“Thes, I’ll get you out!” I cried even though I knew it was impossible. There was no way that I was getting him out of there without some heavy duty construction equipment and about a billion tons of dynamite.
I grabbed onto a piece of rock that was bigger than I was and tugged. My muscles strained as the scent of roses filled the air before evaporating like the last tendrils of a dream. The huge stone fell back into place, sliding against the door like the last piece of a horrific puzzle as tears began to tug at the corners of my eyes. “Thes…” I swallowed, biting back my panic. “Thes… I’ll figure this out.”
“Or you won’t,” Hades said from behind me. The sound of his voice made me nearly leap from my skin.
I whirled around, my face a mixture of horror and shock because my heart was still trying to slow itself down from its sprint around the world. My look must have confused him because the death god shrugged, his floppy surfer hair falling over his eyes.
“That room is gone. Whatever you people did in there actually forced the entirety of the room back to Ancient Egypt.” Hades put his thumbs in the waistband of his board shorts and shook his head. “So that’s pretty interesting.”
“So Thes is gone? To Ancient Egypt?” I asked, glancing from him to Connor’s unconscious body. I’d known he wanted to go back, and I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to even let him do it. I wasn’t even sure I wasn’t going to go with him. Either way, this was not how I envisioned his journey beginning. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I had expected. Maybe a giant portal powered by technology found in the sands of Ancient Egypt or something? Maybe we’d hug, and I’d tell him to be careful. He’d smile his stupid werewolf grin and say he’d be fine…
A tear slipped down my cheek, and as I raised my hand to wipe it away, another fell. Hades put his arms around me, pulling me against his body as I convulsed like a little girl. “I’m sorry,” I blubbered as he rubbed my back. I buried my face against his chest, and the smell of forest fires and sea salt filled my nose as I sucked in a huge shuddering breath. That seemed like odd things for a god of death to smell like.
“It’ll be okay,” Hades said. His words were underpinned with assurance as he put his chin on the top of my head. “I can’t tell you how or why I know, but Thes will be okay.”
“But he’s trapped in Ancient Egypt by himself with an angry mummy,” I whined, pulling myself free of his embrace. “I should have been the one to go.”
“It’s not your place to battle all those mummies and restore balance to Ancient Egypt. That’s the thing you aren’t understanding, Lillim. This was his destiny. From the moment Thes Mercer was born, he was destined to go to Ancient Egypt.” A strange smile spread across Hades face then. “Why do you think you have such an affinity for Egyptian Deities?”
“What?” I asked, swallowing a million thoughts that exploded through my brain at once.
“Let us postulate for a moment. Perhaps, just perhaps, your friend went back in time and did something amazing, all the while talking about how he had to get back here to rescue you. Perhaps a couple gods took notice of it and decided, solely based on Thes Mercer’s actions, they’d keep an eye on you?” Hades shook his head. “Of course, that’s just an old Greek god talking.”
My jaw must have dropped and hit the floor because Hades chuckled at me. If what Hades said was even remotely true, I wasn’t sure I should rescue Thes from being stuck in time. Even worse, I didn’t even want to contemplate Hades’ theory about why I was powered by major Egyptian deities instead of some one-off giant or lesser god or whatever else like most Dioscuri.
“Okay,” I said because I didn’t have anything else to say.
“Okay,” Hades replied, glancing from me to Connor and back again. A sad look spread across his face.
“What?” I asked, looking over at Connor who didn’t seem to have changed at all. I knelt down next to him and put my hand on his forehead. He still felt ice cold.
“Nothing, Lillim.” Hades shook his head.
“Nothing or something?” I asked, not looking at him.
“Nothing I’m going to tell you,” Hades replied, squatting down next to me and peering at Connor a little too intently.
“Is he dead?” I asked, swallowing back another horrible thought. Kronos had told us that in order to wake Connor up his soul had to be rescued from Ancient Egypt. That meant Thes had to succeed in rescuing Connor’s soul. There was literally nothing I could do in the meantime.
“Not yet,” Hades replied stretching out his hand and trailing his fingers over Connor’s face. “Not yet.”
