“Here we will drag them, and through the sad
wood our corpses will hang, each on the thornbrush
of the soul that harmed it.”
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Somehow I had to carry on talking and show him that I was ready to reveal everything. There was no point lying anymore or even attempting to tamper with his fragile mind. The Watchers had let him go, so Zach was my responsibility now. Part of me knew that now there was nothing stopping me from being with him, but romance was clearly the last thing on his mind right now.
There was so much that I wanted to share with him. Maybe then he would understand why I was forced to make certain decisions in the past. When Arthur and I were together we had to conceal our relationship from everyone around us, but with Zach things were much more complicated. He was suffering, he felt betrayed and cheated. All this time he had been right: there was magic and other creatures in his world, but he wasn’t allowed to share this new knowledge with anyone.
I pulled away the covers and sat on the bed, staring at the man that was breaking apart. The nurse must have loosened up the straps a few hours earlier. My legs were covered with bandages, but the pain was bearable. I had gone through worse things in life, but this wasn’t the time to worry about my wounds. There was a man in the room that needed me. I filled his head with memories that were fabricated, just because I was trying to protect myself. The image of the pits floated in front of my eyes, but I pushed it away. My fears could wait. I had to tell Zach that I cared about him a lot.
I walked up to him and sat down, still wearing my hospital gown. I wanted to use my energy to take away his pain, for at least a moment, but my body hadn’t recovered yet. My muscles were sore, my skin still stinging in various places. Zach had stopped sobbing; he was immobile, broadcasting only anger and resentment. He didn’t want to believe that he’d lived in deceit for such a long time.
“Your partner, Cora, she was a demon too and she took a risk. She knew that faction discourages any romantic involvement with humans, but she chose to ignore it. Someone must have reported her. There isn’t any other explanation of why she died. The Watcher from her past came back and killed her,” I said, still touching him. Zach didn’t understand how demons shaped humanity, but he deserved the truth. I didn’t agree with hell’s rules, but I wasn’t able to change a thing. I was only a mongrel, and half demons meant nothing in hell.
“What happened to my sister? Did your people take Zara?” he asked, and lifted his head up. There weren’t any more tears, just anger and it was directed at me.
“I don’t know, but she’s alive and well. Somehow she’s gotten involved with Nameless Thief, with his people,” I said, trying to keep my emotions at bay. Zach needed my help to track down his sister, and I already had a plan. There was no doubt that I still had to retrieve the letter, but my priorities changed.
“Nameless? What does he have to with her?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at me.
“She was the one that stole the jewellery at the party and the one that warned me to stay away from him. I saw her down the tunnels, but I wasn’t certain it was her until that party in the manor. ”
“No, Zara wouldn’t be that stupid. She wouldn’t have left us for some demon, a monster,” he said, shaking his head. I was surprised that the nurse hadn’t checked on me yet. Zach was quite loud earlier on, and I had to make sure that he would keep his mouth shut. No one would save me if he started telling other people that there were demons walking on the streets of London.
“I can’t explain what exactly happened to her, Zach. I think Nameless has done something to her, changed her, made her forget about her humanity. I’ll help you find her, I promise, Zach, but you need to understand that you mustn’t tell other people about what you know. This is very important.”
He lifted himself up and looked at me like he still didn’t believe that I wasn’t human.
“So you want me to lie to everyone that I know?” he asked.
“If you want to live, then yes, humans can’t know. They aren’t ready for the truth. I don’t make the rules,” I stated, thinking about that letter last night, and wondering who else knew about my attempt to enter Gjöll.
“Fine, but how are we going to track Nameless now?”
“I have a plan. A few weeks ago his father came to me and asked me to find him. You met him in the palace. As it turned out he chose the only place in the underworld that the factions can’t control: Gjöll. I guess that he made a lot of enemies over the years, and we aren’t the only people that are trying to find him,” I said, knowing that for now I needed to forget about the letter. Right now Zach’s sister was my priority. Nameless had her, and I owed it to Zach to find out what happened.
“You should have told me that she was the one that stole the jewellery at the party,” he told me, looking out the window. I wished that I’d had enough courage in me to go to him and kiss him.
“There is a way to get to Gjöll, to cross the river that separates the living from the dead. It’s the only place which Lucifer doesn’t control, where Nameless is protected,” I said, knowing that Zach wasn’t ready to join me, but it was still going to be hard to convince him not to come with me.
For a long moment he debated over what to do, if he could trust me once again. I was still on the floor, struggling to find a comfortable position when he reached out with his hand.
“Fine, Maxine, I’ll follow your lead one more time, but this time we are playing by my rules,” he said, helping me back on my feet. I could have sworn that I saw that flirtatious gleam in his eyes when part of my thighs got exposed.
“I’m sorry for lying, for deceiving you, but I really had no choice. After all, I’m just a mongrel, half demon. We don’t have much say in the demonic world; our voices don’t matter,” I explained, getting back to bed. Zach did understand, but he was still wary of everything that was coming out of my mouth.
A moment later his phone interrupted our conversation. Zach answered it, and I knew that he had to leave.
We didn’t make any promises to each other, but somehow I wasn’t afraid that he was going to start talking. He must have understood that the life of his missing sister depended on it.
I lay on the hospital bed for some time after he left, thinking about Ronan. I knew that if I found Nameless and Zara, I could trade something for my letter, for all the letters.
