Awaken (9 page)

“What are you looking at
me
for?” I asked. The anger flowing through my veins had definitely been preferable to the despair that had been slogging through them before, but now that it had faded, along with the light outside, I felt tired and confused. “
I’m
not in charge.”

As if in direct denial of this, John’s tablet began to chime again at my waist to indicate that yet another new soul had entered the land of the dead.

“Actually,” Mr. Liu said, rising to his feet, “I think you
are
in charge. The captain gave that to you.”

“Right. He chose you. You’re
the one
.” Henry sounded exactly as he had the first day we’d met, when he’d been just as quick to assure me that I was not, in fact,
the one
. “Don’t you remember?”

I looked from the chiming tablet back towards their inquisitive faces.

“Well,
I
don’t know what to do,” I said, though I knew this wasn’t a good thing for anyone in a management-level position to admit. “What have you guys done before when this has happened?”

Mr. Graves’s shaggy gray eyebrows rose to their limits as he stared at a point several feet above my head. “Miss Oliviera,” he said. “The Furies have never destroyed two of our boats and killed the captain before. And certainly no one has ever invited the souls of the dead up from the beach and into the castle.”

I didn’t miss the unspoken accusation in his voice.
No one until
you
, you strange girl who sees red — literally — whenever you get angry.

“True,” Frank said. “But then the Fates have never left us before, either.”

The Fates have never left us before, either
. The words caused a chill to go down my spine and the fine hair on the backs of my arms to stand up. I glanced over my shoulder at the still, waxen form of John stretched out upon the bed.
Wake up
, I attempted to will him with my mind.
Don’t leave me alone with this mess. Don’t leave me alone,
ever
.

His wide chest didn’t move. His eyelids remained shut.

“What are Fates?” asked Chloe in a small voice, from where she still knelt beside Typhon at John’s bedside.

“The opposite of Furies,” Mr. Graves explained to her. “Spirits of good, instead of evil.”

“Well,” Reed said dryly. “There definitely aren’t any of those around here.”

I saw Chloe give Reed’s foot a nudge with her own. “How can you say that?” she whispered.

“I didn’t mean you.” Reed smiled at her. “Your spirit’s looking plenty good from here.”

Alex, having overheard this, curled his lip in disgust.

“Not
me
,” Chloe whispered, and nodded in my direction. “
Her
. How can you say that after everything she did to help us?”

Reed glanced towards me. “Oh, right. Her spirit’s looking pretty good, too,” he added generously.

Alex rolled his eyes and said, “Fates aren’t the kind of spirits you can see, you idiot. They’re like Furies. You can only —”

“I always thought that the Fates were Greek goddesses in charge of mankind’s destiny,” Mrs. Engle interrupted, seeming anxious to break the sudden tension between the two boys, both of whom were clearly attracted to Chloe. When Mrs. Engle saw that she had their attention, she went on, “I worked as a school nurse for thirty years — retired now, of course. But those kinds of things do tend to sink in and stay with you —”

“Who cares what the Fates are?” Alex burst out. Mrs. Engle’s scheme wasn’t working. “The question is, where’d they go? And how do we get them back?”

“I don’t think it will be easy,” Mr. Graves said. He sounded annoyed with Alex. Welcome to the club. “I believe they’ve been driven away because there’s an imbalance here. An imbalance is virtually always caused by pestilence —” A note of primness crept into the surgeon’s voice, as it always did whenever he gave a lecture on pestilence, his favorite subject (aside from beer). “Whenever an imbalance occurs and pestilence is able to slip into a system, it causes infection.”

“Like when I got my eyebrow pierced,” Kayla asked, “and I didn’t clean it well enough, and it got infected?”

“You pierced your
eyebrow
?” Mr. Graves turned his head towards her, his expression horrified. “Good God, young lady,
why
?”

“Never mind that now,” I said impatiently. “What can we do to fix the imbalance … drive away the Furies and get back the Fates?”

“Well,” Mr. Graves said, returning his attention to me. “If we could determine what’s caused the imbalance, I’m quite certain we could correct it. But until then, I’m afraid we, like the captain, have only one thing to hang on to, and that’s —”

I held up a single hand. “Don’t say it.”

Mr. Graves looked taken aback. “How did you know what I was going to say?”

I lowered my hand. “Because it was going to be hope. And I don’t want to hear the word
hope
again. I don’t believe in it anymore.”

