Page 122 of The Unseen Hour

“I don’t think it’s going to disappear. It may belong to a god, but it’s not a god,” Ry reminded me for perhaps the thousandth time.

“Do you want to take a look at it?”

He shook his head.

“Death wanted you to keep it. And we know it’s powerful. That melody … it was irresistible.”

My mind went back to our actions in Charon’s piano room. Utterly shameless, and I didn’t regret one second.

“Do you think the music influenced our actions, somehow? Similar to how the Shade song affects people during the hour?”

“Shade song brings people to their death. This sheet music doesn’t do that. But I can’t deny that I felt something. Would you sing again? Your voice is beautiful.”

“Not as much as yours,” I countered.

“That’s only because I have Shade-enhancement. Yours was entrancing when you were humming to the first song you played, not just the one Charon wrote.”

“I was humming?” I hadn’t even noticed. “My piano skills are better than my voice.”

I was speaking from accuracy and not some ridiculous sense of self-deprecation.

“One song? Would it help if I told you that I’ll have the new book ready for you before the hour?”

How could I refuse that promise?

Instead of Charon’s Shade song, or the first piece I’d played in the god’s home, I decided on a another classical piece from Emrys. I’d always enjoyed it. It was from a theater production where a man fell in love with a beautiful woman he saw in his garden. He thought she was a ghost, because he only saw her walking through the plants and singing at night.

In the play, it turned out she was the princess of a lost kingdom. At the end, the two marry and he joins her in her land. That last bit had always appealed to me, but it was the song she sang walking through his gardens that I chose. It was one of loss, but also longing.

My own voice wasn’t as high as the original, but I changed the song’s key and managed to make my way through. At the end, there was a high note the piece called for, but I chose to go an octave lower.

When I’d finished I looked over to see Orion’s reaction, but he was no longer next to me. I spun, searching for him and finding him frozen a few feet behind me.

“Stunning,” he gasped. “I’ve never heard anything as breathtaking.”

I laughed.

“Now I know you are flattering me. My voice is good, but it certainly wouldn’t stop a man in his tracks, or bring him to his knees.”

Orion dropped, shuffling over on his knees, the look of awe replaced by a wicked grin.

“Oh, wouldn’t it?”

I laughed, swatting at him.

“You are impossible!”

“No, I am enraptured.” He reached out, grabbing my hand and planting a kiss on it. Then he stood and began trailing kisses up my arm. “And as for enjoying our last few months here, I think I know just what to do when we return home.”

CHAPTER 49

My father was nowhere to be found on our way back to the cottage. I swung back and forth between anticipation of our possible victory and regret that I still hadn’t found him. Along with worry at what that could mean.

What if Charon had him? Not free, like Orion, but kept somewhere in that house? What if we’d missed him?

The thoughts chased themselves round and round in my head, but I wasn’t going to let them keep me from the rest of our mission.

We’d kept close to the cottage for days, but then Orion had gone to check the Shades.