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?"

Charon raises an eyebrow. "What did you think, you'd be traveling first class? They're not Goddesses of Vengeance for nothing, you know?!"

I bring my bounds hands upwards and rub my face. "Yeah, well, I could have done without the headache."

The corner of his lip twitches and he gives a half shrug. "Cupid and Cal were causing a bit of a scene, and the Furies really seem to dislike you. I wonder why that is?" 

His eyes bear into mine again – searching for something – and I shift beneath his scrutiny, averting my gaze.

"Just unlucky, I guess."

"I'll say."

I look up around me – at the black rigging leading to a gold crow's nest, and the star splattered sky above. "Are we in the Underworld?"

"Nah. Not yet. We'll be reaching the barrier soon, though. Speaking of which, I need to go collect the fares before we reach the toll booth." He pats the small brown satchel hung by his belt.

"Cal has our obols," I say.

"Don't need them for you guys. Not for getting into the Underworld, anyway - not when you're prisoner of the god of the dead. Cal knows that."

"Oh. Good. Well, what's the plan? Are you going to set us free when we get there? We can't go find Valentine if the Furies -"

"Entrap and torture you?"

I suppress a shudder, mouth suddenly dry. "Yeah..."

A grin spreads across Charon's face.

"Yeah, well, about that - Cal also knows I can't do much to help you in your current predicament, seeing as I'm employed by the same dude as the Furies, but I'm willing to stick my neck out a little – for a price."

I hold his gaze, my mind reeling back to the first time Cupid and Cal mentioned Charon in conversation. They'd said he wasn't the most moral of guys. Since then he's been pretty co-operative so I'd presumed he was on our side.

"You mean you're making us pay for your help?"

He shrugs. "I need the obols. Can't take unscheduled trips without them and I'm seeing this human dude at the moment. You ever tried a long-distance relationship when you're based in the Underworld?" He winks then takes a step back, unfolding his arms from the bars of the cage. "Don't worry. It'll all be fine. Long as you have the money..."

"How re-assuring..."

His grin widens. "Sit tight. I'll be back soon."

I watch as he walks away – banging the metal bars on Cupid and Cal's cages as he passes – then heading through a cabin door that must lead below deck. 

Cupid stirs on the floor. I watch as he slowly opens his eyes and pulls a face. He lets out a long dramatic groan then sits upright – his hair, damp with the sea spray, sticking up in messy tufts. He meets my eyes. The skin near his lips is flushed as though he was hit there, and there's a scratch across one of his thick eyebrows.

"Ugh. The Furies are the worst," he says.

"Yeah...I'm not too fond of them either."

He surveys my intently; eyes passing over the bruise I can feel forming on my cheek.

"You OK, lovebug?"

"I..." I close my mouth.

Am I OK? 

No. Not really.

His eyes darken. "Oh. James? Is he?"

I nod, shivering as the cold wind whips my damp hair and tears through my tattered leather jacket. 

"Dead?" The word comes out choked. "Yeah."

He gets to his feet – much more gracefully than I managed to – and moves to the edge of his cage closest to me. Wrists chained he grips the bars.

"I'm so sorry, Lila," he says. "I tried to get to you. I tried to help."

I nod – the backs of my eyes stinging. "She didn't have to kill him."

"Who?"

"Amena."

He frowns. "No. She didn't."

"Of course she did." Cal's sharp voice cuts across the sound of the ocean bashing against the ship. I glare over at him; he's now sitting upright against the bars with a miserable expression on his face.

Cupid's eyebrows furrow and he jerks gaze over his shoulder at him. Cal meets his eyes defiantly. But then he looks at me and his silvery eyes soften somewhat. 

"I'm...I'm sorry for your loss, Lila."

"I..." I shake my head. I don't know what to say or how to respond. So I avert my gaze – peering at the vast expanse of sea all around us through the bars.

"You don't look so good, brother," says Cupid.

Cupid is right. Cal's skin has lost most of its color; his pale complexion emphasizing the light purple smudges beneath his eyes. He swallows hard, face clammy in the white moonlight. He looks at the decking by his side. 

"Don't like boats."

"You're not going to puke are you?" Cupid says, a hint of alarm in his tone. "Because if you puke. I'll puke. It'll be a complete puke fest up here. Seriously. You're not going to, right? Hold it in, brother."

Cal glowers at him. "I'm fine," he snaps.

I'm not convinced. Neither is Cupid by the look on his face when he meets my eyes once more.

"Have you spoken to Charon?" he says.

"Yeah. He just went to collect fares from the other passengers."

"Other passengers?" says Cal. "I thought this trip was just booked for – " he stops talking suddenly, then turns to the side and retches hard.

Cupid winces – eyes not moving from my face. "Well this is going to be a fun journey..."

***

The three of us sit in silence on the damp decking as the boat rocks and cuts through the waves at an unnatural speed – black sails billowing all around us. 

I don't know how long we're outside like this. But I'm cold, and wet, and I can't stop my mind from relaying the events on the beach; I can't stop seeing James's lifeless body face down in the sand – imprinted on the backs of my eyelids.

I try to distract myself – gaze traveling along the shiny black decking, the elegant rigging, the golden ropes, the crows nest. There is something familiar about this boat– though I've obviously never been on it before. It reminds me of a dream, I think.

I glance at the black and gold steering wheel – about fifty feet away from me near the skull covered bow of the ship. Valentine was here, once. His calloused hands would have guided it through the ocean. 

And Valentine has been entering my dreams. I wonder if he brought some of this horrible place with him.

A rumbling sound ahead snaps me out of my thoughts. It vibrates through me, hard and dark as thunder. 

I look up and my pulse accelerates. Ahead a thick, black, moving mass of smoke extends across the horizon.Darkness. Pure and consuming. It twists and turns and rages through the wind as though it's a living thing.

And we are heading at supernatural speed towards it.

"Well that looks...horrifying..." Cupid mutters under his breath.

There's movement behind and I turn as Charon re-emerges – walking past us to the wheel. He looks over his shoulder.

"The barrier to the Underworld," he says. A grin broadens on his face. "Brace yourselves."