Chapter 9: Sandstorm

"I'm not wearing that."

"Yes, you are," I said, forcing a hooded cape over Eros's head as he grumbled his protests.

He looked at himself in the mirror with a scowl. "It looks terrible."

"Now, don't insult Kingdom Pesok's attire and put these on." I offered him a tan, cotton scarf and a pair of protective eyewear.

Eros pretended not to see them.

I gritted my teeth. "You're acting like a child."

Lena laughed at that, adjusting the hood of her cape and wrapping a scarf around her mouth and nose. She lowered the scarf to say, "You will regret not wearing those, Eros. Especially when we step foot into Pesok's desert. Sandstorms happen often there."

Fully dressed, Bion tapped his foot impatiently by the door. The satyr was in his human form, hiding his hooves and horns from overly curious strangers he'd encountered. "Are you all ready yet?"

We were currently in one of the chambers of Kingdom Gora's castle, getting ready to depart on our trip to Kingdom Pesok. Bion had decided to join after finding us in the library and hearing out our plan.

A servant had brought us each full Pesok attires as per mother's request and if it wasn't for Eros, we would have already been on our horses, far away from this castle.

I was all out of patience.

Throwing the scarf and goggles at Eros, I headed toward the door. "Choke on sand for all I care."

Bion snorted and followed me out the door.

"You can put them on later if you'd like," I heard Lena say to Eros before she joined Bion and I in the hallway, as we made our way to the stables.

Four majestic stallions greeted us outside the stables, ready to be mounted. Their black coats shone in the sunlight, and their silver manes tousled slightly with the wind. It would have been easier to ride on Nephos, but mother told me that he was away in Olympus.

Having made her choice after a careful inspection of each horse, Lena climbed onto one. "I will take this beauty."

"It's been a while since I rode a horse..." Bion cleared his throat and admired his stallion. "They're much bigger than they looked from afar. And this one doesn't seem to like me much."

As if on cue, when the satyr tried to climb up, his stallion's nostrils flared and he tried to kick him.

"Oh Gods, get away from that horse, Bion! You can ride with me," Lena offered, taking the reins and shifting forward in her seat. "Climb on behind."

When Bion seated himself behind Lena, her stallion whinnied in protest and began to raise his front legs to shake the satyr off.

"Easy, boy," Lena cooed and calmed the stallion with a gentle caress. She turned to Bion. "Why don't they like you?"

"They smell the goat," he explained. "Stallions are snobby, and they're not happy that I'll be riding them. I'm not worthy enough in their eyes." He looked around. "Speaking of snobs, where's Eros?"

Seated on my horse, I too looked around, until I finally saw him walking toward us, scarf and goggles dangling on his neck. When he reached us, he wordlessly climbed on behind me on my stallion.

"There are two other horses here you can take," I said, pointedly looking at the two stallions without riders.

He leaned forward, pushed his arms under mine and took the reins. "I know," he murmured in my ear before sending us flying from the castle, the hooves of my stallion raising dust around us as it sped off.

"Slow down a little!" I protested, forced to stay glued to his front as the horse kept galloping forward. "Eros!"

The stallion slowed down to a canter, then a trot.

I breathed a sigh of relief, then turned my head to glare at the God behind me. "I'll be taking the reins now." I turned back to do just that, but his grip on them was too tight, not budging one bit. "Give me the reins."

He was still not budging.

"Eros, give me the reins! It's my horse!"

"You're acting like a child," he said mockingly.

I scoffed in disbelief and stopped trying to pry his hands off the reins. "Is that what this is about? Are you upset that I called you a child? I'm sorry, all right? I'm sorry that the truth hurt you."

"Could have stopped at 'I'm sorry'," he grumbled.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, telling myself that it will only slow us down from reaching Pesok if I pushed him off the horse.

But then I can just leave him behind and get to Kingdom Pesok in peace, another thought came over me.

"Don't even think about it, love," Eros warned.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" I challenged him.

"You got suspiciously quiet, and with your violent nature, it wasn't hard to guess what was brewing in that head of yours."

"Violent nature?" I gasped in offence.

No response came, but I felt his chest shake with a silent laugh.

Lena and Bion finally caught up to us and we rode side by side toward Kingdom Pesok. When the rocky ground started to transition into sand, we were here.

I adjusted my goggles and pulled the scarf over my mouth and nose when the wind blew some sand in my face.

Eros coughed behind me. "Bloody sand."

I took hold of the reins and told him to put on his scarf and goggles, and this time he listened.

As we ventured deeper into the desert, we lost out bearings.

"What now?" Bion said, his voice slightly muffled by his scarf.

"Cassia, do you think you can find where exactly that box is buried?" Lena asked. "See any ghosts that could help us, like that girl you were chasing in the Dark Forest?"

"That's what I was counting on," I said, looking around. I didn't know why that little soul helped me in the forest, nor did I know who she was, but I was hoping that I'd find another clue once in the desert.

There wasn't a single one in sight.

Suddenly, a big wave of dust rose in the distance and was starting to head in our direction, getting bigger with every passing second.

