I hated answers like that. “So why did The Devourer bring us here if none of us know why?”
“You needed healed and you needed to know I am here to help you. There will come a time when you might need me. My door—or island—is always open.”
“If I came back would you still be here?”
“Oh, yes. I will always be here.” Ana smiled.
“We should be going,” Sam said, standing from the couch.
“Of course.” Ana stood, her green eyes meeting mine.
“Thank you for sharing the flower with us. I’ll never forget it,” I said, rushing to Ana and hugging her hard. She returned my hug with a strength that surprised me.
Before going out the cottage door, Ana stopped us. “Please remember that this place must be kept secret at all costs. If anyone found out about the flower… Well, I guess you know how badly things could go.”
We nodded. “We understand.”
“No one must know of this location. When you leave here, you must act as if there is nothing here at all. If someone is given a hint of my location and they stumble through the glamour…” Her voice trailed away.
“Of course.” Sam assured her. “Your secret is safe with us.”
“I believe you,” Ana said. “I look forward to seeing you again.”
“You seem so confident that we’ll be back.”
“When the truth of your journey settles within you, you will be back.”
“Why does everyone always talk in riddle to us?” Sam wondered. “Why can’t you just tell us whatever it is straight out?”
Ana lifted her hand in a wave. “Because sometimes in order to believe you have to come into the truth on your own.”
Ana didn’t follow us outside, and when the cottage door closed behind us, we walked away from the green side of the island toward the entrance to The Devourer’s cave. We walked through the dragon’s lair (though I was beginning to think he lived on the island and this cave was just for looks) and came out into the depressing side of hell. I sighed.
“Guess I will fetch a Lucent Marble,” Sam said, looking at the black sludge with distaste.
Then the wind began to blow. Dust and ash swirled off the ground around us and made me cough. When it died down, a robed figure stepped into view.
Hecate.
“What have we here?” she asked, stepping closer.
I refused to cower and stood my ground. “The Devourer brought us here and now we’re trapped on the island.”
Her eyes narrowed, sensing my lie. Yet she had no proof. “Tell me why you are really here.”
“We’re about to become dragon shish kebab. Maybe you’d like to join us?” Sam asked sweetly.
“I could just torture you into telling me the truth.” Hecate mused and raised her hands. Lightning seemed to spark from her palms.
Behind us, the ground vibrated as The Devourer lumbered out of his lair. I looked over my shoulder and tried not to gape when I realized I still saw him in his brightly colored, feathered state—his true form. I hurried a glance to see if Hecate saw him as I did, but clearly she didn’t because she took a step back in fear. He shrieked loudly, then bent low, offering us his back.
Sam and I hurried to climb on. The witch was yelling as we lifted off the ground and she raised her palms like she might do something, but then the dragon soared through the air and out of her reach.
“What are we going to do?” I yelled. The inside of my chest began vibrating. I couldn’t be down here much longer.
“I think The Devourer has his own ideas,” Sam said, looking straight ahead.
I gasped. We were flying right at the wall of fire, the gate to hell. Even if I made it through the flames without being burned alive, would we even be able to get out that way?
It seemed we had no choice.
Sam must have come to the same conclusion because he turned me to face him, shoving my face into his neck and tucking my hands against his chest. Whatever you do, do not move.
He wrapped his body around mine as I tried to make myself as small as possible. I didn’t have time to be afraid because The Devourer wasn’t slowing down and we flew right into the blazing wall of flames.
Chapter Sixteen
Heven
The heat was the most intense thing I have ever experienced. It was how I imagined the core of the earth to be, boiling and unforgiving. The heat was so intense I actually felt myself go numb as if the pain was so bad my body refused to feel it. My bones ached with the pressure of Sam crushing me into his body. His legs felt like steel vices closing in on me and his arms were like thick cables that held me tight. The fear of being burned alive was so great I thought my heart might stop beating.
I couldn’t see anything because I was tucked against Sam so closely, but I could still hear and feel. Sam swore when the worst of the heat hit us, when I knew we were actually inside the flames. His whole body spasmed, but he didn’t let go, and I wondered how bad the heat was and if it was hurting him. I knew he couldn’t be burned, but did that mean it didn’t hurt?
Thankfully, the moment passed quickly. The wall of flames couldn’t have been very thick; it didn’t need to be. I felt the dragon slowing and the drop in my stomach told me we were lowering from the sky.
I made it. I wasn’t dead. I tried to lift my head, but Sam wouldn’t let me. I could hear the frantic beating of his heart as my ear was pressed against his chest. I didn’t know a heart could beat that fast.
