Rivers of Hell (Shadows of the Immortals Book 3)

by Marina Finlayson

  “I guess he’ll do whatever needs to be done to save Jake,” I said. I didn’t share Syl’s soft heart. As far as I was concerned, these guys had it coming. They wanted to play with the big boys? Then they had to be prepared to face the consequences.

  Apollo reached the grand front doors of the main entrance just as they burst open and a wall of flame surged out. A fireshaper would have thrown up his own wall of fire in return. I’d seen Jake do it enough times to know. But Apollo merely waved a hand and the flames turned back on the shapers behind them, consuming them. Apollo didn’t even break stride. I liked his attitude. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

  “This is a nightmare,” Syl muttered as I steered her past the smoking bodies.

  “Not much longer,” I said. Maybe we should have left her back at the temple. I was surprised she hadn’t turned cat by now—that was her usual response when life as a human got too hard to cope with.

  “I’m okay,” she said, as if she knew what I was thinking. “I wanted to see them punished for what they did—I just didn’t expect the punishment to be quite this extreme.”

  I gave her a quick hug. “Fireshapers never do anything by halves. You know that. Gods are like fireshapers on steroids.”

  She nodded, the memory of our first introduction to the methods of fireshapers flickering in her dark eyes. All those people screaming, trapped in the burning building. Then she squared her shoulders and marched after Apollo. “Come on, we’ve got a friend to rescue. And I don’t trust you to manage it without me. You seem to get hurt every time I leave you alone.”

  We hadn’t been able to rescue our friends back then, but this time was different. We’d both come a long way since then. I was proud of her bravery.

  “Right.” I checked back in with my cockroach spies, who were on the level below our feet. It seemed the most likely place to keep a prisoner. I refused to consider the possibility that Jake wasn’t here. There was no other building in the whole city that was more suited to hold a fireshaper of his powers. This place was crawling with fireshapers. Apollo destroyed another couple who had tried to set up an ambush around the corner of the corridor.

  “Maybe don’t kill them all?” I suggested. “We should question a few and find out what they know about the shadow shapers.”

  “I must teach them not to defy me.”

  “Then you’d better leave a few alive or there’ll be no one left to learn the lesson.” I tugged him down the corridor. “This way. The stairs to the lower level are over here.”

  The alarm continued to blare, louder now that we were in the building with it, as we hurried down the stairs. I wiped sweat from my eyes—all this flame getting thrown around made the place feel like an oven, even though Apollo protected us from harm. At least it was elemental flame and not the garden-variety kind, or the whole building would be going up like a torch. Elemental flame had the advantage of being able to be turned on and off like a tap at the shaper’s whim.

  This lower level was nearly as big as the ground floor, but my trusty cockroaches had covered a lot of the ground already. As I directed Apollo down the branching corridors, a cockroach showed me what I most wished to see. I couldn’t restrain a whoop of joy.

  “Found him! He’s this way.” Apollo gave me an odd look and it occurred to me that he didn’t know about my powers, and it was probably best to keep it that way. Hastily, I added, “I mean, this is where they usually keep their prisoners.” He knew I’d studied the floor plans before I’d broken in to steal his ring. We’d never explained exactly how I’d managed it, and he hadn’t been interested in the details.

  We hadn’t seen a guard in a while. Either Apollo had roasted them all or they were massing somewhere to attack us. I could just imagine the panic on the top floor as they raced to protect the Ruby Adept. Not that anything could protect him from the wrath of his god. Funnily enough, that thought didn’t bother me at all.

  Besides, I had better things to think about. We arrived at Jake’s door. It was no dungeon; the corridor was just as well-lit as the rest of the building, and the parquetry floor as clean and polished. The door was locked but that made no difference to Apollo—he merely had to touch the metal handle and the door swung open. How had they managed to keep Jake contained?

  Jake rose from the bed he’d been sitting on as we entered. He was fully dressed—the noise of the alarm must have woken him—but his skin had a yellow tinge and he moved like an old man.

