Maximus (Boys of Wynter Book 2)

by Tess Oliver

  Maximus reached back for my hand. "Hold on, Rikki. We've reached the narrowest part of the rocks, and let's just say it's a long way down."

  I put my hand in his and he held it tightly as we climbed higher up jagged layers of rocks. We reached the summit and stopped to look down at our fate if we were unlucky enough to slip and fall. I gasped and clutched his arm as a wave of dizziness swept over me. We were standing over a cavern that was so deep, we couldn't see the bottom. Fluid green flames shot out from crevices in the pit, sending up plumes of smoke that burned my eyes and throat.

  "Are you all right?" Maximus had a hard time talking over the choking smoke.

  "Yes." I had to work to sound confident because I was far from all right. And the terrible sinking feeling that had been overwhelming me started to take control of my thoughts. A frightening, irritating voice in my head, a voice I didn't recognize and one I hoped never to hear again told me I should jump. I held tightly to Maximus's arm, but that same voice kept picking at me.

  "It's over and your father is dead. You have nothing but a worthless life. You should just jump." The voice sounded like a hoarse whisper howling through my brain like the wind through dead trees.

  I released my hold on Maximus, and my feet scooted closer to the edge. I knew it was happening, but I couldn't stop it. Someone or something was coaxing my feet forward, and the thought of jumping seemed less horrifying than the thought of not jumping.

  Through the insistent, encouraging voice in my head, I could hear Maximus's deep tone, working hard to break through. But I couldn't stop my feet. I closed my eyes and swayed forward, waiting for that head rush and stomach plummet that came with a long fall. Instead, solid arms grabbed me and swept me away from the ledge.

  I cried out in disappointment. "Let me go. I need to jump. It's over. There's nothing for me," I rambled like a madwoman as I hung with my head upside down, draped over Maximus's shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

  I swung my fists, hitting him squarely on the lower back. My feet kicked at his hard stomach until he managed to secure my legs against him. I saw the sharp, narrow path of rocks roll past as Maximus carried me away from the deep cavern.

  Tears flowed now like a river after a snow melt, and I felt nearly sick from the failure. The voice that was tampering with my rational thoughts chided me and told me to go back to finish the job. The black, bottomless hole beckoned me.

  "I want to go back. Let me go, you big brute. I need to jump. I have nothing else!" My fists were useless as I pounded his hard, muscular back.

  Maximus stopped and yanked me off his shoulder. He sat me down hard on the searing hot ground and crouched down in front of me

  "Rikki, come back. You need to fight the voice." He took hold of my face. "You're not going to jump. Ignore the voices. They are Vapour's mind tricks."

  "There's nothing. I have nothing to live for," I cried.

  "Yes, yes you fucking do." And through the haze of my despair, I felt his mouth cover mine and he kissed me. But it wasn't just two mouths locking together, as he held my face in his hands and he kissed me. The anguish that had taken hold of me, slowly evaporated and I felt a sense of hope as if all was not lost. And I felt something even stronger than hope. The intensity of his kiss and the feelings behind it brought me out of the deep, dark hollowness. My limbs and head and heart all felt lighter.

  Maximus slowly lifted his mouth away from mine. He still held onto my face, but some of the worry had seeped out of his muscles and his shoulders relaxed. His intense brown gaze held mine for a long time. "Holy shit, Rikki, I thought I lost you again. Are you with me now?"

  I nodded, still weak from whatever had taken hold of me and lightheaded from the kiss. It was a kiss I'd imagined many times, but never in a place or at a time like this. And yet it had been that kiss, Maximus's kiss that lifted me out of utter despair.

  Maximus straightened. His size always took my breath away. I stared up at him as he lowered his hand for me to take. His long, thick fingers gripped mine as he helped me to my feet.

  With the tip of his finger, he pushed my chin up to look at my face. "Don't scare me like that again, ferryman. O.K.?"

  "I won't."

