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We were halfway down the road when I finally remembered what I was planning to ask him, and I quickly dug my heels in. "Hadrian..." I tugged his sleeve again. "Do Greek gods have their own calendars?" I asked hopefully. "Because what if April's Fool's Day didn't actually fall in April for you guys? What if Dr. Ace was just pulling my leg because today happened to be—-"
"No," he said gently. "We don't have our own calendar, so April's Fool's Day still falls in April."
"You're absolutely sure of this?"
"Yes, love." His silver eyes were gleaming with amusement again. "I'm quite sure of this."
I pouted up at him. "Oh, fine. I just—-" The sound of pounding footsteps reached me, and I spun around, startled and just a bit apprehensive.
The last time another person showed up while Hadrian and I were about to enter the Underworld, I had ended up on a hospital bed in a two-year coma.
So yeah, this might make me paranoid, but I didn't care. I looked around us, squinting at every direction, but I couldn't see any other sign of movement. "That's weird. I could've sworn—-"
Hadrian suddenly covered my mouth.
Oh.
The warning look in his eyes said everything.
He had heard it, too, and the realization turned my body rigid.
Dazzled as I was by the beauty of the In Between, it had been easy to think of Zeus and his killer thunderbolts as nothing but a distant memory. I should've known better, though. Just like Hadrian said, trouble seemed to find me no matter where I was—-
There it was again!
Hadrian swiftly placed me behind him as the footsteps we heard came closer and closer and closer—-
Too close, I thought, that whoever it was should be visible now.
I tiptoed to peek over Hadrian's broad shoulders, just in time to see a raven-haired beauty in a lab coat running towards us.
She saw us at the same time, and a strange mix of emotions crossed over her face—-
Shock.
Fear.
Frustration.
And then...
Nothing.
All of those in a nanosecond, none of it making sense, that when she finally reached us, I had convinced myself menopause had me imagining things.
"What took you so long?"
I was stunned and outraged. Who the heck was this witch, talking to Hadrian like he didn't have his girlfriend right next to him?
When she reached us, I was all ready for a verbal showdown, until I realized...
Oh.
Why was she glaring...at me?
"You two should have been here ages ago!"
Two as in...Hadrian and me?
Color me confused all of a sudden, but when I glanced up at Hadrian, he looked more grim than surprised, and when he finally spoke, the cold disapproval in his tone was something I had never heard him use.
"What are you doing out here, Mira?"
"Waiting." Annoyingly Beautiful Chick Mira lifted her chin in what seemed like cool defiance.
"We're supposed to be on lockdown—-"
"Until Zeus regains his sanity?" she scoffed. "Unlike most people, Iris isn't my only source for news, and it's not like you didn't really expect this. We've known each other for centuries, Hades. Surely you know by now it's never been my style to wait?" She was turning to me as she spoke, and the moment I saw her lip curl up—-
Huh.
This girl despised me.
She was just looking at me now, not saying a word, and even though the mature part of me groaned and begged me to remember (and act) my age...it's not like I was myself right now. I had menopause. It was normal for women with the Big M to be a little bitchy...and so I heard myself gush, "Wow!" I let my eyes go wide. "Did I hear you right? You've known Hadrian for centuries? That's amazing. You look so young, for someone so elderly."
Hadrian started coughing, and I had a hard time holding my own smile back as Ancient Antagonist went red in the face.
"Before I completely forget my manners..." My boyfriend had finally decided to run interference, which was a shame, since things had just gotten interesting. "This is Mira, milady. She's a distant cousin of mine. And Mira, this is Saoirse, my soon-to-be wife."
The woman inclined her head in the barest minimum for a bow. "Milady."
"Milady." I saw her lip curl, and I let my lip curl right back at her even as my mind continued reeling.
Cousin?
This stuck-up señorita was his distant cousin?
Did that mean they could marry if they wanted to?
I was dying to ask Hadrian this, but he was already talking to Mira. "I trust you have a valid reason for defying my orders?" His tone was exceptionally mild, but this made him sound more terrifying somehow, and I could see by the way Mira slightly paled she was similarly affected.
"I didn't mean to defy your orders, Hades." Her voice, no longer cool or defiant, was now quiet and humble. "I only didn't want to waste a single second. I need a sample of milady's blood—-"
