Chapter 45 My Waythe Subway
I FALL FOR APPROXIMATELY ONE point four seconds. And then I’m slamming through the access panel in the roof of a speeding subway train and landing directly on top of a very disgruntled-looking boy.
And not just any boy. The Hades boy, from my very first day of school.
“It’s about time,” he says grumpily, and I freeze in the act of climbing off him. Because he says it in the same exact voice that was in my head just a few seconds ago. The same voice that urged me to jump.
“It’s you!” I breathe.
“It’s me,” he answers, still sounding a little sour. “Now, if you don’t mind, can you please get off of me? I think you’re crushing my spleen.”
“Oh, sorry!” My cheeks flame as I scramble off him and onto the train floor beside him. “I didn’t mean—”
“It’s fine.” He climbs to his feet, then reaches a hand out to help me get to mine. “Now, let’s get you out of here, okay?”
“More than okay.”
He sits down on one of the benches running along the walls of the train, stretching his legs out in front of him before nodding for me to take the seat next to him.
But I’m too busy patting myself down to sit. The last thing I want right now is a stray snake hitching a ride on me back to campus. In fact, if I never see another one in my whole life, it will be too soon.
Way too soon.
“You won’t find any.”
“Any what?” I ask, surreptitiously running a hand under my still wet blazer.
“Snakes,” he answers with a shrug. “They can’t ride the train in that form.”
He says it so matter-of-factly that for a second it almost makes sense. Almost. “Exactly what form are you talking about? They’re snakes.”
“Are they?” he asks, leveling his emerald-green eyes on me.
For the first time, I realize they’re surrounded by the longest, inkiest black lashes I’ve ever seen in my life.
And while that shouldn’t matter to me—at all—the knowledge does something weird to my stomach.
But I’m too busy trying to figure out what he’s talking about to pay much attention to it.
Besides, my stomach hasn’t felt right since I fell onto that ridiculous slide. I’m sure the hollow, queasy feeling inside me right now has way more to do with that than with the fact that this Hades boy really does have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.
Not that that matters. I’ve got bigger things to worry about right now. Which is why I deliberately look away when I ask, “Can you cut the cryptic act and just tell me what’s going on here? Where are we?”
“Where do you think you are?” he counters.
“Seriously? That’s the way you want to go here? I nearly drowned in a pile of snakes and all you want to do is give me more questions instead of answers? Thanks a lot.”
“Hey.” Now he looks insulted. “I rescued you, didn’t I? And now I’m getting you out of here. What more do you want?”
“Um, first of all. I’m pretty sure I rescued myself.
I’m the one who jumped. All you did was break my fall when I came crashing onto this train.
” I’m not sure that’s strictly true—his voice sounds too much like the one I heard inside my head to be a coincidence—but he’s being so irritating right now that I don’t care.
At least not until he starts grinning at me, those green eyes of his shining way too brightly for my peace of mind—or my peace of stomach.
“What?” I demand, sliding onto the bench across from him just because he’d nodded at the spot beside him earlier.
Something about this guy just brings out my need to be contrary.
“Nothing.” He shrugs. “I just like your attitude. You’re going to need it to get out of here.”
“Out of here? You mean off this train?”
“I mean out of Anaximander’s,” he says with a laugh. “But I guess the train works too.”
I start to argue with him about Anaximander’s, but I stop because part of me thinks he’s right. Gods know I’ve had my share of rough spots here.
I don’t say that, though. Instead, I look around, searching for some clue as to where we are. But this looks like any other subway train I’ve ever been on. It’s even got an electronic display mounted at the top of the wall next to the door. Right now it reads Acheron Station: Twelve Minutes.
“Where’s Acheron Station?” I ask, because the name Acheron sounds familiar, but I just can’t place it.
His smile drops so fast it feels like I imagined it. “Nowhere you’re going to go.”
“How am I supposed to avoid it? I’m on the train, and I can assure you I’ve done all the jumping I plan to today.”
Several tense seconds go by when he doesn’t answer. Instead, he just stares at me like he’s trying to figure me out. Then again, I’m looking at him and doing the exact same thing. Too bad I’m not having any luck.
