Move it, Kylie. I just couldn’t run as fast, and Erasmus realized it and scooped me up. I hated feeling like a damsel in distress, but I had to consider that this was the most expedient way. And I’d much rather Erasmus held me than Shabiri, who would probably have thrown me over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry.
It was the Hound of Hell, Cerberus. He was back, probably egged on by Satan. Maybe these guys could outrun him, maybe they couldn’t. I sure wish I had my crossbow. Wait!
“Shabiri, do you still have my spear?”
“Spear? What spear?”
“The Spear of Mortal Pain. You had it last.”
“Did I?”
Erasmus gave her a sharp glance. “Dammit, Shabiri! Do you have it or not?”
“Everyone is so touchy.” She pulled it out of some miraculous pocket of her tight catsuit and telescoped it out. “And it isn’t your spear. I’m the one who got it for Dougie. So by rights it’s really mine—”
“Either use it,” I screamed, “or give it to me and I’ll use it!”
“It was all ‘thank yous’ an hour ago and now it’s all demands and threats.” She flew up in the air, spreading her shoulders like wings. Despite her bitching, she came down over the hound’s back and plunged the spear deep.
Cerberus’ three heads all howled and stuttered to a stop. The dog whipped its snaky tail around, trying to dislodge the spear, but couldn’t quite reach it. Finally, he rolled over, howling more as the spear dug deeper. But after a lot of rolling the spear fell out. Cerberus shook itself, zeroed in on us, and continued to run after.
“That was a good idea while it lasted,” I said as Erasmus ran faster. “Where’s the damn border to this place?”
“It’s not far. Just over that hill.” He gestured with his chin to the distant ash-gray hills.
But what he didn’t say was that even though we’d turned on the speed, we weren’t going to outrun the massive three-headed dog behind us.
“We’re just going to have to take a chance and fly,” I said.
Erasmus looked at me, then glanced toward Shabiri. She looked back as the dog gained on us. She gave a quick nod, and leapt into the sky, her body widening and flattening into that manta ray shape again. Erasmus did the same. Almost immediately, something large came up over the hills we were heading for, with huge bat wings that reminded me of Baphomet.
“What is that?”
“What we were trying to avoid encountering,” he said.
It had a huge lower jaw like a pelican which hung open, waiting to scoop things out of the air.
“Sh-shabiri!” I cried. “The spear!”
“I seem to have left it behind in that infernal dog.”
“What?”
“I can blast things, you know. So can your boyfriend if he didn’t have his hands busy.”
“Then you’d better start blasting that!”
She wound her arm back, like a pitcher on the mound. A ball of lightning coalesced and shot forward. When it hit the big-jawed creature, the ball exploded. The creature faltered its flapping, even lost a little altitude, but it recovered quickly and headed for us again.
“Shabiri!” I warned.
“I see it very clearly, darling,” she said between gritted teeth. She fisted her hands and her whole body began to glow red.
“What’s she doing?” I asked Erasmus.
“No idea,” was his casual reply, as if a great mouth monster wasn’t barreling down on us.
Abruptly, she streaked forward with a huge amount of force and crashed right into the beast vanishing into its bulbous flesh. This time, she managed to knock it out of the sky. They both spiraled downward. I watched in horror and kept looking at Erasmus.
“Aren’t you going to do anything?”
“Why?”
“Because she’s in danger.”
“Is she?”
“Well, I don’t know. She just disappeared into that guy’s body like it was Jell-O.”
The creature flapped weakly but continued to fall, turning on its back. Finally, it splatted spectacularly on the red earth below. We continued flying onward.
“Erasmus!”
He sighed with impatience. “Kylie, this is the Netherworld. Things happen here. And no one mourns.”
I couldn’t believe it. After all we’d just been through, all that Shabiri helped us do, this is how he acted? He’s a demon, Kylie. This is what you signed up for.
“We have to go back and see if she’s all right?”
His glare was noteworthy. “No, we don’t.”
“Yes, we do. Erasmus, we don’t let our friends down.”
