“Dom—”
“GO!” He yells at us, with something akin to desperation in his voice.
I recognize the sentiment. He doesn’t want to lose Lucrezia again. But neither am I willing to let either of them get hurt. Rather than move, I share a glance with my newfound friend and she nods.
We pretend to step away, watching as one of Cerberus’ heads follows us, while the other two are aimed at Dominic. He’s laughably small in comparison to the massive monster, and I seriously fear for his life.
“Got a plan?” I ask Luz, trying to hide my doubts.
“No,” she whispers. “I never ran into Cerberus before...before I was pulled back. I never even crossed the Styx.” Her wide gaze lands on the river, and she gulps.
“Okay, okay.” I scan the area for some kind of weapon to use, but there’s nothing. We’re surrounded by emptiness, walls and rough sand under our feet. I’m not sure my magic will do anything here. With a sinking feeling, I realize Dominic had a point. “Let’s find Charon, then we can get your mate,” I tell her.
Luz follows me reluctantly, turning every few seconds to keep an eye on Dom. From afar, it almost seems like they’re talking, him and Cerberus, but I know differently. What I’m seeing is a hunter getting ready to snap its prey in half.
Eyes wide and urgent, I search across the surface of the river. And then I see its bow first, followed by the rest of the mahogany boat. “Lucrezia, that must be him!”
The man leading it takes his sweet fucking time getting nearer, and we’re both ready to jump in and drag him to us. When the boat finally hits shore, he lifts his bowed head in our direction.
His eyes are hollow, and a shiver rakes down my spine. The staff is his hand looks ugly, worn and downright grimy. There’s also an odd power humming underneath it.
“More living souls?” he snorts. “What are you—” He stops as his glazed eyes linger over our heads, in the distance where growls can be heard. In an instant, he’s off the boat and pointing the staff at us threateningly, and with surprising accuracy for someone so blind. “How did you get Cerberus on this side?”
“I thought he’s supposed to be blind,” Luz whispers.
Charon hears her and sneers. “My lack of vision does not prevent me from seeing things. What did you do?”
“We didn’t do anything,” I toss back at him. “The merda dog came out of nowhere and attacked us. Now, are you going to stand there or call him back?”
“No one commands Cerberus,” Charon says. “No one but the lord of this place.”
“Yeah, we’d rather not run into him,” Luz mutters, her eyes darting around. “Can you take us away from him, to where you left our friend?”
Charon’s expression returns to indifference. “I know not what you speak of.”
“Cut the crap, ferryman,” I get up in his face. “Another living soul passed by here, with a young man who was stolen from the Underworld. Where did you take them?”
Charon stares in the distance, then a growl from Cerberus draws his attention. The massive dog is slowly stalking towards Dominic. He shifts to his wolf form, and a breath of relief escapes Luz. So we can still have our wolves here – bene. That’ll come in handy.
Abruptly, Charon says, “Perhaps I can take you where you wish to go. However, payment must be made.”
I lift the Janus coin and show it to him. “You can get this, but only after you’ve returned us safe to this shore.”
He lifts his nose in the air as if breathing in the coin, then shakes his head. “No.” Turning to leave, he doesn’t count on the bolt of lightning Luz tosses at him.
When I turn to her, the red curls around her face look like living snakes, and her eyes are flashing more gold than green. I’m not even sure how her Solomonar magic transcends the Underworld, or the fact we’re shimmering forms. Maybe it’s the anger visible in her stance, or her love for Dominic. Whichever the case, she’s a force to be reckoned with.
Charon is immobile, his staff held tightly in his hands. Slowly, slow enough to make me grit my teeth, he turns and scowls. The mask of politeness drops and he spits at her feet.
“You...”
“I am a Solomonar,” Lucrezia takes a step forward, “and under protection of both wolf and zmeu.”
“You have also been here, before. What makes you think you can escape again?” His tone is too cool to be considered nice.
But Luz doesn’t budge. “You cannot touch me, Charon, and neither can your lord. Now get us the hell out of here, or else you’ll have more than the edge of your robe charred.”
