A long flight from Athens and a short cab ride across Manhattan later, Selene stood on the stoop of her brownstone on West Eighty-eighth Street, listening to the unmistakable sound of a woman’s footsteps behind the door.
“Is someone staying in my house?”
Theo looked mildly uncomfortable. “Ruth has a key.”
How dare she? How dare he? This was not the homecoming she’d imagined. Then again, she hadn’t thought Sister Maryam would be tagging along either. Honestly, she’d rarely allowed herself to think of returning at all. When she did, she’d always pictured bursting through her front door and into Theo’s arms. Needless to say, she’d never imagined any witnesses.
“Hey,” Theo said sternly. “Did you forget that you died and left the house to me? That means I can give a key to whomever I want. And who do you think’s been looking after Hippo?”
Hippolyta …
Crazed barking and the scrabble of claws on the hardwood added to the tumult of confused voices from inside—not just Ruth speaking, but several women.
Uh-oh, thought Selene as the door swung open.
Hippo barreled through, throwing all hundred pounds of her shaggy weight onto her mistress; Selene had to hold on to the railing to stop from toppling backward.
“Hey, girl,” she said as Hippo jumped up to rest her forepaws on her shoulders. “Yeah, I missed you too.” She pressed her face against the dog’s floppy ear and whispered, “And I’m sorry I left you. You never would’ve done it to me.”
Hippo responded by licking her mistress’s entire face as if it were covered in peanut butter. Selene didn’t mind—it meant she could avoid the women standing in the doorway for a few more seconds.
She recognized Gabriela Jimenez’s incredulous snort. “You’re shitting me.”
“Theo?” came a smaller, more hesitant voice. Ruth Willever.
“Is that …” another woman began.
Selene dodged away from Hippo’s tongue to see an Asian woman with long graying hair standing at Gabriela’s side, looking utterly bewildered. Selene recognized her as Minh Loi, the astronomer she’d once helped protect from an abusive boyfriend.
Gabriela crossed her arms over her breasts and stared at Selene. “Oh yeah, that’s her. The one who’s supposed to be dead.”
Theo sighed. “Yeah, how about you all let us in, and I’ll try to explain. Since, you know, it is Selene’s house and all.”
That was fast, Selene thought, glad to have regained ownership without a fight. She gently pushed Hippo off her shoulders and strode through her front door.
Ruth stepped aside. She had a rolling suitcase in one hand and a box of plants under the other arm, as if she was just moving in. Or out.
She looked from Selene to Theo. “I was just getting my things,” she said quickly. “I’m leaving right now.”
“Hey, you don’t need to rush off,” Theo said, reaching out a hand to her.
Ruth took a step back. “No, I do. Look, I don’t know how you did it, Theo, but nothing can surprise me anymore. I’m glad for you. I’m glad you got her back. Please, I have to go.” She bent to give Hippo a quick kiss on the forehead, then hurried down the stairs with her luggage banging behind her. She gave a quick, curious glance at Maryam, who stood silently on the stoop, then rushed down the sidewalk.
“That woman has the worst luck,” Gabriela said with a sigh. “I mean, she falls for a guy with a dead girlfriend, and then bam. It turns out the girlfriend is like actually immortal, not just sort of immortal. There’s no getting rid of her. Oh, don’t give me that look,” she snapped at Theo. “Minh knows all about Artemis.”
“I told you it was a secret!” Theo protested.
“Yeah, I heard you, but you didn’t mean a secret from my fiancée, did you?”
“Yeah, actually I definitely meant—wait, your what?”
“I’ll take that as a congratulations,” Gabriela said. “I proposed while you were off bribing the devil or whatever you were doing to get your girlfriend back from the dead.” Her hard stare swiveled back to Selene. “Unless she wasn’t dead in the first place.”
Selene swallowed.
“Oh, no. You lying puta …” Despite Minh’s restraining hand on her arm, Gabriela’s words shot out as violently as any slap. “Do you have any idea what Theo went through these last six months?”
“Gabi, Selene and I have been through all that. I forgave her, okay?”
“Go right ahead, but I plan to hold that grudge on your behalf for a very long time.”
“Fine,” Selene said, making her way to the kitchen. “But right now your grudge isn’t going to stop me from getting something to drink.”
“It better be vodka!” Gabriela called after her. “Because you’re going to need it when I’m done with you!”
Selene yanked open her fridge. Nothing left but the condiments. Not surprising. Ruth would’ve cleaned it out so nothing rotted while Theo was away. She’s so damn considerate. Selene slammed the door shut and poured herself a glass of water from the tap.
She heard Theo piling their bags at the foot of the stairs and then making introductions.
“Maryam is a nun … or was.” He stumbled, settling on, “She’s a friend from Turkey. Maryam, this is Minh Loi. She’s an astronomer at the Natural History Museum,” he went on more confidently. “She helped us work out some of the science behind the Mithras cult’s obsession with the zodiac.”
“What do you know about multiverses, Miss Loi?” Maryam asked.
“Stop right there,” Gabriela interrupted. “Hey, Theo, remember how you almost got me killed, twice? Well, don’t try dragging Minh into another one of your schemes, okay, because I will kick your ass right back to the little vanilla suburb you grew up in. She’s going to be my wife. We’re going to have a kid—”
“I didn’t—”
“And we were going to ask you to be the sperm donor.” She barreled over Theo’s weak protests. “Except now I’m rethinking, because idiocy could be genetic.”
“Hey—”
“And who the hell are you, really, Maryam? Let me guess … From the fact that your eyes are so bright they’re making my hair stand on end, I’d have to say … Athena.”
Theo groaned.
Maryam just said, “I admire a wise woman.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you do.”
“Um, Gabi, honey …” From the tone of Minh’s voice, she’d never really believed her girlfriend’s stories about the Greek gods until now.
Selene paced back into the hallway. “Yes, we’re real, and yes, I was alive—most of time—and yes, he still had to journey into the Underworld to get me.” She took a long swallow of water while Gabriela and Minh stared at her, openmouthed. “It’s a long story for another day. Right now, I’m going to order some Chinese food, and Minh’s going to answer the Goddess of Wisdom’s questions. We have a portal to another dimension to open.”