“Sometimes I wish I could go back,” I mutter. “Do it all over again.”
Hades sits up on the couch, his small, beady eyes locked on me. “What would you do differently?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Everything? I mean, it’s hard to say, right? I certainly wouldn’t let Magnus bite my sister without explaining the whole deal to her first. I’d want her to at least be able to make an educated decision on what kind of life she wanted to lead.”
Of course, even as I’m saying the words, I wonder. Sure, if Sunny knew the truth, she might not let Magnus bite her. But then she would have never fallen in love with him either. And as much as their relationship has been tumultuous, to say the least, he’s also been her rock. Her soul mate without a soul.
Is it better to have loved and lost? Or never loved at all?
Hades rubs his graying goatee thoughtfully. “This could be fun,” he mutters, half to himself.
“What?” I cock my head in question. “What could be fun?”
He turns back to me. “Well, my dear, I’m sure you realize that I can’t just release your sister’s soul out of the blue like this,” he explains. “I mean, death is death. There’s no coming back. Unless it’s as a zombie. And zombies are trouble, as you saw. You don’t want your sister to become a mindless brain muncher, do you?”
I shake my head. That’s one supernatural creature I never want to see in real life. “But you’re Lord of the Underworld,” I protest. “You have the power to bring people back to life.”
“Honey, we can’t change the rules midstream or make exceptions—even for sisters of very talented gamer girls. What would people think if the dead suddenly started coming back to life? It’d be anarchy. It’d shake the very foundation humanity is based on.”
My heart sinks. This is so not what I wanted to hear. At all. “Please. I came all this way,” I cry. “Isn’t there something you can do? I can’t live life without my sister. And I’ll do anything to save her. She didn’t deserve to die.” I pause, sucking in a breath. “Can we make an exchange? My soul for hers?”
Hades chuckles. “You’re a vampire, remember?” he reminds me. “You gave up your soul a long time ago.”
Crap. I’d forgotten about that little technicality. I’d already willingly tossed aside the one thing that could have saved my sister. For what? Riches? Power? I am truly too stupid to live.
“There has to be some way to save her,” I beg, not ready to give up. “Please. She’s my sister.”
Hades considers this for a moment, then gives me a sympathetic pat on the knee. “Well, there is one possible way,” he ventures. “But I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
“Anything!” I cry, hope surging inside of me at his words. “Anything in the entire world.”
“Very well,” the Lord of the Underworld says. “Let’s play a little game. I’ll call it Operation Do-Over.”
I stare at him, confused beyond belief. “What the hell is that?”
“I can’t bring Sunny back from the dead. But we could go back to a time when she’s still living,” he says slyly. “After all, you told me you’d do things differently if you had a second chance, right? That night at Club Fang? You’d let Sunny choose her destiny.”
I stare at him, my head spinning, feeling as if I’m going to pass out right then and there. “You want us to go back in time?”
“In a sense,” Hades says thoughtfully. “We’ll reset the clocks, sending you and your sister back to the time before she was bitten by a vampire. Like returning to the save point in your video game. The two of you will still retain the knowledge and experiences you’ve gained over the last year. But everyone else will be exactly how they were. This way, you and your sister will have the chance to play it out, all over again. To make new choices, armed with what you know now about the consequences of those choices.
I force a hard swallow. “And no one will know this has happened—except us?”
Hades grins. “That’s right. Just you and Sunny against the world.”
But that would mean… Horror engulfs me as I glance over to the double doors, where Jareth waits in the next room. That would mean…
“No. I can’t,” I say, shaking my head with vehemence. “I can’t leave Jareth like this.” After all we’ve been through. After all we’ve said to one another. After he gave me his heart and I promised him eternity. How can I walk away now? Leave the love of my life behind? To go back to a time when he won’t even recognize me?
“Typical.” Hades clucks, as if disappointed. “Everyone always says they’d do anything.” He gets up from the couch. “Until that anything is presented to them.”
“Come on! There has to be another way!” I plead, my heart feeling as if it’s breaking in two. I try to imagine a life without Jareth. No, worse—a life where he’s there but doesn’t know me from a hole in the wall.
The god heads back to his recliner, grabbing the joystick off the table. “That’s my proposition. Take it or leave it.” He glances at his watch. “I’m going to work on beating level thirteen now. You need to have made your decision before I complete it.”
“But level thirteen’s just a bonus round!” I cry. “You’ll beat it in no time!”