Chapter Two: Souls Unbound

Therese felt as though she were attempting to squirm out of a wet pair of tight blue jeans. Her body, heavy as a truck, wouldn’t move, and her mind felt hazy, her surroundings dreamlike. Than’s fingers curled around her shoulders, and suddenly she was light again, light as a feather, floating.

Unfortunately she could no longer recall why she was here or what she was doing. She’d been in the middle of saying something, hadn’t she? “What was I saying?” she now asked Than. It was on the tip of her tongue.

Than bent over a boulder and hefted it into the air. “It’s going to be okay.”

“What is?”

She looked down and saw her mangled body in a bloody heap. Jewels hid in her slightly cracked shell a few feet away. Stormy was as crushed as she. And Clifford incessantly barked in terror.

“I’m dead?” Therese asked.

No sooner had she asked the question than a shower of rocks pummeled Than and Clifford, and the force thrust her up into the air. She reached out her hand toward Than and the collapsing caverns below her but could not stop herself from floating away. Gravity no longer had an effect on her, and nothing was holding her down. She was like an astronaut who had fallen from her spacecraft, spinning in slow circles as she hovered among the clouds.

She felt as though she were on the scariest amusement park ride ever invented and was now tumbling out of her seat. She screamed in terror, reaching out her hands to grab onto anything solid within reach. She was dizzy, frightened, and…confused.

Her mind became muddled and she found herself struggling to recall what had just happened. Panic built up in her airy chest as she grasped to remember her own name. She nervously snapped her ethereal fingers again and again, trying to remember anything about herself, but came up with nothing. After an indefinite amount of time passed, she found herself floating among treetops in woods that seemed vaguely familiar.

Yes. She knew these woods.

She grabbed the branch of an elm tree and used it as leverage to lower herself to the ground. Once her feet were on the path, she found she could keep herself grounded most of the time. Every so often she’d hover a few inches up in the air, but she managed to stay in the forest.

A familiar sound a few yards away encouraged her up the mountain, and soon she came upon what she recalled were horses and their riders. Two of the riders looked familiar, so she inched closer to the group. Before she could get a better look, the horses lifted their front legs high in the air, made a sound of terror, and scattered in all directions.

One of the riders shouted, “Steady, Chestnut! Steady!”

The rider was a young man with blond hair cut like a bowl around his tanned face. He had broad shoulders and thick, muscular thighs. She knew she’d seen him before, but where?

“Jen!” he shouted. “Where are you?”

“Pete!” a girl’s voice replied from somewhere in the trees. “God, what happened?”

“Something spooked the horses. Maybe a snake.”

The boy named Pete neared her on the horse, scanning the grass. She knew she’d seen him before. Then it came to her, and she remembered everything. She was Therese Mills and this was Pete Holt. She was in the woods behind her house, and she was…dead.

“Therese?” Pete whispered, looking in her direction.

Therese gawked at him. “What? You can see me?”

“Therese?” Pete asked again, apparently able to see, but not hear, her.

A second horse came alongside Pete’s, and Therese recognized her best friend Jen in the saddle.

“Don’t tell me it’s a creepy ol’ snake,” Jen said as her body shuddered with disgust. “This time we’re killing it. Therese isn’t here to stop us.”

Pete drew his eyebrows together and looked from Therese to Jen and back to Therese. “Yes she is. She’s right there.”

Jen gazed past Therese and then frowned. “That’s not funny. You know I’m worried about her and dying to see her. Kill the snake, or whatever spooked the horses, while I round up the others.”

Jen rode off, but Pete continued to stare at Therese. “I must be imagining things,” he muttered. “Maybe I miss her more than I thought.” With that, he took up the reins and trotted off.

“Wait!” Therese was left alone and frustrated, wondering why Pete could see her when Jen could not. She turned toward her Colorado house as she prayed to Than. What’s going on? Why aren’t you with me?

She stepped up on the wooden deck at the back of her house and peered through the kitchen window. Carol stood at the sink talking out loud, her red hair pulled up in a ponytail.

“Yes, you like grapes, Lynn. I know you do. Let me finish cutting them in half for you.”

Two-year-old Lynn sat in her highchair. Wisps of Lynn’s red hair and patches of her caramel complexion were covered with what looked like mashed potatoes. She held one hand out toward Carol and said, “I like gapes,” over and over. “I like gapes.” Therese smiled and resisted the urge to rush inside and kiss her little sister.

The memory of how Carol had nearly lost Lynn while she had been pregnant brought a wave of grief over Therese. If Therese hadn’t succeeded in Artemis’s quest to bring back Callisto, who had been turned into a bear by Hera and made into a constellation by Zeus, Lynn would not be a part of their lives. She would have been one more dead soul escorted by Than to the Underworld. It was only after Therese had proved herself beneficial to the goddess of the hunt that the life of Baby Lynn—Therese’s natural cousin and her sister by adoption—had been saved.

