Page 26

A throat cleared in the background. “It’s Fyr. I’m here too.”

“It’s a party,” Vlad deadpanned.

“Where. Is. Coco?” the woman demanded again.

“I don’t believe we’ve been introduced yet,” Vlad said. “It wouldn’t do to pass on sensitive information to ne’er-do-wells.” He almost laughed when he heard another growl before the young man jumped in again.

“That’s Benvair Drake, George, Alec, and Coco’s grandmother. She’s quite worried, so perhaps we could table the jokes until later.”

Vlad nodded to himself in the narrow storeroom. “You’re right. That was insensitive of me, given your partner’s twin’s abduction. Please excuse me.” He considered the answer. “I’m afraid I can’t be entirely specific, though. I can tell you that Coco went with Sam, Stheno, and Sam’s great-uncle Bracken into the Underworld to help Meg in some way. No one knows what Meg needs, though, which made planning for this trip a nightmare.”

“Like I said,” Fyr muttered.

“You can’t be serious,” Benvair spat, but Vlad could hear the fear in her voice.

“I’m afraid I am. I believe they entered the Underworld right before sunrise this morning. Given what was then the imminent arrival of the sun, I wasn’t watching, but I saw them begin their journey.”

“Where are you exactly?” Benvair asked. “We’re in the air now.”

“Cape Taenarum,” Vlad told her. “Exactly where is trickier. Clive’s pilot was able to put us down on a small airfield. Instead of a four or five-hour drive from Athens, it was almost two hours, but they had to raid a poor employee for a very old station wagon for us. If you want a big, shiny vehicle to accommodate your very tall passengers, you’ll need to fly into Athens and rent one there. Once you’re on the road, close to the Cape, call me back. You’re going to have to find and drive through a huge boulder in order to enter what Stheno says is the Greece of a few thousand years ago.”

Benvair said, “Fine,” and the call disconnected.

Deciding they’d be calling back on Clive’s phone, Vlad held on to it. A plane full of angry dragons didn’t bode well for him, but, with any luck, they’d be interesting.

Chapter 11

I’LL BE THE JUDGE OF THAT

Staring at the ominous ferryman with his outstretched hand had me preoccupied and I tripped almost at once, faceplanting on the ground.

“What the hell?” Stheno griped.

What the hell was right. I was lying on something, something that just moved. I scrambled up and searched the ground around me. The dead were sitting, standing, walking around—and they were everywhere. Shit. “This is going to be tricky.”

It didn’t take long for the specters to realize I could see and hear them. Many had become almost completely insubstantial over the millennia, but far more than I’d anticipated were reaching out and trying to grab me, to cling to me to get across.

I hated doing this, but I tapped into that golden coil of magic in my chest and projected the word Back. Unfortunately for me, it did nothing. If anything, more had arrived. One whispered in my ear, begging me to take her to her child. Got it. That was the problem. I’d thought in English. Trying one more time, I wrapped a coil of my necromancer magic around my throat and said, “Back.”

The spirits shifted away from me, but did so reluctantly, angrily, sullenly. I got it. They’d been stuck here forever, without an obol to cross. It was heartbreaking.

“Back what?” Stheno asked.

“Oh, is that what she said?” Coco murmured.

I stepped forward cautiously. When no one threw themselves in front of me, I followed the others to the river’s edge. “Sorry. There’s a legion of the dead over here, unable to cross to their loved ones. Their grief is draining me right now. No one let me drown myself in the river, okay?”

Stheno led the way, with Coco and Bracken on either side of me. Could they have done anything against the dead? No, but it was nice that they were trying. When we got to the platform, Stheno took the obols out of her pocket and the spirits rushed me again. Stheno handed each of us two, so we were all responsible for our own return trip. Stheno, Coco, and Bracken handed one coin each to Charon and stepped onboard the simple, flat-bottomed boat.

I, on the other hand, had thousands crowding me, trying to tear my fist open to get at the coins. Charon grabbed my wrist and yanked me on board, allowing me to pay after the fact. Once I had, he waved me toward an empty bench and then lifted his great pole, moved it through the dark water, and stabbed it down, pulling the ferry toward the opposite shore.

“Don’t,” Stheno said.

I glanced up and saw Bracken holding his hand above the water.

“I wasn’t going to touch it,” he told her. “Legend says the river Styx is where the gods swear binding oaths, but it’s more than that, isn’t it? I sense strong emotions coming off the water.”

Stheno watched the far shore get closer with every pull of the ferryman. “It might be coming from what lives below.”