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Detaching from the shadows, the figure moved purposely towards us. I kept my arms out in front of me and balanced on my toes in a half crouch. Ready to kick ass, the chill in my spine deepening by the second.
York growled beside me. I strained to get a clearer image of the person, the woman if the blurred bosom was any indication, but she had wrapped the darkness around her. I got the sense of long hair before the being finally stepped into the pale, thin light of the trees.
“You’re not going to be able to pass Charon and Cerberus to get where you need to go. Which means you’re going to need a back way inside. I mean, you did good finding this one, but pure luck can only take you so far. I’m your best shot.”
“Who are you?” I shook my head to clear it of the effect of the woman’s melodic voice, sweet in a way that slithered through my senses and almost made my teeth ache. “No offense, but the last chick who came out of the woodwork tried to poison me with her own fangs,” I finished.
Instead of assuring me that she meant no harm, the stranger parted her hair to reveal two sets of ebony horns curving along the back of her skull. “You’d be stupid to trust me, I know,” she said with a smile full of sharp teeth. “Demons aren’t exactly high on the scale of trustworthiness. But considering I live here and you don’t, and I’ve been stuck here for the past...” She tapped her foot and sent her gaze high. “I don’t know. Six hundred years, give or take? It gives a girl some time to explore. I know the ways in. And I know the ways out.”
How convenient.
Her showing up just when we needed someone to point the way.
I didn’t trust the ethereally beautiful demon for a second.
“Saying it’s stupid to trust you is an understatement.” My fingers itched to check that the Carlisle was still snug in its holster on my back. “I don’t deal with demons.”
She inclined her head in respect for my distrust. “Noted. But rumor has it that you’re Vienna Blue and you’ve come to bust dear old Dad out.”
Rumor had it? Who had been talking about me, and why? Especially here, of all places.
I caught myself in time before saying something I would regret, and hoped the demon didn’t notice the infinitesimally small lapse. “Now I’m at a disadvantage. We’re apparently on a first name basis and I’ve forgotten yours,” I replied lightly.
“You share your father’s wit. Cute.”
The comment set my teeth on edge. Either this chick told the truth and she knew the ins and outs of Hades’s kingdom—along with my father, for good measure—or this was an elaborate lie and she’d been sent to hunt us.
She indicated her chest. “I’m Kalma. Freelance agent, part-time tour guide, full-time comedian, and demoness extraordinaire.” She bent at the waist, arms going out on either side in an extravagant but elegant bow. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“The jury’s still out on that,” I muttered.
“Hello, I’m Dr. York Quinlin.” York stuck his hand between us in a polite power move. He took a step forward and dropped his voice when the demon took the offered appendage and shook. “There, now we can all be friends.”
He didn’t trust the circumstances any more than I did. There was something insanely fishy about her sudden appearance, coming moments after we’d nearly drowned finding our way inside this passage.
The air around us took on a chill and despite my inhuman nature, I shivered. And who the hell had been talking shit about me?
“Trust me or don’t, it’s your call. I know you don’t have the magic juice. That little fact preceded your reputation. I hope you have inner knowledge and experiences to draw on, so you can make the call yourself. Come with me and avoid a mess...or go in with guns blazing, get caught almost immediately, and be stuck in the bowels of the Underworld for all of eternity. Like I said, your call,” she said pointedly.
Her hand went to her cocked hip, lips pouty, and if I hadn’t seen the horns myself, I would have thought her a transplant from some high school in Beverly Hills.
York snapped his head in my direction, his tone unusually caustic. “I’ll follow you.” His clear gaze met mine and I sensed his hesitation. We were, after all, stuck at the entrance to the Underworld.
We had nowhere to go but forward. No guide to show us the way save for Kalma, the friendly demon. I wanted to whip out the magic map and see that we were on the right path for myself. But it would be ludicrous to show our hand in such a manner.
My heart fluttered nervously at the thought of what lay ahead. “I’m not sure we have a choice,” I said to York. “If she turns on us, I’ll break her. That’s the best I can offer.” Hopefully, it would be enough to put both of our minds at ease.
York nodded slowly. “Sounds good to me.”
I turned back to the demon. “Why are you doing this?”
Kalma had shifted, become part of the shadows, the darkness nearly swallowing her slight form. “Not sure I understand the question, Miss Blue.”
“Vienna,” I snapped, straightening my spine and willing the damn chill to leave me. “And you understand the question well enough. What is in this for you? What do you get out of helping us?”
“Mmm, entertainment, maybe?” she posited.
“Not good enough. How did you know we were coming? How did you know to expect us here?”
Her shrug was back in place. “There’s a rumor gossip mill like you wouldn’t believe in the Underworld! We know things practically before they happen. Sorry if you thought your etchings would help you. I’m sure they hurt like, well, Hell.”
I vowed not to let her get to me even when my body shuddered at the thought of her knowing about the wards drawn on the inside of our ribs and bones.
