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The pressure is like a pair of hands clapping at my ears. Jesus, fuck, thathurts, it all hurts, but I move anyway. Push past Poseidon, who has his arms around Conor.
Hades is at the side of Daisy’s bed, his hand over hers. She’s still sleeping, her eyes closed.
“Don’t,” he shouts, like he doesn’t have control of his voice. Fucking terrifying. He always has control of his voice. “Don’t. Don’t. Not. Happening. Yet. Wait.”
“I can’t wait,” Zeus answers.
“Wait,” Hades insists.
Daisy opens her eyes.
Black. Behind her. A pressurized cloud. Hovering in the space between the light and the dark, ready to fucking pounce.
I’m halfway there by the time she screams. I don’t have a plan. I throw myself around Zeus, crawl onto the bed, and put my hand on her chest.
It pulls me in by the neck. I fall through night air, the floor of my mother’s apartment, and land hard on my shoulder on an unforgiving stone floor.
Daisy’s here.
Black dress. Bare feet. She faces away from me, toward the gates. The pull is even stronger here. This must be what it’s like to notice gravity, only worse. Like noticing it at the same time you notice there’s no parachute.
She turns her head and looks at me, face solemn. “They already went through.”
It’s eerily quiet in the stone room. As quiet as it was before Hades screamed. “Who?”
“Conor and my kitten.”
I can’t see a fucking thing through those gates. Nothing but shimmering black. “What’s on the other side?”
“Death,” Daisy answers. “I’m afraid to go through.”
“Because you think it won’t let you out?”
“Because I think I might want to stay. It doesn’t hurt here. But…I need to get my dad’s dog. I need to get my kitten.”
I can’t blame her.
I can’t let her do that, either.
I’d never forgive myself.
And finally,finally, after a lifetime of wishing I could just fucking die, a realization clicks into place.
“I can go with you. It can’t touch me.”
Her eyes light up. “You would do that?”
“Tell me not to go with you.”
She cracks a smile, and the stone room vibrates. “No.”
I take her hand in mine, lift it to my lips, and kiss her knuckles. “Then let’s go.”
The gates pull at us,wantingus, and it’s a relief to stop fighting. Daisy walks at my side until there’s no more stone floor, until we’re there, until it’s time.
“Do you think we’ll die?” She peers up at them like they’re an exhibit in a museum. A piece of art.
“No. I won’t let you die. No matter what.”
