectively split between you and Calliope, so neither of you wields ultimate control,” Thalia continued. “Things will remain this way until you challenge my sister, best her, and assume total control of the job by drinking from the Cup of Jamshid. Until this is accomplished, she will remain a threat to everything I hold dear.”
I froze, unable to breathe as I waited for Daniel to tell my sister where she could go shove it.
“And all I have to do is fight Callie and drink from the Cup of Jamshid?”
Thalia nodded, but didn’t push the issue, letting Daniel come to his own conclusions. He appeared to be mulling the idea over in his mind, weighing all sides of the proposition.
“And she won’t be hurt. She’ll be allowed to continue with her life, no strings attached? A real human being like she’s always wanted?”
My sister grinned mischievously—and Daniel, the trusting nimwit, didn’t have my invisible vantage point, so he couldn’t see Thalia crossing her fingers behind her back, making any promises she agreed to effectively null and void.
“Of course, Daniel,” Thalia said, looking indignant. “She’s my sister. I wouldn’t harm a hair on her pretty little head.”
“I still don’t know—” he started to say, but Thalia closed the gap between them, resting her hand on his muscular chest—which only made me want to tear her eyes out with my fingernails.
“Why don’t you ask me what your alternative is, Daniel, darling?” she murmured, her lips inches away from his. I could see Daniel struggling against the urge to kiss her—and Thalia smiled, knowing she had him in the palm of her hand.
“What is my alternative?” He gulped.
She reached down and grabbed his crotch, her bloodred nails like sharpened talons digging into his most delicate man bits.
“I’ll tear your balls off with my bare hands and make you eat them while I watch,” she said matter-of-factly. “Not much of an alternative, is it?”
Daniel shook his head and she released her hold on his balls, stepping back to admire her handiwork. She’d definitely put the fear of ball-less-ness in my usually fearless fellow.
“Okay, then.” Daniel nodded, swallowing hard. “I guess I have no other choice.”
I wasn’t sure I’d heard him. I shook my head and willed him to repeat what he’d just said, but in the negative.
“You’ll do it?” Thalia breathed, clapping her hands together in happiness.
“I’ll do what you want,” Daniel said, wary now. “So long as Callie goes free.”
Like an ax to my heart . . . his words split me in two, severed my soul from my body, sent me spinning into space like an errant satellite. I’d been betrayed, and by the person I’d expected it from the least. I was on fire with heartache and it was the most miserable feeling I’d ever endured. I couldn’t even begin to process the rest of what Thalia had said about my dad, about Daniel and me splitting Death . . . I couldn’t focus, I felt myself sliding back into the wall, letting the smooth stone envelop my body, steal me away from the horrible betrayal I’d witnessed.
I closed my eyes, the scene repeating itself on the backs of my eyelids, etched in my memory for all eternity—and then a cool, soothing blackness fell upon me and I ceased to think anymore. I let my brain shut down, and as I let my soul fall away . . .
I opened my eyes.
I was lying in marsh grass, the itchy plant sheaths poking into the back of my neck and shoulders. At first, it was pleasant just to lie there, looking up at the sky as it graduated from the blue of day to the orange of sunset. My brain was free of any conscious thought; all I could do was marvel at the beauty blossoming above me. Then, like a knife slitting apart my reality, the memory of Daniel’s betrayal bloomed inside me and I almost cried out because the physical pain of my heart breaking was so terrible.
“Are you all right?” Hyacinth said. I turned my head to find the giant woman sitting on the grass beside me. Concern was rife on her face and I guessed I’d been pretty vocal while I was dreaming. I reached out and took Hyacinth’s hand, squeezing it as hard as I could to blot out the hurt.
“Daniel . . . He . . . It’s over,” I cried, the tears leaking from eyes, unbidden. “And my dad, too. Something terrible—”
I couldn’t get the words out. They got stuck in my throat and I couldn’t breathe. I sat up, putting my head in between my knees so I wouldn’t pass out. Hyacinth didn’t question me; she just put her hand on my back and rubbed the tension away as best she could.