A brief moment of anger, hesitation, then he steps back and frees the way to his boat in silent acquiescence. Behind us, Dominic’s yelp echoes and we see Cerberus toss his wolf form away into the wall.
“DOM!” Lucrezia yells. Before I can stop her, she’s running across the sand, one hand extended and black lightning crackles everywhere.
I can’t move, afraid Charon will take off on us the minute I turn away. Luz seems to be drawing energy from the dark clouds above us, and I can only pray it’s enough to save Dominic. I don’t know how to help other than focusing on the ferryman.
“Where did you take them?”
He shrugs. “Elysium, where else.”
“And were they looking for something?”
Charon’s lips thin out, and he refuses to answer. Shouts from behind drag my attention. Luz is dancing out of Cerberus’ bad aiming, even as Dominic drags himself to his feet and launches himself on one of the dog’s massive paws.
Cerberus flicks him like a fly and he smacks again into the cavern wall, landing with a heavy thud I feel under my feet. One of his claws must have nicked Dominic, as blood spills everywhere. Luz finally draws on lightning again and this time it hits the ground in front of the monster. Its three heads shake in tandem, blinded by sand and light.
Luz reaches Dom in time and drags his now human form back to the boat. I run halfway towards her and help her, moving as fast as we can to escape before Cerberus regains his vision.
Charon makes no move to come to our aid, but neither does he try to leave. By the time Cerberus is done shaking his heads, the boat is moving, and we disappear in the darkness of Styx. The monster’s roar of rage follows us for long, long moments, but he doesn’t try to come after us.
Lucas
Mamma walks ahead of me, murmuring to Matteo and holding him tight. We’re still in the fields of Elysium, and I can’t make myself leave. I also can’t get her words out of my head, so finally I join them.
“Mamma, what did you mean?”
She lets Matteo loose and he dances further on, sticking within the general area but not quite listening. He nods at a few passing ladies as though he knows them. Mamma’s eyes tell me more than she’ll say aloud in front of him, and my chest seizes.
“No...”
“Mi dispiace, Luciano,” she whispers, coming to a stop. “Your father knew. He knew the risks, and he did it anyway. There is no way to raise the dead, period.”
“There must be a way to save him.”
“There is not. That is what I was trying to communicate up above, mio figlio. Before that witch’s spell blocked my ability to speak to you.”
Claro, I should have known... I shake my head. “Mamma, please. You’ve been here for years. You master the chimera. There has to be a way to ensure Matteo regains his life, what he was robbed of.”
“There is none, Luciano. Binding him to a living body is the only thing that kept him in this form for so long. Death cannot be beat.”
I think of Lucrezia, but she didn’t truly beat it. She was protected by me, and Tytus. Whereas Matteo had no one, not even Mamma at the time.
“All of this...for nothing?”
She nods, her eyes filling with tears. “There is more, Luciano. I wish I had been able to protect you both from it, but I could not. Alessandro wants to use Matteo as leverage. Each time you refuse to listen, he will threaten to break Matteo’s eternal peace aga
in. There is only so much the soul can take without fracturing and forever... being...” She trails off, and on a whisper she adds, “I expect he planned to use me, too, were it not for my gifts that can fight off that witch’s magic.”
I want to hit something. The intention must show on my face, as Mamma shakes her head. “Anger is useless, my son. Alessandro has won.”
“NO!” My shout makes more than a few heads turn our way, and I force myself to lower my voice. Anger still reverberates through every word. “There has to be a way, Mamma. We cannot let him win!”
“You can kill the witch,” she whispers. “But he will find another. He always does.”
“Then I will kill him, period.”
“And darken your soul even more?”
I take a step closer, feeling like I’m young and foolish all over again. “Do you think I care, Mamma? I want you both safe.”
“And I wish happiness for you, mio figlio.”
A frown creases my brow. “Happiness? How can I have happiness when your very existence and my brother’s is threatened by a monster?”
Mamma looks at me, and a small, hopeful smile plays on her lips. “Monica,” she says simply.
