fOR WHO THE spELL tOLLS

by H. P. Mallory

  “Ready?” I asked, alternating my gaze between Knight and Quill.

  “No time like the present,” Knight responded with a slight smile. Quill didn’t say anything, but simply nodded.

  I reached into my jeans pocket until I felt the warm metal of Bram’s pocket watch, the navigation unit for my father. I pulled it out and held it at eye level. Then I watched the two hands begin spinning counterclockwise. The hour hand eventually started to slow until it reached the twelve o’clock position, where it stopped, indicating north. The base of the watch, which previously displayed the date, now had new numbers.

  “North twenty-nine degrees,” I called out.

  “What’re the coordinates?” Quill asked.

  I shook my head to say that I didn’t have an answer for him as I faced the watch again. It began to spin counterclockwise again and settled on numeral nine. The numbers at the bottom of the watch’s face read eighty-nine. “Twenty-nine degrees north by eighty-nine degrees west,” I called out. I dropped the watch back into my pocket while withdrawing the portal ripper from my other pocket.

  “Those are the coordinates for Willoughby House,” Quill said.

  “What’s that?” I asked while turning the handle of the portal ripper clockwise to input my first coordinate as north. Then, moving the handle in a circular direction two clicks before rotating it counterclockwise for one click, I proceeded counterclockwise again for the count of nine.

  “One of Melchior’s many homes. It’s located in Southern Netherworld, where the state of Louisiana sits,” Quill responded.

  “Then you’ve been there?” Knight inquired. I continued programming the portal ripper with the western coordinates.

  “Many times,” Quill said, without confidence in his tone.

  “Then you’ll know the ins and the outs,” I said hopefully, adding a quick smile.

  “Maybe,” Quill started, shaking his head. “One thing I can say for certain is that Willoughby House is the largest of all your father’s homes. It sprawls over twenty acres or more of swampland and most notably, it’s infested with all sorts of horrible creatures.”

  “Then we’d better get moving,” I said, giving him a smart ass smile. “I wouldn’t want to keep my father waiting too long.”

  When neither Knight nor Quill said anything more, I took their silence as approval. I tilted the portal ripper and began slicing the air in front of me. Once the hole was big enough to fit our troops, I put the device back into my pocket while double-checking my other pocket for Bram’s watch. Thankfully, both were there.

  “Let the soldiers go in first,” Knight said with his hand on my arm, just in case I tried to argue. I simply nodded as Knight gave the go-ahead to a werewolf who was lined up closest to us. The man started forward, with the rest of the troops moving in kind. They started through the portal, and the sounds of their boots hitting the ground matched the thumping of my heart. Once the last one was through, I faced Quill and Knight.

  “We all go in together, side-by-side, with Dulcie in the middle,” Knight said with authority.

  He stepped up beside me, while Quill did the same. I already knew there wouldn’t be anyone to close up the portal on the other side once we went through, but we didn’t have any choice. We had to keep the portal ripper in case we needed it. Besides, maybe we’d make a quick getaway through the opened portal, if need be.

  With Knight and Quill on either side of me, we stepped through the portal. I felt the familiar, soft mushiness of heavy, wet air just as I did every time I traveled through a portal. My dizziness soon gave way to an overwhelming sense of nausea, but I swallowed the uncomfortable feelings. I blinked a few times as I faced a scene entirely different from the one we’d just left.

  All around us were miles and miles of grassland, encircled by an old, rickety, wooden fence that looked as if it had survived centuries. The grassland was enclosed by a forest of pine trees, in which we were now submerged. On the side directly opposite us was the gravelly mouth of a large lake. Looking around myself, I saw that all our soldiers were well hidden by the massive trees of the forest.

  “Where’s the house?” I whispered to Quill before my feet suddenly levitated and I was rudely reminded that when in the Netherworld, I had wings. Luckily, I was prepared for my wings and wore a halter top with the back cut out. Speaking of my wings, they weren’t as cool as they might sound. Why? Because they really weren’t that useful. Instead, they seemed like a neurotic lap dog that acted up for no apparent reason, and went into bouts of mindless energy. Sometimes, they flapped maniacally, while at others, they hung as lifeless as a man’s spent appendage. At the moment, however, they were anything but languid. They batted against each other repetitively as I continued to rise into the air. I felt a hand on my arm when Knight pulled me back down again.

  “Just over that rise of grass,” Quill whispered back. He motioned to a hill that was maybe one hundred feet in front of us. He put his hand on my arm to help anchor me to the ground. “There are cameras covering the grassland perimeters as well as the beach, so we can’t go that way.”

  I nodded and whipped out Bram’s pocket watch, intent on locating my father. I held the thing out before my eyes and watched it immediately settle on numeral three. The matching coordinates appeared at the bottom of the watch. “Looks like Melchior’s off to our right,” I said to Quillan.

  “We need to talk to the men,” Knight interrupted. I was unable to ignore the feelings of awe and admiration that hit me as soon as I allowed my eyes to feast on him. As I’ve mentioned before, Netherworld creatures, when in the Netherworld, appear differently than they do on Earth. I, for one, get wings, but the most unfortunate part for me in the Netherworld is that my magic doesn’t work. Oh, yeah … There’s also one more clincher—fairies are like sexual crack in the Netherworld—most other creatures have an irresistible sexual response to me, which, in one word, sucks.

  As with most of his abilities, I didn’t know how Knight’s powers varied in the Netherworld; but one thing I could say about the Loki was: despite how gorgeous he was in Splendor, he was even more so in the Netherworld. His skin took on a golden glow, and he appeared even taller and broader than usual. His black hair became a deeper, glossier shade of black and his eyes sparkled like blue prisms.

  Looking at Quill, I found the same thing with him—his skin seemed tanner and the amber of his eyes was a deeper gold, and the same color as his hair, framing his face in short, spiky waves. Even though he wasn’t as tall as Knight, nor as broad, he appeared powerful in his own right. The swelling of his muscles was readily apparent through his T-shirt.

  “I need to tell our soldiers what the plan is and then we have to go after O’Neil separately,” Knight finished.

  Quillan agreed and we both watched Knight turn around and take the ten steps or so that separated him from our envoy. He brought back a young man, who faced us expectantly.

  “The grass isn’t safe because it’s covered with cameras and so is the lake,” Quill started. “If you stick to the forest, you’ll find it wraps around the front of the house. There are cameras there as well, but you can avoid them by staying at least a few feet inside the forest. The forest surrounds the house on all but one side.”

  “So assemble the soldiers in the forest, as far around the house as you can,” Knight interrupted, still facing the man. “Then wait for my go-ahead and move in.”

  The man nodded as he took a deep breath. “Got it. Will wait to hear from you, sir.”

  Knight turned to face me. “Where is Melchior?”

  “Looks like he’s in the east wing of the house,” I reiterated what Bram’s pocket watch had revealed to me. Then I eyed Quillan to see if he wanted to elaborate.

  “He’s probably in his library,” he answered quickly. “It’s the only room he frequents on the eastern wing of Willoughby.”

  “Do you think he’s alone?” I asked.

  Quill shrugged. “Inside the library, maybe, but there are always
two or three guards posted outside, in the hallway.”

  “We can deal with them,” Knight said emphatically.

  “What about Dulcie?” Quill asked, his frown marring an otherwise handsome face.

  “I can take care of myself.”

  I pulled the portal ripper from my pocket and programmed it with our coordinates, quickly slicing the air open. Then I lodged the tool back into my pocket, Knight and Quill by my sides, as we stepped through.

  When we came out on the other side, I had to find my bearings. I was prepared to land inside a house and was slightly taken aback to find the sun shining down on me as a chill whipped through the air.

  “We overshot!” Quill said angrily.

  As far as I could see, we were surrounded by swamp. Luckily for us, we’d landed on a stretch of land; but unluckily for us, the land was situated in the middle of the swamp, aka an island. I turned around and noticed a row boat moored to a makeshift dock maybe three hundred feet away.

  “We need that boat,” I said softly, facing Knight. “I can easily fly to the other side to get it.” My wings were already flapping so quickly, I probably looked like an oversized hummingbird. “Or do you think we should try Bram’s portal ripper again?”

  Knight shook his head. “Not after it sent us here. Who the hell knows where we’d end up if we tried it again.”

  “Maybe the device just doesn’t work when we’re in such close proximity to our target,” I offered and then shrugged.

  Knight nodded. “Maybe.” He then glanced at the boat in the distance. “The boat is our best bet.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” Quill said, shaking his head.

  “My wings are amped and raring to go,” I said with a frown. I wasn’t sure how else he intended to get across. I, for one, refused to go swimming in some algae-infested swamp with Hades-only-knew-what lurking just beneath the surface.

  But, that was just me.

  ELEVEN

  “There are all sorts of horrible creatures in the swamp and monsters roam the skies,” Quill said to me pointedly, releasing my arm from his grip. “In case you didn’t notice, there aren’t any nets here.”

  He was referring to the nets that blanketed the skies of most Netherworld cities. The nets discouraged gigantic, winged monsters that soared through the air from preying on Netherworld citizens. Yes, Quill made a good point warning us about the lack of nets in Willoughby House, but I also wasn’t exactly thrilled at the thought about what might lurk beneath the swamp. Being stuck on such a small stretch of land didn’t fill me with warm, fuzzy feelings.

  “How else do you plan to get across the swamp if I don’t go after that boat?” I asked with a frown, motioning to the row boat just across the swamp.

  Quill didn’t say anything, which meant there wasn’t any other way across. “Exactly,” I muttered as I freed myself from Knight’s hold. I immediately started to ascend again, but this time, Knight did nothing to tether me. I effortlessly floated up and in an easterly direction until I was floating over the middle of the swamp, nearing the shore. As I floated nearer the shore, I noticed a mass of oak trees, covered with Spanish moss, just before me. They also housed a whole slew of the biggest, ugliest spiders I’d ever seen. Most of them were perched in large, white webs that stretched from tree branch to tree branch. The spiders were nearly as large as my hands. Their spindly legs were striped brown and cream, and they had orange crests on their abdomens.

  Fly yourself around the spiders, Dulcie, I said to myself in an effort to convey the message to my wings. Instead, they flapped with reckless abandon and drove me right into a spider web. The unsightly behemoth briefly took refuge on my face before jumping down to my shoulder and shooting itself off my arm. Meanwhile, I uncontrollably sailed through the remainder of its web. Fearing the creature’s sticky, spindly legs landing all over my skin, I felt myself breaking out in goose bumps, as a shiver raced up my spine. But, it hadn’t bitten me so I figured things were better than they otherwise could have been.

  After escaping the spider webs, I got scratched by a few oak branches and suffered some minor scrapes before freeing myself from the canopy. Now, a new problem faced me: I was quickly floating up into the sky with no visible way of descending. My wings were flapping on fast forward, and even though they were small, they were powerful in their own right. I tried to tell them that I needed to float down again, especially after overshooting the boat by ten feet or more. But my wings refused to listen and I continued to drift higher.

  “Lean over and reach for the tree in front of you!” Knight called out to me, the tone of his voice concerned. But my wings continued to beat incessantly, carrying me even higher.

  “Tell yourself to slow your wings down!” Quill yelled, as if I was so dumb I hadn’t already told myself exactly that.

  As I passed by another oak tree, I reached out, aiming for one of the branches to simply pull myself into the tree. Then I could just climb down, spiders and all. It was probably a long shot, but it was also the only solution I could find.

  Leaning toward the tree branch, I suddenly started floating in that direction until I was able to grasp the branch. Then I hand-walked myself down the branch, watching the large, brown, fuzzy spiders disappear into the overgrowth of the trees as I pillaged their webs. Luckily for me, they didn’t appear to be territorial.

  When I reached the tree trunk, I glanced down and noticed how high up I was. It was probably the equivalent of being on the fifth floor of a building. As soon as I cast my eyes down, though, I felt my wings begin slowing their frantic beating. Hoping to test them, I released my hold on the branch and began to float down toward the ground. So, somehow, my addled brain managed to reach my wings.

  “Just take your time!” Knight yelled, he and Quill now fully indoctrinated as the peanut gallery.

  Once I hit the ground, I checked my wings once more and then, convinced they weren’t going to start up again, I ran the distance separating me from the row boat. I unwound the rope from the dock, pushing the boat into the murky water as I climbed aboard, all the while hoping there wasn’t anything larger than my boat lurking beneath the lily pad-covered water. With only a solitary oar that I found in the bottom of the boat, I began paddling first over my left shoulder, then my right. The boat cut through the water and I managed to make it back to the island within a few minutes, despite the infernal aching in my shoulders.

  Knight and Quill grabbed the boat’s bow and pulled it onto the shore. My wings started to beat again so I gripped the side of the boat as tightly as I could while Knight jumped over the edge and grabbed hold of my arm. Quill hopped over the other edge, and taking up the oar, started rowing.

  “The main house is just around the bend of this swamp,” he informed us.

  I nodded as I reached into my pocket, producing Bram’s watch. When I held it up to eye level, the two hands pointed to numeral three, which meant we had to bear to the right, since that’s where Melchior was. And, coincidentally, that’s also where a gigantic … thing perched on the banks of the swamp, watching us.

  The creature was no less than twenty feet tall. Its back was covered with long, broad, brown feathers, and its belly looked like the same rough skin of a crocodile. The thing had been watching us for Hades only knew how long, but as soon as I made eye contact with it, its hunched body sat up straight and it eagerly devoured a midday snack. Stretching out two immense wings that were lined with downy white feathers, the much larger brown feathers comprised the flipside. Whatever had been unfortunate enough to become its lunch was now reduced to red, raw, dripping tissue, the shreds hanging from the creature’s talons. It had an ominous, hooked predatory beak and two beady eyes that glowed an eerie yellow.

  “Don’t look at it,” Knight warned softly. “Very slowly, get down on your belly in the bottom of the boat. Dulcie, you go first, and Quillan, you cover her with your body.”

  Without a word, I moved as slowly as I could, feeling Knight’s hand on my back to keep my wing
s steady, which would, no doubt, only attract more attention. Getting on all fours, I lowered myself down onto the rough, splintery wood, which grated against my cheek. Quillan immediately came behind me and covered my body with his own, but squished me in the process.

  “You okay?” he whispered into my ear.

  “You’re too heavy,” I gasped. “I can barely breathe.”

  He rolled off me until we were lying face-down, side-by-side. Then he draped his arm over me, in order to keep my wings confined. As soon as he did, Knight withdrew his hand from my back, and started to row again. For a few seconds, the only thing to occupy my mind was the sound of my shallow breathing as I tried to get my breath. I just couldn’t banish thoughts of the horrible bird creature coming after us. But images of becoming snack number two were disrupted when I felt Quillan’s hand as it began to explore my back, following the line of my spine. When he reached the waist of my jeans, he pushed his hand beneath them and started rubbing the top of my butt.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I whispered, despite facing the opposite direction.

  “Dulce, I’m having a hell of a time fighting your pheromones,” he said painfully. His words sounded like he was saying them through gritted teeth. His probing fingers splayed across my backside while his other hand slipped underneath my shirt. Then he rubbed my stomach, coming dangerously close to the bottom of my bra.

  “For Hades’s sake,” I started, fully aware of what was going on. It was just another irritating drawback as a fairy in the Netherworld. Yep, Quill couldn’t help falling for my sexual “fairy crack” and there really wasn’t anything I could do about it. If I made too much of a ruckus, or sat up, the feathered monster would take notice. I knew Quill was helpless to my feminine power anyway; and now that he was basically on top of me, I was more than sure his resistance was rapidly waning. Reaffirming my suspicion, I felt his hand dip between my thighs on the outside of my jeans.

  “I can’t fight it when I’m this close to you,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”