Waking up in a forest, barefoot, white dress floating around her knees and wind blowing her wild hair in her face, was how Persephone had pictured the afterlife. She had known she would end up in a place like this, a place full of magic and reminded her of Henrietta’s wild forests.
What she hadn’t expected was the arrival of a group of peoples, only minutes later. The woman hadn’t been given much of a chance to get her bearings, but the people were kind. Solid, unlike the figures she saw when scrying that were fuzzy. Persephone stayed quiet, watching everything around her as they escorted her to a strange, large building.
Persephone was sitting on a large chair, bare feet swinging below her when Gansey approached and stopped in his tracks. Her dark eyes met his as he pulled in a deep breath and stepped forward again, as if he couldn’t believe exactly what he was seeing.
She just smiled in return.
It was a flurry of movement, after that. She hadn’t been expecting to be hugged - oh no. But she took in his age, the change. Death. She knew instantly that he was different now, more the King than he ever was the President.
Ever the polite one, Gansey got her a cup of tea and left her in the quiet, as she preferred, while he went to make a few calls. To Blue, she supposed. Coca-Cola shirt, perhaps. Maura? No. Now wasn’t the time for that reunion, unfortunately.
She let herself go to another place while waiting, eyes focused on a point fixed on the wall far away from her as she tuned into the world. It was easier here, the magic felt stronger than anything she’d ever felt before, and she could let herself just feel it as time moved on, swirling around her.
The strange thing about today is that Adam saw this coming. Not specifically, never clear-cut pictures of cloudy hair or the name Persephone spelled out in loose tea leaves. But in the early morning light, on the floor of his shared bedroom, right before breakfast, Adam pulled a single card: The Queen of Cups. His mind had wondered to meanings, to what had been taught to him and what he had learned in the months after he first used the deck to commune with Cabeswater. But now, a card that was imbued with nurturing, motherly energy, felt confusing. Adam felt properly stumped.
It sat with him all day. Through breakfast, through lunch, through the dismantling of a new customer's engine at Boyd's, and the organizing of past invoices wedged in the main office. It was somewhere between recounting inventory that he had received a text from Gansey—he could feel the urgency in the short message, and Adam's stomach did some kind of strange, unfathomable twisting. He dropped everything and rushed to the DOA office.
Emotions were a tricky thing: without details—the who, the what, the why—Adam's brain went worst case scenario, went full-dread. By the time he made it to where Gansey's desk was he thought he might throw up from the uncertainty of the emergency.
And then he understood why.
Adam thought he was seeing a ghost, which was not uncommon on Vallo. The last time he saw Persephone she had practically been a ghost, sharing seats next to one another when she was already gone, hidden away in the Fox Way attic. Hesitation coursed through him, but he took the slow labored steps toward her anyway. How could he not? How could he not reach out and find out if she was real?
He stood in front of her, managing out, "You're here."
Persephone’s eyes went into focus when Adam arrived, head slowly turning to look at him while she kept that oh-so-serene smile on her face. She took him in the same as she’d done with their presidential friend, a slow one-over to mark out all of the new energy from him.
Positive energy. There was still an innate sadness that just came with Adam, but the change was evident to Persephone’s keen eyes.
When she stood, it was almost like her feet just floated to the floor, skirts rustling as she gracefully moved. “You knew.” Even if he hadn’t known exactly, it was the same as when she knew things. Things that would come to pass, as vague as time was. “Didn’t you?” Persephone’s head tilted in that odd way it did when she was asking a question that didn’t need an answer. “You’ve changed, Coca-Cola tshirt.”
"I knew," Adam echoed, because he had known. In some way the knowledge sprung to life and it seemed absurd that he didn't figure it out sooner. Psychic hindsight was a funny thing.
Under her scrutiny, he shifted on his feet, standing a little straighter as she stood. The need to impress, to be impressive to her was strong. Adam had changed. Cabeswater no longer surged like the tide inside of him, but his psychicness was still here. She could see that, right?
"It's been a long time, ma'am." His tongue tripped over the formality. That felt too distant, too far away for her. Persephone had been closer than any adult managed to be; she was another instance of how blood meant little to Adam Parrish. The bonds that he formed—friendship, love—meant so much more as family. He had felt Persephone's absence in a different way than the ladies of 300 Fox Way, but it did not hurt any less.
Adam swallowed hard, his throat tightening, his expression going deeply sad. His body was betraying him with emotions he wasn't ready to pursue. "I have—I have so much to tell you. And I have your cards."
They weren’t usually ones for touching–either because she knew Adam’s past and didn’t want to add extra pressure to the young man, or because Persephone was stingy herself when it came to tactile moments. But it felt right to reach out to him, delicate fingers touching on his arm as if to prove it was her and she was here.