“I don’t suppose you can fix him?” I asked even though I knew it was Thes’ mission. Emotions played across Hades’ face. You’d think that as an ancient Greek Deity, he’d be better able to control his emotions, but I could clearly read the distress etched in his features.
“No. I think fixing him is beyond my power.” He glanced at me, dark eyes shining. “At least until your friend returns.” He stood and waved a hand at me. “Look, Lillim, I… um don’t normally do this, but if you’d like, I could send you back. I’ll even offer to watch Connor’s body for a while.” He had a pleading look in his eyes as he spoke. It unnerved me.
“Um… why?” I asked, and as I spoke the words, the distinct sound of thunder filled my ears, and the room shook just a touch.
Hades glanced up annoyed. “Leave this one be, brother. Just this one time, let it be.”
Thunder boomed louder than before, and a ball of blue lightning zipped across the room. It slowed to a stop between us, pulsing with light that made me throw my hands up to block out the glare.
“No,” the ball said in a voice like thunder and crashing rain. It was gone as quickly as it had come so that the only things left in its wake were the fading of spots in my eyes.
Hades sighed and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Lillim. But I cannot assist you after all.” He shrugged, glancing up once more and inclining his head toward the wall. “You see that staircase?” he asked, a sly smile spreading across his face.
I looked to the spot, and where there had been no staircase before, one gleamed like polished silver. It spiraled up so far into the sky that I couldn’t see the end of it. “Uh… yeah, that old thing?” I asked. “What about it?”
“That, my dear, is what I like to call the stairway to heaven, although it doesn’t go to heaven, just to the surface of earth.” He grinned his surfer boy grin and vanished.
I glanced at the staircase and back to Connor. “Well, it seems like we have a long climb ahead of us.” I hoisted him up, throwing him over my shoulder and wobbling as I got him into a fireman’s carry. Okay, maybe this was going to be harder than I thought. I mean, I was pretty sure I could do it, but I was going to use a lot of my power to make it up all those stairs.
“It’s too bad Thes isn’t here,” I murmured as I took the first step. “You know, to carry you.” Connor didn’t respond as I began climbing the stairs.
I wish someone would have told me it would take six hours of steady climbing to exit Hades via mystical staircase. If someone had, I’d have packed a lunch and an energy drink. In the end, I’d done it, but those last few flights had me seriously questioning my will to live and my fondness for Connor. My legs felt like lead and my back hurt so much I could barely see straight.
Still, as I stared at the veritable doors of death, a profound relief overtook me. I was there, just a few feet from the exit and all I had to show for my escape from Hades were a pair of wobbly legs that were seconds from collapse. It seemed like a deal.
“We made it, chum,” I told Connor even though I knew he couldn’t hear me. Truthfully, ever since I’d been born, I’d always had someone to talk to because Mattoc had always been around. Now that he was gone, I still hadn’t kicked the habit, but I was seriously considering picking up a Bluetooth headset so I wouldn’t seem quite so crazy.
Then again, covering up talking to myself by using a Bluetooth with no one on the other
end seemed a little… extreme. If the girls at school found out about that, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get to sit at the popular table. I smirked. I could go back to school, could ignore Connor’s problem and go back to class because, well, Thes was going to handle it. Hades had said so himself. Sure, there was the magician, the cyclops, and my kidnapped boyfriend to deal with, but I was about to escape Hades. How many people had done that… ever?
The doors themselves were pretty unremarkable. They were about twelve feet tall and just as wide and made of cheap looking fiberboard. They were painted black, but not very well because in some spots I could still see the primer. It reminded me of a home project that had been undertaken reluctantly and given up on at the earliest possible moment.
“You’d think he would have a carpenter or something down there,” I said as I hoisted Connor into a better position and approached the doors of death. “Then again, I’ve heard carpenters have a way of defying death.” Light spilled in around the doors, illuminating the small silver landing and making the metal gleam. My footsteps echoed as I reached out and grabbed the knob. When it turned easily in my hand, a gasp of relief escaped me.