Hearing this was apparently more than Chloe could bear. She rose from the floor — leaving Typhon looking sad to have lost his ear scratcher — and hurried towards me.

“Pierce, you mustn’t say that,” she said. “These light momentary afflictions are preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison —”

I cut her off with a grim look. “I’ve got bad news for you, Chloe. There’s not going to be any eternal weight of glory unless we get you, and all the rest of these people, to a boat. Mr. Graves, I’ve got some news for you, too.” I turned towards him. “In twenty-first-century America, where I’m from, we’ve got better weapons against infections than hope.”

Mrs. Engle coughed politely. “Dear, if you’re speaking about antibiotics, I believe the doctor was using the term
infection
as a metaphor —”

“Why, yes,” Mr. Graves said to Mrs. Engle, looking pleased. “I was.”

“Well, I’m not,” I said. I lifted the diamond on the end of my necklace. “I’m talking about this.”

“I don’t know what an antibiotic is,” Henry said, reaching around his waist to untie the apron he was wearing, then tossing it to the floor. “But if you’re talking about killing Furies, I’m ready.”

“So am I,” Frank said, drawing a knife from his belt. “Only where do we find them?”

“The same place we can find food for our guests,” I said. “And a couple of new boats to take them where they need to go.”

Mr. Graves looked bewildered. “And where would that be?”

“Isla Huesos,” I said.

Mr. Graves’s expression of bewilderment turned to a frown. “Isla Huesos? That port of degradation and sin?” I’d forgotten he wasn’t a fan. “And how do you think you’re going to get there? Only the captain possessed the ability to travel between this world and the next, and he is, to put it mildly, indisposed.”

“That isn’t strictly true,” I said. “Well, it’s true John’s indisposed, but it isn’t true he’s the only one who possessed the ability to go back and forth between this world and the next.” I glanced down the hallway at the curved double staircase I knew so well. “Does anyone know where John keeps the keys to the doors at the top of those stairs?”

For the first time in a long time, I saw Mr. Liu smile. “No,” he said. “But I know where there’s an ax.”

I
t will never work.”

I was at the dining table, filling my tote bag with things I thought I’d need for my journey, trying to ignore Mr. Graves.

“It won’t bring him back,” Mr. Graves continued in a low voice, so the others wouldn’t overhear. “And even if it would, the captain would never want you to risk your own life in order to save his.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing he isn’t around to watch,” I whispered. Raising my voice, I said to my cousin Alex, “Give me that book.”

“You think
A History of the Isle of Bones
is what’s caused the imbalance that’s making this place implode?” Alex read off the title in a sarcastic voice as he handed the book over. “Yeah, Pierce, I’m sure that’s probably it.”

“Things were fine around here before it showed up,” I said tersely as I put the book in my bag.

“In that case,” Alex said, “you better take me along, too.”

“The whole reason they brought you here is because everyone back in Isla Huesos was trying kill you,” Kayla pointed out. “Remember?”

“Actually,” Mr. Graves said, “they succeeded in killing him.” Lowering his voice again, he whispered to me, “Just as the Furies succeeded in killing the captain. Which was always their ultimate goal. Now that they’ve succeeded, I can’t imagine they’ll continue to attack us. So you see, Miss Oliviera, there’s no point in your embarking on this scheme of yours —”

“Really? What are we going to feed these people?” I asked. “How are we going to get them to their final destinations? Are we simply going to wait for the Fates to come back? Or are we going to make our own luck, like my father always said a truly successful person does?”

Mr. Graves shook his head. “I highly doubt your father would go along with this if he knew what you were up to.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing he doesn’t know.”

“Not
everyone
back in Isla Huesos was trying to kill me,” Alex declared. “Only Seth Rector and his cronies. Which goes to show that I was onto something. If I wasn’t close to finding evidence implicating them instead of my father in Jade’s murder, why would they have killed me?”

“Because you found their stash,” Kayla reminded him. “Drug dealers tend not to like that.”

“That’s why Pierce has got to take me with her,” Alex said. “I can explain that to the police.”

“I thought you said the police are all in Seth Rector’s father’s pocket.” Kayla was sitting on top of the dining room table, swinging her legs beneath the long skirt of her purple gown.

“Maybe not all of them.” I paused as I dropped my mobile phone into my tote bag, thinking back to the assembly they’d had my first day of school. “Police Chief Santos seemed really determined to keep Coffin Night from happening.”

