by Belle Malory
I blinked.
Hmm…I don’t know that I would. We were finally here in the Underworld, thanks to Petra. So far, she had only worked to help us—both of us. And if she truly wanted to kill Riley, she would have already done so. Instead, she was taking the riskier route by sheltering us for the next half year.
“You make a good point,” I acceded.
“And I play a good game.” Riley laid down her last card.
Dammit, she bested me again. “Another round?”
“Sure,” she grinned, “if you feel like losing again.”
25
We survived our first night in the Underworld unscathed, but I was sluggish by the time morning came. The apartment turned into an icebox at night, and we had to keep feeding the stove firewood. The wind howled and shook the walls, and every noise outside intensified. A rowdy pub down the street never went to sleep. Raucous laughter, screeching, and even growling kept me on edge. My imagination went rampant as I considered what kinds of creatures were lurking just beyond our walls. Only after everything quieted down did I finally get any actual sleep. Then I didn’t get out of bed until nearly noon, and the only reason I woke up at all was because Riley was shuffling around, making a lot of noise.
Curious, I stood and stretched, wincing at the crick in my neck. Not a great first night, all things considered. But it was one day we could check off of our six-month sentence. One day closer to freedom.
Riley was in the kitchen with her back against the side of the pantry. “Will you help me?” she said, grunting. She pushed her feet against the floor, trying to move a tall cabinet to the right.
“Are you sure that’s not nailed into place?” I wondered why she was going to all this trouble just to move it.
“It’s been pushed from its place.” She pointed to the scratches on the wooden floor. “I want to know why.”
She was right. It looked as if someone pushed the pantry away from the other cupboards on purpose, as if it used to sit directly beside them.
“Well, now I’m curious.” I joined her in pushing. We heaved once, the wood scraping as we pushed it back into place. Light streaked into the dark room.
“A window,” Riley said, breathless. “I knew it.”
Sure enough, there was a small window shaded by curtains. Whether it had been hidden for protection or to curb our curiosity, I didn’t know.
Riley drew back one of the curtains, revealing black bars caging it into place. We exchanged an eerie glance before moving our faces closer. “It’s the street corner.”
I stared outside, where creatures and mages went about their business. There was a pub on the lower level, called the Inky Snake, the same one I’d heard all night long. Some of its patrons were just now leaving, even as the hazy dawn had settled onto the horizon. A centaur stumbled out the door and clumsily trotted down the street, shouting curses at someone named Madam Elga. He was angry for getting cut off and sent home.
A market occupied the opposite side of the street. More apartments filled the second story of buildings, clothes hanging from string, smoke billowing from chimneys. Down a ways, an elderly harpy was busy setting up a vegetable stand. A carriage drove past, pulled by creatures I had never seen before, with shiny black coats and more horns than hooves.
“They’re called robaurs,” Riley said, noticing the direction of my wide-eyed gaze. “Big and burly, but they can be domesticated.”
“How do you know so much about monsters?” I said curiously.
“When I learned about my ability to summon them, I studied obsessively. I spent hours memorizing every book I could get my hands on.”
I couldn’t imagine having to learn so much without the help of bibliomagery. I realized I hadn’t told her about my own unique ability. For some reason, I kept it to myself.
“Look, there’s Toad,” Riley said, pointing out our security detail, hidden in plain sight. He sat on the corner, covered in crumpled newspapers and ashes. A fat cigar hung from the side of his mouth, huffs of smoke escaping every few seconds. Beyond Elysium, the Hollowed Castle’s black towers stretched into the violet horizon, a fortress of intimidation and power.
Our faces stayed glued to that window for what must’ve been hours, our only real source of entertainment in an otherwise empty apartment. “Do you think anyone will see us?” I said offhandedly, wondering if that was the reason the window had been hidden away. Or, the reason it had been barred.
“All the way up here? Doubtful.” Riley shrugged, but then she moved her face farther back. “But I suppose it doesn’t hurt to be careful.”
After a while, our stomachs growled.
Riley went to the cupboards. “Let’s see what we can scrounge up for breakfast.”
Between the two of us, she was the better cook. Back in Davidson, she usually prepared the meals, and I did the dishes. If neither of us cooked, Dad resorted to takeout, pizza, or ramen noodles. In that area of our life, we had sorely missed having a mother.
“Five cartons of oatmeal.” Riley crinkled her nose. “I foresee a lot of porridge in our future.”
“At least it’s warm,” I said, trying to make the best of things. “This place is—”
“Freezing,” she finished for me, rubbing the sides of her arms. “I can’t imagine how much colder it gets in winter.”
Yikes. I hadn’t considered that it would get worse. I had become used to a perpetual springtime.
“Let’s add firewood and thick blankets to the list for Toad and Grey.”
She nodded. “Good idea.”
My gaze drifted around the apartment again. It was so small, and there was no TV or books or games or anything else that would have been nice to have in confinement. I stopped at the stone tablet I laid on the table, squinting. Was that…?
I ran to it and picked it up. It was!
“What is it?” Riley said, crouching by the stove. She put a piece of wood inside, waiting for me to answer.
