Chapter Eleven
Kidnapped

I’m not entirely too sure how long I stood there, staring at that letter, not really seeing it anymore.  Eros didn’t really say anything either, waiting for me to move before reacting to my revelation as to give me a moment.  But I could tell he was just as horrified as I was about the fact, even if he didn’t outright say so.  It was a horrifying idea, after all, coming home to discover that your parents and grandmother had been kidnapped.  Even in the best of circumstances – that is, a human kidnapping there merely for ransom – it was still rather horrifying.  But having it spelled out in black and white that they did in fact plan to kill them…well, I was still surprised I was sort of able to function with that sort of news bearing down on me.  Had they died while I was out having a good time with my friends, or were they waiting until I came to try to get them back before they actually did anything?  Either was possible, really; what was the point in ruining my life if I didn’t get to witness my parents’ death firsthand?

The thing that made this even more horrifying was the fact that Penny seemed okay with this idea.  Sure, she never truly got along with Mom and Papa the way Phoebe and I did, but they were still her parents.  I didn’t think she was so far gone that she didn’t even care about them anymore.  I could still recall a time, albeit when Penny was a lot younger, when she and Mom were pretty inseparable.  She was Mom’s baby girl, her first born, and the one who seemed to take after her.  She played Papa like a harp, but she went to Mom for everything.  Mom understood her, after all.

But then Penny started to become more and more cruel as she got older, creating a rift between her and Mom.  Mom might have been the picture perfect socialite – marrying some foreign hottie herself and becoming simply a trophy wife – but she still had her morals.  Even when she was trying to fit into her societal norms, she was never cruel to anyone.  She simply didn’t see the point, since she didn’t believe that she was above anyone else.  Sure, she had more advantages than some point, but that didn’t really make them less of a person, and she felt she needed to respect everyone merely for that reason, and that reason alone.  So when Penny started to act like she was the queen of everyone, they started to clash as Mom didn’t understand her new problems, and would try to offer advice that would attempt to make her a kinder person.  Penny didn’t partially care for the idea, and came to the realization that Mom was simply weak.

Of course, that was the point where Mom’s focus shifted from Penny to Phoebe, since the latter would actually take her kindness advice to heart.  I think that’s what made her transition so smooth, because she wasn’t inherently cruel like Penny was.  She was merely mimicking her because she thought that’s how you were supposed to act.  I couldn’t count the number of times she had to remind herself to insult me, or anyone else for that matter.  I suspected that’s why Nate fell for her in the first place – when they were alone, she had to need to censor herself, and thus came off as a kinder, albeit dim, girl.

I was sort of glad that Phoebe hadn’t been around for Penny to get her hand on.  I had little doubt that she was taking the betrayal personally, and would be unnecessarily cruel to her younger sister as payback.  Phoebe didn’t deserve any of that.  She was trying to turn her life around, to come out of her sister’s shadow and became someone her husband and her parents could be proud of.  But she was home now, safe with her husband, making plans to return to the reality show within the week, but she was safe.  And that I was glad for.

Nona…well, I wasn’t surprised Penny went for her.  Penny had been wanting to pay her back for all those years of calling her out on her bad behavior, and forcing her to follow a set of rules she didn’t believe in.  The thing was that the lifestyle Penny wanted to live Nona had nothing against.  I had cousins who would do the exact same thing has Penny and Phoebe would whenever they would visit – that is, spend the entire time at the beach checking out the local boys – but she never had a problem with them.  She claimed it was just a natural part of growing up, and she could remember a time when she would act similarly with her friends.  In fact, if I recall, she met Papou when they were both on vacation together, although all of her friends claim that they have no idea how he managed to catch her eye in the first place.  I had to agree; Papou could certainly clean up nice, but he was no local hottie.

