Sirenz Back in Fashion (19 page)

Waiters passed, bearing golden trays of goblets brimming with wine. I shook my head, declining, but others around me rushed over, grabbing greedily. The sedate orchestral music was replaced by progressive rock, and the crowd became a frenzied mob with Hades in the middle, the dancing wild and uninhibited.

It seemed to be the signal for me to go, and I slipped out unnoticed. Not about to try escaping in my glamorous get-up, I headed quickly to my room to change. Even if Caz had ditched the plan, I hadn't. I just had to find Eurydice.

When a shadow moved in front of me, I jumped and screamed—before I realized it was Caz.

“You scared me!” I slapped his arm.

“Sorry. Are you ready?”

Hands on hips, I glared at him. “For what? To meet your date? Oh wait, I already did. Bye.” I tried to skirt around him, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the nearest room, which happened to be the bowling alley. Lois stood there waiting.

“Are you serious?” I spat, looking at her furiously. “What are you—”

She strode up to me, shaking her head. Then she pulled off her wig.

Eurydice!

“If I'd shown up alone, Hades would be watching us the entire night. We'd never have been able to sneak out,” Caz explained.

“It would have been nice if you'd filled me in on the plan.”

“There was no time,” said Eurydice, “and we didn't want to make Hades suspicious. Real surprise is hard to replicate.”

As I exhaled in relief, Eurydice urged, “Dionysus is revving them all up with wine and music. Even Hades is susceptible to his wantonness. But we have to hurry and get out of his reach before he realizes you're both gone.”

I could hear the raucous music and voices even this far down the hall. Things were really getting wild.

“Okay, let me change first.” I started toward my room again, but Caz pulled me in the opposite direction.

“No time.”

I dug in my heels. “I at least need to get my purse. Female necessity.” Sighing, he released my arm and waited until, purse in hand, I returned, only to find him talking to D'On.

“You saw him!” Caz said excitedly.

“He's alive and well,” said D'On. “And he's in no danger from Meg.” He smiled when he saw me. “I like Meg—she's got a good soul. And Pollux agrees.”

The look in his eye and the tone of his voice wasn't lost on me. Pollux liked Meg. Talk about complicated. I shook my head. “It's the Siren mojo.”

“I don't think so,” said D'On. “He knows about the fleece, and he knows about you—what she could tell him, I expect. He understands her dilemma.”

I turned to Caz. “I'm ready. Let's rock.”

Caz nodded and clapped D'On on the shoulder. “Keep 'em busy, bro.”

“Will do,” he said, and turned back to the ballroom.

We made our way to the gothic garden. It was night in Tartarus and the plants looked even more sinister than usual. Careful not to brush up against or walk too near the deadly flora, we found the gnarly tree. Eurydice pushed aside the mangled, dead-looking branches, revealing a barely noticeable path.

It wound down, over the black rock in front of Hades' palace. I stumbled several times, cursing Arachne for the shoes and dress and Hades for being the cause of everything wrong in my life since that night on the subway. It felt more like an eternity rather than a mere few months.

The path halted at the river. Those dark waters and the drowning senator would give me nightmares for years. Caz turned an irritable eye on Eurydice.

“You never mentioned we'd have to cross or go down the Styx,” he said.

“I forgot! It's been three thousand years!” Her eyes burned.

There was no time for this. “Move,” I snapped. “Splendor!” I called, not too loudly. “Splendor!”

Soon I heard the slap of water on wooden oars. A shadow loomed, a boat with a darkly draped figure poised at the helm. A broad smile stretched across my face at Caz's bewilderment and Eurydice's shock.

“Who did you call? Where's Charon?” he asked.

“Watch and learn,” I replied primly.

“What dirt-sucking, plebeian—” grumbled Splendor, and then stopped. “Shar? Is that you?” She docked the rocking boat at the shore.

“Hi Splendor!”

“Who's that with you?” she asked, pulling off her hood. “Castor?”

“Aglaia? What are
you
doing down
here
?”
he asked.

Before Splendor could ask about Eurydice, growling and snarling came from the shadows.

“Cerberus!” Caz hissed.

I could feel him tense with fear, but still, he stepped in front of me. How brave—but not necessary. Eurydice looked like she was going to faint.

Daintily I side-stepped him and gingerly picked up a femur from a pile of bones by the lapping water. After huge piles of dog poop, a bleached bone was not daunting. First one set of eyes and then another twinkled in the darkness. Then all three slobbering heads came bounding toward me.

“Good goggy!” I called. And he stopped. One at a time, each head cocked itself at me, then sounded a friendly bark.

“Who's a good goggy?” I gushed. “Go get the bone!”

I wound up and tossed, then with yelps, Cerberus chased after it.

“Get me another one!” I urged.