  A smile broke across his face. “My Lord! You’re free.”

  Apollo smiled back. “And so are you, now.”

  Jake grimaced. “I think it may be too late for me.” He sank back down onto the bed, his whole body trembling.

  A cold fury began to burn inside me. What had been in that injection they’d given him? “Have they mistreated you?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t feel well, but I think that’s Styx’s doing. I’ve been getting chills for the last hour and I can’t seem to stop shaking. It feels like something is inside me, chewing on my organs. How long is it until her twelve hours are up?”

  Renewed hatred for Styx burned in my heart. I laid a hand on his forehead, and he was burning up, despite his talk of chills. How dared she poison Jake with her kiss? What had he ever done to her?

  “I don’t know.” If I could kiss him better, he’d be fighting fit in no time. Hopefully, there’d be time for that later, but right now, we had to focus on what was important—getting him out of here and back to that pointy-toothed bitch. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen between them after that. The main thing was just keeping him alive. Fear fluttered inside me. He looked half dead already. “I don’t even know what time it is now, or when we made the deal. Probably a couple of hours at most. I get the feeling that there’s not much time left.”

  “I get that feeling, too,” Jake said.

  “Then let’s move,” Apollo said, herding us all back out of the small room. Jake leaned heavily on me.

  “I don’t know how much help I’ll be,” Jake said apologetically. “I can’t feel my power anymore.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Apollo said. “I’ve got this.”

  He led us back along the corridor and up the stairs. Jake seemed to have trouble with them; he had to hold on to the handrail. I bit my lip and said nothing, hovering close enough to catch him if he fell. Syl and I exchanged glances, and she moved to his other side as soon as we gained the top of the stairs.

  Apollo strode ahead, leaving the two of us to support Jake. He managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other, but the effort was clearly costing him.

  “It’s not far,” Syl said. He looked like he needed all the encouragement he could get. He shouldn’t be this sick, should he? Maybe my guesstimates of how much time had passed were wrong. How long did he have? I’d like to run that bitch Styx over with the ferry. I hated her for doing this to him. “It’s just down the street.”

  Nobody challenged us as we followed Apollo through the empty halls, the alarm still wailing its warning. We passed the bodies of the fireshapers he’d killed just inside the front entrance. They were still smoking. If Jake noticed them, he didn’t comment. It appeared to be taking every bit of his energy just to keep moving.

  Apollo glanced up the grand staircase. “I need to find the Ruby Adept and the other councillors.”

  “Not now,” I said, indicating Jake, who was hunched over as if every movement pained him. “We don’t have time.”

  His gaze swept over the trembling fireshaper and his face darkened. “True. House-cleaning will have to wait. Stay here a moment.”

  He stepped out the front door into the dark, while we waited obediently. The sound of automatic rifle fire split the night, followed by the whoosh of an enormous fireball. The reflected light of the flames played on the wall opposite the door. For once, I felt no urge to peek outside, happy to keep my head down.

  Apollo stuck his head back inside. “All clear,” he said. “Let�
�s go.”

  The carnage in the dark garden was impressive. It looked like a whole squadron of guards had decided to try human weaponry instead of magic against Apollo. Did they have no idea who he was? Who could possibly have imagined that guns could defeat one of the Olympians? They must have assumed he was another fireshaper. I guess that made sense, considering how little the gods had had to do with the world lately. No one knew what he looked like, and he wasn’t doing his godly glowing thing. I averted my eyes from the smoking bodies as we hurried past, though I couldn’t avoid the smell of charred meat. Syl looked positively green.

  Apollo glanced back at the palace, his face like flint. “The Ruby Council and I are going to have a long chat very soon.”

  His expression made me glad I wasn’t a councillor. It also made me feel more charitable towards the sun god. Finally, we had something in common, even if a mutual hatred of traitorous fireshapers might not normally be considered a great basis for a relationship. But if he intended to whoop the Ruby Adept’s arse, we’d be best friends forever.

