Page 136 of For the Love of the Gods

“You disappeared,” Rose said, her lips curving into a small pout. “Into the wind. You were a Dominic-shaped flower.”

Dominic-shaped flower. New.

I laughed smoothly.

“Come on,” I said, reaching a hand toward her. Trying to steel my expression.

“Why?” Rose asked, but was already grabbing my hand.

“I have something to show you.”

I folded her palm in mine and stepped through a portal to the far side of the Meadows. To the bank of the Lethe.

Rose noticed it immediately. “What are we doing here?”

“I found the tree,” I said. I knew exactly where it was, but was feigning ignorance for now. “I wanted to see it together.”

Rose looked skeptical, fearful, for a moment, then started pullingmealong. I smiled and widened my strides to meet up with her. I prayed to every ancestor we both had that this would work.

The tree sprung out of the landscape a moment later. It was large, with roots jutting out of the ground and a large, curved trunk. Dark gray green leaves shaded the area, including a patch of grass that looked a little different from the others.

Grief hit me. But not as strong as it had when I’d been here earlier. Rose walked up to the tree, running her hand over the bark. I could hear her sniffling, trying to bite back tears.

That’s when I saw it. The flicker on the other side of the trunk. A figure—a soul—manifesting. And then Pine’s tall, thin form solidified. The hair that matched Rose, but their father’s dark blue eyes.

I prayed again. For Rose to be able to use her connection to me to see him.

And then she froze.

†

Rose

The tree was beautiful. You didn’t need shade in the Underworld, the dim sun couldn’t burn you, but Pine would always say he loved to hide from the sun.

I was grateful Dominic brought me here with him. He anchored me, gave me the strength to come here sometime other than the day Pine died. The day my father killed him.

It wasn’t the full truth. And I would regret ever killing in the first place and grieve as I had before. But it helped me clarify the experience.

Maybe I would come here more often. Bring Dominic with me. We’d joke about Pine and mourn him together. Pray he looked on. I could picture him now, his soul hiding behind the tree, watching us.

I blinked, expecting the vision to go away. But it didn’t. Pine, looking exactly as I remembered, was still standing behind the tree. Looking at me.

I froze, far too hopeful for my own good.

“Rose,” my brother said.

I dropped to my knees.

“Pine,” I said through burgeoning tears.

“It’s good to see you, sister,” he said. He walked over and crouched in front of me. I could feel the cold touch of his willowy hands on my own. “You look older.”

“I’m the same age as you now,” I said through a watery laugh. He was twenty three when he died. So young.

“You’re as beautiful as ever,” he said, smiling brightly at me. Tears slipped out of the corners of my eyes.

“That compliment doesn’t count when I look like you.”

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