“But maybe we’re supposed to help you find the entrance too, not only the book,” Clover said.
“Except I’m not feeling anything, and have no idea what I’d be looking for,” Tack said.
“You’re just chicken. You want to go back!”
“Kind of,” Tack said. “Call me crazy, but I don’t think I’m really equipped to come up against Lucifer! I passed out when I saw a couple of his maltures, and they’re bad enough.”
Vero looked hard at his sister. “Clover, you’re going back.”
Clover held his gaze as she considered Tack’s point. “Fine,” she said, gritting her teeth.
The four walked through the forest. Their headlights and flashlights pierced the darkness as they worked their way toward the trail. Kane and Clover walked ahead of Tack and Vero.
“Are you sure it was a good idea to give him the sapphire?” Tack whispered to Vero once they were out of earshot. “I don’t trust him.”
“He’s kind of a hothead,” Vero said in a low voice. “But I trust him.”
“I hope you’re right.”
As they forged ahead, the forest became increasingly overgrown. The more they fought their way in and out of trees, the more disoriented they became, and soon no one could see the trail’s lights.
“Anybody else feel like we’ve been walking in circles?” Tack asked, out of breath.
“And it feels like we’ve been going uphill,” Clover said.
The not-too-distant sound of crunching leaves stopped everyone in their tracks. Vero’s eyes darted around, searching for the source.
“What was that?” Clover said, her voice strained.
“I don’t see anything,” Vero said.
“Well, we definitely all heard something,” Clover said.
“We’ve got to keep going,” Kane said, quickly stepping ahead.
“This forest is so overgrown!” Clover shouted as a branch flicked her in the face.
“I know the way,” Kane said, not slowing down.
Clover, Tack, and Vero trailed Kane—stumbling over low-growing shrubs, fallen tree trunks, and mossy rocks. Tack’s foot slipped off a log covered in slimy fungi. He fell, hitting his head on the ground.
“Tack!” Vero yelled.
Kane turned. Clover and Vero kneeled down to Tack.
“Are you okay?” Clover asked, worry lines on her forehead.
Tack sat up, a bit dazed. He rubbed his head. “Yeah . . .”
Vero pulled Tack to his feet.
“We need to slow down.” Tack gave Kane the hairy eyeball. “Remember what happened when your aunt wouldn’t slow down.”
Kane nodded. The group walked farther ahead in silence. Gradually, slivers of moon began to break up the blackness of the forest, and they finally broke through the dense woodland. But then their faces dropped.
“No way!” Clover shouted.
They were back at the gorge. They stood on the cliff before the suspension rope bridge. Clover turned to Vero.
“Don’t even think about it,” she said in a threatening tone.
“I thought you knew where you were going?” Tack yelled at Kane.
“Aren’t we going back to the trail?” Kane shot back.
“Yeah . . .”
“Well, this is the way!”
“We’ll walk down the side and across the ravine,” Vero said. “But we’ll need to do this fast and make up some time.”
As Vero turned back to climb down the side of the mountain, Kane stepped in front.
“This could take hours,” Kane said, looking at the ravine below. “We need to go back over the bridge.”
Clover threw Vero a furious look.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Vero said to Clover, his eyes full of apology.
“It’s no more than thirty feet across,” Kane said.
“Yeah, except if you and Vero fall, you go to the Ether,” Clover said. “Tack and I fall, we’re dead. There’s no way I’m going across that bridge!”
Suddenly, the air was filled with the sound of dozens of birds screeching in unison. Startled, everyone looked around. A massive flock of sparrows flew out of the trees. Branches snapped. The earth began to tremble under their feet. Clover grabbed on to Vero as a herd of Sambar deer crashed through the blackness. Wild boars let out high-pitched squeals as they kept pace with the deer. Terrifying cries of langurs shrieked above them as the monkeys swung from branch to branch overhead, desperately trying to flee the forest.
“What’s going on?” Tack asked.
Vero had the unnerving feeling that someone unseen was watching them. He’d barely processed that thought when a pair of red eyes shone through the blackness—red eyes were never a good thing.
“We need to get out of here!” Vero shouted.
A demonic growl split the air. Fear spread across Clover’s face. She looked to the suspension bridge. Vero watched as she sped toward it. Without a second thought, she grabbed on to the support rope railings and ran across the bridge. Tack followed Clover. Vero looked behind—the red eyes were nearly upon him.
Kane shouted at Vero. “Hurry! Go! Go! Go!”
Vero latched on to the rope and looked back at Kane.
“Go!” Kane yelled. “I’m right behind you.”
There was no time to debate. Vero ran onto the bridge as a heart-stopping screech filled his ears from behind him. And then Vero felt as if he was flying. Only he wasn’t.
The support rope had broken! Planks broke off the bridge and fell to the ground below. Vero, Tack, and Clover were swinging through the air like Tarzan on a vine. Clover screamed as they plunged toward the other gorge wall.
“Aahh!” Tack yelled, clinging for dear life to the rope as he tucked his head to his chest, bracing for impact.
