Chapter 74
From Time To Time
LYRA
I’m pretty sure I haven’t slept all night. Hermes’ Labor is coming for past me in the morning.
Food showed up on its own around lunch and dinner time.
Food I couldn’t stomach but made myself.
Even goddesses can use a boost. Then I tucked myself between the sheets, and I’ve lain here, alone in our bed, staring out the window at night in the Underworld, aglow in the beautiful, phosphorescent colors of blues and purples and deep pinks.
I was sad. Now I’m irritated. Why am I being left to marinate in my own sorrow in this room? I’ve got shit to do. Getting us out of Tartarus. Boone and I have three more Locks to unseal, and we don’t know what changed in Hera’s to kill me.
Wasted hours without a single sighting of cracked time or Hades are not my idea of productivity. Not that I’m surprised about him, I guess.
He has…me…oddly.
Past me.
But it still hurts. I only get these glimpses of him. So not taking advantage is just…
I kick out a leg from underneath the blanket, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. I can hear one of Cerberus’ heads snoring, the rumble of it rolling down the hallway outside.
A pale-yellow shimmering catches my eye, and I turn over to watch the Underworld “sunrise.” The morning light hits the far mountains first, almost making them look frosted, and then deepens and brightens, appearing to melt and turn to liquid gold that flares to red.
Maybe it’s because of that sunrise that I don’t catch the shimmer of time until silence and darkness consume me and I’m deposited in a cave.
Not Tartarus.
Bonus fun, it took me with the sheets wrapped around me. I untangle myself and get to my feet, my bare toes pricking against the uneven rock floor.
“A sea cave?”
The rhythmically swelling water, crystal clear down to the sandy seafloor, is my first clue. The smell of salt in the air, my next. But it’s the Grecian columns that hold a massive stone lintel, illuminated by torchlight flickering from sconces around the small space, that are my biggest clue.
I have no idea where I am, or when, or why. But I know I’m meant to find out.
I look to the heavens. “A road map would be nice. Maybe an app with details about my next stop.”
Of course no one answers.
Or…no one from up there.
From the entranceway, I catch a faint voice. “Enter if you dare…”
I cautiously check the corners as I make my way through the door into a single hallway. I don’t know what I expect when I get to a room that looks like ancient Greece vomited in here. The furniture. The decor. More columns.
And sitting on a beat-up-looking chaise longue is a man.
Or…a god?
Blond, maybe with silver mixed in, he has a beard down to mid-chest and hair almost as long that hangs in tangled locks.
He wears a Grecian tunic that, like the furniture, has clearly seen better days.
It also falls only to his mid-thigh, and he’s flashing way more than I want to be seeing, since he’s lying on one side with one knee jacked up in the air.
“Who are you?” He shoves a bite of charred fish in his mouth. I assume he just finished cooking it over the firepit in the corner.
“Who are you?” I ask back. I already know. I’ve seen him once before this, when Uranus tried to kill Hades as a child.
“Oceanus,” he says. Titan of the oceans and waters.
Oceanus. Tethys’ husband. The traitor. “You’re still alive?”
He lifts an unimpressed eyebrow, then waves around his domain. “Living like a king.”
“While your siblings are fighting to escape Tartarus.”
His indolent posture stills, and though he doesn’t sit up, I can tell I have more of his attention than I did a second ago. “Don’t make me ask again. You won’t like it if I do.”
“I am Lyra Keres. Queen of the Underworld. Goddess of glamours. And I’ve seen your siblings recently. They miss you.”
He barks a laugh. “You should have stopped while you were ahead. I don’t believe you now. I know they curse my name.”
“They try to do it less when Tethys is around.”
He stills again, but not for long enough to get a read on his reaction. “Don’t speak her name,” is all he says.
Is that guilt, disinterest, or something else? I can’t tell. “How would you know they curse you, being up here?”
Oceanus eyes me narrowly. “Watch your tone, little goddess.”
Maybe it’s knowing I can deal with a reset if I have to, or maybe I’m just tired, but my mouth is in charge. “At least I didn’t call you a traitor,” I say sweetly. “This is me being courteous.”
