“But how?” I moan. “I mean, I can’t exactly storm a Hades prison and break him out. Even with Hercules’s help, that would be impossible.”
“Maybe when you talk to Hades about me you can ask him to free Jareth as well?” Sunny suggests hopefully.
“But then what about you? You think he’s going to let you both go?” I scowl as I realize the position I’m in. Will I really have to choose between my sister and my boyfriend? How could I possibly make that choice if I can only save one?
“There’s got to be another way,” Race reasons. “If only we could get in touch with Hercules. Maybe he could help us out. I mean, I know the prison-storming thing is out. But the guy’s pretty clever. He might have another idea up his sleeve. After all, he’s been hooking up with the boss’s wife for hundreds of years and still manages to keep his head somehow.” The rock star’s voice is full of admiration.
I look at him, my mouth dropping open in excitement. “That’s it!” I cry, bouncing up on the couch. “That’s totally it!”
Race and Sunny give me puzzled looks. “What’s it?” my sister asks.
“Hercules’s girlfriend. Hades’s wife. Persephone. I bet she has the power to spring someone from jail. And I’m sure she’s listed in Hellbook.”
“But why would Mrs. Hades help us?” Race questions. “I mean, unless Hercules mentioned us to her, she doesn’t know us from a hole in the wall. Why would she stick her neck out for some random non-dead strangers?”
“Because,” I say, my eyes shining my enthusiasm. “These particular random, non-dead strangers know about her secret love affair. And I’m guessing she’d pretty much do anything in the world to avoid us mentioning this little tryst to her husband…”
Sunny stares at me in disbelief. “Are you serious? You want to blackmail the Queen of the Underworld?”
“If it means getting my Jareth out of the Lake of Fire? Abso-freaking-lutely!”
28
“He’s over here, Your Majesty,” the green-skinned demon jailer announces, jingling his keys as he leads the beautiful Persephone and me down a narrow, rocky path along the shores of the Lake of Fire the next day. The goddess, dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and blinged-out tank top instead of the Grecian toga I’d imagined her in, wipes her sweaty brow as she gingerly steps over a boulder in strappy Louboutins.
“Finally,” she mutters. “This heat is going to ruin my complexion.”
I’m not enjoying it much either, but I’m too happy to complain. Thank the gods that when I first contacted Persephone—“Call me Percy”—over Hellbook, she was more than happy to help me out. Especially once I explained the situation. Turns out Mrs. Hades isn’t too fond of the Demon Patrol either, as it’s always trying to mess up her opportunities to see her boyfriend. And she’s a sucker for stories of forbidden love. So when I told her of their actions and how I needed to get my own boyfriend back, she was more than happy to throw her weight around to spite her husband’s guard and give us a happy ending. As a bonus, she also agreed to bring us to the palace afterward for a personal meet-and-greet with the husband. And we didn’t even have to blackmail her for the privilege.
“Ugh. I hate this place,” the goddess mutters as she pinches her nose with delicate fingers to ward off the stench of rot and sulfur. “I cannot wait until winter is over and I can go back up to Earth for the next six months.” She glances over at me. “I’ll look you guys up when I get back. Maybe we can try that new Mario Batali restaurant that just opened. It’s supposed to be to die for.” She giggles at her pun. “Get it, to die for?”
“Um, sure. That sounds… great?” Okay, she’s a little annoying, but I think her heart is in the right place. Guess it can get pretty lonely down here for the living.
“Here we are,” the jailer announces, stepping in front of a room literally made of pillars of fire. Thank goodness as a vampire, I don’t have to be concerned with smoke inhalation. I try to squint past the flames to catch a glimpse of my boyfriend. I gasp as I find him lying on the ground, bruised and battered. I guess the demons didn’t keep their promise not to rough him up. Bastards.
“Jareth!” I cry as the guard slips his key in the lock and the fire door slides open. He looks up, confused and dazed. Then his eyes lock onto me.
“Rayne!” he cries, scrambling to his feet. He rushes over to me and gives me a huge hug. “You found me. You actually found me.”
“Of course I did, silly,” I say, hugging him back. “You think I’d leave you down here?”
He looks at me, then at the jailer. “But how… ?”
“Jareth, meet Percy. As in Persephone, Queen of the Dead. She totally hooked us up.”
Jareth bows low to the goddess. “I am forever in your debt, Your Majesty.”
But Percy waves him off with a laugh. “Don’t mention it,” she says. “It’s the least I can do for true love.” She looks over at me with a smile. “You’ve got quite a lady here,” she tells Jareth. “You’d better hang on to her tight.”
“Oh, I will,” Jareth replies, his eyes shining. “You’d better believe it.”
And that’s how we find ourselves, sometime later, in a large, luxurious one-bedroom suite in the castle of Hades himself, waiting for our audience with the big guy. Percy said it might take a while for her to pull some strings, and in the meantime, she wanted to make our reunion as sweet as possible. The room is decorated entirely in white and the bed linens are made of the softest silk. As I step out of a nice, hot steamy shower, wrapped in an Egyptian cotton robe, I find Jareth propped up in the king-sized bed. He gestures to me with a smile and I join him, curling up into his body and resting my head on his shoulder.