P. Hoover - Solstice

“Maybe we shouldn’t think about your mom.”

Shayne’s right. Thinking about my mom and what she would do if she saw me now is laughable but also a mood dampener. So I push her out of my mind.

I motion down to the floor. “I love your mosaic.” It’s complicated, and the flowers sort of shift depending on what angle I look at it from.

“I can’t take credit for the design.” His eyes meet mine when he says it, and my jealousy resurfaces. He seems like he wants me to ask more about it, but I decide against it. I vow not to think about Persephone again because I’m here and she’s not.

“Well, it is beautiful.” I look around the room, away from our chairs. The far wall holds a bookcase stacked with volumes of leather bound books. I stand and move toward it, bringing my glass of wine with me. It’s so different than the wine I had with Reese last night. Sweeter and warmer.

When Reese pops into my mind, my heart races. I turn to Shayne who’s looking at me but doesn’t say a word, and I pray mind reading is not a skill the Lord of the Underworld possesses. I look back to the books.

“You have a nice collection.”

Shayne gets up and joins me. His hand touches me at the nape of the neck, sending a shiver down to my toes. “I like to read.”

It’s an amazing response from an amazing guy.

Inset in the bookcases is a framed map. “What’s that?”

“The Underworld.” Shayne traces his finger over the network of rivers on the map. “There are five rivers in the Underworld. Boundaries between the lands.” He points across one of the rivers. “And here are the Elysian Fields…”

“The what?”

“Elysian Fields. They’re kind of like the nice place,” he says. “The place you get to go when you’ve been really good.”

“Like Heaven?”

“Some people call it that.”

A lump forms in my throat before I can stop it. “Is that where Chloe would go?”

Shayne’s hand settles on mine, and he nods. “Of course.”

“I don’t want her to die.”

“I know,” he says. “But you promised you’d at least consider.”

The lump stays in my throat. Chloe is my best friend. But I did promise. “I want to see it.”

“Anytime you’re ready.”

I reach for my glass and take a final sip of wine. It seeps through me, tickling as it goes. “I’m ready.”

Shayne sets my glass on a shelf along with his own—two red glasses on a shelf of black. He reaches out his hand, and I place mine in his. His hand is so large, it wraps entirely around mine, reminding me of Reese’s hands. But I push Reese far from my mind. Shayne brushes my cheek with his other hand. “Then let’s go see paradise.”

When we come out of the tunnel and reach the shore, tree limbs hang low, covered in ice crystals which sparkle everywhere, bouncing off the snowy ground under our feet. Dampness is thick in the air. This river is frozen, and even though we’ve entered a winter wonderland, I look at Shayne, now bundled in a sweatshirt and jeans, and frown.

He waves his hand in front of me, and my clothes change. I’m now dressed in jeans, boots, and a Shearling wool coat covering to my knees. They say there used to be stores that carried nothing but winter clothes, but now the only places that sell them are indoor resort areas. Back when I was like eight, my mom took me and my friend Charlotte to a resort in Virginia. Once I got past the awe of seeing fake snow fall from the ceiling, we spent the day skiing and skating and making snowballs. My mom even skated though she spent most of her time falling on her butt. It was only years later that I realized the day must have cost her a small fortune, but she never said a word about it.

Shayne takes a step from the snowy ground out onto the ice. “It’s solid. You can jump on it if you want.”

I look down at myself and then stare at him. “You can change my clothes?”

He laughs. “I’m a god, Piper. I can do anything.”

I narrow my eyes. “Anything?”

Humor plays on his face. “Well, there are rules, but it’s fun to find ways to break them.”

I don’t answer. My mind flickers back to the earlier conversation about rules in the Underworld. There are apparently some rules Shayne isn’t willing to break. But I decide against bringing it up. All I want to do right now is enjoy this icy paradise with the guy I want to be my soulmate.

I reach a foot out, barely touching it to the slick ice. But my foot slips out from under me, and I fall on my butt.

Shayne laughs.

“What? It’s not like I’ve had much time to practice ice skating in Texas.” Austin used to have a public rink, but it went private when energy rates got too high, and then it closed entirely. Even with solar power, the cost of the A/C was exponential. I put my hands on the ground and try to get up, but I fall again, and Shayne only laughs harder. So I kick my leg out and swipe it against his feet, sending him falling to the ground next to me.

“That’s not fair,” he says. But his eyes sparkle even as he reaches out and tries to grab me.

I slide backward and push myself up on my hands. “It seems fair to me.”

Overhead, a breeze comes our way, rustling the frost-laden branches and sending handfuls of frozen crystals raining down onto the ice. It sounds like a symphony of bells and continues for over a minute. I look upward at the trees, letting the chill in the air and the warmth of the sky hit my face, and I suck in the fresh air. I know Shayne’s watching me. But I don’t look, instead closing my eyes and enjoying the song.

When it’s over, I try to move again, and within a few steps, I remember how to walk on the stuff. Standing there, stable, I actually have time to look out across the ice. “Why is it frozen?”

Shayne slides over to me. “It’s Cocytus. The river of lamentation. But there’s nothing to be sorry about when you’re going to the Elysian Fields, so it’s frozen over to make crossing easier.”

The ice is thick, and far below I see the monsters, trapped but still moving. If there was no ice, what would these monsters feed on with the sorrows all gone?

I shift my eyes away from the monsters and back to the shimmering world in front of me. “I never thought there would be ice in Hell.” And certainly not an icy wonderland, especially since my mom’s always talking about how horrible winter used to be. But even in my coat, I shiver when a blast of cold air hits me. Shayne moves closer and wraps a warm arm around me.

“So you thought it would be all fire and torture?”

I nod, and he laughs.

“So there’s no fire and torture?” I ask.

“We have our share of that, too. But we’re not going to Tartarus today.”

“What’s Tartarus?”

Shayne leans close and whispers in my ear. “It’s where the bad people go.” And then he turns my face toward him and smiles. “It’s what gives Hell such a bad reputation.”

“Sounds intriguing.” I laugh when I say it, but part of me does want to see the fire. To see if it really is as scary as all the images of Hell I’ve been fed my entire life. I want to see everything in Shayne’s world.

“Intriguing is a good word for it,” Shayne says. His exposed skin’s picked up an icy layer which makes him look like he has smoke curling off him.

“I’d like to see it.”

His face falls a bit though he tries to hide it behind a quick smile. “Let’s just keep you out of Tartarus. It’s a nasty, dirty place.” He says it casually, but his voice tells me it’s not a suggestion.