Cooper wasn’t among them. He’d managed to avoid injury after his last reincorporation.
“So you did it, m’lady,” he said to me. “You used your leverage after all.”
I nodded. “How do you feel?”
“Strange to meself.” Cooper gazed into the distance. “My beast’s been with me for so long, I don’t quite know what to do without it.”
“Are you sorry I did it?” I asked him.
“Never!” His gaze returned to my face. “Don’t mistake me, Daisy. I’m grateful beyond words. But it’s going to take some getting used to.”
I held out my hand to him. “Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, I’m here for you.”
Cooper regarded my hand with habitual wariness, then clasped it firmly. “Been a long time since I’ve held a lass’s hand without thinking to feed on her,” he mused. “It feels good.”
I tightened my grip on his hand. “I’m glad.”
Before we departed the campsite, Persephone paid us a visit. She emerged from an SUV that halted some forty yards away, carrying my pillowcase in one delicate hand. It was an incongruous sight.
Accompanied—at her insistence—by Lurine, I went out to meet with the goddess on the rim of the basin. Persephone still looked pretty stricken, and Lurine’s presence didn’t help, but my pity only went so far. I raised my eyebrows at the pillowcase. “You really didn’t have to return this.”
Persephone summoned a faint smile, only a hint of its former dazzle in it. “I thought it best to approach under a flag of truce.” She glanced at Lurine. “Forgive me for my threat, sister.”
Lurine folded her arms. “I’m no sister to you, Olympian whore.”
“Do not be cruel.” Persephone twisted the pillowcase in her hands, a pleading look on her face. “You know I had no choice in that matter.”
Right, six pomegranate seeds had condemned her to her fate. “Does Hades even know what you tried to do here?” I asked.
“Yes.” Persephone tilted her head, sunlight shimmering on her hair. “My husband loves me, you know, even if I have chafed against the ties that bind me to him. I believe Hades hoped that if he gave my madness free rein, it would run its course. And in a way, it has come to pass.”
“At a hefty price,” I said.
The goddess looked down, then back up. “Yes. I wish to assure you that there will be no further repercussions. The men who were slain or wounded . . . all fatalities and injuries will be reported as the result of a covert military operation.” Another faint, rueful smile. “The lawyer Dufreyne spoke the truth. They signed away many rights.”
“I bet.”
“If others . . .” Persephone paused. “If others are found to have perished at the hands of the Wild Hunt, contact Mr. Dufreyne. He will arrange for their retrieval.”
Huh, so she was keeping Dufreyne in her service. Maybe it wasn’t her decision, since Dufreyne was on loan from Hades. I wondered if he’d find it trickier to transport dead mercenaries and military-grade weaponry without his powers of persuasion. I hoped so.
Then again, he did have a goddess in his corner. “Okay.”
Persephone gazed around the dunes. “It is a beautiful place. I am sorry I thought to despoil it.”
“Yeah, me, too,” I said.
“I will donate it back to the city of Pemkowet,” she said. “With a stipulation that it may never be sold without the Norse Hel’s approval. I hope that may help make amends.”
I didn’t say anything.
The goddess sighed, a sound like the summer wind rustling through leaves in an orchard. She handed me my pillowcase and turned to go. “Farewell.”
“Wait,” I said. Persephone glanced back at me. “Look . . . what you said about wanting your own demesne, about never having felt so alive . . . I understand it. You got a raw deal. You’ve had a raw deal for millennia. For six months out of every year, you’ve felt helpless and powerless. I’ve felt that way for months. I’m pretty sure an eternity of it would have driven me crazy, too.”
“And yet you relinquished the power you claimed today,” she murmured. “You relinquished it willingly.”
“It wasn’t easy,” I said honestly. “Even with the fate of the world at stake.”
“I am grateful for your understanding.” The goddess Persephone gazed at me, her eyes filled with sunlight and green growing things. “The Norse Hel is fortunate to have you, pretty Daisy,” she said. “I will remember this. When I return to my husband’s demesne, I will spend my season of freedom seeking companions such as you, loyal and true of heart. Mayhap it will ease my path when the cold months of autumn and my return to the underworld come.”
My throat tightened a little. “Good luck with that, my lady.”
Persephone inclined her head. “Thank you.”
With that she left, taking the summer’s warmth and the scent of sun-warmed fruit with her.
Lurine and I watched her go, the armored SUV vanishing in the distance. In the basin below us, the duegar set fire to Garm’s pyre, and smoke billowed into the sky. Almost all the other eldritch had departed. Only the lone surviving troll sat motionless beneath Yggdrasil II’s shadow, gazing at the flames.
“You’re awfully quiet,” I said to Lurine.
“Oh, that silly little bitch Persephone got me feeling sorry for her.” Lurine put an arm around my shoulders and gave me an affectionate squeeze. “But she’s right, cupcake. Hel’s lucky to have you.”