Nona’s problem with my sisters had always been their attitudes.  I remember the first time Nona called them out of their behavior, joking with them about how they were spending all their time at the beach now rather than visiting her like intended.  After all, we were half a world away from her, and she didn’t actually get to see us all that much.  But then Penny, at the mere age of eleven, called her a dirty old hag, and that was pretty much it for their relationship.  And when Phoebe started displaying signs of following in her sister’s footsteps, she cut her off as well.  And for the longest time, she watched me like a hawk, ready to cut me off as well, until she realized she was calling me out because I was hiding within the house rather than scoping out boys.

Why would I want to scope out boys, though, when I had the perfect one simply waiting for me to discover him?

I realized I feared for Penny having her hands on Nona more than anything.  Mom and Papa had never really done anything above and beyond to call her out on her behavior, but Nona had defied her, and that wasn’t going to stand.  My beloved grandmother, gone because Penny couldn’t stand to be second best to anyone.  It was a sobering thought.

“Psyche?” Eros asked worriedly, bringing me quickly to the present.  “Are you okay?”

I blinked at him, surprised, since I thought he had been waiting for me to make the first move.  But I guess I was staring at the wall too long for his liking, so he felt the need to speak up. 

“Eros, I don’t understand,” I admitted to him.

I saw his jaw clench for a moment.  “What’s there not to understand?” he asked darkly.  “You know that Penny and Psyche are desperate.  This is clearly a desperate move, and a brilliant one at that.  Psyche knows that you wouldn’t be the sort of person who’d be able to live with yourself knowing that an action you had taken had resulted in the deaths of your parents.  You wouldn’t want to live in that sort of world, and you’d be willing to give up your claim on it.”

“Would I, though?  She can’t know that I would,” I said in a small voice.  “I know where they’d be, after all.”

He shook his head at me.  “Psyche, this is merely a desperate move, remember that.  Desperate moved almost always result in failure, because they’re not very well thought out.”

“But…I just don’t understand,” I admitted.  “How could they?”

“You have to remember that Psyche wasn’t above killing her own sisters for talking her into betraying my trust,” he reminded me.  “Neither of them were unnecessarily cruel to her growing up, and they were just jealous of her.  But because they made her lose me, she was willing to resort of murder for revenge.  And that was when she was actually in control f herself.  Her soul’s gone insane, remember.”

“And I suppose since they’re not her family, she cares little for them.  But Penny?”

“What about Penny?  Does something like this actually surprise you?  That girl hasn’t been right for a very long time.  I mean, she endeavored to ruin your sister’s wedding just because people were focused on her rather than Penny.  The wedding was momentary, after all, and the focus would have turned on her shortly after, but she’s never been the patient sort, has she?”

I shook my head.  “No, and I suppose it’s not like she cares for anyone but herself.  I had hoped that maybe having a baby would change that to some degree – mostly in that she’d care about only herself and her child – but I honestly don’t see that happening.  She’d just view it as another accessory.”

“Exactly.  So what about all this really surprises you?  I mean, other than it happened and that your loved ones are in danger.  In hindsight, it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?”

“But…why?” I demanded to know.

I felt his arms slip around me to pull me into a comforting hug.  “Because reality is cruel,” he told me.  “Some people are just destined to really earn their happiness, and I have a feeling you’re unfortunately one of those people.  But just think of how sweet it’ll be once you earned it.”

“But how could it be sweet if my parents are dead because of me?”

His jaw clenched again, and at first I thought it was because I was ruining his sentiment.  But unfortunately Psyche was right; knowing full well that my parents and grandmother died because of me in some way was going to devastate me to the point where I think I might actually be willing to give up my claim on his body, just to escape the pain.  It would work out, too – I’d get to be with my parents, and Eros would know exactly where I was so he could still visit me.  The only problem with the idea was Maddie, since living mortal souls were never meant to remain in the Underworld for any period of time.  I suppose I could get Persephone to arrange meetings between us.

Although, with that thought, I realized that Maddie would always be the one thing anchoring me to this world.  The thought of living without my parents was horrible, at least at this point in my life, as well as the thought that I caused their deaths.  But the thought of spending eternity without her was even more painful.  I’d rather suffer and get to be with her.  If Psyche really wanted to ruin my life, she’d have taken Maddie as well, but Maddie was with me the entire time.  And neither Psyche nor Penny knew what it felt like to have a true friend, one that could anchor someone to the living would despite hardship.

