The Tower

by L. A. McGinnis

  “What exactly are you going to do?”

  “Find some answers, hopefully.”

  Trudging through the dripping, moistness of the Underworld was becoming a daily affair, and one that Gabriella certainly hoped would not become habitual. “What are you looking for?”

  “I don’t know, not exactly.” Gabriella kept walking, grinding her teeth, listening to the clicking of Hel’s heels on the rock behind her. Seriously, who wore Jimmy Choos in the middle of winter? “But I’ll know it when I see it. According to Ovid…” Gabriella glanced toward the spinning portal. “You know what—never mind, you wouldn’t understand. You stay put. I’ll be right back.”

  When they reached the door, Gabriella felt the need for reinforcement. “Okay. What are you going to do? Repeat it back to me, so I know you understand.”

  “Keep my gorgeous ass down here while you go and have all the fun.”

  “If by fun you mean freezing my ass off on a godforsaken island, then yes, that is exactly what we’re going to do.” She was just stepping through to the other side when Hel stopped her.

  “Ovid had a lot of interesting theories, you know,” Hel mused. “And did you know… He thought they could all be solved by love.” She laughed. “I always thought the man was a fool, but now—he could have been right. I don’t know what you’re looking for Gabriella, but I don’t think you’ll find it on that island.”

  Popping out of total darkness into a blinding, freezing winter storm sucked the breath right out of her. Taking a quick scan to get her bearings before trudging up the rocky hill, Gabriella found the blackened hole where Ava’s magic landed. Pulling her glove off, she held her hand over the spot. Even the air around the char mark felt weird, leaving the ends of her fingers tingling, as if it still held some residual magic. A trace of that soul-sucking sensation shuddered through her, her fingertips growing numb.

  She debated fetching Hel but ducked into the opening instead, pulling out the Maglite on her way in. Just in case anything was waiting down there.

  Scolding herself for being silly, she walked all the way to the end, searching the floor with the flashlight. Finally, she found it. Her father’s knife, stained with dried blood, a remnant of her spectacular failure.

  “Apparently, you’ve never heard the phrase, don’t return to the scene of a crime?” Domenic’s smooth, cultured voice was tinged with humor as he added, “Your father would be so disappointed in you, Angel.”

  Domenic glided like some sort of unearthly creature—or maybe her brain just wasn’t functioning properly—Gabriella thought as he drew closer and closer. She’d forgotten the first rule of the island—nothing alive gets in or out. While she’d walked straight into it, part of her understood this was the way it would always end for her. Blood begets blood, after all, just like she’d once warned Hel.

  She did not mind dying, so much.

  However, she had no intention of dying badly, as she swept the knife up off the floor.

  Blinding power ripped through her, sending her reeling backwards against the stone. Feebly, Gabriella raised the weapon in front of her while the thing laughed.

  “Oh, Angel, I never took you for an amateur.”

  Hel waited until it was dark outside before she disobeyed Gabriella. Before she straightened her shaking knees and crept out onto the spit of land. She smelled Domenic, cloaked in the Orobus’s power. Sensed his raw, black magic, choked on the foul darkness of it. Remembered the horrors she’d endured at his hand.

  She knew it was already too late. But she had to be sure. Had to be sure he hadn’t left a body behind. The cave was inert and empty; it didn’t smell of death, it stunk of decay. But Gabriella wasn’t there. No one was there.

  Then she made her way to Michigan Avenue, to the vehicle, figured out how to start it, how to maneuver the damn thing back to Oak Park.

  When she finally arrived at the house, Balder was waiting, death gleaming in his eyes.

  54

  “Gavrinis? You’re kidding, right?”

  Hel ran through it again for Odin, just like she’d done for Balder, a half an hour before. She’d told him everything and gotten his message—loud and clear. The only reason he didn’t kill her right then was because she was the only witness to Gabriella’s disappearance.

  Hence, she might be valuable.

  “She went looking for something. She wasn’t exactly forthcoming. Just that I had to get her to the doorway and stay behind.”

