Hades

“You must make an effort to be happy,” he murmured, trailing a finger along the inside of my arm.

“How can I try when I’m more miserable than I’ve ever been?” I said. There was little point in trying to mask my feelings.

“I understand you’re pining for lost love,” Jake said, in a voice that sounded almost sincere. “But that human can’t make you happy because he can never truly understand what you are.”

I edged away from him, but his grip on my arm tightened and he began tracing the network of veins beneath the translucent skin. I flinched, remembering how his touch had been accompanied by an uncomfortable burning sensation in the past. It felt different this time, almost soothing. I figured I was in Jake’s domain now and he could manipulate things any way he chose.

When Jake left, I couldn’t settle and Tucker loitering by the closed door only made me more uncomfortable. Instead of returning to the fire, he withdrew an electronic device from his pocket and began compulsively playing games to wile away the time.

“You can sit down,” I suggested, remembering his lame leg, which must have been bothering him because he kept readjusting his position, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

He looked up for a moment, startled by my expression of kindness.

“I won’t tell anyone,” I added with a smile.

Tucker hesitated a moment, then relaxed enough then to slide down and sit with his back against the door.

“You oughta try ’n’ git some sleep,” he suggested. It was the first time I’d heard him speak or look at me directly. His voice wasn’t what I expected. It was soft and mellow with a lilting Southern twang. The tone, however, was surprisingly worldweary for someone his age. “If you’re worried about Asia, she won’t bother you while I’m around.” He seemed proud of his ability to keep watch. “She’s a piece of work, but I ain’t easily fooled, despite what y’all might think.”

“I’m not worried,” I reassured him. “I trust you, Tucker.”

“You can call me Tuck,” he said.

“Okay.”

Tuck hesitated, and then looked at me with interest. “What makes you so sad all the time?”

“Am I that obvious?” I gave a small smile.

Tuck shrugged. “I can see it in your eyes.”

“I’m just thinking about the people I love …,” I said, “and whether I’ll ever see them again.”

A pained expression crossed his face as though my words had triggered troubling memories of his own to resurface.

“You can see them again if you want to,” he said. It was barely a murmur. Had I heard him right? All my hopes were suddenly roused, but I tried to keep my voice from trembling.

“Excuse me?” I asked slowly.

“You heard me,” Tuck mumbled.

“Are you saying you know a way out of here?”

“I didn’t say that,” he snorted. “I said you could see them again.”

This time he sounded mildly annoyed at having to explain what should have been patently obvious. It struck me suddenly that this lumbering boy with his crooked haircut might know more than he was letting on. Could his allegiance to Jake be merely pretense? Was it possible that here was one person in all of Hades with a vestige of conscience left? Was Tuck trying to tell me he was prepared to help? There was only one way to find out.

“Tell me what you mean, Tuck,” I asked, my heart leaping with expectation.

“There’s a way,” he said simply.

“Can you tell me?”

“I can’t tell you,” he answered. “But I can show you.” He brought a broad finger up to his lip in warning. “But we have to be careful. If we’re caught …,” he trailed off.

“I’ll do whatever I need to do,” I said determinedly.

“There are five rivers in Hades. One is for forgetting your past life, but there’s another that let’s you return to it. Well, at least temporarily,” Tuck said. “Drink from it and it will give you the ability to visit your loved ones whenever you like.”

“Visit them how?”

“You’ll be able to project,” Tucker said. It seemed the more he spoke, the less I understood what he meant. I looked at him blankly, my previous expectation dwindling to disappointment. It was entirely possible that Tucker wasn’t even in his right mind. The fact that I was attaching so much hope to what he had to say was a testament to my desperation.

Tuck read the mistrust in my face and tried to be clearer.

“There’s things here you won’t have read about in books. Drinking from the Lake of Dreams creates a trancelike state that allows your spirit to detach from your physical body. It takes skill, but someone like you should pick it up easy. Once you learn how to do it, you can go anywhere you like.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?”

Tucker looked dispirited at my lack of trust. “Why would I lie? Jake’ll have me thrown into the pit if he finds out.”

“Why help me then? Why risk your safety?”

“Let’s just say I’m fixin’ to settle a score,” he said. “Plus, you look like you could really use a home visit.” His lame attempt at humor made me smile.

“Have you managed to? Go home, I mean?”

A forlorn look came into his eyes. “By the time I worked out how there wasn’t much point, everyone I ever knew had gone. But you could check on the people you care about ’cuz they’re still alive.”

The lake’s potential filled me with hope.

“Take me there now,” I begged.

“Not so fast,” he cautioned. “It can be dangerous.”

“How dangerous?”

“Take too much and you might not wake up.”

“And how is that bad?” The words slipped out before I had a chance to think about them.

“It ain’t if y’don’t mind being in a coma for the rest of your life, watching your family day in and day out like they’re characters on a movie screen but never bein’ able to talk to them or reach them. Is that what you want?”

I shook my head although admittedly it sounded a darn sight better than what I had now.

“Okay,” I said. “You’re in charge of the dosage. But you’ve gotta take me there right now!”

10 Devil’s Feast

WE were almost at the door when it opened with a muted clack and Jake unexpectedly let himself into the room. Tuck and I both started and tried to cover our confusion by moving in entirely opposite directions. Jake arched an eyebrow and looked at us quizzically. He was dressed in a charcoal dinner jacket and a red silk cravat.

“Good to see you’re still up, darling,” he said in that irritating formal manner of his, as if he were something out of a 1950s movie. “I hope you’re hungry. I’ve come to take you to dinner. It’s just what we need to lighten the mood around here.”

“I’m actually pretty tired,” I hedged. “I was planning on going to bed.”

“Really? Because you look wide awake to me,” he said, scrutinizing my face closely. “More than awake — I’d say you look excited about something. Your cheeks are all flushed.”

“That’s because it’s always so overheated in here,” I said. “Seriously, Jake, I was hoping to have an early