  Thirteen

  Maximus

  I wanted to kick myself. I'd known all about the voices, the invisible forces that could get into your head and suck all light and hope from your memory. If successful, they left you a blackened, empty and highly suicidal human shell. But the dangerous terrain, the toxic atmosphere and the very real possibility of a ghoul attack had been front and center in my mind. I'd forgotten all about the damn voices.

  The kiss had been unplanned. When I heard her rambling and sobbing about how there was nothing left for her, it was as if she had reached into my chest and tightened her hand around my heart. I knew then I had to kiss her. By the time I'd lifted my mouth from hers, I realized the kiss had been more for me than her.

  After nearly losing Rikki to the bottomless cavern, I was keeping her tucked safely at my side. The brutal climate and lack of fresh air were getting to her. Her strength and determination were fading fast.

  "Do you think we're getting close?" she asked weakly.

  "I haven't been here in a few years. I try and avoid the place, but I remember a big cave just past the bottomless pit. It was where they dropped us one night when we were in training. I was about sixteen, and by that age I was convinced nothing could scare me. But I was so fucking wrong. That was the first time I heard the voices. The ones that almost took you over the edge of that pit."

  A shiver went through her, and I wished I hadn't brought it up.

  "I'm sorry. Bad subject."

  "No, the shiver was about you. What the hell were they thinking tossing teenage boys into this place? How did you make it out?"

  "Barely. I think it was Wilder though who managed to shake off the voices and save all of us. Even though his name is Wilder, he's the cool headed one. He managed to stay ahead of the voices, and he brought all of us out of the trance. Don't remember much of it because it was all a blur but things got ugly. We very nearly pitched each other off the edge of the cliff. I was sure as hell glad to get out alive. That lesson really put me in my place. It was more than just a subtle reminder that I wasn't quite as invincible as I'd imagined."

  The cave was mostly just a long slit in the cliff. I patted the matches in my pocket. There was no way we could sneak into Vapour's lair with lit torches, so I had brought along a set of long matches and two candles. They seemed pathetically insufficient against an army of ghouls, but I hoped that since most of the ghouls spent their time down in the pits, keeping the souls in line, we wouldn't meet any on our way to the cave. I still had my gun and the bowie knife I kept strapped to my leg just in case we met up with something more flesh than ghoul. So far we'd been lucky, but a crawling feeling on the back of my neck told me not to let my guard down.

  "Maximus, do you think we'll find him?"

  "I don't know. If they do have him, it's hard to see how he could survive in this place for two months."

  She didn't respond except to squeeze my hand tighter.

  We climbed up several layers of rock to reach the mouth of the cave. The darkness surrounding us on the outside was nothing compared to the darkness inside.

  I held her hand but went in first. We stopped just inside the opening and lit the two candles. Wavy shadows danced around a tall cavern. Rock formations dripped from the ceiling like giant black icicles. Unlike caves in the mortal world, I was sure we wouldn't run into bats or bears. But that didn't mean there wasn't something even worse lurking in the crevices.

  Rikki looked around at the rock formations. "It's almost kind of beautiful in a horrible, macabre sort of way."

  I smiled. "There's putting a positive spin on things. Are you ready? Stay close to me."

  She pressed herself against me. "That won't be a problem."

  We headed along the narrow corridor that led deeper in the cave. The flames on the ca
ndles struggled to stay lit. The extreme heat outside the cave had not penetrated the caverns on the inside of the mountain. It was a nice reprieve.

  "So much cooler in here." Rikki lifted her candle higher. "I guess that is why they keep the meat in here."

  "Never thought of that. Makes sense. Although I'm pretty sure the ghouls don't care if the flesh is fresh or rotting."

  "They really are foul beings, aren't they?"

  "Yep. Like everything else on this side of the plasma. With the exception of the ferryman."

  A noise hissed from the tunnel in front of us. I pushed Rikki behind me and lifted my candle. The flame died instantly. Rikki's candle went next. I quickly relit them both and turned back toward the tunnel.

