Chapter 16: Not In Kansas Anymore
Rosetta sits up, dazed and confused. She wipes off the snow on her Californian clothes with frozen fingers, wishing she had kept her Alaskan gear. She sees Nova sit up nearby. He isn't ghost-like anymore.
She would think he was a regular boy if she didn't know he was dead. It's funny. The feeling that she knows him increases.
She clenches her hand and is relieved when her fingers wrap around her bow. She can't risk losing that, especially with everything that is going on in her life right now. Looking around, she sees trees, snow, and rocks.
Where are they?
She searches through her pocket and pulls out her cell phone. She's thankful when her phone has cell reception. She uses her data to look up their location on the internet. According to the GPS, they're in Canada. How did they get to Canada? That's closer to Olympus than it is to the Underworld.
Before she can process anything else, the date catches her attention. It can't be possible, but it is. She had been in the Underworld for a week. But it felt like only half an hour to an hour at most. Time in the Underworld must flow differently than in the mortal world.
Nova rubs his head, looking around in confusion. "Where are we? I've never seen so much snow."
"We're in Vancouver, Canada," Rosetta explains. "Somehow, the entrance to the Underworld transported us far away. It might have something to do with ghosts not being supposed to leave that way."
"I don't feel dead," Nova admits, inspecting his hands. " I feel alive if anything." He pinches his arms. "That hurt. Dead guys can't feel pain."
"That's not true," Rosetta says, standing up and wiping the snow off her pants. "That sword that Erebus was wielding caused pain to those spirits."
Nova's face turns grim with a frown as he stands up. "I know. I helped make it."
"You what?" Rosetta demands.
"I didn't have a choice." He defends. "He forced us to do his bidding, and it was either that or is punished."
Rosetta sighs. She knows she can't blame him. How could a mortal challenge a god? Especially a dead mortal?
"I can't believe I'm back to square one," Rosetta sighs in exasperation. "I traveled all that way to find my Mom only to be sent back to Canada."
"You're Mom?" He asks, curious. "What happened to your Mom?"
"She died. When I was twelve, I planned to go find her and bring her back from the Underworld. But instead, I got you."
She didn't mean to sound so calloused, but it reflected her feelings. She had won the golden ticket and got a stupid consolation prize in return.
"That's a little rude." He says, hurt. "You don't even know me."
Rosetta's frustration boils over. She doesn't know if it's because of all the crap she's been through in the last few days, the fact that Rosetta's made no progress in finding her mother, or that she's freezing cold in the middle of nowhere Canada.
"Exactly, I don't know you!" Rosetta exclaims. "The only reason I agreed for you to come with me is that I don't want to do this alone."
Nova frowns and stays silent. Rosetta feels like a jerk. He isn't the person she wants, but she's grateful to have someone here. She knows it's wrong to be mad at him.
Nova speaks after a minute of silence, "You said earlier that you lost someone on the way to the Underworld. Who was it?"
"Dimi. His name was Dimi." She says, clutching her arms. She feels so heavy. She hadn't even gotten to see him in the Underworld. Had he even made it there?
YOU ARE READING
Rosetta Dagotto and the Fight for the Underworld
FantasyA sixteen-year-old student named Nova Tyler McNaughton died on the way to school. Nova was hit when he saved a little girl who had been chasing after a ball. The last thing he saw when he died was the little girl and her Mom hovering over his dying...