Feeling the danger, our two stallions ran in opposite directions at full speed, separating our group. I looked back to see if Lena and Bion were all right, but they'd long disappeared on their panicked horse.

My stallion wasn't calming down either. I held on to the reins for my dear life as he galloped like a lunatic to escape the sandstorm. Eros's arms tightened around me as he too fought to stay on.

I felt my hand slip when the horse took a sharp turn and my body hung sideways with one hand gripping the reins still. Eros slipped with me.

"Hold on!" he grunted, trying to bring us back up, but the stallion's powerful gallops only shook us further until we plummeted to the ground and rolled on it, with our limbs painfully intertwined together.

Wincing, I detangled myself from Eros, watching our stallion abandon us as it galloped away.

"Are you all right?" Eros asked me, standing up and shaking sand off his clothes.

I nodded, rising to stand. "Are you?"

"Yes, but that traitor ran away with all of our supplies." He looked in the direction where the horse was merely a blur in the distance. "We now have no food, no water, and no tent."

"Bloody h--" I paused, seeing a woman appear in front of us. She wordlessly pointed to the right. I frowned.

"Is something there?" Eros asked the ghost.

"You can see her too?" I said.

"I'm a God," he reminded me. "I see beings from all realms."

"And yet you can't conjure us up a tent," I said underneath my breath. He heard it.

"That's Hecate's specialty. Not mine."

I sighed. "That's a shame."

There was nothing but more sand to our right, but I was sure the ghost knew more than we did, so we followed her.

"It's... a sack?" Eros raised a brow, looking down at the lumpy object on the ground.

I crouched down to open it, smiling when I pulled out a tent and a small bag of dried fruit. I looked at the woman. "Do you know who left it here?"

She pointed at herself.

My smile dropped. "And you... here?"

She nodded.

"How?"

The woman reached over and put one hand on my arm.

I was in the middle of a desert, carrying a heavy sack over my shoulder as I dragged my feet through the sand.

"Why did my husband have to be such an imbecile?" I complained to myself. "This is the third time I'm crossing the desert to pay off his debts because he's too afraid of getting killed if he does it himself." I scoffed. "I married a coward. I truly did."

I felt a tingling sensation throughout my body and stopped walking. When the feeling subsided, I took a step forward and dropped my sack when I saw the toe of my boot start to disappear.

I lifted my foot in disbelief as I watched it get swallowed into nothingness.

"Hector! Help!" I screamed as I fell to the ground and watched in quiet horror as my legs disappeared next. Then my arms. Then the rest of me, until I was no longer there.

I looked at the woman with wide eyes. I still couldn't believe what I saw. She simply disappeared into nothingness. How was that possible?

Suddenly, the ghost of her began to disappear as well. Just as the ghost I saw in my chambers in Soleil, she was dragged into the ground, her mouth open in a silent scream and her eyes filled with fear. And just like last time, I tried to help her, but couldn't.

I stared at the spot in the sand where the poor woman's soul was dragged into with a deep frown, trying to think of an explanation for everything I'd witnessed.

"Cassia, we need to set up that tent," Eros interrupted my thoughts. "Now."

I'd completely forgotten about the sandstorm which was still headed our way, closer now than it was when our stallion abandoned us.

"Quickly, grab that end!" I spread the tent and we opened it, setting it up together as fast as we could. The storm was even closer now, threatening to cut through us at any second. "Get inside!"

We both rushed in and closed the tent flap right before it got assaulted with the storm, shaking  above our heads as wind and grains of sand attacked it. I was worried that it wouldn't be able to withstand it all.

After a while, the tent continued to shake, but not as violently as it did before. It was still in one piece.

"What did the ghost show you?" Eros asked. "You looked shaken by it."

I lowered my scarf. "She disappeared into thin air. She was alive and then... she wasn't anymore. I don't understand how that's possible. Is it possible? Could people vanish without a trace?"

He cursed. "It is possible. Many Gods have the power to do it, but there's one I suspect most. I've been thinking it over ever since you told me about the ghost who warned you to find the Helm."

"Who?"

Eros pulled down his scarf. "Persephone."

"The Goddess that was forced to marry Hades? But why would she do such things?"

"This is only my theory. I could be wrong," he said, adjusting to sit in a more comfortable position, legs crossed. "When Hades abducted her from Olympus, she'd been furious at Zeus for doing nothing to stop him and the marriage that followed. Taking away the Helm of Darkness from Hades was Zeus's weak attempt to console her."

I placed my chin on my knuckle, my brows furrowed as I listened to Eros.

"Persephone's been docile since then, and that makes me uneasy. She's never been one to give up easily, and I suspect that she's been planning something big. She could easily manipulate Hades into doing her bidding. Bringing living people into the Underworld being one of them."

" 'He will take everyone to the Underworld, dead or alive'," I repeated the ghost's warning, eyes widening at the realization that Eros's theory might be correct. "The question is, when?"

Eros pursed his lips. "Only The Fates know the answer to that, but they would never give it away without asking for something in return."

