“Excuse me, Orpheus?” I called out. The singing stopped, and the sound of several fish jumping splashed through the air. I could have dove in and swam to him, but the dark water didn’t look all that inviting. Something about it made me shiver and back out of the gently lapping edge of it.

Slowly, Orpheus turned to face me. “Who calls to me?”

I opened my mouth to say my name, but what came out was not me. “Drakaina. I seek your help.”

Nope, that was not me at all.

Orpheus stepped to the edge of the dock, tipping it so that I could see the holes in the deck of it. “What help need you of me, siren?”

I pulled my words together, feeling the importance of this moment. If I said things wrong, I had no doubt I would lose whatever hold I had here. “A priestess of Zeus sent me to you.”

He grunted. “Damn interfering busybodies. Why would a priestess send you to me, though?”

“My mother was killed, and I want to bring her back from Hades,” I said, and he began to laugh softly.

“Oh, gods. Not that again. It’s not possible. They tempted me with a possibility, that my sweet wife would sleep in my arms again. But they lied; they never intended to give her back.” He spoke as though the volume of his voice were on a roller coaster up and down so that he went from shouting to whispers all in a single sentence. I frowned and clenched my hands into fists.

Around us the softest of singing started up again, and I couldn’t help but startle. There, around the edge of the dock, were eyes peering out of the water. Eyes attached to heads that maybe were attached to mermaids . . . but I’d met a mermaid before. They had teeth like sharks, and I had no doubt not all of them were nice.

The creatures slid through the water toward me, and I almost took a step back. I opened my mouth and let my fangs drop down as a hiss rolled out of me, coursing along the water’s surface. “Do not push me. I bite,” I said. The mermaids stopped moving in my direction and instead slid under the dark water. By the ripples, it looked like they went back the way they’d come, but I could not be sure.

“Be careful,” Hermes said from behind my right shoulder. I didn’t need him to tell me that, but I did appreciate his concern.

I raised my voice. “How do I bring my mother back, Orpheus?”

“A simple thing, so simple you will not believe, and that is why you will fail.” He sobbed a moment and shook his head.

Around me I could feel time slipping away. I weighted what came out of my mouth with the power of a siren, knowing that Orpheus did want to help. I could see it in him, only he was afraid.

“Tell me what I must do to save my mother from Hades.”

His head rolled back. “A flower, offer her a flower from the land of the living. She must take it from you and hold it all the way out. If one petal should fall, she will not . . .” He sobbed again and went to his knees. The singing began again, and Hermes dropped so that he was next to my head.

“I think we should go. When he’s like this there is no talking to him.”

I nodded and held my hand up to Hermes. He grabbed hold of me, and once more we swept into the sky. Orpheus was right; I didn’t believe him. A flower? I had to offer my mother a flower in order to bring her back from the dead. That was . . . ridiculous.

But no matter how strange, I would do it. For now, though, I would put it from my mind and focus on Zeus. Zeus and the virus first, and then I could go after Mom.

We flew up through the edges of the Rocky Mountains, staying on their western side. An hour slipped by, and as the time flew, so did the snow. Snowflakes swirled around us as we skimmed through the air. I didn’t close my eyes, but stared, unable to believe the speed at which we traveled. I said as much to Hermes. He laughed. “This is slow. You’re slowing me down, Drakaina. Normally it would take me maybe a few minutes, not a couple of hours.”

An hour and a half brought us to the outskirts of a large forest, covered in snow, silent and ominous, but my mind was still back on a dark lake, hearing Orpheus sob. I focused on what was in front of me. The trees were clumped together and held the snow above them in a white canopy that looked like a painting, it was all so still. I couldn’t see the ground, even as we raced toward it. I held my breath, thinking we were going to slam into the trees, but Hermes ducked down and wove us through them easily.

“This time I have to drop you farther back. We go our separate ways here, and then you can find your way to his cabin. That will keep me out of this. He’ll just think you found him on your own.”

He let go of me before I could protest that he hadn’t been bothered by Orpheus knowing that he’d helped me. Then again, who would believe a crazy old man? Not me. I hit the snow and sank up to my midthigh in the thick white cold. Hermes was gone in a flash of wings. “Wait!”

He ignored me and kept going. Dang it all. This was not what I’d been hoping for. I struggled to get out of the snow, grabbed a small tree, and used it to pry myself free. The top of the snow was actually hard enough I could walk on it if I was careful. Like a pie crust done to the perfect crispness and coated in sugar, it didn’t break unless I really pushed hard or stumbled.

I stared around me as I walked, noting that the birds fell silent as I approached. I grimaced. “I’m not that kind of snake.”

Of course, there was no answer. They didn’t know that I wasn’t going to eat them in one jaw-unhinged bite. I moved from tree to tree, using the trunks as props to keep from sliding back into the snow, and the snow around the trees was thinner too. The cold and wet soaked through my jeans and made each step that much more difficult, only raising my ire. My breath misted and fogged in front of my face, freezing in the air in tiny droplets. Maybe I could survive the extreme cold, but that didn’t mean I liked it. Not for one dang second. I rubbed my hands over my arms and drew in a big breath. The smell of woodsmoke pulled me forward. Hermes had said that Zeus had a cabin, so it made sense to head in the direction of the smoke.