Oh.
The warning look in his eyes said everything.
He had heard it, too, and the realization turned my body rigid.
Dazzled as I was by the beauty of the In Between, it had been easy to think of Zeus and his killer thunderbolts as nothing but a distant memory. I should've known better, though. Just like Hadrian said, trouble seemed to find me no matter where I was—-
There it was again!
Hadrian swiftly placed me behind him as the footsteps we heard came closer and closer and closer—-
Too close, I thought, that whoever it was should be visible now.
I tiptoed to peek over Hadrian's broad shoulders, just in time to see a raven-haired beauty in a lab coat running towards us.
She saw us at the same time, and a strange mix of emotions crossed over her face—-
Shock.
Fear.
Frustration.
And then...
Nothing.
All of those in a nanosecond, none of it making sense, that when she finally reached us, I had convinced myself menopause had me imagining things.
"What took you so long?"
I was stunned and outraged. Who the heck was this witch, talking to Hadrian like he didn't have his girlfriend right next to him?
When she reached us, I was all ready for a verbal showdown, until I realized...
Oh.
Why was she glaring...at me?
"You two should have been here ages ago!"
Two as in...Hadrian and me?
Color me confused all of a sudden, but when I glanced up at Hadrian, he looked more grim than surprised, and when he finally spoke, the cold disapproval in his tone was something I had never heard him use.
"What are you doing out here, Mira?"
"Waiting." Annoyingly Beautiful Chick Mira lifted her chin in what seemed like cool defiance.
"We're supposed to be on lockdown—-"
"Until Zeus regains his sanity?" she scoffed. "Unlike most people, Iris isn't my only source for news, and it's not like you didn't really expect this. We've known each other for centuries, Hades. Surely you know by now it's never been my style to wait?" She was turning to me as she spoke, and the moment I saw her lip curl up—-
Huh.
This girl despised me.
She was just looking at me now, not saying a word, and even though the mature part of me groaned and begged me to remember (and act) my age...it's not like I was myself right now. I had menopause. It was normal for women with the Big M to be a little bitchy...and so I heard myself gush, "Wow!" I let my eyes go wide. "Did I hear you right? You've known Hadrian for centuries? That's amazing. You look so young, for someone so elderly."
Hadrian started coughing, and I had a hard time holding my own smile back as Ancient Antagonist went red in the face.
"Before I completely forget my manners..." My boyfriend had finally decided to run interference, which was a shame, since things had just gotten interesting. "This is Mira, milady. She's a distant cousin of mine. And Mira, this is Saoirse, my soon-to-be wife."
The woman inclined her head in the barest minimum for a bow. "Milady."
"Milady." I saw her lip curl, and I let my lip curl right back at her even as my mind continued reeling.
Cousin?
This stuck-up señorita was his distant cousin?
Did that mean they could marry if they wanted to?
I was dying to ask Hadrian this, but he was already talking to Mira. "I trust you have a valid reason for defying my orders?" His tone was exceptionally mild, but this made him sound more terrifying somehow, and I could see by the way Mira slightly paled she was similarly affected.
"I didn't mean to defy your orders, Hades." Her voice, no longer cool or defiant, was now quiet and humble. "I only didn't want to waste a single second. I need a sample of milady's blood—-"
My brows shot up. Oooookay. If she was planning to curse me, at least she was being up front about it. Props for that at least.
"I know everyone on the surface is scrambling to find a cure," Mira continued, "but I believe we should work on an alternative. We know for a fact that Zeus had bespelled his thunderbolts to target anyone who's living. Humans. Witches. Supernaturals. Anyone who breathes is a target while ghosts..."
Oh.
I could see where she was leading, and I was intrigued and cautiously hopeful.
"Naturally, its effect would only be temporary. Milady's blood is one of a kind, and I believe there's a way we can create something with it that would make Zeus's thunderbolts stop targeting us—-"
"Like an insect repellent?" I guessed.
"I was thinking more along the lines of cloaking agent," Mira said politely, "but yes, I believe that's more appropriate, milady."
And just like that we were archenemies again, and even worse this time was how Hadrian had started coughing...at my expense. I knew I more or less asked for that one, but he didn't have to find it amusing, too.
Whatever.
I turned to Mira, determined to take the higher road as LOTUS. "How do I give you—-"
She grabbed my hand, and before I knew what was happening, Mira had already used her nail - oh my God, she used her nail!!! - to prick my finger and catch several drops of my blood in a vial.
Chapter Four
The last time I was about to step foot into the Underworld, a scroll-bearing messenger had appeared out of nowhere and told us that the Olympian High Court deemed my ascension to the throne as unlawful.
And at first, I had thought they were against me because we weren't married yet.
Or that I was Catholic while Hadrian was...Greek.
But long story short, it was none of those.
As things turned out, only a woman with living flesh could apparently become Hadrian's queen, and since I was a ghost at that time...
Anyway.
Stuff happened, and I was now recognized by everyone as the new LOTUS, and oh man...
Orange was so totally the new black, and Underworld the new Paradise!
The memory of Mira's rather barbaric approach to blood extraction was all but forgotten as we finally reached the top of the hill, and I could behold the entire realm in all of its glory. Under mesmerizing (and slightly terrifying, if I were being honest) skies of floating molten lava, there were grassy meadows, cliffs crowned with wildflowers, and farther back was a foggy region that I couldn't see past.
I was mesmerized and enchanted, and Hadrian's lips curved in a smile. "I'm glad you like the look of it."
"What's that?" I gestured to the thick fog that seemed to swallow the far end of his realm.
"Beyond it is Tartarus."
"Oh." That was not a nice place, let's put it at that. "Um..." I pointed to the skies. "How does that work?"
"Humans call it the core of the earth," Hadrian murmured. "The truth's a little bit more complicated than that, but it should give you an idea of how far below we are."
I almost made a face. Menopause, I nearly reminded him. Menopause made me prone to anxiety attacks 24/7, and those words of his just made me feel rather claustrophobic.
"The skies never change color," Hadrian was now telling me, "and it's never cold here either."
"More like room temp," I realized with surprise, now that he mentioned it.