I was shocked that my key still worked. I pushed the door open quietly and we stepped into the small marble foyer. I could hear voices and laughter coming from the living room at the far end of the apartment.
Theo raised his eyebrows at me and cocked his head toward the living room. I took a step forward, listening intently until I recognized the voices. “It’s Felicia,” I whispered, as we gathered in a tight huddle. “And her best friend, Kiki.”
Theo suppressed a laugh. “You mean I finally get to put a face to the elusive Russian cougar I’ve heard so much about?”
“She’s not that bad.” I actually liked Kiki and her totally-inappropriate-for-kids jokes. Brash, overbearing, and loud she may have been, but she’d always been kind to me, cheering me up on more than one occasion after a fight with Felicia. My mother hadn’t loved our bond but she hadn’t bothered about it either.
“Does she usually stay long?” Kai asked.
Theo brightened. “She’s a cougar. You could be prey.”
Kai elbowed him.
I glared at both of them and motioned for them to follow me.
We crept down the hallway to the bright, all-white living room. “Lovely to see you as always, Felicia,” I said as we stepped up to the threshold.
The shock on Felicia’s face was priceless. As was her choking on her drink.
I took in my mother’s appearance. She was as immaculately groomed as always in a rust-colored cashmere sweater and brown tailored trousers. Her honey hair fell to her shoulders in exact, blunt edges, probably fearful of being a fraction out of line.
“It would mean more, darling, if you didn’t wear rags.” Damn. She’d found her voice.
I turned my attention to Kiki, seated across from Felicia on the sofa. She dragged on her cigarette, one hand patting her pouffed up, red-hennaed hair. Her leopard print shirt, worn over a pair of black slacks, was unbuttoned to best show off her goods. She tucked her bare feet and red painted toes along her side.
Kiki exhaled. Her eyes narrowed as she took the three of us in, brazenly scoping out Theo and Kai. “You visit with such delicious friends, Sophinchka.” Her voice was so gravely that I’d mistaken her for a guy more than once on the phone. But the sound of her familiar Russian accent was comforting.
Kai and Theo exchanged looks. Theo may have shuddered.
“Down, Kiki,” I said. “Theo is gay and both are taken.”
“I appreciate beauty.” Said with the kind of leer that undermined any potential poetry in the statement. Kiki angled her cheek up and tapped her index finger against it. “Sugar me.”
Obediently, I went over and kissed it.
Ignoring Felicia.
Who ignored me.
Kiki tugged me down beside her on the sofa. “What brings you home? Spring break already?”
Felicia shook her head in fond exasperation at her friend. I was very familiar with the gesture, since she’d directed it at me numerous times.
Except without the fond part.
Felicia swirled her drink. “You always encourage her. The only reason Sophie is here is because she wants something.”
Yeah, but I wasn’t about to go blurting out details in front of Kiki. “Could I speak to you privately?” I asked.
Kiki stubbed out her cigarette in a heavy crystal ashtray on top of the wide leather ottoman that served as a coffee table.
Kai and Theo flinched.
Kiki smiled at the boys. “Nichivo,” she said in Russian. “No matter. You can speak freely.”
I frowned, confused.
Kai edged toward me. “Sophie,” he said in an oddly neutral voice, “A little warning that Kiki is Hekate would have been nice.”
Ripping open a new pack of cigarettes, she paused to wink at me.
I open-mouth gaped at Kiki.
Hekate was the Goddess of Night, Magic, Witchcraft, the Moon, and—I racked my brain—Ghosts. Among other things. Hekate had also alerted Demeter when Kai took Persephone to the Underworld, and then been Persephone’s companion. Talk about a long friendship.
“But you’re Russian,” I said, trying to process.
“Da. For now. I needed a new look, and, well, Moskva always provided such amusements.” She slid a cigarette into her mouth with a practiced ease. “Light.”
I picked up the lighter from beside the ashtray and flicked it. Something I’d done many times before. “Who do you like more?” I asked. “Me or Persephone?”
Kiki barked out a laugh. “You. Especially now that you have everyone’s nuts in a twist.” She glanced at Felicia, eyes glinting mischievously. “Present company included.”
Felicia frowned.
I looked over at Kai and Theo, neither of whom looked happy at this turn of events. I couldn’t understand the problem. Okay, there was yet another member of the Greek pantheon to deal with, but this one liked me. What was the big deal? “How’d you know?” I asked instead. They hadn’t recognized her, so something else had given her away.
“The tattoo,” Theo said in a flat voice. “When she stubbed out the cigarette.” He mimed her sleeve riding up.
I glanced at Kiki’s wrist. I’d seen that tattoo so many times that I’d forgotten it was there. The design featured a small circle inside a larger one. Between the two, there was a ring of three semi-circles, almost as if they were trying to keep the small and large circles apart. In the very center of the design, there was a stylized star. I touched the tattoo gently.
