"Dulcie?"

Sea-blue eyes peeked up from under thick, cotton-candy curls. She sat in Lewis' lap, one of his arms hooked tight around her waist, the other bracing his position in the fork of a particularly spiked tree. The spikes didn't bother him, and with Dulcie on his lap they didn't touch her, but he didn't want to risk slipping up and dropping her. He maintained a skeletal appearance for now, the better to warn off would-be attackers.

"Yeah, Lewis?"

He was starting to worry about several things. It had been two days-or three? Sometimes he'd been too focused on finding their next spot to keep track-and no sign of Vivi. She was supposed to come get them. That was Arthur's plan. Had she been caught? If she had, was there another way out of here before Demeter returned with her pet Shiker? And, more immediately, where could he get food for Dulcie? They had the squished remains of half a tomato, but neither mentioned it no matter how loudly Dulcie's stomach growled. Both knew it was too valuable to spend on her hunger, especially if Lewis was taken from her. Water, thankfully, was no problem, though he had to be the one to gather moisture off the leaves of the ravenous hedge walls.

"Lewis?"

He'd started talking early that morning, partly to distract her from the hunger, partly to distract himself from mounting fears, and conversation had drifted to Kay. He wasn't surprised that Dulcie had little close interaction with Kay, it seemed each sister was more or less her own island, eying the others with longing or awe. It was no exception with Dulcie. Though Kay did little more than make some of her meals and help her get dressed when she was younger, her shadow stretched long in Dulcie's mind. She couldn't say enough about wanting to fly just like Kay when she finally fledged, though Aji was notably absent from Dulcie's fantasies.

"Leeeeewwwwwis."

Fingers dragged back and forth across his vision, and he heaved a sigh. "Dulcie, do you think if Kay was still…. Was still with us, that she could ever forgive me?"

Dulcie blinked. "For hurting Arthur?"

Lewis' skull sank toward his neck hole. "No. Dulcie… when I was mad at Arthur, I was also mad at Kay. It's complicated, and I was wrong. But I thought I was right, and because of that I hurt her." His skull sank into his chest cavity and he rested his forehead against his own ribs, unable to look Dulcie in the eyes. "I hurt her right where her biggest fear was. On purpose."

Silence.

"And after that, I said horrible things to her. By the time I realized I was wrong, she was dead and Arthur had a monster in him. And maybe if I wasn't so angry at them, Arthur would have figured out what he needed to know faster. But I didn't." He gave a soft laugh. "And Vivi thinks she's the one that messed everything up."

There was a gentle knock on his chest. His skull rose back up to the neck hole, peeking out. Dulcie's solemn expression split into a smile when she saw him. "You look silly doing that. Big scary skeleton hiding from his little sister," she teased.

Lewis snorted. He probably did look ridiculous.

Her smile faded and she reached her arms up, hooking them around his empty collar. "You sorry for it?"

He hung his head. "With all my heart."

"Then she'd forgive you. You were the best brother, Lewis. We all knew it. That's why it was so bad when you were gone."

He tightened his arm around her waist, the corners of his eyes crinkling upward. "Thanks, Dulcie."

"When we get out of here, you're staying, right?" she asked.

He hesitated. He'd promised Vivi her memories back, all the originals. What would happen to him? Would he pass on, or would he become a Deadbeat without her recollections holding what was left of him together?

He fought off a flicker and tried to sound reassuring. "Let's get you through this and see what happens, Dulcie. One crisis at a time."

….

Your mouth spouts instructions but your heart isn't in it. Kay will be out of your sight. Out of reach if she needs you-or if you need her.

If it returns your focus at all, Puppet, there is nothing you could do for her that my kin cannot do. Mystery is the next best choice for companion. At this rate, we have no more power than he does anymore. We have spent it all because of your wretched limitations. Let her go. Your only chance of retrieving her hinges on accomplishing this mission.

I do not say this to soothe you, only to focus your damned thoughts. I am tired of dragging you back to task again and again.

Hades gestures to you and you rise to your feet. A moment of gratitude for the strength to stand. When have either of us found this as a lack? Only recently, and it is a horrifying thing to experience. Agreement, Puppet. There will be no complete shapeshifting unless the most dire need brings it on us, not ever again. The meat and bones of the feast are restorative, fueling every wracked and wrecked cell of this body, but there is a lasting toll. We both feel it.

"Arthur and Aji will come with me." Hades hands Kay off to Mystery. She perches on his back and begins grooming his ruff. His tongue lolls out, like a fool dog. Grunting, you follow Hades. You hear Aji's footfall, but you do not look at her.

"You say you want me to beat you, but you would not survive the force of punishment by a god," Hades says. It is not a challenge, merely a factual statement. Still, you prickle. "If you need to appear damaged, you should not turn to me."

Now you understand why Aji has been called after you and why you are being drawn away from the others. Indeed, Chloe's shrill, chattering recap of what has just taken place is fading.

You have been far too engrossed in your exhaustion to take notice of the surroundings before. Rough rock tunnels behind but ahead it is smoothing, smoothing to marble, streaked with veins of red and gold that alternate pulses of light. The tunnel opens to a chamber just ahead and you wonder if that chamber has always been there or if Lord Hades makes it at his whim, as he has often changed the ground beneath you.

The chamber is unforgivingly lit from sheet-like walls of white quartz studded with white spinel gems and spikes of clear jasper and is there a single gem in this room that is not meant to blind us?