“Rumor has it you’re coming to free Crius,” Kalma continued, rubbing her hands together. “Took you long enough, too. We’ve been hearing about it for months! Even had a bet going with some of my lost brethren. I said you were coming this year. Some of them had bet on a hundred years ago. Let’s just say they lost big time.” She grinned then stopped to study her black fingernails. “Your father is an incredibly powerful being. Powerful enough to protect the ones that help him once he’s free. It’s all I ask.”
Ah, finally some clarity. I understood the feeling. The need for freedom. To escape the chains binding you. Of course, this depended on finding Crius in one piece. Gods couldn’t die, but they could go mad, reduced to nothing but a shell due to their imprisonment.
Kalma wanted freedom from this place where she’d been trapped. It was a good enough motive for me.
I gave her a short, hard nod. “If you help us...if we can trust you, then you’ll get us to Tartarus and out again. Not leave us stranded the moment we get there.”
Kalma inclined her head. “Sure.” She gestured over her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get you settled in. From the look of this one, you’re going to need a safe place to stay for a time. Is he housebroken?”
“What a question to ask.” York chuckled, the sound gravelly, rough. Dark. “You’ll be fine. I won’t hurt you.”
Kalma scoffed. “Like you could, vampire.”
I opened my mouth to correct her but let it slide. She already knew too much about us. My gut told me that trusting Kalma was the wrong choice to make. However, going ahead on our own didn’t feel right, either. Between a rock and a hard place... I’d see how far she could take me, take us, before changing my mind.
I could easily snap her into pieces. Demons were no match for someone like me, not even on their turf.
York was on the verge of a shift and I let my hand drop to his bicep. Trying to instill whatever calm I could. Hold on.
She pointed through the grove of pale trees. “Whenever you’re ready?” Leave it to a demon to sound like we had inconvenienced her.
I gave York’s arm a final squeeze. “Lead the way.”
We followed her through the branches with leaves sparkling in unnatural light. The trunks rippled when we passed through. I ducked my head to avoid the lower hanging limbs. Darkness closed in around us with an almost audible snap. The longer we walked, the colder it became.
I would have expected the opposite.
“We’re not going to have much time here, but I’ll give you the quick rundown,” Kalma said over her shoulder, her breath a cloud of white. “Although I’m sure you know the tales better than I do, seeing as how you’re related to one of the Titans and I’m a lowly demoness. So. Tartarus is separated from the rest of the Underworld and about a thousand miles from the Elysian Fields. That’s heaven to you and me, or at least the Heaven of your Christian philosophy.”
She laughed at her own joke, head thrown back and mouth wide open.
Glad to see at least one of us enjoyed herself.
I stumbled after her, following the last light reflected off her horns by the ghost trees.
The blackness around us was alive, inky and moving with the terror of death. It closed my throat, seized my heart, and when I thought I wouldn’t be able to take it any longer, Kalma snapped her fingers and a ball of flame burst into being above her thumb and index finger.
“Try to keep up. This isn’t a pleasure tour,” she commented, one eyebrow raised independently of the other.
Before the snappy comeback I had prepared could be loosed into the world, we stepped out of the darkness to find ourselves standing in front of a gigantic ebony gate. The black path beyond it wound into more darkness, like a thin ribbon of midnight.
“Welcome to the backdoor,” Kalma said with a grin. “The left fork takes you right back around to Charon and his stupid little boat, which is fine if you don’t mind being seasick. The right fork goes toward the palace of the King of the Dead.”
“Which we don’t want,” York insisted. “We want neither ruler nor ferryman.”
Kalma nodded toward him. “Exactly. Which is why you want the third option.”
“Excuse me? What third option?” I asked.
Kalma reached over and pushed open the gate, the metal screeching and swinging away from her touch with a spark of sound. The darkness around us rippled, mist spewing up beneath the path and engulfing the gate in a cold vapor.
“I don’t like this.”
York didn’t need to voice the sentiment for me to know exactly how he felt. Fear flowed around me, through me, in unstoppable waves. Screeches and other nightmarish sounds assaulted my senses and I transported back into my bad dreams of the last few weeks. Sweat broke under my armpits. I half expected Xanthe to materialize next to me and skewer me through the middle.
When I glanced at York, his hands were over his ears and he slowly backed away.
I strove for a core of calm when my mind shied like a frightened pony at her first show.
“I don’t see a third option,” I stated. Aside from the two paths ahead, I saw nothing.
“That’s because you’re not ready to see it.” Kalma beckoned us forward again. “You guys look like shit. Now before I drop you into the chasm, it’s better if you take a rest. Otherwise, this whole thing will be for nothing. I want you in lean mean fighting shape. That way you’ll stand a chance.”
“There’s no time for rest. And besides, who could rest in this place—”
“I have a hidey-hole. Somewhere safe where you can go to sleep it off. And no, vampie, you cannot suck any blood while you’re down here.”
York sent her a smile that rose to red-tinged eyes. “Don’t worry. I don’t feel the pull of the moon anymore.”
