Psyche's Heart : CUPID'S MATCH BOOK 3

Chapter 27

I open my eyes and all I see is the night sky – infinite and black above me. My head throbs. My wrists are in my lap and they hurt; something metal biting into them. The damp floor seems to move beneath my back.

What the -?

"Hey, kiddo." A low voice comes from ahead.

I groan, rolling onto my side, and push myself upright. Slowly my vision adjusts. There's a man standing about ten feet in front of me, arms resting casually through the bars of a large cage that entraps me. His dark eyes are curious.

"Charon," I say – voice hoarse.

He grins, teeth flashing white. "The one and only."

I close my eyes, pushing my body back along the floor with my feet until my back hits the bars. I fight a wave of nausea. And the events of the last half an hour or so come back to me; starting with James in Neptune's Bar, and ending with the blonde Fury knocking me out when I was knelt in the sand by his body.

James is dead.

Something raw and ugly builds up from my stomach and I have to take a deep breath of sea air to push it back down again.

I can't face that. Not now. Now when the Furies have me prisoner and I'm on the Ferry of the Dead. Because that's where I must be. Right?

Slowly I open my eyes and look around properly – at the black decking and gold gilded black sides of the boat. I swallow hard, fighting a wave of panic. Then slowly – using the bars behind me - I push myself to my feet. My wrists are chained together and I stumble forwards as we move with the waves. Charon reaches out and grabs my arm to stop me falling. I bring my gaze back to him – and he holds it a moment, dark eyes curious. The vast black sails, gilded with gold, roar with the wind behind him. I take a step back.

"Cupid and Cal?" I say – tasting salt on my tongue.

He uncurls his slender fingers from around my torn sleeve and nods at something behind – his dreadlocks swaying with the movement. I turn towards the stern of the ship.

There are two more black cages in the center of the deck. Cupid is bound and unconscious on the floor in the one closest, Cal is sprawled out, eyes closed, in the next. I turn back to Charon.

"The Furies?"

"Below deck. For now. You weren't much fun to them unconscious." 

I shiver, and I'm unsure if it's because of the ice cold temperatures or the threat from the Fury as she pulled the length of chain between her fingers. I try to shake my fear. I faced them earlier, in the trial room, and I won.

Yet here, on this ship, hands bound, with Cupid and Cal unconscious - I'm not feeling quite so confident.

"Why did they knock us out?"