by Paul Ruditis
The jock’s smug and oh-so-punchable face had been all over the news lately. He and his fraternity were at the center of a scandal that had grown beyond the campus. As president of the group, he seemed to be personally responsible for making sure every horrible stereotype about frat life was played out under his watch, with a highlight on turning the women on campus into entertainment on a scale that disgusted Paige even to think about.
“He’ll be punished for it through the proper channels,” Phoebe said, confirming to Paige that she figured things out too. Paige just wished her sister had sounded more convinced by what she was saying. “We’re more concerned with you all starting a stampede.”
“You should be worried about us destroying you!” the gorgon said.
“Stheno, stop,” one of her sisters said. “You’ve done what you came to do. We should go.”
“I haven’t done anything,” Stheno replied. “No one will know about us now that the Charmed Ones ruined it!”
“And once again our reputation precedes us,” Phoebe said.
“They weren’t supposed to be here,” the third sister said. “Wasn’t that part of the plan?”
“We’ve never been good with planning,” Phoebe said. “Not that I have a clue what you’re talking about.”
Paige wasn’t sure either, but she had a sneaking suspicion. It would explain the sudden career problems her sisters had been dealing with, if they were some kind of distraction to allow the gorgons time to do what they were doing.
A shadow came into Paige’s field of vision. One of the gorgons was approaching. She still couldn’t tell them apart. Not that it mattered at the moment. Paige pushed her hands forward to threaten the women even though she had no idea if she’d be able to orb the gorgon away. They were already immune to Piper’s freezing power. “Stop right there!”
Phoebe looked back to Paige who was about a half-step behind her. “You don’t happen to have a mirror in your purse, do you?”
“Do I often bring purses into battle?” One of the first rules Paige always taught her Charges was that when fighting evil it was best to do so with a minimal amount of accessorizing. She’d learned this the hard way when a dangling bracelet nearly allowed a warlock to take her out. That was the last time she ever wore anything that could snag on furniture and keep her from raising her hand.
“Can we talk this out?” Piper asked as she joined her sisters. “We get what you’re doing. We’re just not fans of your approach.”
Paige turned back to see Piper was also keeping her eyes on the ground as she walked toward them. “You’re good?” she asked.
“They’re staying frozen,” she said. “I think I managed it so that anyone who comes into the stadium will automatically freeze as well. And if not, I can freeze them once they see what’s happening and they start screaming.”
Paige turned back to the gorgons, still keeping her eyes from their faces. “My sister’s right. We understand that these people deserve to be punished. We just want to talk to you about your methods. That’s all.”
“So you know what they’ve done?”
“We know why you picked them,” Paige said, though she still wasn’t sure which gorgon she was speaking to.
“And you know they need to be punished?” It was the same gorgon. She had much less certainty in her voice than the sister who did all the yelling. She also seemed to have a little fear as well.
Paige honed in on her as the weak link. “There are ways we can do that now. Ways that are different from how things were back in the old days.”
“Ha! The laws rarely work against people like these.” It was the first sister that had spoken again. The angry one. Paige would have thought that was Medusa, but it seemed like Stheno was in charge. That meant that either Medusa or Euryale was the one she was already trying to appeal to. Her money was on Medusa.
“Your sister’s right,” Paige said. “The laws haven’t quite caught up in our time. I’m guessing this is something you’ve only recently learned, Medusa?”
“This is all a little new to me,” the gorgon replied, confirming Paige’s guess. “I’ve only just returned. But I’ve seen some horrible things.”
“The world can be a horrible place.” Paige stepped forward, hoping that she was making some kind of connection. It was hard to tell since she was still avoiding looking directly at the gorgons’ faces. Piper and Phoebe were staying quiet, letting her work a different kind of magic. “But my sisters and I do what we can to change that. I hear you were a lot like us back in the day.”
“It would seem so,” Medusa said. “My sisters and I protected the defenseless with our own natural magic. It gave us purpose. Made us… heroes.”
“Until it was all ripped from us,” Stheno reminded her. “Until we were cursed with these horrible bodies.”
“I’m not going to act like I understand what you’ve been through,” Paige said. “But just because you’ve been cursed on the outside, doesn’t mean it has to change who you are on the inside. Don’t become the monster you were changed into. We can work this out. See that these people are brought to some sort of justice. You’d be surprised what can be done these days in the court of public opinion.”
“My sisters don’t trust you,” Medusa said. Her voice was softer, closer. Her shadow approached while her sisters stayed back. Paige wished she could see what they were doing, but she knew her own sisters had her back. If they got any closer, Piper and Phoebe would find a way to get her out of the path of trouble.
“I don’t trust your sisters either,” Paige said. No reason to lie. “But we’ve got to start somewhere.”
“You can look up,” Medusa said. “I won’t hurt you. I can control my power. It won’t do anything unless I choose to.”
Paige mentally kicked herself. She should have seen that coming. There was no better way to show trust than by looking directly into the eyes of a gorgon.
“Paaaaaaaige.” Phoebe’s voice was a warning.