Carol turned with a handful of cut grapes and laid them on the tray of Lynn’s highchair. Lynn pinched them up in her fingers one at a time and popped them into her mouth. Then Lynn met Therese’s eyes, recognized her, and pointed.

“Terry!”

Carol spun around, her eyes moving past Therese without recognition, just as Jen’s had earlier. As Therese processed this new information (Lynn could see her but Carol could not), two figures entered the kitchen, and neither were her Uncle Richard. Her mouth dropped open when she recognized who they were: they were the souls of her parents.

Linda and Gerry Mills sat themselves at the granite bar as they had every day since Therese could remember, before they were killed three years ago by Ares’s man, McAdams. Therese’s mother had been on the verge of discovering an antidote for the Mutated Anthrax C, but Ares wanted no antidote as he urged the Middle East to make war with the Western World, hoping to see the US fall. Feeling nostalgic for those days when her parents were alive, Therese entered the room without opening the door (she didn’t want to frighten Carol) and approached her mother’s side.

“Mom? Dad?”

They looked at her blankly.

Then her father asked, “Is there any coffee made?”

“Dad, don’t you know me?” Therese asked, rushing to his side. She placed an ethereal hand on his transparent back, but could not quite feel the feathery soul beside her. “It’s me. Therese.”

At that moment, Lynn pointed once again at Therese and shouted, “Terry!”

Carol took a towel to Lynn’s face and said, “You silly little goose. You miss your Terry? I do, too. Her last visit wasn’t nearly long enough.”

Therese frowned. She had really wanted to stay longer than a week. Seven days hadn’t given her time to do half of what she’d planned. She and Jen had gone to the movies with Todd and Ray one night, had gone dancing at the Wildhorse Saloon when Pete’s band was performing a second night, and had gone for pizza with some friends from their swim team a third, so that had left only four evenings at home with Carol, Richard, and Lynn. But her duties as the goddess of animal companions required her attention, and she had to get back to them. Of course, she couldn’t explain that fact to her aunt and uncle. And as much as she’d like to rush up to throw kisses on her sister’s cheeks, she didn’t want to frighten her. Therese was, after all, a ghost.

Then Lynn pointed again and said, “Cowboy!”

Therese followed her sister’s finger and turned to the living room. To her horror, she found the room full of souls. They were mostly cowboys and Native Americans, and they wandered around the room as though they were looking for something.

Suddenly, Lynn started to cry, probably as overwhelmed as Therese at the sight of all these strangers wandering through their house. As Carol lifted Lynn from the highchair, one of the cowboys upset a lamp in the living room, and it toppled to the wooden floor.

“What in the world?” Carol muttered.

Then Therese’s father turned a page of the newspaper, and Carol noticed the paper flutter on top of the granite bar. With Lynn on her hip, she rushed to the kitchen window and closed it.

“A wind must be picking up.”

Therese rushed through the crowd of ghosts toward the front screened porch and out onto the wooden deck that wrapped around the house. Her jaw dropped when she saw thousands of souls wandering the land outside. Some walked and others floated. What on earth had happened?

***

 

Than pushed his way through the fallen rocks and debris of what was once the Underworld and cried out for Therese, but she had vanished. His disintegrated selves struggled to cling to the souls he was supposed to be transporting to Charon’s raft, but they had nowhere to go now that Hades was in ruins. He also could no longer feel the call of the newly dead. The thought of the mortals suffering on the verge of death but being unable to die filled Than with horror and rage. More alarming was the fact that many of the souls were no longer bound to the Fields of Elysium, and even some may have escaped from the pits of Erebus and Tartarus. Than could not sense where they went. He was no longer bound to them, and they were no longer bound to Hades.

Although he could not get through to his parents, his brother appeared beside him with a look of dismay.

“Who’s responsible for this?” Hypnos asked, as though he would take vengeance then and there, before the souls had been retrieved.

“I don’t know. Do you have any contact with our parents?”

“None.”

“Then we have no choice but to go to Mount Olympus to report what’s happened in person.”

“What about the dead?” Hip asked. “And what about the Titans? Are they unleashed?”

“The dead, but not the Titans,” Than said grimly. “At least, not yet. Our sisters are holding the pit of Tartarus as we speak. Hecate and her familiars are helping.”

“What about Therese?” Hip asked as they prepared to god travel.

