Elementals 4: The Portal to Kerberos

by Michelle Madow

  He’d made bad choices, but he wasn’t a monster. If someone I loved had been taken from me like his sister had been taken from him, and if a god told me they could bring them back… I don’t imagine an offer like that would be easy to turn down. I wanted to think that I would have the strength to put the fate of the world before a single life, even the life of someone I loved. But I couldn’t know what I would do in a situation like Ethan’s, because I’d never had to face it.

  Yes, he’d made a huge mistake. But it wasn’t over yet. He could still tell us where Blake was, and return Medusa’s head.

  He deserved a chance to redeem himself.

  “Answer my question,” I told him, zeroing in on his heart. Even though I didn’t plan on killing him, I couldn’t let him see my bluff. “Where’s Blake?”

  “And Medusa’s head,” Chris added.

  “That’s what I wanted to show you,” Ethan said, still smiling manically. “And it’s why I’m so happy you’re here.”

  “The dragons who were here to protect you are dead,” I reminded him, pulling back on the string of my bow. “We have the upper hand now. So stop stalling, and answer our questions.”

  “I suppose you do deserve an answer.” He stepped aside, motioning to the door of the cabin. “So here it is. Blake and Medusa’s head… they’re both inside. Go in and see for yourselves.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Fighting my instinct to run straight into the cabin to see Blake, I adjusted my target and sent the arrow soaring toward it. Ethan must have had quick reflexes—I supposed it made sense, because he was a demigod as well—and he whizzed out of the way when the arrow came toward him.

  But the arrow turned to adjust its path, as if it had a mind of its own, and buried itself straight into my intended destination.

  Ethan screamed and fell to the ground, his hands flying to his knee. He yanked the arrow out and tried to stand up, but he didn’t get far before crashing back down. He grunted and tried again, managing to slowly stand and balance on his good leg. He took one hop toward us and groaned again from the pain, although he sucked it up and took another hop. He stared at me, his eyes murderous and livid. I had no doubt that he wanted me dead.

  I hurried to one of the fallen dragons, yanked the arrow out of her heart, and strung it through my bow. From this angle, shooting it through Ethan’s other knee was easy.

  He screamed again and fell back onto the ground.

  With both kneecaps busted, he wouldn’t be able to walk. But I didn’t have any more time to pay attention to Ethan, because Blake was inside that cabin.

  I ran for the door, moving with demigod speed, anxious to see him again. This was it. The moment when Blake and I would be reunited.

  But Erebus appeared in front of me before I could blink, blocking my path.

  “What are you doing?” I tried to run around him, but he was faster than me, and he held his arms out to stop me. “Let me through!”

  “I can’t do that.” He placed his hands on my shoulders to hold me still, his eyes serious. “Ethan said that Medusa’s head is in there, too. For all you know, he positioned the head so it’s staring at the door—so anyone who enters will be turned to stone. I’m the only one here who’s immune to Medusa’s gaze. You have to let me go in first.”

  “A trap like that would be a good idea.” Ethan laughed from his place on the ground, holding his hands over his kneecaps to stop the blood from pouring out. “But it’s not what I did. What I did is even better. And I can’t wait to see your reaction when you see it for yourself.”

  I opened my mouth to ask what he did do, but I stopped myself. Nothing that Ethan said could be trusted. And as much as I hated to admit it, Erebus was right. He had to go first to make sure that it was safe.

  “Blake!” I yelled through the door and pounded my fists against it, hoping he could hear me. “We’re sending in Erebus first. He’s on our side. Once he checks out the inside of the cabin, I’m coming in right after him.”

  There was no response. My heart dropped, and I stared helplessly at the door. I hoped that if anything, I would at least hear his voice. Blake would have answered me if he were in there.

  Which meant one thing—Ethan was lying. Blake wasn’t in the cabin.

  In that case, I was glad that I’d shot Ethan in the kneecap and not in the heart. I needed him alive so he could tell us where Blake really was.