His brows were thoroughly furrowed as he continued to glare…until they rose and he threw back his head and laughed.
I hit his chest with my fist. “Erasmus!”
“Shabiri, will you please materialize before she beats me to death?”
There was a pop and Shabiri was suddenly there, flying beside us. “Am I really your bestest friend?” She batted her eyes.
“The two of you! A demon’s sense of humor, huh? I’d throw something sharp at the both of you if I could.”
“Spirited,” she said, “isn’t she?”
“Can we fly the rest of the way?” I asked, ignoring them.
“I think we had better,” said Shabiri, scanning the plains below. “I’m seeing more of Lord Satan’s welcoming party.”
I turned to where she was looking. An army of what looked like trolls were marching across the savannas and kicking up a cloud of red dust.
“That…doesn’t look good.” I held tighter to Erasmus.
He spared them a look too. “No, it doesn’t.” He and Shabiri exchanged a silent commiseration.
“The faster we can get to the exit point, the better,” he said.
He seemed to turn on the speed again, but over his shoulder a swarm of something was following us in the air.
“One measly human can sure cause trouble,” I muttered. “I hate to tell you this…”
“I smell them,” said Erasmus. “More gargoyles. Unfortunately, they didn’t all fall into my trap as expected. They aren’t the brightest of creatures.”
I stared up at him. “Are we going to make it?”
He looked down at me with a determination I hadn’t seen in his eyes before. “If I have anything to say about it, we will.”
He poured on the speed. I could see how much of an extra burden it was for him to carry me. I looked down at the dead book crushed between us. For once, I was actually regretting that it didn’t have any power. I knew I could have summoned something to keep them back.
What was I thinking? Of course I didn’t want the book back. Get a grip, Kylie. And then I did grip because Erasmus was making all these acrobatic turns.
I looked around. Even more creatures were showing up. Those dragon raptors. Looked like Satan was pulling out all the stops. Jeesh, what a crybaby. He got most of a soul.
“As soon as we pass over those hills, we’ll have to descend,” yelled Erasmus over the rush of the wind. “Be ready with the book. You won’t be able to pass through without it.”
And just that moment, I almost dropped it. I clung on to the book with one hand, and Erasmus with the other. His arms tightened around me. “I haven’t come all this way to let you fall now.”
Scant relief with armies coming after us.
I watched carefully as the ridge passed below us. As soon as we flew over to the darker side, the demons began to descend. The wind blew my hair back, and I gazed down to the rough terrain below. Erasmus and Shabiri landed at a run and as their bodies morphed back to normal, they kept running. I could see the place. I hadn’t noticed it when I arrived, but I could tell that this was it—a dark, shimmering gash in the rock face. I could see how beasties and demons could pass through it. Why couldn’t I?
I tried to resettle myself and suddenly the book slipped from my bloodless grasp. I had been holding it so tight I hadn’t noticed when my grip had gone numb. “Oh shit! Erasmus! The book!”
He looked back, about to spin around when Shabiri dove after it, scooping it from the dirt. She came up beside us. “And to think I wanted this old thing.”
“For Doug,” supplied Erasmus.
Shabiri and I exchanged a loaded look.
“That’s right, darling. For Doug.”
Poor, clueless Erasmus.
We made it to the deep bruise in the hillside. “Give Kylie the book, Shabiri.”
“Hmm,” she said, looking it over. “It can’t do what it did before, but like you said, it is still a key.”
“Shabiri,” he growled.
She looked at me then. “You offered anything if I would help.”
“Shabiri.” I was so disheartened. I thought she’d changed. Even a little. “I can’t get back without it.”
“And once you go back, it will cease to be a key. But there are some in this world who would pay a handsome price to crossover. There are demons who can’t, you know.”
Erasmus was full-on growling now. “Shabiri! Give me the damn book or I’ll take it!”
She swiveled and held it away from him. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Please, Shabiri,” I said. “I know I promised you. I’ll find something else.”
