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“Yeah,” I rasped, nodding my head. “She’s really sad. I have no idea how long it’s been now.” Time had been a fairly abstract concept before I’d attempted to leap into the pit. Now that I was here, I had no clue how much time had passed in the upperworld.
Bullet looked at me warily. “I don’t know, Dare. I’m not sure you should have come here to get me. That means Grace is all alone.”
“I left her with friends,” I replied uneasily. “Friends who care about her, and will protect her with their lives. And soon, she’ll have half her soul bonds back soon, and we’ll track down Riot and Wild, and we’ll all be together again.”
And hopefully she’d forgive me for leaving her in the first place.
“Just one thing first,” Hades called, the crowd parting as a soul approached. My stomach dropped through my feet, probably sinking all the way to Tartarus.
“Ma?” My voice cracked on the word. I took a step back toward Bullet, away from the grayish soul of my mother. What the fuck was this?
“Son,” she said with a sad half-smile, a more affectionate look than I’d ever seen on her face in life. “How far you’ve come, my boy. I hear of your exploits, and I am continuously amazed that you are my child.”
She looked to Hades, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. “This all seems very unnecessary. I have no desire to return to the upperworld.”
“You’re spoiling it,” Hades sighed. “You’re supposed to make it hard for him to choose.”
“Choose?” I repeated.
“Yes, choose. The mother who was bloodily murdered in the middle of her kitchen, who gave you life, whoremembersyou, or the friend who doesn’t.” Hades tilted his head thoughtfully. “You should know that if you pick your friend, your mother will be fed to the Phlegethon whose flames will consume her soul, permanently erasing her from this realm or any other.”
“Why?” I choked out. “Why are you doing this? Is this just entertainment for you?”
Hades waved lazily around the throne room. “You are asking for quite the gift, Philotes. The Oneiroi was already in the Isles of the Blessed. He could have found his own way back to the upperworld, if he’d chosen to. No gift from the gods comes without sacrifice; you should know this by now.”
I did know that. And I hated it, and resented it, but I also understood it. Balance had to be maintained in all things. This wasn’t the first sacrifice I’d had to make, and it wouldn’t be the last.
“You should save her,” Bullet whispered, pressing his shoulder against mine, though I could barely feel it. “I knew when I left the Isles of the Blessed that I might not be able to return. And I’ll be okay here. It seems quite nice, you know. And there’s this flowery place I get to go because I’m a hero. I’ll get to see you guys one day when you all come to the underworld. When you’re old.”
“No,” I bit out, hands balling into fists at my side. “I’m not leaving here without you.”
Because Bullet was mine and Riot’s friend and one of the loves of Grace’s life and she needed him by her side, and Wild would never be okay unless I brought him home. Plus, I needed some kind of apology gift after knocking Grace out to beat her to the pit, and there was nothing she wanted more than getting Bullet back.
“But he’s right,” Bullet insisted, more resigned than I’d ever heard him in life. “You seem like a great friend, but I don’t remember you. Any of you. And I never will if I want to live, Hecate told me that.”
Fuck me, I thought being beaten up by the agathos had hurt. I thought the plane crash had hurt. Nothing hurt more than hearing those words come out of Bullet’s mouth.
“Then we’ll make new memories. Even better ones—”
“But your mom—”
“Will walk into Phlegethon’s flames with my head held high,” Ma cut in, and it made me a total bastard because I knew she’d say that. I knew she’d volunteer, because she had far more empathy and compassion than any daimon of her generation ought to have had.
“I’m sorry, Ma,” I whispered, guilt burning a hole in my gut.
She scoffed, throwing her hair back imperiously. Just as regal and impatient in death as she had been in life. “It isn’t even a question. It is not my child’s place to make sacrifices for me.”
“Make your choice, Philotes,” Hades drawled, as though there weren’t eternal souls hanging in the balance. Fuck this guy.
“Take him home, Dare,” Ma said softly. “Go andlive, live every single day, whatever new challenges it brings. You are strong enough to face them.”
I nodded weakly. “I’ll never forget you, never stop being grateful to you. Your memory will live on through me.”
Even if her immortal soul wouldn’t.
“Bullet,” I rasped, turning to face Hades. “I choose Bullet. I want Bullet to return to the upperworld, to his body, safe and whole.”
One of Hades’ minions rushed to his side, and the King of the Underworld inclined his head to listen, looking at me impassively before eventually nodding once.
