Chapter 3: Listening

Kate

Whether he was going to see the queen of England or going to the homeless shelter, I had a theory that James' style would never change. As he stood in the foyer of Eden Manor, he looked out of place among the ebony and marble in his Seattle Seahawks t-shirt, jeans, and Nikes. As always, his headphones hung casually around his neck and his blond curls looked reminiscent of Medusa herself.

"How's my favorite queen of the Underworld?" James asked as I walked up. He kissed my forehead gently. "Doing well?"

"Well as ever," I replied. "And what about you?"

He shrugged. "Well, I s'pose. I mean, I've been travelling, like always. Met a few girls but…" He trailed off. I guessed there wasn't much more to tell than that.

"Hermes," I heard Mari say from behind me.

James eyes went wide as he saw the little mortal girl. "You… I…" He looked at me for help.

I laughed. "Don't worry; Henry and I told her. We're...hoping she can fill in for Ava."

James' face clouded with understanding. "I see."

I felt Mari tense slightly beside me. I suppose James seemed intimidating to her.

James shook his head, as if coming out of a fog. "Actually, I was just talking with Thanatos. He's been spending the past few weeks in Hades?"

I nodded. "Yes. We've seen him a few times, but you know how he keeps to himself."

Thanatos, the god of death, was not a favorite among any of us. He was rather dismal...not the kind of guy you'd want to invite to your Christmas party. However, the banks of the River Styx were as much home to him as Henry and my palace was to us.

"Well, I don't know if it's because of this girl here or Henry's lack of knowledge on what's going on in his domain," James said, scathingly. I tried to ignore the hostile edge to his voice. "But, I have some bad news, Kate."

My heart fell. I was sick of bad news. I took a deep breath. I was a queen now and this was my job. Keeping my voice as calm as I could, I turned to Mari. "Why don't you go find Nicolas? I'm sure he'd love to take you on a tour of the palace."

She looked at though she wanted to argue, but thought better of it and turned around. I turned back to James who, I noticed, watched Mari as she walked away.

"Still haven't found her yet?" I asked, referring to the promise I'd had him make before the battle last year. When I had promised I'd let him be my first affair, I'd made him promise to start seriously looking for a girl who he could spend his life with, not some mortal girl who'd die in 50 years.

He swallowed and looked down. "I can hope."

I frowned, not knowing quite what he meant, but then I cleared my throat. "What's your bad news?"

James looked up again, his normally happy-go-lucky face older than I'd ever seen it, even when we'd all been facing imminent doom at the hands of Cronus. "Where's your husband?"

"Downstairs," I said, referring to our palace in the Underworld. "He has some paperwork to take care of for the Council before Mari's trials start."

"We'll need him here, too. And, we might want to go speak with Grandad, too. I think he'll want to hear this."

I knew he was speaking about Cronus, but the way he said the pet name so fondly made me giggle a bit. "We can grab Henry, then head to the cell."

Together, we walked into the center of the foyer in Eden Manor and dropped into the Underworld.

Mari

I'm walking around Eden Manor, looking for Nicolas like Kate had told me to do, but I can't find him anywhere. I've checked in the dining room, out on the porch, and now I'm in a part of the palace I don't recognize. All of the doors look the same and there aren't any windows.

As I walk, I start to realize that I'm going in a big circle. I must have gone through a doorway somewhere and can't find it again. Slightly anxious at being lost in a palace, I push open a door and see a room. It's just a bedroom, nothing special. There's a four poster bed, a large picture window, and a dresser. It looks...nice.

I shut the door behind me and hear a cough. I turn to find Nicolas. "Oh," I say awkwardly. "Hello there. I was looking for you."

He nods. "Kate told me." He doesn't have his staff and has taken off his guard uniform. He looks like a normal guy, much too young to be a widowed old god. "She said you wanted a tour of the Manor."

I nod. "Yes, I should like that very much, considering I am beyond lost right now."

He smiles sadly. "No sense of direction. Come on. I'll show you." He offers his arm. He seems to be lost in a memory so I stay quiet.

"What was she really like? Aphrodite, I mean." I find myself asking.

He starts for a moment, then regains his composure. "How do you mean?"

"I mean, in the stories, she always seems like...well, a slut. I mean, she seems awful really, but you obviously loved her a lot."

He nods. "I still do. I always will. The day we got married was the happiest of my life. And, I suppose she enjoyed the company of other men well enough, but she would always come back and let me pull her into my arms. She… She was always sort of a free spirit. I knew that when I married her, so I could never be mad when I heard about an affair."

I smile. "I hope someday I can have someone talk about me so fondly," I say, holding his arm.

"I don't doubt you will, Mari. While I've spent only quiet moments with you at a time, you are a lot like her."

The way he talked about her, I know I'm supposed to take it to be a fond compliment. However, at the same time, I'm sort of insulted to be compared to Aphrodite.

We walk around for a while until we arrive back in the foyer. I'm still stunned by how perfect everything in the manor is: the antique furniture, the intricate wood carvings, the cream-colored marble floors.

"She tended to be fond of all things beautiful," Nicolas's voice cuts into my mind.

I smile a little. "I'm a fan, too… But, I prefer simple things over all of this gaudiness."

He nods. "Finally, I find something different."

We've walked around in a circle and arrive back in front of the intricately carved door. "Whose room is this?" I ask.

Nicolas takes a deep breath. "This is-er, was, I should say-Persephone's room while she was here. You know, Henry's first wife."

Of course I knew the story-if you've ever studied Greek mythology, you should. "What really happened?" I look at him curiously. "I mean, I know what all of the myths say happened-that Hades-um, Henry-captured Persephone from a field of flowers and took her into the Underworld and Demeter went insane looking for her so that the world experienced its first winter…"

Nicolas chuckled. "Yes, well, the mortals liked to blame us for everything back then, didn't they? That's not exactly what happened, though. Come on," he linked his arm through mine. "Let's go have some tea and I'll explain."

It felt easy to walk through the manor on the arm of a practical stranger. As if it wasn't the first time Nicolas and I had held arms, enjoying a comfortable conversation. Strange as it sounded, it was true.

The only thing was I had a pit in my stomach: why wasn't I with Kate instead?