And that she didn’t want him to be sad. Not for her.
“We have time,” The truth, as vague as it was. “They aren’t my cards.” Not any longer, anyway. Her face didn’t betray any annoyance over this, just a matter-of-fact smile that played at her lips. They were his cards now. “They’re yours. Mine will show up when they’re ready.” More matter-of-fact in that little voice of hers. “Have they been a friend to you?”
Adam closed his eyes, as if he was bracing for impact—the intangible kind, the gut-wrench of Persephone not being real. That her fingers would pass right through him. But she was solid, he felt the gentle press of her hand on his arm, and it almost broke him with relief.
He struggled for words then. Adam could only nod in agreement—the cards were his now, that hers would show in time—and he nodded as an answer. Yes, the cards had been more than welcoming. They had given Adam an indescribable focus his psychic ability lacked. They were a safety blanket in the dark scrying space. They had given the people he cared for hope. Adam thought it was Persephone's doing, her energy still flitting between the major and minor arcana of the deck. Directing him, teaching him, even now.
His hand scrubbed sharply across his face. He wasn't sad, he wasn't going to cry. "I thought I'd never see you again. And I thought I lost everything. And then you came to me when..." There was just so much to explain, but Persephone kept coming to him when he needed her the most. "I missed you," Adam said, surprising himself with the blunt honesty of it.
Persephone’s gaze softened on him. She knew more about Adam - all of them, really - than they probably would have felt comfortable with, which was why the ladies of 300 Fox Way kept a great deal of their opinions to themselves. Well, except for Calla. But Persephone had picked up on a lot of cues from them over the time they had known each other, and they all had pain behind their eyes, but Adam had always stood out more to her.
Maybe it was because they were so alike. “I’m sorry I left you so soon,” and she was. She knew he could handle it - they all could - sadness came with death and that was inevitable, but he was strong, and so was Blue. “But you were never alone.”
She got an odd little glint in her eye, and then there was a laugh, a joyful one, even though it was tiny. “And you have The Snake, don’t you? Ha! Calla had guessed one night.”
"You were only trying to help," Adam cut in. He didn't want her to apologize, it felt wrong for her to apologize for dying. His sadness was a selfish thing. He had only wanted her stay so he could have help, to teach him to wield this unwieldy new ability. Even without Cabeswater and her gentle tutelage, Adam was doing things that he only knew tangentially about, could only know about through experience. But he had been alone in that, or at least he thought so.
His attention snapped up at her words, searching her face as she started to laugh. Adam wasn't sure what she was getting at until—"Ronan," Adam supplied, allowing a small tight smile. "Don't tell him Calla guessed it. He would say she cheated." But his happiness in the moment faded slowly. He was still so afraid she would disappear in front of him.
"Do you mind if I—" Adam looked to the desk, another chair. "If I just sit with you awhile? Until Gansey comes back, or Blue comes?" Adam knew in the hierarchy of family, he would have to switch spots with Blue. Luck had given him this precious opportunity with Persephone first.
She kept smiling, and looked up with a knowing, smug expression. Her eyes unfocused, and she laughed again. “I helped, in a way. And I’m at peace with it, with all of it.” If she hadn’t been her energy would have stuck around in a much more solid way, and likely not been in the way they all would have desired. Negative energies were a nasty bit of business and Persephone was glad to not be a part of it.
With a flurry of skirts, she sat back down on the chair she’d been in when he approached. The president was still off in the corner, typing away on his phone, glancing over at them on occasion with worry and relief evident in his gaze. She knew that look, and knew some of it had to do with Adam, and the other to do with Blue. Persephone had seen ghosts before, and people in scrying that had not wished to be seen, all of them situations that had felt real at the time. She knew those around her were just waiting for her to not be there when they turned around.
So she stayed put, solid as could be as she focused back on Adam. “We have a few minutes. People are worried today, do you know why?”
Adam took the opportunity to drag a chair over from an empty desk to sit down beside her. With Persephone, Adam felt like he was stretching out an unused muscle, relearning a language. The statement "we have a few minutes" was both accurate and unspecific. Whatever was to come, they had a limited amount of time before this little bubble that had been built around them no longer existed.
He was so focused on memorizing the parts of Persephone he forgot—because he thought he had time, so much time that he took for granted—that he hadn't realized she asked him a question. He blinked, glanced to Gansey and then back. "There is something going on with magic here today. It started this morning, and hasn't let up."
It was his turn now to rest his hands against her forearm. It hadn't occurred to him that what was happening to Vallo might have coincided with her arrival—logic was starting to cause Adam to overanalyze this meeting. However, she felt solid. "It's going to be very different here for you than it was back in Henrietta."