Paige held up a hand to let her sisters know it was okay. She slowly raised her head until she was looking into the brown eyes of Medusa. Nothing seemed to be happening. She could still move. Paige smiled. “See? Trust.”
Medusa smiled as well. “That’s what I keep--” Confusion crossed Medusa’s face. She tilted her head like she was trying to figure something out. She wasn’t just looking at Paige any longer. She was examining her. Medusa’s tongue shot out, tasting the air like a snake. “Athena!”
Paige took a step back. “No! Not Athena! I’m Paige. Paige Matthews. I mean, yes, I did have her power for a brief time, but that was years ago. No Athena here anymore!”
“I can still taste her essence,” Medusa hissed. “She’s the one that started this. She’s a part of you.”
“Was a part of me,” Paige said, stepping back. “Was. Very brief time. Hardly a blip in my life.”
“Paige,” Piper warned.
Too late. Medusa’s eyes flared. The brown eyes turned to something snake-like. A glow came from them and Paige felt her joints stiffening. “Not again!”
“She is getting stronger,” Stheno said from a spot behind her sister. “I knew it.”
Paige didn’t care what the gorgon was talking about. She had other problems at the moment. Piper’s hand was immediately in front of her eyes, blocking them from Medusa’s line of sight. “Can you orb? Get us out of here.”
“I’ll… try.” Paige concentrated on her power, calling on the orbs to form and take their bodies across the globe, or at least out of the stadium. The moment they did, Piper’s power would deactivate and everyone would come out of their frozen state. They’d see a new statue in the middle of the field and a trio of monsters, one of which was moments from a rampage. She could not allow that to happen.
Tapping into her power, Paige directed it at the gorgons. She had to get them out of the stadium and
send them some place where the people would be safe. It took longer than usual, but she eventually felt the familiar sensation of her magic taking hold. It caused her pain, but it worked. The gorgons were gone.
“I meant us, not them,” Piper said, trying to sound light and airy.
“Working on it,” Paige strained to say.
“What about statue dude?” Phoebe asked.
“Leave him,” Piper replied. “I can’t hold back this crowd forever. He can just be another viral whatever. How’s it coming, Paige?”
“I think… I got it.” Paige didn’t know why she hadn’t turned to stone yet, but she could still feel Medusa’s magic coursing through her body. It was battling against her own powers, keeping her from orbing, but it felt like she was finally breaking through.
Paige slowly felt herself splitting into the familiar orbs and taking them all to safety.
Chapter 22
The tunnels were dark, but not nearly as dark as Coop would have expected. Parts of the Underworld were lit by supernatural light that the rocks emitted in the places where demons hadn’t lit torches. Cole had said they were going to be a bit off the beaten path, which was fine with Coop. There was less chance they’d run into trouble that way.
“Thanks again for agreeing to be my guide down here,” Coop said as he negotiated his way through the long shadows from the mystical cavern light. “If I tried to do this on my own I could be wandering around for years.”
“No you wouldn’t,” Cole replied. “A Cupid down here by himself wouldn’t last more than a week before something killed him. Though a Cupid your size might make it through two. We can’t let this fallen Cupid break you and Phoebe up. Not on my watch.”
“Thank you.” Coop threw a more weight behind those two words than they probably needed, but he appreciated Cole’s commitment in spite of the awkwardness of the situation.
Cole smiled. “I’m kind of surprised you haven’t asked me if we’re there yet.”
“I’m assuming I’ll know when we come across a river of the dead,” Coop replied. “But now that you mention it, why do we have to walk down here at all? Why can’t we just beam in at the edge of the river, fill my water bottle, and beam out?”
“Because we’re not dealing with a normal river,” Cole said. “It moves around.”
“The river moves around?”
“A little.”
“How?”
Cole stopped and shot him a look. “Magic?”
“Okay well, if the river moves around, how are we supposed to find it?”
“We’re not,” Cole said. “The River Styx is the place where lost souls are taken. So the only way to get to it is—”
“Don’t say it.”
“—by getting lost.”
“You demons can be a literal bunch,” Coop said.
Cole smiled. “You have no idea.”
“Just so I know what to look for,” Coop said as he worked his way through a tight space between the cave walls. “We are talking about an actual river, right? With water and everything?”
“Water, yes,” Cole replied. “Not much else. No fish. No plant life. Nothing much lives down here.”
“And it’s filled with lost souls?”
“Not that you’d see,” Cole said. “You’ll see.”
Coop wasn’t sure if it was the Underworld that was making Cole sort of playful with his riddles or if he was just happy to be getting out of the Nexus. He decided not to question it as he followed Cole through a few more caverns.
Just like back at the Manor, Coop found himself at a loss for conversation. He mainly took the time to check out his surroundings, such as they were. Beyond the mysterious ambient lighting, the cave tunnels they walked through weren’t particularly interesting. It was nothing more than one rock, followed by another rock, passing through a tight passageway into a larger cavern. He was beginning to see why demons were so miserable all the time. Compared to Cupid’s temple, this place was literally the pits.
