I stand up also, moving next to him. “I don’t care. I’m not going to risk it. If anyone has issues to bring up, it’s me. I don’t owe the council anything.” At least not yet. Maybe in a few years, I’ll feel differently.
Shayne takes my hands and looks me right in the eye. His brown irises are hard around the edges, and the specks of red I love so much dance around inside. “I won’t ever let anything happen to you again. I swear it.”
I try to push aside the memories from earlier, but they persist. “What do we do about Reese?”
“Today, we don’t do anything.”
I shudder, and my eyes flicker upward. “But he’s still out there.”
Shayne hands me my glass. “Now that you’re back, reinforcing the Underworld, he won’t be able to come down here. And it’ll take him a while to figure out how to put out the flames.”
But I shake my head. “He has my mom to help him.”
Shayne takes a sip of wine and licks the wetness off his lips. “For as much as I love you, I could certainly do without your mom.”
I shake my head because my mom’s actions are just too much. “I never would have thought she’d be so extreme.”
“You used to defend her.”
“That was before she sacrificed a phoenix and burned me alive.”
I take a long sip of wine and let it move through me, washing away the final thoughts of Reese from my mind. I know I’ll have to face my mom and Reese and Earth above at some point, but that point isn’t now. I look to the table next to the wall, to the empty pedestal there. “He still has the Helm of Darkness, Shayne.”
Shayne nods, glancing over at the empty table also. “I know. And I’ll deal with that in time. But for now, there are way more important things to think about.”
“Like what?” Though I know what he’s talking about and know it is way more important.
His face is moving close to mine now. I start to take another sip of wine, but he stops the glass, taking it from my hand and setting it back on the table. And then he kisses me until I can’t breathe.
My eyes flash to the wall, to the picture above the table. Death, but so different than Reese’s picture. Death as a beautiful thing. Dominion over the Underworld and peace for souls—at least those not in Tartarus.
I put my hands on his chest, and push him away. “What about the Underworld? Doesn’t it need our attention?”
Shayne shakes his head. “The Underworld can wait.”
Warmness spreads through me when I look at Shayne here in front of me. I am finally home. After eighteen long years, I have finally come back.
“Everything will be fine in the Underworld now…Persephone.”
“I think I’ll go by Piper for a while.”
Shayne smiles, and it makes my stomach flutter. “Piper. It’s perfect.”
Epilogue
Pomegranate
I skate across the River Cocytus and visit the Elysian Fields alone. I’ve spent countless years here when my visits are added together, but I never stay very long each time. The job of Queen of the Underworld requires my devotion—a devotion I look forward to every minute of every day.
I visit Charlotte and Chloe and even Randy. I want to tell Randy that his mother and sister are fine, but to do so would only stir up sorrows he left far behind in Acheron. And besides, though Randy’s father is dead, I can’t guarantee a life of happiness for Randy’s mother and sister. That’s their life to choose. And I’m not queen of the world above. Nor am I Fate.
I stay with Chloe the longest. When she’s not hanging out at the beach parties, she lives in a Japanese garden complete with an arched bridge spanning a pond and goldfish of varying sizes and shapes. Reeds shoot out of the water, rustling when the fish swim through them, and river-washed stones are sprinkled in a bed of sand. Chloe has this whole new Japanese thing down. She rakes the sand and snips tiny limbs off plants, creating works of art in bonsai trees. She’s even started a bonsai contest like the sand sculpture contest, and it’s becoming the new rage in paradise. Everyone talks about it.
Her eyes light up every time I visit, but she never misses me. Never worries. We talk about anything from my psychotic mother to bonsai theory to Hannah Reed’s child. All is fair game with Chloe. And our tattoos remain as solid and black as the day we got them.
One day, I visit for over an hour. She has five new tattoos and is trying to convince me to get another. I tell her maybe next time. I ask her if she’s met Rhadam yet, but she tells me no, he’s always seemed too busy. If I didn’t know Chloe better, I’d guess she’s being shy. One of these times, I’ll have to make sure to introduce them. It would be nice to go on a real double date, even if it is in the Underworld. I tell her again how perfect they’d be together, and then I leave.
I walk through the hills, heading for Shayne’s garden. I haven’t visited it since my return to the Underworld. The pomegranate tree has invaded my dreams. It blossoms when I close my eyes, and then flowers, wilts, and dies all in one night. I watch it over and over again. And I can’t stop it. It’s still dying even with my return to the Underworld—at least this is what happens in my nightmares. I’m afraid that when I visit the valley, my nightmares may be reality. And that maybe I don’t belong here after all. And if this is the truth, I don’t want to know.
Cerberus joins me near the water. He bounds out from behind the falls, and I wonder if there is a secret passageway there I know nothing about. I make a mental note to investigate it later; maybe sometime when Shayne isn’t around. I could find out where it goes and surprise him. Teach him something about the Underworld for once.
I sink to the grass and spend some time scratching Cerberus. He’s in no hurry to see the pomegranate tree. Or he just likes to get his tummy rubbed. Thankfully, though he has three heads, he only has one stomach to scratch. Otherwise, the task could occupy an entire day. But soon, he stands and runs off after a bird—in the exact direction I need to go. Toward the garden and the tree.
I wonder if there really is a bird he’s chasing or whether he’s trying to draw me. Whatever the case, I think I need his enthusiasm to help pull me forward.
The garden is alive with colors, just like the first time Shayne showed it to me. Electric blue tulips blow in a breeze, and indigo jasmine hangs from vines twined around large stone columns. It’s the image I remember. Shayne’s green thumb at work. His hobby. Gardeners on Earth would kill for this kind of skill.
I realize I’ve been holding my breath. The last time I was here, death and sorrow hung in the air. So I lift my nose and breathe in. And the smell of the pomegranate tree comes to me. At the end of the garden, near the back. I walk toward it.
Cerberus is still at my side. At the edge of the garden, we come to the tree. When I reach it, the sadness hits me, still pulsing through the wood of the trunk. It reaches its tendrils to every branch. To every leaf. And it casts an oppressive aura around everything in its shadow.
I take a deep breath and place my hands on the mucus-covered bark. Under my palms, the tree shudders, fighting against the poisoning sorrow within. It searches for a way to staunch the sadness which permeates it. It opens its pores and soaks in my energy. It gropes for something to make it whole again. And then the pomegranate tree recognizes me, and its searching stops.
A Glossary of Terms: Names & Places From SOLSTICE
GLOBAL WARMING—the increase in the average temperature of Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation
GLOBAL HEATING CRISIS (GHC)—the official name of the global warming disaster in the