  Erebus dissolved into shadow form, leaving me outside in front of the cabin. Danielle and Chris stood behind me. I glanced over at Ethan, hoping to see a trace of humanity on his face, but he just watched me, still smiling like a crazy person, his eyes glowing with hatred.

  What happened to the Ethan that I’d met on the Land of the Lotus Eaters, who had fought with us against Scylla and Charybdis, and had been by our side as we acquired the immortal milk from Helios’s island? We didn’t know him for long, but he had been our friend. I knew I hadn’t imagined that.

  But after his sister died, he’d twisted into someone I didn’t recognize. There was no point in trying to convince him that Rachael’s death wasn’t my fault—that he didn’t have to punish us to get her back. He was too far gone for us to reason with him. He would never stop blaming me for what happened to her. We would never be safe as long as he was alive.

  Every instinct in my body told me to finish the job and kill him. But I couldn’t—not without being sure about what happened to Blake. I also still hated the idea of sending him to the underworld here, no matter how awful he’d been to us. So I turned away from him and marched to the other fallen dragon, pulling the arrow out of his heart and placing it into my quiver. Then I walked back over to stand with Chris and Danielle.

  “Once we get Blake and Medusa’s head, we’ll finish off Ethan and fly back with our dragons,” Chris said, his voice strong and sure. “We’ll never have to worry about him coming after us again.”

  “No one deserves to go to the underworld here,” Danielle cut in. “Maybe we should just leave him here on the mountain. He won’t be able to get down with his knees busted up like that. We’ll close the portal, and he’ll be stuck here with all the other monsters who turned against the Olympians in the Second Rebellion, never able to return to Earth again.”

  “I agree with Danielle,” I said. “I would send him to Hades in a heartbeat… but the underworld here? I don’t know if I could live with myself if we did that.”

  “If we left him here, what would stop Helios’s dragons from getting him and flying him back to the portal before we have time to close it?” Chris asked. “We can’t leave him alive. Not after everything he’s done. It’s too risky.”

  “You’re both right.” I sighed, pacing around in front of the cabin. What was taking Erebus so long? “But as of right now, we still need Ethan alive. We can’t kill him until we find Blake.”

  “You don’t want to kill me,” Ethan grumbled. “Once Helios finds out, he’ll come for revenge the moment you step foot back on Earth.”

  “Do you really think Helios cares about you?” I reached for one of the arrows protruding from his knee and yanked it out, enjoying the pain in his scream. I yanked out the other arrow as well. I didn’t even bother to wipe off his blood before sticking the arrows back into my quiver. “Helios just needed you to do his dirty work for him,” I continued. “You were a pawn to him—that’s all. Someone he could manipulate. Now that you’ve done what he wanted, I doubt he’s even trying to get your sister back for you.”

  “You’re wrong.” Ethan held himself up on his elbows, gritting his teeth as he spoke. Sweat dripped down his face from the pain of his injuries. “Helios will get my sister back. And once he does, she’ll kill you for what you did to her.”

  I turned my back to him, since what was the point in responding? Rachael wasn’t coming back. And even if she did, I hoped that unlike her brother, she would see reason and realize that her death wasn’t my fault.

  After all, the fight with the hydra would have gone differen
tly if she hadn’t deviated from the plan and impulsively run to fight it without any backup.

  Before I could think about it any more, Erebus appeared outside the cabin, his expression grim. My breath caught at the sight of him. I wanted to ask what was in there… but dread filled my chest at the possibility of what I might find out.

  Instead, I just watched him, waiting for his report.

  “Medusa’s head has been destroyed,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “It won’t turn anyone to stone ever again.”

  “And Blake?” I swallowed, terrified about whatever I was about to hear. But I couldn't wait any longer. I needed to know the truth.