  I'd faced some damn ugly critters in Wynter, but the four headed serpent hanging down from a crevice in the rocks made me take a step back. I made sure Rikki stayed behind me. She glued herself against my back but bravely looked past my shoulder to see the monstrous snake. Its glowing white eyes were like eight small headlights in the otherwise lightless passage. The biggest head lunged threateningly at us with a flick of its red forked tongue. The heads danced around each other on long, silver scaled necks which all came from one thick body. It was hard to tell how long the thing was since most of it was hidden, but the diameter of its body assured me it was big. I put my hand on the handle of my knife, figuring the unpredictable movement of the heads was going to make my gun useless.

  "I guess we must be getting close to something important because Vapour has sent out his most venomous guard," I said the words from the side of my mouth not wanting to make any loud noise. One of the heads circled out to get a look around me at Rikki.

  Rikki shrank back out of view. "I really hate snakes, especially ones with four heads. My dad once told me about a serpent that lives down here that is nicknamed the multiplier because—'

  "If you cut off one head two more grow back?" I barely turned my head to speak and kept my eyes trained on the snake. "I think you're right."

  "What should we do?"

  "We. Not this round, ferryman. This snake is mine. I need you to back up really slowly and step back around the last corner we turned. If anything happens to me, you hike straight back the way we came and don't linger at the bottomless pit. Did you get all that?"

  "Yes." Her reply was shaky. "Don't die, please."

  "I don't plan to." I listened for her footsteps to retreat. The snake caught just enough of her movement to begin bobbing its heads up and down with interest. They began hissing simultaneously. The sound rattled my brain as if it was filled with ball bearings.

  I slowly pulled out my knife. I held the lit candle in the other hand. I hoped the flame would survive the airless tunnel and everything else that was about to happen. The fire was an integral part of my plan. I would have to move fast, faster than a snake, faster than four snakes. And from the looks in their neon eyes and the angry hissing sound, four highly irritated snakes.

  I stretched my arm out and waved the candle around to grab the attention of all the heads. The second the glowing eyes landed on the candle, I lunged toward the snake. I sliced my blade through the thick body. The scaly skin was as tough as leather, but I'd always kept my blade ready to cut anything. Black blood oozed from the body. The frantic hisses were deafening as the sound echoed off the rock walls. Even though I'd severed the necks from the body, one of the heads managed to lunge at me, fangs dripping with venom. I ducked easily out of the way before all the disembodied heads curled up into withering ash and disappeared. The body was still dangling from the ceiling moving blindly around looking for its heads. The first bud of a neck appeared in the bloody stump. And then another.

  I held the flame of the candle against the wounded flesh of the snake. It writhed and tried to pull away but I burned it black with the fire. A disgusting sour odor of singed flesh filled the narrow passage. I held the candle against the snake until the body finally gave up its struggle. It hung limply from the rock crevice, smoke still streaming up from its flesh.

  Rikki stepped out from the shadows, her candle flame highlighting the shock on her face. "How the heck did you think of that?" She walked toward me.

  "Some of our first training was learning how to survive on our own. Fire was always a great, albeit painful, way to seal off a deep cut. I once had to jam a glowing hot knife blade into a gash on my arm." I pointed out the deep scar on the side of my arm that was always there to remind me of it. "I had fallen down the side of a steep incline, and a jutting tree branch caught my arm. Ripped it wide open. Hurt like fucking hell to jam red hot steel into it, but I saved the arm. I figured I'd help seal up this guy's wound too. Although I wasn't completely sure it would work." I flicked my finger at the limp body. Its flesh quivered and the silver scales glittered in the candle light. "I say we keep moving. We don't want to be here much longer."

  "Good idea." Rikki took hold of my hand and walked a wide berth around the dead snake.

  Fourteen

  Rikki

  After the strange incident with the voices and the horror show with the snake, not much could rattle me. We walked into a vast section of cave that was piled high with the dead carcasses of hunted animals. The metallic taste of blood coated my tongue, and the smell of rotting flesh filled my nose.