"How do we find The Fates?"

"You don't understand. They could ask for years of your life. Even decades. Would you be willing to give that away?"

After some thought, I nodded. "If it saves everyone else from dying, I am."

"And what if they ask you to sacrifice someone else's years -- say your mother's -- would you still be willing?"

That made me freeze. "They can do that?"

He nodded. "Their life threads and those of their loved ones are all that mortals can offer in exchange for knowledge from The Fates. It's a very hefty price to pay."

I released a defeated sigh and slumped my shoulders. This was impossible. All humanity could be wiped clean off the surface of this earth at any moment. It could happen today for all I know.

An image of a sunflower flashed through my vision, but I ignored it, my mind too cluttered with questions to examine its meaning.

"The tent stopped shaking," Eros observed. "I think the sandstorm passed us."

I pulled my scarf over my mouth and nose once again and peeked outside the tent to check if it was safe to go out. "You're right. We can leave now."

When I opened the flap to step out of the tent, my foot got caught in the fabric and I stumbled forward. I hissed as I fell on the soft sand, feeling a stabbing pain in my ankle.

"Don't," Eros protested when I tried to stand up. He crouched down beside me and pushed up my pant leg to reveal an already swelling ankle. I grimaced when he wrapped one large hand around it and applied gentle pressure. "Looks like you sprained it."

"It's all right," I said. "I'll manage." Now that the dust had settled, I squinted my eyes into the distance, where I could see the peaks of many buildings. The city wasn't as far as I'd thought. "I'll manage to the city."

"No, you won't. You'll put pressure on your ankle, are you mad? We need to find you a healer." Eros snaked one arm under my upper back and one under my knees. "Put your arm around my neck," he instructed.

I hesitated, but the throbbing pain in my ankle made me do as he said, and I wrapped one arm around his neck before he lifted me off the ground.

He looked down at me. "Are you comfortable?"

I nodded. Noticing that he still had his scarf pulled down, I reached up with my free hand to cover his face.

"You might want to put your other arm around me," he said.

"But I'm--" I stopped speaking when a pair of white wings emerged from his back.

"Hold on tight."

Eros swung his beautiful wings and lifted us into the sky. He flew us over the desert and into the city, landing in an empty alley. As soon as his feet touched the ground, his wings vanished, as if they were never there.

"I didn't know you had wings," I said. Human books about Gods were rarely accurate. Writers added their own twists to their stories and often exaggerated certain details. I'd assumed it was true for the God of Love as well, but I was wrong.

"I need to put you down for a moment." He placed me on a wooden crate nearby and collapsed onto the ground, hissing in agony.

"Eros!" I dropped down beside him. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Don't worry, it will pass," he bit out, yanking off his scarf and taking deep breaths. "It happens every time I use them."

"Your wings?"

He nodded. "Ever since I was poisoned, I couldn't use them as before. Not without feeling scorching pain on my back." He laughed through the pain. "I was in such a rush to bring you to a healer that I'd forgotten all about it. And now I can't even stand up."

Sudden anger burst through me. "Who did this to you? Who poisoned you? I'll make them pay."

He started to laugh, then grimaced. "Easy, love. Your violent nature is coming out again."

My eyes softened as I watched him suffer, unable to do anything to ease his pain. "Tell me how to help you," I said.

"Distract me," Eros hissed, grinding his teeth. "Distract me from this torture. Tell me a story. Anything."

I tried to think of a story to tell him, racking my brain for anything that could possibly take his attention away from his suffering. I thought of all the fairytales I've read and all the stories I've heard from servants and merchants. Nothing seemed good enough.

As I met his pained eyes, I panicked. I wanted to help him. Gods, why couldn't I think of anything?

"Please," he begged.

Without thinking, I pulled away my scarf and brought my lips to his.

His eyes widened in surprise before closing, and he started to move his lips against mine. My own eyes slowly fluttered shut as I got lost in our kiss.

His lips were as soft as they looked.

Eros brought his hand to my cheek and deepened the kiss. I melted right into him, unable to pull myself away even when my lungs started to scream for air.

Much to my dismay, his lips left mine and he smiled. "That," he said, "was the best distraction."

"Are you feeling better?" I asked, catching my breath.

His eyes dropped to my lips and he slowly traced his thumb over them. "I am, but I'm starting to feel the pain come back. I'll need another kiss to feel better."

I had a strong feeling that he was lying, but when his soft lips came down on mine, I was once again lost in our embrace.

My hands curled in his hair as he placed me on his lap and wrapped his arms around my waist. Even through the thick fabric of my clothes, his touch burned my skin, sending tingles up my spine.

I released a sigh of content when Eros released my lips and started to leave a scorching trail of kisses down the sensitive skin of my neck.

Someone cleared their throat at the front of the alley and we both turned our heads in that direction. It was a silhouette of man, and when he stepped into the light, I pushed Eros away from me.

"Father?!" I screeched.

I was doomed.

***

Uh-oh... Doomed might be an understatement.