And here Maddie was worried that I was replacing her with another best friend.

I wasn’t entirely too what Eros was planning, since we both seemed to be caught up in our thoughts for a moment.  But then I guess he decided he didn’t want to stand around the kitchen anymore, and that he wanted a better place to comfort me.  He kept one hand around my shoulders, keeping me close to him while also making it a little hard for me to walk, as he carefully lead me through the house.  There were a number of places he could have gone – the living room where he could sit me down on the couch, or my bedroom for example – but instead I realized we were walking into the library or all places.

I realized why I split second later, when I realized that we were no longer alone in the house.

Hades was sort of glaring like he didn’t know why Eros had called him there.  Considering he just spent the entire afternoon doing what he considered a frivolous activity, I’m sure he was beyond pissed that he was taken from his research again, since I’m sure Eros didn’t mention why he was summoning the Lord of the Dead.  Persephone, for her part, just looked passive, at least until she actually looked at me.  Eros had taken his arm off me before we entered, but slipped his hand into mine to keep the contact.

Persephone looked between me and her husband before putting her hands on her hips.  “Okay, what happened?” she asked annoyed, although more so for the fact that something clearly did happen than for our reactions to it.

Eros calmly handed her the note, which she took with confusion and carefully scanned.  Hades actually jumped when she gasped before snatching the note from her.  “Oh my God, Psyche….I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Hades demanded, checking the back of the note in case he missed something.

Persephone smacked him.  “Stop being heartless,” she scolded.  “How would you feel if someone took me and threatened to kill me?”

He raised an eyebrow at her.  “Well, that’s rather impossible,” he pointed out.  “Never mind that you’re immortal, Persephone, you’re the consort of the King of the Underworld.  Death will never come to you.”  She smacked me again, although a little harder than last time.  He glanced at the note again.  “Ah, right.  This is no big deal, though.  We just have to rescue them.”

“You make it sound like it’ll be easy,” she said, rolling her eyes.  “This is coming from the god who had the soul under his nose and didn’t realize it.  Just need to rescue them indeed.”

“Look, I mostly just called you here to put Psyche’s mind at ease.  Is it too late to do anything about this or not?” Eros demanded, looking annoyed.

Hades was silent for a moment, almost like he was considering the question.  “They’re still alive, if that’s what you’re asking.  I’d have known otherwise.”

“How?” I found myself asking.

He glanced at me.  “My dear, I am the Lord of the Underworld.  I feel every human soul that departs from this world into mine.  I know them all, no matter how insignificant their lives.  It was…annoying at first, but you sort of get used to it after all.  I would be the first to know if something happened, and rest assured, I would have come to you immediately if something had.”

“Would you have?” Persephone asked dryly.  “I didn’t think you had much sympathy for her.”

He looked surprised.  “Of course I would.  I’m not an ass like my brothers that I would ignore a mortal I’ve come in contact with.  Pscyhe’s caught up enough in this world that I’d feel willing to let her know about her parents demise.  If it were to happen, of course.”

“Aw, Hades, are you saying you actually befriended Psyche here?” Persephone teased.

“No.  Possibly.  The point is that we do still have time to stop our reengage soul before she does something unnecessary.  If you want to talk semantics, then we’d just be wasting time.”

Eros relaxed beside me, and I realized I was a little less tense.  I could work with a rescue mission, after all.  My fear had been that my parents were dead already, and that there was nothing that I could do about it.  Knowing they were actually alive made things much easier.

We all sort of jumped when Hedone suddenly popped into existence beside us, since I was pretty sure no one actually called her.  It was sort of dangerous for her to be doing that, anyway, but judging from the scared look on her face, it was clearly not something she was really thinking about.  “Papa,” she said in a small voice I didn’t think I’d ever hear out of her, “Mama’s doing some terrible, isn’t she?”

