“I suppose that is also fair,” I agreed in a sensual echo.
“Are you ready, then, to return from the Underworld? This is considered an achievement worthy of heroes, you know.”
“I’m honored,” I said cheerfully, my nervous excitement permeating my voice. “Yes, I’m ready. Let’s go!”
Thanatos grinned at my enthusiasm. “Let me carry you, then.” When I nodded, he swept me off my feet and brought me effortlessly to the edge of the balcony, near the railing. There, he paused shortly. “Do not be afraid, for I will take care of you. And do not close your eyes, if you can help it.”
“Okay.” I cinched my arms around his neck and nodded again when I felt secure. “Ready.”
Thanatos fanned out his wings, and the floor fell away from our feet. I squeezed my eyes shut instinctively, holding ina squeal, but I remembered to force them open again once I’d mostly acclimated to the wild sensation of my flipping stomach. I could see no ground beneath us now; there was no floor to the world. We rose swiftly through great mists of Underworld air, each tiny shimmer passing by too quickly to measure.
I clung tightly to Thanatos as he flew us higher and higher, speeding toward the edge of Hades’ realm, whereupbecameacross. There, we breached the divide.
The air’s faint illumination disappeared from around us in a startling instant. Total darkness pressed in on all sides, only to be shattered again by the brightness of glorious rainbows. For the span of a few blinks I could see only patterns of brilliant color: perfect, vibrant colors the likes of which I’d never seen, and I became briefly convinced that the answer to every mystery of life was hiding inside the shapes of them.
I couldn’t even try to wrap my mind around it before I was smacked by the darkness again, and my existential thoughts fell away as quickly as they’d come. Then, finally, I saw evening sky: spinning, stabilizing, stopping. The horizon appeared below, bringing with it the land and the trees, their leafy tips approaching as we descended through the sky of the living.
Our descent slowed as we neared the floor of an unfamiliar forest. Thanatos caught my eyes and grinned at me, apparently finding great amusement in the intense expression my face had made. “Fun, isn’t it?” He gave me a playful squeeze.
I delayed any comments until his feet reached the brush-covered earth. “Dear gods,” I groaned on landing. “I’m…I’m going to need to catch my breath.” I stumbled over to a nearby tree trunk as soon as he set me down, leaning against it for support.
“How do you feel?” he asked worriedly. “Just breathe.” That advice wasn’t incredibly helpful, but luckily I managed to collect myself on my own.
“Oh, man. I think I’m alright now, but that was…weird.”
“But fun, right?”
“I—you know, I’m not sure,” I reported, gasping. “Well, I guess I can take another stab at it on the way back.” I shook off most of my windedness and returned to him while I spoke, smiling when he took my hands. “Come on. Let’s go back to the garden one last time.”
Thanatos squeezed my hands and brought us there with a flick of his wings. One moment, we were standing among the forest trees; the next, we appeared in the gardens of the temple at Halieis, right beside the stone bench where we first used to meet.
“She’s there!” came a sharp yell from nearby, followed by a much softer “Oops.” My three sisters stumbled out from behind the trunk of the towering oak tree, having clearly waited there a while.
“Oh my gods. Cyrie!” squeaked Alex in a frantic whisper. Before I had a chance to respond, Sophie sprang forward and hugged me ruthlessly, incentivizing the others to join in as well. I was quickly smothered by excessively worried priestesses. I endured their squeezing patiently, remembering that yesterday had surely been horrible for them to endure. I bore the guilt for that.
“Leon was telling everyone you were dead!” Sophie said, right on cue. “He said he was totally certain of it!”
“I’m okay,” I squeaked out through the constriction of the group hug. “It’s okay—just let me explain!”
They released me with obedient anticipation, and I took a nervous breath. “Um…well, Thanatos probably told you what happened last night, but…this is almost unbelievable, so I understand that you need to hear it from me. The thing is, Leon was right. Ididdie while I was trying to help him. Whichworked, as you all can see,” I added defensively.
When nobody dared to speak a word of comment, I swallowed hard and let out the truth. “Thanatos saved me. He was supposed to end me, but he broke nature instead.” A grin spread across my face as I said it, what sounded ridiculous but was somehow real. “He put my soul back and got Hades to make me immortal.”
“What the fuck?” exclaimed Zoe, too loudly. Sophie made a noise I’d never heard before.
I turned and raised a brow at Thanatos. “You didn’t get to that part, did you?”
“I mean…I told them you were alive,” he stammered, “and that I had you with me. Really, how was I supposed to say these things?”
Though I shot him an expression of teasing disapproval, I accepted that revealing it this way was probably best for all of us. It wasmyperspective that they needed to hear. I looked back to my sisters, one at a time, each directly into her eyes.
“Well…” My voice faltered, and I tried again. “I’m…it was difficult to comprehend for me, too. But it’s true: I’m immortal. I’ve been to the Underworld and back.” I glanced anxiously at Thanatos again, needing his reassurance. He came to my side and acknowledged my tale with a nod.
“It is true. I have defied myself, just this once. Do not imagine that I will ever do so again.”
“So…um, now I’m going to return with him,” I continued. “I mean, I’m going to live in the Underworld, where we can be together. It’s really quite nice down there. So…I think…really, it would be for the best if everyone around here just believes Leon about how I died.”
A heavy silence hung in the garden air as I finished my tale. Alex shifted on her feet. Her brown eyes, usually so readable for me, were flooded with emotions that I couldn’tdistinguish. Zoe and Sophie shared a glance, then returned to scrutinizing Thanatos and me.