  Despite all the noise we’d made, there was no one else in the street. Residents of shaper cities learned to make themselves scarce when shapers squabbled amongst themselves. If they didn’t, they often became collateral damage.

  Jake stumbled and would have fallen if Syl and I hadn’t managed to catch him.

  “Apollo,” Syl said urgently.

  He turned and took in the situation at once. He swung Jake up and over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift as if the tall shaper weighed nothing at all. “Let’s move, ladies. Our friend doesn’t have much time left.”

  He took off running down the street, and after a moment of stunned surprise, Syl and I bolted after him. I had a horrible feeling that he was right.

  Time was running out for Jake.

  19

  I had to admit, I liked this new, decisive Apollo much more than the whiny guy who’d sat around with a face as long as a wet week because he was trapped in the shadow shapers’ stupid collar. He stormed back into his own temple, his boots ringing hollowly on the marble floor.

  An old Chinese man, his white hair no more than a few wisps on the sides of his head, knelt by the sacred fire, praying. He looked up in surprise as the door banged open and creaked to his feet, carefully rearranging his long robes. His eyes narrowed as he took in our no-doubt disreputable appearance and the unconscious man draped over Apollo’s shoulder.

  “What do you want?” Clearly deciding we were a bunch of undesirables, he flicked his wrists and fire appeared on his fingertips. His flames were weak, but they would have been enough to deter the average temple vandal. “The temple doesn’t open until nine o’clock.”

  “What time is it now?” I asked, dreading the answer.

  “Just before six,” he said. Shit. If my calculations were correct, that meant we had less than an hour to get Jake to Styx. “Please leave.”

  “What are they teaching you people these days?” Apollo asked. “What kind of priest doesn’t recognise his own god?” The room filled with a golden light that put the warm glow of the sacred fire to shame. The light, of course, emanated from Apollo, who was now almost too bright to look at. Show off.

  The old priest fell to his knees with an enthusiasm that made me wince as they cracked against the tiles, and prostrated himself on the floor.

  “A thousand apologies, my lord,” he mumbled into the tiles. Then he raised his head a little, squinting into the glare. “But you don’t look much like your statue.”

  It was true; the statue’s curly locks didn’t match the shaggy look Apollo was currently sporting, and the nose was a different shape. Apollo sighed, and his hair rearranged itself to match the statue’s. The old priest beamed and bowed his head again. Ah, the power of a good haircut—Tegan would have been proud.

  “How may I serve you, my lord?”

  “No serving necessary … ah …”

  “Winston,” the priest supplied helpfully.

  “Winston. We’re just passing through.” Apollo juggled Jake into a more comfortable position on his shoulder and thrust one hand out to Syl. “Grab hold.”

  Syl took his hand and I tucked mine into the crook of his elbow on the other side, between his arm and Jake’s limp body. Together, we took a step forward … into the misty gloom of the underworld. The Gate of Dusk cast its shadow over the stony ground in front of us. When I looked back through it, there was no sign of Winston or the glittering temple we’d just left.

  “That’s a neat trick,” Syl said, as we hurried from the gate down the rocky slope toward the river. “Can you teleport anywhere in the world like that?”

  “No.” He wasn’t even breathing hard, though Jake was no lightweight. “We can move between worlds at will, using our temples as take-off or landing points, but if I wanted to get from Crosston to somewhere like Berkley’s Bay—that has no temple—I’d have to drive like anybody else.”

  “That’s a shame,” Syl said. “You need more temples.”

  He grinned at her. He cast a little light of his own here in the underworld, brimming with returned power, and the mists cleared around him as he walked, as if the darkness refused to cling to him. “It was certainly easier in the old days, when there was a temple to Apollo in every little one-horse town. Still, it could be worse. At least I still have temples. I could be Hestia or one of the minor godlings, with no worshippers left. Their travel options are severely curtailed.”

  I listened with only half an ear, keeping an anxious eye on Jake’s pale face. Syl babbled on, keeping up a flow of conversation with Apollo. I doubted she was really that interested; I caught her glancing at me once or twice, checking up on me, and I had the feeling the conversation was more her attempt to distract me from Jake’s perilous situation than any true desire to dig into the secrets of the gods.