  I covered my nose and mouth with my hand and kept close to Maximus as we continued on to the next chamber. We passed a series of deep crevices and that was when I heard a small voice call my name.

  "Rikki? Is that you?"

  "Dad?" I lifted my candle and swept it around. "Dad, where are you?"

  Maximus leaned into a crevice. "He's in here."

  "Dad." I could barely catch my breath from relief. Maximus cleared the way, and I scooted past him into the narrow slit in the wall. I dropped to my knees in front of my dad. My candle petered out in the closet sized fissure, but Maximus kept his at the entrance to give us some light.

  Dad looked skeletal thin and his pallor was like snow, but he was alive and alert. I took hold of his hands. They were icy cold and shaky. Or that might have been mine, either way there was a violent tremble between us.

  "Dad, why are you here? What happened?"

  "No time for that now, Rikki. Just get me out of here before the ghouls come to collect their next meal. They've been throwing me a piece each time and refilling that pot of water. So someone wanted me to stay alive." He lifted his foot to reveal the ankle cuff and metal chain that was bolted to the hard floor. "They also wanted to make sure I didn't escape."

  Maximus left his candle at the opening to provide some light. He ducked down to enter the crevice.

  Dad's eyes showed a little sparkle at the sight of him. "Maximus, I suppose that explains how my daughter got past that damn snake. I'll bet its shown its fangs for the last time."

  Maximus nodded. "I don't think it'll bother us on the way out."

  Dad looked at me. His tired red eyes were sunk deep in his pale face and circled by dark rings. "I guess this means our family secret is out."

  "Only Maximus knows."

  Dad turned to Maximus. "That might need to change. Vapour is up to something big. You might need to let the other Boys in on it."

  Maximus stooped down in front of Dad's chained ankle and examined both ends. "First, we need to get you out of here. I think I'll have more luck pulling the bolt free from the rock than prying that cuff off your foot. Less pain involved too."

  "I appreciate that."

  My dad was not only alive, but it seemed his spirit was not broken either. Two months in a wretched place like Vapour's lair would destroy any normal human's spirit but then my dad wasn't any normal human. Far from it.

  I couldn't hold back any longer. "Oh, Dad," I sobbed and threw my arms around him.

  He patted my back like he used to do when I skinned my knee skating or when a pet died. It felt good to know that he'd still be there if I needed him. I hadn't lost him after all.

  "Now there, Rikki, let's let Ma
ximus have a go at this chain. Otherwise we could all end up as prisoners."

  I sat back and wiped my eyes. "Right. We should hurry."

  Maximus wrapped his big hand around the chain. His forearms bulged and his face tightened into a grimace as he pulled. The bolt budged a tiny fraction. Maximus stood but had to remain stooped over to avoid crowning himself on the cratered rock ceiling. He wrapped both of his hands around the chain and got a good grip on it. He lifted his face and winked at me before pulling the chain. The rock cracked under his feet and the bolt pulled free.

  I smiled up at Maximus. His face was still red from the effort.

  "You are a handy man to have around," Dad quipped. "I might need some help getting to my feet. I'm a little weak."

  I took hold of the end of the chain so it would not drag noisily along the cave floor on our way out. Maximus leaned down, circled his arms around Dad's back and lifted him to his feet. I bit my lip to hold back a sob when I saw how frail and weak he'd become.

  Maximus checked the clearing and waved us through. I helped Dad into the passageway, but he couldn't stand on his own and his feet could only shuffle along at a snail's pace.

  "I think you'll need to ride on my back, Trex. I mean Walt."

  "It's a humiliating situation, but I suppose it's a way for you to make up to me all those times as a teenager when you tried to pull down my veil."

  Maximus's face dropped. "Yeah, guess I was kind of an ass."

  "Nah, you were a teenager. An ornery teenager, but still, I would have done the same thing if I'd been sixteen, as strong as three grown men and standing on the other side of the veil. But there is something I'm wondering—" Dad turned to me and looked down at the black rubber soled boots I used to keep from slipping on the deck of the ferry. "Did you step in as ferryman?"