So that secret fantasy I had of Hadrian's house tour including sex in each and every room in his home?
Already forgotten.
And the realization that Mira's laboratory being inside the manor could also mean we were housemates?
A matter of discussion, I told myself. Tonight, I'd ask Hadrian about it, he'd explain, I'd show him why it wouldn't work, and he'd see it my way. That's how discussions worked.
But all of that aside...
I deliberately slowed down a bit, and as Hadrian automatically matched my pace, I waited until there was a proper amount of distance between Mira and us before saying hesitantly, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but...I kinda imagined you'd have more people around." The place was beautiful...but gigantic, and the upkeep of it had to be just as gigantic. But so far, we had yet to encounter a single soul, living or not.
"There usually is," Hadrian agreed, "but when the Underworld is on lockdown, our SOP includes making the manor and its grounds off limits to visitors."
"So that leaves..."
"You and me, Gaea and Cronos, our personal security, and the rest of the live-in staff—-"
"Back up a bit," I blurted out. "Did you just say...Gaea and Cronos?"
Hadrian looked at me warily. "If you say you know them from Hercules..."
I rolled my eyes. "No, I don't actually, but even if I did, I don't see anything wrong with that."
"I beg to differ," Hadrian muttered under his breath.
Pretending not to hear anything, I asked, "So Gaea and Cronos...it's really them?"
"Is there a right or wrong answer to this?" Hadrian's tone had become rather careful, and I wondered if it was because he was worried his next words would have me throwing a menopausal fit.
And honestly, who knew?
"How exactly are you guys related?"
"We're their direct descendants."
Sheesh. It was amusing and exasperating at the same time, with how terribly casual he was when dropping facts like that. You'd imagine a Greek god like him to be beautiful, sexy, and lofty, but Hadrian, well, he was beautiful, sexy...and not lofty.
And as for the two other immortals...
Cronos was the god of time and Gaea the goddess of the freaking planet, and if Hadrian was their direct descendant...
"Does that make them your grandparents?"
Hadrian shrugged. "I guess."
Gaaaah.
His grandparents were Cronos and Gaea, and he was still being so casual that I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or kiss him because he was being too exasperatingly cute for words.
"Do you think they'll like me?" I asked nervously.
"It doesn't matter if they do or don't. You're married to me, not them."
"That doesn't—-" Mira called to us then, and I forced myself to stop speaking. LOTUS, I reminded myself. We could discuss this later, but for now we had Mira's problem to take care of.
Hadrian's so-called distant cousin was waiting for us in front of a vine-colored wall, and she started singing the moment we reached her. At first I thought she was just showing off, which of course begged the question: how did she know that I couldn't carry a melody to save my life?
But then I saw the vines start to crawl, and I realized this wasn't about Mira poised to win next season's The Voice Factor. Apparently, that was some kind of chanting spell I heard, and as the vines receded from view, the door hidden underneath it was gradually revealed.
Terribly cool, but no way was I going to tell her that.
Inside, Mira's workplace looked a lot like Dr. Ace's lab. Or any other scientific facility for that matter. Specimen bottles kept behind glass cabinets and air-conditioning that made me feel like I had been thrown back into the Ice Age. Dissection tables on one side, a complicated set up of chemical apparatuses on another...
Huh.
Since the deification process was a gradual thing, Dr. Ace had advised me to expect my senses to heighten by increments as well. That had been the case back in the human world, but here in the Underworld, it seemed to have grown by leaps and bounds.
Like earlier, with how I had heard Mira's footsteps, and now...this.
I took another sniff, just to be sure.
Definitely floral.
A rather interesting scent, considering I couldn't see any botanical samples around.
"Your workplace smells really good, Mira." My tone was all casual, but to my surprise, it had Hadrian's so-called distant cousin paling, with her face now whiter than her lab coat.
Oh no.
Did that mean what I think it meant?
Was the floral scent I detected her perfume, and she had been using it to seduce Hadrian or maybe it could even be some kind of love potion—-
"I'm sorry, Hades."
I knew it! Oh my God, I knew it!
"One of the SR-41 vials was stolen. I've been wracking my brain, trying to think of how the thief got in, and now..."
"Echo's spell," Hadrian said grimly.
"Exactly."
Don't you hate it when the guy you love and the girl you hate started speaking in a language you didn't understand? And don't you hate it more when they did it in English?
LOTUS, I reminded myself even as I had this childish urge to stick my tongue out at both of them. I mustn't act without dignity, ever. And so I forced myself to smile as I said, "ELI5, please."
Hadrian and Mira both looked puzzled, and it kinda made me feel smug. Finally. Now they knew how I felt.
"What does ELI5 mean?" Hadrian asked finally.
I grinned at him. "Explain like I'm five, duh."
Hadrian laughed, and Mira stared at him incredulously. "You're only being polite and considerate to your consort, yes? That truly could not have been funny for you."
"It was, actually," Hadrian said without a qualm, and oh God, but he just gave me another reason right there to fall in love with him.
"But it's beneath you to even laugh at such a thing." Mira sounded bewildered and offended, and a tiny gasp involuntarily escaped me as I finally realized what kind of stick she had up in her butt all this time.
Mira didn't dislike me because she was hoping to fill my shoes as Hadrian's new wife. Rather, she disliked me because she didn't think I had the right pedigree as LOTUS.
"Saoirse?" Hadrian's sharp tone startled me out of my rather blissful state of enlightenment. "Are you alright?"
"Totes." I meant it. Mira as a distant cousin whose approval I needed to win was so much better than Mira the distant cousin who had the hots for my boyfriend, and so when I saw her lip start to curl up again—-
"I beg your pardon," I said in my best Queen Elizabeth voice and gave Hadrian a regal nod. "What I intended to say was yes, I'm alright."
The Lord of the Underworld was now staring at me like I had started growing eyes all over my face in hopes of being the next Cyclops. "Seriously," he said finally. "Are you okay? Is it your—-"
I glared at him. If he dared, oh if he dared breathe a single word about my big M in front of Mira...
But thankfully, my boyfriend was anything but dense, and he said right away, "On second thought, you do look fine, love. And as for what you were asking about earlier..."