“Maybe because he wants to keep people out of the cemetery, the hub of Seth Rector’s drug empire,” Alex said. “The chief is probably getting kickbacks.”

“Or maybe,” Kayla said, “you watch way too much television.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Kayla,” Alex said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Did
your
dad spend most of your life in jail for a nonviolent crime he was probably tricked into committing by Seth Rector’s father, or was that
my
dad?”

“Jesus,” Reed said from the chair at the dining table where he’d been quietly sitting. “What kind of town do you people live in, anyway? Coffin Night? Drugs?” He looked at Chloe, huddled in a chair opposite his. “Did you know about any of this stuff?”

She shook her head, her eyes wide. “I’m homeschooled.”

“I agree with that young man,” Mr. Graves said, his head turned in the direction from which he’d heard Reed’s voice. “This has all gone too far. I understand that Miss Oliviera is anxious to get revenge for the captain’s tragic death —”

Or find Thanatos
, I thought but didn’t add aloud.
If he exists
.

“— but the welfare of these people has to be our highest priority at the moment. And the sad truth of the matter is now that they’ve killed the captain, the Furies are no doubt gone for good —”

Thunder rumbled overhead. But it was only because of the growing storm outside, not John being witty, since when I glanced sharply towards the bed, I saw that John was still gone. As it had grown darker outside — not to mention colder and wetter — it had been thundering more often.

We’d also allowed more of the souls of the dead inside. I noticed a few of them start in alarm at the ominous sound.

My spirits lower than ever, I decided I didn’t want to argue anymore with Mr. Graves. I didn’t want to
talk
anymore. My eyes were hot and tired from all the crying I’d done, and my throat hurt, despite the amount of tea Mrs. Engle had foisted upon me to soothe the ache.

I feared nothing would ever soothe the ache, however. Especially since I’d come to the slow realization that, with John gone, so was the bond between us. Why was I even doing any of this? I was free to go back to my old life, before I’d ever known anything about magic diamond pendants, death deities, and the realm of the dead.

So there was nothing to keep me from picking up my bag, stepping back into my own world, and leaving all these people and their problems and complaints behind.

Yet for some reason, here I was still standing in the Underworld, arguing with old Mr. Graves like someone who still had a stake in this game.

“Look,” I said to the ship surgeon. “Remember what you said? Our responsibility must always be to do what’s best for the living. Right? Which means we need to get the dead to their final destinations before they start piling up down here. Otherwise, next thing we know, they’ll be overflowing into the streets of Isla Huesos, and we’ll have —”

Mr. Graves looked pained.
“Pestilence.”
He almost spat the word.

“Exactly. But if I can find a couple of boats and figure out a way to get them here, and maybe find this Thanatos guy, too — if he exists — and get him to let go of John … and while I’m at it, prove who killed Alex, and my counselor, Jade … well, you said it yourself: I’ve got to try. It’s my responsibility.”

“And how,” Mr. Graves asked, his sightless eyes wide, “do you plan on doing any
one
of those things?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” I said flatly. “I’ll just have to figure it out as I go along.”

“That,” Mr. Graves said, “is hardly reassuring.”

Even if I did flee to my mother’s house, the next time I saw my grandmother, I’d remember what she’d done. She’d never be punished for it.

I couldn’t live with that. Not that it would make any difference. Without John, my life would be as bleak and meaningless as one of those boring black-and-white movies they were always showing at the cinema art house back in Connecticut.

But innocent people, like my counselor, Jade, would still have been murdered, and someone needed to pay for that. And the people here in the Underworld still needed my help. I couldn’t abandon them, no matter how hopeless I felt. They were my responsibility now, the way they used to be John’s. They were the choice I’d made that night in his bed when he’d asked if I understood the consequences of what we were doing. I’d thought he’d meant the consequence of possibly creating a demon baby.

What he’d meant was
this
.

You couldn’t go back to your mom’s house and hide under the covers when you had a baby, pretending you couldn’t hear its cries. That big, fat, demanding baby was your responsibility now. You had to take care of it, for as long as it needed you, even when it wasn’t being cute and giggly, but when it was crying and hungry.

I should never have worried about having a demon baby as a result of making love with John in the Underworld: The Underworld itself is a demon baby.

I should have known there was a catch. In Greek myths, there was
always
a catch.

“Ready, Pierce?” Frank had come over, a heavy-looking sack hanging off one shoulder. Whatever was in the sack jingled faintly as he walked.

“Why does
he
get to go with you, and not me?” Kayla glared.