Her name alone drives an arrow through my being, and my fists clench and unclench. Her scent, her laugh, her moans of delight... I want that. I do. But I also want my family safe. I push it all down, and clench my jaw.
“She cannot give me what I seek, Mamma.”
“I know,” she says softly. “Because you have tied yourself to us, and closed yourself off to the world. And that, Luciano, is Alessandro’s greatest success. For once, I am done letting him win.”
“So you’ll help me fight him?”
“In a way, yes.” Her words are filled with something I cannot decipher. “There is a river here, Lethe, that begets forgetfulness. It will also bring rebirth. A chance for Matteo to have a new life, one where Alessandro cannot follow. That is the best way to keep your brother safe, and ensure he truly does have his happily ever after.”
I glance over my shoulder, finding Matteo talking to a younger girl in the distance. He’s smiling, completely unaware of our conversation. “I’ve only just gotten him back... Is there no other way?”
“I am afraid not.”
“But you’ll be safe, then? Your magic will still protect you?”
Mamma shrugs, glancing away. “If Alessandro tries and my magic fails, Hades won’t let him. A regular soul like any other, the lord of this place doesn’t care. A chimera whose blood and gift can open the Underworld and create a revolving door? He would care.”
I run a hand over my face. “Matteo...”
As if summoned, my brother comes back to us. “Jeez, who died? You both have one of those faces.”
I gulp past the lump in my throat and ruffle his hair again. “No one, fratello. But we’re going to make a pit stop.” It’s only as I say the words that Charon’s earlier statement makes sense. If your brother drinks from it, he will be cured in the only way he can be
Fuck. Me.
Monica
Dom isn’t hurt too badly, but it’s clear even to my untrained eye that we’re going to need more manpower. “How exactly are we supposed to get past that when we return?” I whisper.
Dom glares back at where we left Cerberus. “I don’t fucking know, but that thing is strong. Only something as strong as him can fight it off.” Another curse, and he adds, “I should’ve brought my pack with me.”
Luz runs her hand through his hair, and kisses his forehead. “It’s okay. We’ll be okay.”
“Yep,” I add, not convincingly enough. “We’ll just cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Luz finishes patching up his bloody side with part of her sweater. Dom winces as she presses on the tender slash. With a groan, he stands and faces Charon. “Where are you taking us?”
“Where your females asked.”
He refuses to acknowledge us now, and it bugs me like I can’t say. Lucrezia whispers something to Dom, and he stares at me. “What about Lucas? Do you feel anything? Sense his presence anywhere?”
I close my eyes and try to feel.... There’s no need to even try. The moment I think of him, I can sense his presence nearby. It’s almost tangible, within reach. Only problem is, it’s not in the direction we’re going.
When I open my eyes, Dominic reads the confusion and scowls. “I thought as much.”
He grabs Charon’s shoulder, forcing him to turn. But the damn ferryman is ready. He shoves the staff into Dom’s chest, sending him blasting into the Styx waters. He disappears under the surface, even as Lucrezia attacks Charon.
“Bring him back, you bastard!”
The boat comes to a stop, and Charon uses the same staff force to toss us off. The blast sends us flying onto the shore we’d been heading towards, and we land with a heavy thud. Luz gets up almost immediately, cursing Charon to hell and back as she paces the shore length, crying for Dom.
The ferryman is observing us, perched on the boat. I show him Janus’ coin. “Guess you didn’t need this? I thought doors would be important for someone of your profession.”
He smiles then, and it looks so wrong on him I want to puke. “I already have one.” The boat withdraws, disappearing into nothingness.
“Dom! Dom!”
Pushing away my panic at being stranded in the Underworld, I join Lucrezia. There’s a form floating in the water, and we get knee-deep and pull him back to shore. Dom’s shimmering is still intact, and even his wound seems to have stopped bleeding.
But when he opens his eyes they’re no longer blue – but yellow, tinged with red.
“Oh no...” Luz whispers and backs away, as if afraid.