Caz and Eurydice obeyed, each handing me a bone. I tucked them under my arm as I hurried over to Splendor. She gave me a questioning look, but I quickly opened my purse. “Here.” I handed her my breath mints, hand sanitizer, tissue packet, hand lotion, and golden compact with the engraved
S
. “I, we, need a ride down the river.”

She shook her head slightly. “The only thing down the river is the Pit. Don't you mean back the other way?”

“No,” said Caz. “We need to see Kronos. We have to—”

“Deliver a message!” I interrupted. I gave his hand a squeeze, hoping he wouldn't contradict me. The fewer people who knew what we were doing, the easier it would be to keep the secret. Plus, if everything blew up in our faces, I didn't want to get Splendor in trouble for helping us. Cerberus came loping back and I threw another bone.

Splendor piled her treasures on the floor of the boat by her feet and motioned for us to come aboard. Caz nimbly lifted first me, then Eurydice, onto the boat, then hopped up himself just as Cerberus came back holding a skull in the mouth of his middle head like a squeaky ball. I picked up an arm bone with a hand still attached.

“Take this to Daddy! Good goggy!” I yelled, and hurled it into the blackness. Away went Cerberus, and Splendor started poling.

“Who's that?” she asked, twitching her head in Eurydice's direction.

“Don't ask,” I said. She got the hint.

“So, Castor, visiting the relatives?” she inquired casually.

“You could say that,” he responded easily. “Why the new career, Aglaia?”

We were now well down from Hades' palace and so far no one had come screaming, running, or poofing to stop us. I could relax just a bit.

“I'm keeping a low profile. Let's just say that
some
gods are a little too full of their own attractiveness.”

He huffed. “My father making your life difficult?” She didn't respond right away, but she did turn bright red.

“Sometimes it's not the dog you have to worry about,” she said cryptically. “It's the one holding the leash.”

“So
she's
got you on the run, then.”

Splendor made a face.

Sadly, I understood their references. Typical pattern. The husbands chase with kisses, the wives with knives. Zeus and Hera. I felt sorry for Hera. She'd been nice, sort of, to Meg and me.

The boat moved swiftly and silently down the river in the inky blackness. I didn't see or hear anything or anyone. We'd made it this far; maybe we'd succeed.

In the distance I saw dim lights, which grew brighter as we got closer. Suddenly Eurydice perked up. She closed her eyes and swayed in rhythm to music that got louder and louder.

Is that Elvis I hear?
I'd thought he was in the Elysian Fields, appearing in some club with screaming women throwing their panties at him.

The boat ground to a halt on the rocks.

No way.

This was no dangerous squalid hole. It was lights and fountains and fancy cars … and a casino.

The Pit was the Vegas of the Underworld.

Meg

Large- Scale
Wardrobe Malfunction

On the morning of the Spring Fling, I woke to find Paulina gone. And the fleece too.

I leapt out of bed, panicked. Usually I'd find her sitting on her bed, ready to walk out the door.

Is she still in the shower? Did she take the fleece with her? Maybe she's … gone!
I got up and padded to the edge of her side of the room, craning my neck to try and see if the fleece was shoved under the desk, rolled in her sheets, or hidden in her closet. Nothing. Under the bed? But before I could peek, I heard the key turning in the lock. I hopped back over to my desk and opened a book, trying to look nonchalant.

Paulina, fully dressed, breezed in carrying shampoo, a fluffy black bathrobe, a towel—and no fleece. I felt my heart race. Where was it? Had she left it in the bathroom? Given it to someone? Thrown it away?

“Up early?” she asked. I looked at the clock: 8:15. I usually slept till at least 10:30 on Saturdays.

“Yeah.” I slapped the book shut. “So, do you have any idea what you'd like to wear tonight?” I asked casually.

She shrugged. “Nah. I guess we should go shopping.”

“Okay, but we'll want to bring my coat if you're going to use it,” I said, peering around her. “Where is it?”

“Oh.” She stared at me. Garbed head-to-toe in black jeans and a black billowy shirt, she looked taller and lankier than ever. She stooped by her bed. “I think it's here.” She reached under the bed and dragged out the fleece. It hardly looked regal, twisted into a lump and covered in dust bunnies. Hades would freak if he saw it. Paulina didn't give it back, but tossed it onto her bed. It hit the wall and fell ungracefully next to her rolled-up comforter. She sat down next to it.

“Go ahead and get ready. I'll wait for you.”

I got dressed quickly—so quickly that I didn't realize she'd left the fleece behind until we were blocks from the dorm. When I did an about-face to retrieve it, she stopped me, saying, “We don't need it. Everything goes with black, right?”

I had no fight left in me, and I didn't argue as she led me uptown. In Bloomingdale's, I walked around the women's tall department in a daze, not knowing what to do or say. I thought I'd be in the Underworld by this point, yet now I had a dance to go to.