“What am I gonna do?” I whispered, my voice cracking as I fought down my grief. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
“That’s why your father asked me to be your guardian,” Hyacinth said. “To look after you and protect you if something . . . like this should ever happen.”
I lifted my head to look at her.
“He thought something bad was going to happen?”
She nodded.
“He hoped not, but he made arrangements just in case.”
That made me feel a little less worried, but it wasn’t enough to rest any real hopes on.
“Daniel is going to challenge me,” I whispered. “And I don’t think I can win. I don’t think I want to.”
Hyacinth didn’t seem too unsettled by what I was saying.
“You love him. Of course you don’t want to hurt him.”
“Isn’t that just the worst?” I said, smiling wanly. “I’m just like every other girl with a shitty boyfriend: in denial.”
Hyacinth patted my back.
“When the time comes, you’ll do the right thing, Callie.”
I hoped she was right. I didn’t know how I felt anymore. I just wanted to see my mom and dad and my little sister. I wanted to help them if I could before Thalia did anything else to destroy our family.
“I just want to go home, ya know?” I sighed, some of the pain receding a little when I realized what I wanted. “Right or wrong, I just want to find out what’s happened to the rest of my family.”
Hyacinth was smart enough to remain silent, knowing that nothing she could say would make things any better for me—because she understood something I did not: My life had changed irreparably . . .
whether I liked it or not.
eleven
We stayed on the shore, the clear blue sky stretching out into the horizon above us while I watched the water foam around the edges of the marsh. The sea looked as lonely as I felt, empty of any life on the surface, but a tumultuous mess of activity below the cresting waves. My brain couldn’t stop rehashing everything I’d seen, all the crappy bits compressed into one big ball of awfulness. I saw Jarvis propped up against the toilet, his head hanging forward, lifeless. I saw Daniel pacing his purgatorial cell, choosing power over love. I saw my mom and dad, just a still frame of the last time we were together: my mom sitting on the living room couch, my dad sitting in an armchair reading a book. The image faded to black and I felt terror at what that might mean. I chose not to think of my little sister. If anything had happened to Clio . . . I couldn’t bear to think about it.
There was one positive thing. Our hellhound pup, Runt, was still down in Hell with her three-headed dad, Cerberus, the Guardian of the North Gate of Hell. That meant she wasn’t at Sea Verge, and that if anything bad had happened there, then at least she was okay. I couldn’t see Cerberus letting anyone touch his little girl as long as he was guarding her. This thought gave me the first glimmer of hope I’d had in hours. It wasn’t enough to dispel the depression settling over me, but it was a beginning.
Hyacinth was a good thinking companion, silent and ever watchful, never pushing me to pull myself together, letting me take all the time needed to find my way back on my own terms.
“What was my dad’s plan?” I asked as I picked at a piece of marsh grass, shredding it. “I mean, his contingency plan if anything bad happened.”
“I was to bring you here and call out Watatsumi from his coral palace,” she said. “He would give you a gift, one you might need to assume control of Death.”
“What gift?” I asked as I fingered the jewel the old man had given me.
“The one you’re holding in your hands right now,” she said. “It will help to restore the power of Death to its rightful owner.”
“What will
I
have to do?” I said, not sure how one jewel and one girl could fight both the Devil and my sister.
“You must make sure the Devil is not allowed to install Daniel as the head of Death, Inc. He has groomed his former protégé for many years to usurp your father’s position from you. If he were to succeed, then the Devil would control Daniel and, through him, Death—which would be disastrous.”
After all those years in service, I’d guessed that the Devil might still have some control over Daniel. It only made sense, especially in light of what I’d witnessed between him and my sister.
“Why? What does the Devil have on Daniel?” I said. I was really hoping Hyacinth had the answer. I’d spent many nights quizzing Daniel about his past, but I’d never been able to get much out of him, especially when it came to why he’d been the Devil’s protégé.
“I don’t know the whole story, only the gist of what happened,” Hyacinth said.
