It meant literally what you think it means: a place that was in between two worlds, and it was beautiful and mystical, an incredibly breathtaking landscape of purple-blue skies and endless sparkling streaks of shooting stars that tiptoed over rugged mountaintops and pirouetted through clouds like celestial ballerinas.
A narrow, barren road stretched before us, and as we started walking, a thought occurred to me, and I found myself tugging on Hadrian's sleeve.
"You know how the Catholic Church has its own liturgical calendar?" I asked. "Or how the Chinese also have their own - I mean, they always have their own versions of everything, like their own Facebook, zodiac signs..." I stopped speaking when I saw Hadrian's silver eyes start to gleam. "I'm rambling," I realized with a grimace. "Aren't I?"
"Just a bit."
"I'm feeling rather anxious, too. Again."
"Remember what Aesculapius said," Hadrian said in his usual prosaic manner. "This is only temporary. Let's just learn how to deal with it, one symptom at a time."
My first instinct was to reject his very reasonable suggestion...just because. But I stopped myself in time, and that was when I realized...
"That's it," I blurted out.
Hadrian raised a brow.
"When I'm having an anxiety attack, I should simply ignore my first instinct."
"I see."
"It should be enough to keep me out of the trouble while I wait this out."
Hadrian seemed to want to say something.
"What is it?"
A smile tugged at his lips. "I just remembered how similarly optimistic I was, once upon a time. I used to believe it was possible for you to keep yourself out of trouble—-" I was already making a face at him before he even finished speaking, and Hadrian's slight smile turned into a full-fledged grin.
"Not funny," I pouted.
"But it is, love." Hadrian pulled me close, his lips touching my forehead in an affectionate kiss, and just like that I could only think of how lucky I was, having a guy like him in my life. Hashtag mood swings, right?
We were halfway down the road when I finally remembered what I was planning to ask him, and I quickly dug my heels in. "Hadrian..." I tugged his sleeve again. "Do Greek gods have their own calendars?" I asked hopefully. "Because what if April's Fool's Day didn't actually fall in April for you guys? What if Dr. Ace was just pulling my leg because today happened to be—-"
"No," he said gently. "We don't have our own calendar, so April's Fool's Day still falls in April."
"You're absolutely sure of this?"
"Yes, love." His silver eyes were gleaming with amusement again. "I'm quite sure of this."
I pouted up at him. "Oh, fine. I just—-" The sound of pounding footsteps reached me, and I spun around, startled and just a bit apprehensive.
The last time another person showed up while Hadrian and I were about to enter the Underworld, I had ended up on a hospital bed in a two-year coma.
So yeah, this might make me paranoid, but I didn't care. I looked around us, squinting at every direction, but I couldn't see any other sign of movement. "That's weird. I could've sworn—-"
Hadrian suddenly covered my mouth.
Oh.
The warning look in his eyes said everything.
He had heard it, too, and the realization turned my body rigid.
Dazzled as I was by the beauty of the In Between, it had been easy to think of Zeus and his killer thunderbolts as nothing but a distant memory. I should've known better, though. Just like Hadrian said, trouble seemed to find me no matter where I was—-
There it was again!
Hadrian swiftly placed me behind him as the footsteps we heard came closer and closer and closer—-
Too close, I thought, that whoever it was should be visible now.
I tiptoed to peek over Hadrian's broad shoulders, just in time to see a raven-haired beauty in a lab coat running towards us.
She saw us at the same time, and a strange mix of emotions crossed over her face—-
Shock.
Fear.
Frustration.
And then...
Nothing.
All of those in a nanosecond, none of it making sense, that when she finally reached us, I had convinced myself menopause had me imagining things.
"What took you so long?"
I was stunned and outraged. Who the heck was this witch, talking to Hadrian like he didn't have his girlfriend right next to him?
When she reached us, I was all ready for a verbal showdown, until I realized...
Oh.
Why was she glaring...at me?
"You two should have been here ages ago!"
Two as in...Hadrian and me?
Color me confused all of a sudden, but when I glanced up at Hadrian, he looked more grim than surprised, and when he finally spoke, the cold disapproval in his tone was something I had never heard him use.
"What are you doing out here, Mira?"
"Waiting." Annoyingly Beautiful Chick Mira lifted her chin in what seemed like cool defiance.
"We're supposed to be on lockdown—-"
"Until Zeus regains his sanity?" she scoffed. "Unlike most people, Iris isn't my only source for news, and it's not like you didn't really expect this. We've known each other for centuries, Hades. Surely you know by now it's never been my style to wait?" She was turning to me as she spoke, and the moment I saw her lip curl up—-