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“Hermes is a dick.” Penny picks himself off the ground and stands in just his boxers. With an angry scowl, he glances between his companions and the pile of rocks left as an offering where the ‘god’ had previously been.
“Really?” Kady looks on, hands on her hips in mock irritation, while the grin on her face betrays her true feelings. Thankfully they’ve reached the point of friends and seeing him half naked is more humorous than painful now. Mostly. “That’s what you’re going to take from what just happened?” She laughs, unable to hold it in.
Kady’s laughter sets off Julia, who clutches his clothes to her chest in a fit of giggles. Face bright red, she keeps her eyes on her feet and shoves his clothes into his hands before turning away to let him get redressed.
“It wasn’t even-“ she starts to say, only to be cut off by Kady wrapping her arm around Julia’s shoulder.
“Probably best not to tell him,” Kady says, stifling her own laughter. “Wouldn’t want to bruise his ego.”
“He gave our last Dewey to an Imp,” Julia whispers and the gravity of their situation quickly dawns on them both. “What are we going to do now?”
“I am not going near another goddamn dragon,” Penny says, now fully clothed. “So don’t even think about it.”
They had been at it for weeks. Traveling to every known crossroads in Italy, Greece and now Eastern Turkey, they had lain offering after offering, performed summoning after summoning, searching for Hermes and a way to reach the Underworld. Instead of gods, they encountered imposters and charlatans. Weeks of dealing with other magicians and their ulterior motives, and creatures who possessed the will to simply fuck with those who prayed in earnest, had left them tired and desperate. It’s no wonder Penny so readily agreed to strip down and prostrate himself in the face of the most convincing pretender so far.
All for nothing. They are no closer to securing passage to the Underworld. No closer to rescuing her Penny. And with the last of their bargaining chips stolen alongside Penny’s dignity, the trio is becoming close to despair.
From the far end of the crossroads, Kady hears a bark. A wild dog, with a tan and white coat, raises its head. Teeth gnash at her before it turns and races down a dusty dirt road. Without thinking, she follows, chasing it into a dark woods. Unable to tell if the others are behind her, she continues on until she loses sight of the dog at a three-way junction.
Lost, unsure of where to go, she surveys her surroundings. At each corner of the junction stands a statue, the features weathered beyond recognition by centuries of mother nature’s indiscriminate wrath. All around the road, the undergrowth is thick; a deep green carpet lying between the ancient conifers and pines. When she tries to turn back, the way she came from is warped and distorted. Kady circles the junction, looking for a way out. Instead of offering her an escape, the forest closes in until the feeling of claustrophobia has her sucking in panicked breaths. Kady tries to slow her breathing and brings up her hands in preparation to throw off a spell.
“You won’t need that.” The voice reverberates around her and Kady notices that all she can hear is the voice. There is no dog barking, no wind rustling through the trees. Even the sound of her own breath is missing. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Then show your face!” Kady yells. She can feel the power of her battle spell building in her fingers, just waiting for a target.
A gentle touch on Kady’s arms forces her fingers to relax. When Kady blinks, a beautiful woman stands before her; tall, with dark skin and long black curls that brush against her hips. She wears tight black jeans and a khaki T-shirt emblazoned with the image of serpent, under a leather moto jacket. If Kady weren’t on the edge of fear, she would be checking her out. She’s experienced enough to know that only gods show up so fucking conveniently and Kady will never make the mistake of dropping her guard around one ever again.
“I’m here to help you, Kady,” the woman says slowly, and somehow her tone leaves Kady feeling calm. Too calm. Flashes of misguided trust fill her memories, and she takes a step back in defiance.
“Who the fuck are you?” Kady demands, crossing her hands over her chest. She juts out her chin hoping the pose will project the even the smallest shred of strength. She thought she was okay. As far as anyone else is concerned she is okay and no one needs to know otherwise.
“I’m the one you should have been praying to.” The woman smiles, but her eyes don’t match the expression. “Fucking Hermes, we share one thing, but he’s so damn loud he’s the only one you people think of.” She shakes her head with the kind of maternal disappointment that Kady only ever saw on television growing up. Kady runs through a list of deities in her mind. It’s hard to tell which pantheon she should be focusing on when she remembers the dog. She remembers where they are.
“Hekate?”
“In the flesh,” Hekate grins and pats her on the shoulder. The touch brings back the feeling of calm. Kady knows she should be wary, but the power of a god is too strong for her to fight against. “I’ve been watching you for a long time, Kady.”
Her words make Kady’s blood run cold, and she tightens her arms around her chest. “All that shit I went through must have been real entertaining,” she says through gritted teeth. All gods are the same. Content to watch while people suffer for their own amusement, only deigning to grace them with their presence when they want to feel magnanimous.
