Dragos approached my room and gave the door a couple taps. “Can I come in?”
I chuckled. “You don’t have to knock when the door is already open. But I appreciate the gesture.”
He grinned. “Just trying to be polite for a change.”
There were so many sides to him. So many facets. He could be as sweet as a kitten or as vicious as a hellhound. I never knew which one I was going to get. It used to excite me. Now, it just made me nervous.
I walked over to him and stood close. “I need you to keep a level head in there. They will try to trick you and manipulate you. The trials are designed to throw you off course.”
Dragos smirked. “Have you met me? I’m not easily fooled.”
“I’m serious. Valentina lost control of her mind in there. If that happens to me—”
“Then I will pull you out like I did for her. Trust me. Those demons are about to meet their match.”
My heart fluttered. The two of us in battle together again sent a wave of adrenaline through me. Cut from the same dark cloth, we were a deadly force to be reckoned with. It gave me strength and confidence, but two dark souls entering the Underworld without a source of light to anchor to could also be a disaster.
Nine
The warmth from the morning sun did nothing to calm my nerves. It only illuminated the feeling of peace that I could not hold onto. The feeling that would soon be replaced by dark skies and nightmares of a different kind.
We met Seven at the docks. Standing well over six feet tall, he was rugged and refined at the same time. His eyes glowed amber and gold, lighting up at the sight of me.
He pulled me into a warm embrace. “And so we meet again, my friend.” He gave Dragos a slight nod.
I tried to force a smile. “I only wish it was under better circumstances. Thank you for coming.”
Seven frowned. “I couldn’t let you go back in there without me. After what happened with Valentina—”
Dragos snapped, “That’s not going to happen again. She has me this time.”
I wasn’t sure if that was a dig at Seven or at Aldric. They exchanged a deadlock of testosterone fueled stares. Would I have to pry these two apart too?
I rolled my eyes. “We should get moving.”
I tossed our bags over the side of the ship and climbed on board. Seven’s band of pirates were scurrying about as usual, preparing for our departure. All of them were Dhampirs this time.
I leaned in close to whisper, “Where is your human crew?”
He shook his head. “We had an incident, so I let them go. Too many blood hungry Dhampirs at sea is a dangerous thing.” His eyes glistened, mournful.
I nodded. The need for blood was all consuming for those who were still unlinked. Humans were not safe around them. Most could not survive the bite, let alone the loss of blood. When we turned one, it had to be done with caution and care. Others, like Aldric, were the exception because they had Witch blood in their veins. Their magic shielded them from the fatal effects of our venom.
Aldric. I wondered how far away he was. Was he still in there somewhere, fighting to break free? I closed my eyes and saw his face. His beautiful blue eyes, which haunted me night and day. I missed him so much, it physically hurt. Hold on just a little longer, Aldric. I’m coming for you.
Dragos touched my arm, shaking me out of my reverie. “It’s time.”
We were approaching the veil. I spilled my blood into the sea while Dragos stretched out his arms as magic escaped from his fingertips.
And just like before, the sky cracked open and sucked us through.
My cheek was wet against the ship’s deck. It was cool and crisp and smelled like rainwater. I pushed to my feet, my arms shivering, and surveyed the ship. Seven drank from his flask, gripping it with white knuckles. Dragos sat on the deck, a sopping mess. He slicked his hair back and wiped his face with his sleeve. I let out a breath filled with both relief and apprehension. We had made it.
Dragos chuckled. “That was quite a ride.”
I rolled my eyes. “This isn’t an amusement park. It’s only going to get harder from here. Remember what I told you. Not everything is what it seems.”
Dragos stood up and walked over to me. “Neither am I.”
He winked as I let out a groan. His attempts at charm and seduction knew no bounds. And his ego was the size of this ship.
“I’m serious. When we meet the Ferryman, you are going to feel things. Terrible things. Sad things. You need to stay in control. If he doesn’t believe we have passed over, he won’t let us cross.”