“The tablet,” I said, bouncing on the balls of my feet. “I must’ve stared at this thing a thousand times, memorizing every detail and crevice.”
“So?”
“So, there’s a crack that wasn’t there before.”
Her eyes brightened. “Really? Let me look.”
I handed it to her. For the first time in what felt like years, she smiled. Genuinely smiled, with nothing but warmth and delight in her gaze. “It’s working,” she breathed out. “It’s really working.”
26
Our first few days in the Underworld passed uneventfully. Riley and I didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We played a lot of cards, every game we knew. We tried exercising, a hard task in tight confines, even harder to do it quietly. But mostly, we just stared out the window to people watch and commented on the passersby. The intoxicated patrons exiting the pub were always very entertaining; they were usually stumbling, shouting, or singing. The other mages and creatures went about their business in a boring fashion.
Days two and three passed with painful slowness. On day four, we were both restless. Riley paced back and forth as I continued staring out the window. She was worrying me. If she was already feeling this antsy, I wasn’t sure how she would get through the rest of our time.
“Didn’t Petra mention something about going outside once per week?” Riley said, running a hand through her newly darkened locks.
I nodded. “For an hour.”
“Well, it’s been nearly a week. Where is our hour?”
“Be patient, Riley. I’m sure we will be able—”
“No.” She shook her head. “I can’t do this anymore.”
She threw open the front door and marched down the stairs. I jumped up—what was she thinking? I ran after her, afraid that she might notify the entire block of our presence.
There, at the bottom, waiting to meet us, was Grey. He stared straight past Riley to me, those yellow eyes of his sending a shiver up my spine. Being this close to him again took me right back to the night Jett abducte
d me. As far as creatures went, he was pretty intimidating. Scaly skin, pointy black nails, and yellow eyes that reminded me of a snake made up an overall terrifying exterior.
“Go back,” he said, his tone full of warning.
“We’re supposed to get an hour outside,” Riley argued. “Petra told us—”
“Aye, I know what she said. Not today.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not safe.”
“What’s new?” She snorted. “It’s the Underworld.”
“There are creatures in the area who feed off young mages such as yourselves.”
That was enough information to make me want to turn back, but Riley stubbornly put both hands on her hips. “I don’t care.”
“You would, if you encountered one.”
“But—”
“Are you arguing with me, miss?” Grey took a step forward, staring my sister down.
Riley wavered, swallowing in her hesitancy. After a few painful seconds of silence, she finally groaned, giving up. “Do you think you could at least get us a few books to read—we’re bored to tears up there.”
“Better bored than dead.”
Riley scowled, and Grey let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine, I’ll look into it. Now back upstairs, both of you.”
We did as he asked, but Riley stomped the entire way, pouting like a child.
“It’s a prison sentence,” she said, closing the door behind us.
I clenched my hands into fists at my sides. What she almost did, and only on day four of all days, was enough to boil my blood. “That’s exactly what it is, Riley. You knew that.” I spoke carefully, trying to reign my anger back.
“I didn’t know it would be like this.” She gestured to our surroundings. “Did you?”
I took a step toward her, my whole body shaking. “If it will break us free of this curse, I don’t care if they throw us into a dark, empty hole for six months.”
She sniffed. “There has to be another way.”
“Don’t you get it?” I said, trying to keep myself from shouting. “No matter what, it will come with a cost. At least this way is better than the sacrifice I nearly made.”
Riley tilted her head to the side, right as I caught my slip. “Better than what sacrifice, Sheridan?”
For several seconds, I debated telling her about Twilight Island. It was my secret, something I wasn’t sure I wanted to share. But I needed her to understand what it took to break magic this strong.
“Before you came to Arcadia, I went to see a man called the Curse Breaker.”
She carefully squared her shoulders, going still. “I’ve heard of him.”
“He needed my womb for the procedure.”
Her face paled. “You didn’t—”
“No,” I said right away, and relief filled her expression. “Xander stopped the whole thing. But if he hadn’t shown up when he did…” The thought made me shudder.
“Geez, Sher,” Riley said, her eyes glassy.
I shook myself, pushing those awful memories out of my head. “My point is, there’s no easy way out. A life was taken in order to bind the curse to us. We must be willing to sacrifice ourselves to remove it. This is your chance. You’re either going all-in with me, or you’re out of the game.”
I wasn’t sure if anything I said changed how Riley felt, but it was enough to render her speechless, and enough to make her feel the weight of what we were attempting. From here on out, we had to do whatever it took.
“Okay.” She gave me a stiff nod. “I’m all-in.”
“Glad to hear it.”
27
Riley didn’t speak much for the rest of the night. She cooked dinner in silence, going through the motions as if she were in a state of numbness. Reality was settling in for her; she may have known about the curse longer, but it seemed she never truly considered the consequences of breaking it. Maybe because she never thought we’d be able to.
After we ate, I cleaned our dishes, and Riley went to bed. On her way out of the room, I heard her mumble something about sleep being her only escape from this hellhole. I pretended not to hear her. She just needed some time, that’s all. At least, I hoped so anyway. For both of our sakes.
