Read Online Pandora Gets Angry by Carolyn Hennesy - Free Book Online Page B

she reached up and felt her skull; red hairs were beginning to grow back, but it was still short enough so that, without her hood, she looked like a man. She had no idea when her glorious locks would once again cascade down her back. At that moment, her hatred of Pandora swelled to such a point that Hera instantly brought her hands up to her mouth to stifle a scream.
    She paused for only a second, her hands clenched until her nails dug into her palms, then she composed herself and turned toward the table and the growing piles of papers. She spread her arms wide, surprising the monkeys, one of which was unloading the cart.
    â€œAre you going to help me? Is that what you’re going to do? Come here, my little friends,” she cooed in a soothing voice. Houdi and Moudi were instantly enchanted and came forward to the back edge of the table.
    â€œWhat should I start with, huh? What do you think?” she said, as if coddling an infant. “Should I start with ‘Emergency Contacts in Case of Detention or Dismemberment’? Or ‘References’? How about ‘How Did You First Hear About Persia?’ Yes?”
    The monkeys shook their heads in disagreement and Houdi grabbed a handful of papers from one stack.
    â€œThose?” she cooed, not seeing what was written on top.
    The monkeys nodded with delight.
    â€œThat’s what we’ll do then, all right,” she purred. “Will you bring them to me? That’s right, that’s right.”
    Houdi raced across the table to her and Hera only glanced at the bottom line. Signing three times, she looked at the other monkey from under lowered eyelids.
    â€œWhy don’t you both come here and make certain I’m doing it correctly.”
    As Moudi approached gleefully, in one swift motion Hera grabbed Houdi, snapped his neck, and tossed him on the table. Moudi instantly leapt to the black marble floor, racing toward a door in a far corner of the room. Hera shoved the table out of her way, scattering papers everywhere. Large and bulky as she was, she tore after him and soon had his tail in her hands. Even though her powers were severely diminished, he was no match for her strength.
    She carried his body back to the table and placed it by the other one, ripping the collars off each monkey’s neck. She thought for a moment how she could carry two eggs; she had no pouch, no headdress, and putting them in the folds of her robe might cause them to smash together and crack. She tried wrapping one collar around her wrist but it was too small. And then an idea struck her.
    She removed her ornate gold and emerald earrings, the ones that set off her red hair brilliantly—when she had hair. She carefully detached the bodies of the earrings from their hangers. Then, slowly and meticulously, she took one of her intricate hairpins, now adorning her cloak, and began to pry away the tiny gold egg cage from the first collar.

CHAPTER NINE

You Mean, You Eat That?
    Alcie couldn’t tell exactly how long she’d been following Persephone through the darkened hallways of Hades’ palace. It could have been only five ticks on a sundial, or five hundred, or five thousand. And “following” wasn’t really the right term anymore; it was more like racing to keep up, slowing down when something caught Alcie’s eye, then speeding up again in the direction Persephone might have gone and occasionally, luckily, catching a glimpse of Persephone’s robes as she rounded a curve or a corner, or hearing Persephone’s voice as she kept up an almost ceaseless running monologue.
    Three things were against her, Alcie knew: Persephone was much larger than she was, than any mortal girl really, and her strides were mammoth. Second, Alcie was now definitely feeling both hungry and tired and had to stop often to rest. But third and most interesting, the rooms of Hades’ palace were—there was no other word for it—bizarre. There was