He waved me off. Seven shook his head, annoyed. He tossed me the bag of gold coins. I put one in my mouth. Dragos did the same.
Seven paused before placing his. “Remember, no one let go. Shield your mind as best you can.”
Dragos and I both nodded in unison. The three of us clasped hands and formed a line with me in the middle. I closed my eyes as the Ferryman approached.
Dragos’s hand trembled. His veins pulsed out of control. I took deep breaths to steady mine. Seven remained as still as ever. One by one, we each dropped a coin into Charon’s scaly hand. I braced myself for panic, but it never came. The Narcissus magic was from here, so it must have been shielding me. Dragos, on the other hand, was a delirious ball of energy, practically shaking in his boots.
I opened my eyes as the Ferryman drifted away into a cluster of skeleton trees. I let out a deep breath and froze. Seven had Dragos by the throat.
“I know why I’m not affected here. Gray has the Narcissus magic. So why are you so carefree?” Seven arched his eyebrows.
My heart raced. Seven could snap his neck with the flick of a finger.
Dragos chuckled. “Are you sure about that? You look like you’ve lost your mind.” He smiled wide, his eyes darting back and forth.
A lump formed in my throat. “Stop. Let him go. Look at him. He is affected. It’s making him delirious.”
Seven peered into Dragos’s eyes. He shook his head and released his grip.
“My apologies.” The traces of a nobleman were laced within his speech. I often wondered if it was intentional, or the residue from a former life.
As Charon’s figure disappeared, Dragos drew in a sharp breath and looked around.
He rubbed his temples. “This place—I can’t explain it. What just happened? I couldn’t stop smiling.” His face twisted in horror at the ridiculous notion of joy.
Seven shot him a glare. “This place is dangerous.” He mumbled something under his breath as he steered us further down the river. To reach the pomegranate we would have to go where the River Styx circles the River Lethe—the river of forgetfulness.
As we approached the main gate, my heart stopped. Something was wrong. It was too quiet. With the antidote to the banshees’ cry in one hand, I motioned for Seven to stop the ship with the other.
Dragos stiffened. “What’s wrong?”
Seven narrowed his eyes at the gate. “The banshees…they’re gone.”
A lump formed in my throat. Was this some sort of trick? The gate was never left unguarded. I hesitated, then motioned for Seven to proceed.
Dragos grabbed my wrist. “Maybe we should drink the antidote just in case.”
I shook my head. “No, we need to be able to hear what’s coming.” The antidote was supposed to shield our ears from the banshees’ cries by making us temporarily deaf. If this was a trap, we needed all our senses intact.
The iron gates swung back and forth in the warm breeze. Barren and ghostlike, every creak grated on my nerves. Uneasiness and dread filled me as we passed through them. The air thickened, laced heavily with the scent of gas and sulfur.
With eyes peeled, I surveyed the jagged terrain. There wasn’t a banshee or a hellhound in sight. We were alone with only the skeleton trees. They twisted and snapped around in their trunks. They looked as if they were trying to pull themselves out of the ground. I should have been relieved, but it was so disturbing. Something was off
. We shouldn’t have been able to sail through so easily. I kept a hand on one of my daggers, gripping it tight.
Seven pulled the ship into a cove outside the cave of Hypnos. Once again, we would have to make the rest of the journey on foot. Seven would not go any further.
Dragos eyed him suspiciously. “What are you so afraid of out there?”
Seven snapped, “I’m not afraid of anything.”
Dragos snickered. “Then why stay behind? I think there’s something out there that terrifies you.”
I threw him a warning look. “Dragos, leave it alone.”
Seven took a deep breath. “I won’t go back in there until I have the means to destroy it.”
I was taken aback, confused and startled. “Destroy the Underworld? You can’t be serious.”
Dragos chuckled. “And I thought I was crazy.”