  Balder growled, low and menacing, then slammed out of the room.

  “I tried—I really tried to talk her out of it. But there was no chance. She was going, with me or without me. Without me would have been suicide. There are still some…things down there that only I can control.” Odin’s head jerked up at her admission.

  “And when you realized something happened?”

  “I came and got Balder.”

  Hel lifted her chin higher, ebony hair falling in a smooth sheath. “Domenic took her. I don’t know why, but you’d better go after her right now. She can’t withstand the things he’ll do to her. She won’t be able to.”

  “And why do you even care?” Odin sounded bored, though his eyes were sharp enough. “Didn’t think you had a heart, last time I looked.”

  “She saved my life. She went back to Gavrinis to find answers about Balder, I know it. Something about what’s happened to him drove her there. Something…” She dropped her voice. “Whatever she thought she’d accomplish, it involved Balder and his apparent lack of a moral compass these days. Look, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with it. But Gabriella—she does.

  “Sure, I wasn’t born like the rest of you, and maybe I don’t have a heart. And yes, my own moral compass is pretty much nonexistent. But Gabriella operates on a different level. For everything she’s done, I think her sense of right and wrong is better defined than most. Maybe because of everything she’s done. She risked everything to go back. For what, I don’t know. But we have to get her away from Domenic, and soon.”

  “We?”

  “We,” she said firmly, “and I’m afraid he’ll know we’re coming.”

  Balder knew he’d been honorable before, insufferably so, and was reborn as something dark. But honor and nobility had no place going up against the likes of the Orobus. Wars were not fought by equals on battlefields; they were fought underground, against monsters. He didn’t mind so much, being a monster. Duty and honor hadn’t left room in his life for much.

  He’d never known how to wish for a life of his own.

  A love of his own.

  Now, in his greedy, selfish heart, he knew exactly what he wanted. Gabriella.

  Imagining her with Domenic, vengeance replaced the emptiness, his paralytic fog faded, and the walls that imprisoned him came crumbling down. He wasn’t fixed, not by a long shot. But he had his priorities straight again, and they were focused on getting Gabriella back.

  He would get her back. And Domenic would suffer. When Odin rounded everyone up, he was waiting. “I’ll do whatever I must to get her out of there,” he told them softly. “We’ll bring her back.” He spoke to them all, but his eyes were on Odin.

  And Ava too. Balder promised him silently. If she will come—if she’s still Ava.

  “You know this is a trap,” Odin cautioned. “He’ll expect us.”

  “I know. Let’s do something unexpected.”

  “I can help,” Hel offered, and Balder turned to find her staring at him with those unnervingly obsidian eyes. “I have creatures hidden in the Underworld.” She met their incredulous gazes with a shrug. “What? I’m not a complete idiot. I didn’t give up all my monsters to him. I kept some for myself. Just in case.”

  “Clever girl,” muttered Odin.

  “Seriously, you say that like it’s a bad thing, you pompous moron. They answer only to me, and they might not be entirely…reliable. But they’ll clear a path for us and give us time to check the house—to get Gabriella out. Maybe keep Domenic so busy s
o he won’t come after us.” Her breathing had grown fast and shallow. “Maybe…”

  Balder watched her struggle with the fear. Watched it master her. And then watched her master it.

  “I’ll buy you enough time to get Gabriella out and escape. I can promise you half an hour. Will that be enough?”

  Balder nodded. It would have to be.

  55

  Hurtling through the snowstorm, Hel couldn’t keep her eyes off Balder. But it wasn’t his golden-boy good looks, it was this new, emotionless fury that drove him.

  “We’ll pick up…the whatever this is we’re picking up, and rendezvous with the others at Domenic’s. They should be in position when we arrive.”

  He swung up Michigan when Hel stopped him with a quiet, “We aren’t going that way. Not this time.” Directing him north, then east, and again north, she kept her words short and to the point. No sense in wasting time or energy when gods knew what was ahead of them.