“Killed. Her soul left with the other dead before she could regenerate. I don’t know where.” Than had barely had time to register this fact. He had already disintegrated and dispatched in the hundreds to search the earth for Therese. Another one of him had gently carried her body from the ruins of the Underworld to Demeter’s winter cabin. He’d taken her animals there as well.

Than and Hip left the rubble around them and materialized at the gates of Mount Olympus. After asking the seasons to let them pass, they hastened up the rainbow steps and into the court where the gods of Olympus were convening.

Hades immediately heard and responded to Than’s prayers as Than and his brother entered the room.

“Someone’s put a block around our court!” Hades bellowed. He looked at his fellow gods. “Who’s responsible for this destruction? Who would dare destroy my kingdom and upset the balance among the living and the dead?”

Than had never seen his father so upset before the other gods. His face had turned a hue of purple and his voice shook the court.

“Thanatos,” Zeus said. “Come forward and report to us what has happened.”

Than moved to the center of the ring and described the attack on his father’s domain. “The dying cannot die. Those already dead are no longer bound, and the Titans will be next.”

Zeus’s eyes widened. “The Titans? That can’t be.”

“The Furies are holding them for the moment,” Than added. He clenched his fists, waiting for the king of the gods to react to this bad news.

Zeus jumped to his feet. “This must be our top priority. We must all stop everything and put ourselves in the service of Hades.”

Than sighed with relief and unclenched his fists and was rather surprised at Zeus’s response.

“That’s impossible,” Poseidon objected, his sun-bleached beard framing a frown. “You know my duties consume me.”

Than could relate to that, and for a moment he felt sorry for those gods without the power of disintegration.

Zeus turned to the god of the sea. “Yes. What you say is true. You alone will be excused, brother.”

“But I’ve got several wars to mind.” Ares raked a hand through his bright red hair. “I don’t have time to clean up my uncle’s mess.”

Hades bolted across the marble floor toward Ares with a look of rage on his face, but Zeus beat Hades to Ares’s side. The two brothers stood with their faces close to the god of war.

“You will serve Hades now,” Zeus commanded. “Am I understood?”

Than blanched at the public reprimand Zeus gave to Ares.

Ares did not reply but gave a subtle nod before glaring across the room at Than.

Than suspected the god of war was behind the attack on his father’s kingdom, but, without proof, he would not speak his thoughts. What a brazen move, though, even for the son of Zeus.

***

 

Jen could not get the horses to settle after she and Pete herded them back to the pen. Her mother had had to reimburse the trail riders, because the horses had seemed to lose their minds. And they had been the last trail riders of the season, since Autumn had officially arrived. Even now, with her younger brother Bobby’s sweet talk, she and her brothers had a hard time removing the tack and turning the horses out. Jen used this opportunity to remind her mother why attending an online university from home was better for Jen. The family ranch needed her.

To make matters worse, Pete was freaking out.

“What’s the matter with you?” their mother hollered at Pete when he had flinched, pale faced, for the millionth time. “You feeling alright?”

“No,” he said. “I’m having some kind of bizarre hallucination or somethin’. What was in that stew you fed us?”

“Same stuff is always in my stew,” Jen’s mom replied.

Once they had turned the last horse out, Jen overheard her mother sidle up next to Pete and ask softly, “You ain’t been drinking, have you?”

Pete’s eyes widened into a look of reproach. “How can you even ask that? God, Mom! You think I wanna turn out like Daddy?”

Mrs. Holt dropped her head. “No, son, but some people can’t seem to help themselves. I hope you’ll tell me if that ever happens to you.”

Pete glared at their mother. “It won’t ever happen to me.”

They all four headed back to the house, exhausted and nervous. The horses continued to fidget and buck out in the pasture. Jen’s mom took the behavior of the horses as a sign of bad weather coming and told the kids to get washed up and stay indoors. She turned on the Weather Channel and listened as she heated up the leftover stew for their supper. Pete didn’t seem to mind canceling his plans to go dancing at the Wildhorse Saloon. His face had taken on a hint of green.

When Jen returned downstairs after her shower, she was mortified by reports on the news of unexplained events occurring all over the world. Pete was glued to the screen, as though searching for answers to his own strange condition, looking less ill and a bit excited.

“People are seeing ghosts,” he said to Jen, as she took a seat on the couch beside him. “Not everyone can see them. That’s why they can’t explain all the crazy things that are happening—windows breaking, objects floating in mid-air, stuff getting moved around. It’s the ghosts that are making all that stuff happen, but most just can’t see it.”

“Are you saying you can?” Jen asked, afraid of the answer.

Pete looked at her with his mouth open, as though he might answer, but then he turned back to the television and said nothing.

Jen wondered if the disappearance of the new horse handler earlier that day had had anything to do with the chaos around the world.

