Awaken

meant the consequence of possibly creating a demon baby.

What he’d meant was this.

You couldn’t go back to your mom’s house and hide under the covers when you had a baby, pretending you couldn’t hear its cries. That big, fat, demanding baby was your responsibility now. You had to take care of it, for as long as it needed you, even when it wasn’t being cute and giggly, but when it was crying and hungry.

I should never have worried about having a demon baby as a result of making love with John in the Underworld: The Underworld itself is a demon baby.

I should have known there was a catch. In Greek myths, there was always a catch.

“Ready, Pierce?” Frank had come over, a heavy-looking sack hanging off one shoulder. Whatever was in the sack jingled faintly as he walked.

“Why does he get to go with you, and not me?” Kayla glared.

“Because I’m the … what’s it called? Oh, right. The muscle.” Frank had cleaned up the cut on his forehead, but he still resembled, with his long facial scar, black leather trousers, and multiple tattoos, a cross between a pirate and a biker from a motorcycle gang. In my opinion, Frank had been born in the wrong century.

Kayla whipped her head around to glare at me. “If you guys are going to kill Farah Endicott, I want to be there.”

“Why would anyone want to kill Farah Endicott?” Alex asked. “What’d she ever do to you? Seth Rector’s the one who murdered me. If anyone’s going to get popped, it’s him. And I should be the one who gets to do it.”

“You guys,” I said, dropping John’s tablet into the tote bag. I couldn’t keep carrying things around in my sash. Not only did it look unwieldy, it was uncomfortable.

And now that the Fates were gone, I couldn’t wish for a new gown with pockets. I couldn’t even bring myself to change into the only modern-day dress in my closet. That’s because it was the one John had asked me to wear on our first date … the one that had ended up being what I’d worn the night we’d … well, never mind. I’d never be able to wear that dress again.

“No one is getting popped,” I said firmly.

Mr. Graves agreed.

“Yes,” he said. “Please cease this talk of, er, popping people immediately. This is exactly why I said from the start of this that the captain wouldn’t approve of any of —”

“Mr. Graves,” I said to him. “I’ve got this.” I pulled my diamond from the bodice of my dress and showed it to Kayla. “Look. This kills Furies when I touch it to someone who’s possessed by one. It doesn’t kill people. And as far as I know, Farah Endicott is not possessed by a Fury.” Farah’s boyfriend, Seth, I wasn’t so sure about, so I didn’t mention him, since I didn’t want to rile up Alex any more than he already was.

Kayla looked down at the stone in my fingers. “It’s the exact same color as my streaks,” she said, pulling on one of the violet strands in her voluminous curls. “And my dress.”

“It is right now,” I said, tucking the diamond away again. “It only turns this color when you’re close by. I don’t know what that means, but that’s what it does.”

Kayla looked pleased. “It means you should take me with you. Amethyst’s my birthstone. I was born in February. I’m an Aquarius. Aquarians are highly adaptable. They get along with everyone.”

Alex made a sound in his throat that suggested he didn’t agree with this statement.

“Everyone,” Kayla corrected herself, “except fake bitches like Farah Endicott. And my brother, of course.”

Frank let the sack he’d been shouldering fall to the floor. The jingling sound it made as it hit was loud enough to draw the attention of a number of people in the room. “No. She’s not going. They saw her. Or they will have by now, on the film from those cameras at that bloody tomb. It’s too dangerous.”

“They saw all of us,” I reminded him.

“Oh, sweetie,” Kayla purred, wrapping her hands around one of Frank’s heavily tattooed biceps. “It’s so sexy when you get brutish and protective. Even though it won’t do any good, because I’m going. We may be in the Underworld, but I’m pretty sure this is still a free country. Or under one, anyway. You can’t tell me what to do.”

Mr. Graves’s face had gone almost as purple as my stone. “Frank. What is in that bag?”

Frank shrugged his arm from Kayla’s grip in order to reach defensively for his sack. “Just a few weapons we might need if we run into trouble, and some gold coins for bribes, of course —”

The surgeon threw an aggrieved look in my direction, as if to say, This is the team you’ve chosen to save us?

I didn’t entirely disagree with his opinion on the matter. Taking Frank instead of Mr. Liu — who was adding wood to the fire he’d started in the hearth, hoping it would help warm the shivering dead — had been a tough decision.

But what other choice could I have made? The worsening storm outside had forced us to give shelter to hundreds of discontented, hungry people, resulting in a growing storm inside. I needed to leave someone strong behind with this rabble, someone who could manage them but who also wasn’t a hothead, someone who would keep them safe while also showing them compassion. Already we’d had to banish the man in khaki pants who’d kept insisting to me that he was on the wrong dock, because he’d sidled up to Chloe and done or said something that had caused her to scream, startling Mrs. Engle so badly, she’d dropped a tea tray.

She’s my daughter, Khaki Pants had insisted. I can’t believe she’s here. I just wanted to say hello.

Chloe, her eyes wide and frightened, insisted she’d never seen Khaki Pants before.

I understood more than ever why the two sets of passengers had to be kept separate, and also why strong individuals of a certain temperament were needed to ensure that they stayed that way.

I was also finally able to understand how, after nearly two hundred years of dealing with this, John had lost his grip on his humanity, and why, by the time I’d met him, he’d so often behaved like a brute.

It seemed wiser to take Frank and leave Mr. Liu. Kayla, however, was another matter.

Until she said, as I was shouldering my bag and turning to leave, “You know, I left my car parked at the cemetery after I followed you guys there. If the storm’s gotten as bad as everyone says, you’re going to need a ride.”

I didn’t want to endanger anyone’s life except my own. But considering all the warnings I’d received on my phone — and the fact that John wasn’t around to teleport me anywhere — the offer of free transportation that would keep me dry was too good to pass up.

“Fine,” I said to her. “But you’re staying in the car. You’re the driver, that’s it.”

Alex cried out in dismay, even as Kayla let out a happy squeal and began to leap around. Mr. Graves shook his head in disapproval. Reed, still shirtless over at the dining table, raised his hand.

“Excuse me,” he said. “I can drive. Why does she get to be your wheelman and I don’t?”

“Because Miss Rivera isn’t dead,” Mr. Graves snapped. “And you are. If you were to leave the Underworld now for any reason other than to reenter your corpse — which I have no doubt is in a mortuary somewhere, either filled with embalming fluid or cremated to ashes — you’ll lose any chance whatsoever at moving on to what awaits you in the afterlife. That is your choice, of course, but you asked earlier what a revenant is. A revenant is what you’ll be if you choose to walk out that door … doomed forevermore to abide here with us in the Underworld. Is that really what you want, young man?”

Reed put his arm down. “Uh, no. I withdraw the question.”

I was zipping up my tote bag, ready to go, when Henry approached me.

“Miss,” he said, tugging on my skirt.

“Forget it, Henry,” I said. “You’re not coming. We need you here, and not just to bring people tea. You’re the only one who knows where anything is, now that John is … away.”

“No,” he said. “Not that. I have something for you.”

I turned and held out my hand, hoping he wasn’t going to present me with a kiss. If he did, I knew I would