by Liz Schulte
I scoured the every shelf and miscellaneous stack of junk, as Frost took to casting her curses. Boils rose along every inch of Shezmu’s flesh, angry and red. His chest filled with feathers, so he’d never draw a comfortable breath again. The curses weren’t severe by any means, but between them and the ghost wounds, I was satisfied enough, especially knowing my father was free.
I knocked things around on the shelves, looking for this mysterious box that was apparently worth his freedom to someone, though my eyes kept going back to the mosaic on the floor. It told a story. I leaned over it lightly, touching the tiles where the floor opened. This was where the souls had escaped. It was the way we were going, too.
“How are you doing?” I called out.
“Almost done,” Frost said.
Shit. Nothing in this room looked like a treasure of any sort. It was mostly old broken-spined books and paper and jars and pitchers to hold his blood wine collection. I started searching the other side of the room. It had to be somewhere. If he was guarding it, he’d keep it with him…or on him.
“Done,” Frost announced.
“Almost have it,” I said.
I crept up on the hallucinating god. Ever so lightly I patted him down until I felt a hard lump in the side of his dressing gown. I leaned all the way over him and slipped my hand into his robe, feeling for the object. My fingers closed around a small square box. He reached out and grabbed me by the neck. I tossed the box to Frost without looking. It crashed against the wall. One by one I peeled his fingers from my throat and broke away, coughing.
“This is it?” Frost said, doubt heavy in her voice as she held up the broken wooden box. “It looks like cigars.”
I glanced over; she was right. Shit. He said it was a box. The room was plenty crowded with crap. The wine press, the shelves and shelves of jars and pitchers and papers and books, but no boxes. What sort of box would someone like Shezmu be hiding? Why go to all of this trouble unless it was important? Unless it was a big deal— Wait. I had it.
Pandora’s box.
“We aren’t looking for a box. It’s a jar. Clay, probably. Maybe metal. About the size of an urn. It’s a misnomer.”
“What is?”
“Pandora’s box. It wasn’t a box at all. It’s a pithos. A jar. That’s what we’re looking for.”
We collected every jar in the room and lined them up on the table.
Frost shook her head. “You pick.”
I studied each of them. The first was a smooth clay pot dyed green, decorated with grapes and vines. I The next was a metal stirrup jar, black and white, with a giant octopus painted on it. Third was a black and tan column krater, with animals painted around the top of the lid and people and horses on its base. The last one was tall and thin and bore colorful dolphins. Now all I had to do was remember my legends.
The jar was said to be beautiful, which vetoed the octopus jar. It was too plain for temptation. I studied the remaining three. I picked up the black and tan jar. “I think this is it.”
Frost chewed on her lip, but nodded. “Why?”
“It’s the only one with a lid. Had Pandora’s box been opened in here, it would have destroyed it and everything else along with it.”
I made room in my backpack for the jar, leaving behind most of my food and rope, and handed Frost the flashlight. I wore the pack across my front so I could hold on to it better. We were going to leave through the floor, just like the spirits. “Just step there.” I pointed at the mosaic. “I think that’s how he moves the bodies. Like a trash shoot.”
Frost gave me a doubtful look. “You first.”
Chapter 14
Holding the jar tightly, I stepped onto the mosaic. The floor vanished beneath my feet and I was falling. I didn’t try to fight the feeling. I just gripped my pack, hoping I wasn’t going to smash into the ground, water, or the collapsed room.
My fall felt like it slowed, but everything was too dark to know. I kept holding on to the jar until I spilled out of the ceiling and landed flat on my back on the floor in the catacombs, the wind completely knocked out of me. My eyes watered as I struggled for air, which eventually came in giant, gasping breaths. Sweet mother of all that was holy, I’d made it. I scooted out of the way before Frost landed on me.
I stared at the ceiling, waiting for it to open and for Frost to come tumbling out. The more that time passed, without so much as a tremor, the more worried I became. Did Shezmu wake up? Had something else happened? I had to go back, but the entrance was closed. I’d have to find another way. I couldn’t leave her.
I sent a quick prayer up to Olivia, hoping she could find me here. I needed someone to watch the jar while I found a way back in.
Olivia appeared the next instant. “I’ve been worried sick about you,” she said, throwing her arms around my neck. “When Frost came out and you were still in there—” She shook her head. “What were you thinking, going into another world without any sort of backup? Sy has been out of his mind. He and Holden have been clearing rubble. They’re going to kill you.”
It took a moment to process what she was telling me. “What? No, Frost came with me.”
Olivia frowned. “She returned. She said the two of you had a fight because you wouldn’t tell her anything.”
“Right, but then she came back.” I pulled my backpack off and laid it gently on the ground.
She shook her head. “She said she tried to come back, but the room had collapsed. She couldn’t get in, Femi.”
I rubbed my forehead. “That was the gargoyle’s doing—but Frost came back before that. She was knocked out in the labyrinth when it took down the entry. She even killed the hallucinogenic plants.” My mind was spinning. “If not Frost…who was I with the entire time?”
Olivia put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll figure it out.” She lifted her head up and to the right for a moment. Her face softened ever so slightly. A moment later, Holden appeared in a cloud of oily black smoke. Dirt streaked his face and T-shirt.