Smash! Their bodies crashed up against the side of the other cliff. The impact nearly caused Clover to let go of the rope, but she managed to hold on, if barely. She cried and screamed hysterically. The rope now hung vertically, swinging from its anchor above. Vero’s headlight shone up to the top.
“I’m getting vertigo!” Tack shouted, becoming clammy. “I feel dizzy!”
“Then don’t look down!” Vero shouted. “We can do this! Clover, climb up the rope!”
But Clover continued to cry hysterically.
“Clover, please,” Vero said, trying to maintain a calm voice. “It’s only a few feet to the top. Pretend you’re climbing the rope in PE. That rope’s way higher.”
Clover took in deep breaths, trying to calm down.
“Vero’s right,” Tack said. “I’ve seen you climb it a bunch of times.”
Clover’s hysteria settled to a hiccupping cry. She kicked her right leg out onto one of the support ropes that held the slats to the anchored hand ropes. Her left foot went onto the next rope above her right, giving her some traction, and she began to pull herself up like she was climbing a rope ladder.
“You’re doing it! Keep going!” Vero yelled as both he and Tack followed her example and placed their feet onto the support ropes.
She struggled upward, clutching to the rope. Clover finally reached the top, and crawled along the ground to safety. Tack climbed up the rope, but stopped.
“Vero,” Tack said, his face etched in worry. “My arms and legs are killing.”
“Drop the backpack!” Vero yelled to him. “It’ll make you lighter!”
Tack hesitated for a moment. Vero knew what was going through his friend’s head: dropping the pack meant that, for a few seconds, he’d have to hold on to the rope with only one hand. Clover lay on her stomach out over the ravine, her arms outstretched.
“I’ll help you!” she shouted to Tack.
Tack quickly took his left hand off the rope and put it under his backpack’s strap to release it. His arm became entangled in the strap, and within seconds he lost his grip and slid downward, scrambling to grab back onto the rope. Clover screamed. Tack’s arm slipped out of the backpack strap and he managed to grab the rope with both hands, stopping his downward slide. But his foot was using Vero’s head as a support. Vero winced.
Tack released his other hand and let the heavy backpack fall into the gorge below. The sound of it landing was drowned out by Vero’s screams.
“Get off my head!”
Suddenly lighter, Tack started to climb again. As he approached the top, Clover tried to reach out and grab him.
“No!” Tack yelled at Clover. “I’m too heavy! I’ll pull you over!”
Clover moved back, out of his way, as Tack grabbed the bridge’s moorings and finally pulled himself onto solid ground. He sprang to his feet and turned around to the dangling rope. Vero was already climbing up. Tack and Clover reached for him. Once he was safely onto the cliff, all three promptly collapsed in exhaustion. No one spoke for a few moments, then Tack got to his knees then kissed the muddy ground underneath him.
“I am never doing that again!” Tack huffed, giving the ground one last kiss.
Vero stood and looked out over the gorge. Clover and Tack flanked him on either side.
“Kane!” Vero shouted into the darkness.
“Kane!” Tack yelled.
“Kane!” Vero tried again.
The only sound returning their cries was an echo.
“He’s gone,” Clover said sadly. “Do you think he fell when the bridge collapsed?”
“He said he was right behind me, but the bridge collapsed almost the second I stepped on it. So I don’t think so, no. I don’t think he was on the bridge. But he does seem to be gone somewhere,” Vero said, with grave concern.
“And so is the Book of Raziel,” Tack’s eyes narrowed.
23
ADRIK
Kane stood in the middle of a thicket of trees, out of breath. “You didn’t have to cut the bridge,” he spoke to a form lurking in the shadows.
“You still have a conscience, fledgling?” a woman’s voice said. “Maybe you’re not quite one of us?”
“I am,” Kane said, his eyes steely.
“You have the book—why should you care? Let me see it,” the voice hissed, keen with anticipation.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the blue sapphire. Before he knew it, it was snatched from his hand as “Aunt” Adrik walked out of the shadows. His eyes locked with hers, which had changed from red to a black, dead hue that made him shiver. Her long, spindly fingers wrapped around the gem.
“You did well,” she told Kane.
“I told you I would get it,” Kane said. “But it’s mine to give, not yours.”
Kane instantly regretted his remark. Adrik’s eyes turned red again with hate, and she hissed, exposing yellow, rancid fangs.
“Who do you think you are, fledgling?” Adrik screamed. “You will stay in this spot and wait.”
“No,” Kane said. “I’m coming.” As he moved to follow her, a flame shot from Adrik’s fingers and landed on the cuff of his pants, catching the material on fire. Kane screamed and rolled on the ground, extinguishing it.
“But we had a deal!” he shouted as he stood up.
Once again, Adrik shot fire from her fingers. This time, the flame landed on Kane’s shirt. He screamed and dropped to the ground once more, rolling, putting out the flame.
“Does it burn?” she mocked him. “Better get used to that, boy.”
Adrik turned and walked deeper into the forest while Kane lay in the dirt. He watched her as she disappeared into the Ether, right before his eyes. This time, he did as he was told and stayed put, feeling angry and dejected.