“Mmmhm,” Persephone leaned back in the chair and took in the room again, from the lights, to Adam, to people across the area, and then to the President. He was different, but not from this. Just as Adam was. They had experienced a great deal that Persephone had missed out on, but that made her just a little more excited to learn. She could feel just how right he was, that this place was different.
In a way, it felt like a new beginning. Being reborn. It brought her back to the days of coming to the US, with fresh eyes and a fresh face. Of meeting Maura and Calla and uniting with them. Of adventure. Persephone was never one to feel or act her age, but she suddenly felt young again.
When she finally made it back around to looking at Adam, she put a hand over his own, and gave him a knowing smile. “I think you’ll find that I adapt well to different, coca-cola.”
"This is really different," Adam said, but he was smiling, assured that if anyone could adapt quicker and more fully to the world of Vallo it would have been Persephone. Adam grew quiet after that, watching her hand over his, feeling more settled in her presence. It was as if his psychicness was calibrating and attuning to one that was familiar. He remembered when Calla and Maura asked him to read with them—for better predictions, everything was better in threes—but it didn't feel right taking Persephone's place.
The offer only made sense now: he and Persephone were cut from the same psychic cloth. They touched the same points of the world. These were places that the other ladies of Fox Way couldn't reach without Persephone, or something like it. Mirrors could be tricky things when it came to magic, but Adam's abilities were mirrors of Persephone’s, complementary and roughly adjacent. Adam didn't know that then, but he knew it now. With time, with experience.
"Where will you stay?"
She made a little musing noise, and clicked her tongue once. “Home, eventually.” 300 Fox Way might not be full, she felt, but it wouldn’t be far from her. It was the place she had called home more than any other, and that was mostly due to the people inside it, but they could follow. The ladies of 300 Fox Way were connected, always.
Persephone was not unkind when she raised an eyebrow at him. “Do not suggest your location, you would hate to live with me. But I think your friend,” she nudged her chin towards Gansey, “Has a place in mind that I will like.”
As if on cue, Gansey tucked away his phone and looked nervously at the door, as if he was waiting for someone. No, not just someone. Blue wasn’t far. Persephone’s voice dropped down to a whisper, even though no one but Adam could hear her tiny voice. “You may need to confirm I’m real again, for her.”
Adam's expression went a little curious at home. It wasn't unusual for places from home to show in Vallo, but it seemed like Persephone was already aware of what was to come. Adam suddenly had so many questions, and he opened his mouth to ask as many and offer her a place at the Barns, except Persephone beat him to it.
"I wasn't," Adam lied, poorly. "You would have had to share a bedroom with someone, and everyone deserves a little bit of privacy." He followed to where and who she referenced, catching eyes with Gansey. Adam exchanged a worried glance, a slightly encouraging smile, and then squeezed Persephone's arm again. Still here, still real.
He turned back to her and nodded, because saying no to Persephone was impossible. Adam just wanted to do good by her, to prove to her that the time she spent explaining the world to him and mentoring his emerging abilities was not a waste. "I can, I will, when you left us, she was so—"
"Where is she?" came a high-pitched watery voice from the hallway just out of view. Blue. The few minutes they had was up, as predicted. Adam stood, and as he looked down to Persephone, complicated emotions stirred inside him. "I want to show you what I can do. Later," Adam said. On a soft exhale, he added, almost desperately, "please."
Adam wanting to show her what he’d learned earned him a delighted addition to her soft smile, the creases around her eyes appearing with it. The fact that Adam Parrish was willingly proud of what he had learned made her heart swell with pride enough. That-- oh. It was a good feeling, looking at this blossomed Magician and how far he had come.
“I would love nothing more. We have plenty of time now,” she promised the words feverently, a sure edge placed just right, before turning her attention to Blue as she entered. “Right here, Blue.” Her voice didn’t carry far, being as small as it was, but Persephone was one of those people that was difficult to miss, even in the midst of chaos.
The happiness Adam felt was overwhelming. It was a different sort of happiness, one he didn't get to touch often, one that was reserved for teachers who complimented his work or noticed how well he crafted an answer. One that parents gave their children because they were proud of their accomplishments. Adam took a deep breath, satisfied that this promise between them wouldn't be broken, Adam took a step back from Persephone. His time with her, for the moment, was done.
Blue, eyes glassy and face twisted up in hopeful fear, turned from the doorway to Persephone's voice and came barreling through other office employees. She crashed into her aunt, wrapping her arms so tightly around her it had to be painful. While Blue's gestures were large and wild for her tiny frame, her tears were quiet. Blue gave Adam a desperately questioning look—is she...?—and Adam, without hesitation whispered yes.
Blue clung tighter to Persephone.
Feeling like he was intruding on something that didn't belong to him, Adam slipped away. He needed something to drink, something to contemplate the last handful of minutes over—a cherry coke suddenly sounded good.