Seven raised a hand to silence him. “I had a wife once. She was everything to me. But when I became a Dhampir, I abandoned her. I wanted to protect her from this life. Even though it pained me to be away from her, it pained her more. She took her own life and was sentenced to an eternity in the Mourning Fields. I came here looking for her, but I…I couldn’t get her out.”
My heart ached for him as his eyes filled with tears. All the shadows in his eyes, the weight he carried underneath that playful façade, it was all for her. My gut wrenched for him.
He choked back a sob as he continued. “I will not go back there unless she comes out with me. I have spent the last four hundred years searching for a way. I will never give up on her. It’s not fear that keeps me away. You must have something to lose to be afraid. I’ve already lost everything.”
Dragos stared out into space, his jaw clenched as the veins bulged out from his neck. His eyes flashed red. “We should get moving.”
There was a storm raging in him. I couldn’t look him in the eye as we climbed overboard and onto the rocky river bank. The guilt clawed at me from both directions. For loving Aldric and for wanting Dragos. I couldn’t reconcile either. I couldn’t remember one without forgetting the other, and I was afraid of losing them both.
Dragos followed me in silence, his fists still clenched. I led us down the river at a fast pace. The darkness of this place was gnawing at me. It tugged at my magic like a magnet. I had to get us out of here before it consumed me.
As we approached the Mourning Fields, a chill trickled down my spine. I let out a gasp. It was empty. First the banshees, and now the lost souls. All gone. What was happening?
My hands trembled. “I…I don’t understand. Where did they all go? There were thousands of them.”
Dragos’s brow crinkled as beads of sweat dripped down his temples. “I guess we won’t be needing this.” He shook his head and threw down the bag with the blood offering.
My eyes turned black. “This is all wrong. Keep your guard up. We need to get that damn pomegranate and get out of here.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as my worst nightmares threatened to become real, and it fed the fear that we might not make it out this time.
Ten
Dragos eyed me as we walked, biting his tongue. Ever since we’d gotten here, he’d been itching to say something.
I sighed. “What’s on your mind?”
Dragos paused and ran a bronzed hand through his black hair. “What happened to you in the Siren’s song? Valentina won’t talk about it. I was hoping you would.”
My heart raced. The visions from the Reflection Siren flashed in my mind. I wanted to forget, but they still haunted me. The emptiness, the death, the destruction, and that feeling of dread played in my head on constant repeat.
I shivered. “There are no words to describe the torment we went through—that I went through.”
Dragos arched an eyebrow. “So Aldric pulled you out of it and Valentina slipped into a coma. But what did he pull you from?”
My nerves were shot, and my muscles ached. Why was he pushing? “It doesn’t matter. It wasn’t real.”
Dragos wasn’t satisfied. He grabbed my arm. “What are you hiding, Gray? You freak out every time anyone brings it up.”
My stomach turned, wrought with guilt. I snapped, “It was you. I was almost trapped forever in my own mind because of you.” My heart was beating out of control.
His eyes lit up. “You still love me.”
I snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself. I was trying to get away from you.”
Dragos snickered. “Sure you were. Just like you tried to get away from me at the cabin?”
His sarcasm and smugness made me sick. But he was not entirely wrong.
I bit my lip. “Can we please just focus on getting the pomegranate? We don’t have time for this right now.”
Dragos licked his lips, his eyes lighting up. “Of course. After you.”
I charged ahead, seething and annoyed with myself for letting him get under my skin like that. I don’t even know why I told him about the vision. Even Aldric was in the dark about it. Maybe I needed to clear my conscience, but it only made the feeling of guilt and betrayal worse.
The eerie quiet in the air was worse now. I half expected an army of demons to crawl out of the ground and attack us. The further we went, the more it unnerved me.
My skin prickled. I froze in my tracks. “Finally,” I whispered.
At the intersection of where the Styx met the Lethe was a snarling, salivating three-headed hellhound. Another two came up behind it. I drew my sword and crouched down.
