Crossroads

by Wendy Saunders

  Crossroads

  By

  Wendy Saunders

  Also By Wendy Saunders

  The Guardians Series 1

  Mercy

  The Ferryman

  Crossroads

  Download Boothe’s Hollow, an exclusive FREE book by Wendy Saunders

  promo.wendysaundersauthor.com

  This book is the intellectual property of the author and as such cannot be reproduced in whole or in part in any medium without the express written permission of the author.

  Copyright © 2016 Wendy Saunders

  All rights reserved.

  For my husband, Paul

  Who has always been the light in my darkness, my rock, my soul mate in this lifetime and every other.

  CONTENTS

  Part 1

  Chapter 1.

  Chapter 2.

  Chapter 3.

  Chapter 4.

  Chapter 5.

  Chapter 6.

  Chapter 7.

  Chapter 8.

  Chapter 9.

  Chapter 10.

  Chapter 11.

  Chapter 12.

  Chapter 13.

  Chapter 14.

  Chapter 15.

  Chapter 16.

  Chapter 17.

  Chapter 18.

  Chapter 19.

  Part 2.

  Chapter 20.

  Chapter 21.

  Chapter 22.

  Chapter 23.

  Chapter 24.

  Chapter 25.

  Chapter 26.

  Glossary of Terms in Greek Mythology

  Coming soon

  Chapter 1.

  Author The Author

  Part 1

  The Otherworld

  Vs

  The Real World

  Chapter 1.

  Louisa was bandaging three deep nasty claw marks in Tommy’s shoulder, but paused and looked up as Jake stalked back into the library in Olivia’s house.

  ‘Any sign of the them?’ she asked hopefully.

  Jake shook his head, looking over at Veronica who was holding an icepack to the bleeding lump at the back of Mac’s head. Beau jumped up at his legs and bending down absently he scooped the pup into his arms and stroked him soothingly. ‘Don’t worry buddy we’ll find them for you,’ he murmured to the dog who, seeming to understand the promise, leaned forward and licked Jake’s face.

  ‘Danae and Davis are still out looking and we haven’t accounted for Charles yet,’ Jake told them.

  Louisa’s mouth settled into a thin line of worry as she turned back to her husband and taped up the end of the bandage before helping him back into his shirt.

  ‘I need a drink,’ Tommy headed for the kitchen, reappearing moments later with a bottle of Glenfidditch and a stack of plastic cups.

  ‘Anyone?’

  ‘I certainly wouldn’t say no,’ Mac winced as Veronica pressed a little too hard.

  ‘Sorry Mac,’ she sighed and handed him the bag of ice. I don’t make a very good Florence Nightingale, do I?’

  ‘No’ he smiled, ‘but you make a hell of a G.I Jane.’

  She looked up at him and laughed in amusement. ‘My parents would never believe you.’

  ‘I expect most people wouldn’t believe the half of what we saw last night,’ he replied seriously as Tommy handed him a full cup.

  ‘Ain’t that the truth,’ Tommy downed his own drink in one.

  They all looked up hopefully as the front door slammed again, but a collective sigh of disappointment rippled around the room as Danae entered alone.

  ‘Any news?’ Jake asked.

  She shook her head frowning. ‘No, Davis is still looking. There’s no sign of Theo and Olivia and Charles is still MIA.’

  Mac’s face darkened at the mention of Charles’ name.

  ‘He’d better be dead,’ he muttered, ‘or by the time I’m finished with him he’s going to wish he was.’

  ‘What did you say?’ Danae’s eyes narrowed.

  ‘You heard,’ he growled.

  ‘Look, I don’t know what happened between you two out there but I’m sure it was necessary.’

  ‘Necessary?’ Mac laughed mirthlessly. ‘I don’t consider someone sneaking up on me and cracking me across the skull a necessity.’

  ‘Charles must have had his reasons.’

  ‘Oh he had his reasons alright, it’s because he’s a selfish self-important, stubborn son of a bitch.’

  ‘How dare you,’ Danae hissed. ‘You know nothing about my brother.’

