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My brows shot up. Oooookay. If she was planning to curse me, at least she was being up front about it. Props for that at least.
"I know everyone on the surface is scrambling to find a cure," Mira continued, "but I believe we should work on an alternative. We know for a fact that Zeus had bespelled his thunderbolts to target anyone who's living. Humans. Witches. Supernaturals. Anyone who breathes is a target while ghosts..."
Oh.
I could see where she was leading, and I was intrigued and cautiously hopeful.
"Naturally, its effect would only be temporary. Milady's blood is one of a kind, and I believe there's a way we can create something with it that would make Zeus's thunderbolts stop targeting us—-"
"Like an insect repellent?" I guessed.
"I was thinking more along the lines of cloaking agent," Mira said politely, "but yes, I believe that's more appropriate, milady."
And just like that we were archenemies again, and even worse this time was how Hadrian had started coughing...at my expense. I knew I more or less asked for that one, but he didn't have to find it amusing, too.
Whatever.
I turned to Mira, determined to take the higher road as LOTUS. "How do I give you—-"
She grabbed my hand, and before I knew what was happening, Mira had already used her nail - oh my God, she used her nail!!! - to prick my finger and catch several drops of my blood in a vial.
Chapter Four
The last time I was about to step foot into the Underworld, a scroll-bearing messenger had appeared out of nowhere and told us that the Olympian High Court deemed my ascension to the throne as unlawful.
And at first, I had thought they were against me because we weren't married yet.
Or that I was Catholic while Hadrian was...Greek.
But long story short, it was none of those.
As things turned out, only a woman with living flesh could apparently become Hadrian's queen, and since I was a ghost at that time...
Anyway.
Stuff happened, and I was now recognized by everyone as the new LOTUS, and oh man...
Orange was so totally the new black, and Underworld the new Paradise!
The memory of Mira's rather barbaric approach to blood extraction was all but forgotten as we finally reached the top of the hill, and I could behold the entire realm in all of its glory. Under mesmerizing (and slightly terrifying, if I were being honest) skies of floating molten lava, there were grassy meadows, cliffs crowned with wildflowers, and farther back was a foggy region that I couldn't see past.
I was mesmerized and enchanted, and Hadrian's lips curved in a smile. "I'm glad you like the look of it."
"What's that?" I gestured to the thick fog that seemed to swallow the far end of his realm.
"Beyond it is Tartarus."
"Oh." That was not a nice place, let's put it at that. "Um..." I pointed to the skies. "How does that work?"
"Humans call it the core of the earth," Hadrian murmured. "The truth's a little bit more complicated than that, but it should give you an idea of how far below we are."
I almost made a face. Menopause, I nearly reminded him. Menopause made me prone to anxiety attacks 24/7, and those words of his just made me feel rather claustrophobic.
"The skies never change color," Hadrian was now telling me, "and it's never cold here either."
"More like room temp," I realized with surprise, now that he mentioned it.
"But only because you have the right to be here. Anyone else would've been burned to a crisp."
"Stop scaring me," I grumbled, "and just let me enjoy the view."
Hadrian only smiled, but this time he did leave me in peace as I finally let my gaze drift to the very center, where his majestic manor of a home sprawled complacently like a king overlooking its lands.
His home had Game of Thrones written all over it, with turrets towering behind the thickest curtain walls, impressively armed battlements, and even its own portcullis, from which a drawbridge arched over...hey.
As expected, we had the Underworld's great rivers flowing around the manor in an outer circle. Phlegethon was immediately recognizable, with its fiery orange waters bubbling hot, and then there were the crystal clear, memory-wiping waters of Lethe, purple-colored Cocytus, blue-colored Acheron and the vile, black waters of Styx.
All five rivers had its waters streaming inwards into a rainbow-colored pool that went around the manor like a moat and running all the way down to the rest of the Underworld. If you've ever seen someone melt multi-colored wax beads together, then that was how this rainbow pool exactly looked - oranges, purples, blues, blacks, and whites swirling against each other but never blending into a single shade.
I looked up at Hadrian, asking in a stunned voice, "Shouldn't the Underworld just have five rivers?"
Silver eyes gleamed down at me. "Congratulations, milady. You have just discovered one of our realm's best-kept secrets. What you see circling around our home is for our private use, but if you follow it straight down, you'll eventually reach the part that's open to the public."