“You always did love tracing it,” Kiki said.
I smiled, feeling a brief nostalgia for my younger self. “Hekate’s wheel. Except I didn’t know that then.”
She exhaled again, turning her head so the smoke wouldn’t catch me full-on in the face. “It’s true. You do remember everything.”
I nodded.
“Ochen horosho.”
I was too distracted trying to figure out the dynamic between Theo, Kai, and Kiki to respond to her praise. Kiki patted my hand. “Don’t worry. Kyrillos never liked me having the run of the Underworld.”
“Or my father’s ear,” Kai said.
“I can’t help my charms,” she replied, with a sly smile.
Okay. That made sense for Kai. But Theo was scowling at Kiki with a hatred I’d never seen from him before. The only thing I could think of was …
“Holy crap,” I gasped. Suddenly it all made sense. “You’re the witch that took Theo’s power.”
Kiki tilted her head in agreement.
I grasped her hand, almost desperately. “Give it back. Please.” The difference his power could make, to our battle and to the safety of my friend’s future was enormous.
Kiki’s look was almost sympathetic. “I can’t, Sophinchka. That was the payment. The balance. I gave a human baby goddess power. I had to take a god’s power and render him human.”
“Titan, not god,” said Theo.
“Regardless.” Kiki took another drag. “I can’t just give it back.” She looked shrewdly toward Theo. “But I think you know that already, don’t you Prometheus?”
Felicia had used our little catch-up chat to toss back her drink and get another one. She returned to her chair already making headway on the liquor. “Cut to the chase. What do you want?”
“We’re here to make a deal,” said Theo.
Felicia gave him a totally fake smile. “Delightful. I want to hear my darling daughter offer it.”
Like mother, like daughter. I pasted on a beaming, fraudulent smile of my own. “I’d like nothing better.” Our smiles were plenty broad but our gazes were combative.
“I grow old,” Kiki said. “Speak already.”
I kept eye contact with Felicia. “You wanted power?” I spread my hands wide. “It’s yours. Original deal on the table. Kai and I take out Zeus and Hades, and let you rule.” My throat caught as I choked that out, but choke it out I did.
From the way Felicia’s eyes gleamed, she knew what it cost me to say it.
“Not quite,” Kai piped up.
We all turned to him with varying degrees of surprise and—from me and Theo—a bit of suspicion.
“I want the Underworld.” Kai’s face twisted. “Hades is going down and I want him to know that I have everything he cared about. You can have Olympus and Earth. The Underworld is mine.”
I exchanged an uneasy glance with Theo. This wasn’t part of the plan. For a brief second, I worried that it would be a deal-breaker and that I’d come to Felicia for nothing.
But she lit up, thrilled. “Such bitterness. I can practically feel it eating away at you.” She rested the rim of her glass against her bottom lip as she stared at Kai, thoughtfully. Then she set the glass down. “Don’t worry, darling, it’s an emotion I can appreciate. Agreed. The Underworld is yours. However, I’m simply burning with curiosity to know what’s in this for you?” She swung her piercing gaze back to me.
I leaned forward. “Zeus and Hades warded up the ritual location in Eleusis. We need you to get us inside.”
“Ah, my old stomping grounds.” I swear to God, if she’d had a mustachio to twirl in evil glee at that moment, Felicia would have done it. “It seems that you need me far more than I need you.”
Kiki tsked her, but a sharp look from Felicia kept her quiet.
I sat up straight. Beyond fed up. “Alright, Felicia. What’s it going to take? You want me to beg? I’ll beg. But despite how you feel about me, I know that you’ve always given a damn about the human race. So let’s cut the BS and name your price, so we can stop this war on Earth and stop the human casualties.”
Felicia crossed one leg over the other, as if we were enjoying a cozy chat. Her tone was anything but cozy. “Did you really think you could just waltz in here with old promises that you’d tossed away once before, and win me over so easily? Every action has a consequence. Something I’ve been rather lax in teaching you.”
I ground my teeth so hard that I could hear the enamel destruction.
Felicia picked a piece of invisible lint off her sweater. “My price is this. When this is over, you never see Kyrillos again.”
My breath hitched and, for a second, my heart stopped beating.
She smiled. “Yes. I think that will do nicely.”
Never see Kai again? Intellectually, I knew I had to say yes. What was our love against the fate of the world?
But emotionally? My throat had closed up. A cold sweat beaded my brow and icy fingers of panic clawed at me. I couldn’t say the words.
Kai had gone pale.
Kiki tsked again. “Demeter,” she said, disapproving, “You of all people should not force this.”
Something unspoken passed between them before Felicia relented. “Theo then.”
My heart stuttered again. That was just as bad. Its furious pounding echoed in my ears.
“Done.”