“I know, I didn’t expect it to work either,” I said, pulling the doorway open to reveal a green field with trees and wildflowers. In the distance, a sparkling lake filled with ducks gleamed under a pale blue sky. All around me, children frolicked in various states of delight as old people fed pigeons bits of bread from stone respective benches.
The resistance of Hades’ realm was like a soap bubble against my skin as I stepped forward. My foot touched the grass, and I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but it was like suddenly being alive. Colors and smells threatened to overwhelm me as a smile spread across my face.
“I need to put you down for a moment, Connor. My legs are about to explode,” I told the unconscious boy as I dropped him onto the soft grass and collapsed next to him, my chest heaving. I lay there for a moment, before I patted him on the forehead and grinned. “Now we just have to wait for Thes to get back with your soul. You can wait a little longer, right?”
I stood and turned toward the door. It was set into the wall of a utility closet of a public bathroom. From out here, I couldn’t see even an inch into Hades. The darkness was so overwhelming, it made a little chill run down my spine. Still, I needed to close the door. I didn’t want some janitor to accidently find himself in the land of the dead, or worse, for something in there to come out here.
I grabbed hold of the door and swung it closed. Instead of clicking shut, the door stopped just a few inches shy, skidding to a stop on the cement floor. I sighed and pushed harder on it, but it didn’t budge. I let go, and it slid back, just a centimeter or two, but enough for my body to fill with an irrational fear that made my hair stand on end.
I took a deep breath to steady my nerves, and using both hands, shoved the door as hard as my seventeen year old muscles would allow me.
It. Didn’t. Budge.
Panic seized me, rippling down over my skin like ice water as I pressed even harder on the door. Instead of closing, it widened even more, the gap between the door and the jam widening inch by inch. I screamed, my power flaring around me, and people turned to look at me as I forced everything I had into closing the damned door to the damned.
Only… only it didn’t work. The door inched open until there was a foot of space. A white gloved hand burst from the darkness and seized my wrist. It yanked me forward, pulling me into the murk as the face of a man I never thought I’d see ever again peered at me from the darkness.
“Hello, Lillim,” Jiroushou Manaka said in his sickly sweet voice. “Did you miss me?”
Oh. Crap.
Chapter 16
Manaka jerked me off my feet and through the door. I spun, trying to grab onto something, anything to stop myself, but my fingers slipped off his body like he was made of butter. He released me, and I toppled backward onto the landing. He shut the door with an ominous thud and stood in front of it, blocking my escape.
My little brain exploded as I looked around like a scared rabbit. I was trapped in here with him. I tried to breathe, tried to do anything that would keep me from breaking down into a hysterical puddle. There was nothing but stairs back down into Hades. I was screwed.
Manaka’s lips stretched into an obscene smile as he put his hands on his hips like a petulant teenager. I got to my feet as fear and rage fought for control of my body. Torchlight filled the room with sinister shadows that danced devilishly along the walls. His grey eyes seemed to flicker, mirroring the dancing flames around us as he stroked his too smooth chin with his hand.
“How come you’re not pushing a boulder uphill or having you liver eaten by crows or something,” I snapped, my hands balling into fists as I stared at the man I had sniped from a rooftop years ago. Why had I shot him in cold blood, killing an innocent nurse in the process? He had come to my home and had left my father bleeding and broken outside the gates of our city.
He had been responsible for sacking Lot, for killing Dirge, for unleashing the monster that poisoned Caleb. This man who stood before me with a stupid smirk on his face, and while not directly responsible for every horrible thing I had ever done, was certainly the butterfly who had flapped his wings in my direction. It wasn’t fair to pin it all on him, but if I was inclined to blame someone other than myself, this man would be the first candidate. Seeing him now made me so angry that it was almost enough to chase down the fear. Almost.
“The Emissary had some pull down here. He put in a good word for me, assured the boss man that I wasn’t evil,” Manaka said, voice still brittle and infected, like the growl of an angry attack dog who hasn’t decided when it will rip out your throat, only that it will. “The Emissary says you treated him well by the way. He says you let him eat a demon and a score of vampires. He is a little miffed about the dragon, though.” Manaka put one finger to his chin and tapped it thoughtfully. “I wonder, why did you pull back, Lillim? You’ve never been one for restraint. You’re more of a ‘costs don’t matter’ type of girl. It’s why I like you so much.”
