Persephone's Orchard (The Chrysomelia Stories) Read Free Page A

two men finished their discussion, and Nikolaos turned and executed a bow in Sophie’s direction. “Sophia, it has been a pleasure. I hope we meet again soon.”
    She didn’t dignify that with a response, only a cold gaze. Yeah, hope we meet again. Thanks for kidnapping me, you lying jerkwad.
    Nikolaos, catching the glare, laughed, then waved and strolled away into the wilderness.
    Sophie turned her wary attention to Watson, or whatever his name was. He was already studying her, but when their eyes met, he looked down and cleared his throat. “All right. Let’s talk.”

Chapter Two
    A DRIAN’S STOMACH CHURNED. H E HATED having to approach Sophie this way, loathed it. He dared another look at her. Streaks of dirt marked her slim white T-shirt from her tussle on the ground with Nikolaos. Her hair was shorter than last time Adrian had seen her, cut to just below her ears and partially pinned back. Bits of dry grass stuck to her dark brown curls. She hugged her small, curvy body as if trying to protect herself from him. Her hazel eyes watched him, sharp with distrust. Her full lips looked pale, and her light brown complexion had gone ashen.
    She still looked thoroughly beautiful to him.
    And, of course, she had no idea who he was. Yet.
    “Am I in a coma?” she asked. “Or dead, or dreaming?”
    “No. You’re awake.”
    “Then where the hell are we? And what’s with the lions?” Her voice was unsteady.
    He’d asked similar questions when he first got dragged into this realm. Using stronger language, in fact. “It’s kind of like another dimension,” he said. He tried to sound gentle and reasonable so he wouldn’t scare her further, though he suspected it wouldn’t work. “It’s the same geography as the living world—see, same mountain over there, same river over there—so in a sense we’re still in Oregon. But only animals live here, species that evolved without humans around. There’s no civilization, because humans don’t live here.”
    “Except you. What are you?” Her eyes narrowed.
    “People like Niko and me, we have certain abilities. We can switch back and forth between the realms. The animals here avoid us.”
    Sophie glanced at Kiri, sitting at attention beside him. “They avoid your dog too?”
    “Yeah, her too.” Adrian reached down to stroke Kiri’s head, then straightened up again. “I had Nikolaos fetch you because I wanted to meet you.”
    “Why?”
    Ah, there it was. The perfectly logical question he didn’t dare answer in full. He swallowed. “You’re important to me. I wanted you to see this place.”
    “Why would I be important to you? We’ve never met.”
    “Well. We have and we haven’t.”
    “When? When have I met you?” She sounded tense and panicky.
    He couldn’t answer that either yet; and in fact, any partially true answer could make it sound like he was a common stalker. In all the time he’d spent planning how to meet her and talk to her, he hadn’t realized how hard it would be to speak calmly when she stood in his presence, staring at him in alarm and suspicion.
    He folded his arms as his stomach tensed again in nervousness. “Never mind. I’m sorry to have done it this way, but you wouldn’t have believed us if we approached you and told you we’ve got this other realm, and invited you nicely to come see it. Would you?”
    Sophie hugged herself tighter, looking out at the field. “Of course not.”
    “And in order to switch you from one world to the other, one of us has to be holding onto you, so Niko had to grab you like that.”
    “And getting me here was so important why?”
    He hesitated. “You have to promise you won’t tell anyone. I say that for your own protection. Niko and I can hide out here and no one’ll find us. But if you try to convince people about this place, well, most of your time will be spent in a psychiatrist’s office, which I doubt is what you want.”
    “Then I’m not crazy? Good. I was wondering.” Clearly she