Eros, I knew, had sort of gotten past the point of being fatherly with her as the centuries wore on, but he still didn’t hesitate to release me and pull Hedone into a comforting fatherly embrace, almost like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to do.  I suppose one never really got over being a father, provided they were a good one in the first place.  I couldn’t help but feel a twang of jealously at the sight, although I knew I didn’t exactly have a singular claim on him.  Hedone needed this, and I wasn’t going to get in the way.

“Yes,” he told her.  “She kidnapped Psyche’s family and is planning to kill them to get Psyche to release her claim on her body.”

Hedone looked startled at this, almost like she wasn’t expecting this to be what her mother was planning.  She looked guilty for a split second before shrugging Eros off, much to his surprise, and clamping onto my arm.  “How did you even know she was planning anything?” I asked.

She bit her lip.  “I’m her daughter,” she told me slowly.  “Sometime I can pick up on her intentions.  Basically I got home and suddenly felt a chill down my spine, and I just…knew it was because of her.  But obviously, I didn’t know what.”

“Its okay,” I told her, stoking her hair.  “They’re still alive.”

“At the moment,” Hedone sighed. 

“Hedone, don’t be pessimistic about this,” Eros scolded.  She frowned at him.

“I’m just making a point,” she said as she released me.  “I just meant we sort of have to do something about this soon, right?  To make sure they stay alive?”

“We were just getting to that before you interrupted,” Hades informed her, looking a little lost as how to address her.  I suppose the Higher Gods were a little unused to speaking to lesser gods like Hedone, who doesn’t really have any stories related to her other than being Eros and Psyche’s daughter.  Or it could just be because she happened to look like she was twelve.

“Oh.  I’m sorry.  It’s just that…”

Persephone placed her hand on her arm.  “It’s okay,” she informed her, giving her a motherly smile.  “You were worried; that’s reasonable.  Hades is just a jerk sometimes.”

Hades just sort of rolled his eyes at her and crossed his arms.  “Should we wait to see if anyone else interrupts us before we start anything?  Psyche has way too many supporters, after all.”

“Well, I don’t…,” Eros started before pausing.  “I suppose that’s a good point.  They’ll probably want to know about this, anyway.”

“Who?” I asked startled, unsure what he was planning.

It took about a minute before Zephyrus with Maddie causally came strolling in, the latter looking beyond confused and a little disoriented.  I knew the feeling well.  “What’s going on?” Zephyrus demanded to know.

“Yeah, really,” Maddie said as I caught her to steady her.  “Zephyr just grabbed me and the next thing I know, I’m at the Karalis mansion?  What gives?”

I sighed, realizing Eros’ intention.  “I’m sorry; this is getting to be a bit much.  This is why it feels so awkward having all of you want to help me.  Basically, Psyche and Penny decided to act while we were out shopping.”

“Oh?  What did they do, exactly?”

“They kidnapped my parents and Nona, and are threatening to kill them so I have no real reason to want to live anymore.”

“Oh.  Oh, good Lord.  Are you serious?  They’re planning on killing them?” she asked, her voice going up an octave.

“Apparently.  You have to remember that Psyche killed her own sisters, and that Penny is, well, Penny.”

“I told you that you should have tossed her off a cliff when you had the chance.  I mean, it did work wonders for your first life,” Zephyrus said sarcastically.

“Seriously?  That’s one thing that separated this Psyche from the first one.  The first one had one reason to want to kill them, and did so, where as this one has countless, and feels no need to,” Eros said angrily.

“Oh, I only need one,” I seethed.  “I might actually take you up on that offer after this is all said and done.  I’m done playing nice with Penny.”

“Psyche,” Maddie said worriedly.

“Sorry.  I just…I just can’t believe she’d do something like this to her own parents!  I mean, yeah, this is Penny we’re talking about, but even this seems unusually cruel for her.  It makes me sort of wonder if she’d actually go through with it or not.”