As Adrik walked through a forest in the Ether, birds, deer, and other woodland creatures fled as she made her way over rocks and through the dark trees. She reached a familiar dim, fetid glade. A fire burned in its center. Adrik slowly approached, with reverence in her gait. She knelt before the flames and bowed her head low.
“Will I be happy, my bride?” the fire spoke.
Adrik raised her head, and her face transformed in the light of the fire to that of an ancient, repulsive hag—Lilith. Her face was so decrepit that maggots had formed deep in the folds. Her complexion was riddled with warts, and the few struggling hairs failed to cover her bald, weathered head and missing ear.
“Even if I were to fill the depths of hell with all the human souls ever born, my prince, it would bring you no happiness. Because then this war you started eons ago would be over, and you would serve no purpose.”
“Regrets, my bride? Before you answer, consider this . . . Do you think He misses you?” The fire laughed mockingly, its menacing flames rising and falling.
“One cannot miss what one has never known,” Lilith answered. “He has never known hatred or wickedness—the essence of what we are. So, no, He does not miss me.”
“Well said. And that is why we must destroy all He holds dear . . . Which is why that child cannot be,” the fire growled. “Now give me the book I have coveted to possess for eons.”
Lilith held her hand to the fire, her eyes riveted to the ground. Despite touching the flames, the heat did not scorch her flesh. She unwrapped her bony fingers within the flames, revealing the blue sapphire. The flames lowered and stilled as they both examined the stone. Lilith waited in silence, her hand outstretched into the blaze. Moments of tense silence passed.
“I have taught you well,” the fire spoke, its flames rising.
Lilith’s eyes looked up.
“Too well,” the fire snarled.
Two flaming hands shot out from the blaze and pinned Lilith to the ground, holding down her shoulders. Yet Lilith did not appear frightened. In fact, she seemed numb to the transpiring events.
“Did you think you could deceive me?” the fire shouted inches from her face. “You cannot fool me! I am the father of all lies and deception!”
The heat upon Lilith’s face scorched the deep-set maggots. Their bodies popped and crackled, oozing down her gritty face.
“Are you not pleased with the book?” she asked.
“This is not the book!” the fire shouted.
Lilith’s mouth became slack in shock.
“Perhaps our new recruit is more like you than we knew,” Lilith said.
“This is not the first time you have been disgraced by a mere fledgling. Where has your pretty long hair gone?” the fire mocked her. “And your ear?”
Lilith’s eyes turned red with malice. “I will get the book!” she snarled.
“Does the fledgling Vero have the real book?”
“I do not know. Kane said the fledgling had given him that stone to hold.”
“Then Vero has played you both!” the fire screeched. “Unlike me, this Vero is smart enough to trust no one! I have given you many chances, and you have failed me each time. I will take the book myself!”
The fiery hands withdrew into the blaze, releasing Lilith. The flames shot higher than the treetops, then fell to the forest floor, scorching everything they touched before they died. Lilith stood. Without the light of the fire, her face morphed back into that of Adrik. She clutched the blue sapphire tightly in her hand and walked out of the clearing.
Kane sat on the ground where Lilith had left him. Despite the fact that every instinct in his body had told him to run, he stayed, busying himself by running his index finger through the dirt.
He heard the rustling of dead leaves and looked up. A figure shrouded in shadows approached. Adrik smashed through the tree branches and, with unworldly speed and strength, jumped to Kane, clenchi
ng her hand around his neck.
“You deceived me?” she hissed.
She shook him, her long fingers meeting around his neck. With one hand, she lifted him off the ground. The blood rose into Kane’s face as he gasped for air, trying to pull her hand away.
“No, no . . .” he gurgled.
With her other hand, Adrik shoved the blue sapphire in his face. “This is not the book!” she shrieked.
Kane’s eyes went wide with surprise.
“It is . . .” he managed to say. “Vero gave it to me to hold. He feared he would be attacked for it . . .”
“The fledgling saw your true heart and has played us both!” Adrik hissed.
She tightened the hand around his neck, squeezing harder. Kane’s eyes began to roll into the back of his head. He was losing consciousness fast. As blackness overtook him, Adrik released her grip, and Kane fell to the ground. He gulped down huge breaths of air, coughing.
“You will go back to him and get that book!” Adrik demanded. “Why did you even come to us?”
Kane looked into her black, hollow eyes.
“Why?!” Adrik screamed.
“Because they turned their backs on me!” Kane blurted.
“And are you angry?”
“Yes,” Kane said sullenly.
“And do you hate them for what they did to you?”
Kane paused for a moment. Adrik moved closer to his face, waiting for a reply. Kane nodded.
“Then you will go back,” Adrik said. “Use that anger and hatred, spin it into lies, deception, or aggression to get that book. Should that fledgling be allowed to take it to the garden, all will be lost.”
Kane stood.
“You did not come to us because they turned their backs on you . . .”
Kane locked eyes with her.
“You came to us because you desire greatness.” Adrik smiled darkly. “And only we can give you that.”
She cupped his face with her long fingers.
“Bring me the book.”
Kane nodded his head once in agreement.
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