I swung to face Theo, who regarded me evenly. “This is bigger than us, Magoo.”
“No!” I turned to Felicia, pleading. “Not Kai. Not my friends. Anything else.” Hot tears pooled in my eyes. “I’ll be your slave. Whatever you want.”
“You can’t give me what I want,” she said. Felicia turned to Theo. “You’ll stay away from Sophie?”
“For the rest of my life,” he mocked.
She grimaced, not finding him funny. “Excellent. We have a deal. Swear?”
Theo nodded. “I swear on the Styx that I’ll stay away from her.”
I was crying outright now, trying to make her take it back, arguing that I hadn’t agreed to it. But neither she nor Theo paid me any attention.
Kiki ground out her cigarette and gave my arm a sympathetic pat. “It is done, Sophinchka.” She rose from the sofa and crossed to the bank of floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing at some far point.
I buried my face in my hands. Tears coursed down my cheeks. I felt Kai sit beside me and take me in his arms. He stroked my hair. “It’ll be okay.”
But it was never going to be okay again.
“Soph,” Theo said. I realized he had moved to sit beside me, too.
I raised wet eyes to his, wanting to ask him how he could have done this. Wanting to know if he could really just walk away from me? I saw that it was killing him, and he was doing it anyway.
Once I’d become a goddess, there had been a lot of points that I’d figured were tests. Big tests, small tests, it was the nature of the hero game. All of them were totally insignificant beside this one. With shockingly cold clarity, I knew that when Zeus had kidnapped me, when Demeter had almost ruined my relationship with Kai, even when I’d been bleeding out on the ground, I’d had one massively important thing that I didn’t have now.
Hope.
I swallowed hard and wiped my eyes. Then I pulled Theo into the fiercest, tightest hug I’d even given him.
He didn’t even resist. All he did was echo Kai. “It’ll be okay.”
“Can we talk details now?” At the sound of Felicia’s voice, I released Theo from the hug, but kept his hand in mine.
I knew my father was a psychopath. And while I had lots of colorful names for Felicia, that wasn’t one of them. Yes, Persephone had screwed her over and taken away her chance to rule Olympus, but still, watching her recline in her chair with an expression of mild boredom, waiting while my heart broke—I revised my opinion.
“Start talking.” Kai had a take-no-prisoners tone. He slung an arm around me and hauled me against him, his body practically humming with tension, his eyes never wavering from her.
“Your little ritual ground borders my temple in Eleusis. Where are the boundaries of the ward you created? Is there overlap?”
“Yes,” Theo replied. “On the southwest side.”
“Good.” Felicia nodded. “Beside the remains of the Lesser Propylaea,” she said, using the Greek word for the monumental gateway, “there is a cave. Inside is an entrance to the Underworld. Or, conversely, an exit to Earth.”
“You want us to go through Hades.” Kai’s disbelief was palpable.
“There is no other way for me to grant you inside access. Descend to the Underworld and make your way to the portal on that side.”
“Hades will kill us,” I piped up. My arms burned. I had to give up Theo and Felicia couldn’t even find a non-lethal solution for us?
“Then you’ll have to stay one step ahead. You’ve been quite successful thus far.” The look she shot me was almost proud.
“I’ll deal with my father,” Kai said.
“Do you know where to find the portal on the Underworld side?” Theo asked Kai.
Kai thought about it a moment, then nodded. “Leave it to me.”
“Then we time this as close to the equinox as possible.” Theo stroked his chin. “We want to get through and take down Zeus’ ward. Then we let Festos take down ours and cleanse the site in as little time as possible before you two say the ritual.” He looked at Felicia.
“I’ll open it early Thursday,” she said. “It won’t alert Hades or Zeus one way or the other. I will ensure that the way between the two realms is open, and that your passage through is safe. At which point you will be inside their ward and can proceed.” She raised an eyebrow. “Are we done?”
“Swear on the Styx,” I said, barely audible.
My body ached with the knowledge that my time with Theo was counting down, in a gut wrenching, marrow-of-my-bones kind of way. If I was going to have to endure this blinding heartache, and a future without my best friend, then I could bind Felicia to her word.
“I beg your pardon?” She sounded insulted.
“Swear. On. The. Styx.”
“Such a petulant child,” she protested.
“Swear, Demeter.” I startled at Kiki’s voice. Still standing by the windows, she had been so quiet that I’d forgotten she was still there.
Felicia looked like she couldn’t wait to have this over with. “I swear on the Styx that it shall be as I decreed,” she said, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Now you. I want you bound to give me power this time.”
Whatever. Not like I had a choice. “Fine. I swear on—” A knifelike pain slashed across my left wrist. With a gasp I stared down, but it was unmarked.
“It’s the oath,” Theo explained. “The binding hurts. Just say it.” He got up and rocked on his heels as if stretching out his back.