  ‘I know plenty and he should be thanking me for not hauling his ass back to Morley Ridge instead of trying to give me a brain haemorrhage.’

  ‘That’s enough you two,’ Veronica came abruptly to her feet, glaring at them sharply. ‘We’re all worried and this isn’t helping.’

  She turned to the window and stared out into the cold pale morning light.

  ‘They’ll be okay,’ Jake put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly, forcing her to look up into his eyes.

  ‘But what I saw,’ she whispered as her eyes brimmed with tears.

  ‘You could’ve been wrong,’ he told her. ‘It was dark and we were both pumped full of adrenalin…they’ll be okay; I know they will.’

  The front door slammed again and they all turned to the library doorway. Another disappointed sigh as Davis stormed through, looking frustrated.

  ‘Any luck?’ Danae asked although she knew the answer from the look on her twin’s face.

  He shook his head.

  ‘There’s no sign of Theo and Olivia anywhere. The truck is still parked at the foot of the private road leading up to The Boatman, the keys in the ignition. I couldn’t get up to the hotel to look around, the road is blocked and the ice on the lake has completely broken up now. Which means we’ll need a boat to get to the private beach at the foot of the cliff but even then I don’t know if there’s a way to reach it. I hiked through the woods the way they would’ve gone, but when I reached the edge of the lake I could see that part of the cliff face had sheared away. It’s crushed the Jetty and taken out part of the steps leading up.’

  ‘God,’ Jake growled in frustration.

  ‘I could scale the cliff face but I don’t have any climbing gear,’ Davis frowned.

  ‘How long would it take to get some?’ Jake asked.

  ‘I could probably have some here by mid-afternoon.’ He pulled his phone from his pocket and began to scroll through his list of contacts.

  ‘Could you make that two sets of ropes and harnesses?’ Jake asked.

  ‘You have experience?’

  Jake nodded. ‘It’s been a while but I know what I’m doing.’

  ‘Alright then,’ Davis agreed but before he could make the call the front door slammed again.

  This time they were not disappointed. As they turned to look Charles limped through the doorway, his clothes torn and dirty. One side of his face was heavily bruised and scratched and from the angle at which he was cradling his arm, it was fair to assume it was broken.

  ‘Charles,’ Davis breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘What happened?’ Danae frowned.

  But Charles ignored them, scanning the faces in the room, disregarding the angry glare Mac was throwing in his direction.

  ‘Where’s my daughter?’

  ‘Mr Connell,’ Louisa interrupted, glancing at the state of his various injuries. ‘Maybe you should come and take a seat and let me have a look at you.’

  ‘Where’s Olivia?’ he asked again angrily.

  ‘We haven’t been able to find them yet Charles,’ Davis told him quietly, ‘both Olivia and Theo are missing.’

  ‘Charles, we’re going to find them,’
Danae told him. ‘Why don’t you sit and let Louisa have a look at you and tell us what happened. We’ve been looking for you for hours. You were supposed to be with Mac, what the hell were you thinking?’

  ‘He was thinking about revenge,’ Mac shot back, ‘that’s what he was thinking about.’

  ‘It wasn’t about revenge,’ Charles glared back at him, ‘it was about protecting my daughter.’

  ‘You can pretty it up all you like Charles but going up to the hotel last night wasn’t about protecting Olivia, it was about getting to Isabel.’

  ‘You’re wrong.’

  ‘Am I?’ he replied, ‘then why stop me from going with you? It’s because you knew I would have arrested her,’ he continued mercilessly, ‘and the simple fact is you want her dead…you want her dead for betraying you.’

  ‘NO!’ Charles shouted furiously, ‘I want her dead because it’s the only way to make sure she can’t harm Olivia. You think a prison can hold Isabel? It couldn’t hold me; I could have walked out at any time but I didn’t because it didn’t suit my purpose. Isabel feels no such restraint and as long as she’s loose she is a threat to my daughter. So yes, you’re damn right I want that bitch dead, it’s the only way to make sure Olivia is safe.’

  ‘All right calm down,’ Jake stepped in between them. ‘We’re all on the same side here and we all want to make sure Theo and Olivia are okay, so why don’t you tell us what happened as you seem to be the last person to see them both.’