I’m not hurt, Sam. We made it.
He didn’t let go of me, but after a few minutes the beating of his heart slowed. The Devourer hit the ground with a jolt, his wings fell out to the sides and he sat still, patiently waiting for us to dismount.
“Sam?” My voice was muffled against his shirt.
Reluctantly, he pulled me back, gripping my shoulders and staring down at me. There were tears in his eyes.
“Are you hurt?” I asked frantically, looking over his face.
“I thought you were going to be burned alive.”
“Oh, Sam.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed as close to him as I could. I brushed my lips against his neck and was amazed at how hot his skin felt. “We made it.” I sat back and pulled my arms away. “Besides, you should know by now, I have lives like a cat. No wall of fire is going to stop me.”
He smiled as his shirt fell down between us and I frowned, lifting up the fabric. It had all been burned away except for the piece that was between us. I looked down at his shorts, which amazingly were still on, but there were several holes burned in the sides. I, however, was still clothed. Sam managed to completely conceal me from the flames.
The Devourer made a noise and shifted. My bag was still intact as well, with just the strap being burned away. I pulled it out of my lap and we climbed off the dragon. He was watching us, puffing smoke from his nostrils. Sam gasped and I turned to him. He was looking down so I followed his eyes. He was staring at my shoe.
My shoe that was completely burned away. I wiggled my toes, watching them move with ease. My sock was gone too. What was left of my shoe hung around my ankle, a few pieces of rubber and half a shoelace.
“I didn’t cover your foot,” Sam said, dazed.
“That’s not possible,” I said, even though we were both staring at the irrefutable evidence. Obviously, the fire hit my foot because my shoe was gone. But my skin was unburned; there wasn’t a mark on it at all.
Sam stared up at me, a puzzled look on his face. “Did you feel it?”
I shook my head. “No.”
We stared at each other, confused, for long moments. Then the dragon made a sound and I turned. He was staring at me, waiting. “Thanks for the ride, buddy.” I reached out to pat his oversized muzzle covered in bright feathers. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing him this way. He pulled back and looked at me suspiciously. I reached into the bag and pulled out a few of the ruined candy bars. They were still a melted mess. Completely inedible. “Sorry, big guy.
” I went to shove them back into my bag and he made a sound.
I paused, then shrugged and tossed him the candy, wrappers and all. He ate them without chewing. “You’re gross.” I told him. “But pretty.”
“I would think melted candy tastes better than demon souls.” Sam snorted.
“For real. You would think he would find something tastier to eat.”
“We need to go,” Sam said, taking my hand.
I looked up at our surroundings for the first time. The wall of fire wasn’t far behind us and I assumed its close proximity was why I was still feeling so hot. We were standing on a patch of land, of dirt really, with the fire behind us and a body of water about a mile wide in front of us. Beyond the water all I could see was white.
“What is this?” I asked. The Devourer noticed my lack of attention and flew away, disappearing back through the wall of fire.
“It’s the entrance to hell. In order for a soul to pass into hell it must first pass through a body of water and a wall of fire.”
“That’s why hellhounds were made, to help the souls do this?”
“Yep,” Sam said, looking out over the water. He seemed tense and worried.
“What’s beyond the water?”
“I don’t know. I think it might be the InBetween.”
My heart sank. Even if we made it to the InBetween, how would we get out? Airis already made it clear that she would not help my compromised soul.
Sam looked at me. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“I’m going to swim across the water with you.”
Nerves cramped my stomach. I hated the water. It was my worst fear. The one time Sam convinced me to get in was the one time Beelzebub (AKA: the Dream Walker) got into my head.
“We don’t have a choice here, Hev. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.” He came forward and took my hands. “I want to go home. I want to really see you,”
I wanted that too, more than anything, certainly enough to go through an ocean. Even though Sam was free and I was with him, it wasn’t exactly the homecoming I was hoping for. This trip to hell had been even more disastrous than I anticipated.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Sam was already shifting, changing into a hellhound. He approached me slowly, warily, as if afraid to frighten me. I wanted to laugh. Of all the things I had seen, this was the least scary. I reached out and stroked his ears. They were bigger than a panther’s and a little floppy, but they felt like velvet to the touch. You’re beautiful, I told him.
He blinked his golden eyes and crouched down low and I climbed onto his back, securing my bag in my lap. He was an excellent swimmer. I was expecting to be low in the water, holding my chin up so I didn’t go under. But that didn’t happen. The water only reached to my chest. Sam was so powerful that he could keep his body upright enough so I wasn’t completely submerged.
