Page 28 of Seph

Emily turned and smothered a scream during a battle. She had been taught never to scream, but her heart hammered against her ribs.

There was an incredibly beautiful woman standing in her doorway, head cocked to the side in the picture of tentative intrusion.

“I’m sorry to interrupt. Your front door was open, and Dad was afraid the vampire wasn’t going to do a good job explaining the situation. I’m Milly.”

“Milly? Dad?”

“Melinoë. Milly for short.” The girl walked over, chestnut curls bouncing in soft ripples across her shoulders, pale skin highlighted by sunny blue-green eyes and rosy cheeks. “My dad is Hades. My mother is Persephone.”

“Oh, man. What did Simeon do? Go on the demon version ofCandid Camera? How many other people has he roped into convincing me this is—”

“Your worst nightmare used to be that you’d turn into a vampire. Before that, it was that your father would die, just like your mother had. For months, you had a dream that your father left you in a ‘training session,’ either tied to a chair, locked in a cell, or even shut in a coffin—and he didn't come back. You’d wake up before you died, but only just.” Milly held her forefinger and thumb apart with a sad smile. “Now... you have a nightmare fairly often that you’re dying and you’re all alone. You’ve never felt happiness or love, and when you get to heaven, they tell you that you can’t come in because you didn’t do enough. You don’t know if you’ll ever be happy, and you fear that even death won’t end the misery.”

Emily felt all the air in the room turn to sandpaper. It hurt to take a deep breath, and her eyes stung. The blow was too raw and too deep, too real and too private. “H-how?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t like to do that. I’m Melinoë, the Goddess of Nightmares. I usually let my assistants handle things while I’m at school, but if I ever need to convince a mortal that I’m the real deal, that little stunt works. Can we talk? I brought tea.”

“I have to make a call first.”

“I’m having tea with a goddess. You can come over. Killing you is up in the air.”

“Making a U-Turn,” Simeon said, voice devoid of emotion.

Emily put down the phone and walked into the kitchen/dining room. In the small apartment, they sort of bled together. She paused.

The table had been set with two cups and a little white teapot with a faint blue pattern encircling its fat round bottom. A plate of cookies that looked like the buttery, sandy, melt-in-your-mouth kind that she couldn’t afford to splurge on sat by the cups.

“I have peanut butter and chocolate ones, too, but I thought you might like these. You and your mother used to eat them every morning before your father woke up around lunchtime. It was your special treat, but he didn’t like you having sweets. He said it would make you lose focus and bad carbs would make you weak in a fight.”

“Stop doing that. Stop telling me things about my life.”

“I will... if you’ll listen to some things about mine.”

Well. That seemed fair. Emily sat, keeping her feet flat on the floor and butt on the edge of her seat, ready to run if need be.

“My dad is Hades. My mom is Persephone. Forget everything you think you know about them. They were the world’s most nauseatingly happy couple.”

Milly reached into a taupe purse that matched her chic linen dress. A glittering cloud suddenly appeared over the table as Emily gasped, mesmerized.

Hades was handsome in a worrying way... He had piercing eyes, a serious face, and a long, tall frame that dwarfed the woman beside him. His lips curved up in a smile that could read as sinister or teasing. Emily couldn’t tell. The black ensemble and the crown of bones on his head didn’t help.

Milly swirled her finger, and the image revolved and zoomed in.

“Ohhh.” Emily felt compelled to let out a knowing noise. Up close, sinister was actually... seductive. If she had to guess, Persephone had a thing for complicated bad boys, or at least boys who hung out on the dark side. (Sadly, she could now relate.) The woman in the picture returned Hades’ smirk with an adoring look of her own.

“Watch.” Milly pulled out handful after handful of glittering dust from her bag, and the images began to move.

“This is their anniversary party. I was ten. In god years, that is. I don’t know how long that is in mortal time right now, but... But that doesn’t matter. Watch them.”

Emily couldn’t watch anything else. The couple danced, laughing, kissing, occasionally sweeping a younger Milly or a teen boy into their arms and letting them go quickly.

“That’s my family, but a big chunk is missing. I know what people say. That if she’s been gone for a thousand years—”

“Howmany?”

“—that she wants to stay gone. But I don’t think so. No one who knows them would think that. Someone has my mother. My father, as powerful as he is, can’t find her. Something is cloaking her, sabotaging him, or both. Before you ask, why can’t he find her himself... imagine what would happen to the world if no one died for days, but people kept being born. In just five days, a million people more than Earth could sustain would exist. Starvation and war would break out. Gravely wounded people would fill hospitals and nursing homes, but they wouldn’t die. My father can’t stop his job for more than a minute, especially not without Mom. She made things run smoothly. She had... she had natural timing. Life, death, and seasons move through her.” Milly beamed, eyes bright and wet. “If you knew your mother was out there and could still be saved—what would you do?”

Emily slowly nibbled a cookie. “You came to convince me?”

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