“Because there is no night and day down here. There’s nothing except rocky plains and jagged black mountains and fiery chasms. At least we don’t have to deal with the sulfur stench. Hades saves that for the pit.” Kalma casually pointed toward the path leading toward the palace.
Strange wailing sounds filled the air around us like the chorus of a million voices. The cacophony was almost worse than the sounds of my nightmares. It had a nearly physical weight here in the darkness.
Numb, I turned to Kalma. “Wherever you want to take us, lead the way.” It was better to follow her than give in to the heartbreak of the keening laments.
Near dead with exhaustion, York hooked one arm around my waist and we struggled forward through those massive iron doors, trying desperately to block out the sounds of a million voices weeping, attempting to force themselves into my brain until my ears felt like they would bleed.
Kalma continued to talk as we followed her, telling us everything we would need to know about this place if our mission was to be a success. Only half paying attention—even when I knew I desperately needed to memorize her words—I put one foot in front of the other. Striving for balance when I felt lost, untethered.
Days ago, we’d been in New York, preparing for the journey. Weeks ago, I’d been in California, the only place that had ever really felt like home. This wasn’t how I’d imagined my future. I sensed nothing ahead of me. No thoughts materialized, no fresh ideas, no dreams of what I would be doing in a year, five years, another thousand.
The realization almost broke me. I couldn’t allow myself any time to dwell on the emptiness ahead of me, especially not when I was unsure whether it was just my imagination causing the blankness or a premonition.
“Hey, at least your adventure is off to a promising start,” Kalma said cheerfully. “Sleep and food...and me. I’d say it’s a win–win situation.”
“Where exactly are you taking us?” York asked.
I glanced over at York. He looked awful. Dark hair was plastered across his cheeks and down the back of his neck. His shirt was ripped to shreds and his fingers still raw from his fight with the lamia. Worst of all, he still shivered, his skin turning a pale robin’s-egg blue with the chill.
“It’s going to be all right,” I whispered to him.
“A little hole in the wall I created for when I want a place to hide,” Kalma told us. Entirely at home in the darkness.
I shifted closer to York, taking his hand, but I spoke to Kalma. “Which means nothing to us.”
“It means there’s a bed and a place for you to sleep where monsters aren’t going to rip you in two,” she replied.
York snorted. “I’m used to monsters. It’s you I’m not sure I can trust.”
I admired York more at that moment for trying to probe for answers with humor, even when he knew it wouldn’t get us anywhere.
We struggled along the path and I tightened my hold on York, our fingers entwined. I didn’t know who supported who anymore. Despite everything, sleep sounded like the best thing in the world at that point.
Kalma led us down several more meters before coming to a stop in front of a solid plane of rock.
Is this the part where she turns and kills us? I wondered.
From around her neck, she drew a simple silver key. “This,” she commanded our attention with a single word, “is how you’ll get in. The gate to Tartarus opens with only one key.”
“And you have it?” I guessed, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Oh hell no. This isn’t it. No, the key you will need stays around the Hangman’s neck. He’s Hades’ lapdog butcher. We like to call him the bitch because he does the grunt work, but he is not someone you want to deal with.” She shuddered at the thought.
She took the key from her neck and shoved it straight into the rock. “It’s nothing but a parlor trick, really,” she told us as she twisted it and the illusion of solid stone melted away. “Something I learned along the way. The key creates a pocket in time no matter where you are. A little piece of untouchable space, portable through any dimension. Go on, get inside. It’s perfectly safe.”
I took a minute to scan our surroundings before doing what she suggested. There were no signs of anyone around, which set my teeth on edge. The tunnel we’d come through had melted away into the gray hazy mist that had followed us since we stepped through the gate. No sign of Hades, his palace, or the black gate. It was like staring through wet cement. At the edges of the mist flickered red light, as though in the distance great bonfires were scorching the land of any life.
Seeing nothing, my senses tingling apparently for the wrong reasons, I followed York and Kalma inside. I had to do something. Had to move even as a headache flared to life inside of me with a sudden burst that sucked the air straight from my lungs.
I rubbed my temples and bid my body to cut the crap. “Are you sure this is safe?” I demanded.
Kalma played with a worn piece of leather hanging from her wrist. “I don’t have specific examples for you. I think it’s as safe as any place here. I mean, we’re talking about the Underworld after all.”
“Indeed we are,” York agreed quietly.
Something wild and foreign inside of me seemed to heave forward and shatter against the pain in my head. I had to do what was necessary to ensure the future. As anxious as I was to free Crius, I would have turned around and run if I’d known how the journey would end.
My heart stopped when stone slammed shut behind me.
I jerked around at the decisive boom of the mountain face shifting back into one seamless formation. I caught a flash of a smile, of Kalma’s horns catching the light of her flame a second before it extinguished. Tensing, outraged to the point where I had to suppress the urge to scream, my body went immediately on the defensive.
She had turned on us.