“Think I can wear pants?” she asked, holding up four pairs of what looked like identical black jeans. “I'm not really into dresses. Let's head over to the men's department.”

“Men's?”

“Yeah, they fit better for some reason.”

“Sure.” I shrugged.

She selected several pairs, then ducked into the fitting room as I leaned against a pillar with a mirror bolted to each side, yawning. I felt like I was back shopping with Shar. I giggled feebly.
With Shar.
If only. My phone rang and I pulled it out. Jeremy.

“Hi.”

“Hey.” His voice, usually silky and capable of making my stomach do backflips, sounded flat. “Just making sure we're still on for tonight.”

Did he doubt it?
“Yeah, why wouldn't we be?”

Silence.

“Just checking.” He paused again, then added, “Your roommate coming?”

“Yes,” I answered, relieved. Maybe it was better that they meet. At least then he'd see I was telling the truth about that.

“Good,” he said, sounding a little more like himself. “I'll meet you there at seven.” He hung up without a goodbye.

Glumly I snapped the phone shut and waited for Paulina to come out. She bought a pair of the black jeans, a black button-down, and a glittery black headband. We went back to the dorm to get ready.

I didn't want to shower again, figuring that I might be able to throw the fleece on while she was out getting ready, but she piled the thing on top of her clothes and left for the bathroom almost as soon as we got back.

Well,
I thought, walking over to my closet,
if she tries it on in the bathroom with the full-length mirror to see how it looks with those skinny jeans, she'll be going someplace other than the Spring Fling, and at least I won't have had a hand in making her do it.
But I still felt guilty for thinking how much easier that would make this; Shar would return and it wouldn't be my fault. But my hands were still not totally clean. And part of me would miss Paulina.

Alone, I stripped off the calf-length dress and socks I was wearing; the scales made it impossible to wear anything else. Since that first day when I'd discovered them in the shower, more scales had appeared. They now ran across my chest at the level of my underarms and down my back, sides, and front to my knees, like a snug-fitting strapless dress. The skirt part felt like a membrane, and it constricted my movement a bit—if it were a little lower, I'd be walking with a wiggle, and lower than that, would I sprout fins?

The scales were a few shades darker than my skin and slightly iridescent, but still, in the mirror, I looked shockingly naked. When I ran my hand down them the right way—forget going against the grain, that just hurt too much—the scales felt like no fabric I'd ever touched before; firm, but supple and slippery soft.

I went through each article of clothing that I owned. Couldn't do pants, since my legs wouldn't go in; couldn't do a skirt, since the waistbands made the scales dig into my skin. No tights, no fitted tops would accommodate my fishy torso. The choices were narrowing down to nothing.

I looked at the smocked, shapeless shift I'd thrown on the floor. How would I explain to Paulina that I was just going to wear the same thing I'd been trying to dress up for almost two weeks? Would she even care? I picked it up, shook it out, and laid it on my bed, pondering what I could do with it to make it look different. From the closet I dug out a pair of ancient silver shoes, and in my drawer found shimmery thigh-high stockings I could roll down a bit.
At least these don't pinch
, I thought, sliding them on.

I buckled my feet into the shoes and was about to put the dress back on when the door flew open. There was no time to leap behind my changing screen. Paulina stood in the doorway, all ready to go. She started for a second, looking at me in a way I'd never seen her look at me before. In a strange, unsettling way, it kind of reminded me of when I'd caught Jeremy peeking at me while I was dancing at the concert.

In the meantime, I stood frozen.
You are
standing in front of Paulina in nothing but thigh-highs and heels!
We stared at each other for a long moment, and then the half-grin flickered on her lips.

She cleared her throat. “Did you just buy that?” she asked, a bit hoarsely.

“Um, no,” I said, my face coloring.

“It looks … ” She shook her head, her mouth working to find the right words. “That's just … rocking.”

Rocking?
Was she kidding?

“I'm serious,” she went on, setting down her shower things and dropping the fleece on the ground. “I always thought you could pull off something like that, but you're always hiding under dark baggy clothes.
Wow
.”

“I'm
not
wearing this,” I said, scuttling over to my bed to get the black sack I'd had on before.

“Oh yes you are,” she said, dragging me out the door before I could utter any protests—but not without the fleece. I snatched it up from the floor as we left.

The dance was being held in the school gymnasium, only a block from the dorm. I didn't want to walk down the hall and out into the streets naked, but Paulina pulled me along, reveling in the admiring stares I got from other kids, passing men and women in suits, and two policemen.

We arrived on the stroke of seven, right on time. Kate was working the admissions table.

“Oh my God, Meg,” she gushed, running an appreciative eye over my scales. “Nice dress!”

She actually seemed sincere, and I looked around for Alana or Caroline; they were nowhere in sight. I made a little nod of acknowledgment, then slipped in front of Paulina; with her in back of me and the fleece in front, I was somewhat covered.