  Charles sighed and shook his head, clearing his thoughts.

  ‘When I got to the hotel Olivia and Theo had Charon. Nathaniel and Isabel were also there. Olivia shot Isabel with the tranq darts and I was holding back Nathaniel to give them time to escape. I told them to get him to the lake. I don’t know what happened after that, a few moments after they were gone the whole cliff shook.’

  ‘Part of the face sheered away,’ Davis explained.

  ‘Anyway the force of it brought down part of the ceiling in the ballroom, which is where I was. I was knocked unconscious and by the time I came round Nathaniel and Isabel were gone. I managed to free myself from under the debris but when I got outside I saw that the lake was still and quiet. I headed for the stairs but part of them are gone and there was no way down. I had no choice but to try and climb through the fallen trees and branches blocking the road. It took me the rest of the night and part of this morning but I made a path through. It’s narrow but there is a way through. I headed back here expecting them to have been back by now. Has no one seen them?’

  They all shook their heads, except for Veronica.

  ‘Veronica?’ Charles asked quietly, ‘what is it?’

  ‘I saw,’ she shook her head, ‘I mean I thought I saw, it was dark and everything happened so fast I can’t be sure.’

  ‘Why don’t you just tell me what it is you think you saw.’

  ‘They were heading into the center of the lake, at least I think it was them. I was quite far away…but.’

  ‘But what?’

  ‘They were still in the middle of the lake when the ice started to break up, there’s no way they could have made it back to shore, not with the temperature of the water.’

  ‘You think they went in?’ Charles let out his breath slowly, closing his eyes in pain.

  ‘I think I saw one of them go in, I couldn’t tell which,’ she replied miserably as her eyes filled with tears.

  ‘No’ Charles whispered, shaking his head.

  ‘They’re not dead you know,’ a new calm voice spoke from the doorway.

  They all turned to look in confusion.

  ‘Mayor Burnett?’ Jake frowned, ‘what are you doing here?’

  ‘I came to put your minds at rest,’ she replied softly. ‘Theo was pulled through the gateway to the Otherworld and Olivia went in after him. They’re stranded in the Otherworld but they are alive.’

  ‘And how exactly would you know that?’ Charles asked suspiciously.

  ‘I know a great many things Mr Connell,’ her mouth curved.

  ‘What the hell is going on Tammy,’ Mac moved closer, ‘how do you know about Olivia and Theo?’

  ‘Because’ she answered slowly, ‘my name isn’t Tammy Burnett. It’s Beckett…Temperance Beckett.’

  She glanced around the room at the bewildered faces.

  ‘Theo is my brother.’

  Chapter 2.

  Olivia groaned and rolled over, gradually becoming aware that she was lying on the hard ground with her back curved at an odd angle. She sat up; blinking a few times to clear her blurry vision she scanned her surroundings with an appraising gaze. It looked familiar she frowned in confusion, as she tried to recall the events of the previous night. Hades had promised to send her across the Veil and into the Otherworld, the spirit realm, but as she looked around it didn’t seem any different from the real world and she wondered with a start if it had even worked at all. Maybe she was still in Mercy.

  Climbing awkwardly to her feet she brushed the gravel and powdery residue from her jeans. She was standing at the side of an empty road which seemed to stretch endlessly for miles, surrounded by woods. She looked up at the moody sky, watching the swirls of pale grey and white and although the skies were overcast it wasn’t cold. Glancing around she noticed there was no snow; when she’d left Mercy everything had been covered in several feet of snow but now it looked like the beginning of spring.

  Shaking her head to clear her thoughts she set off down the road reasoning that sooner or later she would encounter a town or at least a person. Readjusting her backpack so it was more comfortable she walked at a brisk pace, anxious to find out where she was exactly. After a few miles she found she had to unzip her heavy winter coat and remove her scarf. Settling herself on the carcass of a fallen tree at the side of the road she pulled off her backpack and opened it, reaching inside for a bottle of water.

