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I am merely a god with no power, a god that this world has no idea they serve.
And it’s fucking cold.
“What do we do?” Hanna asks me, her body starting to shiver the same way mine is. “Do we try to find a way back in through the rocks? Maybe there’s another tunnel.”
I stare at her for a long moment; the wildness of her brown eyes, the furrow in her brow. “Curious,” I say. “How fucking curious.”
“What?” she asks, slightly aghast.
“You would rather turn around and try to find a door so you could take a tunnel straight back into the place you know as Hell instead of taking another step in the world you know as your own.”
She blinks at me as snow starts to fall from the sky, gathering in her hair and on her lashes. “How do we know this is my world? What if it’s another universe?”
“It’s your world, fairy girl. Only one in the universe looks like this.”
A knowing look comes over her face, and she rubs her lips together. “Okay, but we need to get back into Tuonela. We need to find another portal to the Underworld. Maybe not to Inmost, but we need to get back to stop Louhi. You know that if that world descends into chaos, this world does too.”
My Goddess. I don’t think she knows what she’s doing to me, hearing those words from her lips, her devotion to my kingdom,to me. It makes my heart do strange things, swelling and simmering in my chest, like it’s caught on fire, my ribs barely strong enough to contain it.
“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” she asks, her eyes searching mine.
“At the moment, yes,” I tell her, taking her face in my hands. “Luckily, we’re a match made in Amaranthus.”
I kiss her deeply, her lips cold against mine. She shivers again, and while I can’t tell if it’s from the weather or my kiss, I know we need to figure out the next steps.
I pull away. “Since this is your world, I’m leaving you in charge. I was the king there. You are the queen here. I have no idea what to do or what to expect, other than what the movies have taught me. I guess our first mission would be to go to the road. I make a car stop, then we take the driver hostage with our swords and tell him to take us some place where we can buy warm clothes.”
Hanna eyes widen, and she breaks out into a laugh. “You want to take someone hostage? What movies have you been watching? If we do that, we’re going straight to jail. Then what?”
“Will they clothe and feed us in jail?”
“Well, yes, but?—”
“I don’t see the issue. Solves one part of our problem.”
She shakes her head, looking incredulous. I don’t know why; it seems fairly sound to me. Eventually, I’d find a way out of jail, I’m sure of it. That one guy did it with a poster of Rita Hayworth on his wall.
“Tuoni,” she says, using my name like a weapon. “We don’t have money. We need clothes. I think the best thing we can do is hurry down to the house, the one with the fire. I’ll see if I can steal us something to wear and some food.”
“Oh, so you’re against taking hostages, but not stealing?” I snort.
She ignores that. “While I do that, you could check out his vehicle. Maybe he’s got his keys in it. We can take it to the nearest town.”
“Again with the stealing.”
“Borrowing. We’ll return it,” she assures me, her teeth starting to chatter.
There’s no time to keep arguing, not when her lips are turning blue. I take off my vest and slip it over her before I take her arm, noting the swords in her hands and the one that slipped through my pant loops.
“Do you think we need swords in this world?” I ask.
She nods. “I think it’s how we’re going to get our money.”
“By threatening people,” I say with a nod.
“Bysellingthe swords,” she says, exasperated. “Man, you’re lucky I’m here. You wouldn’t last a day before you end up in federal prison.”
“Is that a special prison?”