“I told them you’d be fine,” he said. “Overreactors. All of them.” But he gave me a one-arm hug. “Olivia was very worried.”
Olivia rolled her eyes, taking his hand. “He was worried too.”
He shook his head, but the edges of his mouth lifted.
Sy appeared a few seconds later, throwing his arms around me and lifting me off the ground, practically squeezing the life out of me. “You went into a labyrinth alone. Do you have any common sense? I should have come with you. I thought you and Frost would get on, but obviously not.”
“Damn it. Frost was with me. Or at least I thought she was, and even if she wasn’t, yes, I would have gone because I’m perfectly capable of handling myself. I don’t need to be coddled.” I poked his chest. “I don’t need to be told what I can or can’t do.” I poked him again. “And I don’t need you filling my head with doubts about my abilities.”
He caught my hand before I could poke him again, and brushed his lips against the back of it. “I know all of those things, but it doesn’t stop me from worrying about you. Let’s all meet back at the Office and figure out what the hell happened in there.”
I shook my head. The council had ears in the Office. I glanced at Olivia and nodded. It was time to bring the boys into what we were doing, because now that I possessed Pandora’s box, the shit was about to truly hit the fan. I had no intention of ever relinquishing it to the council or to anyone that I didn’t trust with the future of the entire world at their fingertips.
Olivia and Holden vanished, heading for the warehouse. “We can’t go to the Office,” I told Sy. “We need to talk somewhere outside of the council’s reach. We’re meeting in the warehouse.”
He nodded slowly. “You know you could have told Frost about all of this. She’d sooner give out free hugs than work for people like them.”
I nodded. “I didn’t want to entice the council further into the coven’s life. I was protecting them. I was protecting your family.”
Sy
pulled me closer. “I appreciate that.”
His face was close to mine. My heart beat a little faster. I began to close my eyes—and the next thing I knew, we were back in Chicago, standing in front of the warehouse that I had spent far too much of my life in. But as far as home bases went, it wasn’t that bad. At least it was safe. And speaking of safe… “Where are the kids?” I asked as I entered.
“They’re here,” Olivia said. “Maggie and I were with them until I got your call. I believe Maggie has them trapped in the kitchen and is stuffing them with sugar.”
I grinned. “Call Phoenix. Let’s get the old gang back together again.”
Holden took a deep breath, his jaw flexing. “He’s already here. He’s with Maggie.”
Now that was an interesting development.
He shook his head. “Explain why we’re all here. Olivia won’t tell me anything.”
She patted his knee as she crossed her legs. “It isn’t my secret to tell.”
I sat down in one of the chairs and unzipped my backpack. Carefully I lifted the unharmed jar out and sat it on the coffee table between us.
Olivia gasped. Concern lined Sy’s handsome face. Holden leaned forward, reaching toward it. Olivia slapped his hand away. “Do you know what that is?” she asked.
I nodded. “Pandora’s box. The labyrinth didn’t lead to hell. Shezmu was trapped inside, apparently by my father. The way my father set it up, only someone of his bloodline could free Shezmu or remove anything from the maze. That was strange enough. But the piece of the puzzle that really throws me for a loop is how fifteen humans made it through that death trap—and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. Had it not been for Frost, or whoever that was, I might not have made it. Yet somehow those humans got straight to Shezmu, who also happened to have a trapdoor between his room and the outside world. I know my father wouldn’t have built that. So tell me, first, how did the council know he was there? Second, why were they feeding him? And then third, Shezmu said he promised the person he’d been dealing with this jar in exchange for his release—meaning one of them was angling for freaking Pandora’s box. What the hell are they planning to do with it?”
Sy finally took a seat. “It’s not the whole council.”
Holden nodded. “Sounds like one person is making a power play and wanted leverage. We didn’t even discuss your latest mission, and no one has mentioned it. Who assigned it to you?”
“Leilah. Just like before. But she gets this jar over my dead body. And they can do what they want to me and my family, but I’m not freeing Shezmu. He killed my father and he is damn well going to rot in that place.”
“I agree,” Olivia said. “The council can’t possess Pandora’s box. We have to keep it safe. There’s one thing that really bothers me about this.”
“Only one?” Holden said.
“How was the path between Shezmu and the human world built? How did someone even know the labyrinth was there?”
Hmph. I hadn’t considered that.
“Did your father have magic?” Sy asked.
None of my memories involved magic, no, but that didn’t mean a whole lot. “I don’t know. I was young when he died. I don’t have a lot of memories of him. He said my mother has all the answers I need. Fat lot of good that does.”
“You’re losing sight of the main problem,” Holden said. “What are you going to do with the jar?”
I shook my head. I had no idea. “If I keep it, people won’t stop coming after it. It will be bad enough if they just think I have it.”
“Maybe you could give it to the guardians,” Olivia suggested.
“Yes, give it to a group of pacifists. Great idea,” Holden said.
I laughed. “I have a better idea. I’m giving it to you.”
“To me?” Olivia’s eyes widened. “What am I supposed to do with it?”
