Chapter 2
Living On Borrowed Time
LYRA
I scream.
Of course I scream.
It rips right out of my throat as I flail, my stomach bolting for the exit while I plummet into the chasm. Above me, I see Cronos leaning out over the edge of the bridge. That damned Titan is watching me drop the same way a cat might watch a bug flounder in a pool.
After another breath, his shrinking face disappears entirely, swallowed by an impenetrable darkness that consumes me. Which is about when I realize that I’m still falling and not hitting anything.
It’s also when it strikes me that I’m a fucking goddess. Not all that great of one yet. But still…
Get your shit together, Lyra.
If Hades were here, he’d be watching with his arms crossed and that impatient look that furrows his brows when I’m not immediately grasping whatever he’s trying to teach me.
We haven’t had long to practice, but I’ve already seen that look a lot.
Goddess lessons have gone about the same way thief lessons used to go.
That all clicks in at the same time, and I cut my screams off sharply, leaving my throat feeling raw and only the sound of air rushing in my ears as I fall…and fall…and fall.
Rabbit-hole style.
Then, out of the oppressive darkness, I see…something.
I squeeze my eyes shut, then open them again, and it’s there. Bigger. Closer. Something moving with me? Or maybe to me?
I have only a second to take in what appears to be a crystalline crack that reminds me of a geode rock, but I’m not falling past it. It’s floating with me.
“What the hells—”
The thing rushes me. Only instead of making impact or crushing me, it doesn’t touch me—it’s not solid. And it swallows me whole.
My question gets absorbed by a silence so oppressive, it’s like sound no longer exists. Everything is tinted red as movement flashes all around me, like I’m running so fast that the world blurs.
Then the space around me changes abruptly, and rather than falling endlessly through a dark abyss, I’m standing on one of the delicately carved bridges in Hades’ water garden in the Underworld.
The transition is so jarring my head spins for a second, and I put a hand out on the trunk of a nearby tree until everything stops spinning and the world comes into sharp reality.
Home.
Sound returns in a flash, and I’m surrounded by the soothing gurgle of running water, the fragrant scents of jasmine and honeysuckle, the perfect cool air on my skin.
I’m surrounded by the brilliant, glowing colors of Erebos, where Hades’ castle-like home stands.
It’s in a cavern so massive, the ceiling looks like a star-studded night sky.
I’m home. My new home in the Underworld.
Or…maybe this is a glamour. What in the fields of Asphodel just happened?
“What in the name of Olympus are you doing down here?” A low, snarling voice sounds from behind me. “This is the worst possible timing.”
An achingly, wonderfully familiar voice.
Heart thudding with euphoria, pretty sure I’m glowing, I whirl around.
“Hades,” I whisper, then almost sob with the emotions bubbling up.
His entire body goes dead still as he stares at me, taking me in with a single sweep of his gaze. “What happened?”
Everything off about this moment gets buried by the crash of relief that slams through me. I’m across the space between us, my arms around his neck in a heartbeat.
“Thank the gods,” I whisper and kiss him.
He jerks against me, going rigid in my arms as he draws his mouth away from mine. Only far enough to search my eyes. Confusion slices through my relief like one of my axes. Holding still as well, I stare back.
What I see in his eyes isn’t relief. It’s angry bewilderment.
But…as our breaths mingle, his hand draws up the small of my back, pressing me closer, and my confusion turns to a wanting so familiar, I smile.
Hades catches his breath, and then his mouth is on mine. Gods in the heavens, it feels like the first time we kissed. Only…more.
Commanding but still soft. Demanding but questing. Like he’s claiming and savoring this as something he’s thought about for a long time.
How long was I trapped in Tartarus, anyway?
As for me, I’m so happy that I got out of that pit of vipers and back to him that I’m kissing him like I thought I’d never see him again.
Because part of me, a deep-down part I was trying not to listen to, was worrying that he knew.
That he knew Tartarus was my fate, maybe even exchanged me for Persephone.
When we slow, we’re both breathing hard, and he puts his forehead to mine, eyes closed, hands at my back still holding me pressed up against him.
“You’ve never kissed me before,” he says.
It takes a second for the words to burrow past my bubble of relieved happiness. I’ve never…what? “What are you talking about?”
As if my question knocks him upside the head, Hades rears back, looking more shaken than my god of death ever allows himself to.
“Your hair is long. You’re my future Lyra, aren’t you?”
Confusion feels like I’m trying to swim through rapids, getting flipped around in the rush of water. Future? My hair? What is he talking about? I put a hand to my head, and sure enough, it’s wound up in a low bun.
I have no idea what is going on or why my hair matters. “Hades?”
His brows draw together in an intimidating scowl. “Damn it, Lyra. You’re in the middle of Poseidon’s Labor right now. I shouldn’t be leaving you to deal with that alone.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“You told me to—”
Without warning, that blood-colored crystal thing passes over my head in a blur, and after a soundless, red-tinted moment, Hades is gone.
I can still feel him against me, the sensation slowly fading, but I can tell the instant it disappears again, because of the darkness and the swish of air as I fall.
Trapped in the darkness of the abyss once more and still plummeting.
I don’t know if I should scream or something else. I flail, a sound bubbling out of my throat that I cut off just as abruptly.
Because screaming won’t fix shit.
Think, Lyra. How do you get out of this?