wonder if I can believe my mom.” I flip the oyster shell over with my other hand, studying the pearly gray of the inside. It’s reflecting a thousand different colors, and I wish I could keep it forever. Keep part of the Underworld forever.
Shayne smiles and reaches up to my cheek. “Sometimes you shouldn’t believe her.”
I know he’s right. But still, it’s not like I want to hear him say it. She’s my mom. My problem.
He starts walking, still holding my hand. “What do you think of the house?” he asks.
I look up to where he’s pointing and try to make sense of what I see there. “Is it really a house?”
I guess in the most technical sense of the word, it is a structure. There are four walls, a roof, and probably a hundred windows, but none of them touches. Each piece floats in the air of its own accord.
“Rhadam is a bit unusual.”
This turns out to be a huge understatement. Rhadamanthus looks like a knight getting ready for a jousting competition. It’s not just the leather pants and undershirt he’s wearing. It’s the fact that when we walk into the atrium of his home, he has a sword in each hand and is fighting off two invisible opponents.
“I’ll take your spleen this time.” Thrust. He whips around, his long brown hair flying. “You think you can sneak up behind me.” Stab. Back around. “The spleen wasn’t enough? You’ve come back for more.” Thrust.
It’s like he’s totally unaware of our presence. Shayne clears his throat, but it doesn’t help.
“Your head comes off this time.” Swipe.
I can almost see a head rolling away into the corner of the atrium. Turn. Kick. Thrust. Twist.
“Is he fighting anyone?” I whisper to Shayne, wondering if there are actually ghosts he’s battling or something else invisible to me.
Shayne shakes his head. “Rhadam just has a really good imagination.” He clears his throat again.
Still nothing. “You can join your companion.” Swipe. And I can almost see the head flying through the air, landing with a thud next to the other one.
Maybe I just have a really good imagination, also.
Only when both invisible opponents are defeated does Rhadam turn around and smile at us.
“I hope you came to fight. It’s impossible to find good competition these days.” Rhadam’s face cracks into a grin that makes it obvious he does a lot more smiling that frowning. And he looks like he lives life exactly how he wants to, kind of like Chloe. She’d go nuts over him. I can almost picture them together.
Shayne—or Hades, I have to keep reminding myself—lets go of my hand and walks over to Rhadam, where they do some handshake thing that makes me think they’re trying to kill each other.
“No fighting today,” Shayne says.
“Scared?” Rhadam asks.
“Please. If I kill you, who am I going to get to watch over Elysium for me?” Shayne punches Rhadam in the shoulder, but he’s so solid he hardly moves.
Rhadam punches Shayne back. “And if I killed you, I’d have to take your place ruling the Underworld.” His eyes flash over my way, and he smiles. “But maybe that’s not a bad thing. The Underworld seems to have nice spoils.”
Blood rushes to my face, and I know I’m turning seventeen different shades of red. I smile back, hoping I don’t look like too much of an idiot in front of Shayne’s best friend.
Shayne purses his lips. “Spoils. I like that.” He walks back to me and takes my hand, leading me over to Rhadam. “This is Piper.”
Rhadam lifts my hand to his mouth and kisses the back of it which, even though I’m sure I’m already at the stage of infinite red, still makes me blush deeper. “You’re even prettier than Hades said.”
I look at Shayne. He rolls his eyes and looks away, so I turn back to Rhadam.
“He’s mentioned me?”
Rhadam laughs. “Gods, he hasn’t talked about anything else all week. It’s been ‘Piper this’ and ’Piper that.’ I feel like I’ve already met you twenty times over.”
My eyes flicker back over to Shayne. It’s his turn to be embarrassed. I can’t resist. “I had no idea the Lord of the Underworld could blush.” But the mere fact that he’s been talking about me this week to his best friend is making my stomach flip around in all sorts of ways I never thought possible.
Shayne clears his throat and gives Rhadam the evil eye. “Rhadam may be exaggerating just a bit.”
Rhadam takes my hand away from Shayne’s. “Trust me, I’m not exaggerating.” And he starts walking with me following at his side.
I look at Shayne who, though still bright red, winks and follows on after us.
Rhadam leads us out of the atrium and into the house. With the structure of the house, we slip between where walls should join, move through doors that don’t come close to shutting, and walk up onto the roof on individual stairs that don’t connect.
“I moved the house because of the view.” He motions out to the river which now looks like it has waves big enough to capsize the Titanic. But behind the ocean, like a giant monolith, a glacier fills the horizon. It’s blue and green and white, and the suns above reflect off it, making it look almost neon. It’s so much ice all in one place and like nothing I’ve ever seen on Earth.
“I don’t blame you.” Shayne stands next to me, so close our legs touch. He takes my other hand, leaving me standing between him and Rhadam. Shayne gives the hand Rhadam still holds a suspicious look, and Rhadam lets go of it.
“The ice,” I say. “There’s so much of it.”
Shayne traces his thumb along the back of my hand. “Sometime we should visit the polar caps.”
I love that this implies there will be more of
“Good,” Shayne says.
Rhadam clears his throat. “Of course. I’d love to come. Thanks for asking.”
“You can leave?” I ask.
He sighs. “No, not really. It’s one of the funny things about paradise. I can’t ever leave, but whatever I want, I get.” He glances away from the glacier and turns back toward the beach, but instead of being up high, we’re again on ground level. We leave the house and start walking back in the direction of the beach party.
“So how did you die?” Rhadam asks.
It takes a second for his words to make sense. I look down at myself to make sure I’m all still there. “I’m not dead.”
Rhadam laughs, and I realize he’s joking. “Don’t worry. You don’t look dead. You don’t even smell dead.”
It makes me wonder how dead people in the Underworld smell. I haven’t noticed anything, but then again, I’m not sure I’d know what to smell for.
Rhadam purses his lips and then looks to Shayne. “It’s too bad, you know. You should do something about it.”
It’s like Shayne is actually considering it. But then he replies. “I’m not sure that’s the best way to win a girl’s heart.”
“Definitely not,” I say. Though he’s already got the heart part under control.
As we walk, people fill in again until the beach party is back in full swing. Shayne is like a rock star. People rush up to him constantly, telling him how happy they are here in paradise and how their only wish is that he would visit more often. He glances at me out of the corner of his eye as if to apologize, but he doesn’t push them away. In fact, he lets go of my hand so he can have more space.
I’m fighting stabs of jealousy because so many of the girls are gorgeous when Rhadam leans over and whispers in my ear. “They love him here.”
I smile and pretend I’m totally fine with all the attention Shayne is giving them in return. “I can tell.” I can’t help but wonder if that’s how Chloe would act if she were here, all fawning over him and stuff, but I push the thought aside since Chloe will not be here.
As we walk, I decide to ask Rhadam everything I want to know about paradise. Like where people live and if they get married and do they have to work. He tells me about how people fall in love all over again and how weddings are held barefoot on the beach and how everyone has some purpose for his or her existence, whether it’s constructing sand sculptures or trying to get their golf swing just right. He talks about friendships that bond