“Considering how pissed Penny’s been with no one actually paying attention to her, I think she might,” Maddie admitted.  “It’s something huge, and it’d cause as stir, and that’s all she really wants, isn’t it?  Killing her own parents would achieve that nicely.”

“I never got her obsession with being in the spotlight,” I admitted.  “I mean, she didn’t always used to be like that.  She, she preferred it, but she wasn’t obsessed with it.  It seems like she might be going down the path of insanity just as much as Psyche did.”

“Honestly, what little I know about the girl, it seems less about being in the spotlight than it is about losing her credibility.  It used to be that everyone loved her despite the fact that she’s cruel, but people having been coming to realize that she’s not the best sort of person, and she’s just growing more and more resentful of the fact.  And she blames you for the fact, since you do tend to have a habit of making her look bad.  You taking Phoebe from her seems to have been the last straw,” Persephone mused.

“All this is happening because Phoebe finally took her head out of her ass and stopped being Penny’s shadow?” I squeaked.  “Unbelievable.”

“Drama drama,” Hades muttered under his breath.  “You females live for it, don’t you?”

He certainly earned the smack from Persephone for that one.  “I do have to wonder why they haven’t done the deed yet.  I mean, we can’t be sure how long they’ve had them, considering we were gone all afternoon, but still.  If they plan to do it, then why not do it?”

“My question is if they did take them while we were at the mall, why are all the servants gone?” Hedone asked, looking nervous again.  “Do you think they took them as well?”

“Probably not,” Zephyrus said.  “This was sitting on the table outside the library.”

It was a simple memo, clearly written by Penn to sound like Papa, giving the servants the night off.  That would explain why there was no one in the house, and it was a relief to know that they were involved in any of this as well.  Mom and Nona might be innocent bystanders at this point, since Papa knows and all, but at least they had a connection.  Our servants had no part in all of this.

“She probably just didn’t want any witnesses,” Eros said.  “She can’t be that kind.”

“She’s not, and that’s always been the problem,” I commented.  “This is just insane.  It’s definitely getting out of hand now.”

“So, what’re we going to do about it?” Zephyrus asked.  “Just sit around and discuss it like we have been?  That worked out wonderfully the first time, don’t you think?”

“We have to approach this carefully, Zephyr,” Persephone said.  “We can’t really rush in and cause them to do something rash.  That’s the last thing we want to happen in this case.”

“No,” I said sternly, causing all of them to stare at me.  “I’m done with just sitting around and waiting to see what’ll happen.  That’s what got me in this mess in the first place, not standing up to Aphrodite.  It’s one thing to mess with me, but its another story when you mess with my family, especially when your quarrel is with me in the first place.  I say we figure out where they’ve went, and go barging in for a change.”

“Seriously, Psyche, we need to think this through.  If we barge in, it might cause them to kill your parents out of surprise.  We need to take this carefully.”

“That’s what they’re expecting,” I told her.  “We might be two different souls at this point, but I have no doubt that Psyche knows me.  As does Penny.  She knows me a hell of a lot better than she lets on.  She has to in order to know what’ll push my buttons.”

“That’s what they’re counting on,” Eros realized.  “That’s why they haven’t killed them yet.  Because they know that we’ll be trying to make plans so long as we knew they were alive, and they’ll kill them right before they figure we’ve made them.”

“Actually, I think they’re just keeping them alive so I can witness their deaths, making it all the more worse, but same idea.”

“I’m all for bursting in epically and taking them by surprise, but one little problem; we don’t know where they are, do we?” Maddie asked.

I was about to comment on her not going before I realized that she was right.  We wouldn’t know where they were, since none of the gods could actually sense her.  She had to be in the same building as Eros before he could.  “Damn it, I have no idea where she would have gone.”

“Obviously not the Underworld.  I’d be able to tell instantly when she returned, and certainly if she had a number of mortal souls with her,” Hades said.

“And I think she knows that Eros can detect her frequency now, so she couldn’t trick us and stay nearby,” Persephone agreed.