Hekate’s gentle face drops into a frown, and she takes a step back, giving Kady room. “Look I’m not proud of standing back,” she says, acknowledging that she can feel what Kady is thinking, “but it’s not like you even knew I existed until this moment.”
Nodding, Kady can’t deny that it’s true, but it doesn’t make up for anything. Holding her head high, Kady stares her down. “So why now?” She says after a long moment of silence. “What’s so important now?” Her voice drops low as she throws her arms out wide; she doesn’t care to hide her judgment.
“I can’t let you do what you’re trying to do,” Hekate says, and Kady almost thinks she sees genuine remorse, but she knows gods’ aren’t capable of that.
“My Penny doesn’t belong in the Underworld!”
“Kady.”
“He’s only there because of me,” she says. It takes everything in her to hold back the tears that she’s barely cried since losing her Penny. To be stopped yet again is almost too much. Her whole life she’s been losing. This quest to bring him back—the one that her friends pushed her to go on, is the first time in so long that she’s been willing to get her hopes up. Of course it would have been in vain.
“Kady.” It’s her name again, but it’s not Hekate’s voice. Standing before her is Penny. Her Penny. He’s desaturated in colour. Not sickly but not quite right either. She reaches for him, only to find that her hand slides right through.
“I can’t bring people back from the dead,” Hekate says from behind him, “but I can do this for you,” she adds before taking a further step away to give them privacy.
“Hey,” Penny says, giving her that smile he only ever had for her.
“Hey.”
“You look good.”
Kady lets the tears fall from her eyes and smiles. She misses him so much. “So do you.”
“Of course I do,” he says, causing an empty laugh to escape her lips. That damn ego. “I’m sorry, Kady.”
“There has to be a way to get you back,” she says. Penny reaches out to her, but his hand fades into nothingness on her skin. She feels a shiver run down her spine. It’s not supposed to be like this.
“I read our books. All forty versions. We were never supposed to be together. In every other timeline we hardly even met,” he says. The tears in her eyes flow harder. “But in this timeline, the only one that matters, I got to fall in love with you. I got to spend the best days of my life with the most amazing, badass chick I will ever know,” Penny says. They are as close as can be while existing in different planes. She wants to hold him, bring him in tight and never let go. She wants to bind his soul to her body, to remain with her forever. Her heart breaks knowing that she can’t. He isn’t really here. “So, as long as you’re out there, living, for both of us, then what we had, the good and the bad—that’s what gets to be our story.”
“I can’t do this without you,” she cries. He’s given up. He doesn’t get to do that, not while she isn’t ready to let him go.
“You already have,” he says, “and you will.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“That’s bullshit,” he says stepping backward. “You don’t need me. I mean it’s flattering that you think you do, but let’s be real,” he says flashing her that grin again. “I fucking love you, I always will, but you are more than what we have.”
An overwhelming sorrow washes over her. Penny stands in front of her, in that stupid Library suit looking at her like she hung the moon. She can feel her natural instinct to drag him for being so earnest, but they’ve been through too much for her to keep it inside. She’s never told him how she feels, and now it’s too late.
“It’s not too late,” Hekate says.
“I love you, Penny,” Kady says, releasing everything in that one word that shouldn’t have taken her so long to say.
“I love you too,” he says, disappearing into thin air.
Kady runs forward, grasping at where he was.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” Hekate says with a sympathetic smile. “And for what comes next,” she adds cryptically. Hekate places a hand over Kady’s heart. Her hand begins to glow and imbuing Kady with a power she’s only felt once—when she killed a man. The power of a god. It’s a feeling she never wanted to feel again, but then it’s never up to her. “You’ll need this to fight The Order,” Hekate says before vanishing.
There is a sudden snap of twigs, and Kady feels a rush as the sounds of the woods fill her ears. She looks around her; everything looks normal again. In the distance, the way she came while searching for the dog, she sees Julia and the other Penny racing towards her. They call her name and cry out in joy when they find her in the middle of the junction.
Julia runs towards her and wraps her arms around Kady’s middle.
“You won’t believe what just happened!” Julia says, the excitement radiating out of her.
“The hottest woman I have ever seen just got us back our Dewey,” Penny says, quickly catching raised eyebrows from both women. “Other than you two, of course,” he adds, barely covering himself.
“She really was gorgeous,” Julia says guiltily. “And we can keep trying.”
Kady can’t be sure, but she thinks she knows who helped them, and mouths a silent thanks to Hekate. “It’s time to go home,” Kady says, holding Julia close. She tells herself that it’s for the best. That it’s what her Penny wants. “The world is bigger than us and what we want.”
“Is everything okay?” Julia asks.
“It will be once we’re done with The Order.” Kady catches the other Penny’s eye and smiles. It sucks and the universe is monumentally screwed up. He’s not her Penny, but she knows him well enough to trust that he too will be by her side. And from the very little she got off the first god that isn’t a complete dick, they need everything and everyone they can get.