“So, are we lost yet?” Coop asked after they passed through a cavern that looked exactly like the five prior caves they’d walked through.
“You see that river yet?”
“Not so much, no,” Coop replied as a noise stopped him in his tracks. “But I do hear growling. Is that something we should be worried about?”
“It’s actually a good sign,” Cole said. “Means we’re almost lost.”
The caves had been completely silent since the men had materialized in one. Coop had hoped it would stay that way throughout their journey. The Underworld was vast. Different factions of demons and all manner of nightmarish creatures usually gave one another a wide berth, unless involved in some kind of power play. Cole had said that they’d be walking through some of the most uninhabited depths of the Underworld, which Coop had hoped meant that they would be able to get in and out without incident.
“The river growls?” Coop asked as the noise got louder. It was very clearly not the sound of rushing water.
“The creature that protects it does,” Cole said. “Come on, Cupid. You should know this one. Cerberus exists in both Greek and Roman mythology.”
Coop’s jaw clenched. Of course he knew about the three-headed hellhound that guarded Hades. But since Hades didn’t exactly exist in the way he’d learned about it, Coop never imagined for a moment that the creature did. “Nice of you to give me a heads up on that one,” he said lightly.
Cole turned back so Coop would see his smirk. “Didn’t want to ruin the surprise.”
They followed the growls to their destination. Now that Coop knew what it was, he could make out the three distinctly different sounds from the multiple heads of the creature. The growls turned to beastly barking as Coop and Cole approached an opening in the tunnel. Cerberus must have caught their scent. So much for the element of surprise.
Coop raised his ring, bracing for an attack. Cupid rings weren’t exactly filled with defensive power, but it was all he could think to do. Maybe he could use his magic to convince the different heads to fall in love with one another, allowing him to get a bottle full of the river while Cerberus fought over himself.
He didn’t bother to share that idea with Cole
Cole had to give the Cupid credit. Most members of the magical community avoided the Underworld like the plague. Then again, certain sections of it did carry plagues so he could understand their reluctance.
The Charmed Ones and Leo never hesitated to go down there when the need arose, but Cole had expected Phoebe’s current husband to at least show some trepidation. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on his part. But Coop was ready for anything, even the three-headed monster that, in all honesty, Cole had completely forgotten about until he’d heard the growling. As they came up on the river and Cerberus, Cole wasn’t entirely sure of their plan of attack.
“Any tricks I should know about for getting past Cerberus?” Coop asked.
“You don’t sing by any chance?”
“Sing?”
“You know,” Cole said, stone-faced. “Music to soothe the savage beast.”
Coop stared into Cole’s eyes for a moment before the edge of his lip curled into a half-smile. “Very funny.”
“Could be worth a try,” Cole said. “You must know some lullabies.”
Coop relaxed into a full smile, but didn’t bother to comment. The light moment was nice until it was broken by a deeper noise somewhere beyond growling and barks as they approached their destination.
Cole could hear the river now, rushing through the echoing caves. He remembered the first time he’d heard that sound. A former cohort had pointed it out to him when they got turned around in the tunnels while on a mission for the Source. He’d expected the moans of lost souls to go with it, but it was only water. Not that he’d laid eyes on it at the time. His former associate had made sure that they st
eered clear of the river as they were already low on time. An attack from Cerberus would have thrown them completely off schedule.
Cole paused at the passageway he knew would open up into a large cavern and turned back to Coop, whispering: “You ready?”
The Cupid raised his glowing pink ring and his water bottle in response. It wasn’t his first choice for weapons to take into a possible battle with a giant three-headed beast, but it would have to do. Cole waved Coop forward as they proceeded in silence. The longer they could go without attracting Cerberus’s attention the better. The beast had already gotten their scent.
The cavern they entered was one of the most massive spaces Cole had ever seen in the Underworld. This part of the River Styx was wide as it rushed along the cave floor, entering from a spot far in the distance and disappearing down through a tunnel not too far from where the men stood. Cole briefly wondered if this large river actually continued through the Underworld, or if it only existed in this cave. It wouldn’t be the first unsolved mystery he’d come across down there.
Cerberus was almost small in comparison to the river and cavern. But that was a deceptive scale. As the creature stood alert, all three heads growling, it was at least four times the Cupid’s large size. The hellhound had not seen them yet, but the way his middle head sniffed the air while the eyes of the other two scanned the area it was clear that the beast knew they were in the vicinity. It was positioned by the narrowest part of the river, presumably protecting it from anyone who was going to attempt a crossing. That worked in their favor.
Cole stuck to the shadows as he led Coop to the bank of the river. Even with all the magical lighting in the cave, there was still plenty of darkness to hide them. Thankfully, the Cupid had doused the light from his ring, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention. They were heading for the point where the river was widest and the edge was closest to the many different tunnels along the wall. The thing about getting lost in the Underworld was that all roads eventually led to this spot, which was good because it gave them plenty of options for escape.