I could have told him why I hadn’t let the Emissary of Tragedy consume the dragon, but there was no point, really. What was I going to say, anyway? After I killed you, took your Dioscuri sword, Haijiku, and tried to kill a dragon, the damn thing ran away? That was the only reason I hadn’t let the Emissary eat the dragon. The dragon was too scared to fight me and the Emissary. Truthfully, I hadn’t even mattered in the equation very much.
When I didn’t respond, Manaka swept his arm outward, throwing back his purple cape and drawing a katana as dark as the souls of the damned. Crimson butterflies were etched along its length, and as the flickering torchlight hit them, they seemed to flit across its surface.
“I can tell from your eyes that you are surprised to see Haijiku has returned to my hand. You shouldn’t be surprised, though. This was always my blade. The Emissary and I were always meant to be together.” Manaka took a step forward, pointing the blade at my chest.
Remember how I said that Dioscuri weapons were powered by supernatural beings? Well, Haijiku, Manaka’s weapon, was powered by a being called The Emissary of Tragedy. He was so scary that pretty much everyone I’d met while in possession of the weapon had warned me to stay away from him. I still wasn’t quite sure who the Emissary actually was, but if what Manaka was telling me was true, the Emissary had told Hades not to punish Manaka and Hades had complied. That was a scary thought because, well, who would Hades be scared of?
“You’re supposed to be dead,” I said, wishing with all my heart that I had the twin blades of Shirajirashii at my sides. The profound emptiness of not having them was like a huge empty chasm where my strength and courage should have been. Losing them was like losing a part of myself, and until this moment, I hadn’t realized the depth to which I’d counted on them. As I stared at this man who, even after his death, clung to his sword like it was his child, the true meaning of what I’d lo
st chilled me to my core.
I gritted my teeth, a flush of rage rippling over my skin. I was going to find Lang the body snatcher, and when I did, I was going to get Isis and Set back.
“I am a god, Lillim Cortez Callina. A god can be killed, but not destroyed.” Manaka’s voice slithered out of his mouth, filling the air with wicked intentions as he spoke. Horrible visions of what was to come played out in my head in the space of a nano-second. I couldn’t beat him, not straight up. My only chance was to get out of Hades and onto Earth. At least I was pretty sure that was my only chance, because I didn’t think he could follow me out of the realms of the dead.
“I’ve killed a god before. You are nothing like him,” I replied, my voice cracking partway through.
“I know,” Manaka said with a shrug. “Crom Cruach is dead. Good job. Do you want a ribbon?”
He swung Haijiku through the air, the movement so fast that the rush of air between us was enough to buffet my clothing. I took a step backward and nearly stumbled as my heel came partway off the top step. I spared a glance over my shoulder I shouldn’t have. I was at the edge of the stairway…
“Pay attention to me, whelp,” he snapped, the sound of his voice splitting the air like a gunshot.
I swung my gaze toward him as he licked his lips. “What do you want?” I asked. “What do you want from me, Manaka? Why have you wandered up here? Is it just to torment me?”
“I’m not sure,” he said, shrugging. “I want to kill you, that’s a given. But how? Do I want to perforate you with bullets? Do I want to plunge you into the river Styx and watch as you struggle, gasping for breath? Do I want to toss you in the Lethe and leave you to wander the halls of the dead for eternity, trying to figure out who you are?”
He was next to me in a second, his right arm wrapped around my back, pulling me against his fever warm body. “There is so much I want to do to you, Lillim. And here, in Hades, you can’t actually die. You can just experience agony for eternity. It will be glorious.” His eyes burned into mine, hideous and horrible. They weren’t the eyes of a cold emotionless predator. No, they were the eyes of a sadistic monster that had spent every waking moment plotting his revenge. “Here we can be together forever.”
Hardboiled: Not Your Average Detective Story (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 5) Page 13