Dragos dashed to my side with his daggers out. “Time to play.” His eyes blazed blood red.
I charged forward and skidded to a stop just as ten more hellhounds appeared and moved into formation.
My pulse raced. “There’s too many of them.”
Dragos scanned the perimeter like a hawk. He pointed toward a cluster of rocks. “There’s a cave over there. If we can lure them in, I can seal it shut with a locking spell.”
I shook my head. “No, Diana’s magic doesn’t work down here. The Narcissus magic does but we’d have to be linked.”
His breath quickened. “We are linked.”
I lowered my eyes. “To each other.”
Dragos pounded his fists on the ground. The hellhounds started closing in. There was nowhere to run and too many to fight. It was hopeless. They would tear us apart limb from limb. And I would never see Aldric again.
Then it hit me. “The water. We have to fight them in the water.”
Dragos threw me a blank stare. “I don’t get it.”
I sighed heavily. “It’s the river of forgetfulness.”
His eyes lit up like a lightbulb. “Ah, so if we get them in the water, they’ll drink it. Okay, let’s give it a shot.”
Watching him work out the plan in his head would have been entertaining if there hadn’t been an army of hellhounds getting closer to us by the second. They scratched the ground as they crept toward us, slow and steady like lions stalking their prey.
I slid into the river. “Keep your mouth above water. I don’t need you forgetting too.”
He winked and waded in next to me just as the first three hounds lunged at us.
The water pooled with blood as we slashed in every direction. The hellhounds took the bait. One came down on my back hard. I whipped around, slashing its throat just before dunking its head in the water. It squirmed for a minute and then stopped. Two more flanked me on either side. I shot backward and let them collide into each other. Dragos pounced, pushing both into the water. They let out a yelp and stopped resisting. To my right, another three hounds paddled around in a circle, confused and disoriented.
I cried out in relief. “It’s working!”
Dragos laughed and then grunted in pain as one clamped down on his arm. He tried to shake it off, but it wouldn’t budge
My heart raced. I started toward him but was yanked back. One was perched just behind me on the river bank. It ripped at the back of my neck, breaking my flesh. Blood dripped down my back.
Its teeth dug deeper into my flesh as I tried to squirm out of its hold. I pushed through the pain as I forced my body up, leaping into the air. In one swift move, I flipped my sword backward and sank it straight into the hound’s flesh. It let out a cry and then thumped onto the ground.
Blood sprayed forward and dripped down my cheeks. “Stay in the middle. They are trying to pull us out,” I yelled.
Dragos nodded through clenched teeth as he wrangled the hound off his arm and thrust a dagger through each of its eyes. He grabbed his own arm, groaning, as he shoved it back into its socket. He whipped around and dragged two more hellhounds into the water. I swam over to him and sliced one of their heads clear off.
There were six of them left—three on either side of us. Now we could take them on the ground. I sprang up out of the water and landed on one, holding its head back as I sliced open its throat. Dragos pulled the two on his side into the water, dunking their heads under until they stopped struggling.
The last two charged forward. I waited, crouched and ready. I ducked as they lunged at me, sending them flying over my head and into the water. I spun on my heel and leaped up after them, slicing vertically to take them both out in unison.
Dragos and I scurried out of the water and collapsed next to each other onto the river bank. Our chests heaved. My muscles ached. I winced from the pain, but my wounds were finally starting to heal themselves. The process was slower down here and drained my energy.
I coughed up a chunk of blood as I sat up, spitting it into the river. “Dragos? You okay?”
His eyebrows furrowed as he threw me a blank stare. “Who…who are you?”
My heart stopped.
He burst out laughing. “I’m kidding. I’m fine. Haven’t enjoyed a good battle like that in centuries.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Very funny. How’s your arm?”
Flesh and Bone (Blood and Darkness Book 2) Page 6