  The moon had a haze of red around it tonight, as if the world below was bleeding. Or soon to be. The scent of brimstone hung thick in the air when they made their last turn, the air inside the vehicle heavy as it blew out of the Hummer’s vents.

  “Fucking put it on recycle,” Balder growled and she complied, even though the smell reminded her of home. Her version of a roaring fire and hot chocolate.

  To each their own.

  The road was a continuous blast of white, winter’s intense cold punctuated by gusts off the frozen lake, picking up cascades of ice and snow, at times masking the sky and stars completely.

  Squinting through the twin paths of the headlights, Hel finally spoke. “We’re going there.” She pointed to a low, square building hulking on a hill above them. “We make this quick and then head to Evanston.” She paused for effect. “You sure you’re up for this?”

  “Shut up and tell me exactly what we’re picking up. I don’t like surprises.” Well, then, you’re really going to hate this.

  She kept her eyes on the building. “Something that will buy you the time you need. That’s all you need to know.”

  He stomped the brake to the floor, and the Hummer slid to a stop in a shower of ice. “What. The. Fuck. Are. We. Picking. Up?”

  “Some. Thing.” She pushed back off the dashboard and threw her hair out of her face. Rolled her eyes. “I haven’t given it a name yet. Just a little something-something I’ve been working on.” But worry gnawed at her. How long had it been since she’d last seen them? “They’ll create enough havoc in that mansion of Domenic’s to give you time to get in and out. And trust me, Domenic hates havoc even more than he hated you guys.”

  Balder bared his teeth right back at her and hit the gas, winding up the hill. The closer they got, the stronger she felt it. A strong, sentient presence. Ancient. Intelligent. Her children weren’t babies any longer. They’d grown up, and judging from the huge, gaping hole in the side of the building, had already escaped their lairs more than once. No longer cosseted and protected, then.

  Once, they’d needed her. Now she needed them.

  Zipping up her coat, she kept her eyes on razor wire rimming the building’s roofline. “Stay in the truck. Keep the doors locked.”

  “What exactly are you expecting to do? That hole was made from the inside. It’s big enough to drive a Mack truck through.”

  She did glance down at the gun he yanked out and set on the seat between them. “Give me five minutes to find them and explain what is needed. Then be prepared.”

  “For what?”

  “To drive like a bat out of hell to keep up with them.” She met his eyes. “Will that be a problem, golden boy?”

  “Nope. Go do what you gotta do. Then get your ass back here.”

  She slammed the door behind her, walked up to the building, and pressed her hand to a palm print lock. Ducked through an innocuous, black steel door and disappeared into darkness.

  And instantly noticed things were not as she had left them. Aside from the snow and ice streaming in through the gaping hole, the cages had been turned inside out, bars as thick as a man’s arm spiraling outward, like giant octopus legs.

  A chuffing, wet sound echoed out of the dark. She reached into her jeans, pulled out a package of beef jerky. Heard the chuffing pause, then draw closer.

  A huge, leathery nose emerged from between the bars, followed by horns, a long, wrinkled neck, wide chest, and a pair of heavy, taloned feet. “Hey there, beautiful,” Hel crooned, letting the creature pick the sliver of meat off her palm with a moist, forked tongue. “That’s my baby girl.”

  She drew a blood-flecked piece of cloth out of her coat pocket, held it up to the dripping nostrils, which inhaled delicately. “Find her,” she whispered urgently. “Take your sisters and find her. And kill everything that gets in your way.”

  A red-gold gleam flashed out of one speckled eye before the enormous head withdrew into the dark, and Hel heard the rasp of claws on concrete, the whine of metal, the heavy beating of wings and then silence. She ran for the car, Balder gunning the engine out front.

  “What in the name of all the gods were those?” Balder ground out, eyes fixed on the road as the speedometer rose to an alarmingly high number for the current road conditions.

  “I already told you, I don’t have a name for them yet. I’d really just hatched out my first brood when Domenic locked me into that dungeon of his.”