She looked me up and down with a sneer. Had it all been an act? Everything she said, every secret she spilled?
A bark and a growl. Cerberus stood on the top of the hill and howled when he saw us. And then he started to trot downward.
“Shit,” said Shabiri. “You know, this just isn’t fun anymore.” She shoved the book into my hands. I stood there, immobilized. “Well?” she said, frustration and maybe something else I couldn’t identify written on her face. “Go! I’ll hold it off.”
“But…” I watched as the angry three-headed beast barreled toward us. “You can blast him, right?”
“He’s a hell hound,” said Erasmus. “She can’t.”
“But you can stab him with a spear?”
“And he didn’t die, did he?” she snarked. “You can’t kill a hell hound. You can only delay it, and I can’t use my powers against it. He’s Lord Satan’s own.”
“Come on, Kylie,” said Erasmus, grabbing my arm to lead me away toward the shimmering exit.
“Wait. We can’t just leave her.”
“Beelze’s tail! I’m beginning to wonder about all this friendship you keep spouting. It’s liable to get us all killed.”
“And while you chatter about it,” said Shabiri, “the beast closes in. Honestly. Can’t someone tell a tale about how brave I was for a change?”
A hot lump formed in my throat. “Shabiri…”
“Will you run already? I don’t fancy people watching me get torn to shreds.”
I didn’t know what to do. She started to run toward Cerberus to distract him, giving us precious time to jump through the gateway, but I just couldn’t leave her.
I started toward her.
“Kylie!” Erasmus yelled with the intensity of all his emotions rolled into one.
I looked back at him. “How can we leave her?”
He glanced toward the gateway, glanced at Shabiri and sighed. “Oh hell.” He ran forward ahead of me.
Cerberus was almost on Shabiri. She’d picked up a big branch on her way there with every intention of giving at least one head a smack, when out of the sky, there was a streak of gray. She was suddenly scooped up from the ground. She and her rescuer shot forward back toward the gateway.
Erasmus was right there when they landed. “Focalor!”
“It was such a good story; I had to see how it ended. Are you all going through the gateway?” He looked back as Cerberus galloped forward. “You’d better hurry.”
“Thank you, old friend,” said Erasmus, patting his shoulder.
“Thanks, Focalor,” said Shabiri. “But you absolutely spoiled my heroic ending.”
“Oh, well. I can always tell it as if you’d died. It would still make a good tale.”
“Beware, Focalor,” said Erasmus, tugging me toward the shimmering gate. “There is an army of trolls and several gargoyles heading this way.”
“I shall be gone before they arrive. As for this beast…” He flew up and began haranguing Cerberus just above the snapping jaws. He put a hand to his mouth and shouted to us, “Get going!”
“Will he be all right?” I asked.
Erasmus tugged me hard toward the shimmer without another word. I held the book tight to my chest and closed my eyes. When we passed through, it was worse than the first time. As if thousands more tiny ants stinging and biting me and tearing apart my every molecule. My skin, my nerves were on fire, burning down to my muscle and bones. I screamed and screamed until I was being shaken and someone was yelling at me.
“I slapped her the last time to make her stop,” I heard vaguely.
“Kylie! Kylie, you’re safe! You’re home.” It was Erasmus’ voice and I opened my eyes. “Oh my God.” It was the cold woods of Maine by moonlight, near Hansen Mills, where the ley lines crossed. I somehow didn’t believe we could ever get back.
“We did it.” I hugged him and kissed him. Then I turned to Shabiri. She looked startled and backed away from me, but I managed to grab her anyway and hug her tight. “Thank you, Shabiri. You are the second bravest person I know.”
Stiffly she accepted my embrace but looked all kinds of relieved when I let her go. “The second bravest? Can’t I be the first?”
“Nope. Sorry. That title belongs to Erasmus.” I gave him a warm, contented smile.
We took one step down from the precarious rock ledge and were almost run over by a herd of deer.
“What are they running from?” I wondered aloud. But then I looked up.
Baphomet was strafing the woods and setting them on fire.