  “He’s dead.” Ethan laughed, his twisted, dark expression making my heart sink into my stomach. “I killed him.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  “You couldn’t have,” I said, refusing to believe it. “Blake’s strong. He would have fought you.”

  “He is strong.” Ethan nodded, still smiling. “But you forget—I’m a demigod. I’m stronger. And I had the dragons on my side.”

  I opened the door to the cabin, preparing to prove him wrong.

  The world collapsed around me with what I saw inside.

  Blake lay in the center of the cabin, his eyes closed, surrounded by a pool of his blood. Cuts covered every bit of his skin—some of them shallow, some of them deep. Blood was all over his body. It soaked his clothes. So much blood, everywhere.

  “Blake.” I said his name softly and hurried over to him, resting my hand on his arm. He had to wake up. He had to. He couldn’t be dead. Not here… not in Kerberos. He’d been hurt, yes, and he’d lost a lot of blood, but he was strong. He would get better.

  Except that his body was cold. Normally, he exuded so much warmth, but there was none of that now. There were so many cuts, and so much blood.

  “No.” My throat closed up, and I could barely get the word out. Tears streamed down my face and onto his chest. I couldn’t breathe… I couldn’t think. “You can’t be gone,” I said, shaking his arm to try to get him to wake up. “This can’t be real. I can’t keep fighting without you. I love you, Blake. I never got to tell you, but I love you so much.” I bit down on my lip and placed both hands on his chest, searching for a heartbeat. Searching for anything to prove that he was still alive.

  There was nothing.

  His chest was cold, his heart still.

  But I couldn’t give up. Because despite not being able to use our powers in Kerberos, and despite never being able to bring someone back from death before, I had to try to heal him.

  No… I had to do more than try. I had to succeed. Because I couldn’t lose Blake. Not like this.

  If I couldn’t heal Blake when he needed me most, what good was I at all?

  I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind, trying to locate white energy in the air around me. I searched and searched, pushing harder than I ever had before. But it was like floating in a vacuum. I couldn’t feel anything there.

  I couldn’t access my powers.

  I collapsed onto Blake’s chest, the tears coming so quickly that I didn’t think they would ever stop. Time stood still. Numbness sunk deep into my bones, and I felt as cold as Blake. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. All I could do was bury my face in his chest and cry.

  How was I supposed to continue on this mission without him? He’d been beside me from the moment I first discovered my powers. He’d helped me understand them, and helped me learn how to be as strong as I could be. He fought beside me, and protected me, and was there for me no matter what.

  I loved him. And even though I hadn’t told him yet, and he hadn’t told me yet, I knew in my heart that he loved me too.

  How could I accept that he was gone? That I would never see him again?

  I couldn’t.

  I wouldn’t.

  Because no soul was ever truly gone. Erebus had told us that himself on our way up the mountain. So I sat back up and wiped the tears off my face. Danielle was beside me—she was crying too. Chris gripped the handle of his knife, looking ready to destroy whoever had done this to Blake.

  I had nothing to say to either of them right now. Instead, I focused on Erebus. He held the mutilated head of Medusa in his hands—her eyes had been gouged in, making her useless. But I didn’t care about that right now. There was only one thing I cared about—Blake.

  And so I leveled my gaze with Erebus’s and asked, “How do we get to the underworld of Kerberos?”

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  “You don’t,” Erebus answered, not missing a beat. “Unless you die in Kerberos, there’s no other way to get to the underworld. And once there, no one has ever escaped. It’s impossible.”

  Could I die for the chance of finding Blake in the underworld, and do the impossible to figure a way out? I wanted to. If there was a chance to be with Blake again, I wanted to have it.

  But my family was waiting for me back home. My mom, my dad, and my sister. I loved Blake, but I loved my family, too. I couldn’t leave them like that. I would never be able to forgive myself for it.

  “There has to be an entrance,” I said instead. “A way to get in without dying. There’s an entrance to Hades from Earth, right? And Kerberos is a parallel dimension of Earth. So there must be an entrance to the underworld from here.”

