Aegeus’s caïque was a small, bright orange fishing vessel with a long, sharp bow and a sail that pulled taut in the light breeze. Pegasus was the first on board, stepping gingerly onto the wooden planks, which immediately began to rock.

Meg came right behind him. She handed Cassia back to Aegeus, then glanced at the hourglass before returning it safely to her pouch. She was alarmed to see it was more than a quarter filled with sand. Six days left. It was not a lot of time. “Coming, Phil?”

“I’m coming, hold your feta,” Phil said, and she thought she heard him sniffle as he touched Cassia’s cheek. “Bye, kid. You’re going to miss Uncle Phil, aren’t ya?”

“Uncle Phil?” Meg repeated, and she and Peg snorted.

Phil shot them both a look. “What can I say? Babies are cute and much easier to deal with than stubborn heroes-in-training.”

Meg rolled her eyes.

“We will miss you, Philoctetes,” Aegeus said. “If you ever travel this way again, please know you are always welcome here.”

Phil looked like he might cry. “Maybe I’ll drop in on my way home and see how you guys are doing.”

“Please do.” Aegeus’s eyes moved to Meg. “You are welcome as well. I still don’t know how to thank you.”

“You can thank me when I’ve returned with your wife.” Meg looked at the baby, who was reaching for her, and longed to say something she’d understand, but knew she couldn’t. Instead, she silently appraised her. Hang on, Cassia. I’m going to find her and bring her back for you.

“We will be praying for your safe return, Megara,” Aegeus said as he shifted the baby on his hip. “May the gods show you favor.”

“They already have,” said Phil proudly as he stepped aboard and cut the line holding them to shore.

They drifted away so fast Meg barely had time to turn and see Aegeus lift his hand and wave goodbye before the boat rounded a bend, rocking and swaying as it moved faster downstream. Meg felt her heart rate quicken. They were on their way.

“Buckle up, kid,” Phil said as the boat jostled over a rock. “If you’re right and this river leads to Acheron, this is going to be a bumpy ride, especially since you’ve never sailed before.”

“Says who?” Meg asked as she dipped her oar in and steered them around a cluster of rocks ahead. Phil looked at her in surprise. You can thank your boy Hercules for that.

Months earlier, Hercules had gone from zero to hero practically overnight. He destroyed the most infamous monsters in Thebes day after day. Hades, on the other hand, was practically molten with frustration, and he was coming down on her and his other minions hard to try to figure out how to stop the Wonder Boy. Could she help it if she seemed anxious when Hercules showed up one afternoon wanting to see her?

“Let’s go do something,” she recalled him begging. “Anything you want! Maybe a ride over the sea on Pegasus?”

“No rides on that thing,” she’d said quickly. “Look, I appreciate you coming by and all, but I’m not exactly in a sightseeing mood.”

“Come on, Meg,” he’d insisted. “We can do nothing but sit quietly and stare at our sandals if that’s what you want. Let’s just take a teeny-tiny break to spend some time together. Please?”

She knew she should say no, to protect his heart as well as her own; but he had that adorably goofy grin that was almost too big for his face and that earnest look in his eye. He’d even shown up with a bouquet of flowers, for gods’ sake. How could she turn him down? “I guess I could slip away for an hour, but nothing more.”

His smile grew even wider. “That’s great! An hour is all we need. We can…well, let’s see; flying is out, and we can’t go anywhere Phil can find us,” he rambled. “Ah! I’ve got an idea. Follow me!” He grabbed her hand and led her to a nearby lake.

“You want to go swimming?” she had asked, the disdain probably written all over her face.

“No, no, of course not.” He ran behind some brush and pulled something large out from within it with ease. It was a small fishing boat. “We’re going sailing!”

Meg remembered scoffing. “I don’t sail.”

“Why not? It’s fun! My father used to take me.” He pushed the boat into the water, then put one foot up on the bench to hold it steady and held out his hand. “I’ll teach you.”

She’d stared at his hand apprehensively.

“Come on, Meg! No one will find us out on the water. Don’t you ever want to escape?”

