Page 29 of Guided by the Stars
“Fuck!” she says, shocked awake by the sudden fall, and glares at me. Her blue eyes are an ocean storm when she’s angry: dark and fierce. I don’t understand why she looks so pissed off; I tried to be nice. Sure, I couldn’t have actually left without her, but she doesn’t know that.
Adriane stands in the middle of the now-empty area, stretching her fingers high above her head. Jax is talking low beside her, and there’s a smile on her face. Her eyes glitter like sapphires as she laughs at whatever he just said. When she catches me looking at her the smile drops.
“Let’s move. We’ve got a while to go before the Field of Punishments,” I shout back at them, already walking away.
Jax stays back and walks with her, always playing good cop. It’s not that I want to be the bad cop, but I’ve lived the same shit life for centuries and by the gods, it’s about time that changed. Trading one human to make that happen really isn’t so bad, not when Hades wants her for the blood in her veins, and she’ll be treated like a queen. I mean, fuck, I’m doing her a favor. The least I deserve is a fucking thank you.
***
We’ve been walking for a while now. Time works differently down here than it does on Earth, and though she never spoke up about her discomfort, I knew she must be tired. We stopped for several breaks, making sure she had water or a bit of foodbefore we’d start walking again. I had to work hard to hide my sheer astonishment at hearing no complaints.
Sure, she asked about her friend or tried to convince Jax or I to take her back to Earth, but not once did she whine about her sore feet. My leather jacket was too big, but she wore it anyway. From the look in her eyes, I could tell she wanted to refuse, but it’s just too damn cold here for her human frailty.
The scent hits me before I see it. The Field of Punishment reeks of unworthy souls. Shitty human beings who don’t deserve peace are thrown here and punished forever. It’s not as bad as Tartarus, where those who have wronged the gods end up, but it’s not a place I’d like to be.
The punishments are tailor-made for each soul, though whoever came up with them was a sick fuck. King Tantalus attempts to pluck fruit from a tree but the branch grows just out of reach, and the water he tries to drink evaporates before him. He tried to steal something vital from the gods. Nectar, or ambrosia if you were a self-righteous Olympian, was our life-sustaining drink of choice. Without it, we’d be powerless.
King Tantalus also chopped up his sons and tried to trick the gods into eating them. If it were up to me, he’d have gone to Tartarus, but the three judges thought this would better suit his crimes. An attempt to steal nectar and ambrosia sealed his fate and his punishment, killing his children was nothing compared to that. He wanted to take from us, but didn’t realize we always pay back in kind.
“Why are they filling those cracked jars with water?” Adriane asks, confused. “And how come that guy can’t get his boulder up the hill?”
“Oh, them?” I say, pointing to the girls with the jars. “That’s their punishment for killing their husbands. And that’sSisyphus. He murdered people and cheated death, so here he rests, or doesn’t, I suppose.”
Her eyes widen and for the first time I see fear there. I was beginning to think she was just as fucked up as I was. She’s silent while we walk, chewing on her lip as her eyes scan the other souls around us, and I wish I could see inside her mind. Is she scared, imagining herself here someday, or is she trying to plot an escape and hoping one of these poor souls will help her? They can’t even help themselves though, so she’s shit out of luck.
It’s not long before we’ve left the Field of Punishments behind us, the barren expanse of land seeming to go on forever as we continue. We have to stop soon, though. I’ve kept a close eye on Adriane, and while the fire in her eyes is still there, she’s quiet, and that’s a dead giveaway to how tired she is.
“Let’s stop here and rest. Unless Hades shows us the palace, we’ve got another long hike ahead of us tomorrow.”
My voice comes out nonchalant, but inside I’m desperate. I despise hiking through this wasteland. Try as I might, I don’t enjoy seeing the souls tormented, and I fucking hate the Field of Mourning. Most of them there were women, but all of them wasted their lives on unrequited love. I made a vow to myself long ago that I wouldn’t go out like that. I would never love someone who didn’t love me because I just wouldn’t love.
She watches as I make another hut, though smaller than the one I made last night. I don’t have any nectar with me, and I can already feel my power levels waning.
“Oh, interesting,” she says, eyeing the hut.
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s just…well, I expected it to be bigger.”
Jax chuckles beside her, and she smirks at me. She doesn’t notice that I crafted a vine around her ankle until she starts towalk inside. As she looks down, I cast one on her other ankle too, so she can’t move.
She struggles as I walk toward her. “What’s wrong, Red? I assure you others don’t have any problem with the size, but if it’s too small you can sleep out here standing up.”
The glare shot my way could give Hades a run for his money. “I have a name, you know, and it isn’t Beautiful, sweetheart, or Red.” Her eyes are dark pools of water, churning with a storm I want to fucking drown in.
An image runs through my head, unbidden, of her naked beneath me, her face filled with the perfect combination of rage and lust. But I can’t have that. She’s my golden ticket, a job, and it shouldn’t be this fucking hard to remember.
“Did you say something, sweetheart?” I ask, walking closer to the hut.
She raises her cuffed hands, giving me the finger with each one, but I don’t react. My own fingers are moving, dancing through the air to create a tiny vine linking the cuffs to her ankles.
“Now that wasn’t very nice, was it, Red? You’ll have to apologize if you want to go inside, I think. Don’t you agree, Jax?”
He meets her gaze, and it’s clear she thinks she has an ally in him. She stands a little taller, shoulders back, lip between her teeth. But his response isn’t what she was hoping for.
“Apologize and I’ll get you some food, okay?”
She rolls her eyes and takes a deep breath in, holding it for a few seconds before letting go. “I’m so sorry, your royal douche-canoe,” she says through gritted teeth.