A few moments later, Pete startled Jen by jumping to his feet and saying, “Oh, no.”

“What is it?” Jen asked, still not sure if Pete was running on a full battery today.

Pete turned to her and said, “We need to get a hold of Therese.”

“What? Why? I don’t have her new number and she doesn’t answer her cell.”

Pete grabbed his hat and went to the door and pulled on his boots. “Hip’s gotta know where she is. I’m driving over to the Melner Cabin to talk to him. Coming with me?”

***

 

Hypnos appeared beside Athena among the rubble and debris that had once been his father’s kingdom. Apollo, with his quiver full of silver arrows, and Hermes with his winged shoes, stood on the other side of him, forming part of a ring surrounding Hades and Persephone, who looked upon the destruction around them with utter shock. All of the gods and goddesses were there, save Zeus and Poseidon, whose own domains required their constant attention, and Hera, who had made some meager excuse that Zeus must have been obliged to accept because of some or another scandal. Despite the conflicts among the gods, all of them seemed to share in the grief felt by those who dwelled in the Underworld. Tears slid down Aphrodite’s face, and Artemis raised her bow in sheer outrage.

“I know you all suspect me,” Ares said, “but I swear before Apollo, before whom no one can lie, that I was not involved in this catastrophe. I’ve always strived to maintain balance between all forces, to level the playing fields for all parties, and to encourage healthy conflict. What has happened today strikes no such balance.”

Hip had to admit he was surprised and impressed by the words spoken by the god of war, but if Ares hadn’t been responsible, who had?

Hades raised his voice. “Everyone swear before Apollo and on the River Styx that you played no role in bringing destruction to my kingdom.”

Hip swore and looked around at the others gathered as every single one of them echoed his response.

“We will get to the bottom of this,” Artemis growled.

Athena lifted her spear in the air, as though she were about to second Artemis, but before she could utter a word, something zipped like a bullet directly at her, knocking her onto the rubble beneath their feet. The other gods surrounded her in a split second, ready to aid.

Hip found himself at the back of the crowd, trying to move in, when he heard Hermes shout, “Close your eyes!”

Hip clamped his eyes shut but prayed to Hermes. What’s happening?

Aloud, Hermes said, “It’s Medusa. She’s claimed her head from Athena’s shield. Athena has turned to stone.”

“Athena?” Hip cried.

I’m trapped! Came Athena’s silent response.

As am I. Hestia and Persephone’s prayers joined Athena’s in Hip’s head.

Hip could hear the hissing of Medusa’s head of snakes close by as he felt along the backs of the other gods toward Hermes. Mother?

Help me, Hypnos.

“I pierced the Gorgon with my arrows,” Apollo said. “But she will not die.”

Medusa laughed a shrill and rueful shriek. “Sticks and stones might break my bones, but they will never kill me!”

“My arrow struck between the monster’s eyes and hangs there, impotent,” Artemis said. “I see the reflection in my shield.”

“My sword is useless against her as well,” came Ares.

“None can die,” Than said. “Not until the power that binds the souls to me and to the Underworld is restored.”

This reminded Hip of another time in his ancient history when Sisyphus took Than prisoner, back before Hades had given them the ability to transfer one another’s duties. No one could die then, either.

“I will destroy whoever is responsible for this!” Hades roared.

The ground beneath them shuddered, and something knocked Hip to the ground.

“You can open your eyes,” Hephaestus said. “I’ve encased Medusa in a locker of solid gold.”

Hip surveyed the scene. Athena had turned to white stone, with her spear raised and her mouth wide open, her knees bent. He could hear her prayers from inside the stone.

Beside her were Hestia and Persephone, also solid stone and crouched in defensive postures, eyes wide. Hip rushed to his mother’s side where Than already stood, touching her shoulder.

Hades roared like a lion and raised his fists in the air. Then he moved to Persephone’s side and cupped her smooth stone face in his hands. “I will fix this, my love. You won’t remain in this state for long. I promise.”

Hip could see the look on his father’s face, and he hoped his mother and Hestia and Athena could not. For once, fear and vulnerability clouded Hades’s usually confident exterior, which allowed Hip’s own fear to magnify. He turned to see Deimos and Phobos, Panic and Fear, standing behind him beside their mother, Aphrodite.

“Please leave us,” Aphrodite told her sons. “Your presence cannot help us.”

The twins vanished.

Although their disappearance improved Hip’s mood, another crisis thundered inside his head. Amid the prayers he heard for a good night’s rest and sweet dreams were the shouts of two familiar mortal voices. Jen and her older brother were calling to him. He could see them above, pounding on the doors and windows of the log cabin near their ranch in Colorado.