“What’s your name?” he finally asks.
“Penelope. What’s yours?”
“Kyrian.”
Kyrian. That’s a cool name, one I’ve never heard before. “And you’re in Hades Hall.”
“Sometimes.” He shrugs.
“What does that mean? Either you are or you aren’t.”
“It means sometimes I’m there. And sometimes I’m here.” He holds his arms out in an all-encompassing gesture.
His answer is the opening I’ve been looking for and I jump on it. “Where exactly is ‘here’?”
Again, he doesn’t answer. He just studies me for a very uncomfortable minute that feels like an eternity. Then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small pack of tissues, which he hands to me.
“What are these for?”
He leans forward, brushes his finger against my cheek. “You’re bleeding.”
“Oh, right!” I must have scraped myself during all that running and falling and sliding. I fumble a tissue out of the pack and press it to my cheek. “Thanks.”
“I’m really glad you jumped,” he answers.
It’s the last thing I expect him to say, and it makes my stomach flip a couple of times. Which I also ignore, because enigmatic guys who think they’re cool totally aren’t my type.
Or, at least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
“What would have happened if I didn’t?” I don’t expect him to answer, and he doesn’t. But I also don’t expect him to do what he does next.
Which is to walk over to the train door and press the emergency button right next to it.
The train grinds to a halt, though the door doesn’t open. “This is your stop.”
I peer out the train windows, but all I see is darkness. “This isn’t a stop. There’s nothing here.”
“You sure about that?” He smirks. Then he hops up on one of the benches and nods toward the open access panel in the ceiling.
I look from him to the opening and back again. “You don’t really expect me to climb out of that, do you?”
“It’s how you got in.”
“Yeah, but…” I trail off, not sure what to say in this situation. No one’s ever asked me to climb through the ceiling of a train before.
“Don’t worry. I’ll boost you up.”
“You sure I won’t crush your spleen?” The words come out before I know I’m going to say them. But I’m not sorry I said them—that comment had stung. A lot.
“My spleen will be just fine.” He grins, but it fades quickly into something that looks a lot like regret. “And so will you, as long as you don’t come back here again.”
“Believe me, I don’t plan on it.” I climb up on the bench next to him. “I’m not even sure how I got here to begin with.”
“You’re really smart. I’m pretty sure you’ll figure it out.” He crouches down, weaving his fingers together to make a step for me.
“You’re really not going to tell me anything.”
“I already told you the most important thing,” he counters. “You need to go, Penelope. And you need to not come back for a really, really long time.”
“Train departing in sixty seconds.” A tinny voice comes over the loudspeaker.
“Come on,” he tells me, nodding to the access panel. “You’re running out of time.”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts. Just go.”
So I do, grabbing on to the edge of the access panel hole at the same time I step into his hands.
He boosts me up, but even with his help, my exit isn’t easy and it isn’t graceful.
Instead, I dangle halfway in and halfway out of the train as I try to convince my very tired, not-strong-enough-for-these-kinds-of-pull-ups arms to actually get me out of this place.
In the end, I manage to get a knee up on the top of the train and then I push up as hard as I can. “You okay?” Kyrian shouts from below me. “Because the train’s about to—”
“I’ve got it!” I snarl. And then finally, finally, I manage to make it all the way through the opening and flop, face down, on the top of the train.
If this stuff is going to keep happening to me, I really, really have to hit the gym more.
After a few more seconds to recover, I get myself up to my knees and turn to peer down through the access panel. Only to find Kyrian staring up at me with a crooked grin and an enigmatic look in his eyes. “See you later, Penelope,” he tells me.
“See you later?” I answer uncertainly, because I don’t know if that’s actually true.
The grin fades. “Maybe. But do me a favor and check your backpack when you’re out of here.”
“My backpack?” My stomach jumps. “Why?”
He doesn’t answer, just climbs back down off the bench as the train’s gears start to grind against each other.
“What is this place?” I call after him, because I have to know.
For one impossible second, our eyes meet through the hole. And then he says, “The Underworld,” as he starts to slide the access panel shut again.
The last thing I hear him say before the panel closes is, “Run to the back of the train, and then jump as high as you can.”