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“I was dying, and you stole a watch from me?” My lip curled in a sneer.
“To be fair, it wasn’t yours to start with.”
I wanted to be angry, but honestly I was kind of awed by his dedication to hanging on to the things he took from people, including thefts he’d made me complicit in. If he could apply that level of motivation to getting us out of here, we actually stood a chance.
Charon, unfortunately, was not wowed by the watch. “Time? You give the eternal man the gift of time?” His nose wrinkled up, and he waved the Rolex away. “I wouldn’t row you to a shallow watery grave for the cost of that thing.” He snorted and to himself muttered, “They offer me time.”
Okay, so the watches were out, which cut back on most of Leo’s treasury.
I was really regretting making him return that nurse’s bracelet right about now.
“What else do you have?” I was desperate. I had no jewelry of my own to offer, and my wallet was in my bag, which was still among the items Cade had brought with him from Shreveport. There was nothing I could give Charon, save my jacket, and I doubted he was a big fan of women’s leather apparel.
Or maybe he was. I wouldn’t judge if that was his thing.
I did have the cash the frat boy had given me. I rifled through my pockets and withdrew the rumpled twenties, holding them out to Charon hopefully. The boatman sneered. “I say no to time, and she offers me paper? What am I to do with boring green paper in a world on fire?”
So coinage was awesome, but paper money wo
rth a hundred times more was no bueno?
Leo dug deeper in his pockets and withdrew a gold necklace chain with an elegant diamond pendant. I bit my lip, not wanting to ask where or how he’d come across something like that. Leo held it out to Charon for the boatman’s approval.
Charon took the chain and raised the pendant to eye level. The diamond glinted like trapped flame under the storm overhead. His wispy smoke beard curled around his chin and showed me glimpses of his skeleton smile. I shivered involuntarily in spite of the stifling heat.
“This is pleasing. You may come.” He nodded to Leo and swept his arm to the side of the boat in an inviting gesture, not unlike a game-show girl fawning over a new car.
It clicked after a second he was only speaking to Leo.
“Wait, that was for both of us,” I insisted.
Charon waved the chain at me, light bouncing off the gem. “I see one item and two travelers. Charon is no fool, mortal. No one rides for free.”
“You’re not exactly doing tours of the Amazon here. Crossing the Styx isn’t my idea of a good time.”
“Perhaps you would like to swim.” He slipped the necklace into an unseen pocket, gone forever.
I would not like to swim.
The thick surface of the river was black, and steam rose from each sticky, oozing bubble. I didn’t think I’d be able to dip a toe in safely, let alone swim to the other side with all my skin intact. I recalled what Dr. Shea had told me, contemplating the river and wondering if the same black tar was what held my lung together. Wouldn’t that be something?
Leo glanced at me helplessly, evidently out of both goodies and ideas.
“What about that?” Charon pointed to the bracelet on Leo’s wrist, his eyes demented in their excitement.
Leo automatically went to take the bracelet off. I admired his immediate willingness to pay whatever price necessary for my passage, but I clapped my hand over his, stopping him before he could unclasp the silver chain.
“No.”
Charon’s brows—smoky lines like fog caterpillars—rose so suddenly they almost blew off his face. “No? Mortal girl, it is not for you to say no.”
I knew I was only making the bracelet more appealing by forbidding him to have it, but my answer wasn’t going to change. If Leo made it across, even without me, he was going to need that bracelet before his time here was done. No way in hell—pardon the pun—was Charon getting Badb’s trinket.
“That’s not up for debate. Ask for something else.”
“I want the bracelet.”
“No.”
