Furious

Chapter Forty-Three

The return trip had been much less theatric. No sensation, no screaming, no endless passage of time. One moment I was on the bank of the River avoiding farewells and the next I was on a nameless street clutching a fruit to my chest.

I spun around, frantic. "No!" I breathed. It was too late to protest. "Don't leave me."

A sob caught in my throat.

The sound of wheels on pavement turned my head; a kid on his skateboard rolled by me, his babysitter or perhaps his sister close on his heels. She looked at me wearily—did she know me?—a lunatic in the street. Without looking away from me she encouraged her young charge to go faster, the sun was going down and the crazies were out.

Little did she know how right she was; I had another entity living in my head, albeit silent, I had battled the Fates and felled two gods, and I'd just appeared on the street out of thin air. Crazy didn't really begin to cover it.

I tried to give her a reassuring smile but didn't count on it doing much good. To avoid further frightening her and the boy, I crossed the street to the opposite sidewalk and journeyed in the other direction from where they were headed. I didn't need more problems.

My feet carried me on autopilot down the road. The street lights started to buzz to life the longer I walked. After I passed three poles covered in flyers, one finally caught my eye. Amidst the missing pet flyers, babysitting advertisements, and yard sale information I recognized my own face.

Someone had been missing me. My mom? My dad? The flyer listed a phone number and an address and a plea for any information. It gave a description of what I'd been wearing when I was last seen, clothes that had been long forgotten in the Underworld. I looked down at myself: the closet in my apartment in Hades had excited Alex much more than it had me, and I chose simple black comfortable clothes.

Black for mourning. Would I have known I'd end up here today I might have put on the nicer styles and brought them with me.

The page tore from the pole easily. I spun on my heel and headed back the way I had come, following a distant memory to the address printed on the flyer.

The sun had fully set and a chill seeped into my bones long before I stopped in front of the house. Large metal numbers on the mailbox proclaimed that I had reached my destination. There was something vaguely familiar about the house, though that shouldn't have been surprising. I had probably enjoyed this view thousands of times before.

Each step up to the front door felt like a betrayal. My knuckles rapped on the wooden door, each knock giving my heart thundering power in my chest. I didn't want to be there. Who, or what, was behind that door?

After a moment a woman with pristine features answered the door; she looked not much older than myself. She brought with her a balmy breeze, like springtime when the days are just warm enough to bring the trees back to life, from inside the house. I didn't remember my own mother but I would bet money that this woman was not her. Her apparent age and the differences in our features crossed her off the list of prospects.

Who was she?

"You must be Autumn," she grinned toothily at me. In that instant I knew I'd never really escaped the myths and the tragedy they left in their wake; one of them had beat me home. "I've been waiting weeks for this moment."

Someone called from inside the too-warm house, "Who's at the door, Persephone?"

This was the woman married to Hades? Not my Hades, but--I stopped myself. Hades wasn't mine to have.

I recognized the voice that came from deep in the house, a memory in the far reaches of my mind. But the interloper didn't give me a chance to answer.

"It's Autumn!" she called over her shoulder. To me she said, "You and I have a lot of catching up to do."

She gently pulled me across the threshold. I had no choice but to follow Hades' wife back into my old life. 

A/N: You made it!!

Furious was the first book I ever completed. It took years of my life and countless hours of planning, crossing out ideas, researching Greek mythology, deleting chapters... but we made it here, to the end of the book. 

What did you think? Do you want to see book two? 

Thank you for making it to this point. You have no idea how much it means to me, and how honored I am that you came all the way here with me.