  She’d been walking for what felt like hours and she didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Taking a sip of water, she closed her eyes and listened. This close to the woods she should have at least been able to hear birdsong or the ripple of the air through the thick green canopy of trees but there was nothing. It was like someone had hit the mute button, either that or she was temporarily deaf.

  Tucking her water bottle back into her bag she rummaged through it, taking stock of what she had with her. Fortunately, she still had the small first aid kit she’d packed before they went after Charon. She also had Hester’s Grimoire back. Breathing a sigh of relief, she pulled the book out and laid it in her lap, running her fingers over the deeply embossed leather cover. Something inside her, that she hadn’t realized had been so tightly knotted, relaxed as she felt the power thrum beneath her fingertips. Opening it up she watched as the now familiar curly black script curled and undulated across the page until it settled into words.

  Her mother’s grudging admission that she couldn’t read the book had come as a surprise to Olivia. She was aware that neither Theo nor any of her friends had been able to read it but she had just assumed it was a charm which protected the book from anyone who wasn’t of Hester’s bloodline. But if her mother couldn’t read it, despite being a West, it begged the question could any of the other women in her family read it? Neither her grandmother nor her great-aunt had mentioned the book when she was younger. She hadn’t even known of its existence until she’d retrieved it from the safety deposit box at Old Mercy Mutual. Shaking her head she closed the book and slipped it back into the bag.

  She pulled out her flashlight and flicked it on. At least that still worked and might come in useful. Sticking her hand back in the backpack her fist closed around a chunk of cool metal. Pulling it out her eyes narrowed as she studied it. She searched the bag until she came up with its counterpart and turned the two halves over in her hands. It was the demon collar she’d removed from Charon’s neck back at the hotel. He’d said it was used to enslave souls and neutralize supernatural abilities. He’d also said
once it was on it was impossible to remove, barring decapitation. She still wasn’t sure how she’d managed to unlock it. To be fair everything that happened in the hotel was still a little blurry thanks to the urgency and adrenalin. Still, if she could figure out how to use it…she chewed her lip thoughtfully, wondering if it would actually work on a demon or whether it was called a demon collar because it was made by demons. Frowning she dropped the two pieces back into the bag. As soon as she was able she’d have to research it further. Sooner or later she would have to deal with Nathaniel. A powerful demon who was thousands of years old, she wasn’t even sure he could be killed, let alone how to go about it. But maybe, just maybe if she could get close enough to collar him his power and strength would be neutralized, then all she would have to do was to shove him headfirst back into the devil’s trap at Boothe’s Hollow. It wasn’t ideal but it was a solution…of sorts.

  Tucking her scarf into her bag she zipped it up and removed her coat. A glint of gold flashed in the pale daylight and Olivia lifted the compass Hades had given her on the long chain which hung around her neck. Running her fingers over the metal, now warmed by her body heat, she studied it carefully. The front cover was etched with what looked like exquisite miniature star charts and constellations. She pressed the tiny gold button and the lid flicked open on a well-oiled hinge. Inside was a circular compass which sat inside a larger circle, which in turn sat in another larger circle. It had several hands and dials and once again she was at a complete loss as to how it worked. Tapping the glass face softly with her fingernail the hands would still not spin. Frowning in frustration she clicked the lid closed and tucked it safely back inside her shirt.

  Picking up her bag she slung it over her shoulders and sliding off the fallen tree trunk she picked up her coat and once again headed down the road. Another hour passed and she was once again struck by her surroundings. She knew she should know this place, it was there tickling the back of her mind with maddening familiarity.

  She continued on and soon she began to pass even more familiar landmarks. As she approached the outskirts of the town she realized she was still in Mercy, she was just approaching it from the other road on the opposite side of town to where her house was. She quickened her pace as she headed into town, cursing Hades for playing her for a fool. Well, the hell with him and his stupid cruel games she was just going to head straight back to her house and she was going to find a way to open the doorway to the Otherworld even if she had to go through every single scrap of paper and book in her library. If that didn’t work she was going to blow up the internet for information and if that didn’t work…well, she may just damn well kidnap Charon herself. Whatever it took she was going to get Theo back.