I wondered how he swam through the gross sludge as it was. It was so thick and it clung to everything it touched, greedy for contact. I tried to ignore the way it stuck to my skin and I focused on the white ahead. A few demons tried to grab at us, but Sam would snap his jaws and make some intimidating sounds and the demons fell away.
It didn’t take as long as I thought for him to swim the mile and soon the water ended abruptly, with no ground for support, and we began falling into an endless pit of white.
*
One minute we were falling and the next we were standing in the InBetween. Our clothes were completely clean of the black sludge and Sam was back in his human form, wearing a white T-shirt with his burned up shorts. I stared at him curiously and he just shrugged.
“Airis!” Sam called, thinking she would send us home.
I cleared my throat. “She isn’t coming,”
His golden stare turned to me and my heart sank. How did I tell this beautiful, perfect person that I let him down? That good had turned its back on me because I’m not good.
“She said my soul was compromised and she wouldn’t help us anymore. She said I would never see her again.”
“She was too snooty for me anyway, with all her rules and riddles. We’ll find another way out.”
I let out a sigh. I knew Sam wouldn’t be angry with me, but I still hadn’t wanted to disappoint him, either. I looked around, hoping for some clue as to how to get out, but it was just endless white, endless nothing. But then something caught my vision and I turned toward the movement. In a cloud of white, a figure appeared, stumbled really.
He stood up and dusted off his light-colored pants. “Harder than it looks,” he grumbled.
“Dad!” I cried and ran toward him, hurling myself in his embrace.
“Heven!” He hugged me tight.
“What are you doing here? I thought you couldn’t get into the InBetween?”
He shrugged. “Something had to be done. I don’t like the way Airis treated you.”
“She doesn’t know you’re here?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Not yet. We don’t have much time.”
“Are you going to get into trouble for this?”
“Don’t you worry about me. You’ve been through enough.” He held me out and looked me over. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I got Sam back.” I pulled away and took Sam by the hand, pulling him forward. “Dad, this is Sam.”
Dad stared at him for a few long seconds and then his face broke out into a smile. “I had my doubts about you, kid. But I was wrong. You’ve taken care of my little girl.”
Sam offered his hand and smiled when they shook. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
When he released Sam’s hand, he looked at me. “I’m going to send you home.”
“Now?” I felt a little disappointed.
“We don’t have much time.” Again, he glanced over his shoulder. “I haven’t done this before so I’m not really sure if you’ll end up where I try to send you.” He looked a little sheepish.
“I don’t care where we end up as long as it’s earth,” I said.
Dad smiled sadly and touched my cheek. “I never realized what was in store for you. If I hadn’t died, things might have been different…”
“I’ve done some bad things, Daddy.
“You’ve made the only choices you could have, given your situation.”
“You really think so?”
He nodded and leaned forward and hugged me. “Follow your heart,” he whispered. “It won’t lead you wrong.”
“I love you, Dad.”
“I love you too.” He straightened. “Now stand back. You need to go.”
I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stand here with my dad and just be with him. To see him and to talk to him. I just wanted his presence to fill me up.
“Thank you, sir,” Sam said, taking my hand.
“Watch out for my girl,” Dad said while a ball of light formed in his palm.
“Dad? Have you seen Mom?” I needed to know she was happy before I went home.
His eyes widened. “Why would I have seen your mother?”
My heart stopped. “She died…”
“What?” The light in his palm dimmed considerably. “She died?”
“Yes. Yesterday. You haven’t seen her?” He should have seen her. Her soul should be in heaven, at peace.
“I haven’t. I didn’t know…,” he murmured, not really looking at anything.
“Dad!” I cried, trying to capture his attention. “What’s happening? Why haven’t you seen Mom?”
He looked up at me, sadness in his eyes. Then he flinched and looked behind him. “You have to go. Remember what I told you.”
“Wait!” I cried.
But he didn’t listen. He threw the ball of light at us and everything went white.
*
I’m not sure where Dad was trying to send us, but we appeared a few blocks from Sam’s little efficiency. It was good enough for me. It was dark out and I wasn’t sure how much time had elapsed since I first went into
hell. It seemed as if we were down there endlessly, but I knew it had been much shorter than that. When we rounded the corner there was a large clock outside a bank that told us it was only nine p.m. I glanced at Sam and he was looking around at everything, drinking in his first time in civilization for eight days. It suddenly hit me then that we made it. He was free and we were finally together and we were alone. He glanced at me, no doubt picking up on my thoughts and feelings as something shifted in the air between us. Both of us looked away and began walking.
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