We hovered by the door, keeping an eye out for Jeremy. We didn't have to wait long. I made a little wave and at first he looked right through me, but then did a double take, his eyes lingering on my “dress.”

“I'll take this,” said Paulina, slipping the fleece from my hands and tucking it under her own jacket, which she'd taken off. Jeremy paid for his ticket and came over to where we stood, not taking his eyes off me—or at least, the part from my neck to my knees.

“I can't believe you're wearing something like this,” he said, slipping an arm around me. “I … uh … what's it made of?” He ran a hand down my back and I inched away when he started to rub the scales the wrong way. I bumped into Paulina and stepped on her foot.

“Oh, Jeremy, um, I'd like you to meet my roommate, Paulina.”

He dragged his gaze away from me to look at her. The two of them stood eye to eye, although it looked like Paulina was a little taller. They regarded each other for a few seconds, and I thought I could see something like a sneer forming on Paulina's face, while Jeremy's gaze was bitingly cold.

“Why don't we go inside?” I suggested, taking hold of one arm each and leading them toward the middle set of double doors that led into the gym.

They both reached for the handle at the same time. Jeremy backed off and let Paulina open it, then stepped in front of her and held it wide so I could pass through.

The gym was full of dancing kids. A mural of a garden, put together by the art club, took up one wall; couples were taking photos in front of it. A DJ was set up at one end and a few tables with food, soda, and bottles of water were at the other.

“Meg said you took her to a dance class,” Jeremy said to Paulina in a not-so-nice tone. “Gonna go out there and show them how it's done?” he challenged.

Paulina said nothing for a long minute and didn't so much as sway in place in time to the music. Then, slowly, she turned to Jeremy. “And make the rest of you look like elephants with no rhythm? But I'll dance if Meg wants to.”

I shook my head. Even if I hadn't been stark naked, there was no way I was going out there. I shuffled to a wall on one side of the gym. Jeremy and Paulina followed me, then planted themselves, defensively it seemed, to either side of me.

“I'm kind of cold,” I said to no one in particular after a few songs had played. Neither Paulina nor Jeremy were listening to me, they were too busy staring each other down. If the looks hadn't been so obviously vile, I might have called myself jealous.

“Sorry, what was it you said you were going to school for?” Paulina asked in a derisive tone and made a smile of mock interest in Jeremy's direction.

“Film,” was the clipped answer.

Paulina snorted, and an awkward, chilly silence followed. I was standing between and behind them with the wall at my back. I knew I was naked even if no one else could tell; I was trying to hide and keep warm, but so far the hiding part was the only thing that was successful. I wanted out. Spying fibers of the fleece peeking out from underneath Paulina's leather jacket, I tried to snag it but she whipped around.

“What's the matter?” she asked, peering down at me sternly.

“Um, I'm freezing,” I said. My skin was a mass of goose flesh; no amount of rubbing and holding myself was going to make things better.

“You can wear my jacket,” she said warmly, and started to hand it to me.

“No thanks,” I tried to smile. “I think my coat'll be warmer.”

“It'll ruin your outfit,” she said, but I took the opportunity when she started handing me her jacket to pull the fleece free.

“Hey, when did you get that?” Jeremy asked. I looked up in horror and saw him ogling the fleece.
Not him too!
He wasn't the type to be into man-fur; the thought made me cringe. This thing had everyone in its vicinity spellbound—except Paulina.
Touch
é
Hades.

“This old thing?” I laughed nervously and crumpled it tighter against me. “I don't know. I have a lot of clothes.”

Paulina used my distraction with Jeremy to grab a fistful of the fleece.

“It looks really cool,” Jeremy went on, reaching out a hand to stroke it. “Can I see it?”

“Sure,” said Paulina, turning to him and tugging hard on the fleece, as if she was going to hand it over. I felt like Alice between the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter.

“I'm the one who's about to get pneumonia if I don't put this on,” I said to them, then turned to Paulina. “And I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Go ahead,” said Paulina. “But take my jacket. I'll keep Jeremy company until you get back.”

There was no way in hell I was leaving the two of them alone with the fleece.

“Give it to me,” I said, and immediately felt a tightness in my chest and stomach and legs, as if I was being squeezed, as if the scales had suddenly shrunk in some way. Paulina stared at me for a moment, her grip slowly loosening.

“Come on, P,” I said softly. “I need it, and I have to go.” I jerked my head toward the bathroom. I knew now there was no way she would ever wear it. I had to put it on and go to Tartarus to save us all—Paulina from Tartarus, Shar from Hades, and me from betraying them both.

She stared at me with that odd half-smile and sad, sad eyes, then uncurled her hand as if it pained her. She opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out.

“Thanks,” I said, and then peeked over at Jeremy. “Just going to the ladies' room.”

He nodded.

I didn't bother to tell them I'd be back.