“I felt a breeze strike soft upon my brow:
I felt a wing caress it, I am sure,
I sensed the sweetness of ambrosia.”
― Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio
I looked back at the entrance to the pub, hesitating for a split second, thinking that Paul needed to know where I was going this time around. In the end I didn’t want to waste my time and started running towards the alley where I saw Zara last. I didn’t want to lose her, but at the same time I wasn’t certain that it was actually her. The woman ahead had dark hair in a ponytail, leather jacket, and there was something sticking out of her back pocket. It was possibly the famous machete, but that annoying question kept popping in my head. Why would she let herself be exposed like that? What was she doing in this area so late at night?
I kept my distance. She was walking fast, almost running, and it was difficult to see her face. Just a moment ago Paul advised me that I needed to slow down and stop sticking my nose where I wasn’t supposed to, and right now I was doing exactly that.
After half an hour the alleged Zara had reached the main high street of Brixton. I had to remind myself a couple of times that I was still in recovery, and my burns weren’t fully healed. Last night’s encounter with Watchers had weakened me, and maybe it was time to call Zach. After all, I was following his missing sister.
A moment later Zara sped up. She was obviously in a hurry. A couple of drunk humans that were smoking outside the pub, whistled at her, shouting some sexual remarks, but she kept going, ignoring them. My demonic power began rolling down my back, but it was going to take me a while to recoup the strength from a couple of days ago.
When she finally stopped on the corner by the traffic lights and looked around, I backed away to the empty building behind me, afraid that she would notice me. I took out my mobile and dialled Zach’s number quickly. When the voicemail picked up, I was ready to toss the phone on the street, burning with frustration. Zach wasn’t available when I needed him the most, typical.
She crossed the street and carried on towards the north side of the city. It was just after midnight when she stopped by the entrance to the underground station. A moment later she disappeared inside. I ran then, knowing that she was most likely aware that I was close and she was hoping to lose me in the crowd. The station was busy, and I managed to follow her trace down to the platform, using the elixir that I had on me. I used the last bit of my demonic sense to locate her getting into the tube that headed towards central London. She changed the station a couple of times, confusing me ever more. She was playing a very twisted game, and I had to force myself to stay still, and just wait.
It was late, probably before one in the morning when I followed her all the way to Aldgate East station, keeping a safe distance between us. My fingertips started to sparkle as I hid myself behind a group of Asian students and watched her approaching the man in a trench coat.
I would have been very pissed off with myself if it turned out that I had followed some random woman that looked like Zara. As it turned out, my gut feeling didn’t disappoint, because she finally turned around revealing her face. Moments later the guy with a trench coat shook her hand and I recognised him too. The colour drained from my face when I realised that it was Ronan. She passed some kind of package to him and they both smiled at each other.
Shock rippled through me. Something was very wrong here. Why on earth was Ronan meeting with Zara in the middle of the night, the woman that was a close accomplice of his son? I kept watching them wondering what the hell was going on here. Ronan was an old friend, and he would have never betrayed me. The letters from the dead princess were priceless to him, but his meeting seemed like it was planned.
A burning hot anger was filling my stomach, because none of this made sense. He pointed at the package and said something else to her. I tried Zach’s mobile again, but it was going straight to voicemail. I didn’t know what to do, staring at my old friend that was supposed to be on my side.
It took another ten minutes for them to disappear behind the barrier that led towards rail tracks. The train passed, people got in and no one noticed that a man and a woman vanished off the platform.
I reached the same spot a couple of moments later and sensed the magical potion. It was one of those elixirs that strengthened the specific magical formula. I presumed that Ronan had just managed to open the entrance to another tunnel. He must have made some kind of agreement with Zara. Maybe they were working together against Nameless. Maybe he got fed up waiting around, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. The possibilities were endless.
There were steps down that led towards the underground tunnel. I was slammed with strong demonic energy that circulated around the space. It was just a matter of time before they sensed my presence, but I was willing to follow them down. I wanted answers, and I wanted to know what they were doing. After years of friendship I didn’t want to believe that he would betray me in such a way, teaming up with an alleged enemy.
Zara and Ronan were somewhere ahead of me. Now and again I heard trains crossing, the whole tunnel was shaking, and air pressure filled my ears.
After some time I must have lost them, following through the endless rail tracks, moving further into the doomed darkness. I could no longer sense them. Despite that, I kept walking, following the tracks and remembering the cross over and the Keres that implanted the memory from my early childhood a while back now.
The tracks began to narrow and soon the tunnel started dropping down. The oxygen level decreased too and I found myself struggling to catch my breath. The tunnel narrowed further and further, making me feel slightly suffocated.
Deep down I knew that I had left the London underground behind. Ronan used his ancient magic to let Zara inside this part of the underground or cross world.
After what seemed like hours, I reached the end. Right in front of me there was another entrance to a cave. Alarm bells started going in my head. It was time for me to stop and reconsider what I was doing. The energy that scorched over me didn’t feel right. There were two human skeletons lying on the side of the cave.
The air was punched out of my lungs when I lifted my eyes, noticing a sign on the right side that was engraved in the stone. I had finally found the place that I had been so desperate to get to, the legendary Gjöll. Ronan must have found the way, and this time around I was a hundred percent sure the entrance was real. Every tiny hair on the back of my neck rose, as I tried to breathe in, aware of the heat that wafted through the air.
I could still go back and get in touch with Zach, but I had no idea if the entrance would still be here later on. Ronan had lied to me, but I didn’t want to believe that he knew how to get to Gjöll in the past few weeks. He wouldn’t have let me struggle over finding the way in.