  “They were big fuckers.”

  “They are, aren’t they?” she crooned happily. She’d really only seen the head, but yes, that had been lovely. “How were they flying?”

  “Like giant bats. Took off, one after the other, about seven of them, by my count. Shot straight up into the sky.” He paused a moment. “Dragons?”

  “Too pedestrian.” She put a finger to her mouth. “I did think about naming them once. When they were very young and started getting nubs on their backs, and I realized they might grow wings.”

  “No,” she mused while the back of the Hummer slid dangerously close to the trees lining the road. “I need something more suitably…frightening. Strike fear into the hearts of men and all of that.” She poked him in the shoulder. “You really need to pick up the pace. They’ll have eaten everyone before we even get there.”

  “What about Gabbie? You’d better not be…”

  “She’ll be just fine. She’s their end goal. They’ll take good care of her for me, don’t you worry your little blond head about your girl.”

  “If you would have told me we’d be trailing flying dragons, I would have come up with a different fucking plan.”

  “I didn’t know,” she admitted. “I haven’t seen them in months. I wasn’t sure what they’d become. Only that I hoped they’d be perfect for something exactly like tonight.”

  They made the trip in record time, beating everyone else to the site. When they slid to a stop outside of the Domenic Mansion, it was complete chaos. The place was lit up, a beacon to the rest of the darkened, uncivilized world. With a front yard strewn with the dead and dying, gunfire erupted from inside.

  “I’m going in.”

  “Yes. You do that.” Hel’s gaze flickered uncertainly over the chaos. “You go and get her, tiger.”

  “And what about you? This going to be like last time? You just going to sit out here and hide like a coward?”

  “I’m… I’m coming,” Hel whispered. But her hand remained frozen on the handle.

  “Look, I don’t have time for your bullshit. I’m heading in,” Balder snarled, outing his gun. “You leave with this vehicle and strand us, I’ll hunt you down and kill you. Be here when we get back and keep it running.”

  Hel watched him rush through the headlights, vault over the bodies, and disappear into the house.

  While she sat in the car for another minute. Then another.

  Feeling the quiet, warm heat wash over her, move her hair. She should go in there, at least watch her monsters in action. Except every cell in her body fought opening that car door. She couldn
’t go anywhere near that house, not with the malevolent, suffocating presence of Domenic all around this place. Chills covered her body, her lungs didn’t seem to want to expand, her legs didn’t want to work. All she saw was the house. The bodies. The spray of red blood across the snow.

  Screaming. A lot of screaming. Flashes of light. Gunfire.

  And she knew her lovely monsters—all seven of them—were wreaking havoc on Domenic. On his things. The thought brought her nothing but joy.

  And then something large and black crashed through the third-floor window, its limp form landing with a hollow whump in the snowy yard.

  Leaping out of the car, Hel made her choice.

  She ran to save her child.

  56

  Gabriella had been tortured before.

  Not like this—but in El Salvador—by some mercs looking for information.

  Once she escaped, she went back and blew up their headquarters, their supply vehicles, and the only road leading to their encampment. Then she’d killed them, one by one. Served the bastards right. She ended up with three pins in her leg and seven months in therapy.

  She figured she’d gotten off easy.

  Domenic took a slightly different approach. And magic hurt like a bitch.

  Yet so far, she’d endured it. Or, at least, lived through it.

  Lying on the cold cement floor smelling of vomit and urine, she did another internal check. Her brain felt like it was bleeding. Actually, it might be. The Orobus had extracted everything out of it, memory by memory, as brutally and painfully as he could, as if he were scooping out a pumpkin on Halloween.

  She was still breathing. And her brain was working, sort of.

  Another long, full body shudder went through her, and she waited it out. These were coming further and further apart. When they stopped—and she had to hope they would at some point—she’d be able to sit up. Get her nose away from this vile concrete and get a read on her surroundings. She would have to move, and soon. Because something bad was happening outside her door; her heart rate was increasing along with it.