Since I wasn’t tired, I spent the evening staring out the window, bored as usual. Leaning my head against the frame, my mind wandered. It was moments like this, when everything was quiet, that a pair of brilliant blue eyes came to me. If the sky and ocean paired into one entity, they still wouldn’t equal the vibrancy of blue in those eyes.
I winced and shook myself—as if I could shake the images right out of my head. But as soon as I stilled, they were back again, hypnotizing me by memory alone.
Ugh.
I hated myself every time my thoughts traveled back to him, but I couldn’t help it. I wondered where he was. What he was doing. If he was okay.
I let out a long sigh. Xander made his choice, I reminded myself. He left. In a way, it may have been a good thing. Him leaving finally gave me the courage to do the same.
The trouble was, I still hadn’t let him go. My heart still ached in ways I hadn’t even known were possible. Not even Connor had caused me this much pain. I sniffed, shaking my head as I thought about that situation. The differences stood out so clearly now. I had never been heartbroken over Connor, not really. That hurt was caused by Riley. Her betrayal had always been the true heartbreak. And with Xander…this was different. The pain was almost physical, as if there was a giant, gaping hole in my chest where there had once been a heart. Unlike Connor, I think…I think maybe I actually loved Xander.
And that’s what hurt the most. That it was gone before I ever really knew it was there.
I blinked. Enough with the self-torture.
Instead I busied my mind by focusing on the street corner, going over every inane detail.
Fog. More fog. Everything in the Underworld was bizarrely foggy. Drunk mages argued outside the Inky Snake. An elderly man closed up his shop for the evening. Two nymphs strutted down the sidewalk, arm in arm.
I glanced down, noticing a creature that hadn’t been there before, a kind I’d never seen. He stood on the corner, staring up at me with large bulbous eyes.
I backed up.
Could he actually see me?
Hiding behind the wall, I peeked out again to get another look. Leathery black wings stuck out from the creature’s trench coat. He wore no gloves or shoes, probably due to the gleaming talons sticking out from his hands and feet. And even from this far up, his sharply angled face was the stuff of nightmares.
When he didn’t look away, I moved farther back from the window. He wasn’t looking at me. It was just a coincidence. There was no way anyone could see me from that street corner through our window’s bars, and in the dark of night.
Unless that someone had superior night vision.
I gulped.
For several long seconds I stood there in silence. Everything was fine. Weirdo bat-guy was probably long gone by now. But just to be sure, I should check…so I went back to look again.
He was still there.
Still staring.
This time with a wide smile curling his crooked mouth, his pointy fangs sticking out.
My heart rocketed. I drew the curtains closed and ran to the other side of the room, unsure of what to do with myself. I slid down the wall, crouching on the wooden floor, curling my knees against my chest.
A skitter of thumps beat against the wall next to the window, as if something was scaling it. That thing probably could; it had wings. Was it trying to get up here?
No, you’re just hearing things.
The window had bars on the outside of it, I reminded myself. Thick, heavy, metal bars. There was no way it could get inside. The charm on the bracelet Xander gave me buzzed, sending pulse waves of energy through me. As if it were trying to warn me.
My eyes flared as a shadowed silhouette moved beyond those curtains. Oh god, it was him! He moved his head back and forth, trying
to look inside.
Go away. Go away. Go away.
The shadow vanished. I let out a small breath. Gone, just like that. Maybe he saw the bars and gave up—
Heavy feet crashed against the stairs.
Holy crapballs!
I jumped up, moving away from the wall. My body went stiff as I stared at the door. Shadows filled the bottom crack where he stood. He was so close, just on the other side, only a dozen or so feet from me. His voice came out like sizzling embers, crackling and sharp. “Let me in, pretty girl.” The knob rattled loudly, his ragged breath whirring through the crevices.
Good grief, I was about to pee my pants. Where were Grey and Toad? I wanted to shout for them, but then that thing would hear me. He’d know I was right there, listening. Well, he probably knew that anyway.
His talon slowly scratched against the outside of the door, sliding against the grains of wood as if he were trying to carve out a hole. “Magic,” he hissed. His fist pounded furiously. “You spelled it!”
My heart beating uncontrollably, I ran into the bedroom, shutting the door behind me. Riley sat up in bed. “What’s going on?”
My voice came out all in one rush of air. “Creepster bat-man.” I sucked in a breath. “Saw me.” Another breath. “From the street.”
Her gaze sharpened. I wasn’t making a lot of sense, but she understood enough to know something was wrong.
“Sheridan, calm down.” She threw her covers aside and stood, heading out of the room to inspect.
“Calm down? You want me to be calm?” If she had seen that thing—actually she had probably seen all sorts of monsters just as terrifying or worse—but still. If she knew what was out there, she would be freaking out too.
She reopened the bedroom door, her voice still hoarse from sleep. “Where are Grey and Toad?”
“Great question,” I said, on the verge of hyperventilating. It would be nice to have our bodyguards around at a moment like this.
“It will be fine,” she said, poking her head out of the bedroom. “He can’t get through the door. He’ll probably go away—”