“Because I’m the … what’s it called? Oh, right. The muscle.” Frank had cleaned up the cut on his forehead, but he still resembled, with his long facial scar, black leather trousers, and multiple tattoos, a cross between a pirate and a biker from a motorcycle gang. In my opinion, Frank had been born in the wrong century.

Kayla whipped her head around to glare at me. “If you guys are going to kill Farah Endicott, I want to be there.”

“Why would anyone want to kill Farah Endicott?” Alex asked. “What’d she ever do to you? Seth Rector’s the one who murdered me. If anyone’s going to get popped, it’s him. And I should be the one who gets to do it.”

“You guys,” I said, dropping John’s tablet into the tote bag. I couldn’t keep carrying things around in my sash. Not only did it look unwieldy, it was uncomfortable.

And now that the Fates were gone, I couldn’t wish for a new gown with pockets. I couldn’t even bring myself to change into the only modern-day dress in my closet. That’s because it was the one John had asked me to wear on our first date … the one that had ended up being what I’d worn the night we’d … well, never mind. I’d never be able to wear that dress again.

“No one is getting popped,” I said firmly.

Mr. Graves agreed.

“Yes,” he said. “Please cease this talk of, er, popping people immediately. This is exactly why I said from the start of this that the captain wouldn’t approve of any of —”

“Mr. Graves,” I said to him. “I’ve got this.” I pulled my diamond from the bodice of my dress and showed it to Kayla. “Look. This kills Furies when I touch it to someone who’s possessed by one. It doesn’t kill people. And as far as I know, Farah Endicott is not possessed by a Fury.” Farah’s boyfriend, Seth, I wasn’t so sure about, so I didn’t mention him, since I didn’t want to rile up Alex any more than he already was.

Kayla looked down at the stone in my fingers. “It’s the exact same color as my streaks,” she said, pulling on one of the violet strands in her voluminous curls. “And my dress.”

“It is right now,” I said, tucking the diamond away again. “It only turns this color when you’re close by. I don’t know what that means, but that’s what it does.”

Kayla looked pleased. “It means you should take me with you. Amethyst’s my birthstone. I was born in February. I’m an Aquarius. Aquarians are highly adaptable. They get along with everyone.”

Alex made a sound in his throat that suggested he didn’t agree with this statement.

“Everyone,” Kayla corrected herself, “except fake bitches like Farah Endicott. And my brother, of course.”

Frank let the sack he’d been shouldering fall to the floor. The jingling sound it made as it hit was loud enough to draw the attention of a number of people in the room. “No. She’s not going. They
saw
her. Or they will have by now, on the film from those cameras at that bloody tomb. It’s too dangerous.”

“They saw all of us,” I reminded him.

“Oh, sweetie,” Kayla purred, wrapping her hands around one of Frank’s heavily tattooed biceps. “It’s so sexy when you get brutish and protective. Even though it won’t do any good, because I’m going. We may be in the Underworld, but I’m pretty sure this is still a free country. Or under one, anyway. You can’t tell me what to do.”

Mr. Graves’s face had gone almost as purple as my stone. “Frank. What is in that bag?”

Frank shrugged his arm from Kayla’s grip in order to reach defensively for his sack. “Just a few weapons we might need if we run into trouble, and some gold coins for bribes, of course —”

The surgeon threw an aggrieved look in my direction, as if to say,
This
is the team you’ve chosen to save us?

I didn’t entirely disagree with his opinion on the matter. Taking Frank instead of Mr. Liu — who was adding wood to the fire he’d started in the hearth, hoping it would help warm the shivering dead — had been a tough decision.

But what other choice could I have made? The worsening storm outside had forced us to give shelter to hundreds of discontented, hungry people, resulting in a growing storm
inside
. I needed to leave someone strong behind with this rabble, someone who could manage them but who also wasn’t a hothead, someone who would keep them safe while also showing them compassion. Already we’d had to banish the man in khaki pants who’d kept insisting to me that he was on the wrong dock, because he’d sidled up to Chloe and done or said something that had caused her to scream, startling Mrs. Engle so badly, she’d dropped a tea tray.

She’s my daughter
, Khaki Pants had insisted.
I can’t believe she’s here. I just wanted to say hello
.

Chloe, her eyes wide and frightened, insisted she’d never seen Khaki Pants before.

I understood more than ever why the two sets of passengers had to be kept separate, and also why strong individuals of a certain temperament were needed to ensure that they stayed that way.