“I don’t care. Destroy it. Give it to Death. Whatever. Just put it somewhere no one else knows about or can get to. You are more capable of that than any of the rest of us. Obviously someone discovered the labyrinth. It’s not safe there anymore. I trust you completely.”
Olivia looked at Holden, and he shrugged. “She’s not wrong. Death might be the best idea.”
She frowned at the table. “I’ll figure out something.”
“Meanwhile, what are we going to do about the council? Leilah will expect you to finish the mission,” Sy said. “We need a story to sell them.”
“Leilah can kiss my ass.”
Holden smiled. “As much as I’d like to see you tell her that, we can use this to our advantage. We don’t have any proof Leilah knew what she was sending you into. I’m not saying it would’ve made a difference to her, but still. She could have been given misleading information from someone else. She might not be aware of Pandora’s box.”
“But she also might have known,” Sy said. “I don’t trust her any more than I do the rest. We can’t ask her.”
Holden nodded. “Let’s close the tunnel you came out of and tell Leilah you completed the job. They can’t prove it’s still there, if all the access points are shut down. No more dead humans. The only person who will question this will be the person who wants Pandora’s box. Then we’ll wait and see who tries to go in to retrieve the jar.”
“And when that person comes, we have the culprit,” Sy said. “It could work.”
“What if it’s all of them?” I said. “Maybe they only left the two of you out. Do you know who’s on that council with you? Like, do you really know?” I led the way to the war room, and pointed at the wall with everyone’s rap sheets. “Look at these. It’s How to be a villain and destroy small villages 101. They are bad people who have taken it upon themselves to control all of us.”
Sy smiled, but it was hard to read. “You’ve been running an investigation.”
I nodded. “Someone had to.”
“I agree.” He turned and walked out.
I threw my hands up and Olivia laughed. “I think he’ll be back.”
“This is no time for a bathroom break,” I shouted behind him.
Holden studied the board. “I haven’t trusted them from the start, and Baker didn’t trust them, either. They use people to their advantage. That’s what they do. Right now you’re a useful tool to them. You need to find a way to end that cycle or they will drain you.” He looked back at me. “That’s what I’d do if I were still so inclined. True evil is rarely overt. It’s silent as it sneaks inside of you and begins to grow. It makes it much harder to fight.”
“The council is lopsided at the moment. The good votes cannot balance the evil,” Olivia said. “You need to help them find people to fill the seats.”
He nodded. “I noticed, but at the moment they aren’t trying to end the world. It actually reminds me a lot of the jinn. Everyone is running their own game, wanting to make a power grab. It’s only a matter of time before someone comes out on top.”
“I imagine the one who thinks Pandora’s box is within their grasp is going to make a move soon,” Sy said, coming back into the room, carrying a large crate with white containers balanced on top.
“I don’t want to complain about food and drinks, but I think your timing could use some work,” I said.
He laughed, sat the box down, and handed me the to-go containers. “I remember a promise to bring you food, and this”—he tapped the edge of his shoe against the container—“is everything I’ve collected on the council and its members through the years.”
“You’re investigating them?”
“I am.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
His gray eyes met mine. “Why didn’t you ask?”
I shook my head. “You’ve been busy.”
Sy looked down for a moment. “You can always talk to me about anything.”
I set the food aside, even though my stomach was already growling, and looked in the box. Sy had about a hundred times more information than I did. “How long have you been working on this?”
“Since I started working for them. You didn’t think I would do anything blindly, did you?”
Actually, I had thought that. Sy was nice and picked up every lost soul he could find. It wasn’t a stretch to think people used him. But looking back, I could also see where the assumption was unfair.
He laughed, but seemed annoyed. “Clearly you don’t know me as well as you thought.”
“Who the hell cares? Are we doing this or not?” Holden asked.
“Yes, we’re doing this.” I’d take any train out of this awkwardness. “I will sort through Sy’s information when I have time. For right now, we need a plan. How do we take them down?”
“What are you talking about? Ending the council, or ferreting out the bad seeds?” Olivia asked.
“Ending it,” I said.
“The bad seeds,” Sy said. “I don’t mind if we open this up to the rest of the Abyss and tell everyone, but our world needs rules. We need a governing body.”
“And each race has one.” I crossed my arms.
“I agree with Sy,” Holden said. “If everyone is autonomous, we’re looking at feuds and wars every time some group decides something random has pissed them off. There has to be order.”
I looked at Olivia and she nodded. “Bring it out into the open and get rid of corruption. It would be a huge accomplishment. You will have changed our world.”
Chapter 15
“One at a time, then…I can do that,” I said. Once I got a handle on what Sy had, I would make a list and pick them off one by one.
“And I’ll help you, even though you don’t need it, but apparently you think I do,” said Sy as he shot me another glare.
There was a shrill, happy scream from the hallway as Baker toddled into the room, his arms up in the air, giggling. Holden scooped him up before Maggie caught him.
“He’s really fast,” Maggie said, holding out her arms to him. Baker gave her a cheeky grin then buried his face in Holden’s neck. “Typical,” she said with a laugh. “Wow, you guys, and I thought I had stuff going on. What’s all this?”
