“Yes, giant, we get it,” Red growled. “You don’t need to rub her nose in her own shit. She knows where she came from.”

I could feel my expression souring at their conversation.

“Yeah, hey. How are people greeting Kieran?” Bria asked whoever was on the other line. She listened for a moment, and her lips tightened. “They’re giving Lexi the preferential treatment. Something is amiss.” She listened for a moment longer before nodding and hanging up.

“What’d he say?” Red asked.

“What I thought he’d say: Kieran is being treated how he should. Lydia knows the right etiquette; she’s just not using it with Lexi. The question remains…why?”

“She’s not making a play for Lexi,” Red said, once again barely moving her mouth. If we hadn’t been standing so close to her, I wouldn’t have even known she was talking. “She can’t be that stupid. If she didn’t know Kieran would defend Lexi with his life before yesterday, she does now. He was very clear in his possessive mannerisms last night. Lydia wouldn’t dare take him out, either. The magical rulers wouldn’t let that slide, because it would open the door for the other Demigods to do something just as crazy to make a play for half a dozen other rare talents around the world that are currently securely locked down. The magical world would be plunged into magical mayhem as fast as you could blink, which would then affect the Chesters. Setting up the rules we currently have in place stopped all that Dark Ages crap. No, Jerry is right. She’s mocking Alexis to make her look stupid. Alexis is gorgeous, but she cannot hide her roots. When she gets flustered with the servants, it reveals her poor bumpkin roots—Cinderella without the elegance. Lydia has all the cameras watching to make sure it’s caught digitally, too. Thank heavens Amber is at the other end of that noise.”

“Now who’s rubbing her face in shit?” Jerry asked.

“I really wish you’d both stop,” I grumbled, trying not to sink into myself.

“What a fart-box-licking piece of crap,” Daisy spat, and I couldn’t do more than stare. She’d managed a really foul cutdown without any technically bad words.

“Right, fine, whatever,” I said, trying to get this situation back on track. “She’s trying to make me look like I don’t belong. It wouldn’t be the first time. Let’s just look at…whatever is next on the list and hope this day doesn’t drag on forever.”

“I’ve got bad news,” Jerry said, almost like it was an afterthought.

“Please don’t enlighten me any more about my situation,” I said, rubbing my face.

“This place is built on sand,” he said. “Sand for days. Very little natural rock. I won’t be much help if something happens.”

27

Alexis

The afternoon just got weirder. After lunch we visited the mortuary, where Lydia stored magically sealed dead bodies. That in itself wasn’t odd, per se, since Bria hid bodies in the yard of every new house I moved into. The strange thing was that the bodies were stored upright in glass cases filled with dirt. Only the faces had been left visible. We walked down the rows, looking at dead faces, with their lidded eyes and sagging skin. It was more grotesque than I’d expected, which was saying something, given we’d just toured a collection of stuffed animals that would give a child nightmares, including created animals pieced together from various parts.

Everywhere I went, eyes followed me. People smiled and bowed. They muttered reverence. Staff asked if I needed anything, offering ridiculous things, like to carry me in a chair if I needed a rest but didn’t want to stop. At lunch someone had actually cut my meat for me, like a child. It was a wonder they hadn’t attempted to feed me while they were at it.

When I finally saw Kieran walking down the hall toward us, an hour before our scheduled dinner with Lydia and her choice people, I heaved a great sigh of relief.

His jacket buttons were open and his hair disheveled, as though he’d repeatedly run his fingers through it. His smile was brief and eyes tight. Although I’d already gathered as much through the soul connection, his day had clearly turned out little better than mine.

“Hey, love, how goes it?” he asked, his tone and mannerisms easy, loose and confident, but the wariness within him set me on edge. He waved his finger at the air around us. “What’s with this?”

The Line throbbed not far away, pulsing with power that sizzled through my blood.

“Oh, sorry. Hang on, I was just about to—”

I turned and spied what had to be the twelfth white mouse that day, scurrying toward us with yet another spirit tucked inside. The woman that I ripped out looked around, her hair limp around her gaunt face and her faded eyes not seeming to register the scene around her. She seemed like she was on her deathbed…but she was already dead. Did she not realize she could change her image? And if so…why not? From my understanding, it was the kind of knowledge that was automatically imparted to the dead. If I weren’t so afraid of what Lydia might do to Jack if she found or felt him wandering around, I would’ve called him to me and asked.

“I tried to talk to a few of the spirits lingering in the halls and a couple of the ones I’ve taken out of the mouse bodies,” I murmured. “It’s like they don’t even hear me. They look right through me. Except for one, who reached out for me, but I could tell he was just hoping to glean a little energy. I just don’t know what is directly causing it, or how to fix the situation.”

“And the mice?” Kieran asked.

I shoved the woman across the Line, as far as I could manage. Hopefully that would solve the problem. I was half inclined to go check, but we’d told Harding to stay away too, and I didn’t dare cross the Line while in the dominion of a Hades Demigod.

“The Necromancer around here keeps sending white mice after us.” I took Kieran’s arm and walked with him back to our suite. Mordecai and Daisy followed behind, as quiet as the death lingering in this palace. The others walked with them, equally as silent. “Sometimes it is just the one and sometimes it’s a few of them all scurrying down the halls together. It’s weird. I get sending the first couple, trying to sneak up on us and hear what we’re saying, but after none of them succeeded, why keep it up?”

“Bria?” Kieran asked as we reached the suite. He led the way inside, scanning with his eyes while I checked the place with spirit.

“Clear,” I said. Kieran nodded, but kept the lead until he was in the middle of the room, his power oozing out around him. He worried about an attack, and he didn’t trust his eyes or my senses. Something had gotten to him.

“It seems like a joke,” Bria said, following us in with everyone else. “There’s no other reason for it. The souls didn’t do any magic. I couldn’t even feel them, they were so weak.”

“Lydia doesn’t have a sense of humor,” Zorn said, his voice deep and gruff. He scanned the windows and the corners.

“Right. Exactly.” Bria sank onto a delicate chair, huffed, slid off, and melted onto the ground. She stretched out and propped her head up on her hand. “The way they’ve been treating Lexi doesn’t add up, either. Jerry and Red agree that it is probably intended as mocking behavior, but I just don’t see Lydia encouraging her people to treat someone lesser as someone of high status.”