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Hades’ was not.
He didn’t speak, though, just sat slumped and bored-looking, watching as I made my way toward him.Limpedmy way toward him, rather.
Before I could get to the front of the room, to plead my case to the King of the Underworld, a group of tittering souls to the left of the dais scattered, and I froze.
There he was.
I thought I’d be hunting forever to find Bullet, but he was standing right in front of me, observing his surroundings with that air of curiosity that was so typical of Bullet, but itwasn’ttypical Bullet at the same time. There was none of the amusement he usually carried around with him, no mischievous grin, no twinkling eyes… It washim, but it wasn’t.
Was I too late?
“Bullet?” I called hesitantly, taking a step towards him.
He blinked at me in surprise, but not recognition. My heart sank into the depths of the underworld.
“Bullet?” he repeated, frowning slightly to himself. “Bullet, Bullet, Bullet…”
He rolled the name around his mouth like he was trying it out for the first time, and he looked at me like I was an interesting stranger. Somehow, in all the scenarios I’d envisioned,thishadn’t been one of them.
“You don’t remember me,” I rasped, vaguely aware that every soul and deity in the room had fallen silent and was watching us with rapt attention. “You don’t rememberyou.”
Bullet grimaced. “Not exactly, no. Apparently, losing my memories is what’s keeping me, you know, functional. Alive-ish. Not alive like you though.” He gave me an appraising look that I had no idea what to make of. “Are you the man I love?”
I nearly choked on my own spit. “I mean, as friends, yeah, for sure. We definitely love each other as friends.”
“Oh! We’re friends. Are you Dare?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m Dare,” I replied quietly, my voice catching slightly. That was a good sign, right? Maybe he rememberedsomethings? “Do you remember Grace?”
Please say yes. Please say yes.
“Grace the Agathos. Grace, who loves me.” It was an assertion that was confident and empty all at once. Someone had told him that, and he remembered the words.
He didn’t remember her.
“I wouldn’t say that Irememberher, necessarily,” Bullet continued, his bravado faltering slightly. I roughly wiped away the wetness on my cheek, wondering when it had gotten there. “But I wish I did.”
He sighed wistfully, shoving his hand back through his hair. He wasn’tdulllike the other souls, but he didn’t look entirely whole either. What did that mean? How was I meant to get him out of here when he didn’t appear to have an actual body?
“I’m going to get you out of here,” I promised. “I made a deal with you that I would. I’m going to bring you home to the upperworld, and you’re going to see her again. Wild, too. He’s the man you love. And Riot, your friend. We’re all going to be together again.”
Not that I knew where any of them were, but once I had Bullet, I was one step closer to reuniting our little group.
“What did you call me before?” he asked. “Bullet? Everyone here calls me Oneiroi, or the Spirit of Dreams.”
“That may bewhatyou are, butwhoyou are is Bullet.” I thought about telling him he’d earned his nickname from being shot in a drive-by and wearing the gold bullet on a chain around his neck after he’d had it surgically removed, but that seemed like a lot to dump on a guy who didn’t know his own name. “You’re a friend, a soul bond, a lover, you’re… so much more than justthe Spirit of Dreams, okay?”
Bullet nodded, thoughtful. “It’s kind of a weird name, but that’s good to know. It makes me feel more human, I think, to have a name.”
“Hold on,” Hades cut in, looking affronted. “He can’t leave. This ishisparty.Idon’t want to have a party.”
“Why are you having a party in the underworld?” I muttered to Bullet.
“Well,” Bullet began, leaning in conspiratorially. “They say I’m ahero. I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but apparently, if you’re a hero, you get a party.”
I blinked at him, and he blinked right back at me.
“You’re a hero?”