“Always,” she’d said without hesitation, and before she knew it, she was climbing aboard.

He rowed them effortlessly over a light chop to the center of the lake, his biceps bulging as he paddled with both oars. Then he handed her one. She looked at it for a moment. “I can row on my own, of course, but usually when two people each take an oar, it’s a smoother ride.”

“Why don’t I just take a turn driving us?” she’d asked, grabbing the second oar from his hands and attempting to use both oars at the same time. Okay, it was way harder than it looked. She nearly lost one oar in the water as she dipped it into a wave. Hercules reached out and grabbed it.

“Here, let me show you.” He carefully moved to the back of the boat and sat behind her so he could guide her arms with the oars. She was well aware of his body being so close, but she tried not to seem ruffled as he placed his hands on her arms and gently guided her through the circular motion. “Like that. You’ve got it!”

She could feel his breath on her neck. How does he smell as sweet as nectar in this heat? Do I smell? she found herself wondering. Why do I care? Their close proximity was definitely doing something to her.

“Okay, now you try it on your own.”

He let go of her arms to let her paddle both oars, and instantly she felt the difference. Churning the oars through the water was tough, not that she wanted to let on, and the only motion she could make was turning them in circles.

“You sure I can’t do one and you do one? There’s nothing wrong with teamwork,” he’d said.

“Fine.” She passed him an oar. “But only because I don’t want us stuck out here in the middle of the lake forever.”

As soon as Hercules had taken an oar, they were able to paddle in tandem, and the boat began to glide over the chop, sailing at a clip across the lake.

“Nice, Meg! You’re doing it!” he’d yelled as they moved faster and faster. “Isn’t this great?”

It kind of was, though she hesitated to admit it. What wasn’t to like about the sun warming her face, the breeze blowing through her hair, and the fact that she was alone on a lake with a guy who seemed to want nothing more from her than her company?

“You’re a good boating partner, Meg,” Hercules had said with a laugh.

“So are you, Wonder Boy,” she’d told him.

Partners. She’d never been around a man who didn’t seem to have an ulterior motive. Her father had left when she and her mother got in his way. Hades owned her. Aegeus had turned out to care only about himself and the next woman on deck. With Hercules, things felt right.

Hercules was someone who challenged her to see the good in the world, while accepting her as she was. He was someone who never stopped surprising her, who could make her heart race with a mere look. But did that mean they’d work well together for eternity? How did she know for sure she was even in love with the guy? There was no guide for these things. It was a feeling, but what if she was wrong? Or what if she made a bad decision like she had in the past, one that would wreck them? Eternity was a long time to not screw things up.

Aegeus’s boat lurched sideways, almost tipping them over, and Meg grabbed the oar and righted the boat. “Don’t worry, Phil. I know what I’m doing here. This river will be the easy part of this gig.”

“I don’t know about that.” But Phil moved to the left side with his oar while Meg navigated the right. Within minutes, they were steering in tandem without arguing. They were somehow making it work, jumping in to balance the ship, and maybe that was the point.

The same could be said for her and Hercules, couldn’t it? When the two of them worked together, each of them picking up slack and lifting the other one up, things felt right. Maybe there would never be some huge sign that he was the one. Perhaps it was a bunch of little signs, and she just had to decide once and for all to take that leap.

They hit a rock and the boat lifted off the water, then dropped fast and hit a sudden dip. Meg kept her oar steady as the river kept winding and turning. The dense vegetation along the sides of the river was so thick she couldn’t get her bearings. All she knew was that she didn’t want to fall overboard. That dark churning water beneath them felt uncomfortably familiar; it reminded her of the haunted streams in the Underworld—the ones teeming with lost, anguished souls. Her gut said they were on the right path, at least.

“Pegasus,” Meg called out to him. “Grab an oar. We could use your help.” The horse took one with his mouth as they all leaned to the left, hoping the boat would turn away from a tree trunk jutting out into the water. They narrowly made their way around it.

“Red, we’re nowhere near the entrance,” Phil yelled as he paddled faster around a floating branch rushing alongside them. “We’ll never get there at this rate.”