  “That’s not how it works,” Erebus said. “Kerberos is a prison world that can be reached from Earth—not a parallel world. Once someone dies in Kerberos, they’re gone forever.”

  “Not gone,” I corrected him. “You said yourself that no one is ever truly gone. They’re just trapped in the underworld. Lost, but not gone.”

  “Being in the underworld of Kerberos is the same as being gone,” Erebus said.

  “No.” I shook my head, refusing to believe it.

  “Yes,” he said. “And with Medusa’s head destroyed, there’s no stopping Typhon now. He will rise, you will fail to seal the portal, the Titans will return, and Earth will be destroyed. There’s no other possible path. You’ve failed.”

  “Then my family’s dead anyway.” I reached for Blake’s cold, dead, bloodied hand, a new wave of tears escaping when I felt how lifeless he was. “Maybe I should just go outside and ask Ethan to kill me. I’m sure he would be happy to do it. Then I could be with Blake.”

  “Weren’t you listening when I told you what the underworld is like here?” Erebus asked. “You wouldn’t be joining Blake. You would both be two souls floating in the darkness, never able to meet or interact. You would be condemning yourself to an eternity of emptiness.”

  “So then what else is there left for us to do?” I asked. “Go back to Earth and die there, so we can be with our family in Hades?”

  “If Hades still exists after the Titans take over,” Erebus said. “I wouldn’t put it past the Titans to destroy the underworld, too.”

  “So we failed,” Chris said. “All because we decided to trust that backstabbing son of Zeus out there. He’s the reason Kate’s gone, he’s the reason Blake’s gone, and he’s the reason that the whole world will soon be gone.” He held up his knife, his eyes gleaming with hatred. “I’m going out there to bury this knife in his heart myself.”

  “Yes.” I nodded, regretting that I’d shot Ethan in the knee and not the heart. “Do it.”

  He nodded and headed toward the door. I would go out there to help him, or to do it myself, but I couldn’t leave Blake here alone. I worried that if I left him out of my sight for even one second, he would be gone. And I refused to leave him here in Kerberos.

  Instead, I would bring his body back with us to Earth. I might not be able to bring people back from the dead yet, but I would work on it. After all, I could use my power to kill. With enough practice, why couldn’t I use my power to bring people back to life, too?

  “Wait,” Danielle said, stopping Chris in his tracks. “What if there’s still a way we can fix this?”

  “There’s no way to fix this,” Erebus said. “I’ve already told you—yo
u’ve failed. From this point forward, there’s no possible path that will lead to the future you desire.”

  “Which is why we won’t fix it from this point.” Danielle looked off to the side, the gears practically turning in her head as she spoke. “But what if we can go back and fix it from the past?”

  “I’m listening.” Erebus leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, his gaze locked on Danielle’s.

  “First of all, answer this,” Danielle said to him. “Do you know all of the other primordial deities?”

  “Yes—of course,” he said. “We’re the oldest beings in the Universe. It would be impossible for us not to have met at one point or another.”

  “Can you contact them at all?”

  “Sure,” he said. “If we feel like reaching out, and if they feel like listening. But there’s no promising that both of those things will happen.”

  Danielle stood up, her hands clenched at her sides, her eyes gleaming with determination. She faced Erebus as an equal—not as a mortal speaking to a god. And he held his gaze with hers, seeming intrigued by her every word.

  “Do you think you can contact Chronos?” she asked him, calm and steady.

  “Chronos,” Erebus repeated, saying the name as if remembering an old friend. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Then he dissolved into a shadow, and was gone.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  “Who’s Chronos?” I looked to Danielle for answers, not letting go of Blake’s cold hand.

  Before she had a chance to answer, Erebus reappeared in the same place he was standing earlier—except this time he was joined by an older man with gray hair, a long gray beard, wise eyes, and an unearthly glow.