He takes another bite of his fish, chewing thoughtfully as he considers me. “I have my sources,” he finally says.
I frown. What is he talking about…
Ohhhhh.
I asked how he knew that his siblings curse his name. Which they do. Often.
“What source?” I’m really tired of cryptic sources. The last one turned out to be me. It had better not be me again. Or what if he has no source? What if Oceanus is the one… “Have you been there?” I ask slowly. “In Tartarus?”
Another bite of fish. I’m getting ready to slap it out of his hand if he does that again.
Then he looks behind me. “Time’s up, little goddess.”
I whirl around, expecting to be attacked, only to be swallowed by a fissure of broken time and spit back out again—not in Tartarus but in Hades’ bedroom.
“Fuck me.” I don’t bother to say it quietly for Cerberus.
Because I need him to go get Hades. I’m pretty sure Hermes’ Labor is over, and this is when past me meets the three-headed hellhound. He came to Olympus to fetch Hades, but neither would tell me who Hades had to go see.
It was me.
I knock on the door and deliberately raise my voice to something squeakier and hopefully unrecognizable. “Excuse me?”
No answer.
“Hello?”
Still no answer.
“I know he said you can’t talk to me. But I need you to go get him. Now.”
I maybe could wait until Hades comes down later, but I have a feeling this is what time is waiting for. I can tell by the strong sulfur smell that the three-headed hound is still outside the door. He hasn’t gone yet.
“I know he’s in the middle of the Crucible Labor, but I promise by the time you get up there, his champion will be done.”
There’s a sound like a harrumph on the other side of the door. Ber, probably, his grumpy head scoffing at the idea that I’d know that.
The damned dog is giving me no choice.
“Fine. If you won’t go, I will. I’m teleporting out of here in five seconds, and if Hades sees me up there, he’s going to be pissed at you, not me.”
There’s another harrumph. Only with less conviction.
“Five. Four. Three… Are you sure you want to test me? Two. One—”
There’s a sharp bark, and then the scent of sulfur lessens.
I grin. He’s a loyal beast, that’s for sure. I would love to have opened the door and buried my face in his fur, but I can’t do that.
Knowing this is going to take more than a second, I sit on the end of the bed and wait.
And wait.
Why does everything feel like it takes so much longer than the first time around? Did we really chat for this much time?
Finally, there’s a bark outside the door, letting me know Cerberus has returned. Would he talk to me if he knew it was me now that he’s met Lyra up there? Probably not against Hades’ wishes.
More waiting.
Come on.
“You summoned?”
I jump and have to shift on the bed to face where he’s arrived behind me. And right behind him is another shard of broken time, coming for me.
“Gods damn it all to hell.” I’m on my feet.
“What?” He whips around, looking but not seeing what I do.
I don’t answer as I cross the room to him. “I don’t have long, but you need to listen. I think the person who has been glamouring everything is Oceanus.”
Hades frowns. “What are you talking about?”
Oh gods. I haven’t told him about the glamouring yet. I tell him that after Athena’s Labor.
“I—” I stare at him, but I’ve got nothing. What do I tell him? “The day of Athena’s Labor, wait in the southernmost arches of the Colosseum for me to show up. I tell you more then.”
It’s not much, but more now will probably reset us.
“What are you talking about?” he demands.
I shift my weight from foot to foot, then start to draw him across the room, away from the crack. “Oceanus can get into Tartarus.”
“That’s not possible. He doesn’t have enough power—”
“Are you sure of that?”
“Dead sure. I’d bet my life on it.”
I shake my head. “Then he’s fooled a lot of people. He says he’s…” Oh shit. I almost just gave away that I’m stuck in Tartarus. I quickly revise my wording. “He said he has a source inside there.”
Hades slashes a hand through the air. “Also impossible.”
The jagged gash of time starts moving faster. I guess I’ve said what I have to. “Just promise me you’ll check into him. If you do and find you’re correct, no harm, no foul. Right?”
“Lyra, I don’t know how you think I have time to run the Underworld, keep you alive, and also track down Oceanus, but—”
“After the Crucible, then. Promise.”
“Fine. I promise—”
Silence.