“How do you know?” Meg called. “Have you been to the entrance before?”

“No, but I…rock!” They leaned to the left and pad-dled to avoid it. “If it was that easy to find, don’t you think everyone would be banging down the door to the Underworld to go get their loved ones back?”

Meg hadn’t thought about it that way before. “Only if they’ve forgotten about Cerberus!” Pegasus snorted in agreement. “How will we know when we’re getting close?”

Phil looked back at her for a second. “Believe me, we will know because…tree!”

They navigated the boat around the stump sticking out into the rapids.

“Because what?” she pushed. “I didn’t arrive in the Underworld by boat before. Last time I was just dropped in Hades’s lair.” They hit another bump and both she and Phil fell backward. They scrambled to get up again.

“Really?” Phil momentarily turned to look at her. “Huh. Didn’t think humans were allowed to chill in the Underworld. Chill. Ha! Get it?”

“Yeah, and they’re not,” Meg said as water splashed over the side of the boat. “Hades hid me, I guess.”

Phil wiped water off his nose. The boat righted itself and started to move along more steadily, giving them all the opportunity to catch their breath. “They say the Underworld messes with your bearings. You sort of lose track of things—sense of place, time…”

“Yeah, figured that last one out. How does everyone seem to know all of this except me?” Meg asked.

Phil shrugged. “All I’m saying is hang on tight to that hourglass down there,” he said as they began to round another bend. “That will help you remember, and—hey…” Phil stopped rowing. “You hear that?”

“Hear what?” Meg used the back of her hand to keep the ongoing spray of water out of her eyes. Peg neighed nervously as Meg tried to see what was up ahead. The river seemed to just end right beyond a row of trees. But that didn’t make sense. The water was still rushing forward, almost as if…

She and Phil looked at one another at the same time. “Waterfall!”

“Hang on!” Meg shouted as she leaned back, pulling the oar’s flat side through the water trying to slow them down. The boat kept barreling forward. Meg pictured a hundred-foot drop ahead of them. If that were the case, they would be done for. “We have to bail!” she said. “Pegasus, let’s fly!”

“NO! You can only find the entrance on water!” Phil argued. “If we lose this boat, we’re finished.”

“Are you mad? If we stay here, we’ll be smashed to smithereens!” Meg cried, her fingers itching to drop the oar and rush to Pegasus’s side. “There’s no way we’ll make it!” They were nearing the edge now. She could see the spot where the river just dropped off.

“We will!” Phil countered. “Trust me!”

I don’t trust anyone but myself, Meg wanted to say. But she had little choice. “Fine!” she yelled as the front of the boat neared the edge and Peg started to whine. “If we die, don’t expect me to play chess with you in the Underworld!”

“Deal!” Phil shouted. “Now lean back! Everyone! One, two, threeeeeeeeee!”

The boat hit the edge and fell forward so fast, Meg thought they were going to plummet ahead of the boat to their deaths. Water rushed over them, making it impossible to scream. Meg felt Pegasus come flying toward her. She grabbed hold of the mast at the same time Phil did, and Pegasus wedged his body behind it. Meg held her breath, waiting for impact. The boat finally slammed into a wall of water, then bounced for a moment, water spilling into it, and righted itself again.

Pegasus collapsed on the deck of the boat in exhaustion. Phil fell over, clutching his oar. Meg sank to the floor and found a fish flopping on the deck next to her. She picked it up, disgusted, and threw it back in the river.

“Look! I can’t believe we made it!” Phil looked back at the waterfall gushing behind them. “Yowza! That had to be a hundred feet!”

“What do you mean, you ‘can’t believe we made it’?” Meg said, trying to catch her breath. “You said we’d be fine.”

“Well, we were, weren’t we?” Phil spat more water out of his mouth. “You got to learn to trust people, Red.”

“Yeah, because that always works out so well,” she said under her breath.

“I mean it! Once you learn that the horse and I are on your side, we’ll have you to the entrance of the Underworld and back with Hercules in no time. And then I can get back to relaxing.” He wrung water out of his furry tail.

