Goddess in Time by Tera Lynn Childs

would sentence myself to an eternity in the underworld if it means undoing my biggest mistake—my biggest regret.
    “Yes,” I say. “I really want to go to Hades.”
    “You’re sure?” Troy asks.
    I give him a stop-asking-stupid-questions look. He should be tired of asking them. I’m done having that debate.
    He crosses his arms over his chest. “Then I’ll go with you.”
    I say, “No,” at the same time Xander says, “No way.”
    “Why not?” Troy asks Xander, ignoring me.
    “Sorry, buddy,” Xander replies. “Family secret. It’s a big enough no-no taking one outsider in.”
    Troy deflates a little.
    “You’ll take care of her?” he asks, still talking to Xander. “You’ll get her there and back in one piece?”
    Griffin snorts with barely controlled laughter until Phoebe elbows him in the ribs.
    I punch Troy in the arm. Since when do I need anyone to take care of me?
    “I’ll do my best,” Xander promises, so I punch him in the arm, too.
    He’s got a lot more muscle.
    “Can we go already?” I ask as I shake out my fist.
    Stella grabs Xander by the hand and pulls him into her arms. When their lips touch, I turn away from the don’t-want- that -burned-into-my-memory display.
    Troy steps in front of me.
    “Be careful down there,” he says.
    “I’ll be fine,” I insist. “You know me—not even a Hesperian dragon can keep me down.”
    I learned that lesson the hard way.
    “I’m serious.” Troy steps even closer. “Come back to me in one piece.”
    A sarcastic quip is on the tip of my tongue, but something about his tone makes me hold it in. Troy is a worrier, sure, but he’s not usually so serious. So intense.
    It’s almost too much.
    From the corner of my eye, I see Phoebe take Griffin’s hand.
    They’re all worried about me. I get that. But they should know me well enough to believe that I won’t let myself fail.
    “I will be fine,” I say, pronouncing each word precisely, trying to assure myself as much as Troy. I jerk my head back over my shoulder. “Are they done yet?”
    Troy peers around me. “Nope, not—oh, wait, I think they’re—no, still going.”
    “Very funny,” Stella says, coming to stand next to me.
    He grins. “I thought so.”
    I laugh.
    His ability to laugh at himself is one of the reasons Troy and I are best friends. Too many people take the inconsequential stuff too seriously. He always lightens the mood.
    “Let’s do this thing,” Xander says.
    “We’ll be back”—I give Troy a helpless shrug—“as soon as we’re back.”
    He nods.
    Xander holds out his hand. “Ready?”
    “As I’ll ever be,” I reply, flashing Troy one last smile.
    I place my palm in Xander’s and instantly we’re no longer standing at the base of the stadium. We’re in a beautiful green meadow full of small white flowers.
    Xander gestures at the flowers. “Welcome to the family secret.”
    “What is it?” I ask.
    “This is the field of narcissus,” Xander explains, “that Hades planted to entrap Persephone. The flowers mark the location of a secret entrance to the underworld. An entrance that bypasses Chiron and the River Styx, direct to Hades’s black palace.”
    These beautiful flowers are really a signpost to the underworld? That’s messed up.
    Xander leads me forward, closer to the flowers.
    “This is the door through which Hades first abducted the goddess of spring.” He steps into the center of the field of flowers. “And it’s the door through which she leaves and returns each year.”
    As he speaks, the green meadow and the blue sky melt away, replaced by dark stone and red glow. The overwhelming stench of decay can mean only one thing: we are in Hades.

8
    T he black palace stretches high above me, like a mountain of shadow. Boy, the god-kings sure don’t scrimp on their royal residences. Although to be honest, if I had to live in the underworld I’d want to live in a freakin’ mansion, too. Inside, it’s supposed to be an escape from the