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“I don’t know. Gaia just said, Find the sister of the one you love and take her to Acheron, the River of Sorrows, and she said I’d know what to do when I arrived.”
“So, what do we do?” I ask.
Hawthorne says, reaching for my hand. “There’s a place here that shows you your deepest sorrow from Earth.”
“Shit,” Lennox says. “Not interested.”
“How is that going to help us get out of here?” South asks.
Nodding in agreement, I toss more fuel to the fire. “And how do you know this anyway, Hawthorne?”
Eric groans at all of us, once again annoyance is written on his face. “We have to focus; do you get that?”
“Sorry,” I say, feeling the sting of his reprimands.
“Do you four always bicker like this?”
I look at my best friends, twisting my lips. We all hide a smile, because the truth is, we do love to argue, and none of it hurts. The way we speak to each other is just in the spirit of friendship, of love.
“It’s kind of our mode of operation,” South admits.
“Well, you need to get over it if you want this group thing to work out long-term.”
“Oh yeah?” Lennox asks. “What do you mean?”
“Well, aren’t you guys, like, a family?”
I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, mud squishing between my toes. The guys are sweaty after all the rowing, not to mention the fact we are fading in new ways as the hours pass.
“We’re a family, for however long we have left,” I say. And South, Lennox, and Hawthorne nod in agreement. “What are we waiting for?” I ask. “Aren’t we supposed to be finding passage out?”
Eric nods. “I just don’t know where that might be.”
“If this Mother-Earth-whatever-thing said you’d know you should look around,” I prompt.
Eric runs a hand through his thick black hair. “Right.” He eyes the river bank, the boat. The swampy land beyond -- it is like a never-ending marsh, damp and dank as far as the eye can see. “I know water more than land,” he says finally walking back into the river.
“Careful,” Lennox warns. “There is something living in that water. Don’t you hear the moans?”
Eric creases his eyebrows. “Things grow in all water.”
“Right.” Lennox gives him a tight smile. “I just don’t want you to drown.”
Again, Eric looks at us like we are fools. And maybe we are.
We’re barely educated, I can only read since Lennox taught me when he arrived, and the only books we find are whatever happens to have made its way through death. I guess South is the smartest, but as a unit, we aren’t exactly scholars. We are survivors. We went to the school of hard knocks.
Eric walks into the water, sinking down to his knees, cupping the water in his hand. “Harlow is a siren,” he says speaking in a slow steady voice that draws me toward him. There is something connecting us that I can’t deny. Don’t want to deny.
“What do you mean a siren?”
“She shifts from woman to creature of the sea.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s Poseidon’s daughter, I suppose.” He splashes the water on his face, unafraid. “And you are Hades’ daughter, that’s why you’re here but aren’t dead, right?”
Nodding, I sink down next to him in the water, feeling a pull toward the river as well. I sense Lennox, South, and Hawthorne coming close behind me, but I don’t turn. My eyes are fixed on the water, on Eric’s words.
“Hear me out,” he says. “It’s just a theory. Harlow’s dad found her when she turned twenty-one after she put on a magic ring. It drew him to her.”
I how him the only hand I have left. “I don’t have a ring.”
“I see that. But the thing is… maybe you are supposed to be hidden from Hades. To stay safe? Maybe that’s why you are here.”
I swallow, looking over my shoulder at my best friends. “I don’t want to stay here forever, alone.”
Lennox, Hawthorne, and South join us in the water which, surprisingly, is less chilly when sitting in the water than it was when we stood.
“I should go to him,” I say, speaking and thinking at the same time. “I should go to him and find the truth.”
“No,” Eric says adamant, shaking his head. “That’s what Harlow did, and it killed me and almost destroyed her. Poseidon was evil, wanted to hurt her. And I guess you are a half-sister, different fathers, but the same principle seems to apply, right? These fathers aren’t any good. They are set to ruin their daughters.”
Again, I’m feeling overwhelmed with information. “What are we even doing here?” I shout. “Why would Gaia want us at the River of Sorrow? Why wouldn’t she explain more?”
“She seems weak,” Eric says. “Impossibly frail.”
“And why do you trust her anyway?” I shoot back. “What if she’s on a mission to hurt us too?”