“Oh, sure. This has been a piece of baklava so far. What more could go wrong?” Meg pushed her wet bangs behind her right ear and looked away.

“Hey now, don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Doubt yourself.” Phil stomped over to her, climbing onto the boat bench to look her in the eye. “I’ve had heroes-in-training do that before, and they are the ones who don’t make it. It takes guts and faith to do what you’re about to do.”

The satyr sounded so smug she wanted to take his small body and throw him overboard. But then, who would help her steer?

“I know, Phil,” she said with an involuntary eye roll.

“Do you?” he protested. “You’ve got to believe you can take anything this quest throws at you, whether it’s a waterfall or a harpy.”

“Harpy?” Meg asked. “Why would we run into harpies?”

He sighed. “I’m just saying you’ve got to believe in yourself.” Phil jumped down and grabbed a bucket to try to get some of the water out of the boat.

Believe in yourself. There it was again. But did that contradict what Phil had just said about trusting others? Her mother had thought so.…

“I believe, okay?” Meg fixed her ponytail. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here risking my life.”

The tingling of bells made them stop arguing.

“Hi there!” Hermes hovered above the back of the boat, his winged hat helping him navigate closer. He seemed out of breath, and his brow was sweaty. A handkerchief appeared suddenly in his right hand and he used it to wipe his face. “Wow, were you two hard to find! I was flying on and on and on! She said you’d be on the river Acheron and to bring you this gift, but then you weren’t there yet, even though you don’t have a lot of time left on your hourglass. So I thought, they can’t still be back at Aegeus’s, can they? But I made a pit stop there, popped into his house, and woke the baby. Whoa, can she cry.”

“You woke the baby?” Phil groaned.

“Kid has some lungs! Boy!” Hermes held his head. “Aegeus said I should follow the river at the bottom of the hill, so I did, and then I saw the waterfall and thought, they’re goners! But she said to keep looking, and I did, and found you down here.” Hermes flew around the boat and then shot up high into the sky and came back down again. “Wow, you haven’t made it that far, have you?”

Meg tried to be patient. “Hermes, you said you had a gift?” She hoped it wasn’t that they got to keep the messenger for the rest of the journey.

“Yes, from her!” he said, his winged hat fluttering fast.

“What her?” Meg asked impatiently. “Hera?”

“Oh, no!” Hermes laughed. “She’s not getting in the middle of your quest. You’re on your own when it comes to her.”

“Hit her where it hurts, why don’t ya?” Phil muttered under his breath.

“This is from Athena.” Hermes snapped his fingers and two sacks appeared on a seat of the boat. Meg opened the first sack and found a bow and arrow. “Ever use one of those before?” he asked.

Meg expertly nocked the arrow and pulled the bowstring back, then spun around, targeting Phil.

“Not funny!” He jumped out of the way and she laughed.

She used to practice archery with her mother. Her mom had expert aim, and she’d caught them many a dinner this way. Meg hadn’t held a bow and arrow in her hands in years, but the sensation came right back to her. “Yes. My mother taught me how to use one of these.” She placed both items on the bench again and opened the second sack. Inside were two long pieces of metal held together with leather straps. “Is this an instrument?” she asked quizzically.

“A special kind of instrument,” Hermes said. “Listen to the sound it makes.”

Meg clapped the two pieces of metal together, and a terrible, high-pitched shriek emitted from them. Everyone held their ears. She could still hear a ringing even when the clapper was silent. Pegasus neighed miserably.

“Pretty dreadful, right?” Hermes asked. “Athena had Hephaestus make it for you. Said it might come in handy if you’re reckless.”

Phil snorted. “Reckless is her middle name.” Meg shot him a look.

“Please thank Athena for me,” Meg said.

Hermes looked farther down the river and whistled. “Will do. Looks like you’ll need those gifts if you’re headed that way.”

“Why? What’s up ahead?” Meg asked worriedly.

There was a chiming of bells again.

“I’m late!” Hermes cried and, poof, he was gone.