“I swear on the—” Pain flared across my right wrist.
“What’d I miss?” I knew that voice. Behind me.
Words failed me as my personal tormentor and classmate, Bethany Russo-Hill sauntered into Felicia’s living room, in her usual ridiculously pricy yoga gear, all streaming dark red hair and deceptively innocent blue eyes. She gave Kai, Theo, and me a dismissive glance, and then plopped into a chair like she lived there. Which given Bethany’s god groupie tendencies and Felicia’s desire to inflict maximum emotional damage on me, may actually have been the case.
Felicia turned a doting smile on Bethany. “Sophie was just swearing to put me in power in Olympus and never see her little friend Theo again.”
“Oh. Cool.”
I waved my throbbing right hand between her and Felicia. “Are you kidding me?” I exploded.
Bethany rolled her eyes. “God, Demeter, you sure she’s really yours? Such a drama queen.”
Viney light shot out of my palms, snaked around Bethany, and began to squeeze.
“Sophie!” Kiki hurried over to me and smacked my arm. My light flew back into my palms.
Bethany rubbed her sides, giving that “poor wounded me” look that she’d pulled so many times before, back at Hope Park.
Take her out. Another moment of me and my Persephone voice in absolute agreement.
“I’m going to kill you,” I said to Bethany.
She laughed. “Try it. I’m under D’s protection.”
I wanted to claw her eyes out. She was on such familiar terms with my mother that she’d given her a nickname. Whereas, I wasn’t even invited to call her Demeter. I couldn’t even look at Bethany because my hands literally shook with the desire to annihilate her. My Persephone voice screamed at me to do it.
My right wrist still burned. I hadn’t finished the oath. My sight wavered. My body vibrated with rage.
“Calm down, Goddess.”
I ignored Kai.
“Sophie, the rims of your eyes are turning black,” he said, grasping my shoulders.
I shook him free. I didn’t care.
“Finish the oath, daughter,” Felicia said. “Then Bethany and I can chat.”
There was a loud crraaaack from outside. Loud enough to be heard twenty-three floors up.
Everyone except me turned to the window. I kept my sights on Bethany and Felicia.
“Magoo,” Theo said, his worry evident, “you just broke the branches on all the trees in a two block radius.”
I barely registered him. My entire world had shrunk down to the two people before me. My body was rigid with the will power it took to use my words and not my fury. “The night of the Winter Formal you claimed to love me, Felicia. Was it all a lie?”
“No,” she said slowly.
“Then how can you align yourself with someone who stabbed me? Murdering Persephone wasn’t enough for you? You had to team up with likeminded others?”
Bethany chortled her amusement.
Later for you, I vowed.
Felicia uncrossed her legs and leaned back in the chair. “Well, darling, you do have that affect on people. Maybe you need to take a hard look at yourself and figure out why you prompt that reaction in so many. Now, the oath?”
I kept silent, my eyes hard and unwavering.
Felicia could tell I’d say nothing until she answered my question. “I wanted power, you refused to help me get it. Bethany is my Plan B. I help her achieve her goals—”
“Told you I’d be famous.” Bethany didn’t even bother to look over as she spoke. She was too busy braiding a thick strand of hair.
“And in return,” Felicia continued, “with the world at Bethany’s feet, she helps me rebuild the adoration I knew before.”
“Your building your power,” Theo cut in.
Felicia acknowledged him with a one-shouldered shrug. She picked up her glass.
“For what?” I demanded.
Felicia’s grip on the booze tightened. “I answered your question. Now say the damn oath.”
Ordinarily, the pain in my wrist might have been enough to make me say it. But I was so far into my own hurt and anger that I could absorb the fire I felt, and add it to my own hot indignation.
I could feel the pain sliding away. Out of my wrist, through my arm, and into my fiery core. My wrist stopped hurting. Flush with the triumph of that, I shook my head. “My end of the deal is off.”
Everyone in the room looked horrified. “But you swore,” Theo said. “You can’t go back on that.”
“Technically, I never finished.”
“Yeah, but the spirit of the thing,” he began.
“Can kiss my ass.”
“Think this through, Goddess,” Kai urged.
I funneled every ounce of rage and destruction into a megawatt smile, and turned it on Felicia. “I will die before I hand power over to you.”
“That can and will be arranged,” she said.
“Happy to take another shot at it,” Bethany offered, starting a matching braid.
I ignored her and delivered the best part. “Here’s the thing though, mom, you did swear. So I’ll be taking that safe passage on the equinox.”
Felicia was super ticked off now. She knew I had her. “Last chance, Sophie. Finish the oath or you’ll be sorry.”
The room was thick with tension.
“Bite me.” My voice was steady, but inside I seethed.
“Then you leave me no choice.” She looked at Kiki. “Make it hurt.”