And now Hades, with a face of cut diamond, steps back. There she is, the only other bit of color in the room. Head down. Fists clenched.

If we must be battered to sell this charade to Demeter, there is nothing else for it. At least we will survive a beating from a fifteen year old, even if she is about as strong as Lewis for her unearthly heritage.

Yet she does not advance. Gods, Puppet, must every single person be coaxed into what they should know needs to be done? You stalk right up to her, yank her chin up, and roar into her face. "Lewis would be ashamed of you!"

The next moment, all you see is the ceiling. You can't feel your face very well yet, but that's a good indication of where she landed a blow. Yet it isn't followed up.

You rise on one arm, glaring at her. She has one hand wrapped around the wrist of the other. Talons out. Red feathertips poke through her skin. Her head is down again, eyes shielded by her hair. "I'm out," she mutters. "Get someone else to beat him senseless. I didn't sign up for this."

The flowers growing from her wrists bleed fragrance, the red petal-tips staining scarlet deeper toward the yellow centers now. The vines caress her fingertips, and her fingers twitch in response.

A heavy feeling pools in your stomach, but now is not the time.

It's never 'the time,' is it? You never take a moment.

This must be done. You raise your head with a smirk. "Yes, why don't you just crawl off into the dark and find a hole to die in. After all, you don't really have a family anymore, do you?"

The vines writhe frantically around her fingers and her chest hitches. "Stop."

Fuel what already drives her to act. You lift a hand and raise fingers, one by one, chanting in a sing-song. "One I pushed over a ledge. One's heart I stole. One I took to another world." She takes one step toward you. "One's memories I erased." Her head snaps up, blue eyes rimmed and shot with red. "One will never, ever accept you again."

She is on you, raking with talons and screaming. The skin over your vital organs and neck thickens like armor so she cannot kill you. Blow after blow, claw and fist and sometimes teeth. It feels like hours and all the time that terrible, endless wail.

Then she is spent. She slumps to the side, shuddering, stained with blood. Again. There is a satisfying symmetry to her bloodlust. I could not have dreamed how marvelously this bloom would use-

Sorrow. Grief swept up from his gut, washing over the Shiker's thoughts and bringing Arthur back to the forefront. Everything hurt, but at least he could move. With painstaking care he rolled onto his side. Aji sprawled where she'd fallen, bawling so hard it choked her.

An image flashed through his mind. An arm with green skin striking Lewis' back, sending him careening over the edge.

Lingering resentment dropped away. Aji without the curse may have hated him forever, but she would never have tried to murder him. She had no more control over that than he had over pushing Lewis, and after that he had Uncle Lance, Vivi, Mystery, and Aji's whole family backing him up. Aji had none of them.

He couldn't decide if his sudden vision difficulty was caused by his own tears or by the effects of the beating. He stretched his hand toward her. The motion sent streaks of white across his sight, or was that just the quartz room? His fingers brushed her arm, now crowded with half-sprouted feathers.

A low groan left his mouth as he squeezed her arm. He wanted to say he got it. He understood. That he was sorry he hadn't been able to figure out her curse sooner. That he would find some way to fix this.

But he couldn't speak for himself. The Shiker didn't have the right to say any of those words. Even if he had both hands she didn't know sign language. He wasn't about to write in his own blood, there was no telling what sort of arcane binding that would have on him in a place like this. She wouldn't look at him.

A hand seized the back of his neck and lifted him off the ground. With his other hand, Hades offered an oddly carved chunk of diamond to Aji.

"Well done. And now, Aji, you must fly to my brother, Zeus. Carry this to him, that he may hear all I have heard."

Arthur made a face as he realized Hades was handing over his own ear. Could all gods break off pieces of themselves to send to other realms, or was it just Hades?

Aji dragged herself upright, refusing to look Arthur in the face, and accepted the ear. "How do I find him?" she rasped.

The ceiling split wide open. Overhead, the sun sweltered in a slate blue sky. "Up and out. Call on the Winds to guide you. They are well acquainted with your mother and aunts and will likely aid you. Hurry."

Aji reached full fledge as she crouched, then sprang up, beating the still air in the chamber. At first she seemed to make no headway, hanging a foot or two off the ground as she fought to rise.

Hades frowned. "Call on the winds."

"Winds!" she shouted, her voice hoarse. "Winds of the sea!"

"North, South, East, and West," Hades corrected.

"Winds of the sea!" she insisted. "Winds!"

And her wings caught on a current. It pulled her up through the split in the crystalline ceiling and out of sight. Arthur caught the faint scent of salt spray, his throat growing tight at the memories it stirred. Of course Aji would know them as sea winds, like one would call a friend by a nickname. They were probably the winds she and Kay flew with all the time. Only here, in this realm, they could help her. Were they the same spirits? Did certain spirits defy the sealing between realms simply because of the nature of air or, say, water?

"We must leave before you heal yourself." Hades turned, dragging him back down the hall. "Also, you promised me. Now explain. What is your remarkable plan?"

You mock at his blindness. "Isn't it obvious by now, Lord Hades? Demeter means to curse you and curse Zeus. So what do we do? We curse Demeter."

….

Note: I don't want to get hopes up, but those last couple chapters before this might have been major roadblock chapters for me (also in hard times) and now we're getting back into chapters where I'm more interested in what's happening again… also the chapter title is excerpted from Bad Blood by Bastille.