“It’d have to be somewhere outside out realms for Eros not to be able to detect her in some way,” Zephyrus said.  “If she knows that he can detect her, then she’d know that distance isn’t actually a factor.”

“Really?  But he could only tell when she’s in the house,” I asked, confused.

“That’s only because I gave up focusing on her, since I had a general idea where she was.  Also, it seemed to upset you.  But yeah, since I know what it feels like now, I can find her regardless.”

“Where could she go outside the realm of the gods?” Maddie asked.  “That seems unlikely to me.”

“That’s only because you’re mortal,” Zephyrus explained to her.  “It’s a rather abstract idea.”

“I know where she is,” Hedone said suddenly. 

We all just sort of stared at her.  “You do?  How do you know?”

She glanced at her father.  “Back when she realized exactly what being immortal entailed, she created a spot for herself so that she’d be able to escape the world for a while, to collect herself before having to face everything.  She didn’t really want anyone to know about it, except I followed her one day and found it.  She let me come and go as I pleased as well, because I was her daughter, and I was usually the only one she knew she could really face when she got like that.  In fact, she said it helped to remind her what she had to live for.”

“What, I couldn’t do that?” Eros asked, clearly annoyed.

“Well, she did chose to give up her love for you,” Hedone pointed out.  “You should be enough for this Psyche here, though.”

I blushed, but Maddie sort of elbowed me out of the way.  “And that’s out of the so-called Realm of the Gods, right?  That seems obvious.  Do you remember how to get there?”

“Woah, woah, hold up; no,” I said to her, stepping in front of her.  “I don’t care where it is, I know what you’re thinking, and no, you’re not going.”

Maddie gave me a defiant look.  “And why not, Psyche?  Because I’m mortal and you don’t think I can handle it?  I don’t care; I’m coming with you.  I’m your best friend, and you keep shutting me out.  Not this time, Psy.  Not when you’re throwing down punches.  I’ve got to be right there with you, doing the same.”

“No, I…”

She held up a hand to stop me.  “Put yourself in my shoes for a moment, Psy.  Let me ask you this: how pissed would you be that you haven’t been there for your best friend, your almost-sister, and then the one time you can help, you’re shut out?  How fair is that?”

I blinked at her for a second, trying to imagine what it must be like for her.  “But I don’t want anything to happen to you as well,” I told her.  “I want you to be here so I have something good to return to.”

“Bull shit.  You know you want me at your side, so I don’t know why you’re fighting it.  This is just as dangerous for you, you know.  You might have an immortal soul, but you’re in a mortal body, just as capable of dying or being really hurt as I am.  Do you think I could live with the fact that you died while I was up here just chilling?”

Eros put a hand on my shoulder.  “She’s made up her mind, clearly, and I doubt anything you’d say’ll change her mind.  She’s right, though; I’m sure you have been wanting her at your side this whole time.  So why not just go with what your heart wants rather than what your mind says.”

I glanced at her.  “Fine, fine,” I muttered, knowing it was a losing battle anyway.

“Excellent,” Persephone said, delighted.  “I personally am looking forward to having this matter behind us.  Hedone, if you would…”

“Wait, no,” I said.  “We can’t all go.”

“Damn straight we all can,” she told her.  “We all have our reasons to go, you know.  Hades needs his rogue soul back to restore the balance, I started this whole mess in the first place, and Zephyr over there has been biting his nails since Maddie volunteered to help you.”  Zephyrus dropped his hands in embarrassment.  “He apparently has a need to protect her as well.  And of course, Hedone is Psyche’s daughter, and probably wants some sort of closure.  You honestly can’t stop us all from coming with you.  Not with that sort of logic.”

“So…you’re all aren’t coming just to help me.”

“Of course we are,” Hades said.  “For whatever reason, we all feel this urge to just help you.  Or at least I do.  I think you’re still stalling now, though.  Miss Acidalia, if you would.”

Hedone grinned at me before cracking her knuckles.  “This ought to be interesting,” she grinned before somehow managed to open something of a portal right in the middle of my library. 

Chapter Ten

Cupid and Psyche Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve