“How have you been, Chang?” I asked as the old man stubbed out the cigarette burning away to ash in the aluminum ashtray on the table. Grabbing his wooden cane, Chang pushed to his feet. His thin body was stiff, but he was steady as he started to walk beside me down the aisle.
“Good. Very good, thank you,” he replied. “My babies and I continue to expand my collection of unique items. I’m actually thinking of adding a new floor. I am close to making a very large acquisition.”
I smiled at my companion as he positively beamed with pride. “Can I ask what you’ve acquired?”
Chang paused and stared at me, weighing my trustworthiness, before his smile finally returned. “You’ve been good to me and I don’t think you would have any interest in stealing this item from me,” Chang said, mostly to himself. “I’m working on acquiring the Great Library of Alexandria.”
This time I stopped walking and stared, dumbfounded, at the old man. “I thought it had been lost or destroyed or something.”
“Popular myth has it that Julius Caesar burned it down by accident centuries ago,” Chang said with a derisive snort and a wave of his hand. “That library was the most important thing in existence to the Alexandrians. They would not have allowed it to burn. The building is long gone, but its contents have been hidden and protected these many years. I am close to completing a deal that will put the ancient scrolls into my hands.”
“You’re right that there’s nothing I would want from that collection, but I would love to just see it some time.”
Chang smiled up at me as we started walking again. “We shall see. If you have something interesting to trade, I might consider giving you the honor of looking at the library collection.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, respectfully bowing my head to him.
“Now, you do not visit me often and only when your need is very great.”
“You’re expensive, Chang.”
The little man giggled, tapping his cane on the ground once as we came to a halt in front of a large jar sitting on a shelf that nearly reached the ceiling. “But my items are extremely rare. They have to be expensive.” He reached inside the jar that held a human head, its dreadlocks hanging over the top, and pulled out an egg. “You want pickled egg?” he offered, holding the foul-smelling thing up to me.
“No, thanks. I’m good.” Taking a step away, I looked back down at the head and something about the way one of the dreadlocks moved made me jump. It wasn’t a dreadlock, but a withered snake. “Holy shit, Chang! That’s Medusa’s head!”
“Yeah, it’s great. You interested? It still works.”
“Be careful with that thing,” I said, taking another step away from it while shielding my eyes with a raised hand.
“No worries. The safety is on. Her eyes are closed.” He laughed maniacally at his own joke before patting me on the arm. “Open the eyes and bang! Instant lawn ornament. You need something like that?”
“No, something a little rarer,” I said, looking away as my stomach churned at the sight of Chang popping the egg into his mouth.
“Mmm . . . Gorgon pretty rare. Sounds interesting,” he murmured around a mouthful of rancid egg. We continued walking down the aisle and turned up another. My eyes slid over piles of dusty books, ancient scrolls, colored jars, and ornate boxes that held more secrets. I stopped as I felt the floor shift below me and looked down at an intricately woven Persian rug. Chang growled beside me and pounded the carpet with the end of his cane a couple of times. “Be still, stupid rug.” He then looked up at me with a somewhat hopeful expression. “You need flying carpet?”
It was then I noticed that the four corners of the rug were held down by massive piles of books. Apparently Chang had some problems keeping the rug in one place.
“No, I’m good.”
“It’s a fast way to travel,” Chang pressed.
“But I doubt it’s all that reliable. It seems to have a mind of its own.”
“You’re a strong enough warlock to keep it under control.”
I frowned down at the old man. “You know I gave that up.”
Chang snorted again and shook his head as he resumed walking. “You gave that up like I gave up breathing for Lent.”
I walked by him in silence. He was right, but I wasn’t going to admit it. I didn’t question how Chang knew I had studied to be a warlock because it was Chang’s business to know things that other people didn’t know. It was how he stayed ahead of the competition and acquired the true gems of this world.
“Okay, so no Gorgon head and no flying carpet,” Chang said, breaking the silence that had stretched between us. “What is it that you are looking for?”
I stopped walking and took a deep breath. I knew I could trust Chang not to breathe a word of this conversation to another soul, but I still didn’t like to say the words aloud. “I need water from the River Styx.”
For the first time since I had known him, Chang lost his temper. The little man stomped his feet and swung his cane around, showing more agility than I thought possible for someone his age.
“How you do that?” he shouted. “Out of the millions of items that I have collected over the centuries, how could you pick the one item I have never touched? Never seen with my own eyes!”
Hope deflated in my chest and I shoved one hand through my hair. Chang had everything, and I mean everything. Pots of leprechaun gold, Damocles’s sword, original handwritten manuscripts by Shakespeare, folded-up rainbows trapped in delicate crystals; Chang had it all and had never failed me.
“Are you sure?” I asked in desperation, dropping my hand back to my side.
“Sure? Of course I’m sure. Do you think I don’t know my own possessions?”
“I’m sorry, but I’m desperate.”
“You have to be to ask for such a thing,” Chang snapped back at me. “Why you need it?”
“I’m sure you can guess.” Death was the only thing that such an item could create, but I wasn’t about to voice those words.
“You’re right. You sure you can use nothing else as a substitute?”
“Yeah.”
“Sorry, but I can’t help you.”
I stood sideways in the aisle, gazing back the way we had come, but I didn’t see the towering shelves that surrounded us. I was left with only one other option and it was not going to be pretty or even easy. “I understand. Thanks for your time.”
Chang nodded and clapped his hands once. I looked up to see both the Doberman pinschers turn the corner and stare down the aisle at us. They were patiently waiting to escort me back to the elevator. I started down the aisle alone and then paused when a new thought hit me.
“If I did get my hands on some water from the Styx, what would it be worth to you?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at the old man.
Chang’s grin was positively sinister as his watery eyes narrowed on me. “I have a few truly rare prizes that I would be willing to consider trading for such an item.”
“And for water from all five underworld rivers?”
Chang’s hands spasmed and tightly clenched the handle of his cane. His watery brown eyes turned to vertical yellow slits as he lost his hold on his human form for only a split second at the thought of such a prize. His smile widened, and I could have sworn that I saw a thin curl of smoke drift from the corner of his mouth.
“Bring me such a prize and I will give you the pick of anything from my collection. And if I don’t have what you want then I will acquire it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, suppressing a grin as I resumed walking toward the dogs.
“You won’t give it to anyone else, will you?”
I turned around and walked backward a couple of steps so I could look at him. “You’re the only one I would trust with such things.”
“Good. Good. I will contact you in a couple of days to see how you have done,” Chang said.
I turned back around to face the dogs and waved at Chang one last time, smiling to myself.
I really didn’t want water from the underworld rivers in anyone’s hands, but if it could get me something of extreme value that would help Trixie with the elves or myself with the warlocks, then I would make the trade. I just had to figure out what the item would be. Besides, something as rare as water from the underworld rivers would never leave Chang’s possession, and I believed he was the only one who could keep such a dangerous item safe and protected from the world.
My only problem now was figuring out how to get safely to and from the underworld. Getting there wasn’t much of a problem. Getting out with my soul intact was.
Chapter 24
Drywall chunks and dust covered my living room floor and furniture. I stared up at the bare wooden beams exposed by the hole in my ceiling, wondering for the twentieth time in the past ten minutes if I had lost my mind. Actually, I knew that I had lost my mind. I was planning to kill myself in an attempt to save myself from an early death. My only hope was to escape this death so that I didn’t have to face a death I couldn’t get out of.
Dragging over a folding metal chair, I picked up the heavy orange extension cord I had purchased at the hardware store before arriving at my apartment. I looked down at the noose I had tied in the cord and felt like I was going to be sick. My stomach churned and bubbled with anxiety, making me grateful that I hadn’t stopped for anything besides coffee that morning. The world was closing in, narrowing to a dark tunnel that left me with only this noose and the bare wooden beams in the ceiling of my apartment. I didn’t have a choice.
Reaching up, I threaded the cord around the beam above my head, wrapping it around the wood several times before tying it off. I yanked on it twice, making sure that it would hold my weight. The stoppered glass jars in the pockets of the trench coat I was wearing clinked together like wind chimes in the summer breeze as I moved. Gazing across the room, I looked at the clock in the kitchen. It was a quarter till three. I was out of time. I had already called Trixie, asking her to come to my apartment at exactly three o’clock because I desperately needed her help. I didn’t tell her what I was doing for fear that she would come early and stop me.
My hands were shaking and sweaty when I finally lifted the noose over my head and wrapped it around my neck. I closed my eyes as I tightened it and dropped my hands back down to my sides, brushing against the note taped to my chest that read REVIVE ME!!! It was a struggle to slow my breathing down to a steady, even rate while my heart was pounding in my chest so hard that I thought I would have a heart attack before I could hang myself. Balancing one foot on the back of the chair, I tilted the chair so that it stood on only two legs. I had to be careful that I dropped myself slowly. I was attempting to strangle to death rather than snap my neck. While the drop was technically too short for a broken neck, I wasn’t willing to take any chances.
I looked back up at the clock one last time. From what twisted notes I could find on the Internet, it took approximately ten to twenty minutes for a person to strangle to death. I was praying that it would take closer to the low end of that time frame as it would give me just enough time to wander around the underworld before Trixie was scheduled to appear at my apartment to save me. If it took longer, Trixie would appear before I was dead and I didn’t think she would let me give this another try, even if my life was on the line.
Muttering one last prayer in my head to whatever gods there might be, I tilted the chair over until it fell away from me. My hands immediately surged up to the noose that tightened around my throat as I dangled from the ceiling. I couldn’t get my fingers under the cord, it had tightened so much around my neck, sinking into my flesh. Air ceased to pour down to my lungs and I could feel the pulse pounding in my neck as blood fought to reach my brain. Panic filled my frame and crowded around my thoughts, coating everything in thick layers of fear.
In that grim embrace I finally entertained the thought that Trixie wouldn’t show up in time. I knew that I was taking a significant risk in asking for her help. It wasn’t that Trixie wouldn’t come to my aid or that she would be late—I knew I could depend on her. But the elves tracking her could spot her on her way to my apartment and grab her. Not only would I be dead, but no one would be able to help her escape from the guards of the Summer Court.
Trixie was the one person I trusted above all others to help me. Bronx couldn’t leave his house during the daylight hours. Trixie had to come and she had to be on time.
Yet even as I convinced myself that there was no one else to help me, Robert’s young, smiling face drifted across my mind. Growing up, my older brother had been my closest friend and worst enemy rolled into one. We fought as hard as we played together, and I always knew that he would protect me no matter what. I hadn’t spoken to him in more than ten years and yet I knew that if I had called him, he would come. However, I didn’t want my dead body to be the first thing he saw after a decade of silence. It was better for both him and my younger sister if neither was involved in my dangerous life.
I twisted and tried to shift while hanging from my noose, but there was no give. Darkness started to crowd my eyes and my lungs, feeling as if they were going to explode in my chest, burned for oxygen. I squinted at the clock to see how much time had passed in this agony, but my vision swam and doubled, making it impossible to focus on the distant clock. Time slowed to a crawl. I didn’t want to die. A part of me desperately wanted Trixie to come to the apartment early and save me from myself, but then I was only left with facing my death at the hands of the grim reaper.
As darkness closed in around me, leaving me feeling cold and light headed, I realized that I hadn’t left a note in case something went terribly wrong. What if I died and no one was there to bring me back in time? I hadn’t left a note to explain to everyone that I wasn’t really attempting suicide. I hadn’t left a note to explain the mess I had gotten into and how I was trying to fix it. My family would be left to think that my life had gone horribly wrong and that I was depressed. Trixie would be devastated, as she would believe that I had wanted to kill myself after having had sex with her. I had to fix it. I couldn’t take the chance of destroying those who mattered most to me.
I reached up with my right hand to grab the cord above my head. If I could just hold it and concentrate, I knew a spell that would allow me to burn through the cord. I would have to start the whole thing over again, but I couldn’t take the chance of hurting my family like this. They had to know why if I truly did die. Unfortunately, as I attempted to look up, my vision completely blacked out. The side of my hand grazed the side of the cord as I missed. I tried a second time, but my hand went wide of the cord, missing it completely.
Darkness swirled around me in an ever deepening vortex, sucking me down until I felt nothing. Not the tightness in my chest or the throbbing pain in my head. There was only a floating miasma of confusion and cold. I tried to blink my eyes against the darkness, but it didn’t give forth any shape or sense of depth for several seconds.
And then there was earth beneath my feet. I shook my head, surprised to find that I was no longer hanging from a noose. I knelt on the cold, hard ground, feeling the smooth stones beneath the palms of my hands. My eyes focused on some vague shapes. In the distance I could see a faint blue glow emanating from a dark tunnel, while the earth shifted and swayed, reminding me of water. I was in the underworld, leading to final judgment and the realm beyond.
I had to move fast. I didn’t know how time flowed in the underworld. The minutes until Trixie arrived could pass in the blink of an eye or slink by at a snail’s pace. I couldn’t take any chances that she would revive me before I had accomplished what I needed to. Pushing to my feet, I carefully walked down the gentle rolling slope to the bank of what appeared to be an endlessly wide river. The water flowed, but there were no waves. It was a flat plain, as if it were made out of black glass, and yet I didn’t want to touch it. Without question, I knew I was standing on the bank of the River Styx.
Looking down, relief filled me as I found that I was wear
ing exactly what I had died in. Taking a glass container out of my pocket, I pulled out the cork stopper and knelt at the bank. Carefully filling the container, I made sure not to touch the water with my fingers. When it was full, I stood and replaced the stopper before putting it back into my pocket.
I had what I had come for, but this was also an opportunity that I wasn’t willing to pass up. The River Styx represented hate, but it also led to the afterlife. It was a link to death, and it would be the only thing that could overcome the power of the angel feather. Yet there were still four more rivers that ran through the underworld—Lethe, Acheron, Cocytus, and Phlegethon. They represented forgetfulness, pain, lamentation, and fire. The water from those rivers could be used to create some of the most powerful potions in existence. Bringing back water from all five rivers would mean holding a fortune in my hands. More so, water from all five rivers would mean getting my hands on the one item that could free Trixie from the Summer Court. If only I knew what it was. It didn’t matter. When I finally discovered it, I knew it would be found among Chang’s treasures.
A dim yellow glow pierced the darkness and was slowly approaching me from across the Styx. Taking a step backward from the bank, I watched as a rickety wooden boat appeared from out of the darkness with an old oil lamp hanging from a bow that sloped upward. It was only when the boat pushed up on the shore with a scrape that I could make out the slender figure of a man standing at the stern with a long wooden pole that he used to direct the boat. Shrouded in a ragged black cloak from head to toe, I could see his bony white hands as they tightly clasped the pole. I was faced with the fearsome ferryman Charon.
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