I don’t understand why, at first. And then Dominic stands, and the way he’s moving is wrong. He takes stock of our surroundings, and turns to us with a cold smirk. That’s when I clue in and follow Lucrezia in backing away, because I’ve seen those eyes before. In the soulless vrykolakas.
Lucas
In a daze, I follow Mamma as she walks ahead with Matteo. With each passing step, we leave behind the fields of Elysium and head towards a smaller mountain.
The anger burning inside me has only racked up a few notches. I’d known my father was planning something, and I even had a feeling it was meant to leverage my gift. But this...
Losing Matteo once broke me. I cannot stand by and lose him again, not now that I’ve had him back and been able to talk to him. But is it fair of me to think selfishly, when keeping him here would only threaten his very existence?
I look at them, Mamma holding Matteo’s hand, and my heart squeezes painfully. The journey here was for Matteo, and no matter what it costs me, I will see it through. For my young fratello. But I will make Alessandro pay for this, for all the suffering he put us through. He will learn what real torture is like at my hands, if it’s the last thing I do.
Mamma comes to a stop in a garden filled with pale flowers. I join them around a corner, noticing a small cave on one side, and a river passing right by it. Its murmur, that I’d heard walking here, grows louder and louder. Without even realizing it, my feet bring me closer.
Then Matteo’s hand is on my arm, holding me back. “Watch it, big bro. That’s Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. Don’t let it drag you under.”
I shake my head and come to my senses. Still, the alluring murmur doesn’t relent in the background, constantly trying to grab my attention.
Matteo glances between me and Mamma, noticing our grave expressions, and his smile falls. “What is it?”
I take a deep breath and place both hands on his shoulders. “Papà lied to you, Matteo,” I say softly. “There was never a cure for keeping you alive.”
“What?” He shakes his head, moving away from under my touch. “That’s not true. He told me. He said we’d be a family again. Mamma –”
He turns to her, but she’s crying softly, her cheeks bathed in crystalline tears. “Mio figlio, we have all been play
ed. For the second time. Your father is not who you think he is.”
“But he promised!” Matteo cries.
“And he broke that promise,” I hiss, “intending I be the one who delivers the news. What he did with Ana is only temporary, not meant to last. Only long enough for me to know what it’s like to have you again, to joke with you, and to fucking lose you all over again.”
I blink back my own tears, forcing myself to be strong, even as my younger brother falls apart in front of me. He drops to his knees, hunched over, and I join him on the soft grass and pull him in my arms. “I’m so sorry, Matteo. Ti prego, forgive me... Forgive me...”
Rocking him back and forth, I inhale the scent of him, knowing I’ll never be able to hold him again. His sobs break my heart, and I look up to find Mamma just as close to breaking down. One hand muffles her cries, but it’s impossible to hide the tears on her face, and the pain I feel through Finn’s gift.
“I will make him pay,” I whisper to Matteo. “I swear it, fratello. He will pay for all of this.”
Eventually, Matteo sniffles and pulls back. His gaze falls on Lethe. “Am I meant to drink from this, then?”
Mamma joins us on the grass then and grabs his hands in hers. “Sì. The gods will help you forget, and you’ll get a new life. If you stay here, your father will only try to draw you into the living world again, on false pretenses. Nothing will save you, and your soul will eventually disintegrate.” Another sob, and she adds, “But I will keep you safe this time, if you come with me.”
My heart thuds more wildly. “Mamma... Not you, too!”
She smiles softly at me. “It is time, Luciano.”
“You said Hades would protect you!”
“Yes, but I am weary of Alessandro’s games.” Her gaze falls on Lethe. “It will be nice to forget it all, to restart a new life.” She touches my cheek, then Matteo’s. “But I will never forget you two, my sons. You will always be with me.”
Something in me breaks then, and I grab her hand to squeeze it hard, as if by that feat alone I could keep her with me. “I need you.”
“No, Luciano. You don’t, not anymore.” She stands, pulling us both with her, and it feels like my legs won’t hold me up with each word she says. “I only wish I had met this Monica of yours. She sounds like someone perfect for you.”
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