After I got lunch, Emma came back to check on me. Apparently Ricky had to go back to the office. He had an appointment with a new client. When the doctor did his rounds, I was ready to go home. My burns would heal eventually, and I couldn’t lose another day just lying around. Emma didn’t want to hear about my new ideas; she wanted me to stay in bed. It took a bit of convincing and maybe a few lies to let her know that I was healed, that I had to get on with things. She agreed to bring me some elixirs back from my apartment.
She came back after a few hours, with a new pair of jeans, some T-shirts and magical potions. I sneaked out of the hospital in the late afternoon, pumped with magic. My skin needed to be soaked in a cold bath, probably with some added extras. Two months ago after the attack of the A’rea and my confrontation with Alexis, it took me weeks to get back to normal. Emma had taken care of the paperwork, but the nurses weren’t happy that I demanded to be released.
Luckily for me Ricky asked Emma to go back to the office. After assuring her that I was going to be fine, she eventually left me alone. I took some of the bandages off, brewed the elixirs from the dead raccoon that was supposed to sort me out. I forced some food into me and just before ten o’clock in the night I felt well enough to go out. I’d failed yesterday and I had to rectify that mistake as soon as possible, so I headed straight for the Broken Shoe. Paul didn’t look happy when he saw me.
“What the hell happened to you, Maxine?” he asked, staring down at my red face. Most of the swelling went down earlier on, but I still looked pretty battered. I had to find another way to Gjöll, but at the same time my hands were tied. The market wasn’t happening for another couple of weeks, and I couldn’t wait that long.
“It’s a very long and complicated story. You’d make me feel so much better if I had some tequila,” I said, feeling queasy. I was supposed to quit, sort myself out, but tonight the voices in my head were unbearable. Besides, I was hoping to pick Paul’s brain out about Gjöll. He had worked for Berith for years. He must have heard about an illegal entrance to the only part of the underworld that wasn’t controlled by Watchers. It was just a case of asking the right questions.
Paul glared at me, shook his head and eventually placed a shiny new bottle on the bar.
“Let me guess, you had an unpleasant encounter with Watchers?” he asked, like he just read my mind.
“Sort of. Have you ever heard of Azezel or Daniel? Those two were ready to throw me into the pits last night.”
Paul unscrewed the bottle and poured some into a shot glass.
“You shouldn’t be talking about them right here,” he pointed out, and I suddenly felt very warm and slightly lightheaded. I had a feeling that Paul’s demonic energy wasn’t exactly lost like he claimed. I looked around, spotting a drunken human on the other side of the bar. Paul was exaggerating, the bar was quiet and I wasn’t sensing any demons nearby. His previous profession left him paranoid.
“I managed to get an old formula, the entrance to Gjöll. I used my magic down by the river, but the formula was wrong. I entered the underworld instead and got caught. On top of that, Zach followed me down and saw everything,” I said, and then drank some liquid magic. It was refreshing, and my skin felt less strained. I wanted to play poker, maybe network with demons that could help me, but another month of rent was due soon. My stash was empty, and I couldn’t afford to be late again.
Paul widened his eyes and cleared his throat.
“That’s impossible. How are you even alive? Those two have never spared anyone, and they definitely wouldn’t spare a mongrel.”
“They received a letter just before I was supposed to be thrown down to the pits, and they told me that I had been spared,” I explained, popping another shot into my throat. “Don’t ask me. I have no idea what happened, but it looks like someone must really like me down below.”
Paul was shocked, so much so that he stopped polishing the glasses and stared, placing one on the bar.
“Unbelievable, you’re one lucky mongrel,” Paul said, and then poured himself a pint of beer. Okay, so he was planning to be my drinking companion for a night? “Maxine, tell me what is going on. Why are you sticking your nose where you’re not supposed to? Besides, the entrance to Gjöll is just an old myth. Stop wasting your time with this nonsense. ”
I was shocked that he said that and admitted that he knew about Gjöll. He wasn’t right. The entrance did exist, because Nameless was hiding there.
“I have everything under control, Paul. You don’t have to worry,” I said, which was a complete lie. Everything was slowly falling apart. The stolen letters, my secret, my half-started romance with Arthur, and now Zach. Paul didn’t have to read my mind to know that I was selling him the biggest bullshit in the history. I was far away from closing off this case.
“I know what you’re thinking, but you’re going the wrong way about it. You won’t find the way to enter Gjöll. Someone must lead you to it,” Paul said, with a serious expression on his face. I stared at him in confusion.
“What exactly do you mean by that?” I pressed, knowing that I couldn’t drink anymore. Paul knew something, but it was going to take me a few more hours to break him. He smoothed his fat neck and then noticed a customer on the other side of the bar.
“Hold on, I’ll be right back,” he muttered and then went to serve a newcomer. Sometimes Paul was frustrating. He possessed an incredible knowledge, but he was still loyal to Berith. I was surprised he was even allowed to leave. After all, he was one of them.
Soon after, Paul immersed himself in conversation with the new customer and I was suddenly bored. I decided to go outside for a cigarette, to stay away from drinking more tequila. Paul was a good person, but tonight he had to forget about his morals and tell me what he knew. He didn’t understand that my life was falling apart, that I had to find Nameless.
I arched my head backwards, resting it on the back door, then dragged smoke into my lungs. A moment later I spotted a figure on the street and I started coughing. It took me a moment to pull myself together and figure out that I saw someone that I recognised. My eyes couldn’t have misled me, but I was a hundred percent sure that Zara had just passed through the alley, carrying a rucksack on her shoulders. I shook my head, telling myself that she couldn’t be here, that this was impossible. I quickly dumped the cigarette on the ground, stepped on it, and decided to see for myself if that was really her. Tequila could wait, but Zara couldn’t.