River of Shadows (Underworld Gods #1)(56)

While she picks up an ebony comb from the vanity table, Raila starts to do up the corset at the back of the dress.

“Really?” I say, looking at Lovia expectantly as Raila cinches me in. “You’ve been to my world and yet you’re wearing corsets down here?”

She motions to her Grecian-style gown. “As you can tell, I am not. But my father is particular about his women looking a certain way. Unless you’re a mermaid.” She laughs at that and Raila joins in and I’m remembering Bell again, hiding in her fish tank and watching this whole thing. Surely Lovia will remember that she’s there? Then again, she did say she has a bad memory.

I hold my breath in worry, wondering if Lovia will remember and maybe take Bell away from me. But Lovia just takes the comb and starts going through my hair.

“Wish I had a blow-dryer,” she pouts, braiding my hair. “I’m sure you’ve noticed, but we don’t have electricity here. We have starstones and they can power things, but they’re quite rare. Luckily, I can create fire winds.”

“Create what now?”

Suddenly Lovia opens her arms, flames immediately appearing on her skin, then a giant gust of hot wind seems to flow right out of her and onto me.

My eyes pinch shut. I think I scream. It’s hard to tell when you’re being blown away and nearly engulfed by a fire.

Eventually though, the blowing stops and I dare to open my eyes. Both Lovia and Raila are staring at me. I can’t see Raila’s face, of course, but I assume she looks as amused as Lovia does.

“Magic,” Lovia explains, shaking out her wrists. “I can control fire. My mother is part-demon, so she passed that onto me. My brother can control ice, but he doesn’t do anything interesting with it except play hockey with Deadhands.”

Raila comes over to me and starts undoing my braids. To my surprise, my hair is completely dry. And very shiny. Guess that conditioner does the job.

“Come here,” Lovia says, grabbing me by the arms and leading me to the vanity desk. She sits me down and stands behind me. I look into a mirror that looks like a haunted mirror if I ever saw one. For a moment I think it might be because I don’t recognize myself in it.

I don’t have any makeup on, and yet I look like I do. My brown eyes are richer in tone, my lashes black and long, my lips look full and flush, stained ruby, my skin glowing (thanks to the sparkling honey powder that Raila put everywhere). My dark chocolate colored hair spills over my shoulders in shiny waves, my breasts pushed up high in the dress.

“You look like a fairy-tale princess,” Lovia says. “But like a dark one. Like from a Grimm fairy-tale. Those are more up my alley anyway.” She peers at our reflections, lifting the hair off my shoulders and pulling it back. “Anyone ever tell you that you have a very otherworldly face?”

I laugh. “Coming from you, that would mean I have a mortal face. But yes. I’m a bit odd looking.”

“Odd looking?” Lovia says in surprise as she gathers my hair on the top of my head, and motions for Raila to hand her something. “You say that in a negative way. Odd is another word for different, that’s all. You’re beautiful and you look like you belong here. Well, maybe not Tuonela. But somewhere full of sun and starlight, maybe among the Sun and Moon Goddesses.”

I appreciate Lovia’s compliment. My mother was adopted so I don’t know my family on her side, but I definitely have the high cheekbones of the Finns. Kids used to tease me and call me an “alien” growing up, because of how big and far apart my eyes are, but my face helped me be expressive during dance.

Raila hands Lovia hair pins and she starts pinning my hair up, adding in some large black feathers. I have a sneaking suspicion that those are from the swan I killed.

“There,” Lovia says, placing her hands on my shoulders. “You’re ready to go. And just in time, too.”

I look around. There are no clocks in my room, so I’ve had no idea of the time, especially when the world outside the window seems to be permanent twilight. “What time is it?” I ask. “Is time even a thing here?”

She gives me a small, patient smile. “Time is a thing. Clocks are not. We have timekeeper stones, like quartz, but there’s really no point when it doesn’t behave in a linear fashion. Sometimes time is fast, other times it’s slow. The entire world of Tuonela adjusts itself in time with the number of the dead. It’s the only way we can manage it. So you’ll notice when it gets lighter, well, that’s morning. When it gets darker, that’s evening. When the moon and stars are out, that’s night. But the Goddesses will hold back the sun and moon depending on what needs to be done. Sometimes it’s mid-day for far longer than normal.” She pats my shoulder. “You’ll get used to it. Time as you know it is only an idea. You mortals put far too much control and thought over it.”

Everything she said just blew my mind. “That’s easy for you to say,” I tell her. “Time probably has no meaning when you’re immortal.”

“It’ll mean less for you soon,” she says, pulling me to my feet, the dress weighing a ton. “You’re immortal while you’re here. Ilmarinen, my mother’s consort, is a mortal and he hasn’t aged a day since he got here.”

“I thought you weren’t able to see your mother?” I ask.

Lovia’s face falls for a moment but she buries it with a breezy smile. “I’ve seen Ilmarinen. During my job. You see a lot when you’re ferrying the dead on the River of Shadows.”