I walked through the cave a moment later, knowing that I couldn’t turn back. My anxiety increased, because the entrance reminded me a lot of the one from two days ago. If this was the real deal, then the icy river of Gjöll would appear spread in front of me at any moment. I was stepping into unknown territory, not knowing what was waiting for me on the other side.
My breathing became laboured. I sensed demons close by, heard muted voices and screams. The long corridor widened, and after some time it started to level up. A few minutes later I reached the end, and on my right I noticed concrete stairs. I climbed up, breathing hard until I squeezed through to the large open space. It was another cave, but this was stretched for at least half a mile. A cold shiver traveled down my spine when I rubbed my tired eyes, seeing a lake that covered almost the entire square footage. There was a small island in the middle and the only way to get there was through the lake.
The tiny voice in my head reminded me that this wasn’t exactly what I expected. Everyone always talked about the river, not a lake. I also suspected that the mythological Gjöll was filled with nasty surprises. Nameless was hiding here, and now so were Zara and Ronan.
The water looked calm, and it was difficult to judge if the lake was deep or not. I took a few deep breaths, telling myself that I was in control of this situation, that I still had my magic inside me. I walked up to the edge, looking around, and a moment later a boat appeared from underneath the surface. It was made of wood and it vibrated with demonic magic. I stared at it for a while, contemplating what to do. This whole thing seemed easy, almost too easy. Someone wanted me to get to the other side. Maybe it was just a dream, maybe this whole thing was a hallucination. After all, I had magical tequila in my system.
I took my leather jacket off and tossed it on the ground, bracing myself as I climbed on the boat. There were two oars inside. I was clumsy, but eventually I figured out how to use them, and the boat started moving slowly through the dark waters. Swimming wasn’t something that I enjoyed, and after last night I didn’t want to even consider getting into that lake.
The silence rang in my ears, and after several minutes my arms started to ache, but at least I was halfway through. I knew that I arrived here completely unprepared, still experiencing the side effects of elixirs that I pumped into myself earlier on. If Nameless was somewhere here, then I had made the right decision, but I was also worried about Ronan. He opened the tunnel for a reason and he did that behind my back.
By the time I reached the rocky island in the middle of the lake, my skin became hypersensitive to unknown magic circulating around me. I started to sweat and struggled to breathe. The boat disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The island was rocky. There were some brushes and stones scattered around. I spotted someone tied up to a tree, a mongrel.
He was covered with blood, his eyes were swollen, and he had cuts all over his chest. A moment later, probably after hearing my heavy breathing, he lifted his head up.
“I knew you would come. My father was right all along. You wouldn’t just give up,” he said. I assumed that I was facing Nameless Thief. He was injured, covered with cuts and bits of dried blood. He had dark brownish hair, deep hazel eyes and wide jaw. He muscles were poking out of his green, now- torn-apart T-shirt.
“Where is Ronan and what is going on here? Why are you tied up?” I asked, creating a fire ball that I balanced on my hand. It was a precaution in case this was some kind of trap. My energy was suddenly alive, rising in my system, igniting my protecting wards.
Nameless laughed and shook his head, staring at me with a mixture of anger and amusement.
“The letter has gone. Your prince has it now and he knows the truth,” Thomas replied, and I felt like my knees were just about to give up on me. No, this was impossible. Arthur couldn’t have gotten the letter already. Nameless was bluffing, trying to scare me.
I got to him before I realised what I was doing and started shaking him, screaming.
“No, you’re lying, you son of a bitch. Where the hell is Ronan and what have you done to Zara!”
My deepest secret, something that I had been protecting for so long had been revealed. I didn’t want to believe any words that were coming out of his mouth. My lungs constricted with panic, my heart beat loudly in my chest. Nameless Thief laughed again, ignoring the fact that I was slowly falling apart.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have your letter any longer. When I stole those letters from my father everything turned against me. It was supposed to be a revenge for all the forgotten years, for what he had done to my family, but then she tracked me down. I had no idea how, but she knew that I had something that belonged to you,” Nameless whispered, looking at me with his crazy red eyes. I had to get out of here, get back on the boat and then walk all the way back to the platform. Maybe it wasn’t too late yet, maybe I could get to the palace on time and prevent Arthur from reading that letter, twist his memory.
I took a few steps away, losing the last bits of oxygen. I felt pressure in my chest, then flames appeared all around me. Nameless roared on top of his lungs, like he was in agonising pain.
“Maxine, I’m sorry … I’m really sorry, but she made me do this!” Ronan shouted, appearing on the other side of the flames. He was on his knees, and Zara stood beside him, holding her machete under his head. She was grinning at me, filled with very disturbing power, energy that didn’t belong to her. I waved my hand, trying to get my magic under control, but nothing happened.
“Ronan, what the hell is going on here? What did Zara did to you?” I shouted, thinking about the quickest way to the palace. I had to fix this, make it to Arthur.
“She was ready to kill my son, so I had to entice you here for her,” Ronan said, begging me with his eyes not to do anything rash. I didn’t get why he wouldn’t just use his magic, was this part of his master plan to get himself captured? The girl was still a human and he could easily disable her.
“What the hell is going on here? What do you want, Zara? What did I ever do to you?” I shouted, concentrating on my demonic source of power, hoping to toss some fireballs right at her, but my fingertips only sparkled. Nothing happened, the burning energy died. I panicked, thinking about other ways of killing her. Maybe Zach would hate me for it, but I had to get out of here now. She was the enemy, a toxic soul that hated me for no reason.
“This whole thing was never about her, Maxine, but me, the one that burned alive,” said the voice that turned my blood to ice. I blinked rapidly, seeing that Alexis suddenly appeared next to Zara through the thick white fog. She smiled widely at me and then her laugh echoed around the massive cave. I should have known that she was behind this whole thing. I should have suspected it from the very beginning.