  We reached the black waters of the Styx at last. The ferry still lay at anchor where we’d left it, though there was no sign of Cerberus. Perhaps he was on board sleeping.

  Apollo laid Jake down on the rocky ground beside the river. “Styx!” he called. “Jacob Steele is here to fulfil his side of your bargain. Come and release him from your spell.”

  Styx’s dark head broke the water soundlessly. Oh sure, she popped up on command, like a weasel out of its burrow, the minute Apollo called. No having to shove his hand into the water to get her attention and get the crap scared out of him the way I’d had to. I would have loved to give her a piece of my mind, but I had enough sense not to irritate her when Jake’s life was hanging in the balance. I clamped my lips shut and swallowed the anger that threatened to spill forth.

  “Just in time,” she said brightly. “I was starting to think that dear Jacob wasn’t going to make it. You are cutting it a little fine.”

  I knelt on the riverbank, hovering protectively over Jake. His eyes opened and the smallest of smiles flickered around his lips as he gazed up at me. He lifted a shaking hand to stroke my cheek, though I could see the effort it cost him.

  “Don’t look so worried,” he said. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

  I caught his hand and pressed my face against it, feeling the unaccustomed sting of tears. What the hell? I didn’t cry over guys. I must be overtired. Nevertheless, I breathed deeply of his familiar, smoky scent, so frightened for him that my pulse hammered uncomfortably in my throat.

  “That’s right.” I glared at Styx. “It’s only for one night. That’s what we agreed.” It wasn’t as if we were married or anything. Hell, we hadn’t even been on a date. Why should I care what he got up to with another woman? As long as he lived, that was the main thing. I’d make her sorry if she hurt him.

  “From sunset to sunrise were the exact terms,” she said, a small smile playing around her lips.

  “What?” Apollo sounded horrified. “That’s it? Just ‘sunset to sunrise’?”

  I gazed up at him in alarm. “What? What’s the matter?”

  “That’s outrageous,” he said fl
atly, favouring Styx with a glare every bit as vicious as my own. “You have no right.”

  I glanced at Syl; she looked as confused as I felt. I jumped up and caught Apollo’s arm with a mounting sense of dread. “What’s wrong?”

  Styx laughed. “On the contrary, sun god, I have every right. It’s not my fault if people aren’t careful enough.”

  “It’s unconscionable.”

  She laughed even harder at that. “Why, Apollo! Have you grown a conscience at this late stage in life? How droll.”

  I tugged at Apollo’s arm. He looked down at me, and the defeated expression in his eyes sent chills down my spine. “Jake agreed to stay with her from sunset until sunrise.”

  “And?” I could hardly squeak the word out, consumed by dread.

  “And that’s not specific enough. He should have said sunset to sunrise in the world above.” He waved a hand at the misty greyness surrounding us. “There is no sun in the underworld. When will there ever be a sunrise here to release Jake from his vow?”

  Now I really wanted to kill Styx. Manipulative bitch. “But by that reasoning, there’s no sunset either, so Jake never has to go to her.”

  Apollo sighed. “That’s true, but I’m afraid it would be a hollow victory indeed if he didn’t. If I’m not mistaken, he only has a few moments left to live. The only way to undo the curse that Styx has placed on him is to fulfil his side of the bargain.”

  “But that’s not fair!”

  “No, it’s not, but that’s what Jake agreed to.”

  “There must be some way out of this,” Syl said, ever-pragmatic. “You’re the sun god—can’t you make a sunrise?”

  “I am the sun god in the world above, not in the underworld. It has its own rules. I’m afraid I don’t have that kind of power.”

  “Can’t you force her to release him, then?” I asked.

  “I can’t, no. Hades could do it, or Zeus.”

  But both of them were missing. God dammit. Jake’s eyes had closed again and his lips were a frightening shade of blue. I fell on my knees beside him. “Jake!”