“Tell me,” I said, standing up and walking off some of the pent-up energy ricocheting around inside me. I paced in front of the shoreline, anger fueling my movements as I waited for Hyacinth to tell me what she knew.
“Your friend—” she began, but I interrupted her.
“He’s not my friend anymore.”
Hyacinth nodded, conceding.
“The Devil knew exactly who the young man was, and what possibilities lay in his future, so he went all out wooing Daniel, promising him Heaven and Earth in order to steal his soul. I don’t know what compelled Daniel to accept the Devil’s offer, but he did and he was bound to Hell for all eternity unless . . .”
“Unless what?” I asked, my feet crunching the marsh grass with viciousness.
“You saved him, Callie,” Hyacinth murmured. “By allowing him to make the ultimate sacrifice—his life for yours.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I offered, but Hyacinth shook her head.
“And that’s why the Devil’s bond was broken. Daniel sacrificed willingly, in the moment, to save you, an innocent. He was not compelled to protect you; he did it of his own free will.”
“But now he’s doing what the Devil wants—”
“Yes,” Hyacinth said, interrupting me. “And he must be stopped at all costs.”
“I promise to do what I can to protect Death, Inc.,” I replied, “but I want to go to Sea Verge first. I need to speak to my dad, see what he wants me to do.”
Hyacinth pursed her lips then nodded.
“You will need someone to take you there. Wormholes are no good to you,” she intoned.
I could only think of one person I trusted enough—and who was powerful enough—to help me. I closed my eyes and screamed the first name that came into my brain out across the heavens.
“
Kali!
I need your help!”
A crack of thunder skated across the sky and my senses prickled as the air filled with electrical tension. The ceiling of sky remained intact, but a skeletal arm of lightning broke through the clouds and shot toward me, sizzling as it passed within a few inches of my head. The lightning struck the marsh, igniting the dry and brittle grass with a
pop
that made me and Hyacinth scurry out of the way. I waited for the fire to ramp up in intensity and start spreading, but it didn’t act how I had expected. Instead, it flamed upward, a column of undulating orange and red flame flickering wildly as it funneled smoke into the atmosphere.
There was a loud
crack
like the sound of an iceberg calving on a lonely stretch of the Arctic Ocean, and then Kali was standing before me, wrapped in a bright purple sari, henna tattoos covering her olive body from the nape of her neck to the tips of her purple-painted toenails. Around her throat hung a fiber necklace strung with tiny human teeth that glinted like opals in the fading sunlight.
Her dark hair was tied up at the crown of her head, revealing a streak of oxidizing blood that ran across her cheek and down to her collarbone. At first, I thought it was Kali’s blood—that she’d been wounded and had bled out—but when I realized she was intact and unblemished, I knew it must’ve come from someone else. Then I noticed the rest of the blood on her sari that the deep color of the fabric had camouflaged from me.
We both spoke at the same time:
“Kali, you came—”
“You’re safe, white girl—”
I was so ecstatic to see my old friend, I grabbed her in a giant bear hug, which she totally slipped out of as fast as she could, her dark eyes narrowed in an angry glare that sliced at me like a sharpened knife.
“Uhm, this is my boss, Hyacinth—” I started to say, but she interrupted me.
“I was in the middle of kicking some serious ass, white girl,” she seethed. “So this had better be damn important.”
I swallowed hard.
“Jarvis is dead and I think my dad may be, too. I can’t use the wormhole, so I need someone to take me to Sea Verge.”
Kali’s mouth fell open.
“The little faun? They got him?”
I nodded, a tear spilling from the corner of my eye before I could wipe it away.
“I need to find out what’s happened to my family—”
Kali shook her head.
“Your mom and dad—along with your dad’s lawyer, Father McGee—were taken hostage at Sea Verge earlier today. We were under the assumption you might be with them—”
I walked over and took her by the wrists.
“Then I have to go there and help them,” I whispered, holding her wrists in my firm grasp.
“Please . . .”